Civil Engineering in the Mortal World: Ten Years Without Knowing Today's Events

Today is the day we go to the provincial capital. It's still dark this morning.

Mom was already busy in the kitchen. When I got up, there were two bowls of noodles on the table, with poached eggs on top. Dad was sitting at the table, holding chopsticks, but he hadn't touched them.

"Eat before you go," Mom said.

I sat down, picked up my bowl, and ate slowly. The noodles were a little clumpy, but I didn't dare eat too fast, afraid that my mother would think I was in a hurry to leave.

"Did you bring everything?" Mom asked.

"I've brought everything. A woven bag and a backpack."

"That's all?"

That's all.

Dad didn't say anything, he finished the whole bowl of noodles, even the soup. He put down the bowl and looked at me.

"Give me a call when you arrive."

"Um."

"In the provincial capital, everything is done according to General Manager Hu's instructions. Don't argue with anyone."

"Won't."

"Make more calls to Xiao Hui; the boys should be more proactive."

"I know."

After dinner, my mother saw me to the front gate.

"Mom, I'm leaving."

"Drive carefully."

"Um."

I started my bike, rode a dozen meters, and looked back. My mother was still standing at the door, her hand shielding her forehead from the sun, watching me. I honked the horn, and she waved.

It takes two and a half hours to get from my hometown to the provincial capital by electric bike.

After riding for an hour, my phone vibrated. I pulled over and took it out to check. It was a message from Xiaohui.

"Brother Chen, have you arrived yet?"

"Still on the way."

"Slow down, Brother Chen."

"it is good."

I put my phone in my pocket and kept riding. The wind was strong, making the woven bag flutter behind me like a flag.

When we arrived in the provincial capital, it was already 9:30 in the morning.

The project site Lao Hu mentioned was in the east of the city, on the edge of an urban village. When I rode in, there were all sorts of small shops on both sides of the road—breakfast shops, hardware stores, general stores, and electric vehicle repair shops. There was standing water on the ground, and the road was full of potholes, even worse than the roads in our village.

The project office was a three-story residential building with a sign hanging at the entrance: "XX Construction Group Yunxi Mansion Project Office". I parked my car at the entrance, picked up a woven bag, and went inside. Old Hu was in his office on the first floor. He saw me and nodded.

"You're here?"

"They're here."

"The accommodation is on the second floor, four people to a room. Go upstairs and put your things down first, then I'll take you to see the construction site."

I went up to the second floor. The hallway was cluttered with miscellaneous items, and a few workers were playing cards. They glanced at me, then continued playing. I found my room and pushed open the door. There were four beds, three of which were empty, and one had luggage on it. I put my woven bag on the empty bed and tossed my backpack on the headboard.

The room wasn't big, and the window faced north, offering a view of an open space behind it. The open space was covered in grass, and several chickens were pawing at it.

My phone vibrated. It was a message from Lao Hu.

"Get down."

I went downstairs and followed Lao Hu out.

The construction site isn't far from the project headquarters, about a five-minute bike ride. It's an open space; the fence has been built, but the gate hasn't been installed yet. Inside, several workers are erecting temporary structures; the framework of the prefabricated houses is already up.

"Eight residential buildings, with a total construction area of ​​200,000 square meters." Old Hu stood on the open space, pointing ahead, "The construction period is quite tight, and we'll reach ground level by the end of the year."

I looked at the open space. The weeds had been leveled, leaving the bare yellow earth exposed and uneven.

"Mr. Hu, is everyone here?"

"We still need a data clerk and a safety officer. I'm already looking." He glanced at me. "You can start working here, and we'll recruit as we go."

"OK."

We ate lunch at a small restaurant next to the project office. Old Hu ordered four dishes, and there was plenty of rice. He ate slowly, talking about the client, supervisor, and subcontractors of the project as he ate.

"The person in charge of the site from Party A is a woman named Zhou Jing, and she's not easy to talk to. The supervisor is Li Zhiguo, who's in his fifties and used to work in a state-owned enterprise; he's very experienced. If you get to know them better, communication shouldn't be a problem."

"Um."

"And another thing," Old Hu put down his chopsticks, "what are you planning to do about Xiao Hui?"

I go back once every two weeks.

Old Hu glanced at me but didn't ask any more questions.

In the afternoon, I returned to the project office and started organizing the documents. Drawings, contracts, specifications, forms—piles upon piles of them lay on the table. We haven't hired a document controller yet, so I have to do all the work myself.

My phone vibrated; it was a message from my mother.

"Little one, are we there yet?"

"arrive."

"How's the accommodation?"

"good."

"Have you got a meal yet?"

"have eaten."

"That's good. You go ahead with your work."

"it is good"

I thought about it for a moment, then dialed the number. It rang for a short while before being answered.

"Brother Chen, you've arrived?"

"Okay, we're here."

"Brother Chen, is the provincial capital far away?"

"It's not far. It's a little over two hours by bike. I'll come back to see you on the 15th."

"Okay. Brother Chen, I'll wait for you."

After hanging up the phone, I put it in my pocket, stood up, and walked to the window. The road outside was full of potholes, and an old man was pushing his bicycle past, its basket filled with vegetables.

A new construction site, a new city, a new beginning.

But I know some things will never change.

Dad has to take medicine every day, Mom works at the supermarket to supplement the family income, Xiao Hui is waiting for me, and Lao Wang is waiting for my call.

I turned around, went back to the table, and continued organizing the documents.

Turning the pages one by one, filing them one by one.

……

Life on the construction site is monotonous and tedious. I get up at seven every morning, have breakfast at seven-thirty, and arrive at the site at eight. I eat lunch in the canteen, and then continue working. I finish get off work at six in the afternoon, go back to the dormitory, shower, eat, look at my phone, and go to sleep.

