1 - Setting Sail
Resource Standardisation
Chapter 43
Published December 22nd, 2024Present Day.
Wang Luobin patted down his travel-dusted clothes after entering Wen Desi’s office. Despite his weary face, he was beaming in high spirits. “Old Wen, we got a ship!”
Wang Luobin waved a folder in his hand, “We got everything done, permits, licences…Money really makes the world work. Everything was done in three months!”
“...Do you mean the ship or the licence?” Wen Desi and Xiao Zishan were confused.
“Both. Here is the ship’s information.” Wang Luobin pulled a few documents out from the folder and handed them out. “Meng De and I visited so many places. This is the ship. I guarantee that you’ll be satisfied!”
This ship, much like the Mayflower, was destined to discover a New World. It was eventually christened “Holy Ship” and would be permanently preserved in the location where it was first moored in Lingao. However, at this moment, it was just a general cargo ship that was over 40 years old and close to being sent to the scrap yard: their purchase this time saved it from this fate.
This ship was an ocean-going cargo ship built by a Chinese shipyard in the mid-to-late 1970s imitating the “Bydgoszcz” model of ships originally built in Poland.[1]
Gross tonnage: 6557.89 tons.
Net tonnage: 3608.3 tons.
Deadweight: 7167 tons.
Length: 135.26 metres.
Beam: 17.74 meters.
Moulded depth: 10.4 metres
Draft: 7.65 metres at max load.
There were a total of 5 cargo holds and 4 cranes, 2 of which were designed for heavy lifting. It had a maximum speed of 11 knots.[2]
This ship could store and transport a variety of cargo. The first, second, third and fifth holds were for dry goods, the fourth hold was for frozen goods. All the holds were divided into three layers. The bottommost of the first and fifth holds were dedicated for bulk vegetable oil transport. In the late 1970s the ship underwent a significant overhaul. The deck was reinforced, cargo access hatches expanded, and experimental shipping container mounts were added. The ship was truly a master of all trades.
Because it was originally designed as a trans-oceanic shipping vessel, it had a large cargo capacity and a deep draft. The cost of using it for short trips was too expensive, and consequently remained idle for a long time.
"This ship has been idle for a long time and looks a bit decrepit," Wang Luobin introduced, "but because it was properly mothballed, the overall condition is still passable. Xiao Meng and I inspected it together. The ship’s main facilities are a bit old, but they can all be used."
"How much?" Wende Si became nervous. This was a true trans-oceanic vessel. It would probably cost tens of millions to buy it!
"12 million."
Fortunately, this price was lower than what Wen Desi’s had expected. The total budget of the Executive Committee for all ships was only 30 million.
"However, it would be best to spend some money on repair and maintenance. Much of the equipment is ageing. We should spend the extra bit to make everything as good as possible."
"I agree, there will be nowhere to repair or replace stuff after we go there, and all the onboard equipment must be guaranteed to work for a few years."
"I estimate that refurb will cost two to three million..."
"Okay, just spend it." Chief Wen gritted his teeth and reminded himself that all their hard-earned money would be wasted if it was not spent.
"But because of the budget surplus, Meng De also proposed to buy two more ships."
"What?!"
"One is the self-propelled deck barge he proposed, 1,500 tons, 3.5 million yuan."
"Does that need repairs..."
"Basically, no. Just a little maintenance. One or two hundred thousand yuan would be enough."
"Okay." Chief Wen felt that ever since Wang Luobin had started working in procurement his friend had become more and more unbridled.
"There is also another extremely useful ship, you will definitely be excited."
"I am already super excited, don't leave me hanging..." Chief Wen had already begun to lose his breath.
"A landing craft! It has just been retired from the army and is very well maintained. Even the machine gun mount is still intact."
"A landing craft?" Xiao Zishan’s eyes widened.
"Yes, a multi-purpose landing craft built by Qinhuang Island Shipyard in 1975."
Gross tonnage: 89 tons.
Net tonnage: 50 tons.
Length: 28 metres.
Beam: 5.4 metres.
Height 2.7 metres.
Draft: 1.2 meters.
The electric door on the bow also doubled as a ramp for ingress and egress. Its top was open to the elements. It was able to transport 2 medium trucks or 1 heavy truck.
"Haha, and this boat was cheap as dirt, only 160,000! Wu De said that’s pretty much a free gift."
"What about the fishing boats Wu De mentioned?"
"He's interested in the Type 8154, a 200-ton naval trawler. It's also in good condition and was retired from the army. 1.2 million yuan per boat. He applied for 4. In addition to the vessels themselves we also need to buy a lot of spare parts, equipment and special consumables to keep them running."[3]
"Buy everything you need. As long as we don’t exceed the budget of course. We're running out of money."
Although Cheng Dong, the head of the Financial Group of the company, was a young man from the financial industry, Chief Wen rarely visited him. Perhaps it was a psychological trauma left by that old lady in finance he met back when he was a corporate slave. Recently, Wen Desi hardly dared to even call Cheng Dong. Every time Cheng Dong saw him, Cheng Dong would painfully warn him about how dangerous the company's financial situation was. There was no profit at all; the expenses were huge and there were so-and-so expenses that didn’t comply with their procedures; all the mis-matches in the accounts were hidden dangers; and all the many other problems faced by shell companies like theirs. If Chief Wen was running a real company, then he was afraid that even he would want to escape just from the nagging alone.
