Chapter 430

Early the next morning, the four of them got up, washed up simply, and went to have breakfast.

Only Li Long ate a bit more for breakfast; Li Anguo and the other two didn't eat much because they were excited.

After breakfast, they walked back. Li Long vaguely heard people nearby discussing the words "Green Shade Lane." Was it this place, or somewhere nearby?

"Lane"? Such a designation was quite unique; it hadn't appeared in Maxian or Shicheng. In those two places, what appeared most often was "So-and-so Road" or "So-and-so Street." The most he knew about Kuitun was that once, on an episode of the "Liyuan Chun" program, there was a Uyghur brother in Kuitun who sang Henan opera, and he sang it quite well.

He didn't have many other impressions.

Of course, there would be many in the future, because he needed to work here for a period of time. If his second brother and the others could gain a foothold here, Li Long would likely come here often.

Driving the tractor with Li Anguo and the others, he arrived at the Construction Installation Company again. There must have been a primary school near the company; Li Long saw many students with schoolbags walking toward a small path beside the installation company, and a playground could vaguely be seen over there.

Li Long drove the tractor through the main gate and saw the old man who had been sweeping the floor yesterday, with Ma Aihong standing right beside him.

"You're here. Come, follow me." Ma Aihong was pushing a bicycle. Seeing that Li Long and the others had arrived, he called out and rode the bicycle forward.

Ma Aihong rode very fast; conversely, Li Long didn't dare to drive fast, as he was worried about hitting someone.

The Construction Installation Company's courtyard was very large. He could see some machinery, but not much; there were more simple pieces of equipment like handcarts. The office area consisted of single-story houses, and there were several rows of them. Li Long followed Ma Aihong to one of the single-story houses, where some workers were tidying up their gear, waiting to set off.

"The three of you will live here," Ma Aihong said, pointing to that row of houses. "Put your luggage inside and each of you pick a spot. This room is quite empty; only two people live here for now. Get your bedding set up first; someone will come by later to register you and assign tasks."

Li Anguo and the others listened to Ma Aihong, looked at each other, then took their luggage off the vehicle and walked into the room one by one.

"Little Li," Ma Aihong said to Li Long, who was sitting on the tractor, "You've eaten, right? Then you wait here too. Look, that over there is the guesthouse. Don't let the outside fool you; it's quite clean and tidy inside, and it has bedding and everything. You can go there to rest after you finish work at noon; I've already opened a room for you.

By the way, you'll eat there too; the food there is good. Also, I'll provide the fuel for your tractor. You just wait to be dispatched to drive; like I said before, you don't need to worry about loading or unloading."

"Then thank you, Section Chief Ma," Li Long said hurriedly.

"What's there to thank? We're all on the same side, and your coming here is a help to me as well."

After Ma Aihong finished speaking, he told Li Long to wait there while he went to the office for a meeting.

Li Long looked around and saw several horse-drawn and donkey-drawn carts arriving; they were likely waiting for work too.

These horse and donkey carts had sideboards added to them to carry more, but when it came down to it, they carried far less than Li Long's vehicle.

He now understood a bit why Ma Aihong insisted on keeping him. This Construction Installation Company was indeed a bit short on transport capacity.

A while later, a small four-wheeled tractor drove over. This tractor was a similar model to Li Long's, only much more dilapidated. The driver had originally looked arrogant, but upon seeing Li Long's vehicle, his expression changed instantly.

He hadn't expected the Construction Installation Company to bring in another tractor, and it was clearly visible that this tractor was very new!

Was it newly bought, or brought by a newly recruited person?

Was this his competitor?

Li Long just glanced at the man and then let his gaze fall on the others.

He discovered that the people living here wore a motley assortment of clothes, both new and old. Not far away, there were some other people wearing blue labor protection uniforms, and the tool bags they carried were all uniform.

Those must be the regular workers, right? And the people here must all be temporary workers.

Temporary workers like Li Anguo and the others weren't recruited all at once; some came early and some late. Some had already started working, while others had just arrived—like Li Anguo and his group.

Soon, Li Anguo and the others came out of the dormitory, all three of them smiling; it seemed they were quite satisfied with the environment.

