The Game of Life-Chapter 716 - 715: Business Trip (3)

Chapter 716: Chapter 715: Business Trip (3)

Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang, though preoccupied with the accountant’s pig and even his seasoning, did not slack off in their work at all.

Early the next morning, the two got up, had breakfast with the accountant’s family, and went to the warehouse to repair agricultural tools. Although Cao Guixiang was not skilled in carpentry, she was strong, and having learned to cook from a young age, her hand strength was greater than that of the ordinary rural woman who worked the fields. Zhang Chu was responsible for the repairs, while Cao Guixiang handed him tools and occasionally helped with dragging heavy items, looking quite the part as if a master carpenter was accompanied by an apprentice.

Life, monotonous with repairing tools at dawn and resting at night, continued this way for three days.

During these three days, Jiang Feng thoroughly scoured the accountant’s home, learning not only where their cloth and brown sugar were kept, but even where their money, eggs, and malted milk powder were stashed, which family member carried the key to the cupboard, what the pig was fed, and how despite their son looking different and cleaner than other children, he still had to carry a bamboo basket every day and join his friends to cut grass for the pigs.

If it hadn’t been for Cao Guixiang inquiring about the pig every day after finishing work while helping the accountant’s daughter-in-law cook its meal, Jiang Feng might have thought this trip for work exchange had nothing to do with pigs at all.

By the fifth day of the labor exchange, all farm equipment had been repaired.

Over five days, Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang focused on their work with little interaction with others, appearing just like any ordinary workers there for the exchange, meaning that the accountant’s wife only knew they were educated youths from Beiping and nothing more, sometimes asking Cao Guixiang what Tiananmen Square was like.

Cao Guixiang did not inquire with the accountant’s family when they would kill the pig, nor did she offer to help them repair furniture. Zhang Chu did not craft any wooden toys either.

The conversation that night seemed merely casual talk between husband and wife.

In just five days, Zhang Chu finished the work originally scheduled for a week.

In Beiping, he was but an apprentice to the Golden Carpenter, not even qualified to participate in making Qian Gong Beds, barely fitting to assist. However, in the countryside where seven or eight villages shared one carpenter, Zhang Chu was undoubtedly a master of his craft. Jiang Feng could tell from the way the head of Longkou Production Brigade looked at the repaired thresher.

The reason why Longkou Production Brigade was so eager to propose an urgent two-for-one labor exchange was mainly because a plow used for tilling the fields had broken. To put it bluntly, repairing the plow was the main task, with tools like hoes being just incidental, and they had no real expectations for the thresher.

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Head Liu never expected that the young educated youth carpenter he had desperately called upon would possess such exceptional skills. The craftsmanship was good enough for him to teach Carpenter Liao, no, perhaps this young man wouldn’t even consider Carpenter Liao worth his time.

Staring at the now repaired and even more agile thresher, Head Liu was lost in thought, and his mind showed plainly on his face.

Zhang Chu was organizing the tools and farm equipment, while Cao Guixiang, after observing Head Liu for a while, slowly spoke up, “Head Liu, we’ve finished our work, and since it’s inconvenient to go back this afternoon, my husband and I plan to leave tomorrow morning. What do you think?”

Most of the members of the Longkou Production Brigade were surnamed Liu, and finding some kind of family connection if one wanted wasn’t hard.

Upon hearing Cao Guixiang’s words, Head Liu became anxious, thinking that these young educated youths were unreliable. They had finished their public duties but still had private ones, and he couldn’t understand why they were in such a hurry to leave when it wasn’t time yet.

But he couldn’t just say that, and after hemming and hawing for a moment, upon seeing the approaching accountant, an idea came to him: “There’s no need to rush. The day after tomorrow is Accountant Liu’s son’s tenth birthday and he plans to kill a pig for the celebration. He mentioned yesterday how hard you’ve worked these days, and he wanted to invite you to join the meal.”

Accountant Liu: ???

Accountant Liu gave Head Liu a puzzled look.

Head Liu signaled for Accountant Liu to stay quiet.

Seeing that Zhang Chu had finished packing up, Cao Guixiang said, “As long as you don’t mind, if there’s anything else that needs repair in the village over the next few days, feel free to come find us. Thank you.”

After finishing her word, Cao Guixiang took Zhang Chu and left quickly by the warehouse door, but once outside, their pace slowed down.

Looking utterly confused, Accountant Liu asked, “Head Liu, Zhang the carpenter has finished all his work. Why not let them go back? It would also be good for us to have our labor force back sooner, right?”

Still engrossed and turning the thresher, unmoved by the air wall, Jiang Feng decided to wait in the warehouse and listen to Head Liu and Accountant Liu’s conversation.

“Look at this thresher, how well it’s been repaired, how swiftly it runs, even better than before it broke,” Head Liu said, caressing the wooden thresher as if it were a treasure. “With such skill, don’t we have things at home that need fixing or making? Don’t you think so?”

Accountant Liu looked put upon: “But didn’t we agree to wait for Carpenter Liao’s hand to heal before letting him repair it for us? I wanted to ask him to make two chairs for me.”

“Does Carpenter Liao have the skills that Zhang the carpenter does? Just look at this thresher, look at the plow, could Carpenter Liao fix them like this? You’ve had him staying in your house for several days and you haven’t…” Head Liu was about to say more, took a breath, and then held back, “I should have had that couple stay at my house.”

“Do you have a spare room in your house?” quipped Accountant Liu.

“Get lost!” Head Liu, not in the mood to entertain him, continued to admire his treasured thresher.

