Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 146 Preparation

(There were too many messy things that took so long to get this done, so I apologize for the lateness. This is the third update today.)

Liu Hongliang paused for a moment, cursed silently, smashed a large lump of coal to pieces with a few angry blows, threw down the hammer, turned around to get a shovel, and had just shoveled a few times when he heard a few car horns behind him. He turned around and saw a Jiefang dump truck slowly backing up. The driver leaned half his body out of the cab and waved at him. Liu Hongliang took a few steps back with the shovel in his hand.

"Whoosh..." A plume of black smoke billowed up from the ground, swirling and dispersing into the air, covering the nearby snow with a layer of black ash. Liu Hongliang covered his nose and ran a few steps away, panting heavily before realizing what had happened: "Damn it, I just smashed some coal!"

The dump truck lowered its tipper, and the driver said to Liu Hongliang, "You work at this restaurant, right? Put the coal pile inside and pass it around. We'll return a truckload in a bit." The truck roared and drove away. Liu Hongliang looked at the mountain of coal and felt like crying. All the coal he had just smashed out was buried at the bottom, even his axe was buried.

Li Gengsheng chuckled as he came out of the boiler room, circled half of the coal pile, and said, "This driver is so clueless, hehehehe, all that smashing for nothing! Come on, let me smash it for you for a bit, give me the axe."

Liu Hongliang glared at Li Gengsheng, then slowly raised the shovel in his hand. Li Gengsheng laughed and ran back to the boiler room, going in, closing the door, then opening it again, peeking out and shouting, "Add coal to the boiler!"

Master Zhai came out from the back door, lit a cigarette, leaned against the door frame, and said, "Coal's here? This amount looks pretty good. Pour it into the shed, otherwise it'll be difficult to handle if it snows again."

Liu Hongliang said, "They said there was another truckload, and we'd deal with it all at once. But this unlucky driver buried all the coal I had already smashed, and even the axe."

Master Zhai took a few steps closer, looked at it, and said, "This piece is even, so there's basically no need to smash it. You can use it directly. Pick out the larger pieces and throw them aside first, then smash them together with the ones below at the end."

Liu Hongliang raised an eyebrow: "No need to smash it anymore?"

Master Zhai nodded, stomped his foot on the coal pile, and said, "You don't need these. If there's a big one, just throw it out. Just be careful of the stones mixed in."

Liu Hongliang winked at Li Gengsheng, who was standing at the boiler room door, and Li Gengsheng shuddered and turned around to close the door.

Sister Shang rushed out, wearing an apron, and asked, "What are you all doing? Xiao Hongliang, is the boiler steaming yet?" She went straight to the boiler room. Liu Hongliang, leaning on a shovel with one foot on the shovel, said, "Isn't Li Gengsheng watching over it? I don't know, he won't let me in."

As soon as Sister Shang entered the boiler room, she leaned halfway out and asked, "Master Zhai, what were Master Chang talking about the other day—how many pressurized gas cylinders were they?"

Master Zhai threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped on it, saying, "Four, I guess? I don't quite remember. Why don't you try turning on the valve? It's been burning for a whole afternoon, that should be enough, right?" The boiler is too small, and it has to supply heating to both sides, so the steam comes up a bit slowly. The key issue is that no one is burning it at night, so the fire can't keep up.

Sister Shang said, "I don't know when the boiler operator will arrive. If things get really busy, we won't be able to keep up." As they went inside, a thick plume of white smoke billowed out of the boiler room with a hissing sound. Master Zhai said, "Why don't you put a pot on the stove?"

Sister Shang turned off the valve and ran out, laughing, "This guy's a bit dazed because he can't see anything all of a sudden. Alright, Xiao Hongliang, come over here and help Gengsheng bring the drawer over."

Liu Hongliang said, "They kept calling me for everything yesterday! I've been breaking coal all morning, my arms are numb from exhaustion, can't I take a break?"

Li Gengsheng chuckled as he came out of the boiler room and walked towards the kitchen, saying, "Come on, where's the coal you smashed? Show it to me! You don't even have an axe, what are you going to do with a shovel?"

Liu Hongliang choked back his tears, looked around, and indeed there was nothing there. He cried.

Seven or eight large steamer baskets were brought over and placed on the stove. The caps were put on, and as soon as the steam valve was turned on, steam seeped out through the gaps in the baskets. Sister Shang wrung out several towels with warm water and ran them over the gaps in the baskets. She glanced at her watch and said to Li Gengsheng, "Turn off the valve in twenty minutes." Li Gengsheng looked at his watch and nodded. Sister Shang turned to Liu Hongliang and said, "Get the boiler working properly and add some coal. Add water when it starts steaming, otherwise the heating won't be working properly. Keep a close eye on it." She then took a damp towel and went into the kitchen.

Liu Hongliang stared at Li Gengsheng, who stared back at Liu Hongliang. They stared at each other blankly for a while, then Li Gengsheng suddenly raised his eyebrows, and the two of them laughed together.

Li Gengsheng opened the boiler door, and Liu Hongliang started feeding coal in. The boiler was too small; the coal inlet was too narrow for one person to handle. While they were working, Li Gengsheng asked mysteriously in a low voice, "Hey, Hongliang, how's that going?"

Liu Hongliang ran his hand through his hair and said, "What's up? Oh, damn it, if he dares to say a word against it, I'll chop off his head and use it as a chamber pot." He smirked, struck a pose, and went to collect coal. Li Gengsheng muttered to himself, "So, how did it go? Did it work or not?"

Ahead, Xiao Wei, Xia Maosheng, and Chen Hui were busy in the lobby. Chen Hui stood in the middle of the lobby, tilting his head and looking left, right, up, and down: "A little higher on the right, just a little bit, that's too much, too much, too much." He waved his right hand and shouted: "Come down a little, come down a little, slowly, little by little. Hey, hey, just a little more, don't move, let me see, is that enough? Almost enough, that's enough, nail it."

Xia Maosheng, holding up the painting, leaned against it with his hands raised, motionless. Xiao Wei stood on a chair, hammering and nailing.

They were hanging paintings on the wall. These were several traditional Chinese paintings that Director Wang had found from the propaganda department. They were all piled up in the warehouse. Director Wang thought they were pretty good, so he brought them over to make use of them. They weren't works by famous people; they were just works from a calligraphy and painting exhibition that the city had held a few years ago. I doubt even the artists themselves would remember them.

Several smaller paintings were hung on the second floor and in the private rooms, while two larger ones were hung in the lobby on the first floor, where the space is the largest.

After hanging the painting, the three of them washed their hands and walked around the building. "Hmm, we're almost ready," they said. Xiao Wei checked his watch; it was 10:30. They should be arriving in half an hour. He glanced at Xia Maosheng and asked, "Have they confirmed everything's alright over there?"

Xia Maosheng nodded and said, "Confirmed."

Xiao Wei nodded, looked around, let out a long sigh, and said, "Then let's just wait and see. Whether we live or die depends on what happens at noon today. Oh, by the way, how's Master Chang's group doing? Aren't they going to leave it at noon? They should be able to finish today."

Xia Maosheng said, "Why don't we ask Bozi to call them to go to the bone restaurant? We can pay the bill afterwards. We shouldn't let them come today. I think it's best not to pick up any customers today."