Chapter 256 Cang Yan
"Students, spring is back, and the annual Arbor Day is here again! Planting trees and greening the motherland is the primary task and core content of building a living environment for mankind, and is a basic national policy of our country."

On the morning of Arbor Day, at the foot of Leigong Mountain in Jinping Mine, red banners and colorful flags were flying. The leaders of the Municipal Education Bureau, the No. 1989 Middle School of the city, and the township government stood on the high ground. Below were neatly lined students and reporters with long guns and short guns. The last leader to speak was Wang Daozhong, the principal of Jiangchuan No. 273 Middle School. He held a speech manuscript and made an impassioned speech: "In 362, the People's Government of Jiangchuan City made a great strategic decision to 'eliminate barren hills suitable for afforestation in five years and green Jiangchuan in ten years'. With the joint efforts of governments at all levels, relevant departments and the whole society, after five years of hard work, extraordinary results have been achieved. million mu of artificial forests have been planted, million mu of closed mountains have been closed for afforestation, and barren hills suitable for afforestation have been basically eliminated. The state awarded our city the honorable title of 'National Advanced City for Afforestation and Greening of Barren Hills', and the Ministry of Forestry awarded our city the honorable title of 'Advanced City for Greening Plains'. This is a great encouragement and inspiration to the people of the city!"

Wang Daozhong said affectionately: "Eliminating barren hills suitable for afforestation is only the first step in revitalizing Jiangchuan's forestry. The task of greening Jiangchuan and protecting the environment lies before us. As the successor of socialism and a member of the advanced city for afforestation of barren hills in the country, each of us students has the responsibility and obligation to contribute to our beautiful environment with practical actions..."

Wang Xiaokai, who was standing in the team, yawned: "I used to think that Lao Wang was good at boasting, but I didn't expect him to be so boastful. Damn, he's so awesome that he's floating in the sky."

Zhang Yunqi did not respond. He looked at Wang Daozhong, who was speaking righteously and was highly respected on the stage, and suddenly he remembered how he looked when he was imprisoned many years later, with an old man with gray hair and a haggard face. The world is unpredictable. The scarred earth of Jinping Mining Area and the sobbing crows on Leigong Mountain were perhaps silently watching these people and these things in front of him with a ridiculous, cold look.

Half an hour later, the Arbor Day speech finally ended with extremely warm applause. After the leaders accepted interviews from reporters from 18 groups, they left with their hands behind their backs and walked in a figure eight manner, surrounded by the crowd. The enthusiastic students dug holes on the bare Leigong Mountain under the scorching sun.

According to the above requirements and arrangements, the tree planting activity is divided into groups of two. Each group needs to dig 5-meter square tree pits. The task is quite large. The tool is a large shovel. To dig mud with this thing, you need to have a lot of strength and you have to know how to dig - if you can't dig, you can't dig it into pieces and it will be difficult to dig it out.

Among the seven students from Class 156, there are five girls and two boys. How to group them becomes a problem. After all, hard work like digging pits is not suitable for girls.

When the 156th class was collecting tree planting tools and pine and cypress seedlings at the foot of the mountain, Lin Xueqing, who was always cheerful, said to Zhang Yunqi: "Zhang Yunqi, how about we be in the same group? What do you think?"

Yu Xiaorui, who was good friends with Chu Jian, glanced at Lin Xueqing when she heard this. She felt that Lin Xueqing had no good judgment. It was obvious who Zhang Yunqi would be in the same group with, and there was no way she could figure it out.

At this time, Wang Xiaokai came up to Yu Xiaorui, smiled shyly, and patted his thin chest: "Xiaorui, how about we form a team? I'm strong, I'll dig the pit!"

Xiao Xuemei is always quick to speak: "When men and women work together, the work is not tiring. This tree planting activity is really great. I wonder how many pairs our school can come up with in just one morning."

Lin Xueqing's face turned red.

Yu Xiaorui stamped her feet and said, "Xuemei, what nonsense are you talking about? I want to be in a group by myself, and I don't want to be in a group with Kaizi, that stinky bastard."

