Chapter 298: The Big Barrels Must Be Cleaned Out

Seeing Li Daoyun suddenly appear from the bushes, Cong Gui's mouth fell open in shock, his eyes and tongue protruding comically!

Thud,

He fell to his knees again.

"Master! Master, that's not what I meant!"

Kneeling on the ground, Cong Gui's hands flailed like a windmill, clearly terrified to the point of breaking down.

Li Daoyun emerged from the bushes, spat out a piece of straw he had been chewing, and walked over to Cong Gui with a half-smile. He lifted Cong Gui's chin with his smoking pipe, "If that's not what you meant, then what did you mean?"

"I—I—I…" Cong Gui stammered and trembled for a while. Finally, under Li Daoyun's kindly gaze, he broke down.

"Master, please forgive me! I'll do whatever you say! If I ever speak ill of you or the Li family again, let me die a terrible death! I'll be struck by lightning! I'll choke on my food, and suffer from sudden wind while sleeping!"

As he spoke, terrified Cong Gui slapped his own face.

Seeing this groveling posture, Li Daoyun smiled slightly, as if gently teaching a child. "Making mistakes and whether or not to correct them is a matter for the future. But if you make mistakes, you must be punished."

Watching Cong Gui tightly close his eyes with a "hit me, I'll endure it" expression, the old man chuckled, "Damn it, I'm old and can't beat you anymore. I won't hit you."

"Really? Thank you, Master!" Cong Gui's face lit up with joy.

"I won't hit you, but I didn't say I wouldn't punish you." Li Daoyun smiled again, "Look at you, vomiting in the big barrel. This is clearly deserving of some discipline."

"Master?"

Cong Gui had a bad feeling.

Li Daoyun picked up his smoking pipe and pointed to a large barrel. "Go, clean that barrel."

"Ugh." Looking at the large barrel of foul-smelling soybean paste and the wriggling maggots inside, Cong Gui swallowed hard. A strong urge to vomit surged up.

"From now on, if any of you vomit again," Li Daoyun glanced at the three of them coldly, "I'll make them eat their vomit."

His tone was extremely calm.

But the three present had no doubt that this old man could actually do it!

Seeing the three of them stunned, Li Daoyun raised an eyebrow and pointed to the setting sun, "Still not cleaning? Do you plan to wait for the sun to set?"

"Cleaning! Master, we'll clean right now!"

The three quickly grabbed brushes, put on masks, and rushed to the barrels.

Watching them endure the urge to vomit while vigorously scrubbing the barrels, Li Daoyun lit his pipe. Seeing the masks they were wearing, he pointed at them, "What's with those masks on your faces? Are you three young women afraid of being seen? Take them off."

The next moment, the masks were tossed into the bushes by Cong Gui and the others.

"Why are you all making such long faces?" With the masks gone, their distorted expressions made Li Daoyun feel quite uncomfortable.

"Master," Cong Gui, squatting in a half-height barrel, forced himself to hold his breath, "It's too smelly, I can't stand it."

"This is unbearable?" Li Daoyun chuckled, "The soybean paste is smelly, but it's all made from soybeans. It's much cleaner than the pickling work you three did before."

The three remained silent.

They didn't dare speak.

One reason was that it was indeed true, and the other… they were afraid that speaking would make them vomit.

"Smile!"

With Li Daoyun's low shout, the three's faces twisted into smiles even more hideous than crying.

"Smile more hideously than crying!" Li Daoyun was clearly not satisfied.

Cong Gui and the others truly didn't know how to fix it. With a tearful tone, they begged, "Master, please forgive us, we really can't smile!"

Seeing their painful expressions, Li Daoyun picked up his smoking pipe, thought for a moment, and a smile appeared on his face.

"Can't smile? Hmm… Then you're not committed. Here's what, I'll teach you a song…"

...

Li Xian and Li You spent most of the day at the forest farm office, not even going home for lunch. By the time they finalized the rules for the pickled cabbage factory in the afternoon, it was already past three o'clock.

Only then did he find the time to go to the club.

The club in the forest farm was actually a high-ceilinged second floor. It used to be a movie theater, but when the old film projector caught fire, it burned down several rooms. In other places, such an accident would just mean a renovation. However, any fire at the forest farm was a big deal, and for fire safety, the club was closed and left unused ever since.

