Chapter 370 – Construction Begins

Village Chief Liang had just been fuming with anger and almost forgot an important announcement.

“Everyone, hold up for a second!”

The villagers of Shuangtian Village were confused but still stopped to see what else the chief had to say.

“I was so mad just now that I forgot to tell you something important. I exchanged our village’s cured meat for food—got us 3,500 jin of sweet potatoes. No objections, right?”

As soon as the villagers heard this, they immediately brightened up. Exchanging for food meant that every household would receive a decent share of grain.

Who could possibly object?

This was a good thing! The village was almost out of food.

If it were any other season, they could still chew on some tree bark or something. But in this freezing weather, with the ground hard as stone, you couldn’t even dig up roots.

“But this time, we won’t be distributing it to households. Instead, we’re reopening the communal canteen. Everyone who’s not working will be able to eat there,” Village Chief Liang said after some thought.

If they divided the newly acquired 3,500 jin of grain among the villagers, households with more members would naturally run out of food faster. That would lead to some having food while others had none. If the village had to step in and help, others would definitely start grumbling. It was better to avoid that altogether.

Some villagers wanted to object, but remembering how furious the chief had been just now, none of them dared to get on his bad side at this moment.

They had no choice but to go along with his decision.

Where there were objections, there was also support—especially from the larger families, who were fully in favor of the idea. This way, they wouldn’t be the first ones to run out of food and stir up trouble.

Seeing no opposition, Chief Liang felt his anger ease up a bit.

“Since no one has any objections, we’ll do it this way.”

The old Party Secretary and the others had been waiting nearly all day. Finally, sometime after three or four in the afternoon, the delivery of plastic film arrived.

Honestly, if not for Zhou Yimin pulling strings, the delivery wouldn’t have come so quickly. Zhang Jianshe had put in a lot of effort to get Zhoujiazhuang’s order bumped up in the queue—otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten it until at least the next day.

Once the plastic film arrived, the old Party Secretary immediately organized the villagers to unload it.

Most people were pretty strong, and their teamwork showed—what normally would’ve taken an hour was done in less than thirty minutes, thanks to Zhoujiazhuang’s manpower.

With the unloading done, construction would begin the next day.

Before that, Zhou Yimin also mentioned that the seedlings for the greenhouse needed to be prepped first. These preparations had to be made in advance. Otherwise, once the greenhouse was set up but the seedlings weren’t ready, the structure would just sit there unused for a while, which would be a waste.

So, the old Party Secretary had already arranged for people to begin seedling cultivation.

The timeline was tight, but it should be manageable.

The next day arrived as scheduled. Zhou Yimin got up early—construction of the greenhouse was starting today, and he had to oversee it personally.

He opened the shop and found that today’s flash sale included 100 barrels of diesel, 100 char siu buns, 100 jin of mutton, and 100 Sanhuang chickens. He snapped them all up immediately.

A hundred char siu buns—it had been a while since he’d eaten one. Without hesitation, he grabbed one. It was still steaming, releasing a delicious aroma.

Unable to resist, Zhou Yimin took a bite right away. It was exactly the taste he remembered. In just a few bites, he polished off a fist-sized bun.

If only he had a cup of soy milk now—it would be perfect.

He hurried over to the greenhouse site, where a crowd had already gathered.

The old Party Secretary spotted Zhou Yimin like a drowning man seeing a lifeline and quickly walked over. “Yimin, you’re here!”

Although the village had built a greenhouse once before, they still lacked experience. Plus, plastic film was expensive. If someone gave the wrong instructions and something went wrong, it would be a real mess.

Ideally, greenhouses should be built with steel, but with steel being so scarce these days, that wasn’t an option. They would have to use bamboo instead.

“First, have people go cut down some trees. Pick the straight ones.”

“And sketch out the layout of the greenhouse so it’ll be easier to build later.”

Following Zhou Yimin’s instructions, the villagers split into groups to handle their tasks.

The team leader took a group up the mountain.

To speed things up, Zhou Yimin also had the team leader bring a donkey cart. That way, the trees could be transported back immediately after being cut.

He’d initially considered using an ox cart, but after seeing the pained expression on the old Party Secretary’s face, he switched to a donkey cart instead.

The moment the old Party Secretary heard they were using a donkey cart, he brightened up—no more heartache.

Let’s just say that it’s not only women who change moods quickly; some officials can be even faster.

Zhou Yimin also knew the old Party Secretary was intentionally grooming Zhou Zhiming, so he had Zhiming take a few people to mark out the greenhouse layout using charcoal. Every post’s position had to be marked precisely.

Zhou Zhiming wasn’t quite sure what spacing to use. “Yimin, how far apart should the posts be?”

He didn’t want to guess. This was a major project for the village. If the spacing wasn’t right and the greenhouse ended up poorly built, he wouldn’t be able to show his face around here.

You could tell how important this greenhouse was to Zhoujiazhuang.

Actually, the previous structure already had a base layer. They were now just adding another layer on top to create dual insulation and enhance heat retention.

“Space each post 60 centimeters apart. Measure carefully and mark each spot. Make sure both sides of the greenhouse are especially accurate—too much error and the whole structure could warp.”

“Even if it’s a bit slow, that’s fine. Just make sure the side distances are right. The smaller the error, the better the end result.”

“Once marked, dig holes 50 centimeters deep at each point. That way the posts can go straight in. If the soil’s too loose, dig a bit deeper.”

Honestly, that last part was a bit redundant—northern soil tends to be rock hard in winter.

But since this area used to be a riverbed, the soil was relatively soft. No harm in the reminder.

Zhou Zhiming took the instructions seriously. “Got it. I’ve noted everything down.”

The old Party Secretary was very pleased. At his age, anything could happen at any time. If no one could take over his role, would things still move forward like this?

So, some things had to be planned in advance.

So far, it was looking pretty good.

In truth, the main reason he wasn’t worried was because Zhou Yimin was there to back everything up. Picking someone for a big role didn’t require brilliance—just obedience, especially to Zhou Yimin.

With Yimin around, Zhoujiazhuang would thrive. As long as they listened to him, of course.

(End of Chapter)