"Damn it, what the hell?" Huang Fei, holding the pipe, also plunged into the water.
The two of them reached the bottom of the water before they could barely stand still. Then a current rushed in, causing Huang Fei to stumble. He quickly grabbed the rocks under his feet to prevent himself from being swept away.
"Holy crap, what's going on?" Huang Fei said as he got up.
"I don't know, let's take a break and see if that helps," Li Chunlai said, squatting down and gripping the stone.
After waiting for about half a minute, I felt much better and it wasn't as intense as before.
"Alright, it seems okay now, Fengzi, put the frame down." Huang Fei said to Mike.
"Okay, watch out for the catch." Chen Feng waved his hand, and the iron frame slowly sank down. The two people under the tree caught the iron frame.
"Come on, let's move them together," Li Chunlai said, and he and Huang Fei started moving stones into the basket.
After the move was almost complete, Li Chunlai said something, and Chen Feng pulled the frame up.
"Ouch, damn it!" Li Chunlai lost his balance and was swept away by the undercurrent, his butt hitting the rock painfully.
"What's wrong? Stop, stop, did you run into something?"
Chen Feng, who was on the shore, had no idea what was happening. When he heard Li Chunlai shout, he immediately told his father to stop.
"It's nothing, Brother Feng. I just slipped and fell. I couldn't stand steadily today, and the current was a bit strong," Li Chunlai replied.
"Oh my god, you scared me to death! I thought I'd run into something. Keep going, it's okay." Chen Feng breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
"Tell them to be careful, this is no joke." Chen Jianguo, who was sitting on the crane, had also been on edge and quickly reminded them.
"It's nothing, the current was too strong and Li Chunlai slipped," Chen Feng explained.
"Oh my god, how did it get so big again? I was fine moving the stones just now." Huang Fei was stunned by the impact and quickly steadied himself.
"Just move some heavy stones to weigh it down. Now that you have nothing in your hands, of course you'll be swept away. Otherwise, you can hold onto a stone and that will keep you standing," Li Chunlai said with a smile.
"Get lost, why would I hang a rock on myself for no reason? It's okay, the water flow is slower now, I can get back to work." Huang Fei said, trying to stand firm, and started sucking with the vacuum tube.
As he swept through the area thoroughly, most of the cleared area was cleaned. Just as Huang Fei, holding the pipe, was about to take another step forward, a stream of water rushed over and knocked him to the ground.
"Oh my god!" Huang Fei lay on the ground, clinging tightly to the riverbed, and only stood up when he felt the water flow past.
"My God, this job is so difficult," Huang Fei said, taking a deep breath.
Now, not only do they need to be submerged underwater, but they also need to be constantly on guard against being washed away by the water flow.
"Who knows what happened today? I guess it'll get a little better in a while," Li Chunlai said, swaying slightly.
"It doesn't feel like it'll improve. It's just a matter of the water flow being strong or weak. Let's keep going and see." Huang Fei lifted the tube slightly and continued sucking.
After they finished absorbing the stones from this area, they had Chen Feng lower the basket again, and the two of them started filling it with stones.
"Hey hey hey!"
"Holy crap!"
As the two were getting ready, they felt an extremely strong current of water rushing towards them. One of them lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the frame was right next to them, and they clung tightly to the iron frame railing to avoid being swept away, but their bodies were still being tossed around by the current.
It took two or three minutes for the water flow to slow down, and both of them took a deep breath.
"No, we can't do this job anymore. We were lucky we had something to hold onto just now. If we hadn't, we would have been swept away somewhere." Huang Fei shook his head and decided to float up first.
"Yes, even with a safety rope, we can't go very far. The key is that the underwater conditions are a bit complicated. If we lose our footing and get splashed and hit our heads, we're doomed." Li Chunlai was also very uneasy.
"Come on up, let's talk after you've come up." Chen Feng heard them clearly from upstairs and told them to come up directly.
It seems the situation is much more serious than we thought.
It's normal for there to be underwater currents, but if the currents are this strong, then that's not good.
“Okay, let’s go up now.” Huang Fei said, and he and Li Chunlai floated up together.
Once the two reached the shore, they took off their helmets, and Chen Feng came over to ask them questions.
"What's going on? The underwater current is so strong!"
"Oh my god, don't even mention it, it's so unstable, it's like a roly-poly toy, that thing was driving me crazy," Huang Fei replied.
“Indeed, we thought we could hold on, but we couldn’t hold on at all and easily stumbled,” Li Chunlai added from the side.
“There’s no need to insist. The underwater situation is inherently complex, and forcing it will only cause more problems.” Chen Feng looked into the bigger picture, pondering where the problem lay.
Seeing this, Chen Jianguo also got off the crane and listened to them explain the underwater situation.
"Oh no, how did it suddenly get so bad? It was fine yesterday," Chen Jianguo said in surprise.
"Yeah, who knows what's going on today? Could it be that the water level has risen upstream?" Huang Fei guessed.
"Hmm... it doesn't seem to be the upstream rising water level. If you look closely, it's a bit different from the upstream. The water upstream is very calm, even the surface of the river is calm, but this section is quite turbulent."
"I thought the rapid current on the surface of the river had nothing to do with what's underwater, but it seems that's not the case," Chen Feng said, lighting a cigarette.
"Ah, you mean it'll be the same tomorrow? What are we going to do? We can't just carry stones on our bodies, can we?" Huang Fei grinned.
Moving stones is already hard enough; if you tie another stone to them, it's like carrying a heavy load. You'd probably be exhausted in no time.
"Tying them up definitely won't work. If all else fails, we'll have to cut off the flow," Chen Feng reasoned.
"What? What do you mean? You want to change the course of the river?" Huang Fei didn't understand for a moment.
"Why change the course? I've come here for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. The reason the water is so rapid here is because it's a slope. If we pile up stones on the back section, the water flow here will slow down."
“You’ll be fine once you go into the water,” Chen Feng explained.
"Oh, I think I understand what Brother Feng means. The section of the river we dredged before had a gentle surface because that section of the river was very calm. This section is downhill, so it's like this."
"What Brother Feng means is, if we build up the back end higher, then both ends will be level, and the water flow will slow down, right, Brother Feng?" Li Chunlai asked.
"Yes, that's roughly the idea." Chen Feng nodded.
"Wow, this is a huge project. What are we going to use to block the flood? Should we buy sandbags?" Huang Fei subconsciously thought of the flood control supplies used in the village.
"Buy sandbags my ass, how many sandbags would that take? You have them right here!" Chen Feng pointed to the shore, and Huang Fei looked back. The shore was full of stones they had dredged up a few days ago.
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