Wang Fuwu's good intentions, Chen Jianguo ultimately did not refuse. When he returned home, Chen Yu had a mobile phone to contact his family better, so he could be more at ease. However, in the end, Chen Jianguo still gave Wang Fuwu one hundred yuan. Although this money was not much, it certainly wasn't enough to buy a new phone, but it was more than sufficient for an old phone that could only replace scissors or kitchen knives.
With these six hundred yuan as a base, Chen Jianguo and his son's life improved slightly. At least they could drink a bowl of hot soup with every meal. The place they lived in was still quite good in the current environment because there were many unfinished buildings everywhere. After tidying up a bit, it became a place that could shelter them from wind and rain. In the evenings, they burned some wormwood to keep the mosquitoes away, and even cooked simple meals inside, which saved them a lot of money.
After settling everything, when Chen Jianguo returned home, it was already a week later. During these few days, they found several jobs, all day work like moving bricks on construction sites and loading/unloading vehicles. They certainly didn't earn as much as they did on the first day when Wang Fuwu's factory paid seven hundred yuan for half a day's work. But over these few days, the two of them earned over a thousand yuan. After all, labor wages weren't very low now; working all day, they could earn at least three or four hundred yuan each. If it was piecework like moving bricks and carrying things upstairs, their earnings would be even higher.
Chen Yu was strong and nimble-handed, making it easy for him to carry bricks up the stairs. This reminded Chen Yu of the day he carried bricks to the construction site.
That was on the third day after arriving in the county. He and his father were washing up at a construction site when a foreman saw them and asked if they wanted to work.
"Hey, you two, I need some people to move bricks. Are you interested?"
"How do you pay?"
Chen Jianguo wiped his face with a towel and looked at the foreman.
"We pay by piecework. For each brick that doesn't go up the stairs, we pay one fen per brick. For each additional floor it goes up, we add one fen, with a maximum of five floors."
Hearing what the foreman said, Chen Jianguo and his son exchanged glances, seeing excitement in each other's eyes. This was a big project.
"Do you pay after finishing the job?"
Chen Yu asked from beside them.
"Yes, we settle up on the same day."
"Okay, we'll take this job then."
Chen Jianguo agreed readily, which surprised the foreman. He knew he had offered lower wages and expected Chen Jianguo and his son to haggle, but they accepted without hesitation. However, he seemed to have an idea and said,
"We don't provide meals here. You'll have to figure out your own food."
This made Chen Yu's face turn red. He was about to say something but was stopped by Chen Jianguo.
"When do we start working?"
"Now."
The foreman looked at them with a gaze that made Chen Yu uncomfortable and said casually,
"Follow me."
He didn't see the joy in the foreman's disdainful look; he felt he had met a big fool who would work for such low wages—clearly thinking only about money. But today, as long as they worked, he would get paid since each brick's transportation fee wasn't just one fen.
The father and son followed the foreman to where they needed to work. Seeing the pile of bricks like a small mountain and considering how far they needed to move them, Chen Jianguo frowned but didn't say much. After eating something with Chen Yu, they started working.
After bringing Chen Jianguo and his son to their spot, the foreman left with a mocking glance at them.
But Chen Jianguo and his son didn't mind his gaze and began working on their own tasks.
Nowadays, construction sites used cranes for transporting bricks. Workers were rarely needed inside the floors unless in special circumstances like now when Chen Yu needed to move bricks due to obstacles blocking the crane's operation. Therefore, Chen Jianguo and his son had to transport the bricks to where the crane could reach.
From the brick pile to where the crane could reach required quite a distance through uneven ground with many obstructions. This was why Chen Jianguo frowned.
For their first load, Chen Yu and his father each carried around twenty bricks to familiarize themselves with the route and test how many they could handle comfortably.
Fortunately, this construction site used cement bricks, which were lighter than red bricks. Twenty bricks for Chen Jianguo and his son felt almost empty-handed, and it didn't take much time to make a round trip. This eased Chen Jianguo's mind.
