Chapter 704: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 704: Starting Work, Laying the Foundation

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

In the end Wang Zhanggen helplessly compromised, allowing Liu Xiaoli to follow Zhou Hongwei to work as a Small Worker.

In the blink of an eye, the day to start work arrived.

Zhou Hongwei drove over in a beat-up Wuling Hongguang minivan.

Behind the Wuling Hongguang, he also towed a cement mixer.

The minivan carried two Big Workers and two Small Workers under Zhou Hongwei.

The two Big Workers were Zhao Shoutian and Liu Dahe, both in their forties, with bronze skin and hands full of old calluses—clearly veterans who had done masonry for years.

The two Small Workers were Liu Xiaoli and Zhou Zhihao; Zhou Zhihao was Zhou Hongwei's Nephew, not yet twenty.

Zhou Zhihao dropped out of high school to go out and work, had drifted around outside for several years, truly couldn't stand life in the factory, and because he was introverted and not good with words, couldn't do sales work either, so in the end he simply came back to learn masonry from his uncle Zhou Hongwei.

Zhou Hongwei told Zhou Zhihao, don't feel ashamed to come back and do masonry; once you master a skill, you can open a renovation company in the City and make real money.

Zhou Zhihao nodded absentmindedly, not taking Zhou Hongwei's words to heart.

In their teens, some are in their prime, others are lost.

And Zhou Zhihao, a country boy from the Rural Area, clearly belonged to the latter.

He didn't know what he should do or what he could do, had no plan for the future and didn't know what it would be like; he just wanted to walk on a wild path with no road and full of mist, and looking around, besides endless mist, he could see nothing else.

Zhou Zhihao clearly still didn't realize that not seeing the future now actually meant he had already seen the future.

This world is always quietly cruel like this.

When you finally wake up, there's no opportunity left.

Wang Zhanggen warmly hosted Zhou Hongwei and the others for Breakfast; to receive them, he even had Li Xiulan kill a Chicken.

During the meal, Wang Zhanggen introduced Liang Xinghua to Zhou Hongwei.

"Brother Hongwei, Xinghua is someone who can endure hardship; whatever you need him to do, just say the word."

Wang Zhanggen said this to Zhou Hongwei with a smile.

Liang Xinghua also eagerly offered Zhou Hongwei a Cigarette, saying quickly:

"Brother Hongwei, I'll do whatever you ask me to do; I just ask you to teach me the skill. Brother Changgen says you're good at laying bricks, so let me humbly learn from you!"

Zhou Hongwei took the Cigarette and glanced at Liang Xinghua; Liang Xinghua was the very image of a standard honest country person.

So he nodded in satisfaction:

"Follow me and work hard; whether it's Laying Bricks, paving bricks, installing doors and windows, or installing electricity and plumbing, as long as you're willing to learn, you'll surely learn it someday!"

After finishing Breakfast at Wang Zhanggen's Home, they officially started work.

During this time Wang Zhanggen didn't even look at Liu Xiaoli much, pretending not to know her.

Liu Xiaoli also tacitly avoided looking at him, pretending not to know him.

She just wanted to keep this job, nothing more.

As for anything else, she no longer dared to hope for anything.

Today was the first day of work after digging the Foundation.

Steel bars needed to be laid on the Foundation, then cement and gravel poured, to lay a good Foundation.

After a few days, once the Foundation's cement hardened, they could then do the load-bearing columns.

Once the load-bearing columns were done, next came assembling the ceiling formwork, then casting the Roof; after the Roof casting was done, they would start filling in and building the Walls in all directions.

These are the basic steps for building a house nowadays.

Quite different from the past when work was done purely by Manual Labor.

Nowadays, Foremen with some money all buy some Machines to assist with the work.

For example, Cement Mixers, for example, brick-lifting machines.

Even if you don't buy a Cement Mixer yourself, for the two days of pouring the Foundation and casting the Roof, you'd rent one from someone else.

This Cement Mixer Zhou Hongwei brought was rented from another Foreman in Town.

