Rebirth: Seven Years in a Great Dream

Chapter 36: Let’s Go a Little Crazy

The dormitory was bright and spotless, and even had air conditioning. Although the beds were bunk beds, the bedding was thick and clean. There was a TV in the room, and a set of Chinese chess pieces sat on the table. Mu Dong pointed to one bed and said, “This is Uncle Su’s bunk.” He then pointed to the bed next to it and added, “This is my dad’s bunk. They sleep together at night, and sometimes they play Chinese chess together. I stay in the office.” Aunt Su felt much more at ease. Mu Dong then led them to the communal kitchen. The room was brightly lit, and the kitchen utensils and cutting boards were spotless. Mu Huafeng’s family was preparing dinner—there was fish, meat, chicken, and eggs, along with fresh vegetables and a full array of ingredients. Rice was steaming on the gas stove, giving off a pleasant aroma. Mu Dong explained, “My dad and I usually eat in the communal kitchen too; we have the same meals as Uncle Su.” Aunt Su felt that it wasn’t much different from home. Mu Dong kept observing Aunt Su’s expression. Noticing that she had softened a bit, he continued, “Aunt Su, I have a suggestion. If Uncle Su doesn’t want to leave—and he wouldn’t be happy going home anyway—how about this: Uncle Su can keep working here as usual, take Saturdays and Sundays off, and come home to spend time with you.” Mrs. Su blushed slightly: “I don’t need him to keep me company.” Mr. Su curled his lip, thinking to himself, “Good—she doesn’t care about my company.” But he didn’t dare say anything out loud. Su Renjie didn’t dare to upset his dad any further. Plus, he was quite satisfied with the working conditions here—it was a huge improvement over washing dishes at a restaurant last year—so he spoke up: “Mom, I think things here at Mr. Mu’s are pretty good. Why don’t we let Dad stay a few more days…” Mr. Su chuckled to himself, thinking, Now that’s my son—all that love I gave you when you were little wasn’t for nothing. With two steps handed to him in a row, Grandma Su took the opportunity to come down as well and said, “That’s fine, then. Let’s settle on that. Old man, you stay put here and don’t wander off.” She then turned to Mu Dong and said, “Young Mu, I’m counting on you to take good care of my husband.” Mu Dong quickly replied, “Auntie, don’t worry.” Aunt Su then said to Su Renjie, “Bring your dad some clean clothes tomorrow. His outer clothes look pretty clean, but who knows how dirty the ones underneath are.” Mu Dong’s heart sank—I just bought him a change of clothes, you know. Auntie Su and her son finally left, and both Uncle Su and Mu Dong breathed a sigh of relief. Grandpa Su was happy to finally be able to stay. Mu Dong was glad he’d finally managed to keep Uncle Su there. When work ended that afternoon, Mu Dong called his sister into his office and asked quietly, “Sis, did you pick up on any tricks when Uncle Su was assessing the quality of the willow branches?” Mu Hong replied, “I did pick up a few things. Uncle Su mainly checks how dry the willow branches are, whether they have splinters, and if they’re hollow inside. Branches with high moisture content are soft—we don’t want those; ones with splinters are from out-of-town sand willow, which is a poor variety—we don’t want those either; and if the core is hollow when you snap them, they’re old willow branches—we don’t want those either.” Mu Dong was a bit surprised and said, “Sis, you’re pretty impressive—you’ve picked up so much on your own?” Mu Xiaoxia felt a surge of pride and replied, “It’s not exactly ‘stealing’ knowledge. I asked Uncle Su a few times, and since he saw I was interested, he taught me. I just wanted to be able to help you more.” Mu Dong was touched. His sister still treated him just like she did when they were kids—always wanting to look out for him. Even when it came to buying willow branches, she was thinking about learning something new to help him out. Mu Dong had originally been worried that with Uncle Su away for the weekend, there would be no one to oversee the willow branch purchases. But now it seemed his sister had already thought ahead, so there was nothing to worry about. That evening, Mu Dong reviewed the accounts for the willow branch purchases and did a quick calculation: as of that day, they had purchased a total of 600,000 jin of willow branches. Mu Dong turned on the hallway light and went up to the third floor to take a look. All the classrooms on the third floor were nearly filled to capacity. Man, willow branches really are bulky yet lightweight. When they first started storing the willow branches, Mu Dong had been worried about whether the building’s load-bearing capacity would hold up. So he asked his dad to bring in a professional to take a look. The expert looked around for a while, tapped the concrete in a few spots with a small hammer to check, and said, “This building is built with such solid materials—it can easily handle not just something as light as willow branches, but even grain or fertilizer.” Only then did Mu Dong feel at ease, and he began storing the willow branches starting from the third floor. To his surprise, just 600,000 jin filled an entire floor. At this rate, even if he packed every available space, the three floors could hold a maximum of 1. 