Zhao Hanzhang nodded repeatedly, "Thank you for the advice, old man. You’re older than me, so I’ll listen to you."
The old man nodded with satisfaction, glanced at Fu Tinghan, and moved over to dig on the other side with his shovel.
Fu Tinghan: ...
He turned his head to look at Zhao Hanzhang and saw her looking at him, laughing so hard that tears were almost coming out.
Suddenly, the anger in Fu Tinghan’s heart dissipated. He just watched her laugh, and couldn’t help but smile as well.
After she laughed enough, she said, "Let’s start digging."
Zhao Hanzhang, Fu Tinghan, and others dug for half an hour. When enough soil was dug out, they began dragging over bamboo baskets and filling them with soil.
Some people were packing the soil in sacks, and there were others dedicated to transporting the filled sacks out.
Fu Tinghan kept his head down, packing soil. The young man with the black face led another team over, arranged them at another location, and checked the situation. Seeing this, his face changed, and he immediately went up to Fu Tinghan, "How much soil have you transported out?"
Fu Tinghan replied, "Five baskets and twelve bags."
Upon hearing this, the young man with the black face relaxed slightly and asked, "Where’s the record of the numbers? Let me see."
Fu Tinghan paused, straightened up, and shook his head, "I didn’t use a notebook; I memorized them."
Young man with the black face: "... Can your memory be accurate? Use a notebook for me!"
Although Fu Tinghan found it troublesome, since it was required of him, he complied. He picked up a pen and paper from a bamboo basket, dipped the pen in a bit of ink, wrote the words ’basket’ and ’bag’, and then recorded tally marks behind them. He quickly noted everything down and, seeing two more baskets filled with soil being dragged away, he casually recorded two more lines.
He put the pen and paper down, secured them, picked up the shovel, returned to his position, and continued packing soil, also helping to level the dug trench and raise the earth.
Even though the young man had shouted at him, Fu Tinghan didn’t immediately record every basket and bag; he kept noting them in his mind, taking his time to write them down when the young man appeared again.
The young man didn’t realize he was writing right before he reached him, and when he saw Fu Tinghan earnestly keeping records, he nodded with satisfaction, glanced at the numbers on the paper, took it, went to find the people transporting soil, asked each one, and also checked with the Clerk at the other end counting the totals. After confirming, he returned to Fu Tinghan, and praised, "Well done, don’t under-record, but don’t over-record either. If any deceit is discovered, you’ll all be kicked out, understood?"
Fu Tinghan agreed.
When the young man left, he was about to put down the pen and paper, but then refugees bringing two bags of soil shouted toward Fu Tinghan, "Two bags of soil here—"
Fu Tinghan wanted to return to digging soil, but his peripheral vision caught the young man looking his way, so he silently picked up the pen and paper to record it.
The young man left satisfied and went to inspect other teams.
Fu Tinghan resignedly put down the pen and paper, returned to his spot, and continued shoveling soil.
By this time, the elderly man’s attitude toward him had improved considerably, and he couldn’t help but compliment, "Young man, good memory."
The team members also thought highly of him; though he worked slowly, as the literate team leader, he could easily slack off and not work, just like leaders from other teams who simply stood in the front and recorded with a pen and paper.
Yet, most of the time, he was holding a shovel and doing the heavy lifting, only taking out the pen occasionally, and he didn’t make mistakes in his records. It wasn’t easy for everyone to have a bad impression of him.
This young man is great!
Even the elderly man commented to Zhao Hanzhang again, "This young man seems good. He probably wouldn’t become a heartless man."
Zhao Hanzhang couldn’t help but laugh again; Fu Tinghan helplessly glanced at her.
Digging soil and packing soil were arduous jobs, even Zhao Hanzhang felt a bit breathless, her palms sore, but she also felt her arm muscles being engaged, so she began to make her movements more regular.
She quietly worked on the labor, sensing the sheer vitality emanating from her companions.
Even though they were lightly dressed, wearing tattered cloth shoes or straw sandals, they were brimming with vitality. Each person worked hard, faces showing little worry. One could even spot satisfaction and smiles on the faces wielding hoes and shovels.
Especially once the gongs and drums started playing, at the first sound of ’clang’, they immediately threw down their tools and dashed off.
Although everyone had only been here for a day, their reactions were incredibly swift, quickly surpassing Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan, and rushing to the place where the gongs and drums were sounding.
Realizing what was happening, Zhao Hanzhang immediately tossed away her tools and pulled Fu Tinghan along, running towards the sound. They squeezed through people and managed to get two mixed grain buns and a bowl of bean sprout soup.
Even though it was bean sprout soup, there were quite a few bean sprouts given, but...
Zhao Hanzhang looked around at people pulling out chopsticks from their sleeves, fronts, and even their hair, and then turned to look at Fu Tinghan.
Fu Tinghan quietly looked back at her.
Zhao Hanzhang stuffed her two buns into his arms, took the two buns from his left hand, placed her bowl in his left hand, stood up, and said, "I’m going to break some branches, wait here for me."
She ran towards the grove, quickly found a tree, broke a reasonably thin branch, and casually fashioned two pairs of chopsticks.
She handed one pair to Fu Tinghan, and the two squatted on the ground with the refugees, gnawing on the buns while eating the bean sprouts.
Fu Tinghan ate delicately; he wasn’t used to the coarse grain buns mixed with much wheat bran, so he had to chew for a long time before swallowing.
But Zhao Hanzhang ate fiercely, chatting with people as she did, "How many days do you plan to work?"
"I’ll work for as many days as I can."
Zhao Hanzhang nodded, "Are you all from Lu Yang?"
"I am."
"I’m not."
This time, among the workers, only some were refugees, while a substantial number were local poor people and residents from Lu Yang.
Since the New Year was approaching, everyone had nothing to do. The government advertised job openings, saying they would pay and provide two meals, so people were willing to come.
Quite a few people came, and alongside the refugees entering Yushan Hall, they were in charge of cooking. Some with decent health were also tasked with light work in the fields; practically everyone had a role, even children of six or seven years were moving bricks, placing them on or off carts, one by one.
They all knew this was for building houses they would live in, so they worked enthusiastically.
After eating, the group got up to return, only to see someone rummaging through their tools. Startled, they rushed over, "What are you doing?"
The intruders dropped the tools they were holding, grabbed some of their tools, and ran.
Once they reached the scene, Zhao Hanzhang saw that several of their tools had been swapped out on the construction site; some had loose wooden handles, while others had iron heads with chips.
The group was furious, clustered around Fu Tinghan to file a complaint, and the young man with the black face scolded Fu Tinghan harshly in front of everyone, "... Can’t even keep an eye on your own tools, what’s your use then?"
Fu Tinghan, whose tools were not missing: ...
The young man finally roared, "Figure it out yourselves, finish the work or your wages will be docked!"

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