Li Long's gaze swept over the man driving the old tractor; he was wearing a fairly new work uniform. He wondered if he was a regular worker, or if the uniform had been issued specifically to him?

There were only two tractors here for temporary work, while the regular workers had a truck. This was all the "transport machinery" Li Long could see for now.

Some workers climbed into the truck bed over there, and the truck drove out; they were likely going to work.

Someone came over with a folder and started assigning tasks.

Because Li Junshan had worked as a skilled laborer, he was the first to be dispatched, and his wage standard was clarified on the spot: 1.3 yuan a day, which was already higher than the wages of some regular workers elsewhere.

But thinking about it, it made sense; after all, they weren't apprentices, but temporary workers who had to perform heavy physical labor, so the wages had to be sufficient.

As for Li Anguo and Yang Yongqiang, they were treated as unskilled laborers, currently at one yuan a day.

Ten yuan per tractor load—it was just as Ma Aihong had said. The three unskilled laborers climbed onto the vehicle, pointed the way for Li Long, and they drove out of the installation company toward the material yard.

Li Long truly felt that with a tractor, earning money had become much easier.

The material yard wasn't very far; the tractor could make a round trip in ten minutes or so, but loading was slow. At this time, the Construction Installation Company didn't have excavators or loaders, so they could only load manually, which was quite slow.

But precisely because of this, every load was packed quite full, heaped up to the brim—this was what the company required.

The construction site was on the west side of the city. He heard the unloading workers chatting that this seemed to be the office space for some government agency. Li Long didn't ask much. Unloading was faster than loading; although this tractor hadn't been modified for automatic hydraulic unloading, as long as they pulled the pin on the dump bed and lowered the rear tailgate, two people lifting from either side of the bed could dump a load of sand and gravel. The tractor would drive forward a few meters, and the entire load would be dumped out.

Ten yuan was still very easy to earn. In fact, it didn't consume much fuel, and there was basically no manual labor involved, just driving.

Compared to the past when he had to break through ice, endure the cold, exert effort, and get up early, it was truly too easy to earn money with a tractor now.

In the morning, Li Long hauled five loads, earning fifty yuan. And the material he hauled in those five loads could equal twenty or thirty loads from the horse carts nearby, and they were slower too. He asked, and a horse cart could haul about two loads in a morning; if they went early, they could haul three.

For lunch, the temporary workers had stir-fried cabbage, cornmeal cakes, and vegetable soup. The food Li Long had at the guesthouse was much better: steamed buns and noodles as staples, and two dishes—stir-fried cabbage with a bit of meat, and stir-fried shredded potatoes. The taste was average, but the steamed buns were all-you-can-eat.

The guesthouse was furnished with two round tables and several wooden long tables. Being a newcomer, Li Long sat at a long table.

Those eating at the guesthouse were likely the leadership of the construction company, along with a few drivers. This made Li Long feel quite good—he saw the truck driver and the other old tractor driver.

The truck driver was a middle-aged man in his forties. When he saw Li Long, he smiled at him, then got his own food and went to eat at a table—Ma Aihong was at that table too. He came over to chat with Li Long for a few sentences before heading over. Li Long sat and ate by himself. Seeing the old tractor driver also sitting to one side, Li Long had originally thought about chatting with him, but seeing the unfriendly look the man gave him, he lost the desire to speak.

There was a one-hour break at noon. Li Long wasn't very tired, but he had nothing else to do, so the attendant led him to a double room.

"Am I the only one staying here?" Li Long asked, seeing that neither bed had been touched.

The attendant explained:

"The other bed was originally arranged for Master An, but his home is nearby, and he goes home every noon, so he doesn't stay here."

Li Long understood; this Master An was likely the other tractor driver.

This was perfect; he didn't have to go through the trouble of dealing with a stranger who harbored hostility toward him.

He lay on the bed for a while, feeling he still wasn't tired, so he got up and went out. Anyway, Li Long hadn't brought much, so he wasn't afraid of anyone entering the room.

Walking into the courtyard, Li Long identified the direction and then headed toward the dormitory where Li Anguo and the others were staying.

