Chapter Twenty-Five: The First Day at Work

As soon as Han Li arrived, several of the women who had gone to the county town with him the previous day greeted him warmly.

Last night, Village Chief Zhao had visited every household with adobe walls and timber beams, informing them of the compensation they would receive for helping with the house construction.

Thus, news of Han Li’s plans to build a house had spread throughout the village, and today the women addressed him with even greater enthusiasm.

“Comrade Han, you’re here! I heard you’re going to build your own house and move out of the commune dormitory. That’s for the best. Who would’ve thought there were such bad apples in the dormitory?”

“Comrade Han, if anyone in the commune gives you trouble, just let me know. I’ll stand up for you.”

“Comrade Han, all the carpentry in our village is done by my old man. If you need doors, windows, cupboards—just say the word.”

“Comrade Han…”

Their exuberance drew the attention of everyone present, and Han Li responded to them all with a cheerful smile.

Only Mrs. Liang shrank her neck back, thinking to herself: How has this Han fellow, after barely more than a day here, already won over so many? It wouldn’t be so easy now to vent her anger. When had these old women gotten so chummy with him? Was there some benefit in it for them? In Shanghe Village, nothing ever happened without her family’s involvement. No, she must find out exactly what’s going on. Once she’d secured her share, she could think about dealing with Han Li.

The village chief and the head of the brigade, after a night’s rest, no longer wore the angry expressions of last night. Seeing everyone arrive on time, they were well pleased, and the chief began introducing each of the new arrivals to the villagers.

Most of the villagers regarded the newcomers as if they were monkeys on display. The young women blushed and dropped their heads. Han Li, as a grown man, was unfazed, and when it was his turn, he greeted everyone with a broad grin.

Just then, a woman’s voice rang out: “Oh my, look at how these girls’ faces are all red!”

“Are they shy? Or have their eyes landed on one of our village lads?”

This provoked a burst of loud laughter.

The girls’ faces turned even redder, and their heads dropped lower still. Hao Hongmin nearly suffocated herself in embarrassment.

At that moment, they all felt the villagers were far too crude—who spoke so boldly upon first meeting?

Seeing the crowd stir, Brigade Leader Liang raised his voice in reproach.

“What’s all this racket? Does spouting nonsense earn you extra work points? If this keeps up, I’ll dock your points right here and now!”

Work points were the villagers’ lifeblood, equivalent to food and money—no one could afford to lose them on a whim. If points were deducted so easily, there’d be an uproar for sure. It could spark a three-way standoff between the Zhao, Liang, and Zhang clans—such incidents had indeed happened before.

The villagers knew this well; though they joked and teased, they dared not cross the brigade leader. Refusing to obey would be disrespectful and leave their leaders in a bind. In such cases, you’d have no ground to stand on, and even your own kin wouldn’t defend you if you lost points.

Shanghe Village was large, divided into three work teams, each with its own leader. The first team often dominated the rankings, working the hardest and harvesting the most grain. The second was middling, outperformed by the first but better than the third, which was notorious as a haven for the old, weak, sick, and lazy.

The nine new arrivals—five men and four women—were now being sized up by the three team leaders as if they were goods.

The first team leader immediately took a liking to Han Li—he was the tallest and sturdiest, clearly full of strength. But something the brigade leader and the village chief whispered to the team leaders left a trace of regret in his eyes when he looked at Han Li.

The first team leader, being assertive, took all four remaining male newcomers for his team, though he couldn’t claim Han Li.

The second team leader, fuming on the spot, could only stamp his feet—his team simply couldn’t rival the first, and his words lacked weight. He selected two female newcomers, leaving Han Li, Hao Hongmin, and Yang Xiuying for the third team.

In truth, it made sense. Han Li and the two women were already planning to build a new house, clearly from families that weren’t short on money. Would such people really work hard for the team? Better to avoid trouble from the start.

Thus Han Li and his companions were left with the third team, infamous for shirking and muddling through. Han Li had already learned about the teams from the village women the day before and had no objections to this assignment.

It wasn’t harvest season, so the fieldwork wasn’t “heavy” but was still quite tedious: weeding, catching pests, watering, fertilizing—the weeding alone was a huge, repetitive task. You could clear the weeds one day, turn around the next, and find them sprouting again.

Today, Han Li and his group were assigned to the weeding team—Mrs. Liang was in their group, too. The rest of the women he didn’t know, but as long as he worked alongside them, that was enough.

At first, the cool weather kept everyone working energetically. Even those known for taking it easy had to make some show of effort. The villagers all weeded by hand, entirely accustomed, showing no sign of discomfort.

Since everyone squatted as they worked, each could only see the two people beside them; those farther away were out of sight, so Han Li had no idea how the others were faring. Yet, looking at the endless rows of corn stretching before him, he felt a wave of dread—would they have to squat and weed all of that?

The feeling intensified as he bent down to work. The women beside him weeded swiftly and neatly, earning his admiration—this was supposed to be the lazy team? Then what must the main force, the first team, be like?

Han Li quickly adjusted his mindset. Life was like this—when you can’t resist, you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

As he weeded, Han Li incorporated the postures and techniques of Xingyi Quan, blending stance work and hand forms seamlessly into the task. It proved to be a win-win: as he moved, he alternated through the twelve animal forms—dragon, tiger, monkey, horse, chicken, hawk, swallow, snake, alligator, wolf, eagle, and bear.

His feet moved like a plow, planting with each step as if taking root, dodging and twisting within a tiny space. His hands moved with the precision of a steel file, gripping and twisting like hooks, his elbows close to his ribs, his hands never straying far from his centerline.

The movements were straightforward, expanding and contracting with a steady rhythm—unremarkable to the untrained eye, nothing seemingly out of the ordinary.

Before he knew it, the lunch bell sounded, pulling Han Li from his focus. Only then did he realize that his workload far surpassed everyone else’s.