Chapter 371: Staggered Mealtime

The villagers were now full of enthusiasm and began to split up to work—some chopping down trees, others hauling them away on donkey carts.

Having carts really made things faster. The tree-cutting operation was progressing in an orderly and efficient manner.

Everything on Zhou Zhiming’s side was going quite smoothly too.

Because they didn’t have measuring tapes that long, they used hemp rope instead, marking a standard at sixty centimeters on the rope to avoid any mistakes.

Seeing how seriously Zhou Zhiming was working, Zhou Yimin commented from the side, “Old Secretary, you really have a good eye for people. Brother Zhiming is diligent and responsible.”

Although the praise wasn’t technically meant for him, the old secretary was still happy. He beamed and replied, “Just don’t say that in front of him. I’m afraid it’ll go to his head.”

Zhou Zhiming had someone hold one end of the rope, then walked it to the other end himself. The greenhouse was thirty-five meters long, so it didn’t take him long.

To minimize measurement errors, the first priority was—

Every single step, Zhou Zhiming insisted on handling personally. He just didn’t trust others with it.

You could say he was the type destined to be a workhorse. If it were a lazy person doing this job, they’d figure “close enough” would do—after all, nothing in the world is ever perfect, as long as it’s within acceptable limits.

Zhou Zhiming was running back and forth and didn’t even feel tired. On the contrary, he was actually enjoying himself.

Once they had minimized the measurement error, it was time to start digging holes.

“Dig a hole every sixty centimeters, each one fifty centimeters deep. Everyone got that?”

The villagers nodded in understanding. It wasn’t a difficult task and didn’t require any special skill.

So, everyone began digging.

To make sure they didn’t dig in the wrong spots, Zhou Zhiming first dug small marker holes every sixty centimeters. Then the rest of the group just followed along from those.

After more than an hour of effort, Zhou Zhiming finally finished marking all the positions along the thirty-five-meter-long greenhouse.

Then he joined in with the hole-digging too.

When you’re focused on work, time really flies.

Most importantly, when you’re working, you don’t feel cold.

Just then, the old secretary called out, “It’s noon, everyone! Head to the big cafeteria for lunch. We’ll finish the rest in the afternoon!”

The villagers, already famished, couldn’t hold back once they heard the old secretary’s words. They all started heading toward the big cafeteria.

Zhou Zhiming hadn’t realized how fast time had passed—it was already noon.

“Zhiming, go call the team leader and the others back from the mountains for lunch,” the old secretary told him.

“Okay, I’m on it.”

Without another word, Zhou Zhiming ran off toward the back hills, still full of energy despite a whole morning of intense labor.

Some of the villagers from Shuangtian Village were working in Zhoujiazhuang for the first time. They’d only heard about how good the food was, and now that they could finally see it for themselves, they were incredibly excited and full of anticipation.

After all, hearing is one thing—seeing is believing. It was hard to imagine that Zhoujiazhuang’s meals were even better than the commune’s without witnessing it firsthand.

Zhou Zhiming reached the back mountain in one go and saw that the team leader and the others were still working.

“Team Leader, the old secretary says it’s time to go back for lunch.”

Hearing that, the team leader—knowing that tree cutting was heavy work and the villagers were likely already hungry—shouted loudly, “Comrades, let’s head back for lunch!”

The workers immediately put down their axes and machetes.

They also put their cotton-padded jackets back on. While working, they hadn’t felt cold, and some were worried about tearing their jackets while laboring, so they had taken them off.

Nowadays, cotton and fabric were precious. A whole family didn’t get many fabric or cotton coupons in a year, so getting new clothes was mostly a dream.

Some of the younger folks, probably trying to look cool, hadn’t put their jackets back on yet.

The team leader saw this and immediately reminded them, “Keep warm, or you’ll catch a cold.”

“No worries, Team Leader, we young guys are strong and healthy,” one young man replied, even trying to show off his muscles.

Just then, a cold wind blew through, and a few of them shivered hard.

Maybe all the heat they’d built up from working was swept away by that wind—suddenly they felt cold and didn’t care about looking cool anymore. They quickly put their jackets back on.

“Warmth, finally,” one of them sighed in relief.

The team leader could only shake his head with a wry smile, thinking to himself that he was getting old. Back in his day…

Then the whole group started marching back down.

Some villagers saw them on the way and, wanting to join the crowd, tagged along. The group grew larger and longer as more people joined.

To celebrate the first day of work, the old secretary had specially told the cafeteria to add meat dishes. All those fish they’d caught earlier would now come in handy.

When the folks from Shuangtian Village arrived at the cafeteria and saw the piles of steamed buns and the stewed fish, their mouths practically started watering.

They didn’t waste time chatting—they hurried to get in line for food.

Turns out the meals at Zhoujiazhuang really were as good as they said. Liang Zan and the others hadn’t been exaggerating.

Meanwhile, Liang Zan wasn’t so lucky this time. Since he’d joined late, the good jobs had all been taken, and he was stuck with heavy labor.

When it was his turn to get food, he saw the difference—the meals were nowhere near as good as Zhoujiazhuang’s.

He could only shake his head helplessly. His stomach was already rumbling with hunger, so even if the food wasn’t great, he had to grit his teeth and eat it. After all, it was just bad luck that he didn’t get picked to work at Zhoujiazhuang.

The only consolation was that he could at least eat until he was full. Eating well, though? That was out of the question.

The villagers from Shuangtian Village, after getting their food, sat together. It’s always better to eat with people you know—you can chat a little too.

“I didn’t think Zhoujiazhuang’s food would actually be this good. No wonder Liang Zan and the others didn’t want to leave. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to leave either!”

“Enough talking! Can’t you guys shut up and eat?”

Everyone went quiet at Liang Liu’s words and started eating quietly.

That’s right—Liang Liu was lucky. He got picked to work at Zhoujiazhuang again.

It wasn’t unusual for someone to get picked twice. After all, there were only twenty spots for the commune, but Zhoujiazhuang had fifty.

Soon, the team leader arrived with a large group of people and crowded into the cafeteria.

Luckily, the cafeteria was big enough—otherwise, it wouldn’t have held them all.

But the old secretary had planned for staggered mealtimes from the beginning. People working on different tasks would come eat at different times. Otherwise, feeding everyone at once would’ve been a challenge.

Some had even suggested expanding the cafeteria to make it larger.

But Zhou Yimin thought it wasn’t necessary. They could just stick to staggered meals in the future.

(End of Chapter)