8 million jin—and that was counting the dormitories and offices as storage space. “We still don’t have enough space,” Mu Dong sighed to himself. Mu Dong’s plan was to store over 3 million jin. First, he had enough money on hand; second, while 3 million jin sounded impressive, it was actually only 1,500 metric tons. “What should I do?” Mu Dong pondered. “Build more buildings? That would take too long, and I’d have to wait for them to dry out—but willow is highly susceptible to moisture, so that’s not an option.” Rent a place elsewhere? That would require sending people to guard it and manage it, and security couldn’t be guaranteed—so that wouldn’t work either. Mu Dong then thought of building a warehouse with color-coated steel roofing sheets. That way, construction would be fast, and there’d be no need to wait for drying—it could be used immediately upon completion. But after calculating the costs, he decided against it. The costs were too high; building a large warehouse would essentially eat up all the profits from storing the willow branches, making the whole effort a waste of time. Mu Dong couldn’t come up with a solution all night, and the next day he was feeling a bit down. Old Su noticed Mu Dong’s listless demeanor and teased him, “Xiao Dongzi, missing your girlfriend, are you?” Ever since that day when he’d blurted out “Little Dongzi” in a moment of panic, that nickname had become Old Man Su’s trademark. Mu Dong shot him a disgruntled look. “Old man, aren’t you acting a bit disrespectful for your age?” Old Man Su chuckled, “Got something on your mind? Tell me about it.” Mu Dong thought, “I’ve got nothing better to do anyway, and talking about it might make me feel a little better,” so he mentioned that they didn’t have enough space to store the willow branches. Old Man Su was taken aback. He thought he’d already bought more than enough willow branches—an entire floor was nearly full. Was this kid suggesting he wanted to fill the whole building? Wasn’t that enough? Old Man Su had already heard from other workers that Boss Mu had started hoarding sand a few months ago, made a fortune, and still had plenty of sand left unsold. Old Man Su’s heart skipped a beat. This kid—hoarding willow branches? There must be something more to it, right? Old Man Su said, “Xiao Dongzi, if you tell me why you’ve been saving so many willow branches, I’ll tell you how to solve this.” Mu Dong exclaimed in surprise, “You have a solution?” “I do.” “Rent a place somewhere else?” “No, right here.” “Here?” Mu Dong asked. “There’s no more room here. Even if we packed the three floors to the brim, we couldn’t fit much more.” Old Man Su said nothing, just stared at Mu Dong. Old Man Su was tempted. At heart, he was a businessman too; if a chance to make money presented itself, he would naturally seize it with both hands. Mu Dong blinked, his mind racing. He suspected Old Man Su really did have a way to make it work, but did he dare take the risk? Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, “Old Man, if I tell you this, can you promise not to tell anyone else?” “I can,” Old Man Su said slowly. “Not even Mrs. Su or your son?” “I promise.” All right, he’d gone all in. Mu Dong leaned closer to Old Man Su and whispered softly in his ear, “Old man, I think the price of willow branches is going to go up.” Old Man Su chuckled and teased, “Cut the crap. I think willow branches are going to drop in price. Get to the point—what’s your reason?” All right, Mu Dong decided to make something up: “Old man, I have a friend in college who does meteorological research. He’s a Ph. D. now. During the Spring Festival, he told me that our area is going to experience extreme weather changes this year—either a major flood or a severe drought.” Old Man Su said, “Willow branches aren’t afraid of flooding, but they are afraid of drought. How do you know it’ll be a severe drought? What if it’s a massive flood instead?” Mu Dong replied, “If it’s a major flood, I won’t lose any money; if it’s a severe drought, I’ll make a profit. I’m taking a gamble. You’ve probably heard—I’ve always had pretty good luck.” Mu Dong’s words were quite well-crafted, covering all bases. Old Man Su fell silent. Being of advanced age, he valued stability and didn’t want to take risks. After thinking it over—the price of willow branches hadn’t fluctuated much in recent years, and even if there were a major flood, he wouldn’t lose too much—he decided to put some money on the line. After all, what if he won the bet? Old Man Su didn’t realize that Mu Dong had already led him astray. What if there was neither a drought nor a flood, and they had a bumper crop of willow branches? It was mainly that “Ph. D.” title that had intimidated him. After thinking it over for a while, Old Man Su said, “Little Dongzi, I’ll invest 100,000 and go into business with you. How about that?” Mu Dong didn’t care much—100,000 yuan wasn’t a big deal to him anymore—and replied, “Sure, but let’s get one thing straight, Old