Jiang Feng nearly couldn’t contain his laughter. Over the days, he had observed that Accountant Liu was a bit dull and even somewhat old-fashioned in his ways, always by the book. Apart from the first day, he hardly spoke to Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang, and his wife had more daily interactions with them than he did.

With Head Liu silent, Accountant Liu began to count and record the tools. Jiang Feng waited in the warehouse, finding it odd that the air wall still hadn’t arrived, so he walked through walls to leave the warehouse and discovered that Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang hadn’t left at all. They had been standing nearby, eavesdropping the whole time.

“Seems like there’s no more noise,” whispered Zhang Chu.

“Let’s go,” Cao Guixiang pulled Zhang Chu, and they started heading towards the accountant’s house.

“Guixiang, do you think this’ll work out? We’ve finished the job, and if we stay here just to pick up private work, won’t we get reported?” Zhang Chu was still a bit nervous.

“Didn’t you hear Head Liu? It was Accountant Liu who asked us to stay for dinner before leaving. We didn’t say we’re taking private work. We’re just helping out. What’s there to report? Reporting that we aren’t helping, or that Accountant Liu asked us to stay for a meal? At worst, we won’t count these couple of days as work points, what’s there to be afraid of?” responded Cao Guixiang.

Zhang Chu swallowed, “True, just for a couple of days’ work points, it’d be worth it if we can trade for some pork.”

Cao Guixiang laughed, “Look at you, so little ambition, get all bent out of shape over a couple of pieces of meat.”

Zhang Chu sighed, “It wasn’t like this before, but now, isn’t it different? We’ve been here for several years, and we could count the number of times we’ve had meat on one hand. I used to hear people say that if you live by the mountains in the countryside, you can hunt game. After coming here, we know it’s all nonsense.”

“What pheasants or hares, we’ve never even seen a hair. There are hardly any sparrows. Our wedding was even scheduled around the day we caught a hare. And those wild boars, last year the village next door had two wild boars come down from the mountains and they were as excited as if it were New Year’s. When we showed up with our hoes, we didn’t so much as see a pig’s bristle.”

“You’re saying those wild boars are too much. If they’re going to come down the mountains, why not to our village? Even one of the two would be fine,” Zhang Chu said with a face full of regret.

Cao Guixiang: …

“Why bring up such things when you know? People can’t even get enough to eat, pigs aren’t putting on weight, chickens aren’t laying eggs. Do you think creatures in the mountains are full? Forget wild boars coming down, even if tigers came down we’d dare to knock them dead with a hoe each. I heard from Accountant Liu’s wife that these past two years have been much better than before. I reckon by next year, we could also raise a pig. Keep it for a year, and by the time Chiyuan gets his teeth, we can have some pork,” she said.

Zhang Chu: ???

By the time Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang got back to Accountant Liu’s house, the pig killer had arrived and was preparing to slaughter the pig. A two-hundred-pound pig wasn’t huge, but it was strong and required several strong laborers to hold down to manage it. Just listening to the squealing, Jiang Feng felt it was no less intense than that of pigs weighing three or four hundred pounds.

There was no shortage of onlookers; slaughtering a pig at such an unscheduled time was an unusual event. Apart from the women and children invited by Accountant Liu’s wife to help out, there were also many who came uninvited, not working that day, some were there for the spectacle, while others hoped to snatch some advantage amidst the confusion.

Accountant Liu’s son was among the onlookers, positioned in a prime spot, watching while swallowing his saliva.

Accountant Liu’s wife hadn’t expected Zhang Chu and Cao Guixiang to return so soon and squeezed out of the crowd in surprise, then hesitantly asked, “How come you’re back already?”

“We’ve finished the work, and we were planning to leave tomorrow. Head Liu said you wanted us to stay a couple more days to celebrate San Gen’s (Accountant Liu’s son) birthday, so Zhang Chu and I will leave later,” Guixiang answered.

Accountant Liu’s wife: ?

Accountant Liu’s wife took a good look at Cao Guixiang, feeling that she didn’t seem to be lying, but was still confused, “Ah, yes,” she replied.

It wasn’t until the pig’s squealing gradually subsided and the pig killer started to divide the meat that Accountant Liu’s wife came back to her senses, “Hey, weren’t you guys fixing the threshing machine today? It hasn’t been that long, and it’s already fixed?”

“Fixed it,” said Zhang Chu.

Accountant Liu’s wife was astonished.

Cao Guixiang smiled, “Zhang Chu’s master is the most famous carpenter in Beiping. He can make elaborate carved tables and chairs, fancy wooden toys; fixing a threshing machine was quick work.”

Accountant Liu’s wife was even more shocked, “Can he make chairs, too?”

Cao Guixiang nodded her head.

“I want a really sturdy one, with a backrest, and preferably one that looks decent. Just right for my son to sit and write,” she said.

Cao Guixiang continued nodding.

“Then…” Accountant Liu’s wife’s mind was getting fuzzy, and she even felt a bit annoyed with Accountant Liu for not telling her that the carpenter who had come to exchange work was so capable. She wanted to say more but didn’t have a chance because the pig killer had started dividing the meat, and she had to make sure no one stealthily took the pork she had painstakingly raised for a year, even the offal was not to be lost.

“Guixiang, you guys go back to the room and rest first. It’s a bit dirty outside. I’ll come to find you after I’m done with everything, I have something I want to talk to you about.” After saying that, Accountant Liu’s wife squeezed into the crowd, shouting for everyone not to get too close.

“Will it work out?” Zhang Chu looked towards Cao Guixiang.

Cao Guixiang watched Accountant Liu’s wife, revealing a victorious smile, “It worked.”