Li Anguo and the others had already eaten. The morning's work had been quite tiring, and the three of them were currently lying on their bunks resting. However, because the time was short, they didn't think about falling asleep and were chatting idly.

"Second Brother, Junshan, Yongqiang, how are you doing?" Li Long entered the dormitory, saw them lying on the bunks talking, and asked. "It's alright, a bit tiring, but manageable," Li Anguo nodded.

There were two other people in the dormitory who weren't asleep either; they seemed to know each other and were chatting at the other end.

Li Long went over, sat on the edge of the bunk, and continued to ask:

"Junshan, things should be better on your side, right?"

Skilled labor required more technical skill and was better than unskilled labor.

"Yeah, it's alright," Li Junshan said. "They're short of skilled laborers here too. I remember Uncle Anguo used to do this too, and I was thinking if we should apply to come over here. It's just laying bricks and such, not too difficult."

Li Anguo was a bit hesitant, but Li Long said:

"Second Brother, if you can do it, go and try. This work uses real materials, and there are safety officers on the construction site watching; they care more about quality than you do, right?"

The treatment for skilled and unskilled laborers was different, and more importantly, Li Long felt that if Li Anguo could become a skilled laborer, the possibility of him staying would be greater.

Yang Yongqiang pursed his lips to the side and didn't say much. He had never laid a wall, so he had no say in this. Today's work had been quite tiring, much more so than farm work. But while working, he had heard fellow workers saying that there was a lot of work to be done in KT City now, and many workers were needed, so the chances of them staying after working for a period of time were high.

As long as they could stay, they would be regular workers and could eat "commodity grain."

The prospect of eating commodity grain was truly a great temptation for Yang Yongqiang, or rather, for all the people who had come here to work.

!.

Tao Daqiang didn't come. In Yang Yongqiang's view, one reason was his personality—he was naturally content with whatever came his way. Secondly, it was because Tao Daqiang had earned a lot of money following Li Long; calculated by the year, it was more than what he would earn as a worker. So he felt staying in the village had a better future.

But Yang Yongqiang felt that while working with Li Long like this did indeed bring in a lot of money, it wasn't stable. Being a worker meant having a constant salary, and when you got old and couldn't work anymore, there was a pension—that was the true "iron rice bowl."

So, although it was tiring—more tiring than doing farm work at home—Yang Yongqiang felt he could persevere.

"Yongqiang, how do you feel?" Li Long asked Yang Yongqiang again.

"It's alright," Yang Yongqiang smiled. "I wasn't used to it at first, but it's just work; it's about the same level of fatigue as digging the big canal in the team. I'll get used to it after a while."

He believed that whether it was the current food or the accommodation conditions, as long as he could transition into a regular worker, these things would all improve.

He had also heard that many regular workers had small courtyards assigned to them near where Section Chief Ma and the others were. If it really came to that, he would be a city dweller too, and then find a city girl to marry—that feeling—hehe!

Since all three felt quite good, Li Long didn't have much more to say and left after chatting for a few more sentences. Li Anguo and the others were more tired than he was and needed more rest.

Returning to the front of the guesthouse, Li Long went to his tractor and used a bucket to add water to it. The diesel he had brought yesterday hadn't been used up, so he added more to the fuel tank.

While working on the vehicle, he heard someone speaking from behind:

"Little Li, how did it go today?"

"It's alright," Li Long turned his head to see Ma Aihong carrying a lunchbox and said, "I'm not very tired; it feels fine."

Li Anguo didn't need to find Ma Aihong to report for skilled labor; he could just report it himself when work was assigned tomorrow. Whether he could do the job would be clear to them at a glance.

"That's good. I heard from the people in the engineering team that today, with your tractor, our project's progress has improved quite a bit. By the way, let me tell you, the payment for your tractor hauling material is settled on the spot. You can go to the finance department to settle up after you finish hauling in the afternoon. So don't drag it out too late in the afternoon, or you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Alright, alright," Li Long nodded hurriedly.

Earning one hundred yuan a day!

Could he earn enough for a tractor in a month?

