"I..." Zhao Qingzhu’s bluster instantly deflated.
Zhao Jun sneered and pointed toward the gate of the Logging Camp. "All logs entering the camp have to be brought right up to the end of the pile. You didn’t. You just dropped your logs here. What are the other guys supposed to do? You’re one rotten fish spoiling the whole pot of soup, you know that?"
"But you still can’t refuse to scale my logs!" Zhao Qingzhu forced himself to stand his ground, shouting, "We skidders worked our asses off to haul these back..."
Zhao Jun jutted his chin out at him. "So, are you going to hit me?"
Zhao Qingzhu was speechless.
He wanted to, but he didn’t dare.
Zhao Jun added, "You can go report me to the forestry bureau. See if what I’m doing is by the book or not."
Zhao Qingzhu’s hands were trembling with anger. But then he heard Zhao Jun say, "You’re a lost cause. It’s pointless explaining anything to you. But let me tell you this: if the skidders under you keep messing around, I’ll make sure all their work is for nothing!"
After speaking, Zhao Jun turned to the workers. "Listen up, everyone! Any of these skidders who try to pull this crap again, you just take their logs and toss them onto the pile yourselves! You hear me?"
"Heard!"
The eighty-odd Gui Ling workers shouted back. Their voices weren’t in unison, but they were loud and powerful, making Zhao Qingzhu’s face turn pale.
Zhao Jun turned, and he and Zhang Xuefeng found a log to sit on while they reconciled the accounts.
Xu Shengli glanced at Zhao Qingzhu, then turned and called out to Zhao Jun, "Technician Zhao, Technician Zhang! Come to my shack for lunch in a bit. Xiaolin and I are treating you."
"Alright!" Zhao Jun replied. "Thanks, Xu Leader, thanks, Lin Leader."
"Hey, Zhao Jun!" Song Tiemin called out from the side. "We Gui Ling guys will treat you to lunch tomorrow!"
"You got it, Brother Song!"
Listening to them all chime in together made Zhao Qingzhu grind his teeth in fury. Just then, the skidder who had unloaded the logs earlier whispered to Zhao Qingzhu, "Brother Zhao, what do we do now?"
Zhao Qingzhu took two deep breaths before saying to the skidder, "Do what that technician said. Push the logs right up to the end of the piles. Put them on whichever pile they belong to."
Hearing this, the skidder was deeply dissatisfied—and his dissatisfaction was aimed at Zhao Qingzhu. Earlier that morning, Zhao Qingzhu had specifically told them that whoever brought logs back could just drop them anywhere and not to listen to anyone else.
And now look what happened. A whole morning’s work wasted.
But thinking about Zhao Qingzhu’s connections, the skidder could only swallow his anger and drive his horse-cart away.
"Brother-in-law!" Just then, Zhao Qingzhu’s brother-in-law, Niu Guoliang, asked him, "What are we gonna do?"
"What else can we do?" Zhao Qingzhu snapped. "Hurry up and hitch the cart to haul more logs. You think we can win a fight against them?"
"So we’re just letting it go?" Niu Guoliang shot a glare in Zhao Jun’s direction before saying to Zhao Qingzhu, "I can’t swallow this!"
"I can’t swallow it either!" Zhao Qingzhu said. "I’m going back right now to look up those damn regulations. The moment I find a mistake he’s made, I’m going straight to Baoguo to report his ass!"
...
At noon, Lin Musen and Xu Shengli arranged for lunch. Zhao Jun and Zhang Xuefeng went and had a hearty meal, but even Zhang Xuefeng, who loved to drink, didn’t touch any alcohol.
He knew this Logging Camp was fraught with danger, and one wrong move could mean a fall from which he’d never recover.
In the afternoon, Zhao Jun and Zhang Xuefeng continued scaling logs at the Log Pile Yard.
This time, no matter which skidder it was, they all followed Zhao Jun’s rules. As a result, the work at the Log Pile Yard proceeded in an orderly fashion.
But just as the afternoon was ending, around quitting time, Niu Guoliang returned, hauling a linden log. After bringing the log into the camp and placing it according to its category, he shouted, "I’m number 83! Technician, time to scale!"
There were eighty skidding teams, so there were eighty numbers. The last thirty numbers all belonged to the skidders under Zhao Qingzhu.
Zhao Jun happened to be close to that log pile. He first glanced at Niu Guoliang, remembering that he was the one standing next to Zhao Qingzhu that morning. Then, Zhao Jun looked at the linden log and couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
’Whether I can drag that guy named Dou down with them all depends on this log,’ Zhao Jun thought.
Thinking of this, Zhao Jun called out, "Brother Feng! Hey, Brother Feng!"
Hearing Zhao Jun call him, Zhang Xuefeng quickly dropped what he was doing and ran over.
When Zhang Xuefeng got closer, he gave Niu Guoliang a deep look before asking Zhao Jun, "What’s up, Zhao Jun?"
Zhao Jun pointed to the linden log. "Brother Feng, you scale this one."
Zhao Jun didn’t do it himself, instead ordering Zhang Xuefeng to do the scaling. Seeing this, Niu Guoliang cursed inwardly, ’This little bastard really knows how to put on an act!’
