Chapter 16 "Two and a half days need to be set aside each week..."

"You know how to use it?" he asked skeptically, his gaze sweeping over Shu Ran's hands, which had just been coated with red medicine.

"I can still do simple chopping and sawing of wood. I learned some basic woodworking at home before... uh, I did." Shu Ran told a small lie without changing her expression, her tone firm. "I'll make sure it's safe, I won't do anything reckless! It's just cleaning up some clutter."

Technician Ma took another drag of his cigarette, weighing the options. Lending it out for an afternoon didn't seem like a big loss. If this pampered young lady really got hurt, that was her own business.

He finally waved his hand impatiently: "Fine, fine, take it! Be careful with it! You have to return it before you finish work this afternoon! You'll have to pay for it if you break it!"

"Thank you, Technician Ma! Don't worry!" Shu Ran immediately picked up the heavy hacksaw and axe.

The axe handle was greasy, and the saw blade was covered in rust and oil, but in her eyes, it was a treasure.

She carried her tools and hurried back to the back wall of the tool shed, ignoring her back pain, and immediately started working.

She first dragged out the pile of broken planks and sticks and carefully selected them.

Thick door panel fragments were used for the stool seat, and relatively thick and straight wooden sticks were used for the stool legs. The half of the plowshare was made of hard wood and could be sawn into small sections to be used as cross braces for reinforcement.

She recalled the simple mortise and tenon structure she had seen in a craft video in her previous life. She carefully chopped away the rotten parts with an axe and shaped it into its approximate form.

The hacksaw was heavy, and the teeth were somewhat dull, making sawing wood extremely strenuous. After only a few strokes, she felt a sharp, needle-like pain in her lower back, and her arms ached terribly. Sweat streamed down her forehead, mixing with sawdust and dust, sticking to her face.

"Don't stop." She gritted her teeth, placed a slightly flat plank under the wood, knelt on one knee, used her body weight to press down the stick, and began sawing. The ear-piercing "screech" echoed at the base of the back wall, and sawdust flew everywhere.

"Comrade Shu Ran." A deep voice sounded from behind.

Shu Ran's hand trembled, and the hacksaw almost slipped from her grasp. She turned around abruptly and saw Chen Yuanjiang standing a few steps away, his chestnut horse grazing quietly in the distance. His gaze swept over her face, which was covered in sawdust and sweat, and landed on the hacksaw in her hand, the axe on the ground, and the pile of broken wood that she was processing.

"Officer Chen." Shu Ran put down the saw, supported her lower back, and slowly stood up, trying her best to appear less disheveled.

"I... was cleaning up the clutter behind the classroom, and while I was at it, I was also looking for ways to reuse the materials to make some low stools for the children to lie on while writing, so their arms wouldn't hurt," she said frankly.

Chen Yuanjiang's gaze lingered on the broken pieces of wood and the unfinished products for a moment before moving to her hands.

He simply reminded us, "Be careful. Return the tools promptly after use."

"Yes, Technician Ma said he'd return it before the end of the afternoon," Shu Ran replied immediately.

Chen Yuanjiang nodded slightly, said nothing more, turned around, took the reins, and mounted his horse. The sound of hooves rang out and quickly faded into the distance.

Shu Ran breathed a sigh of relief. He saw it, didn't stop it, and didn't even ask a question. Was this tacit approval, or simply non-interference?

She shook her head, stopped thinking about it, and started sawing wood again. Her tools were rudimentary, and her skills were rusty, but as long as it was sturdy and she could sit on it, that was fine.

She stopped bothering with mortise and tenon joints and simply used an axe to carve grooves into the stool legs and seat, interlocking them, and then tightly binding them with scrap wire she found. It looked ugly, but it was sturdy enough.

In one afternoon, she persevered and made five extremely simple, even slightly crooked, low benches! Two children could sit on one long bench, which was enough.

Shu Ran was so exhausted that she almost collapsed. She plopped down on one of the tables, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.

She carefully wiped the sawdust and grease off the hacksaw and axe, and returned them to Technician Ma in perfect condition before the end of the workday.

Technician Ma checked the tools, said nothing, and simply grunted in acknowledgment that he had received them.

Shu Ran dragged her exhausted body back to the female workers' dormitory, wanting nothing more than to collapse onto her bed.

"Comrade Shu Ran! Are you there?" A young employee's voice came from outside the door. "Director Zhao wants you to go to the production office!"

Shu Ran had no choice but to walk towards Zhao Weidong's office.

As soon as Shu Ran reached the door of the production office, she saw Zhao Weidong standing with his hands behind his back, frowning at several sheets of paper spread out on the table, tapping his fingers on the table, with an old straw hat covered in mud next to him.

Technician Ma sat on a small stool to the side, silently rolling a cigarette.

She gently knocked on the open door.

Zhao Weidong looked up at the sound, his brows still furrowed. "Teacher Shu? Come in." His voice was a little hoarse, obviously from shouting at the construction site.

Shu Ran walked in and stood still.

"Teacher Shu," Zhao Weidong began, his gaze falling on Shu Ran, as if trying to discern something from her face, "Old Ma said you were fiddling with those desks and chairs... Are they done? Did it disrupt the children's classes?"

"Yes, everything is ready. The children can sit down now, so it won't affect the class," Shu Ran replied calmly, her gaze sweeping over the papers on the table. They seemed to be production schedules for each row, with several places circled in red pen.

Zhao Weidong grunted in acknowledgment. He picked up a chipped enamel mug from the table, took a big gulp of water, wiped his mouth, and then got to the point: "Teacher Shu, there's something I need to clarify with you."

