Chapter 687 Persuading Zhao Shuzhuo
And at this moment, that bright laughter is likely to be drowned by the tide of sadness for a long time.
He reached out and patted his friend's shoulder, touching the raised edges of his shoulder blade. He suddenly felt that the night in the Great Northern Wilderness was a bit colder than the winter in previous years.
The dusk was as dark as ink, and the oil lamp flickered between the window frames, casting a dim glow.
Wang Jianguo clutched the sweat-soaked telegram, his knuckles turning white from exertion. He stared at Zhao Shuzhuo's angular profile, his Adam's apple rolling up and down for a long while before he spoke:
"Brother Shuzhuo, please go to the city as soon as possible. Comrade Xiaohua is isolated and helpless right now, and this is when he needs you the most."
His voice was filled with anxiety that was hard to conceal. He gently pushed the telegram in front of the other party. The words "Come quickly" on the paper glowed brightly under the candlelight.
Zhao Shuzhuo was carefully repairing a seedling basket with bamboo strips, his rough fingers moving flexibly between the bamboo strips.
Hearing this, his movements suddenly paused, and his eyes slowly moved away from the work in his hands and fell on Wang Jianguo's tense face.
The night wind outside the window blew sand and hit the window paper, making a tiny sound in the silence.
"Jianguo, I know you are doing this for my own good."
Zhao Shuzhuo put down the bamboo strips and reached out to lighten the oil lamp a little. The flickering flame made the bloodshot in his eyes more obvious.
"Xiaohua is a stubborn child. She would never send a telegram if she had no other choice."
His voice was low and hoarse, with a strong nasal tone, as if he had swallowed up the entire summer night's sultry heat.
Wang Jianguo was so anxious that he rubbed his hands:
"But Brother Shuzhuo, we are unfamiliar with the city, and Comrade Xiaohua is alone..."
Before he could finish his words, Zhao Shuzhuo raised his hand to interrupt him.
Zhao Shuzhuo stood up and walked to the earthen wall covered with production schedules. His fingertips gently touched the seedling raising time nodes circled in red, and pointed to the brick factory drawings piled in the corner:
"The production team will dig a canal to divert water the day after tomorrow. If this batch of early rice seedlings is missed, the food supply of the entire commune will be affected. The brick factory has just built a kiln, and the temperature cannot be wrong at all..."
When he turned around, the strands of hair on his forehead were stuck to his skin by sweat, but his eyes were as firm as iron:
"If I leave, who will look after the nursery? Who will solve the technical difficulties of the brick factory? There are many young people in our team, but someone has to lead the charge at critical moments."
As he spoke, he took out a notebook from his pocket with a pen inside.
"I'll write her a letter and take the first bus to the city tomorrow to deliver it to her. I'll tell her that after I'm done with this, I'll definitely..."
The words stopped abruptly here. Zhao Shuzhuo turned his head away abruptly and rubbed his sore eyes with his hands.
Wang Jianguo looked at the captain who was usually decisive and efficient, and his back seemed a little thin at this moment.
The night wind whistled over the eaves, and the sound of frogs croaked in the distance, crushing all the worries and responsibilities in the room into the dark night.
Dusk permeated the window frames of the production team's office. The kerosene lamp swayed gently beside Wang Jianguo's hand, dyeing his knuckles that were gripping the enamel pot amber.
Zhao Shuzhuo was still with his head down, sorting out the seedling statistics table. The tip of his pen was rustling across the paper, as if he wanted to carve all the densely packed data into the paper.
"Brother Shuzhuo!"
Wang Jianguo suddenly put the teacup down heavily, and the porcelain bottom collided with the wooden table with a dull sound, which startled the sparrows on the windowsill and made them fly away.
"Look carefully at this letter!"
He pointed at the crumpled telegram paper on the table. The four words "Father, come back soon" on it made his eyes hurt.
"Xiaohua stayed at the county hospital for three days and three nights, and now she has to handle the funeral alone. She doesn't even have a relative who can help!"
Zhao Shuzhuo's hand holding the pen suddenly tightened, and the pen drew a crooked arc on the paper.
He looked at the "Spring Farming Schedule" posted on the wall. The critical period for seedling cultivation marked in red pen was next week.
The newly introduced embryo making machine in the brick factory is still being debugged, and the sick leave note of the workshop director is still pressed on the corner of the table...
These scenes kept spinning in my mind, but I couldn't piece together a reason to leave.
"Jianguo, you know..."
As soon as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Wang Jianguo.
"I know!"
Wang Jianguo stood up suddenly, and the overturned stool made a harsh sound when it dragged on the ground.
"You have the rice seedlings of the production team and the kiln fire of the brick factory in your heart, but think about Xiaohua!"
He strode to the window and pointed at the group of people who were finishing work on the distant ridge of the field.
"Last year, her father was diagnosed with a serious illness. If she hadn't run back and forth between the two, providing technical guidance at the factory during the day and taking the last bus home to take care of the old man at night, would the old man have been able to survive for another six months?"
Zhao Shuzhuo's Adam's apple moved, and he remembered the rainy night last month when Xiaohua wrote to him and sent him an improved drainage plan, and insisted on going to the computer room to debug the equipment.
At that time, she had a high fever and was still concerned about the safety of the brick factory's circuits. Now...
"You don't understand girls' minds!"
Wang Jianguo grabbed the teacup on the table and took a gulp. The scalding hot tea choked him and made him cough.
"My mother was in confinement because my father was late. She still cries when she talks about it now. Getting married, having children, the death of loved ones... these difficulties are heavier than mountains for women!"
He walked in front of Zhao Shuzhuo and lowered his voice.
"If you don't go this time, when Xiaohua recovers, she will be so upset. You will have to bring this up every time you have a quarrel!"
The sound of cicadas outside the window suddenly became deafening. Zhao Shuzhuo took off his glasses and wiped them repeatedly with the corner of his clothes, but the lenses became blurrier and blurrier.
Wang Jianguo strikes while the iron is hot:
"Uncle Cheng has worked in the production team for 30 years. He can arrange things like raising seedlings with his eyes closed."
"Director Liu and I will be watching the brick factory, so it's a good opportunity for Erhua and Erzhu to learn how to maintain the equipment."
He pulled out the folded duty roster from his trouser pocket.
"Look, I have arranged everything. It will take at most a week to go back and forth, and the bricks will definitely not be delayed!"
Zhao Shuzhuo stared at the neat handwriting on the duty roster, and vaguely recalled that three years ago, Wang Jianguo also led the entire village to repair the dam that was destroyed by floods overnight.
The man covered in mud said "Don't worry, I'm here" as he carried the sandbag on his shoulders, and the determination in his eyes at this moment was exactly the same.
"But......"
Zhao Shuzhuo was still hesitating.
“No buts!”
Wang Jianguo stuffed the telegram into his hands.
"Pack two changes of clothes."
He walked to the door and turned back, his voice softened:
"Brother Shuzhuo, some regrets, once missed, can never be made up in a lifetime."
The oil lamp suddenly burst into flames, casting the shadows of the two people on the earthen wall with a slogan for increased production.
Zhao Shuzhuo looked at the telegram in his hand and finally nodded slowly.
Sporadic dog barking could be heard in the distance, and the evening breeze, wrapped in the scent of tuberose, gently lifted the half-closed bamboo curtain.