Digging a reservoir is too hard
After tossing and turning all night, Zhou Huaiyue decided to go back to Yunnan, for no other reason than that his guess was not true.
Rather than remaining silent in agony, it is better to stay awake in confrontation.
He wanted to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears that Shen Roujiao no longer needed him. To give up, perhaps what was needed was not a reason, but a "goodbye".
Zhou Huaiyue, who doesn't know how to say goodbye, decided to say goodbye properly and say it seriously without any regrets: Goodbye.
After getting up, Zhou Huaiyue started packing his luggage. He was stubborn, so his father didn't ask much, only asking what time he would leave and how long he would be back.
"Take the 11 o'clock bus. The round trip takes seven days, and you can be back in ten days at the earliest. Please take care of yourself. If..." He paused, looked up and looked out the window.
The sky was becoming increasingly gray. In the early morning, I could still see the mountains in the distance, but now even everything in front of me was almost blurry. I felt like I was trapped in a maze without any direction, and I didn't know where the exit was.
He didn't know what would happen if he didn't come back in ten days, and he had never thought about it. In the end, he couldn't tell the result, so Zhou Huaiyue sighed and continued to pack his luggage.
"Take this calligraphy to your Uncle Lu." Father Zhou took out a folded piece of rice paper from the drawer. When he unfolded it, he saw a poem by Su Dongpo, "Ding Feng Bo," written in a slightly clumsy running script: A raincoat and a straw hat to face the rain and smoke throughout life... There is no wind or rain, and there is no sunshine.
"This is the painting I am most proud of in recent years." The signature seal is carved with jade, the same as the one in Zhou Huaiyue's hand.
Only by returning to simplicity can one return to the true self. After experiencing the separations and reunions of the world, Zhou Chuzhuo removed his dryness and hid his sharpness in calligraphy, remaining simple yet clever, using obscurity to achieve clarity. He entered the third realm of his personal calligraphy: sparse, simple, and both divine and charming.
Zhou Huaiyue, who can't write but can read, was shocked.
......
When he was about to leave, the weather still showed no signs of improving. Zhou's father was worried that the buses would be affected, so he insisted on sending his son to the village entrance.
The father and son stood in the fog, waiting and waiting but no car came. It was not a good idea to keep waiting, so they could only adjust their plans and postpone their trip until tomorrow.
Zhou Huaiyue threw the bag over his shoulder and followed his father. His shoulders slumped, his steps were heavy, and the determination he had made with great difficulty was now gone.
Just as I was reaching the door of my house, I heard the impatient sound of ding-ding-ding-ding behind me. A 28-ton green bicycle cut through the thick fog and came towards me. The postman was wearing a green raincoat and long rain boots, and he stared at the bicycle with difficulty as it moved forward.
The two men immediately made way upon seeing this, but the postman stopped the car in front of them, "Zhou Huaiyue? Really! There's a telegram for you. It was raining heavily on the road, so we're a little late today." As he spoke, he opened his raincoat, revealing his cross-body bag, and took out an envelope from it. Raindrops on his hair fell between the two words "telegram".
"Thank you!" Zhou Huaiyue took the telegram, wiped off the dripping water with his hand, and was not in a hurry to open it. He just folded it in half and put it in his jacket pocket, without any intention of reading it.
"Why don't you read it? What if it's urgent?" The postman frowned, expressing deep doubt and confusion about his calmness.
Zhou Huaiyue laughed at himself and explained, "I don't dare to look!"
He couldn't explain what he was afraid of. Perhaps he was afraid that after watching it, even the thought of returning to Yunnan would become unnecessary.
"Go back and take a look. Thank you!" Zhou Chuzhuo understood his son's feelings.
He said he didn't dare to look at it. Zhou Huaiyue, who was holding the telegram, was so nervous that his heart almost jumped out of his chest, and his steps unconsciously quickened. Seeing his urgency, Zhou's father let him go first, and he walked back slowly.
"Bang!" Zhou Huaiyue almost broke open the door, dropped the bag in his hand and walked into the bedroom.
Sitting at the desk, he took out the telegram from his pocket, laid it out in front of him, and after reading it quietly for two seconds, he unfolded the telegram: Master, I am so happy! We succeeded, our herbal medicine business succeeded! Jixiang Ruyi misses you very much! We all miss you very much! We hope you come back soon! Apprentice Shen Roujiao.
"!"
Zhou Huaiyue read it three times, especially the sentence "We all miss you very much."
In other words, isn't it: "I miss you very much."
Shen Roujiao missed him, she missed him!
Beneath the calm expression, his heart was pounding like a drum. Every word was beyond his imagination. Although he didn't know what happened specifically, he could tell from the words that Shen Roujiao was very happy, joyful and excited.
That's enough. That's enough.
When Zhou's father arrived home, Zhou Huaiyue's slightly raised mouth corners were still there, and it was obvious that this belated telegram was very much to his son's liking. He stood at the door of the bedroom and asked jokingly, "Are you still going back?"
"I'll write a letter to tell her now and go back after the New Year!" Zhou Huaiyue didn't even turn his head, but took out a piece of letter from the drawer and responded to his joy word by word.
Zhou Chuzhuo smiled and shook his head. His son was already deeply trapped and couldn't get out.
…
On the second day after getting the trial of the medicinal materials purchasing station, Shen Roujiao specially sent this telegram to Zhou Huaiyue. She was indeed very happy.
On the one hand, after obtaining the county's policy support, the first thing Shen Roujiao did was to apply for a business premises. She had long been eyeing the large bungalow at the entrance of the village, which was a collective canteen left over from the People's Commune period.