It seemed unlikely to be that good. The volume of this project wasn't large; it would be good if it lasted ten days. The point was that they were using sand and gravel at the beginning, and then bricks later, and the hauling might only last three to five days, with the rest being the workers' job.

Of course, even so, it was very good. He truly understood what he had heard before: it was very hard for people to earn money, but it was easy for money to earn money.

Couldn't others see that having a tractor made money?

Of course they could. But the problem was, they couldn't come up with the money to buy a tractor.

Like Li Long now, because he bought the tractor in full, it was easier for him to get a bank loan than others because he had suitable collateral. This was what many people in later generations couldn't understand—why it was so hard for ordinary people to get loans, while those who owed the bank a lot of money found it so easy.

It was the same even a few years later when the team's Little Haizi was contracted out to someone else. At that time, there was an "entrepreneur" in the township who owed money from running a sand pit, and in order to get him to pay off the debt, the township had him contract Little Haizi.

Many people felt that since this person had run an enterprise, he should be able to revitalize Little Haizi, but the result was that he just opened it up for fishing and charged everyone who came to fish one hundred yuan...

Alright, that's getting off track.

In the afternoon, Li Long hauled five more loads of sand and gravel, then went back to settle the account. When settling, he received notice that they would start hauling bricks tomorrow.

Li Long discovered that his original expectations were a bit high; this time, it didn't even take three to five days—they had prepared enough sand and gravel in one day, and the bricks probably wouldn't take three days either.

Of course, he was joking; after all, the horse and donkey carts had been hauling for several days, so it couldn't just rely on their two tractors.

With one hundred yuan in hand, Li Long was quite excited. Although he had handled tens of thousands of yuan over the past year, this one hundred yuan was earned somewhat easily, and it wasn't tiring or dangerous—truly great.

Dinner was relatively light: rice porridge, pickled vegetables, red bean curd, and the steamed buns left over from noon. It was still all-you-can-eat.

After Li Long finished eating, he thought about going out for a walk. At the main gate, he ran into the old man who was sweeping; the old man was currently tidying up the fallen branches by the roadside.

Li Long greeted him, and the old man reminded Li Long:

"Young man, come back quickly once it gets dark; it's not very safe outside."

Thinking of this special year, Li Long nodded immediately.

He actually just wanted to see the situation nearby. He planned to leave once this project was finished, but before leaving, he still had a few things to take care of. For example, the fruit tree saplings from the Agricultural Science Institute, and also the farm machinery factory here.

Leaving the company, not far away was an arc-shaped road. There weren't many people strolling here after work; everyone was in a hurry, either walking or riding bicycles to get home. The air was filled with the faint scent of food, along with the sounds of children laughing and parents arguing.

Li Long could tell that although there weren't many households with televisions, there were two or three out of ten, and there were even more radios. It was no wonder Yang Yongqiang wanted to stay here as a worker; at least in terms of the overall average level, it was much better than in the countryside.

Of course, it would be like this in the future too.

He circled around but didn't find the farm machinery factory nearby. Seeing the night getting darker, he turned around and walked back with long strides.

The company's iron gate was already closed but not yet locked. Li Long pushed the gate open, went inside, then turned around and closed the gate again before heading to the guesthouse.

The guesthouse lights were on. After the attendant at the front desk saw Li Long, she proactively told him:

"Young man, they're showing a movie in the TV room. There will be a martial arts film in a while. If you have nothing to do, you can go watch it; it's quite good."

There was a TV room too? Li Long thanked her hurriedly and followed the sound.

The TV room wasn't large; it had two single sofas and a few stools. There were a few people watching TV right now. Even though they were watching local news, they were still staring intently, watching with great interest.

Li Long also found a spot to sit down. He was tall, so naturally, he couldn't sit in the front; he moved a stool and sat in a corner in the back, which wouldn't affect people coming in or block anyone else.

It was still *The Legend of the Condor Heroes*; after a short while, it cycled back to Hero Guo's eighteen palm strikes. Li Long shook his head as he watched, and before long, he went back.

If he had known, he would have brought two books to read. (End of chapter)