Chapter 35: A Summer Night's Story

  Summer Night Story

  Now with "Yao Family Village Construction Project" as cover, Yao Fan's recruitment plan is even more unscrupulous.

  "The house is full, all the new colleagues are arranged to live in the old house, and the new house is already too crowded. I got up early this morning to eat outside the kitchen, there's no place to put my legs."

  He Shicheng reluctantly agreed, "Master, why do you have to squeeze in there to eat? I said I'd help you bring it inside and you weren't happy. Are we going to continue recruiting people? We already have over 270 people! The old mansion is also overcrowded! After you and us moved here, the few rooms that were vacated are now fully occupied, and the wooden plank beds are set up all the way to the eaves, it's impossible to walk around!"

  "Of course we'll continue to recruit," Yao Fang said stiffly. "Can't you see how short-handed our construction site is?"

  I have instructed He Wan-nian to set up branches of the Early Sail Company in various parts of Shandong Province to search for young beggars, and if they can't be found in the cities, to look for them in temple fairs and markets outside the city, and even in villages.

  "Accommodation is not a problem, aren't there already dozens of wooden houses set up in the first district? Tell them to go sleep wherever, food, clothing and bathing are all treated the same as living in the city."

  He Shicheng licked his tongue: "Master Dong, you are really too kind to them. When the project is completed in the future, what do you plan to arrange for so many partners?"

  Yao Feng gently knocked on the new gourd skin hat that He Shicheng had just bought: "I'll take care of it when the time comes, you hurry up and get those newcomers to change into the work uniforms I brought."

  ……

  The construction site of Yao's family is already a blue ocean, Yao Fang's partners have changed into the new cotton denim work uniforms purchased by Yao Fang this time, all of which are long-sleeved and long-legged, all in blue.

  This cotton denim fabric has a soft texture, is thick and reliable, and was often used to make work clothes for physically demanding jobs such as welders in 2011. Yao Fang valued the durability and warmth of this type of workwear. Yao Fang had considered purchasing camouflage clothing for migrant workers, but the winters in northern China were too cold, and there was no El Ni?o phenomenon to bring global warming, so without a thick windbreaker, the north wind would easily take away body heat.

  Li Haoniu is now the foreman appointed by Yao Fang. Since entering the Yao family, Li Haoniu's super-large appetite has been satisfied every meal, and his muscles have bulged again, with a healthy luster on his skin.

  Li Haoniu's tall and majestic figure strode across the construction site, inspecting the progress of each project, constantly issuing thunderous roars, directing his workers to work harder.

  "Listen up, people of the three districts! Hurry up! The pile driving is going to start this afternoon. If you delay the arrival of the lumber, can you still face your boss?"

  ……

  "What was I saying? Don't pile up dirt on the edge of the playground! The owner said we're going to lay a cement floor here! That stuff can't be mixed with mud! Hurry up and get the cart team to take it away for me!"

  ……

  "Can you guys do it? It's just mixing cement with aggregate and filling the ground, right? You're doing it so slowly, how can you keep up with the progress of the playground? They've already dug and leveled everything! Just waiting for you to deliver the cement slab!"

  ……

  Whenever he saw that progress was falling behind, Li Haoniu would become anxious and impatient, often rushing forward to grab the iron shovel and do a couple of strokes himself before stopping.

  Just as Li Haoniu was stirring the mixture of cement and gravel with a shovel, a loud shout came from afar: "Dinner is ready! Dinner is ready! The boss has added meat to everyone's meal today!"

  "Oh!!!!!!!!!", The more than 200 workers on the construction site suddenly boiled over.

  "We've got meat to eat! We're having meat today!" A fellow worker beside Li Haoniu, who was frantically mixing concrete with an iron shovel, shouted at him.

  "I heard! I heard! What's the commotion? Can't even do their job properly, all they know is eating!" Li Haoniu returned the iron shovel to its original owner and ran to a small mound on the side, shouting with all his might: "Listen up everyone! Old rules apply, each class takes turns eating in order! Woodworking classes 1, 2, and 3, and earthwork classes 1, 2, and 3 eat first! Others continue working, when it's time I'll naturally call you to go eat."

  Li Haoniu repeated in a loud and clear voice three times before finishing, his voice carrying far away on the empty construction site, everyone could hear it clearly.

  After shouting, Li Haibei swung the braid on his neck back, wiped the sweat beads on his forehead with his sleeve, and looked at the dim sky: "Today has passed again, time really flies."

  It was the turn of Yang Hui's class 1, class 2 and class 3, as well as Xiao Che's class 1 and class 2 to have dinner. They poured all the mixed concrete into the playground that had been dug 10 cm deep, and then used long wooden boards to flatten it out before finishing work.

  Yao Fans also rushed over, squeezing in among a group of fellow workers who had just finished work and were preparing to eat. He felt that he should get closer and closer to these fellow workers, so that one day when they faced choices, the proportion of those following him might be higher.

  Yao Fan sat with everyone in a circle, casually picking up a steamed bun and eating it.

