Chapter 70 Digging
We set off for the field at 7:30 a.m. and worked for half the morning. Now it's time for us to drink water and rest around 11 a.m. We've been working for three and a half hours straight, and if we work for another four hours, it will be 3 p.m.
Two pancakes will keep you full for seven and a half hours…
Two pancakes wouldn't last seven hours, not even three, before Song Lubai got hungry very early.
She wasn't the only one hungry, but no one stopped working; they all wiped their sweat as they wiping away their sweat while wiping away their farm tools.
Song Lubai was a person with high aspirations. She wanted to do her job flawlessly and to be the first to do farm work, determined not to hold anyone back.
Every second of laboring in hunger and heat was unbearable. As the sun was about to reach its zenith, two of the new female comrades in Song Lubai's group collapsed, causing gasps from those around them.
The experienced company commander quickly ordered his men to carry them to a makeshift shed not far away, and then had the women apply wet towels to their faces.
The effect was immediate; the two quickly regained consciousness, and Wang Haiquan gave them some water to drink.
Although they were awake, the two of them were weak and looked sickly.
Wang Haiquan sighed as he looked at the blazing sun, "This is worse than digging a ditch in winter, at least there's no risk of heatstroke."
After discussing it, the instructor and company commander said, "Let the female comrades go back first. There are only about twenty minutes left before we finish work."
The girls breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
They were really past their prime, but everyone was still working hard, and no one had the nerve to say anything that would hold them back.
Looking at the pits she had dug—more than the other girls but less than the "older" girls—Song Lubai deftly shouldered her shovel and walked back with the other girls.
She has a competitive spirit, but her body is also nearing its limit.
Her hands, gripping the shovel, were trembling.
Such a heavy workload on the first day would be unbearable even for a god.
The cooks also work every day, but they go back early at noon and in the afternoon to cook communal meals, so their assigned task of digging ditches is significantly less than theirs.
When everyone returned to the camp and saw the female cooks preparing food under the shed, their envy and jealousy reached their peak.
They're late. If they had come earlier, they would have at least fought for the cooking job.
Once inside the dugout, feeling the coolness, everyone collapsed onto the reed beds, unwilling to get up.
It was only half a day, but they were so distressed they wanted to cry.
Thinking about the months-long task of digging the canal, some people pouted and started to cry.
The dimly lit space was suddenly filled with the pitiful sobbing of a child.
Hearing this, Lu Shuangshuang and the others under the shed above exchanged glances and laughed in unison.
Although they have gotten used to their current lives, when they first arrived, they worked so hard they cried and regretted it deeply.
They regretted how they had been so foolish as to sign up to support the border regions.
Song Lubai didn't cry, but her body lay slumped on the bed, not wanting to move a finger at all.
My body felt sticky and greasy, and because I had been sweating so much, my hair dried and clumped together, sticking to my face.
She took a towel, fetched a basin of well water, and used it to wipe herself down in the dugout.
My hand stung painfully when it touched the water.
Because the blisters on her palms were torn apart while she was working.
My palms hurt, but I felt much better after rubbing it on my body.
As they lay down on their beds and fell asleep silently, the rest of the group returned, carrying farm tools and dragging their weary bodies.
The return of the main group meant it was time to eat, and the girls went upstairs to eat listlessly.
Song Lubai was so hungry that the food tasted like cardboard and she couldn't taste anything at all.
My hand holding the chopsticks was trembling uncontrollably due to the long hours of labor.
Today's lunch was a porridge with some green vegetables added.
It's mostly cornmeal, cooked until very thick.
It has no other taste besides salt.
The food didn't taste very good, and it didn't look very appealing either, but everyone still ate it ravenously.
Because I was so hungry.
Wang Haiquan also squatted down with everyone, holding a bowl. He said, "We'll start work at 5:30 this afternoon. I'll call you on time then. After you finish eating, have a good rest. No matter what, everyone still has to complete their tasks."
Not to mention the girls were completely overwhelmed, even the new male colleagues found it unbearable.
I work seven and a half hours in the morning, and I should work until dark in the afternoon. The days are too long here. In this month, it doesn't get dark until after 10 pm, which means I have to work for another four hours in the afternoon.
Working eleven and a half hours a day out of twenty-four hours a day, who could stand that?
Lying back down on the reed mat, no one complained that the bed was uncomfortable anymore.
Song Lubai felt like she hadn't slept for long when she was called to work from outside.
She got up weakly, her hands and feet trembling, and listlessly carried the shovel for two miles. All the ambition that Song Lubai had felt on the train to Xinjiang had vanished.
In her hometown, the sun would have already set by 5:30, but the sun in XJ was still blazing.
Even the fierce Song Lubai couldn't look directly at it.
Shovel after shovel, the ditch was dug deeper and deeper, until she could no longer use the shovel to throw the soil up.
At this point, they could no longer work alone. Wang Haiquan instructed them to pair up, ideally with one man and one woman. One would dig below, while the other would stand in the middle and use a sack covered in mud to catch the soil shoveled up from below.
The people digging below not only have to shovel soil with great effort, but also have to throw the soil high into the air to land on the bags.
The person collecting the soil above has to stand on the specially left protrusions on the canal wall, bending over until the bag is full, then stand up and dump it onto the soil piles on both sides of the canal.
The boys volunteered to go down into the ditch to dig soil, making it much more comfortable for the girls who were collecting the soil.
Song Lubai felt less tired and said to Liu Gao below, "Come up here, let's switch."
Liu Gao wiped the sweat from his brow and laughed, "It's alright, I'll dig and you take over, it'll be more efficient."
Song Lubai's attitude was firm: "Come up here, and we'll take turns. You need to dig a little deeper over there. If we work together, we should be able to finish the task today."
Liu Gao was still hesitating.
Song Lubai added, "We are now comrades-in-arms, and comrades-in-arms should make progress together and face difficulties together."
Liu Gao smiled and said, "Alright then, if you get tired, just let me take your place."
Song Lubai: "I know." She's not stupid.
She was the one who benefited from the collaboration; there was no reason for her to keep putting in so much effort.
And so, the two took turns, working non-stop to finish Song Lubai's tasks first.
The company commander was called to inspect the work, and he offered some suggestions. After about ten minutes of rectification, the two of them left Liu Gao's task site to continue their work.
When the people below get tired of digging, they take over from those above. When Song Lubai feels she is nearing her limit and needs to rest, she will voluntarily replace Liu Gao.
The two were very efficient; apart from teams of two men working together, they were the fastest.
After the successful inspection, Song Lubai slumped down to rest beside a pile of earth.
I asked Director Wang, who had a watch on his wrist, and learned that it was already ten o'clock.
A gentle breeze blew by, and Song Lubai lay sprawled on the mound of earth, her hands behind her head, comfortably closing her eyes.
Just as she was savoring this hard-won moment of leisure, Liu Gao said from the side, "Song Lubai, you've gotten quite a tan in just one day."
Song Lubai opened her eyes and said expressionlessly, "With the sun so strong, who can avoid getting tanned? You've gotten quite tanned too."
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