Chapter 57: Small but Complete

Everyone couldn't help but widen their eyes.

No benefits, but there could be rewards?

Every effort would be rewarded?

Was it what they were thinking?

But Lu Qiaoge did not continue the topic, stopping while the point was made. These twelve people were not stupid; she believed they could understand the meaning behind her words.

The Xiangyang Night School was a single-story building located in an old residential area, and it had been vacant for seven or eight years.

It used to be a literacy class and later became a night school. When the factory was first established, the workers were either retired veterans or advanced elements recruited through job postings; their general level of education was very low, and most of them had obtained their primary or junior high school diplomas here.

It was such a waste to leave it like this.

When Lu Qiaoge had been wandering around the courtyard with her tabby cat, she had taken a liking to this place.

But she hadn't expected that it would collapse during a night of torrential rain.

It wasn't serious, though; only one room on the west side had collapsed.

Lu Qiaoge had walked through it carefully and couldn't help but marvel at how well the house was built. There was no cutting of corners; it was incredibly sturdy.

As for the collapsed area, it was caused by a large tree next to the house being snapped by the wind and pressing down on the roof.

The tree had already been dealt with and was placed in a corner.

Lu Qiaoge did not intend to hire outside help. The newly established service station needed to achieve some results to build its reputation.

Working with Wang Dafeng, who had extensive construction experience, Lu Qiaoge recorded the areas that needed reinforcement. Afterward, she returned to the Sub-district Office. While hoping to get a bicycle, she reported her work to Director Hu: "The collapsed area has been cleared, and the snapped tree has been moved to the corner. The volunteers have already made three hundred adobe bricks using yellow clay and crushed straw dug from the yellow clay pond north of the night school. These will be used to reinforce the night school's perimeter wall. As for the roof tiles and bricks, we will use the broken tiles and bricks piled on the night school wall. In about another week, the roof and walls should basically be repaired."

Although Director Hu felt that repairing the roof of a night school that no one was using was a bit of a waste of manpower and resources, he didn't want to see the houses in his jurisdiction collapse without being addressed. He had been worrying about what to do when he first saw it, but now things were fine—Qiaoge had already organized the manpower to start work. These past few days, although Xiao Ze had come home covered in dust, he hadn't complained about the hardship; the boy seemed full of energy.

Old Hu believed the volunteers were all like this.

He was moved—not because he was reluctant to let his son work hard, of course, but because the volunteers were receiving no benefits, and their selfless dedication made him feel a bit guilty.

"Qiaoge, there's no need to rush. We must balance work and rest. Regardless, since these people have no salary or official status, it means if they get injured, there's no workers' compensation, and if they get sick, no one will reimburse them. We still need to be careful."

Lu Qiaoge had been waiting for Old Hu to bring this up.

However, she did not immediately propose her idea. Instead, she fell into thought for a moment before saying sincerely, "Director Hu, you are indeed more thorough. We were so focused on the drive to do a good job for the service station and not let down the leaders' encouragement and support that we didn't think about this aspect. Your reminder is very timely."

Old Hu smiled, feeling quite gratified, but he still praised Lu Qiaoge: "I heard from Xiao Ze that you made the steady and composed Meng Qingshan the group leader, Wang Dafeng acts as a technician, and since Zhou Li was a barefoot doctor in the countryside, you put her in charge of the service station's hygiene and medical matters. Since Hu Zegang has good penmanship, he is responsible for recording your work... Qiaoge, I truly didn't expect this service station to be so complete despite its small size."

Lu Qiaoge offered another round of modesty, then said, "Director Hu, I will go back and consider the problem you just raised. For this service station to last long-term, it cannot be a flash in the pan. After all, everyone is volunteering, and it is normal for them to leave once they find jobs. But as long as we persist, new volunteers will join us one after another. I will think it over carefully at home and report back to you tomorrow morning."

Director Hu nodded with satisfaction.

Lu Qiaoge already had a plan in mind, but she needed to report to Old Hu tomorrow. She couldn't stand out in everything, especially since she was a newcomer.

If it weren't for the fact that the Lu family's circumstances were poor and survival was pressing, she wouldn't be in such a hurry.

However, there was still one thing Lu Qiaoge wanted to tell Old Hu: "Director Hu, regarding the plan I mentioned to you the other day about organizing our Xiangyang Sub-district Office to serve the people, have you submitted it?"

Old Hu slapped the table. "Qiaoge, I was just about to tell you. Captain Lin from Guzi Village called the Sub-district Office asking if we need more green leafy vegetables. Not only has another batch come down from Guzi Village, but many other villages have them too. Now they've added water radishes, and he asked if we could exchange them for some supplies the villagers urgently need."

Lu Qiaoge knew Captain Lin wouldn't just give up, but she hadn't expected it to take over half a month for him to come.

What she didn't know was that Old Lin had wanted to come much sooner. That day, after returning, he had driven his horse carriage to Director Zhu's house and given the rain boots Meng Xia had given him to Director Zhu.

Director Zhu accepted the rain boots but gave his own raincoat to Old Lin.

Old Zhu's rain boots had been leaking for a long time; wearing them was like wearing nothing at all. Although the raincoat was a bit old, it was still usable. Old Zhu also gave Old Lin a tin of tea to use for hospitality.

With this exchange, everyone was happy.

Mainly, Old Zhu felt a bit envious seeing a carriage full of goods, so he gave Old Lin a round of praise, hoping he would keep up the good work.

One had to realize that the military factory was the largest factory in Jiangcheng, directly managed by the state. Now that they had taken an interest in their green leafy vegetables, forget about exchanging goods—they would be willing to give the worthless vegetables to the military factory for free.

Because that factory was responsible for protecting the people and building national defense.

Therefore, everyone was waiting for Lu Qiaoge to go again.

But Lu Qiaoge was too busy.

Out of necessity, Old Lin had called Old Hu.

Old Hu said, "I will immediately apply for a large market gathering."

This could be organized by the Xiangyang Sub-district Office, as long as the higher-ups agreed.

Currently, the Sub-district Office was still the Xiangyang Sub-district Office of the military factory. Logically, it should belong to a government-dispatched agency, but in recent years, it had been taken over directly by the military factory's leadership.

Old Hu's superior was the General Office of the Factory.

Lu Qiaoge said, "Director Hu, let's prepare two options. If internal commodity trading markets are not allowed, we will hold another 'green vegetables for supplies' exchange. This time, we don't need to borrow a vehicle from the transport team; we can just have the Captain bring his horse carriage."

Old Hu glanced at Lu Qiaoge, remembering that Captain Jin had secretly asked him when they would go to exchange more green vegetables.

Just then, Shao Le's voice came from the corridor: "It's fine, it's fine, no need to go to the hospital. I'll just apply some medicine myself."

Eh, what happened?

Lu Qiaoge picked up her diary, put it in her crossbody bag, and stood at the door to look.

She saw Shao Le walking in from outside, grimacing and clutching his face. When he saw Lu Qiaoge, his eyes instantly brightened: "Xiao Lu, you're at the office? That's great."

When he let go of his hand, Lu Qiaoge saw that two bloody scratch marks had been torn into Shao Le's right cheek...

(End of Chapter)