Carrying a Jurassic on me
Chapter 592 - 258: The Ability of a College Student_1

Chapter 592: Chapter 258: The Ability of a College Student_1

When Yan Fei came back to the shed with a few fish in hand, the ever-unsettled Ma Yongming’s eyes were wide open with surprise. He couldn’t help but set down his tools and run over to ask, "Did you really go catch fish?"

"That’s what I said I was going to do!" Yan Fei chuckled.

"Come over here..." Ma Yongming pulled him aside. "Did you not chase after those guys to scare them off, so they wouldn’t snitch on you?"

"Uncle Ming, isn’t that a bit wrong?" Yan Fei asked, retorting with an air of righteousness. "I am a law-abiding citizen. I’m not just someone known for righteous acts in our Sancha River town, but also a role model for wildlife protection. I can’t even bear to hurt animals, so how could I scare people? Are you a construction foreman or a gang leader? Are you teaching me to break the law? Hmmm... this is just so unlike you, I can’t believe you’re this kind of person, teaching me such things..."

With an air of cocky confidence, he turned around and walked into the kitchen with his fish, leaving behind the words, "I told you not to worry. Trust me, everything will be fine."

Ma Yongming was momentarily stunned by Yan’s words, and it took him a moment to recover after Yan had gone. He was so infuriated he almost passed out from holding his breath. He coughed twice and then yelled in the direction of the small house, "Fine, fine, fine! I am not going to bother with you anymore, do whatever you want! You really are a fool ... a fool!"

Grumbling to himself, he went back to the construction site, his mood rather sour. Seeing the workers laughing at him didn’t help his mood at all. Irritated, he shouted, "What are you looking at? Get back to work! Didn’t you see that even our big boss Yan went out to catch fish for us to eat?"

His roaring was met with laughter from the workers who were already quite used to his outbursts. Even Ma Yongming couldn’t help but laugh along despite his initial irritation. The laughter overall seemed to lighten the mood and eased their worries about the incident.

In a short while, Miss Xu Xiaoyan came over and called everyone to dinner.

Indeed, it wasn’t very late, and the workers felt a bit guilty while eating. The informal leader suggested, "Let’s eat quickly so that we can work while it’s still light. We’re being fed twice a day, and with so little work we’d not be able to sleep well tonight..."

Yan Fei, the boss, instead advised, "We all helped each other today, catching a few fish was the least I could do. Come on, let’s have a drink. There’s no need to rush. We can still work tomorrow!"

Ma Yongming interjected, "You have entrusted us with the work, so what time we do it is not for you to decide, right? If we want to work after dinner, it’s our business, not yours. Let’s finish dinner and get back to work. What can you do about it?"

The workers all knew that these two had exchanged words earlier, and were now engaged in a verbal standoff. They all laughed silently.

Only Miss Xu Xiaoyan, who had been in the room all the while, didn’t know what had happened when Yan Fei had come back with the fish earlier. Seeing everyone else laughing, however, she knew it wasn’t a serious matter and joined in the laughter.

"Such impertinence!" Yan Fei was dumbstruck, almost spitting out the sip of wine he had just taken. It was his first experience of being confronted in such a way, but then he composed himself and said, "What kind of torches do you need for work then? Should I prepare more for you? Will pine wood ones do? They’ll surely last till dawn..."

Ma Yongming found this so funny that he couldn’t help laughing, and, with that, everyone in the room burst into laughter too.

Despite the jolly atmosphere, it was clear that everyone was still somewhat concerned about him. Seeing this, Yan Fei decided to put their minds at ease by explaining his plans for the shed: "You all understand what this shed is for, right? It’s for growing mushrooms using cow dung. Don’t underestimate this; once it takes off, it’s surely going to spread. This includes my vegetable and earthworm sheds. Right now, you guys are building this shed for practice. When these techniques become widespread later, you can also make money from building sheds for others..."

With this, the workers’ attention was successfully diverted. Many of them raised cows at home, hence one of them asked doubtfully, "Can this really become widespread?"

Yan Fei confidently replied, "What’s there to fear? If others want to learn and still can’t when there’s someone to teach them, they deserve to starve. By the second half of the year, all the empty space here will be covered with sheds for earthworm farming and vegetable growing. When the time comes, anyone who comes to work for me will be taught these techniques for free..."

"Don’t teach for free..." somebody interrupted before he could finish talking.

Yan Fei turned to look at the speaker, who was the young man responsible for painting the characters on the door. "Why can’t we teach for free?" He asked.

