Chapter 372: No Comparison, No Harm

After dinner, everyone rested for over half an hour before starting a new round of work. They returned to their respective posts.

To avoid delaying the progress of building the shed, the old village secretary told the brigade leader to arrange for the already felled trees to be transported back.

If they waited until enough trees were chopped down before bringing them back, it would be too slow.

The brigade leader responded promptly.

“Daping, take twenty people and bring the chopped trees back to the shed.”

Zhou Daping nodded to show he understood.

He selected a few strong men to load the trees onto donkey carts and then picked some experienced drivers. If someone unfamiliar with driving the cart took over, they might mishandle it.

Going slow wasn’t a big issue—the bigger concern was damaging the cart or injuring the donkey.

The donkey cart was an important means of transportation in the village. If something went wrong with it, it would be a significant setback.

The team was quickly assembled and began their assigned tasks.

Zhou Daping led a few strong men to start loading the chopped trees onto the carts.

Once all the trees on the ground were loaded, Zhou Daping signaled the drivers to head toward the shed.

Each cart could only carry about a dozen logs at a time—trees were heavy, after all.

Zhou Zhiming, just like in the morning, was digging holes with the others. Since all the spots had already been marked, there wasn’t much else for him to do but supervise. Still, just watching others work made him feel uncomfortable.

He simply couldn’t sit still—being idle made him feel uneasy all over.

After over half an hour, Zhou Daping arrived near the shed with the donkey carts.

Zhou Zhiming saw him coming and rushed over to help.

He called a few others to assist, wanting to unload faster. Technically, one person could do it, but he stepped to the side and tried to show off by kicking the logs off the cart with one powerful move.

He overestimated himself. Not only did the logs not fall, but he ended up injuring his foot.

“Ah!”

People nearby immediately rushed over.

Zhou Zhiming hurried to ask, “Are you okay?”

He hadn’t been paying attention and didn’t expect this to happen. He hoped it wasn’t serious.

“I’m fine, just twisted my ankle,” the man said through gritted teeth, enduring the pain.

He hadn’t expected that trying to look cool would backfire so badly. For a while, he wouldn’t be able to show his face in the village. He just hoped word didn’t spread.

He wasn’t even married yet—if this got out, it could affect his chances. Some women might look down on him.

Zhou Zhiming felt a headache coming on. He hadn’t thought it would be this bad—a twisted ankle.

“You two, take him home,” Zhou Zhiming instructed, pointing at two men.

With a twisted ankle, he’d only get in the way by staying. Better to send him home to recover.

The injured man didn’t want to trouble anyone and insisted, “No need, I can go back myself.”

He tried to tough it out, stood up, and walked a couple of steps—only to collapse again as searing pain shot through his foot.

Zhou Zhiming understood—young men in their twenties always wanted to prove themselves in front of others. But they needed to know their limits, like in this case.

He himself had been like that back in the day.

“Take him home!”

This time, Zhou Zhiming left no room for argument. The two men supported the injured one on either side and headed back to the village.

After that lesson, no one dared to copy the injured guy. No one wanted to end up with a twisted ankle.

This round of unloading was probably the most orderly one so far. Two people handled each log—one on each end—lifting it together and setting it gently on the ground.

Soon, all the trees on the donkey carts were unloaded.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhiming immediately said, “Process these trees into usable parts.”

The others started working. It required some skill to process the logs properly.

To avoid wasting wood, only people in the village familiar with this kind of work were assigned to this task.

If Zhou Zhiming had the skills, he’d have joined in himself.

Although he didn’t have the ability to process the wood, he insisted on personally measuring every finished piece to ensure perfection. If anything was wrong, it had to be redone on the spot.

If a leader had an employee like this, they’d probably wake up laughing from their dreams.

Thanks to Zhou Zhiming’s perfectionism, every piece of processed wood met the standard.

After a whole day of hard work, not even a third of the trees had been processed. And the chopped wood wasn’t enough yet. At this pace, it would take another day or two to finish.

By around 5 p.m., the day’s work wrapped up. With the weather being cold and night falling early, they wanted the villagers of Shuangtian Village to return home safely before dark.

Just like before, Liang Liu and the others brought their dinner home, sharing it with their families.

Even though there wasn’t any meat, the vegetables were stir-fried with pork cracklings. Each person got a couple of pieces, and the greens glistened with oil—very appetizing.

If it weren’t for wanting to share it with their families, they’d have eaten it already.

The villagers from Shuangtian Village tucked their buns and lunch boxes inside their coats, hoping their body heat would slow down the freezing of the food.

Maybe because it was so cold, everyone briskly made their way back to the village.

On the way, they unexpectedly ran into people returning from work at the commune.

The two groups stared at each other in silence.

Liang Zan said, “I’m not playing this game with you all. It’s freezing—I’m heading home where it’s warm.”

With that, he left. Even though he didn’t bring anything back this time, he’d eaten his fill and didn’t need to cook again at home.

The others thought he made sense and ignored the people from Zhoujiazhuang.

Some even deliberately took out their buns and packed vegetables.

That made Liang Zan’s group grit their teeth with envy, but there was nothing they could do. Luck hadn’t been on their side—they didn’t get the chance to work at Zhoujiazhuang.

Once Liang Ming saw the people from the commune leave, and no one showing off anymore, he packed up and rushed home.

Among the villagers of Shuangtian Village, some were delighted, while others were envious.

When Liang Liu got home, he pulled out the buns and lunch box from his coat. Opening it, he found the food already partially frozen.

“Wife, go heat this up. Then we’ll eat!”

His wife quickly took the lunch box and buns and went to the kitchen to reheat them.

Not long after, everything was warmed up. Liang Liu’s family eagerly dug in.

Liang Liu didn’t eat much himself, saving most of it for his wife and children so they could have their fill. He figured he’d just be a bit hungry that night. Tomorrow he’d be working at Zhoujiazhuang again, and there’d be breakfast—he’d eat well then.

(End of Chapter)