It was built during the period of the big pot meal, when every household did not cook and ate in the big canteen. Although it only existed for a short period of three years, the house is still there, and it is many times better than the abandoned house suggested by the village chief.
It is large and spacious, with an independent yard. More importantly, it is close to the road, with convenient transportation. It will be very eye-catching if advertisements are painted on the walls in the future, and it will be easy to find medicinal herbs sold in the surrounding villages.
On the other hand, the order for wild Polygonatum has been completed. Boss Cui is very satisfied with the goods this time. The total payment is 6,325 yuan. After deducting the villagers' labor cost of 220 yuan, the actual income is more than 6,000 yuan. Together with the surplus from the previous sale of medicinal materials, the purchasing station has sufficient start-up funds.
It can be said that everything is ready except for the east wind. Once the business premises are approved, their medicinal materials purchasing station can be officially opened for business.
Shen Roujiao really enjoyed the sense of accomplishment, from 0 to 1, from impossible to possible, from conceptual idea to implementation; they dug them out one by one with a small hoe, saved them up by selling the herbs for a few cents or a few hundred yuan, and they did it with concerted efforts despite taking risks.
Every step is full of rewards.
They really worked hard for this day.
If she is happy, Zhou Huaiyue should be happy too.
The last few sentences in the telegram were added temporarily. When Shen Roujiao asked the staff if there was anything else she needed to write, they suggested: "Just write that everyone misses him and asks him to come back soon. Your master will definitely be very happy after receiving the telegram, so happy that he will not be able to sleep."
Indeed!
That night, Zhou Huaiyue was so happy that he couldn't sleep. He read the telegram under his pillow once and put it away. After a while, he read it again and put it away. He repeated this over and over again. He didn't know how many times he had read it. Even in his dreams, he could still hear Shen Roujiao's words: I miss you very much.
With the experience of writing letters last time, Zhou Huaiyue first shared the interesting things about Nanshan Village, of course mainly the spring, the nameless grass, and the rather strange Taoist master; then, he learned to ask questions, and he asked whatever he cared about!
For example: What makes you so happy? Have you been practicing calligraphy recently? Can Jixiang be defeated by Ruyi in a fight? Have you finished transcribing my herbal medicine introduction? If I ask you to be my master's ghostwriter, would you agree? ...
It took several long pages again. After finishing writing, Zhou Huaiyue added a painting in the letter, a painting he had not finished before.
…
It was already midnight a week later when Shen Roujiao received the letter.
midnight?
Yes! In the middle of the night, the county high school students, led by their teacher, came back from the remote place where they dug the reservoir. Shen Roujiao, who had never participated in such high-intensity labor, had blisters on her hands and felt so painful that she wanted to cry.
In contrast to the extremely excited state before departure when they brought their own dry food, the students, who were exhausted after a week of work, looked like eggplants hit by frost, covered in dust and exhausted.
It’s too bitter!
There were no large machinery, and everything had to be carried on shoulders and hands, purely manual work. Building a reservoir was really hard.
Tangao Reservoir is located more than ten kilometers away from the county seat. On the first day, the teachers and students of the whole school walked for two hours to get there. After just ten minutes of rest, each person was given a set of shovels, shoulder poles, and baskets.
Shen Roujiao had never seen such a large-scale collective labor movement. When she walked to the construction site with her tools, she was completely shocked.
There are more people than soil!
The construction site was packed with people, some digging and some transporting earth, working in full swing. Infrastructure maniacs have a tradition, and the scene was really exciting and passionate.
Shen Roujiao almost cried, she was so excited.
"Master, if you are scared, just hide behind me and I will help you." Someone behind her saw that her eyes were red and thought she was scared, so he hurriedly comforted her.
?
Gu Changgeng, wearing a plaster cast, unexpectedly showed up at the construction site. The whole school knew that he had suffered a second fracture, so he didn't have to join the massive work of digging the reservoir.
"Why are you here? Go back quickly, your parents will be worried if they know." Shen Roujiao really thought that Gu Changgeng was stupid. This was not a lively place at all, and he came here to do nothing but cause trouble.
"The teacher said that I could come and be in charge of logistics, distributing dry food to the students, arranging accommodation and so on." He spoke as if it were true. If he hadn't asked to come again and again, which teacher would be willing to take care of a helpless wounded soldier?
"Go, go, go over there and find a cool place to sit." Shen Roujiao pointed to the empty space next to her, which happened to meet Duan Baisheng's line of sight. Since warning him not to bother him, Duan Baisheng really never disturbed her again. He just watched her every move silently.
"Master, please take it easy. I'm afraid you can't handle it." Gu Changgeng felt distressed when he saw that the wooden pole of the iron shovel in Shen Roujiao's hand was thicker than her arm. If possible, he really wanted to do it for her.
This kind of work of digging a reservoir takes eight or nine hours at a time, which is too much for the workers in the factory, let alone the skinny high school students, especially female high school students.
"I can do it." Shen Roujiao cheered herself up in her heart.
However, the facts prove that she can't, she absolutely can't.
When digging, you first need to use a shovel to loosen the soil layer; if you encounter hard soil and rocks, you can use a hammer to break them up. The soil is very solid, and Shen Roujiao, who has thin arms and legs, can't dig it out after a few tries.
It's not just her, most of the girls in the class can't do it.
The teacher reorganized the work, with the boys responsible for digging and the girls responsible for putting the excavated soil or stones into baskets and transporting them to designated locations using shoulder poles.
After two trips, the shoulders of Shen Rou's delicate white shirt were rubbed and bleeding, and had seeped into red.
This time she really cried, crying in pain.