Not just Yan Fei, but everyone in the room was curious to hear the young man’s reasons. He confidently explained, "People don’t value free things! Ask Uncle Ming and he’ll tell you. Nobody in our crew wants to learn my sign-painting craft, afraid it would mean extra work. On the other hand, there are other crews who are willing to pay for me to teach it to them..."

Ma Yongming was thrown into confusion: "Why didn’t you mention this earlier, Da Song? How come I didn’t know?"

The young man named Da Song laughed and said, "I didn’t agree to them! Our team’s secret skills, how can we casually teach them to others?"

Ma Yongming finally breathed a sigh of relief: "That’s good, I thought you had already taught them!"

Da Song was not pleased: "I have to ask for your permission, Uncle! Do you not trust me that much? Would I easily teach our secret skills to others just for that little money?"

"Hold on ..." Miss Xu Xiaoyan rarely interrupted. "Uncle Ming, I have a question, please don’t blame me for being nosy! Is the wage you are paying Da Song the same as others?"

Ma Yongming hesitated for a moment: "No! I’m paying him as a skilled worker. Why do you ask?"

"They have unique skills, and you just pay them the same as an average worker?" Miss Xu Xiaoyan retorted indignantly. "Even Yan Xiaofei knows that wage distribution on the construction site should be differentiated according to each person’s capacity. You can’t payout the same amount to everyone, so why are you doing so?"

"How could all of them be the same? He has all sorts of people under him. If he pays them all the same, isn’t he a fool?" Ma Yongming defended himself. "Our construction team has always operated this way! We split wages into skilled and unskilled laborers, and at most, we would divide it further for temporary workers ..."

"But what if you hire a college student in the future, who knows how to design blueprints? Would you also pay him as a skilled worker?" Xu Xiaoyan rebutted.

"A college student would definitely be different ..." Ma Yongming trailed off halfway, finally realizing what she was implying. "You’re suggesting that for someone as skilled as Da Song, we should increase their wages, right?"

"Exactly!" Xu Xiaoyan nodded. "Look, your construction team has craftsmen, bricklayers, and strong workers who work quickly. If you break down the wage distribution into more categories, assigning more money to those who do more work, wouldn’t everyone be more motivated?"

"But we always work together, it’s not possible to break it down that much!" Ma Yongming frowned. "But you do make a good point! We have quite a few skilled workers on our team and it’s not really fair to pay them all the same. Do you have any good solutions?"

Xu Xiaoyan had only made an offhand comment, now she was the one stumped by his query. After pondering for a while, she replied: "Could you divide the team into several subteams? Each taking responsibility for their own tasks, and clear on what each team is responsible for. Pay those who work well a little more, those who work slowly a little less... I don’t really understand your construction team operations, it’s up to you to figure out!"

Ma Yongming immediately got lost in his thoughts. The workers, who had lost interest in their drinks, watched him while they ate. After a while, Ma Yongming lifted his head and asked: "Do any of you have any suggestions?"

The workers looked at each other, speechless, until Da Song finally spoke: "Anyway, I’d be happy if my wages were raised! If you increase my wages, whoever wants to learn my craftsmanship in the future better offer me some good benefits, otherwise, I won’t teach them!"

After he spoke, the others also began to join in the conversation.

Ma Yongming hired these people to help Yan Fei, they were mostly reliable relations who were solid workers — he would obviously choose people with genuine skills from his locality. Those who only had brute strength to offer weren’t included.

Therefore, these people were skilled craftsmen who were calm and composed. By ’skilled’, we don’t mean they had work to do, but rather that they were technically proficient. Whether it was in bricklaying or painting, these were all considered trades in the construction team.

Given this, everyone was more than willing to accept more nuanced wage standards. Although no one openly mentioned it, it was implicitly understood who were the slackers — naturally, if someone could paint a wall faster and better, and managed to paint several rooms in a day, compared to another person who lazed around and accomplished less in the same day, with inferior painting quality, yet their wages were equivalent, those who worked harder would understandably feel discontented.

After much crosstalk, Ma Yongming finally got the picture. Everyone was a neighbor or even a relative, and didn’t want to say too much normally, but given this opportunity and a bit of alcohol, their thoughts were finally spoken, though in a roundabout way.

"Alright, I understand!" Ma Yong Ming declared. "It’s just the few of us here now, we are not getting anywhere with this discussion. How about this! Once we finish this job for Xiaofei, let’s gather immediately for a meeting, we can collectively discuss and decide how to proceed. When you all go back, spread the word. I care about no one’s face, when we’re working, we only look at how much work is done. The more you work, the more you earn, regardless of who is whose relative. Speaking of relatives, if we trace our connections, we are all related, but can we really keep going like that?"