Chapter 257 – Ding Guoqing’s Surprise

After making sure everyone had evacuated to a safe distance, Ding Guoqing began the detonation. The fuse was instantly lit and started burning along the planned route.

Soon enough, a series of bang bang sounds rang out.

Even though most people were mentally prepared, the loud blasts still startled many, causing them to instinctively cover their ears.

The captain and his team, however, showed no reaction. Compared to the large-scale chaos of real battlefields, this was nothing.

Just then, according to the original plan, one of the detonation points failed to go off.

“Who connected the fuse for that point?” Ding Guoqing couldn’t help but ask.

The captain and Zhou Xuan exchanged a look. That spot was supposed to be part of the captain’s arrangement.

“I was responsible for that one,” the captain said helplessly.

He hadn’t expected to mess up under these circumstances. His old face couldn’t take the embarrassment.

“I was the one who connected it. I’ll go redo it right now,” Zhou Daming stepped forward and said.

As he finished, he turned and prepared to run over and reconnect the fuse, but the sharp-eyed captain grabbed him in a flash and scolded angrily, “You brat, are you trying to get yourself killed? Running straight over like that—what if the blasting cap suddenly explodes?”

That kind of thing could happen. Right now, everything in the country was still in the early stages of development, and quality control left a lot to be desired.

Zhou Daming instantly felt a cold sweat soak his entire back. Just then, the blast sound suddenly rang out.

Everyone was startled. It turned out the spot that hadn’t detonated earlier had finally gone off.

Zhou Daming froze in place. If the captain hadn’t stopped him just now… He broke out in a cold sweat at the thought of what could have happened.

“Thank you… Captain,” Zhou Daming said, trembling slightly.

After this scare, no one would dare recklessly charge in for the sake of excitement.

The blasting project continued in an orderly fashion, and before long, all the buried charges were successfully detonated.

The captain then arranged for the villagers to start clearing away the blasted debris. With no machines to help, they had to rely entirely on manpower. For larger stones, they used levers.

The lever principle is a basic concept in physics that explains how a smaller force can be used to move a larger object via a pivot point. To balance a lever, the torques on both sides must be equal.

As early as the Warring States period, Mozi had already observed levers. In Mozi – Canon (Part II), it says, “A balance, when loaded on one side, must tilt. The weights must be equal. When balanced, if the base is short and the beam is long, and equal weights are placed on both ends, the beam will drop—this is called ‘lever equilibrium.’”

These statements fully describe the balance of levers, including equal-arm and unequal-arm types. There’s changing weights to shift the balance, and changing arm lengths to do the same.

Archimedes once said, “Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth!”—a classic line referring to the lever principle.

The reservoir construction proceeded smoothly, and the morning passed just like that. By midday, everyone headed to the canteen for lunch.

Just as Ding Guoqing was about to go as well, Xu Xiangbei pulled him aside and said, “We’re eating somewhere else.”

Ever since he’d eaten at Zhou Yimin’s place, he couldn’t go back to anything else. Not even the meals from his own home tasted as good anymore.

Though puzzled, Ding Guoqing followed Xu Xiangbei. Before long, they arrived at Zhou Yimin’s house.

The old man saw Xu Xiangbei and Ding Guoqing approaching and warmly greeted them. “Engineer Xu, and this engineer as well, the food is ready. You can eat now.”

Seeing the elderly man before him looking so radiant, Ding Guoqing figured the food here must be pretty good. You couldn’t look this healthy without decent nutrition.

It seemed this village was wealthier than he’d imagined. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so generous. He grew curious—just who was backing all this?

“Elder Zhou, I’ve told you, just call me Xiangbei. And this is Ding Guoqing—you can just call him Guoqing,” Xu Xiangbei said.

“Alright, alright. Xiangbei and Guoqing, please have a seat. Lunch will be ready in a moment,” the old man said.

Once inside, Ding Guoqing saw that the house was much like any other villager’s home—except a lot cleaner. But what really caught his eye was the honey and powdered milk on the table, which seemed entirely out of place in this setting. Who could afford to leave such precious items out so casually?

If it were him, he’d have hidden it away in a box somewhere—afraid anyone would find out. Leaving it right out in the open? That was wild.

Just then, Zhou Yimin’s grandmother brought over two glasses of water and said, “You two engineers have worked hard. Have some water first—lunch will be ready shortly.”

Xu Xiangbei had already gotten used to this kind of hospitality. It didn’t do him any harm, so why not enjoy it?

Ding Guoqing took a sip—and found the water was sweet. Thinking of the honey on the table, he realized this must be honey water.

After seeing this, he looked forward to lunch even more. What kind of feast were they in for?

Soon enough, Zhou Yimin’s grandmother called out, “Lunch is ready.”

Xu Xiangbei and Ding Guoqing could hardly wait to see what was for lunch.

Today, the old man had stewed some venison from a dumb roe deer the village had gifted him. In this kind of weather, meat would spoil quickly unless made into cured meat. Rather than let it go to waste, he decided to treat Xu Xiangbei and Ding Guoqing to a proper meal.

The old party secretary had given him an entire hind leg’s worth—probably a quarter of the entire deer. They only used about half of it for the stew today. The rest had been made into cured meat and was now hanging in the kitchen to dry.

He didn’t hang it outside, though—it would’ve drawn too much attention. Most villagers wouldn’t mind, but there were always a few envious types who couldn’t stand to see others doing better. He just didn’t want it to affect Zhou Yimin.

When Ding Guoqing saw the dishes on the table, he was stunned. He wasn’t short on grain, but meat? His family might only get meat once or twice a month. If he weren’t an engineer, he’d probably get even fewer meat ration coupons.

So much meat… His family didn’t even have this much during New Year’s dinner.

Seeing his dazed look, the old man asked, “Guoqing, is the food not to your taste?”

“Elder Zhou, I think he’s just shocked. It’s not that he doesn’t like it,” Xu Xiangbei chimed in.

Who would dislike meat in this day and age? Even if it had gone bad, no one would dare throw it away. At most, they’d cut off the spoiled part and eat the rest. That alone was already wasteful.

Exposed like that, Ding Guoqing quickly said, “No, it’s great. I love it.”

(End of chapter)