Wang Xiaokai's mouth was crooked: "What, how can you talk like that? I meant well, why did you say I was kicked out?"

Li Yufei reached out to interrupt everyone's nonsense. She turned her head to look at Zhang Yunqi and said, "Yunqi, you are the class monitor. You have the final say on how to divide the groups."

Zhang Yunqi said, "How about this, there are more girls than boys in our class, so we don't need to divide into groups. All seven of us can go together. You girls can dig as much as you can. If you can't dig too deep, Kaizi and I will do it."

These words left everyone speechless.

Treat everyone equally and offend no one.

Zhang Yunqi and Wang Xiaokai carried tools and pine and cypress saplings up the mountain. The two brothers were the main force. Each of them had a large shovel. They found an open space and started working directly. The process of digging a tree pit was simple. They just poured the surface soil and the loess below on both sides of the tree pit. Generally speaking, the soil of normal surface land is cultivated soil, that is, soil that has been reclaimed by people, but the surface soil on the mountain in Jinping Mining Area is dark black slag and gravel, and the loess below is also desertified due to soil erosion. Zhang Yunqi did not know much about greening and tree planting, but he knew that it was impossible to grow trees on such poor and water-deficient land. In a few months, all these saplings would die. Therefore, coming here to plant trees is meaningless for trees, but it is very meaningful for people. It not only exercises the students' bodies, but also allows the leaders to appear gloriously on local TV stations and newspapers tomorrow.

With a slam of his foot on the shovel, Zhang Yunqi thrust it straight into the mud, then dug the soil out of the pit.

He dug repeatedly in this way, and after digging a half-meter deep pit for the tree, he backfilled it with 20 to 30 centimeters of soil. The girls in the class planted the saplings, and he filled the pit with loess, tamped it around the tree, and then covered it with a thin layer of soil. A tree was planted.

The process seemed simple, but digging the holes was quite strenuous. After digging seven or eight half-meter-deep holes, Zhang Yunqi was already covered in sweat. When he sat on a big rock to rest, the sunlight in the sky became dimmer, a cool breeze blew, and the clouds gradually turned dark blue.

Zhang Yunqi put down the big shovel, took a sip of water, and was somewhat surprised to see several students appear beside Li Yufei not far away, chatting and laughing. There were six people in total, both boys and girls, and their clothes and appearance were far better than those of ordinary students. However, Zhang Yunqi only knew Lin Zihao and Huo Xiaoguang, two well-known figures in the city's No. 1 Middle School.

Huo Xiaoguang was sitting on a half-dead tree trunk. His fat and bloated body had deformed and twisted the trunk. He was smoking a cigarette in his mouth, even though there was a young teacher leading the team not far away, with his hands behind his back, inspecting and directing the students' tree planting progress.

Lin Zihao joined in the lively chat in that small circle. His fair face was full of sunshine and he seemed to be very talkative, leading the topic. Occasionally, his gaze would turn to the place where trees were planted not far to the west.

I first saw them planting trees there.

"Boss Zhang, what are you doing?"

Wang Xiaokai, who was digging a hole nearby, saw Zhang Yunqi sitting there for a long time without coming over to help, so he called out to him, only to find that he was looking at Li Yufei and the group of people.

Wang Xiaokai was a little puzzled. He scratched his head, squinted his eyes and looked over there. Suddenly he became happy. He dragged the shovel and sat over there. He said, "Boss Zhang, do you remember the party at Li Yufei's house during the Chinese New Year?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "I remember, I didn't go because I had something to do. What's wrong?"

Wang Xiaokai pulled a leaf and bit it in his mouth: "Look at the two people in the lead, the woman is called Li Xiaoman, and the man, the man... should be called Zhao Chengming, I can't remember clearly, anyway, they also went to Li Yufei's house to play that day, they should be friends, although I don't know where they came from, but you have to say, they have really good personalities and high quality, they are quite likable."

At this point, Wang Xiaokai suddenly reached out and touched his hair: "Fuck! Is it raining?"

Zhang Yunqi looked up and a drop of rain hit his eyeball.

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Pls. Sorry for the slow update. I have finished the prelude and will get to the point soon.

(End of this chapter)