Du Jianshan glanced at the increasingly fierce sandstorm outside the window and grinned: "What's the rush? Let's figure out the situation first."

He patted the bedding: "This is a good spot, close to the window, good ventilation. I'll sprinkle some lime in the corner later to keep the bugs away."

Wang Tieniu exclaimed with admiration, "Brother Du, you know so much!"

Du Jianshan smiled but didn't say anything.

Just as Du Jianshan unfolded his bedding, he heard a loud bang at the door, as the door panel slammed against the wall and trembled.

Two men were standing at the door.

The one in front was as thin as a stick, with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, his chin held high, and his nostrils practically poking into the roof beam.

The short, stocky guy behind him, with a face full of fat, crossed his arms and glanced sideways at the new educated youth, looking like someone owed him a fortune.

"Newcomer?" Ma Gan's voice was shrill and piercing, pointing at Du Jianshan and Wang Tieniu one by one: "You, and you! Hurry up and go to the kitchen and fetch two buckets of hot water! It has to be piping hot!"

Wang Tieniu was taken aback, not understanding at first: "Fetch water? For what?"

The short, stocky guy next to the slender man scoffed, his voice like a broken bellows: "What are we doing? Washing Brother Ma's feet!"

He flicked his thumb backward, pointing to a bunk further inside.

There was a man lounging on the berth, looking about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, wearing a slightly worn blue cloth jacket, with his legs crossed, picking his teeth with a straw, not even lifting his eyelids, with an air of complete entitlement.

Du Jianshan didn't even lift his eyelids, brushing the dust off his bedding as he went: "Whose Brother Ma is this? Don't know him. Want to wash your feet? Can't you even run yourself?"

The room fell into a deathly silence. The old educated youth all shrank back, their eyes darting around nervously.

The newly arrived educated youth were also bewildered. They looked at Du Jianshan, then at the two people at the door, and dared not utter a sound.

Ma Gan's face instantly darkened, as if it had been smeared with soot: "Hey! You've gone too far! New troublemaker, huh? Do you know whose territory this is? That's Brother Ma Jinbao! Our company's pointkeeper! He's in charge of your work points!"

He nearly spat in Du Jianshan's face: "Asking you to fetch water is a favor! Don't push your luck!"

Wang Tieniu's face flushed red, both angry and frightened: "Why...why do you go yourselves? Why are you ordering us around? Go and curry favor with others yourselves! What kind of skill is it to bully newcomers!"

His voice trembled slightly, but he stubbornly refused to back down.

"Hey!" the skinny guy yelled, his triangular eyes widening in surprise.

"They're like rocks in a latrine, stinking and hard! Sun Qiang, did you hear that? These two newbies are going to cause trouble!"

Sun Qiang grinned maliciously: "Fine, you've got some backbone, huh? Brother Ma, just you wait and see how I deal with these two fools!"

Ma Jinbao, who had been silent all along, finally spat out the straw and slowly raised his eyelids: "Newcomer, don't you know the rules?"

"In this treacherous ravine, if you're a dragon, you'd better coil up; if you're a tiger, you'd better lie down."

"I'm in charge of work points. If I ask you to fetch water to wash your feet, that's to teach you a lesson!"

"Don't you dare be so ungrateful. If you piss me off, losing your work points will be the least of my worries. I'll make you shovel manure every day, you believe me?"

Several older educated youths nearby couldn't sit still any longer and quickly whispered to them:

"Xiao Du, Xiao Wang, forget it... just bear with it, it'll pass..."

"Exactly, when you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head..."

"Brother Ma is the scorekeeper; we really can't afford to offend him..."

Du Jianshan chuckled.

"Rules? You made them?" Du Jianshan's lips curled into a mocking smile. "Using work points to intimidate people? Deducting work points? Shoveling manure? Are you trying to scare a three-year-old?"

He had experienced this once before in prison in his previous life.

Some veterans always feel that they arrived early and should set rules for the newcomers.

He took a step forward and sneered, "I've seen plenty of guys like you!"

"Just because you arrived two days early, you think you're all that? You think you're something special just because you're in charge of work points? Do you really think you're something special?"

After these words were spoken, the room became even quieter.

Ma Jinbao's face twitched, and Zhao Youcai and Sun Qiang were also stunned for a moment.

Du Jianshan didn't stop, his words as sharp as knives: "Still using foot bath water? Are your feet edged with gold or do you have hemorrhoids?"

"You stinking wreck, you want me to fetch you water? I don't want the bucket to get dirty!"

"Want someone to wait on you? Go ask your mother! Didn't she teach you how to wash your own feet?"

"You're talking nonsense!" Sun Qiang was so angry that his face turned purple, and he roared as he lunged forward.