Chapter 243 - 242: The Down-to-Earth Uncle, Lin Feng’s Half-Fellow Townsman
Thankfully, Lin Feng dodged in time, and only his sleeve was torn.
The cross-section of the steel pipe was uneven and sharp.
If it had hit Lin Feng’s shoulder, it would have definitely opened a large, bloody gash.
This type of steel pipe is used for laying pipelines.
A single one weighs at least twenty or thirty pounds.
Just its weight alone would have been enough to cause injury.
Su Ruoxi forgot about the pain in her leg and ran over, throwing her arms around Lin Feng.
Then, she quickly pulled away and looked him up and down.
"Brother Feng, are you okay? Are you hurt?"
Su Ruoxi was so nervous she was on the verge of tears.
Lin Feng patted Su Ruoxi’s slightly trembling shoulders. "I’m fine. I’m quick on my feet. It didn’t touch me at all."
He looked up and saw a flustered middle-aged man standing nearby.
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
His clothes were dotted with cement, and his hands and face were grimy.
On a construction site, everyone is grimy except for the foremen, supervisors, and other management staff.
But even most of the management spent all day on-site.
They weren’t much cleaner, either.
The few clean people you occasionally saw...
...were the administrative staff who sat in shipping containers or small offices, reviewing project material lists.
The middle-aged man thought Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi were those kinds of people.
They were both so clean, looking as if they had just walked out of one of those small offices.
The man also noticed that Lin Feng’s shirt had been torn.
Judging by the style, the shirt didn’t look cheap. Besides, the young man and woman were both exceptionally good-looking; they probably didn’t come from ordinary backgrounds.
He had already put down his pushcart and said with an apologetic expression, "Are you alright? I really wasn’t paying attention."
"How much was your shirt? I’ll pay you back for it."
As he spoke, he pulled out a worn-out wallet dotted with paint, intending to compensate him.
It was just an accident, and looking at the middle-aged man, it was clear his life wasn’t easy.
Lin Feng had no intention of making him pay. "It’s nothing. Just get back to work. You don’t have to pay for it. Just be careful."
Lin Feng’s shirt was custom-made abroad. It looked low-key and ordinary.
However, it cost no less than eight thousand yuan.
If he really made the man pay, it would probably cost him one or two months’ salary.
Moreover, Lin Feng noticed the man’s accent was very familiar.
It sounded like an accent from Xiang Province.
Xiang Province wasn’t close. To come so far for work meant life wasn’t easy.
That made him a fellow countryman, of a sort, in Lin Feng’s eyes.
So Lin Feng didn’t plan to pursue the matter and was ready to get in the car and leave with Su Ruoxi.
Lin Feng was so easygoing.
This, in turn, made the middle-aged man even more embarrassed.
The people on a construction site were a motley crew; you’d find all sorts.
From the low-level workers and mid-level administrative staff to the upper management, they were all on site.
A large construction site like this one had several projects, dozens of construction teams, and hundreds of workers.
It was like a miniature society with all kinds of people, and instances of extortion weren’t unheard of.
There were even brawls over small amounts of money.
In a case like this, where a shirt was genuinely damaged, payment was expected.
The middle-aged man had already braced himself to pay compensation, and he’d even mentally estimated a rough price.
To him, the shirt’s material looked decent; it would probably cost two or three hundred yuan in town.
He’d pay the money, take a scolding, and the matter would be over.
He had already taken out his wallet.
He never expected to not get a dirty look, nor be asked for money.
He stopped Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi, scratching his head. "Wait a minute."
After saying that, he immediately ran off.
They had no idea where he was going.
Su Ruoxi was still shaken.
Lin Feng said with a smile, "I’m really fine. But safety on the construction site is something we need to take seriously."
Su Ruoxi nodded. "That’s true. But that man just now didn’t do it on purpose."
"It looked like he stepped on a rock, lost his balance, and that’s why the cart swerved."
From where Su Ruoxi was standing, she had a clear view of the whole thing.
Besides, Su Ruoxi could also tell that the man’s life probably wasn’t easy.
Lin Feng knew that Su Ruoxi had also been moved by pity.
Before her family’s misfortune, she probably never knew people like this, who struggled so hard just to get by, even existed.
Just as they were talking, they saw the middle-aged man who had hurried off run back toward them.
He was covered in sweat and panting so hard he couldn’t speak.
In his hand was a plastic bag with two bottles of soda.
The man still felt terribly awkward about the whole thing.
So he had run to the construction site’s little commissary and bought the most expensive drinks they had.
He had considered buying a pack of cigarettes but then decided against it, thinking Lin Feng looked younger than his own son.