  Li Haoniu sat beside Yao Fang, holding a small bowl of steamed pork and smiling awkwardly. His work uniform was open at the collar, with seven or eight warm buns stuffed inside, but in the bowl, there was only one piece of steamed pork, the rest being the savory sauce from the steamed meat.

  "I'll eat the buns with meat first, and after I finish, I'll go get some pickled vegetables to go with the buns." Li Haoniu explained.

  Yao Fanbai gave him a glance and said, "What's the point of telling me these things? It's good fortune to have enough food. Letting you eat your fill is also my responsibility as the host. If you can't eat your fill, where would I put my face?"

  More and more comrades sat around, it can be seen that being able to sit with the master to eat or getting closer to Yao Fan to eat is an honor for them. Because they now regard this man who forces them to eat well and dress warmly as a Bodhisattva-like benefactor.

  Yao Weng licked the steamed bun skin, using his saliva to soften this Qing dynasty coarse flour product as much as possible. He thought to himself, "The refugee tide should be coming soon, right? It's already June and I haven't seen a single big rainstorm yet. Historically, whenever Shandong experiences drought, refugees flee to the coast, smashing rocks on reefs to eat shellfish, gathering seaweed to fill their bellies, at least able to survive until winter. The coastal city of Qingdao is definitely a great place for refugees to gather.

  Li Haoniu interrupted Yao Feng's train of thought: "Boss, everyone wants to know, after the construction of Yaojiazhuang is completed, where will we go to work?"

  Yao Fan wanted them to rebel against him in the future, but for now he couldn't say it out loud, so he just made something up: "Now that there's a severe drought everywhere, I plan to take all the money we've earned and use it to buy grain to open a congee factory. When the time comes, everyone will work at the congee factory, and after the drought is over, follow me to make our fortune in the Qing Dynasty and open five hundred branch stores."

  Li Haoniu heard this, and with a loud gulp swallowed a mouthful of mantou dipped in meat soup: "Master is a Bodhisattva at heart. This year looks like it's going to be a disastrous harvest, but if we open a congee factory, Master will be the Buddha of a thousand families, saving countless lives! I'll definitely follow Master and do my best."

  "Right! I'll follow the boss and work hard too!"

  "Me too..."

  The comrades around eating also echoed.

  Listening to these sincere expressions, Yao Fan still had some worries. He didn't know how resolute these beggars, who were waiting for death just a short while ago, could be.

  Yao Fan said: "Tonight is still the old routine. Tonight, each class leader will come to my place for a meeting to discuss the progress of the project and specific details."

  Li Haoniu said: "Oh!"

  The leaders of the Coastal Defense and Small Vehicle Teams also responded loudly, then they looked around at their fellow comrades with a rather proud look, and continued eating with satisfaction.

  At nine o'clock in the evening, most of the boys had finished bathing and changed into a set of pajamas provided by Yao Fang, crawling onto the bunk beds to sleep. The pajamas were simple, just a white round-necked old man's shirt and a pair of four-cornered beach pants, but the boys all liked them, sincerely praising and rejoicing at being able to wear the standard-issue Yao family underwear.

  At this time, the class leaders also gathered in Yao Fang's room, watching Yao Fang fiddling with his Gongfu tea set, which was his private collection, brought over from 1875 as it was too dull.

  There were about twenty people who came, and the kang was too crowded to sit on. Many people moved a few small stools made by the carpentry class in the past few days and sat at the edge of the kang. Fortunately, Yao Fang's big house was very spacious, with plenty of room to sit. The previous dozen or so days of such small gatherings had already made everyone familiar with each other, and Yao Fang had also roughly recognized these team leaders.

  Yao Fangan sat cross-legged on the kang, put the Tieguanyin bought from the local tea shop into his own teapot, washed the tea, and poured the emerald green tea liquid into small white porcelain cups. His movements were quite ritualistic, making the young people around him feel warm in their hearts.

  Following their usual habit, they each got up to fetch a tea cup and sat back down to savor the limited amount of tea water, smacking their lips.

  Fragrant.

  "It's really delicious!"

  Yao Feng saw them relax, so he simply asked a few class leaders about the progress of their respective projects. After Li Haoniu's speech requesting an increase in the number of people mixing concrete for the gray cement class, Yao Feng adjusted and changed the Earthwork Class 6 to Gray Cement Class 4.

  He Shicheng saw that the teapot was empty, and wanted to refill it. Yao Fang poured out the used tea leaves and replaced them with new ones, then they continued another round of brewing and tasting tea.

  Fragrant!

  "It's really delicious!"

  "It smells great!"

  "Thank you, Dong family, for treating me to tea!"

  Yao Fan took a look and thought it was about right, handing over the control of the teapot to Li Haoniu. Li Haoniu solemnly accepted it, while He Shicheng rolled his eyes and reluctantly picked up the kettle on the small charcoal stove to fill it for Li Haoniu, who then poured tea into each small cup.

  "Now that the project is on track, I'll tell you a story every day from today. Today is the first day of storytelling, so let me tell you a story about a sheep eating a man." Yao Fang entered the topic, starting his first attempt at enlightenment, and this entry point was something he had thought about for a long time before finally deciding on it.