When he arrived, he found that the wooden folding viewing chairs had been removed, and the entire floor was cleared out.

It's true that the club didn't seem big before, but with everything moved out, the space was quite ample. The first-floor hall and a few small activity rooms totaled about two thousand square meters, not including the corridors.

The rooms upstairs, after knocking down the walls, had a usable area of nearly a thousand square meters.

This size was more than sufficient for a pickled cabbage factory.

Encouraging the workers who were busy in the club, Li Xian spotted Chen Guixiang in the crowd.

It wasn't that Chen Guixiang was particularly good-looking, but she was very noticeable carrying four children in a large quilt on her back.

Li Xian knew Chen Guixiang had registered at the office the day before, but he hadn't expected her to come help with the work today.

"Fifth Sister, you don't need to do this work with the children," Li Xian said as he took the broom from her. The club had been abandoned for so long that it was covered in dust. The four little babies, caught in the dust, sneezed repeatedly, their noses red and snot-covered.

But perhaps having endured hardships with their mother, they didn't cry. They just stared at each other, mumbling in the large quilt.

Chen Guixiang wiped the sweat from her face and smiled, "It's fine, it's fine. We're all part of the factory now, how can I slack off?"

Li Xian shook his head, recalling the pickled cabbage from that day, and asked, "Fifth Sister, the pickled cabbage you sent to our house tasted really good, different from what I had before. How did you pickle it? At this time of year, it's hard to get the right taste, did you use some special method?"

Hearing that Li Xian liked her pickled cabbage, Chen Guixiang was quite pleased. "Yes! It's not the season yet, so if you pickle it normally, it won't taste right. It'll be like sour water, not sour from the core. Normally, pickled cabbage is made with raw cabbage, but I scalded the cabbage with boiling water, then pressed it with stones. This way, the cabbage is pickled in twenty days! Plus, I used boiled water, not tap water, in the barrel. Besides the big salt, I also added some pepper, so the flavor is better than ordinary pickled cabbage!"

Upon hearing this, Li Xian nodded deeply.

He handed the broom to a nearby woman and said to Chen Guixiang, "Fifth Sister, you're no longer doing physical labor. From now on, you'll be the factory's technician. Once we finish tidying up the factory, you'll lead everyone according to the method you just told me. Is that clear?"

Chen Guixiang was flustered upon hearing Li Xian's arrangement. "This—this won't do. I don't know how to read, how can I be a technician? No, no!"

"Ah?" Li Xian waved his hand, "Who said technicians must know how to read? I'm not asking you to be a propaganda worker or make posters. Your task is to ensure that every barrel of pickled cabbage tastes like the one you sent us. Is that clear?"

"Is it really that simple?" This standard was quite different from Chen Guixiang's impression of a technician. She imagined technicians to be like those from the bureau who came every spring, wearing big glasses and speaking with an academic tone!

"Yes, it's that simple." Li Xian nodded.

"Alright! That's easy!" Chen Guixiang nodded vigorously and grabbed the broom she had put down.

"Fifth Sister, you're a technician now, so why are you still doing this labor?" Li Xian said with a mix of amusement and exasperation.

"It's not time to start pickling cabbage yet! I'll clean up with everyone first!" Chen Guixiang used the broom to sweep the debris into a pile, raising a cloud of dust.

Amidst the dust, her two rows of white teeth were particularly noticeable.

...

Chen Guixiang's simplicity made Li Xian feel she was worth recruiting.

Thinking to inform Li You later to find an opportunity to arrange for Zhu Lao Wu, Li Xian headed home.

As he left the club and arrived at the small square full of large barrels, he was greeted by a chaotic and off-key singing.

"

Li Xian told me/Move the big barrels, big barrels in hand/So damn dirty!"

"We/Need to clean/Every barrel, must clean/Every barrel!"

"Seeing/soybean paste/Not disgusted, seeing/maggots/not scared!"

"Inside the barrel/must be clean, outside/must be clean!"

"One/Big barrel/not cleaned, beaten/to cry and call for mother!"

Taking a closer look, Li Xian saw Cong Gui, Sun Fu, and Zhang Dayou squatting in the dirty, stinky barrels, scrubbing vigorously under the setting sun while singing off-key. Li Xian tilted his head in confusion.

"What the hell is this for?"