Chapter 804 - 765: Infiltrating the Drilling Crew
Listening to Zhao Rong, the captain didn’t hide anything and said:
"We’re just workers. We came here to work purely to make some money, that’s all..."
"As for what our company’s boss behind the scenes is really trying to do, we don’t know either..."
Zhao Rong nodded, looking thoughtful, and said:
"So what you mean is, everyone in your drilling crew are just ordinary laborers, migrant workers...
And the reason you all came here to work is because you were all recruited by a very mysterious company to come here, right?"
The captain nodded and told Zhao Rong:
"Back then, we also got this job by applying at the labor market,
then we just followed the company’s arrangements all the way, came to this mysterious spot in the earth’s interior, and started drilling..."
When Zhao Rong heard that the people in front of him were also hired hands,
he smiled and said:
"So, we’re in the same line of work...
We’re workers too, we’re migrant workers too, we were also recruited from the labor market to come work here..."
The captain welcomed Zhao Rong and his group of five, saying:
"Since you’re here, settle in. Just work hard here, don’t complain that drilling is tiring, that it’s dangerous, that it’s boring, dull, and tedious..."
After the pre-shift meeting ended, Zhao Rong and the other four were taken to start working.
They followed the shift leader to the drilling crew and walked to the base of the derrick.
Right away they saw before them the tower-like drilling derrick soaring into the clouds, and the extremely noisy drilling machinery,
as well as the one upright pillar after another standing on the drill floor,
and they felt deeply shocked.
Miss Lili looked at the drilling derrick in front of her and asked the shift leader:
"Shift leader, how deep can this derrick of yours drill?"
The shift leader led Zhao Rong and the others up the drill floor, holding onto the handrail, as he said:
"This derrick of ours is a K-type derrick produced by the Baoji Petroleum Plant. It’s very sturdy, very solid. It can drill at least 100,000 meters..."
Hearing that this derrick in front of her could actually drill 6,000,000 meters, Miss Lili was stunned,
and she couldn’t help thinking of the depth of that pool they had dived into before, which just happened to be 6,000,000 meters.
Yu Lan was very curious about what work they were going to do after coming here...
So she asked the shift leader:
"Shift leader, the five of us don’t know how to do anything. Now that we’re here with you, how are we supposed to work?
What exactly are we supposed to do?"
Hearing Yu Lan’s question, the shift leader told her:
"Miss, you don’t know this, but drilling work is actually very simple,
you could say it only takes three days to make a good driller.
As for what you’ll be doing, once you’re on the floor, the senior driller will come over and assign you tasks..."
Hearing the shift leader, Yu Lan pretended she understood and said:
"Alright, shift leader, got it. In a bit we’ll definitely work very seriously..."
When Zhao Rong and the other four followed the shift leader up to the 6-meter-high drill floor,
they immediately saw the rotating rotary table, the big and small mouse holes for laying drill pipes, the rig, the traveling block, the doghouse...
Zhao Rong couldn’t help exclaiming:
"I didn’t expect the derrick setup to be this complicated?"
Just then, the captain came over and assigned tasks to Zhao Rong and the others, arranging their work, saying:
"Zhao Rong, you’ll be the derrickman for our shift..."
Although Zhao Rong had no idea what a derrickman actually did...
he still pretended to be very knowledgeable and said:
"Alright, captain, I’ll definitely do a good job as the derrickman..."
After saying that, Zhao Rong thought to himself:
Whatever a derrickman does, I’ll just muddle through and follow along later.
But what Zhao Rong didn’t expect was that the captain pointed to the monkey board up high on the second level and said to him:
"Zhao Rong, since you’re the derrickman, you have to climb up to the second-level platform and be responsible for handling the drill pipe..."
When Zhao Rong saw how high that second-level platform was, he sucked in a breath of cold air and said:
"Captain, don’t tell me the derrickman’s job is to climb up that high second-level platform to handle drill pipe?"
The captain looked at Zhao Rong in surprise and asked back:
"You mean you didn’t receive any drilling training before coming to our drilling crew? You don’t even know what a derrickman does..."
Hearing that, Zhao Rong hurriedly slung on his safety harness and climbed up the ladder toward that high second-level platform...
He was really afraid that if he kept chatting with the captain, he’d give himself away.
Then the captain looked at Miss Lili and said:
"Miss, even though you’re as pretty as a flower,
once you join the drilling crew, you have to work more than an ox and eat less than an ox,
only then can you become a qualified drilling worker..."
Miss Lili cooperated very nicely and said:
"Captain, whatever work you have, just assign it to me...
Even though I, Miss Lili, am very pretty and have delicate skin...
I grew up doing chores at home. I carried water, hauled firewood, cooked, did laundry, did the housework, took care of my younger brothers and sisters—I’ve done all kinds of work...
Don’t worry, I can not only endure hardship, I can work hard too. I’m not afraid of dirt or fatigue..."
Hearing Lili, the captain immediately gave her a thumbs up and said:
"Miss, you’re really amazing...
Looks like you must have learned beforehand how tough drilling work is...
So now, the job I’m assigning you is inside tong-hand..."
Hearing "tong-hand," Lili was totally confused and asked:
"Captain, sorry, but what does a tong-hand do?"
The captain pointed at a huge B-type tong in front of the rotary table and the drill pipe, then said:
"Inside tong-hand, as the name suggests, is operating the tong to make up and break out the drill pipe joints..."
Hearing that, Lili pretended to understand and walked over toward that huge B-type tong.
At this moment, Yu Lan stepped forward, looked at the captain, and said:
"Captain, please assign me a task, give me a job..."
Seeing that Yu Lan was quite proactive, the captain pointed at the row of drill pipes on the ground in the distance and said:
"Miss, the job I’m giving you is yard hand...
What you need to do now is go down off the drill floor to the yard and line up those drill pipes neatly and wipe them clean...
Because in a bit, all those drill pipes are going down into the ground..."
Hearing this, Yu Lan immediately left the drill floor and walked toward the yard.
Then Xuelian stepped forward, looked at the captain, and asked:
"Captain, what’s my job?"
The captain told Xuelian:
"Miss, I see your arms are fairly strong...
So I think you’re more suited to be the outside tong-hand..."
After saying that, the captain pointed at Lili, who was operating the tong, and said to Xuelian:
"Outside tong-hand, as the name suggests, works together with the inside tong-hand to run the tong and make up and break out the joints..."