I also met the client's representative. She was in her forties, had short hair, and spoke and walked very quickly. The first time we met, she was standing in an open space on the construction site, holding a stack of blueprints and pointing to a row of trees by the fence.

"Mr. Hu, those trees need to be moved. You can handle the paperwork at the municipal management office."

Old Hu nodded.

"Also," she turned to a page of the blueprints, "the temporary building should be moved two meters to the east, so it doesn't block the underground pipelines."

"We haven't received the pipeline diagrams yet."

"Go to the Urban Construction Archives. Let's go today."

She speaks without any room for discussion, as if giving an order.

The supervisor, Li Zhiguo, was in his fifties and wore a gray hard hat, not white. Old Li didn't talk much; he'd come to the construction site every day, take a look, make notes, and then leave. He wasn't like Old Huang, who nitpicked, nor was he as rigid as Engineer Zhu. When he spoke to me, his tone was very even.

"Engineer Chen, the backfill soil here has a high moisture content. Be careful when compacting it."

"it is good."

"Also, the drainage ditches at the steel bar yard need to be dug deeper to prevent water accumulation during rain."

"it is good."

He left after he finished speaking. Watching his retreating figure, I suddenly thought of Lao Huang. I wondered how he was doing on the new project, whether he still had his thermos, and whether he was still making goji berry tea.

My phone vibrated. It was a message from Xiaohui.

"Brother Chen, it's raining today."

But here it's a sunny day.

I replied, "It's not raining here. Take an umbrella with you when you go out."

"I'm not going out. Brother Chen takes an umbrella when he goes out."

"OK."

After spending a week in the provincial capital, I asked Lao Hu for leave because my father needed to go to the hospital for a follow-up examination. Lao Hu told me to drive carefully.

It took me two and a half hours to get home. It was almost dark when I arrived. My mom was cooking in the kitchen, and my dad was watching TV on the sofa.

"You're back?" Mom poked her head out from the kitchen.

"You said you'd make another trip, but your father and I can go to the hospital."

"It's okay, Mom."

"Look how thin you've become. Is the food in the provincial capital not good?"

"good."

……

The next day, we went to the hospital early. Although the doctors hadn't started work yet, the hospital was packed with people. Looking at the long lines in the lobby, I felt a little dazed.

Among these people are the elderly, children, and pregnant women; everyone is waiting. Waiting to see a doctor, waiting to get medicine, waiting to be hospitalized, waiting to be discharged. Am I waiting too? Waiting for the weekend, waiting for the project to finish, waiting for a short meeting, waiting for that day that may never come.

We arrived early and got an early appointment, so the check-up was completed by 11 a.m. My dad's condition has stabilized, and my mom and I breathed a sigh of relief.

After lunch, Mom said, "Xiao, go see Xiao Hui this afternoon. You promised Xiao Hui that you would get engaged on the 15th of this month, but now you can't. This will leave a bad impression."

"Mom, I called her mother. The new project is short-staffed and busy right now. We'll get engaged once we're done with that."

"You silly child, when you meet him, say some nice things to Xiao Hui."

"understood."

……

When I met Xiaohui, she was wearing a pink dress and holding a plastic bag filled with strawberries.

"Brother Chen, strawberries."

I took it, picked one out, and took a bite.

"So sweet, Xiao Hui, you've lost weight."

"No. Brother Chen has lost weight."

We walked around the park for a while, then sat down on a bench to rest.

"Brother Chen, when are you going to the provincial capital?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"Brother Chen, have some strawberries," she said, handing me the reddest strawberry.

"Xiao Hui, you eat too."

"Hmm," looking at Xiao Hui's sweet smile, I felt a pang of sadness for some reason.

……

Early Monday morning, Ms. Zhou arrived. She stood in the open space of the construction site, and I handed her the progress plan.

She flipped through it and glanced at it.

"Your timeline is too conservative. Three months from piling to reaching ground level?"

"Mr. Zhou, the geological conditions are complex, making pile foundation construction very difficult..."

She interrupted me before I could explain.

"The difficulty is your problem. The construction period cannot be delayed. Two months to reach ground level."

I glanced at Lao Hu next to me, but Lao Hu didn't say anything.

"Mr. Zhou, two months is too tight..."

"Then we'll work overtime." She closed the documents and handed them back to me. "I don't care how you do it, the deadline can't be delayed."

After saying that, she left.

"Mr. Hu, we really can't finish this in two months."

"You have to get it done, even if you can't finish it." Old Hu lit a cigarette. "That's just how she is. She'll pressure you to meet the deadline first, and then adjust it later. Start with a two-month schedule, and we'll talk about it if she can't manage that."

"All right."

Back in my dorm that night, I turned on my computer and rearranged the schedule. I compressed it again and again, and by the third draft, I had finally reduced the time from piling to reaching zero to two and a half months. But the client wanted two months.

Just then, my phone rang; it was a voice message from Xiaohui.

"Brother Chen, are you asleep?"

"Not yet, I'm making plans, I'll send you a message later."

"Hello, Brother Chen."

I tried to further shorten the construction period, but ultimately I couldn't. The geological survey report showed that there was a layer of quicksand underground, which would cause many problems during the pile foundation construction. The client didn't care about these issues; she only cared about the results.

Never mind, I'll talk to her about it tomorrow.

I took out my phone and opened Xiaohui's chat window.

Goodnight, Xiao Hui.

Xiao Hui immediately replied to me, "Brother Chen, thank you for your hard work, good night."

My roommate's snoring is so loud, it sounds like an electric pick is chiseling through the wall.