Crossing the Western Tianshan Mountains

The relationship between the two became common knowledge in a very short time. Of course, the main reason was that Gulinar had no intention of hiding it.

She had expressed her views to Fang Ya very seriously, "Being loved by a man and loving a man, in our opinion, is a very happy thing and should be done openly. Doing it secretly is wrong, as if the man is not presentable, and will be laughed at."

One day after that, when Gulinar saw Ye Minglang again, she boldly held his hand. Ye Minglang blushed and looked around nervously, wanting to break free from Gulinar's hand. Unexpectedly, she held it tighter, "Ye Minglang, I'm your girlfriend, do you admit it?"

Some workers gathered around. Ye Minglang looked at the expectation and determination in Gulinar's clear eyes. How could he not admit it?

He took the initiative to put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. Then they turned together to face the workers and introduced her to them generously: "This is my girlfriend, Gulinar."

There were whistles, applause and cheers all around:

"Kiss me! Kiss me!"

At this time, Gulinar became shy again. After all, she was just a little girl and it was her first time seeing such a scene. Although she was enthusiastic and bold, she felt that her first kiss was very precious.

He couldn't just go through the motions in public, so he timidly took small steps and ran away, causing everyone to laugh again.

This day was the groundbreaking ceremony for the West Tianshan Tunnel. According to Wu Yongjie's tradition, an altar was set up to worship the four gods. As Ling Fengxi, he was of course very opposed to his "superstitious practice", but Wu Yongjie solemnly stated, "Although you are the leader of the West Tianshan project, this project belongs to our engineering team. You have no say in what the engineering team wants to do and what they need to do to ensure the smooth progress of the project!"

In response to Ling Fengxi's "rigid" and stubborn opposition attitude, Wu Yongjie directly called him an "old antique".

Fortunately, Ling Fengxi only objected verbally. He really couldn't interfere with some of the construction team's affairs. According to Wu Yongjie, "Without this ceremony, the workers wouldn't dare to enter the cave."

So on this day, first of all, two large strings of "Dadihong" were placed at the designated location of Section 14. The kitchen of Wu Yongjie's engineering team was very knowledgeable about these things. They had already cooked a whole chicken and braised pork head, and steamed embossed buns and dotted them with red dots using red paper water. In addition, a few plates of fruit and a temporary earthen bowl made of clay were filled with incense sticks and lit, and the altar was complete.

At this time, there were at least two or three hundred people gathered around, including the workers who heard the noise, Ling Fengxi's leadership team, the medical team, Gulinar and Nurlan were all present.

Wu Yongjie led the foremen in bowing before the altar and lighting incense. His face was serious, and his voice was deep. "As we begin construction, we sincerely worship the gods of heaven and earth, and ask the four gods to bless the project with smooth progress, safety, smooth sailing, and great fortune!"

Then there are three more bows until the incense is placed in the bowl.

Everyone applauded enthusiastically and gathered around, "Boss, this will definitely go smoothly, right? Our project will definitely be completed successfully!"

Wu Lao Hu drank his glass of wine and showed the empty glass to everyone, "It must go smoothly!"

When everyone was surrounding Wu Yongjie, Ling Fengxi silently took a stick of incense and went to worship, then inserted the incense into the bowl and stared at the fourteen pieces of land behind the altar for a long time without saying a word.

Fang Ya had been keeping an eye on him. She came over and asked with a smile, "What's going on? Has our leader Ling also become superstitious like Wu Lao Hu?"

"It's not superstition, it's just a prayer. I hope the project can be completed successfully and everyone can return home safely."

Fang Ya looked at the worry and concern in his eyes, and couldn't help but soften her heart. She was no longer angry with him before, and said gently, "Lao Ling, I believe in your ability. This project will go smoothly to the end, and nothing will go wrong."

At this time, Wu Yongjie had already started to cut up the pig's head with a knife...

"Whoever eats this will be blessed and live a long life!" He shouted as he cut off a piece of pork head, but the workers who surrounded him snatched it away...

Everyone was jokingly chasing after the pig's head meat, and in a short while, the pig's head meat was scraped and divided up.

At the end of the ceremony, Wu Yongjie and Ling Fengxi dug a hole together and placed a bluestone in it as a crude foundation. Afterwards, they each took a steel chisel and inserted it into the designated hole in the fourteenth plot. "Work begins!"

In the afternoon, workers used steel chisels to chisel out a rough shape of the hole's entrance, and then the excavator came in and dug down.

The rubbing of metal against stone made a harsh sound. Lu Haoyang, who was in the crowd, saw that almost everyone was looking at him seriously, and he was also infected by an inexplicable emotion. Finally, he walked up to Wu Yongjie and extended his hand to him. "Wu Lao Hu, your reputation is well-deserved. I was wrong about what happened before. I apologize."

Wu Yongjie snorted twice, not intending to buy it. However, he noticed that Ling Xifeng and Fang Ya were looking at them. After a moment's hesitation, he also stretched out his hand and reluctantly shook Lu Haoyang's. "You're lucky this time. The boss didn't want to make things difficult for you, so he let you go. But if you do this again next time, I will make sure that something big happens to your life."

Lu Haoyang didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "Are you threatening me?"

"Is it okay to threaten you? If I wasn't afraid that some people would say I'm narrow-minded and petty, I wouldn't even bother to threaten you."

Lu Haoyang had no choice but to nod, "It's not impossible, it's okay."

However, the progress of the project was not smooth. Just after the construction started, an excavator head broke. It turned out that it encountered a particularly hard rock layer.

Li Jianguo explained to Ling Fengxi and Wu Yongjie, "We chose the 14th site because its rock layer is thick and hard. While there are many difficulties when excavating, it greatly improves safety. Moreover, this kind of rock layer is more conducive to the durability of the dome. If it doesn't become solid, it may not collapse for hundreds of years."

So, now we have to use manual labor and shield machines?

Li Jianguo nodded with a complicated expression, "That's right."

At this time, Wu Yongjie was thinking about the length of the tunnel. The preliminary estimated length of the West Tianshan Tunnel was 17.7 kilometers, and it was very likely to exceed the prediction during actual construction. In other words, such a long tunnel basically had to rely on manual excavation.

Wu Yongjie said directly to Ling Fengxi, "I regret it. This bone is too hard to chew."

Ling Fengxi naturally understood the difficulty of the task, and rarely did he fight back.