booktalesy Chapter 113 Old Tugboat
Chapter 113 Old Tugboat
Chapter 113 Old Tugboat
On the day of the Beginning of Summer, Hong Laowu arrived.
He rode his bicycle from the east end of Hongjia Island, with a snakeskin bag tied to the back seat.
He parked the car at the gate of the yard, took the snakeskin bag off the back seat and placed it on the threshold stone.
The bag was opened, revealing sweet potatoes inside. They weren't very big, and their skins were still covered in damp sand. They had been stored in the cellar before the Qingming Festival for over a month, and they were now sweet.
There was a plastic bag on top of the sweet potatoes, and inside the bag were money—ten-yuan, five-yuan, and one-yuan coins, stacked neatly.
He squatted down by the threshold stone, took out the plastic bag, and handed it to Jiang Haiping.
"The service station charged thirteen yuan and ten cents. I also returned the thirty-five yuan to Old Chen. I went fishing twice before the start of summer."
Jiang Haiping took the plastic bag, took out the ledger, and turned to Hong Laowu's page.
The page with the outstanding bill was covered with dense red lines all the way to the last line, and the remarks column also read "Another outstanding bill for boat rental is seventeen yuan".
He crossed out the 13.1 yuan figure with a red pen and wrote "sold out" below it.
"Has the renewal of the boat lease been approved yet?"
"The supply and marketing cooperative approved it last week. They paid 15 yuan for three years' rent and 2 yuan for the renewal fee, for a total of 17 yuan. The boat raft has been renewed for another 19 years." Hong Laowu stood up and wiped the sand off his face with his sleeve.
The sweat on his face soaked the sand, and when he wiped it with his sleeve, it left a clean mark.
He bent down and moved the burlap sack into the yard. "The sweet potatoes have been cellared; they're sweet now."
Lin Xiu'e came out of the kitchen, took the bag of sweet potatoes and carried it into the kitchen. She squatted in front of the stove, used fire tongs to pick up a piece of new coal and put it in, and the water in the iron pot began to sizzle.
She pinched a small pinch of salt from the salt shaker and sprinkled it into the water, then washed the sweet potatoes one by one and arranged them on the steamer.
Ah-Guang ran over from the work station, clutching the register in his hand, and flipped to the page about the old tugboat.
The data on the old tugboat was copied from Hong Laowu: keel length, plank thickness, aging of the mortise and tenon joints, and location of cracks. Each item was marked with a line of small print in pencil.
"Brother Haiping, the old tugboat's frame is good. Four planks are rotten, and the mortar is all worn out. Once the frame is repaired, the boat can still be used."
"How much will it cost to repair?" Old Hong squatted on the loquat tree root, his hands resting on his knees.
"Four pieces of rotten ship planks. The old parts warehouse has suitable ship dismantling parts, free of charge."
For grouting, you need tung oil putty and hemp fibers. Tung oil is readily available at the tung oil service station, but you need to buy the hemp fibers.
Welding rods are needed to weld that crack in the ship's side, and Haisheng said he would provide them.
"The service station will charge you for the materials when you repair the whole boat; you'll have to fix the rest yourself."
Ah Guang flipped the register to the old parts inventory page and pointed to the numbers line by line with his finger, "Four old ship planks, available in the warehouse."
Three jin of hemp fibers can be bought for five yuan and forty cents in town.
Haisheng said he would deduct the cost of the eight welding rods from his tool expenses.
There are tung oil service stations readily available.
"The service station will fix it for you." Old Fang walked over from the workshop door, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and flicked off the ash.
He squatted down next to Hong Laowu and drew a rough sketch on the stone slab with a twig. He wrote a person's name after each step of the process: keel, plank, mortise and tenon joints, and cracks.
"Haiping and I will bring people to repair the frame. Ahai and Haifeng will dismantle old parts and measure the dimensions for the ship planks. Xiu'e and Xiao Zhou will do the grouting. Haisheng will weld the cracks. You'll pay for the hemp fiber, and the service station will give you the rest of the materials. We won't charge you for the labor."
Hong Laowu squatted by the stone slab, watching Lao Fang use a tree branch to draw the repair process of the entire old tugboat step by step on the muddy ground.
He kept his head down and didn't speak. He unconsciously picked at the stone slab with his finger, and a little bit of dry mud got stuck in his fingernail.
That boat was left by his father; the keel was intact, and the frame was still sturdy.
The old scar on the ship's side, which ran from the hull edge to the hull, had its wire cut off, the groove re-carved with a chisel, and the seam was ready to be filled with hemp fibers and tung oil putty.
The hull hasn't been painted with anti-rust paint yet, but the hull has been in place for nineteen years.
"We'll start repairing it tomorrow." Old Fang placed the tree branch on the edge of the stone slab, stood up, and patted the sand off his hands.
Hong Laowu turned his bicycle around and rode it along the sea embankment.
The sea breeze blew, and his clothes clung to his back.
The sweet potatoes were placed on the stone slab at the entrance of the kitchen, the plastic bags still covered with a little sand and dirt, and had turned white from the sun.
Jiang Haiping squatted under the loquat tree, took the ledger out of his pocket, and turned to the page with Hong Laowu.
The page with the credit limit was covered with dense red lines, down to the last one.
He closed the notebook, his hand touching the half-old newspaper.
The first line of the old newspaper reads that Hong Laosan paid off half before the winter solstice, and the next line reads that Lao Chen paid off the rest before the new year.
Hong, the shipowner, has cleared out his debts. The group is second in number. He borrowed copper gaskets for emergency use. He conducted a special study on fifteen points. He was the owner of a secondhand shop. The last line is that Hong Laowu paid off his debts before the start of summer.
He turned the old newspaper over; there was no room left to write on the back.
He folded the newspaper, put it back in his pocket, and leaned against the loquat tree trunk.
Several fishing boats were heading back on the sea, the sputtering sound of their diesel engines muffled by the sea breeze.
The leaves of the loquat tree gradually turned from tender yellow to bluish-green, overlapping with the dark green old leaves of winter.
Ah-Guang squatted by the circle of broken seashells, pressing the seashells that had been blown askew by the wind back into place one by one.
After finishing, he stood up, patted the sand off his hands, took out an enamel mug from the kitchen door, squatted under the loquat tree, and took a sip of water.
The sugar hadn't completely dissolved yet; there was a single sugar crystal at the bottom of the bowl that hadn't been stirred away. He picked it up with his chopsticks and placed it on the tip of his tongue, waiting for it to slowly dissolve.