But Zhang Xuefeng sensed there was more to it. He glanced to the side, froze for a moment, and thought, ’Oh, hell! It’s a trumpet log!’
A trumpet log, as the name implies.
One end of this linden log was shaped like a trumpet: one end was very thick, it tapered to be very thin, but then it thickened again in the middle.
Because one end resembled a trumpet, logs like this were called trumpet logs.
Zhang Xuefeng knew Zhao Jun must have a deeper reason for this. He went forward with his scaling rod, measured the trumpet end first, and then said to Zhao Jun, "4.60."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun pointed to the middle section of the linden log, where it went from thin to thick. "Brother Feng, measure the middle."
Zhang Xuefeng didn’t say a word and silently did as Zhao Jun instructed.
But Niu Guoliang, who was standing nearby, wouldn’t have it. He immediately rushed forward to grab Zhang Xuefeng, yelling, "What are you measuring the middle for? Don’t you always measure the thick end?"
By then, Zhang Xuefeng had already finished measuring. He ignored Niu Guoliang and simply said to Zhao Jun, "4.54."
"4.60... 4.54." Zhao Jun seemed to do a quick calculation in his head, then told Zhang Xuefeng, "Number 83, record it as 4.56 for him."
"You got it!" Zhang Xuefeng replied, immediately picking up the marking hammer and stamping five 6’s directly onto the log.
"Hey!" Niu Guoliang blew up. He glared at Zhao Jun and demanded, "This is a damn 4.60 log! On what grounds are you recording it as 4.56?"
Zhao Jun pointed at the log. "This is a trumpet log. Didn’t you see how thin that part is? For these, you have to measure the middle and average the dimensions."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Niu Guoliang lost it, pointing at Zhao Jun and roaring, "Cut the crap! You’re just fucking with us, aren’t you?"
SMACK! Zhao Jun swung his hand and slapped Niu Guoliang’s pointing hand aside. "Who the hell do you think you’re talking to like that? Who the hell spoiled you into acting this way?"
"Fuck..." Niu Guoliang cursed and lunged at Zhao Jun. But Zhang Xuefeng, standing nearby, was quicker. He shot forward, grabbed Niu Guoliang’s shoulder, and tripped him, throwing him straight to the ground.
"Hey! What do you think you’re doing?" Not far away, Zhao Qingzhu saw this and came running over, roaring furiously.
Next to Zhao Qingzhu were five of his skidders. They hadn’t been waiting around for a fight; it was the end of the workday, and after this last haul, the skidders wouldn’t be going back into the mountains. They were gathering with their leader to settle their accounts.
Seeing Zhao Qingzhu bring his men over, Song Tiemin didn’t even need a signal from Zhao Jun. He and a crowd of Gui Ling workers immediately moved to surround them.
"What now? What is it now?!" Seeing the same situation unfolding again, Zhao Qingzhu felt both helpless and furious.
He was angry, but no matter how angry he got, how could his small group possibly win against this gang of Gui Ling workers?
This was just asking for a beating.
Hearing his brother-in-law’s voice, Niu Guoliang instantly found his courage. He scrambled up from the ground, rushed to Zhao Qingzhu, and stammered his way through an explanation of what had just happened.
As he listened to the explanation, Zhao Jun was getting tired just from hearing it. ’It really sucks to be uneducated,’ he thought. ’If Li Ruhai were here, he could tell this story so vividly.’
Zhao Qingzhu roughly understood what Niu Guoliang was saying. Feeling that he had finally caught Zhao Jun making a mistake, he suppressed a smile and asked Niu Guoliang, "Where’s that log?"
"Right here!" Niu Guoliang, now emboldened, pushed through the crowd and led Zhao Qingzhu to the linden log.
Zhao Qingzhu took one look and told the four skidders behind him, "Come on, get this log down from there for me!"
Hearing this, Song Tiemin started to move forward. Once a log was on a pile, it was under the Gui Ling workers’ jurisdiction. But Zhao Jun reached out and stopped him.
At that moment, Zhao Qingzhu turned his head, looked at Zhao Jun, and said, "Technician Zhao, this log was scaled at 4.60."
Hearing this, Zhao Jun corrected him, "The *butt end* was 4.60." He stressed the words "butt end" as he spoke.
But Zhao Qingzhu didn’t seem to grasp the distinction. He stared hard at Zhao Jun and shouted, "Then how did you record it? A 4.60 log, and you recorded it as 4.56?"
The moment those two sentences left his lips, Zhao Qingzhu felt a wave of satisfaction wash over him, as if all the frustration from being suppressed by Zhao Jun for the past two days had been swept away.
"Hah!" Zhao Jun sneered. "I told you to go home and read the regulations, but you didn’t, did you? You’re completely clueless!"
In the past, when Zhao Jun had said this, Zhao Qingzhu, who indeed hadn’t studied the rules, would feel insecure and just endure it.
But this time, Zhao Qingzhu felt he was in the right. He jumped to his feet, pointed at Zhao Jun, and roared, "You dare to fucking dock our skidders’ measurements! Zhao Jun! I’m going to the bureau to report you!"