Chapter 683 Preparing to build a house
The brick factory's searchlights cut the night into geometric shapes of light and dark. Wang Jianguo stood in the shadow of the blue bricks, his Adam's apple rolling up and down with difficulty, his fingers in his work pants unconsciously picking at the dried mud in the cracks between the bricks.
The evening breeze, carrying the residual warmth from the kiln, brushed across his neck as he dried the shells. In the distance, the clinking of workers packing up their tools and the laughter of children chasing and playing all seemed blurred as if through a layer of frosted glass.
"Brother Shuzhuo."
He finally spoke, his voice seemed to be squeezed out from the deepest part of his chest, with a hoarse tremor.
Zhao Shuzhuo's hand, which was halfway holding the cigarette box, was suspended in mid-air. He saw the flickering lights of the brick factory reflected in the other person's bloodshot eyes.
"If it were in the past, I would never have wanted the first batch of bricks."
Wang Jianguo's eyes swept across the neatly stacked squares of blue bricks, thinking back to the day the kiln was opened, when the bright red bricks were hooked out of the kiln door carrying with them burning hope, and every worker's eyes were shining with pride.
Zhao Shuzhuo frowned and put the cigarette back into the cigarette box:
"Jianguo, why are you so hesitant today?"
Before he could finish his words, Wang Jianguo suddenly took a step forward and pressed his rough palm heavily on his shoulder.
“But I accepted it this time.”
His nails were almost digging into the fabric of the other man's work clothes.
"I am doing this for myself as well as for you."
These words startled Zhao Shuzhuo so much that he took a half step back, and the back of his head almost hit the pile of bricks behind him.
The moonlight leaked through the gaps in the clouds, casting a mottled silver net between the two people.
He stared at Wang Jianguo's tense jawline, watching the Adam's apple of this usually cheerful man roll violently again.
"What do you mean?"
The mechanical roar of the brick factory gradually subsided, leaving only the occasional crackling sound from the kiln.
Wang Jianguo looked at Zhao Shuzhuo's dazed expression, a knowing smile appeared on his lips, and he reached out and patted the other's shoulder which was still stained with mud.
The evening breeze, wrapped in the residual warmth of the brick kiln, blew over, making his next words intermittent:
"Brother Shuzhuo, you have been so busy lately that you have forgotten about Comrade Yang Xiaohua's matter?"
These words were like a heavy hammer, which shook Zhao Shuzhuo's whole body. His fingers holding the cigarette trembled slightly, and the ashes fell on his clothes.
The memory was instantly pulled back to three months ago - every detail of what the two experienced in the hospital.
Before leaving, she gave Zhao Shuzhuo a pair of shoes she had made for him, her eyes full of stars:
"Brother Zhao, please come pick me up soon. I will be waiting for you."
“How could I forget!”
Zhao Shuzhuo stiffened his neck to defend himself, but the tips of his ears felt hot uncontrollably. But as soon as he finished speaking, he lost his temper again.
These days, he was overwhelmed by the production team's spring ploughing and the construction of a brick factory. The last time he wrote to Yang Xiaohua was half a month ago.
Zhao Shuzhuo took out a crumpled envelope from his trouser pocket and shook it. It was the envelope that Yang Xiaohua had replied to last time:
"Xiaohua kept talking about it in her letters, and kept asking when our brick factory would be completed."
Wang Jianguo pointed in the direction of the planned residential land not far away, his eyes full of mischief.
"Once I build this house, you will have a place to accommodate your father-in-law and daughter-in-law!"
"When the time comes, we will use all the blue bricks from the brick factory, and hire a few carpenters to make some carved furniture. We will definitely marry Comrade Xiaohua off in style!"
Zhao Shuzhuo's face suddenly turned red, burning from his ears to his neck, glowing strangely in the moonlight.
He hurriedly reached out to grab the envelope, but Wang Jianguo dodged it nimbly.
"Don't talk nonsense, kid!"
He pretended to be strong, but his heart was filled with ripples. He imagined Yang Xiaohua standing in front of the new house, and even his breathing became rapid.
"Still being stubborn!"
Wang Jianguo laughed so hard that he fell backwards, and suddenly said seriously:
"Brother Shuzhuo, you have contributed so much to the village, it's time to plan for yourself. When the house is built, you can bring the people over, and we will have a grand wedding to let the whole village share in the joy!"
As the night deepened, the lights from the brick factory stretched the shadows of the two people. Zhao Shuzhuo looked at Wang Jianguo's sincere eyes, and a soft spot in his heart was gently touched.
He took the envelope and carefully put it in his arms, muttering:
“You’re the only one who has a lot of ideas.”
But the smile that he couldn't suppress had already revealed his mood at the moment. A few dog barks came from afar, accompanied by the chirping of insects, adding a bit of gentleness to this night.
The brick factory's searchlight flickered above the two men's heads, but Zhao Shuzhuo's Adam's apple seemed to be pulled by an invisible string, rolling up and down several times before he could squeeze out a sound.
He turned his face away, pretending to straighten the wrinkles on his collar, but his red ears still betrayed his inner panic:
"I...I just wrote a letter to Xiaohua a few days ago."
The ending tone had an imperceptible tremor, as if the words hidden in the letter were now climbing up to the tip of the tongue along with the memory.
Wang Jianguo keenly caught the other party's unnatural pause, and suddenly reached out and patted him on the back:
"Good fellow! I was wondering why you kept going to the commune recently. It turns out you were waiting for a reply!"
These words startled Zhao Shuzhuo so much that he staggered half a step, and his legs under his work pants almost tripped in the cracks between the bricks.
In the distance, villagers who had just finished work passed by carrying shovels and looked at him curiously. He hurriedly lowered his voice:
"Keep your voice down!"
The night stretched the two people's shadows, interweaving into blurred outlines on the pile of blue bricks.
Zhao Shuzhuo stared at his dangling toes, memories flooding his heart like the rising tide.
On the day he wrote the letter, he specially used brand new blue ink. As the tip of his pen rustled across the letter paper, sparrows outside the window were chirping and pecking at the rice in the threshing floor.
He wrote about the newly cultivated rice seeds during the spring ploughing and the first batch of qualified green bricks from the brick factory, but he secretly hid a sentence in the last few lines:
"The locust flowers in the commune are blooming again, like the buttons on your shirt."
"According to the time, her reply should arrive in the next day or two."
He unconsciously reached for his chest pocket, where the corner of the last letter was still there. The soft touch seemed to be able to convey the warmth from thousands of miles away.
Wang Jianguo looked in the direction of his movements and suddenly remembered that last month at the county post office, he ran into Zhao Shuzhuo staring at a mailbox covered with stamps.
At that time, I laughed at him for watching ants moving, but now I think that he was clearly waiting for the wind to carry his thoughts to faraway places.
"It seems that the relationship between you two has not faded because of the distance."
Wang Jianguo's voice was filled with relief. He reached into his pocket and took out a half-pack of cigarettes, but found that the pack was wrinkled from the busy work. He smiled and put the cigarettes back into his pocket:
"When the reply arrives, you must invite me to your wedding!"
These words caused the blush behind Zhao Shuzhuo's ears to spread all the way to his neck, but he couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth.
The evening breeze blew through the newly planted poplar saplings in the brick factory, and the leaves rustled.
A light lit up in the production team's warehouse in the distance, like a star falling to the earth.
Zhao Shuzhuo looked at the light and suddenly felt that the days of waiting were not long anymore.
After all, on the same night, Yang Xiaohua might also be writing the same words of expectation on a piece of letter paper under the desk lamp.