Chapter 802: Raising the Ridgepole

As Shang Tianbao couldn't help but let out a muffled groan, he finally understood exactly what Wang Shuai meant by "humiliation."

Although he understood the meaning of those words, at this moment, Shang Tianbao fell into a state of profound despair.

Mainly because, for a proper man, such a thing was an absolute lifelong disgrace that could never be washed away!

Yet, this disgrace continued to happen time and time again.

Finally, after a very long time, it all ended!

Comrade Shang Tianbao remained kneeling and sprawled beside the squat toilet, his face pressed tightly against the cold cement floor.

By now, the light had vanished from Shang Tianbao's large eyes; his face was ashen, as if he no longer held any hope for his future life.

Even the smell of urine wafting from the pit could no longer affect him in the slightest; he just knelt there stiffly, motionless.

Unfortunately, the people inside the enclosure had no reaction to this scene; from beginning to end, there wasn't even a single person watching for the spectacle.

The indifference of human nature was demonstrated to the fullest by this group of people in this room.

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

However, these three days brought about a massive change in Shang Tianbao.

Now, Shang Tianbao's hair was disheveled, his eyes vacant, his face stubbled, and his appearance slovenly. He looked like a numb idiot, staring blankly as he lay on the bed closest to the toilet.

As for why he was lying down rather than sitting, those in the know understood immediately.

Because Shang Tianbao's clothes and pants were covered in scattered, wrinkled stains, looking like dried mucus.

Furthermore, there were solidified black bloodstains on his pants, which seemed to prove certain things.

Overall, during these three days, the once clean and tidy Comrade Shang Tianbao had undergone inhuman torture and trauma, which had utterly ruined this formerly spirited young man, leaving him a shell of a human being!

It had to be said that if people are stripped of their restraints, they lose their humanity; they can no longer be called human, and are practically worse than beasts.

Shang Tianbao, who had once been a perfectly fine person, was now completely destroyed!!!

During these three days, the Shang family had been continuously sending people to DJ County, wanting to take Shang Tianbao back to Ice City, and the rank of the people sent grew higher with each visit.

However, as the saying goes, "A powerful dragon cannot suppress a local snake."

Moreover, Wu Dong, Wang Shuai, and the others couldn't even be considered snakes; accurately speaking, they were tigers—specifically, sedentary tigers with wings.

There is a phrase, "like a tiger with wings," which describes how the king of beasts becomes invincible if it grows wings. Thus, one could imagine how the struggle between these two groups played out.

Consequently, every single person who came returned empty-handed.

With these failures, the conflict between the two local conglomerates escalated directly. Aside from not using outright military force, every possible overt and covert means had been employed.

This could be seen from the frequent personnel changes across various departments.

As for Sun Xianghuo, he had become part of the first wave of cannon fodder, returning to Ice City to undergo an investigation by Shen Cha. A comeback was certainly out of the question; as for whether he could keep his body intact, that was up to fate.

However, there was one piece of good news: the person replacing Sun Xianghuo was Wang An's sworn elder sister, Comrade Zhang Shuya.

With the Ice City boss Zhang Siyuan providing backing, Zhang Shuya's position was very secure.

Another thing was that although Sun Xianghuo had been ousted, his daughter—the beautiful Sun Nian—was protected by her good friend Zhang Shuya and thus suffered no repercussions.

However, to avoid being caught in the crossfire again, Zhang Shuya asked her father, Zhang Siyuan, for help in transferring Sun Nian from Ice City to DJ County.

It was evident that Sun Nian, who had once been a carefree beauty, had become quite haggard due to her father's sudden downfall, giving her the aura of a "sickly beauty."

Of course, regardless of the changes happening in the outside world, nothing could affect Wang An, who was deep in the mountains and forests.

After many days of dry weather, the house Wang An was building could finally have its ridge beam raised.

Raising the beam meant placing the triangular beam atop the roof.

Therefore, Wang Dazhu had found a feng shui master to calculate the auspicious hour for the beam raising. The auspicious time was set for the hour of Si in the morning, which is between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM.

So, just after 9:00, Wang An, Wang Li, Mu Xueli, and the others lit pre-prepared "two-step" firecrackers at the corners of each house.

When building a house in Heilongjiang Province, raising the beam is different from starting construction. At the start, small firecrackers, two-steps, and "thunder-crackers" are all used.

But for raising the beam, no standard firecrackers or thunder-crackers are used—only two-steps.

Because raising the beam is an upward movement, setting off firecrackers on the ground is considered a bad omen.

Of course, these are superstitious beliefs, and many people do not believe them.

Setting off firecrackers is simply for the sound and for good luck; there is no direct connection between firecrackers and the actual construction of the house.

After the two-steps finished booming, a group of people carried the large frame toward the house.

Upon reaching the base of the wall, five or six people used poles about 3.5 meters long to push one end of the triangular beam upward into the air.

Then, the people standing on the wall swapped hands, helping to shift the triangular beam upward.

Once the triangular beam extended inside the wall, the people standing inside used 3.5-meter poles to relay it toward the north wall.

Soon, through the combined effort of everyone, the two ends of the triangular beam were rested upon the north and south crossbeams of the house.

At this stage, a task that was relatively very important compared to the rest of the construction had to be performed: hanging the large coins, chopsticks, and red cloth.

Locally, this involved tying a string of copper coins together in a sheet-like fashion with red string. Above the coins was a pair of brand-new chopsticks, tied together in a "cross" shape, and above the chopsticks was a piece of red cloth.

There was a reason for tying it this way: the string of coins and chopsticks symbolized a "Taigong coffin," and hanging it on the beam could ward off disasters and evil spirits while praying for peace.

Notably, there was also a logic to the coins used. Generally, coins from the "Qianlong" or "Jiaqing" eras were used because their names sounded auspicious. Almost no one used coins from the "Kangxi" or "Daoguang" eras, which didn't sound as lucky.

However, for Wang An and Mu Xueqing's house, these coins weren't used because Wang An used "Kaiyuan Tongbao."

Mainly, Wang An felt that his rebirth was a pioneering event—a "beginning of heaven and earth"—and since Mu Xueqing was his wife, she naturally had to follow her husband's lead!

(End of Chapter)