The story is purely fictional; any resemblance to actual events or persons is coincidental.
I’m thinking of changing the name; otherwise, it will just be a case of hanging a sheep's head while selling dog meat.
Last time, I mentioned going back to eat something first, then coming back at noon to assess the situation.
Learning from the mistakes made during work hours, this time, my brother and I observed secretly. We kept our distance from the rebar, and to avoid alerting the workers, we didn’t show ourselves at all. We hid near the bushes in a small grove where there was no sunlight, so it wasn’t too hot. We peeked out just enough to keep an eye on our position, treating the workers as imaginary enemies. Our mission was to seize the enemy's supplies without a fight.
It was really boring; it wasn’t too hot at noon, but still warm enough that I wasn’t sweating. After eating, my blood sugar rose, and I felt quite drowsy. My brother fell asleep first, and I took one last look at our position; the enemy was still busy. I also dozed off.
I felt a pain in my neck; it wasn’t a crick but a bite from a big black ant. I swatted at the pain, and when I rubbed it, the ant was crushed in my hand, already dead, split in two. I woke up and checked the position of the sun relative to a branch, realizing not much time had passed.
I noticed there were no shadows on the position anymore. I pinched my brother’s nose; without oxygen, he woke up immediately, gasping for air.
Long fist action, long fist action.
Is there no one?
Right, I can’t see anyone. Ready to set off, but still cautiously checking for anyone watching the area.
Good.
We pretended to look for lost keys, kicking innocent stones on the ground, brushing aside unrelated grass, and peeking into the unaware storm drains.
My eyes quietly scanned every corner of the construction site, confirming that there was no one around, absolutely no one. I was secretly pleased. But we had to keep moving in; we couldn’t let there be anyone in the bushes or woods.
I suggested we check the place where the fight happened in the morning. We walked to the area where we had been active earlier, pretending to search for keys. No one, absolutely no one; I even confirmed that the nearby windows were clear inside.
I gathered my courage and walked near the pile of rebar, picking up a piece about 1 meter long and thumb-thick, saying to my brother that this would make a good weapon. My voice was neither too loud nor too soft; this was my last test. If someone came out to stop us, I would let them go. No one came. My brother picked up a similar piece and followed my lead. After a few steps, I climbed up a small dirt slope; the center of the dip was the entrance to the tunnel. I casually leaned against the slope, letting go of the rebar, which slid down. I started to feel nervous, wondering if it would make a sound when it hit the pipe. There might be insulation, and it only hit the handle of the faucet, but that handle was about the same thickness as my head, so it didn’t make much noise; it seemed the sound traveled more along the tunnel. My brother imitated me, and two pieces had already entered the tunnel. I went down to grab another one, repeating this process about 10 times. I took 6 pieces; I wasn’t sure how many my brother threw. I was still on edge.
Each piece probably weighed around 1 kilogram.
We pretended to look for the keys again and slowly retreated from the battlefield.
We went to the entrance farthest to the east from this entrance, where we slowly crawled over to retrieve the rebar. On the way, we also checked to see if anyone was following us; it’s always a bit nerve-wracking when doing something bad.
This was the third time going through the tunnel, and we didn’t speak the whole way.
When we reached the entrance with the rebar, we realized there was too much to carry all at once, but we couldn’t leave it all at the entrance either. I initially planned to carry three pieces in each hand but found that was impossible; at most, I could manage two, and I had to drag them along because one hand would lose strength after a while. No endurance. I still had to hold the flashlight. In total, there were 11 pieces.
We made several trips back and forth to move all 11 pieces into the tunnel.
During the transfer, I initially thought I would take two pieces while my brother took four, and that would be enough. Later, inspired by the back-and-forth movement, once we were on the surface, I realized I didn’t need to hold the flashlight anymore, so I could take more; I estimated that taking six wouldn’t be a problem.
The tunnel was about 100 meters long; it wasn’t hot inside, but there was no wind. After multiple trips, my brother and I were both sweating profusely, our short sleeves soaked, and we were quite dirty.
All 11 pieces of rebar were transported from that entrance to the east wall entrance.
As mentioned earlier, the east wall entrance was quite secluded; no one was around to supervise when we burned wood to roast sweet potatoes.
We found a half-destroyed wall; it was perfect. From there, we took turns tossing the rebar over the wall. At first, our technique was lacking, and the rebar clanged together, but later it became silent.
We didn’t go to the nearby recycling place to sell it, fearing something might go wrong, so we walked about a kilometer away to an unexpected location. We sold it for about 10 yuan. We bought very refreshing cola and bread.
Although it wasn’t a glorious labor, the bread was delicious, and the cola was quite stimulating to the throat.
How can one stand by the river without getting their shoes wet? Next time, I’ll write about the mishaps.