Chapter 82 Pulling the Cart
The girls who shared a dugout with Song Lubai were already lying down on the communal bed when Sun Hong's voice rang out from the doorway.
After Sun Hong came in, she looked around in the dark and said, "Why are you all sleeping so early? Song Lubai, someone asked me to deliver something to you."
Feng Ying turned to face Sun Hong: "It's not going to be mutton fat soap again, is it?"
Sun Hong smiled and said, "It is indeed mutton fat soap. I don't know how they knew we had lice. They found a mutton fat soap seller at the bazaar today and helped me bring back a few bars."
"What? You've already received the lanolin soap that someone gave you?"
Song Lubai sat up: "That's right. Including what Zhaodi bought, we have a total of seven yuan. That's enough for several of us. We'll have to trouble you to return it to us."
Sun Hong subconsciously touched her pocket: "Okay, as long as it's useful, I'll go back now."
Nothing was said that night.
After a day of rest, the young workers were fully recharged.
As Song Lubai led the pancakes and pushed the cart to the fields, she felt that there was still hope for the future.
If you let her eat meat until she's stuffed once every ten days, she'll definitely be able to endure this.
Today, the division of labor between men and women is very clear.
The men continued digging the canal, while the women pushed carts loaded with shovels to the large tract of wasteland beside the canal.
A layer of white floats on the top of the wasteland, indicating a high salinity level in the soil.
In soil with high salinity, crops can hardly grow except for plants like camel thorn, which are extremely resilient.
But this is not particularly serious. More serious saline-alkali land has a yellowish surface, and you can run water out when you step on it. As for the blackish-brown land, this kind of geology is even more "unusual".
On the way to Lawati by truck, the wheels got stuck in the blackish saline soil several times, requiring everyone to work together to push the truck out.
Xinjiang Province is large in area, but unlike the black soil of Northeast China, it doesn't yield a good harvest of any crop.
Most of the land here has poor geology; this saline-alkali land is a typical example.
To grow crops in saline-alkali land, the land must first be improved.
The method to manage saline-alkali land is to cover the saline-alkali land with slightly better soil, till and mix it, and then add water several times to suppress the salinity.
After crops are planted, it takes several years to improve the soil quality.
The young people from the city didn't understand these things, but they followed the orders of the company commander and political instructor, doing whatever they were told to do.
The women first loaded the soil they dug out of the irrigation canal onto a cart. Once the cart was full, one person would crawl into the rope in front of the cart and pull it forward like an ox, dumping the soil onto the saline-alkali land next to it.
Song Lubai threaded the rope through her waist, secured it, and exerted all her strength, almost prostrating herself on the ground, before the cart moved forward even a little.
"No, one person simply can't pull it."
The instructor pointed to a woman standing to the side holding a shovel, watching Song Lubai pull the cart, and said, "Still laughing? Hurry up and help! This cart weighs about half a ton, and it needs someone to push it from behind to move it."
Feng Ying pointed at Song Lubai and said, "You were like an ox just now, no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't pull the cart. You can't do that. If this were in the past, the landlord's lackeys would have whipped you a few times."
Song Lubai wasn't angry. "If you think you can do it, then come and try. Let us see if you're born in the Year of the Ox or the Year of the Donkey."
Feng Ying snorted, "Let's give it a try."
It's not a big deal if it takes a little while, and the instructor isn't angry.
Feng Ying hung the noose around her waist aggressively, lowered her center of gravity, and adopted the same posture as Song Lubai earlier. She started to exert force, but even after her face turned red, she couldn't pull the rope much.
The soil underground was full of potholes, and the frictional resistance was too great, so the wheels couldn't move at all.
Song Lubai called to Wang Qun to help push the cart from behind.
As the car was pushed forward, Feng Ying's excited voice rang out: "See, see, Song Lubai, I'm stronger than you."
Song Lubai: "Yes, that's right. Comrade Feng Ying is like Li Kui in the modern world. She is strong enough to lift mountains and carry half a ton of weight. She is truly a heroine of our time."
She patted the frame mischievously, "Frame, hurry up and go, my good horse."
Wang Qun, who was standing next to him, burst out laughing, and the instructor couldn't help but chuckle as well.
When Feng Ying turned around and saw the two of them, she was so angry she almost twisted her nose.
"You go back and wait, I'll scratch you to death."
"Alright, let's get going. The three of us will share one car, and once it's full, we'll take turns making a trip."
Yesterday, the instructor confidently told them that hauling soil with a bunk bed would be less tiring and much easier than digging a ditch.
I only realized after trying it out today that it's not like that at all.
Each shovelful of soil weighed about 500 kilograms, averaging one kilogram per shovel. It took three people nearly 500 shovelfuls. They worked almost non-stop, shoveling more than 100 times in one go, and their bodies were constantly covered in sweat.
The cart was full of soil and still had to be hauled. The person in front, with a rope around their waist, was in excruciating pain from the rope's tightness. The two people behind were also struggling to push the cart, their palms bleeding from the rough edges of the cart.
After several trips, they were all almost exhausted.
Just then, the water delivery arrived, and everyone took the opportunity to rest for a while.
“Instructor, are you trying to trick us? You said yesterday that hauling soil was easier than digging a ditch, but look at our hands, they’re all worn out. It feels like hauling soil is more tiring than digging a ditch.”
The instructor wiped the sweat from his brow and said, "If you still want to dig the canal, that's fine too. We can replace it for you."
The women fell silent.
These two choices are no different from asking them to choose between dog poop and cow poop, which smells worse.
Song Lubai fanned herself with her straw hat, chewing on a pancake she had saved from yesterday.
Just as she was enjoying her food, a shovelful of dirt fell from the sky, covering her head and soiling her bread.
Fortunately, she had a headscarf wrapped around her head, so the dirt landed on the headscarf.
She stood up and leaned down, making eye contact with a familiar-looking man.
Seeing the mess on her head, Wang Zhendong quickly apologized.
"I'm so sorry, I forgot. It was supposed to be thrown to the right. I bought some naan yesterday, I'll make you one when I get home tonight."
Song Lu was too tired to argue, "No need, you can still eat it after patting it."
As she sat back down, she heard the man say again, "That headscarf looks really good on you, don't you think?"
Although Song Lubai was a little confused, she accepted the compliment.
"Thank you for the compliment, I like this color very much too."
After all, she chose it herself.
She liked the patterns on both headscarves she picked.
It felt very light and thin when worn on the head. When working, she would tie it around the bridge of her nose and then put on a straw hat, so her face would hardly be exposed to the sun.
Although this look is somewhat similar to that of ethnic minority women, she is willing to accept being covered up as long as it can provide shade and prevent her from getting even darker.
Wang Zhendong chuckled, scratching the back of his head, and said shyly, "I'm glad you like it."
Song Lubai: "..."
I don't quite understand what's wrong with him.
Sun Hong, who was not far away, glanced in this direction again and again. Seeing that nothing else had happened, she breathed a sigh of relief.
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