"Here, have these drinks. This was really my fault."
Once the man caught his breath, he stuffed the bag into Lin Feng’s hands.
At the same time,
an apologetic look was visible on his face.
Lin Feng shook his head, a bit resigned. "This matter is already in the past."
"But we accept your apology."
Lin Feng accepted the two drinks.
Only then did the middle-aged man let out a long sigh of relief.
After the middle-aged man left,
Lin Feng led Su Ruoxi to their car on the site.
"That man isn’t so bad. He has principles."
Lin Feng said to Su Ruoxi with a smile as he drove.
Su Ruoxi also had a good impression of the middle-aged man.
So she agreed:
"That’s true. If this had happened with someone else, they probably wouldn’t have been so forthright."
It was just a small incident, so neither Lin Feng nor Su Ruoxi gave it much thought.
Lin Feng even joked:
"Good thing I knew we were coming to a construction site, so I specifically wore some durable clothes."
Su Ruoxi looked down at her own clothes, now dusty from being on the site for a while, and nodded.
"Me too. In any case, I’m only wearing this for today."
Gripping the steering wheel, Lin Feng asked, "Which zone do you want to go to next?"
The place Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi had just visited was only Zone A of the amusement park.
And Zone A mostly consisted of attractions suitable for children or the elderly.
They were mainly less-than-thrilling attractions.
The focus was more on entertainment than thrills.
Su Ruoxi knew this well from looking at the park’s blueprints.
Among the four major zones in the amusement park,
Zone A was one of the smaller ones.
The largest was Zone C.
Zone C was mainly for large, thrilling attractions like haunted houses and drop towers.
"This zone is mostly designed for young people and thrill-seekers."
"As the largest zone in Joy City, we should go take a look."
The large blueprint in Su Ruoxi’s hands showed the layout of Joy City’s zones.
Lin Feng glanced at the route and nodded.
...
As they drove off,
Lin Feng noticed that the road between Zone A and Zone C seemed rather long.
"The distance between these two zones is the greatest. It seems you guys at Joy City are making a very clear distinction between demographics."
Lin Feng commented casually.
Su Ruoxi nodded. "The designer of the blueprints said that thrill-seekers are mainly young people, who might not like the gentler attractions."
"They wanted the characteristics to be distinct to better guide visitor traffic."
Lin Feng instinctively felt that something wasn’t quite right.
But he couldn’t put his finger on what was strange.
Although Zone A and Zone C were far apart, the drive was pretty quick.
Zone A was already mostly complete.
Zone C, however, was more complex. Some of the equipment required specialized building materials.
After all, attractions that chase thrills also demand the highest level of safety.
So when Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi arrived in this zone, they could clearly feel the difference compared to Zone A.
"We’re here. Looks like this is the final part of Joy City to be finished. The progress is lagging by quite a bit."
Lin Feng said, looking at the busy workers and machinery before them.
Su Ruoxi nodded. "This zone is the most difficult to build and the one that’s holding up the schedule the most."
"Basically, all the construction teams we got from Senior Zhang Kun have been assigned here. They’re working overtime to catch up."
Lin Feng could feel the bustling atmosphere of the construction site.
Even when an unfamiliar car drove in, few workers on the site looked up; most were busy with the task at hand.
Besides, the roar of the machinery on this site was deafening.
"Because various construction teams are working together in this area, the person in charge probably can’t spare the time to come over."
Lin Feng was very understanding of the situation in Zone C.
After all, with so many teams pushing forward at once, things were bound to be fragmented and complex.
Su Ruoxi led Lin Feng deeper inside. "I remember the area furthest in was completed earlier."
"There’s a diving aquarium. We can go take a look."
Walking this way, and considering the detailed Joy City blueprints he had seen in the car,
Lin Feng could tell that Joy City was truly aiming to become a major landmark.
The number of attractions was certainly large,
and the entertainment value was high.
The path Su Ruoxi and Lin Feng were walking on was a specially cleared passageway.
This was the construction teams’ busiest time.
So there were few people on this path.
However, as they walked, Su Ruoxi and Lin Feng were surprised to see a familiar face.
It was none other than the middle-aged man who had accidentally torn Lin Feng’s shirt earlier.
But unlike his previous honest and apologetic demeanor,
the man’s expression could now be described as twisted with anger.
The person standing opposite him, judging by his back, appeared to be a young man.
His back was to Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi.
Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi happened to be standing around a corner.
So neither the middle-aged man nor the person opposite him could see Lin Feng and Su Ruoxi at all.
"What a coincidence. A familiar face."
Lin Feng said softly, a smile on his face.