He put down the jar and tapped the table with his finger. "You're a permanent employee of the company, receiving a fixed salary, you know that. In principle, the higher-ups have approved your leave to teach full-time, which is the right thing to do."

He changed the subject, his tone tinged with helplessness: "But, Teacher Shu, as you can see," he pointed to the dusty land reclamation site in the distance outside the window, "our company has a heavy workload, and even if we split our manpower into eight pieces, we still wouldn't have enough. Every worker in the company who can move has to rush to the front lines."

He sighed, as if explaining, or perhaps emphasizing: "Our place is not like schools in the city; we don't have that many full-time, off-duty staff. The higher-ups approved your leave to teach because they value the children's literacy, but you can't abandon the overall production burden."

He looked at Shu Ran and conveyed his decision: "So, after discussion within the company and consultation with higher-ups, those of you with fixed off-duty positions will need to dedicate two half-days each week to full-time collective labor. As for what you'll do, we'll follow the production platoon leader's instructions. You'll fill in wherever there's the biggest manpower shortage. Let's all lend a hand and get through this together."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Don't worry, the teaching time is guaranteed. These two half-days won't take up your class time. It'll just be a bit tiring, but that's the reality of the unit. Your work performance will be recorded in your employee work file as usual."

Shu Ran calmed herself down and said, "I understand, Director Zhao. The company has heavy production tasks and is short-handed. Everyone is having a hard time. I will follow your arrangements. I will coordinate the teaching time to ensure that neither side is neglected."

Her straightforwardness eased Zhao Weidong's expression slightly. He nodded: "Okay, I'm glad you understand. Let's start this week. Tomorrow afternoon and the day after, go directly to the third platoon to report to Platoon Leader Wang. He'll assign you tasks."

He waved his hand to signal the end of the conversation, then his gaze returned to the production reports that were giving him a headache.

"Okay, Director Zhao," Shu Ran replied and left the office.

She slowly walked back to her dormitory, thinking: Tomorrow morning's classes need to be arranged more compactly and efficiently. The day after tomorrow afternoon's labor... I need to find a way to get some salt water to replenish my energy, and it would be best to find a headscarf to cover my head and face properly.

When Shu Ran returned to the dugout, Zhou Qiaozhen was already wrapped in a quilt facing the inner wall, and it was unclear whether she was really asleep or pretending to be asleep.

Sister Wang and Li Xiulan exchanged a knowing glance, asked no further questions, and silently handed over a bowl of warm water.

She thanked him, took the drink, and drank it all in one gulp.

The drainage canal construction site of the Third Row was said to be a place that the company recognized as capable of exhausting even the strongest laborers.

She subconsciously touched her lower back, which throbbed slightly. And these hands… she was supposed to be wielding a pickaxe to turn over salt flats the day after tomorrow afternoon?

She closed her eyes briefly, and when she opened them again, her gaze was filled with a calm and resolute expression.

The next morning, she alternated between teaching literacy, drawing, and singing simple work songs, the pace so fast it was like a race against time. The children were swept up in this almost chaotic rhythm, even the most mischievous Tiger and Da Mao rarely lost focus. Adil remained leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, his eyes now filled with a newfound curiosity. Ayiman, on the other hand, was completely absorbed in the joy of drawing "sheep," "grass," and "water" with small pieces of lime.

As soon as the whistle blew, Shu Ran announced the end of school almost immediately. Only after watching all the children leave the shed did she lean on the mud-brick podium to catch her breath.

She couldn't stop. She packed up her books and walked unsteadily toward the infirmary.

Pushing open the door, Xu Junjun was engrossed in writing something on a worn-out register. Hearing the noise, she looked up, saw it was Shu Ran, and immediately put down her pen to greet her.

"How's your back? Is it still hurting a lot?" Her gaze fell on Shu Ran's still somewhat stiff posture. "Where are your hands? Let me see."

Shu Ran obediently opened her palm. Xu Junjun leaned closer to take a look and breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank goodness, the mercurochrome is still effective."

“Jun Jun,” Shu Ran interrupted her, her voice pleading, “help me. I have to go to the Third Row to dig a canal this afternoon.”

"What?!" Xu Junjun's voice changed with anxiety: "Digging a ditch?! With your back and your hands, you're going to dig a drainage ditch? Is that even human work?"

"I know it will be difficult," Shu Ran said calmly, "but I have to go. Get me some salt water to replenish my strength. Also, give me some clean old strips of cloth, the sturdier the better, I need to wrap my hands, otherwise I'll be ruined."

Xu Junjun stared at Shu Ran. Her lips moved a few times, but she finally let out a long sigh.

"You're really... courting death!" she gritted her teeth, turned around and rummaged through the medicine cabinet, finding a battered and dented military water bottle. She uncorked it, smelled it, and then scooped several large spoonfuls of salt from a brown paper packet labeled "coarse salt." She picked up the thermos and poured boiling water into it until the bottle was almost overflowing.

Then, she pulled out a roll of slightly rough bandage from the bottom of the cabinet and shoved it into Shu Ran's hand: "Here! We don't have any strips of cloth, this will have to do! Use it sparingly! We don't have much left!"

"Thank you." Shu Ran took the water bottle and bandages.

"Don't thank me!" Xu Junjun's eyes were a little red as she turned her back. "If you can't climb back tonight, I'll carry you!"

Shu Ran laughed: "Why make it sound like a life-or-death separation? I'm not going to the battlefield, I'm just going to dig a canal!"

Xu Junjun stomped her foot angrily, "Get out of here, get out of here!"