Chapter 42: Tianyuan 200th Century’s Efficiency
Demeter University is the representative university of the Third Fleet, and its affiliated high school and junior high school also have top-notch teaching resources and teaching equipment within the fleet, so their efficiency is also top-notch fast.
Under President Wen Tao’s command, the Student Union members quickly contacted the University Department’s Engineering Department, and at the same time, he opened the school’s floor plan in front of Xiang Chuan and Chou Manman—it was a real floor plan, the 2D kind.
“Here and here, and the open space behind the canteen are all areas where construction is possible.”
President Wen Tao circled out three areas respectively around the sports field, behind the dormitory building, and behind the canteen.
The open space behind the canteen and the open space behind the dormitory building seem fine in terms of area, but they are a bit far from the teaching building… The open spaces around the sports field, which are the most suitable in terms of distance, are relatively scattered.
Xiang Chuan touched her chin and glanced at Chou Manman beside her. Her intention was to have the Performance Club and her own Ancient Gourmet Club right next to each other, so she could easily take care of this little junior whom she had indirectly affected, which would also give her peace of mind. However, considering that the Performance Club usually needs voice training and physical exercise (which Xiang Chuan knew from reading manga), being closer to the sports field might be better… She could just walk a few more steps, and occasionally dropping by wouldn’t be bad.
“I’ll choose this spot behind the dormitory building, Man Man, you choose the spo…”
“I’ll go with Xiang Chuan!”
Before Xiang Chuan could finish speaking, Chou Manman immediately interrupted her. Xiang Chuan was stunned, and Chou Manman turned her head, her bright eyes shining as she looked at her, almost writing “I want to come here to learn from you and mooch food and drinks” on her face.
Fine, she had almost forgotten that after yesterday’s whole day plus this morning’s breakfast combo, Chou Manman’s tongue had almost been reshaped into the Xiang Family’s shape.
Whatever, let’s build them together then. That way, when help is needed, she could still go to the Performance Club to pull people.
Xiang Chuan shrugged and selected the open space behind the dormitory building.
The finally confirmed area was around four hundred square meters, with the Performance Club and Ancient Gourmet Club each taking half.
Less than two minutes later, members of the Student Union’s Accounting Department handed over the cost list: foundation, wall building, load-bearing walls, plus doors and windows, temperature adjustment equipment, ventilation equipment needed by the Ancient Gourmet Club, partitions needed by the Performance Club, main stage, etc. The total cost was nearly 2 million Star Coins.
As soon as this cost came out, the Accounting Department members and President Wen Tao all swallowed hard—this was almost the minimum annual operating expense for the school.
Xiang Chuan raised an eyebrow, opened her terminal, and said, “Where do I pay?”
Five minutes later, Xiang Chuan put away about twenty receipts and the cost list in duplicate for the Student Union, then left the Student Union Room chatting and laughing with Chou Manman, leaving the dumbfounded Student Union members behind.
“Xiang Chuan, you spent so much money at once—will it affect your meals?”
Chou Manman asked worriedly. Having experienced yesterday, she had a good sense of Xiang Chuan’s family’s financial situation, so she wasn’t too shocked by Xiang Chuan casually waving her small hand and throwing out 2 million from her terminal just now. Instead, she was a bit worried whether her friend could afford meals afterward.
“No problem, no problem. I still have plenty of pocket money left—even if I buy five more activity buildings of the same spec, I could eat and drink lavishly every day.”
Xiang Chuan waved her hand nonchalantly. Ever since she learned that the pocket money on her was up to eight figures, Xiang Chuan had wanted to realize the dream of squandering money that she couldn’t achieve in her previous life. But because her family had everything she needed and servants or AI would supplement anything missing, there were pitifully few places to spend money. Today finally satisfied her wishes these past few days, and she was in a great mood now.
The two were just about to go downstairs back to the classroom when the bell for the end of fifth period rang, and they looked at each other: well, they could go straight to lunch now.
Chou Manman naturally wouldn’t touch the canteen food again, so she naturally went to Xiang Chuan’s dormitory to mooch a meal again. If it weren’t for the dormitory doing roll call based on terminal authentication upon entry at set times, Chou Manman would want to just stay at Xiang Chuan’s for noon and not leave, to properly chat with her about what was needed to establish the Performance Club. Although she had already learned a lot from Xiang Chuan last night and on the way to school today.
After lunch break, the two returned to the class and learned that the Class Cadre Election had already ended. Xiang Chuan beat her chest in frustration: her first modern high school campaign speech! And she had missed it!
Seeing Xiang Chuan annoyed at missing the chance to eat melon and watch the drama, the classmates in the class started teasing her.
“By the way, have you all gotten approval for your club activity room? We can stop by to check it out when we go visit the clubs later.”
Lu Daiqing—the newly appointed Class Eight Class President—pushed up his glasses and proposed.
“The senior students in the Student Union said it would be handed over to the University’s Engineering Department to build. It probably won’t be ready that fast, right?”
Xiang Chuan thought for a moment and replied.
Engineering Department? Construction?
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, completely confused.
“Your… club activity room isn’t in the Club Building?”
Ouyang Yating couldn’t help asking.
“Yeah, the available activity rooms in the Club Building were too small, so we applied to the school again to build our own activity room, planned to be built on the open space behind the dormitory area.”
Whoa!
The entire Class Eight instantly boiled over.
Can it be done like this?! Build their own activity room?!
Some students realized Xiang Chuan’s background: right, this classmate is the young lady of the Xiang Family. Thinking about it, it makes sense—the Yue Xiang Group’s processed foods have been bestsellers across the fleets since its founding, and it’s the Third Fleet’s veritable strongest private food company. As the Xiang Family’s eldest daughter, even if Xiang Chuan’s pocket money wasn’t that much, just asking her family would easily get her a few million!
This was when everyone finally got the real sense that “my classmate is the young lady of the fleet’s number one company’s chairman.”
Mainly because her image of handing out buns with a smiling face these past two days made it really hard to connect her with the stereotype of a “rich young lady.”
“Then it should be quick,” Liang Gong said. “If it’s a one- or two-story building, it could be completed in less than two hours at the fastest… Installing doors and windows and temperature adjustment equipment will take some time, but it should all be installed by tomorrow.”
Xiang Chuan was stunned: “That fast?”
“That’s nothing. The Fifth Fleet’s construction speed is what you call fast.” The Class President recovered from his shock and began explaining to the classmates. “The Fifth Fleet’s responsibility among the Twelve Fleets is urban construction and fleet construction and maintenance. Three thousand years ago, they could already achieve building a twenty-story office building in six hours, and with doors and windows, ventilation equipment, and temperature adjustment equipment installed in every office partition.”
Oh… oh…
Xiang Chuan listened in a daze, thinking whether people in this era were so negligent about food culture construction because they focused too much on efficiency.
This was way more efficient-sounding than Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s One Night Castle—after all, that was only four or five stories, while here they could build twenty stories in two hours, complete with air conditioners.
The anecdote about One Night Castle was something she had learned from reading Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga before.