Man: if we lose money, I’m not covering the losses. How about this: you buy 100,000 worth of goods yourself and store them separately. Whether we make or lose money on that, it’s none of our business. How does that sound?” Old Man Su replied, “That actually works.” Mu Dong said, “Grandpa Su, I’m all set. What about you?” Old Man Su burst out laughing. “Don’t be in such a hurry. Listen up: build a high platform, store it in the courtyard, and cover it with a tarp.” Mu Dong was taken aback. “Is that really okay?” The old man continued, “Elevate the base so the bottom is protected from moisture, and cover it with a tarp to keep out the sun and rain. Little Dong, you probably didn’t know this, but many cotton processing plants store their bales this way—they can stack them over ten meters high.” Seeing Mu Dong deep in thought and silent, Old Man Su added, “Actually, you’ve got a great spot right here you can use—the rooftop!” That’s right—the rooftop! The rooftop is dry; you can store the bales there directly and just seal them with a tarp. Plus, this building’s rooftop has a low wall over a meter high, so covering it will be very convenient! You can simply secure the bottom edge of the tarp to the eaves of the third-floor windows. Mu Dong perked up and discussed some details with Old Man Su. Gradually, a plan took shape. The entire rooftop would be covered with a tarp for direct storage; the tarp would extend beyond the outer side of the low wall to channel rainwater downward. They would purchase heavy-duty canvas tarps to ensure they wouldn’t tear or leak during use. On the small playground south of the school building, they would build several large, one-meter-high platforms by laying red bricks in even layers—without using cement to ensure they stay dry. Wooden planks would be laid over the red bricks, followed by plastic sheeting, then a pile of willow branches, all covered with the tarp. All right, with his plan now in order, Mu Dong felt a surge of energy coursing through his body. He said to Old Man Su, “Old man, I’m assigning you the classroom right next to the dormitory—do whatever you need to do with it. And remember, keep this strictly confidential.” With that, he turned and ran off to find his dad and calculate how many red bricks, wooden planks, and tarps they’d need. Even if he hadn’t said anything, Old Man Su would have kept it a secret anyway. After all, this was a major matter involving his own income. Feeling the bank card deep in his pocket, Old Man Su thought to himself, “Time to do business again.” Thank goodness he had this card on him—his wife probably wouldn’t think to check his account, would she? In no time, Mu Dong and his dad had settled on the numbers. He sent his dad to buy the red bricks, while he drove to Lu NS District to pick up the wooden planks, plastic sheeting, and tarps. By the afternoon, Mu Dong returned with a truckload of wooden planks and tarps. As the workers unloaded the cargo, they wondered, “Why buy so many tarps? What’s this for?” The next day, five one-meter-high platforms were erected on the schoolyard. Each platform was slightly larger than the classrooms in the hallway. Based on the storage capacity of each classroom, Mu Dong designed each platform to hold 100,000 jin. This meant the schoolyard was planned to store 500,000 jin of willow branches. Given the large total area of the rooftop, Mu Dong also planned to store 500,000 jin there. Combined with the storage inside the building, this would bring the total storage capacity to roughly 3 million jin. Currently, they were purchasing about 80,000 jin of willow branches daily, which meant it would take roughly a day and a half to fill one platform. Since outdoor work on the rooftop and the playground would be required over the next few days, Mu Dong checked the weather forecast online and found that sunny weather was expected for the coming days. Mu Dong reflected that it hadn’t rained recently—could it really be, as he’d said, a severe drought? Quancheng, Telecom Residential Complex. A few middle-aged women out for their early-morning exercise noticed something strange. A beautiful young woman in Unit 2 of Building 10. Every day, she gets up very early, opens the garage downstairs, starts a brand-new car still bearing a temporary license plate, and sits in the car, staring into space. After a while, she slowly drives the car out of the garage and parks it in front of the building. A little later, she slowly backs it back into the garage. Then she drives it out again, then backs it back in… Every morning, this goes on for nearly half an hour. In the end, she always backs the car back into the garage, locks the door, and walks away in her high heels, making a “clack-clack-clack” sound. Someone happened to notice that after the young woman left, she boarded an overcrowded bus at the entrance to the residential complex. “Isn’t that just crazy?” the older women who saw her couldn’t help but grumble to themselves. The one being gossiped about was, of course, Xiao Xiao. She simply loved that car too much. At first, she’d just hop in for a ride in the mornings, but later, for some