Because whether pouring the Foundation or casting the Roof, it must be completed within one day; you can't pour half, wait overnight, and pour the other half the next day, as that would easily cause the building to crack later. Only by pouring it all at once within one day, letting the cement slurry harden together, can it form a whole and guarantee the quality of the house built.

So using a Cement Mixer to replace Manual Labor for mixing cement sand seemed very necessary, because using a Cement Mixer could greatly improve efficiency and shorten work time.

Whether laying the Foundation or doing the Roof, the most time-consuming and troublesome part, thanks to the Cement Mixer, was no longer filling cement, but Formwork Assembly and Rebar Binding.

Formwork Assembly required some skill; Zhou Hongwei took the other two Big Workers, Zhao Shoutian and Liu Dahe, to get busy, while Zhou Hongwei's Nephew Zhou Zhihao stood by learning.

Wang Zhanggen wasn't too reassured, so he also went to the Construction Site to direct, and occasionally lent a hand to help out a bit.

Rebar Binding only required laying out the iron, then binding small iron wire on top to fix it.

This job didn't require much strength, so Liu Xiaoli and Liang Xinghua could do it.

Liang Xinghua learned very attentively and soon mastered the skill of Rebar Binding, binding with fast hands, nearly catching up to Liu Xiaoli, an Expert.

"You bind it yourself first; I'll take a rest."

After working for a while, Liu Xiaoli sat down somewhere, panting.

It wasn't that she didn't want to keep working, but her old ailment had acted up again.

Whenever it acted up, she'd be short of breath, and she didn't know what was going on.

Zhou Hongwei had long been used to this and continued his work.

But Wang Zhanggen was somewhat displeased in his heart.

They'd barely started, and already she needed a rest.

It seems Liu Xiaoli really isn't suited for this line of work.

But Wang Zhanggen didn't dare say much either.

Since Liu Xiaoli had him in her grip, he could only turn a blind eye and pretend not to see.

Fortunately, they had hired Liang Xinghua as a small worker, so at least the work wouldn't be neglected.

That morning, Liu Xiaoli worked a bit and rested a bit, doing the job intermittently, and her efficiency was indeed low.

After finally enduring until noon, Li Xiulan had prepared lunch and called them to eat, and only then did Liu Xiaoli breathe a sigh of relief.

Her face was somewhat pale, and cold sweat broke out on her forehead.

After lunch and a short rest, they had to resume work at two-thirty in the afternoon.

The afternoon's work intensity was much greater than the morning's.

Because the cement and stones for the foundation had to be poured within a single day.

Actually, just pouring the cement and stones didn't take much time; it was making the formwork and binding the rebar that consumed a lot of time.

By the time they started pouring the cement and stones, it was already past four in the afternoon.

Zhou Hongwei turned on the cement mixer they had brought, the machine's huge drum began to roll, making a rumbling sound, and cement, sand, stones, and water were poured in at a certain ratio, and mixed cement, sand, and stones would come out of another outlet; a long pipe was connected to pour them into the foundation trench where the formwork had been set and the rebar tied, and the foundation could be easily filled.

During this process, someone also had to hold a vibrator to give the cement-filled foundation a vibrating massage, so that the cement, sand, and stones could evenly fill every corner of the foundation and avoid holes.

Actually, the most laborious part of this job was pouring cement, sand, and stones into the mixer.

Zhou Hongwei had Liang Xinghua, Zhou Zhihao, Liu Xiaoli, and Liu Dahe take turns fetching cement, sand, and stones.

Liu Xiaoli had been busy for a while, but really couldn't persist.

"I can't, I can't, I can't work anymore."

She hurriedly found a place to sit and rest, her lips already as pale as paper.

Zhou Hongwei and the other workers were all used to it; when Liu Xiaoli went to rest, they said nothing, just sped up their hands and feet to get on with the work at hand.

But seeing this, Wang Zhanggen became even more dissatisfied.

He thought to himself:

This woman wouldn't be deliberately slacking off, would she?

It's only the first day of work, and she's pulling this on me—what will happen later?