Next, both of them started behaving strangely—more so for Chen Yu. Not only did he carry more bricks than Chen Jianguo at once but also moved faster. It took Chen Yu three trips as long as it took Chen Jianguo two trips, yet he still wasted a lot of time stacking the bricks because he couldn't hold too many at once. So Chen Yu tied several woven bags into ropes to bind the bricks; this way, he could carry over a hundred bricks each time.
Later, when Chen Jianguo saw how effortlessly Chen Yu moved bricks, he decided not to carry any himself but instead help Chen Yu stack bricks neatly for easier movement. This way, their efficiency didn't drop despite one less person; it actually increased significantly. Meanwhile, Chen Yu had time to rest since Chen Jianguo stacked bricks at a pace that couldn't keep up with Chen Yu's speed.
They started working at six o'clock and continued until noon. When the foreman arrived again, he directly looked at the crane.
"How many bricks did they move in the morning?"
"38745."
The corner of the foreman's mouth twitched as he heard someone answer. Seeing that the worker hesitated to speak further, he asked irritably,
"What do you want to say?"
"They moved all those bricks alone," said the worker.
"Alone? That old man?"
"No, that young man. Look, he's here now; he hasn't taken a break yet."
"What are you saying? This..."
Seeing Chen Yu carrying two piles of bricks with light steps, the foreman didn't know what to say anymore. But his eyes lit up as he thought,
"This is great! This is great! The more bricks Chen Jianguo and his son move, the more I earn. We need to find a way to earn even more."
The foreman's eyes rolled as he looked at Chen Yu with golden hues.
"Young man, come rest for a moment; let's chat."
Chen Yu glanced at the foreman with a calm expression and replied,
"Then wait for me here while I finish moving this pile."
While speaking, Chen Yu had already reached where he placed the bricks and neatly stacked them before turning back without paying attention to the foreman.
"This kid is arrogant! Count how many bricks he carries at once."
The corner of the foreman's eye twitched as he muttered under his breath and turned to another worker.
"He carries 120 bricks at once."
These words stunned the foreman momentarily as he looked in the direction where Chen Yu had disappeared.
"Dad, that foreman came looking for me; he wants to chat."
When Chen Yu told his father about what happened earlier, it made Chen Jianguo pause while stacking bricks.
"How many did you move?"
"38865."
"Hmm... Once we reach 40000 bricks, we can start eating."
"Okay."
40000 yuan wasn't much either; after all, they were already close. At Chen Yu's speed, it wouldn't take more than ten minutes.
As they finished moving bricks and started packing up their things, Chen Yu noticed that the foreman hadn't left yet and gestured towards his father.
"Carry your things; let's go check out over there."
Chen Jianguo looked at the foreman for a moment before telling Chen Yu,
Actually, during their initial interaction with the foreman in the morning, decades of life experience told Chen Jianguo that this person wasn't trustworthy. So he always remained vigilant around him for fear that his young son might be taken advantage of. But thinking about how his son would eventually work alone in town in future years, some things should be shown to him now.
"Uncle, you must be tired from working hard this morning. Come over here; let's cool off."
At this moment, seeing that Chen Jianguo and his son were approaching them, the foreman greeted them warmly with enthusiasm and offered him a cigarette.
"Thank you, we don't smoke."
Chen Jianguo waved away the offer politely.
"Haha! No smoking is good! By the way, how many bricks did you move this morning?"
In fact, the foreman already knew how many bricks they moved in the morning; now he was just pretending not to know.
"Exactly 40000."
Chen Jianguo responded calmly to the foreman's enthusiasm with a bland reply that froze his smile momentarily.
"Haha! Uncle is still full of vigor in your age! But my men told me you only moved 35000 bricks."
The foreman laughed first before changing course abruptly. This made Chen Yu clench his fists tightly but was pulled back by his father subtly.
"So how many did your men say?"
"35000; there were 5000 damaged bricks too. I won't ask