inexplicable reason, she found herself driving right up to the garage entrance. “Mu Dong said I shouldn’t drive on the road—driving around at the garage entrance doesn’t count as driving on the road, does it?” Xiao Xiao reassured herself. In fact, this wasn’t just a morning thing—the same scene played out every evening, though the middle-aged women out for their early morning exercises simply didn’t see it. If Mu Dong had seen this, he would surely have been at a loss for words—he really shouldn’t have bought Xiao Xiao a car so early; this was just too ridiculous. Mu Dong was running around like a headless chicken these days. Storing things outdoors sounds simple, but it actually comes with many challenges—just figuring out how to stack the willow branches was a major problem in itself. If stacked improperly, the entire pile could collapse. Then there was covering them with tarps and finally securing them with ropes—every issue required his full attention. Fortunately, with an expert like Old Man Su providing on-site guidance, although there were some bumps along the way, five tall willow stacks were successfully completed after a week. Although Old Man Su took two days off over the weekend, the workers had gotten the hang of it by then, and the final two stacks were assembled very smoothly. Looking at the willow stacks, completely sealed off by the dark green tarps, Mu Dong felt much more at ease, and his physical exhaustion vanished completely. All that remained was the rooftop. Thanks to the low wall surrounding it, both stacking the bundles and securing the tarps became much easier. He checked the date—it was already February 23rd. Last Friday, Director Zhou from the town office had called to say the land transfer was ready to be processed. Since it was Monday, he decided to go take care of it. Director Zhou was very welcoming. The two of them went together to the District Bureau of Land and Resources and quickly completed the transfer. In the afternoon, Mu Dong briefed his dad and sister, asking them to take care of the stacking work on the rooftop. At 5:00 p. m. , he drove to Quancheng. By the time Mu Dong entered the Telecom residential complex, it was already past 8:00 p. m. From a distance, he saw Xiao Xiao’s car parked at the garage entrance. His heart skipped a beat—had someone broken in? As he drove a little closer, he noticed the car slowly backing into the garage. By the time he reached it, the car was pulling out again—and it really was Xiao Xiao behind the wheel. At first, Mu Dong couldn’t help but smile wryly, but then he felt a pang of guilt. The bitter smile stemmed from how hilarious and ingenious Xiao Xiao’s actions were. He felt guilty because he hadn’t spent enough time with Xiao Xiao, which was why she felt so lonely. From a distance, Xiao Xiao saw a car approaching. The headlights were too bright for her to make out the make and model, so she assumed it was another resident of the complex and didn’t pay it much mind, continuing to lose herself in her own little world. It wasn’t until the car stopped and the headlights went out that she suddenly realized—it was Mu Dong’s car! Mu Dong was back! Oh no! Xiao Xiao blushed—he must have seen her just now. Xiao Xiao sat in the car, feeling flustered… Mu Dong walked over, opened the car door, gently wrapped his arms around Xiao Xiao, and whispered, “Come on, honey, let’s go for a drive.” Xiao Xiao nodded blankly and was about to get out to sit in the passenger seat. Mu Dong held her back and said, “Honey, you drive.” Let’s go a little crazy—what’s the big deal? Xiao Xiao froze, pointed at herself, and asked, “Me? I’m supposed to drive?” “Yes, honey, you drive,” Mu Dong said in a deep voice. Xiao Xiao grew excited, wrapped her arms around Mu Dong’s neck, and planted a kiss on him. Then, with practiced ease, she started the car and urged Mu Dong to get in. The car glided smoothly out onto the road, seamlessly merging into the bright stream of traffic against the night sky. Xiao Xiao forgot the cold and rolled down the window. The wind rushed in, playfully tousling her hair, sending it flying in wild, tangled trails. Music began to play, and Xiao Xiao hummed softly at first, then gradually sang along at the top of her lungs. Flying freely in your heart Brilliant starlight, wandering eternally The path ahead, illuminating my heart To the distant frontier—come with me, to the far horizon… Mu Dong, swept up by Xiao Xiao’s enthusiasm, joined her in singing at the top of his lungs. In the cold February wind, the two of them rolled down the car windows and roamed the city like madmen until very late. In the end, Mu Dong simply couldn’t hold out any longer. It wasn’t the cold—it was hunger. They’d set out at 5:00 p. m. , originally planning to surprise Xiao Xiao and eat dinner once they arrived. Instead, once they got there, he ended up joining Xiao Xiao in her wild adventure. At 11 p. m. , the two finally made it to Yonghe Soy Milk. Watching Mu Dong wolf down his food, Xiao Xiao was deeply moved—and felt a little guilty. With their bellies full, they headed home to keep the madness going—this was bound to be a wild night.