They still had a lot of surplus in the accounts of various related companies under their control and also cash in the secret vault. However, all this money was already allocated to be used as funds for goods or other approved projects. The actual reserves had been reduced to less than two million yuan. In the past three months, the Crossing Company had been secretly selling the last, most attention-drawing stock of materials from the Ming Dynasty: precious Chinese medicinal materials, musk, various hardwoods and high-grade spices.
Since the market for these goods was tiny, once a large supply such as them entered, the market inevitably fluctuated. Chief Wen hoped that the butterfly effect in the Great Ming would become a hurricane, a storm to herald their arrival. But on this side, the butterfly effect may expose them completely, and he hoped dearly that it could die down–the recent decline in the price of hardwood in Guangdong had drawn the interest of a few financial reporters.
Come on! We just need to get to the 15th of the 8th month of the lunar year! Wen Desi looked up at the gradually rounding moon outside the window. Soon it would be full, just like his heart being filled with hope.
People had gathered within a certain auditorium on the base. The room was filled with a joyful but also solemn atmosphere. Large green blackout curtains hung low on the windows, casting the room into a mysterious and conspiratorial darkness. The rows of seats, dressed in peeling paint and broken crossbars, were full of people. Some were whispering to each other, some just sat with dull eyes, while some pretended to be calm but still looked around like an anxious squirrel. What they all shared in common was a laptop in front of them. In the dim light, the thirty or forty laptops simultaneously running filled the room with a continuous buzz of fans.
Three or four people sat casually on the stage. In front of them was a pile of several laptops, a huge computer case, and a wireless router with flickering lights. Behind them hung a huge projector screen. Currently, it was showing a photo of a sexy girl in revealing clothes. Below it were three big characters: Sola Aoi, followed by the serial number P01701105-3.[4]
"Everyone please take note. The reference number this time is P01701105-3. Name: Sola Aoi. Please start synching resources."
As the network card lights on the laptops flashed, the server on the stage began to conduct a search through the wireless LAN network. It would access each of the laptops present through a remote control program. The first step was to search for all video files with the keywords 苍井空, 苍井そら, あおいそら, AoiSola; the second step was to search through a list of all the titles of the AV made by Sola Aoi in Chinese, then in kana and romaji. The third and final step was to compare the file size and video quality of each of the videos found on the connected laptops.
Finally, the software would generate a log on the server indicating which laptops had duplicate resources of the same type and which laptops had the better video source.
Almost at the same time as the man finished speaking, a prompt appeared on all the laptop screens: P01701105-3 has begun optimised synchronisation. The program would automatically delete the video files on the laptop that the program considered to be duplicate or of poor quality. The files that weren’t on the server, or were of higher quality than the existing one, were automatically uploaded.
"Ah, why is my Sola Aoi collection being deleted?!" Someone screamed and began to press the keyboard frantically, "I spent a month on BT to download all of that! Ahhhh..."[5]
"Don't touch the keyboard everyone, the program is automatically executed!" A person on the rostrum yelled into the microphone, "The hell are you yelling about? All the Sola Aoi on our resources server are DVD-edition MKV high-definition versions. All of yours are a crappy several-hundred megs in an RMVB format! I'll make you die of exhaustion with our version!" As he spoke his sweat dripped onto the table. This early in autumn it would be strange if it wasn't hot stuck in a room with dozens of men and computers.
After a resounding sigh and a round of laughter, the next AV actress appeared on the screen:
Standard number P01701105-4. Name: 朝美穗香, Mihiro, みひろ.[6]
A rowdy cheer made its way infectiously around the auditorium.
The so-called resource standardisation was a unified way for the Executive Committee to integrate all non-physical resources. Every time traveller who came to the base brought a laptop, countless storage drives and CDs. On them were all kinds of electronic resources. In addition to popular things like JAVs,[7] there were also complete sets of various publications, journal databases, several mainstream domestic electronic library databases; various movies, TV series, and literary programs; radio and television remote education programs, university lecture recordings; electronic versions of various drawings, CAD design drawings, industrial manuals; various programs... Almost all digital images, texts, and media that could be found on the Internet, and even some stuff that could not be, had been gathered here. This preponderance of information was scattered across many devices, leading to many duplicates that not only wasted storage space but was also insecure. The IT group was responsible for checking, classifying, optimising and backing up all the resources brought by every batch of newcomers. They would then catalogue and index them to make for easy searching.
Every laptop, hard drive, and CD-ROM was barcoded by the Resource Group and then registered into their database. In principle, the IT group did not requisition laptops brought over by individuals, but the CDs and hard drives were taken into central management. The IT group reserved the right to delete and store resources on these media in order to optimise their digital storage allocation.
As for their personal laptops, the individual was in control of what to store on it. After the IT group’s software finished executing the standardisation program, everyone could go and download what they were interested in from the IT group server. Of course, certain core documents still required authorization.
[TN]
On Qidian Chapter 43 and 44 are missing.
I am ashamed to admit that it took me way too long to dig this name out. ↩︎
This is a real ship by the way. If you want some more pictures of the boat, see the fan wiki or scroll through this Zhihu post. ↩︎
Auxiliary ship in the PLA navy. Wiki here. Not really fishing vessels in the PLAN’s hands, more so used as a scout, minelayer, ambulance, and other related auxiliary ship functions. See the nice pictures on the wiki ↩︎
Sola Aoi is one of the most famous AV idols of the 2000s. ↩︎
BT is BitTorrent, a torrenting client. ↩︎
JAV stands for Japanese Adult Video. ↩︎