To prevent his cubs from falling into the mud again, Zhao Gang demolished a building and, with the Meng brothers, paved the ground in their spare time.
They go out to work on construction sites during the day and come back at night to work overtime, breaking up discarded bricks and paving the front and back yards and the road leading to the main road.
This is no small project. First, usable bricks need to be cleared out, and then they need to be transported to suitable locations in batches using floating platforms. Only after the preliminary preparations are completed can the paving officially begin.
To ensure a permanent solution, the ground in both the front and back yards needs to be leveled again. Low areas are filled in, and high areas are removed. Once the ground is level, bricks are laid one by one, and each brick is tamped down as it is laid.
Working as a laborer at the research base was already tough enough. After going home and drinking a bottle of nutrient solution to replenish my energy, I still had to keep working until 11 or 12 at night, even with the lights on.
Meng Er didn't know whether Zhao Gang was tired or not; he only knew that he was so tired he wanted to die.
As he desperately pounded and hammered on the paving, he muttered to himself:
"Big brother, I used to hear my mom say that when they were working, they were treated like beasts of burden. The only good thing about the disaster is that they don't have to be beasts of burden anymore."
"At the time, I didn't understand what that meant. Going to work is going to work, what does it have to do with cattle and horses?"
"A cow is a cow, and a horse is a horse. Are cows and horses mutants?"
Meng Da looked at his younger brother curiously, "Mom started working more than ten years ago. There weren't any mutants back then, right?"
"Yes!" Meng Er nodded seriously and said, "Oxen have strength, horses have endurance, and oxen and horses together have both strength and endurance. To say that people are like oxen and horses means that people have both strength and endurance, and are even more powerful than animals."
Meng Da: "Is it a beast or a mutant?"
Meng Er pointed to himself, "I am nothing, and I am everything, I... I am just a cow or a horse!"
Meng Er almost blurted out "I" in front of Xiao Xiu, hoping Gangzi hadn't heard. He prayed silently, but maintained a nonchalant expression.
Little did he know that Zhao Gang had already slipped behind him and slapped the dark back of his head.
Meng Er froze, feeling so much pain he wanted to cry. He gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure it, then quickly explained, "Brother Gangzi, I was wrong. I promise I won't do it again next time."
Zhao Gang frowned. "You want a next time?"
"No, no, absolutely not!" Meng Er lightly slapped his own mouth. You're so talkative, just shut up!
Meng Dayan watched his younger brother being beaten, offering no help whatsoever, and even laughed. As he laughed, he muttered, "So this is what life is like for cattle and horses..."
Perhaps sensing that the two were nearing their physical and mental limits, Zhao Gang let them go back to sleep before 10 p.m. He continued laying bricks by himself.
Zhao Xiaoxiu didn't sleep either. She sat at the door of her house, holding a pencil and notebook, practicing her handwriting from memory, keeping her father company.
After working until midnight, Zhao Gang finally finished work and took his daughter home to sleep.
In the darkness, the father and daughter huddled together, and Zhao Gang suddenly sighed.
This was unusual; Zhao Xiaoxiu had almost never seen her father have such a strong emotional reaction. She quickly rolled over, turning from facing away from her father to facing him, and patted his arm with her little hand. "Dad, why are you sighing? Is something not going well at the construction site?"
Zhao Gang shook his head, saying it wasn't about the construction site.
He glanced in the direction of the neighboring bungalows, sighed again, and then said softly:
"There are too many people, which is inconvenient. They can't come out to work together, and it will take a long time to lay the bricks. It would be great if there was hardened cement."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xiaoxiu immediately understood. It turned out that her father also felt that working alone was too tiring and hoped to call out the other tentacles to work together.
It seems that even if you're not human, you can't escape the fate of being a beast of burden.
Zhao Xiaoxiu still felt sorry for her father and comforted him, "Dad, you can work slowly. Sister Hou and I will help you, along with Uncle Meng and Uncle Meng Er. If we do a little bit each day, we will finish eventually. This way, no one will be too tired."
"Mmm!" Zhao Gang felt deeply comforted.
"Xiaoxiu is so good." Zhao Gang hugged his cub in his arms, his big head facing the little head, his vertical pupils reflecting the golden-green starlight in the dark night, as if a mysterious universe was hidden inside.
Zhao Xiaoxiu thought these eyes were extremely beautiful. Even though they could rotate 360 degrees inside a human eye socket, she wasn't scared at all; instead, she found them adorable.
As she watched, her eyelids gradually closed, and she fell into a deep sleep.
Zhao Gang looked at the peaceful sleeping face in front of him with affection, and his whole body went limp. All the tentacles hidden under the skin emerged, but instead of taking over the whole room and enveloping the small person as usual.
The tentacles lay on the bed, their bright red color contrasting sharply with the pure white bed, like the tails of a fighting fish, curving and swaying, protecting her between her tail and body.
Those tentacles, cautious yet unable to contain their excitement and trembling, slowly climbed up the cub's body, rubbing against her face, her little feet, and her little hands, as if handling a fragile treasure.
Zhao Gang put his arm behind his head and looked at it sideways until dawn.
Sunlight streamed through the window, and Zhao Xiaoxiu's eyelashes fluttered as she stretched contentedly, waking from her sweet dream.
She could feel her father was always beside her, but when she opened her eyes, he had already left for the construction site, and she didn't know when he had left.
Zhao Xiaoxiu rubbed her eyes and sat on the bed for a while. Suddenly, she realized that her alarm clock hadn't gone off, so she hurriedly picked up her phone from the bedside table.
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