1992: Starting with the Second Generation of Shipowners

Chapter 60 Winter Hibernation

After the Frost's Descent, the weather on Moon Island gets colder day by day.

The sea breeze turned from cool to cold, feeling like fine sandpaper on my face, and the alkaline clover on the rocky beach turned from deep green to withered yellow.

Clumps of them huddled in the cracks of the rocks, their leaves curled at the edges, crumbling at the slightest touch.

The seawater in the stone trough is still a bit warm when the tide is high. After the tide recedes, it leaves a thin layer of white ice on the rocks. It melts when the sun shines on it, then freezes again, and then melts again, over and over for several days.

Every morning, the first thing Ah-Guang does is no longer water the loquat seedlings, but squats under the tree and touches the soil at the base of the tree to see if it has frozen solid.

He pulled out the bundle of old straw rope that Wang Cunzhi had sent last year from the corner of the old parts warehouse and wiped off the dust with a damp cloth.

They wrapped each strand around the loquat tree trunk, from the roots all the way to the middle. Once they were wrapped, they would tug on it to make sure it was tight before they felt at ease.

Three loquat trees stood side by side by the courtyard wall. The tallest one was almost a person and a half tall, and the smallest one reached Ah Guang's chest. They were all wrapped tightly with straw rope, with only a few leaves showing at the top, swaying gently in the morning breeze.

Ah-Guang also manages the vegetable garden.

The vegetable plots along the east wall haven't been tended to much since autumn, and the land has been left empty after the last batch of bok choy was harvested.

The soil had been blown by the sea breeze for almost half a month, and its surface had dried out and turned white, with several shallow cracks.

Ah-Guang squatted by the edge of the field and used a small shovel to turn over the dry, cracked soil.

Jiang Haiping walked out of the workshop, carrying a jar of boiling water in his hand. He squatted down next to A Guang and placed the jar at his feet.

"Has the soil been turned over?" Ah Guang stuck the shovel into the edge of the bed and said it had been turned over, and that it would be left to grow until spring.

Mix wood ash with chicken manure and let it ferment all winter. Then plant radishes in the spring.

Jiang Haiping took a sip from the jar and said that the radish seeds needed to be soaked in advance, and that this should be noted in the register so as not to be forgotten later.

Ah Guang took out the register from his pocket, turned to the last page, and wrote a line on it: Soak radishes in advance in spring, and compost the soil with wood ash and chicken manure.

Jiang Haibo squatted at the entrance of the old parts warehouse and reorganized the batch of old parts that he had brought back from the aquatic products company a few days ago.

Several old water pumps and gearboxes awaiting registration were neatly stacked next to his workbench, each one wiped with cotton yarn, with faint traces of machine oil still remaining on the metal surfaces.

He moved an old water pump onto the worktable, took a vernier caliper to measure the impeller's outer diameter, measured it three times, and the three measurements matched. Then he wrote today's date and number on a new page of the register.

He'd been coming to the service station for several months, and the oil stains on his hands had spread from under his fingernails to his knuckles, and a thin callus had formed on the back of his hand.

A few days ago, Lao Fang saw him removing bolts and said, "These hands finally look like they're used to doing manual labor."

Because of that sentence, he tossed and turned in the shed for a long time that night, unable to fall asleep.

Hong Ashun had thoroughly searched through the wooden fishing boats waiting for repair along the stone trough. He could tell you the location of each boat's hull seam, the length of the trough opening, and which old rib was attached to the bend without even looking at the register.

When Hong Xiaobing first took him on the ship alone to disassemble the fuel injector, he was still clumsy and had to practice several times with the wrench before he dared to tighten it.

Now he can do everything by himself, from disassembling the casing to registering and storing an old water pump.

Ah Guang handed over the page on the inventory of teaching materials in the register to him, saying that he would be responsible for registering and maintaining the old fuel injectors, old water pumps, and old gearboxes used in the training classes from now on.

Ah Hai poked his head out of the workshop, holding a torque wrench in his hand. He explained that a seafood company's official vessel would be coming to maintain the gearbox tomorrow, and the torque value needed to be recorded on the maintenance slip. The new batch of gaskets would fit perfectly.

Jiang Haiping nodded and took the training schedule out of the drawer to check it again.

The new training course starts next week, and the list of trainees has already been submitted. In addition, the provincial skills competition will be held in Yantai next spring.

With four competition slots available for the service station, plus Ah-Guang as a substitute, the training plan also needs to be arranged in advance.

Hong Xiaobing squatted by the stone trough, dismantling the old gearbox that had been taken from the official boat.

After opening the outer casing, a worktable was covered with parts. The bearings were arranged in order, and the gears were stacked up with cotton yarn as padding.

Ah Shun squatted down beside him, handing him tools and inserting the removed bolts one by one back into their original positions on the foam board of the worktable.

When Lao Fang came back from smoking at the workshop entrance, I squatted down and asked him to pull out the second shaft to measure its curvature.

Hong Xiaobing placed the dial indicator on both ends of the two axes, gently pushed the journal with his thumb to rotate it, and the pointer on the dial steadily pointed to zero.

The shaft isn't bent; the dynamic balancing done during the last maintenance is still in good condition.

Old Fang flicked the cigarette ash into the scrap metal box next to him, saying that after putting it back, he would note on the maintenance slip that the bending degree of the two shafts had been checked.

Lin Xiu'e was busy in the kitchen all morning.

Yesterday, fishermen at the dock brought several baskets of mackerel and ribbonfish, saying they hadn't paid off their debts from buying fishing gear before the spring fishing season and were using the fish as payment.

She deboned the mackerel, minced it, mixed it with egg white and starch, stirred it until it became elastic, squeezed it into balls, and slowly cooked them in cold water.

Cut the ribbonfish into sections, salt them, and hang them under the eaves. When the sea breeze blows, they smell fishy and fragrant.

Old Sun sat on a stone stool at the entrance of the old parts warehouse, holding an enamel mug in his hand.

Looking at the row of dried ribbonfish under the eaves, he said that there were many fish in the autumn harvest this year, and the cold weather and strong winds made the dried fish more fragrant than in previous years.

In the afternoon, Wang Cunzhi came by on his motorcycle.

He parked his car at the gate of the courtyard, took two bundles of new straw rope and a bundle of plastic sheeting off the back seat, saying they were winter supplies allocated to the service station by the province.

Old Fang took the straw rope, weighed it in his hand, and said it was sturdier than last year's.

Wang Cunzhi then took out another notice from his bag and handed it to Jiang Haiping. It was the official registration form for the provincial competition. The competition events, team member list, and substitute list all had to be filled out and submitted to the county by the end of the month.

Jiang Haiping spread the registration form on the table and filled it out item by item.

Disassembly and assembly of the main unit, Fang Desheng.

Fault diagnosis, Ahai.

Ding Haisheng, a welder.

Lin Xiu'e, who sews.

Substitute: A-Guang.

He finished writing the list, read it through from beginning to end, and handed it to Lao Fang for review.

Old Fang took it, glanced at it, and said, "Okay, the original cast."

Ah-Guang poked his head out from the old parts warehouse and asked if he was still the replacement.

Lao Fang said that substitutes are also team members, and told him to pack up his welding tools as well, since he hadn't practiced overhead welding for a long time since the provincial competition, and to start practicing more when he got back.

That evening, Jiang Haiping sat on a stone stool at the workshop entrance and put the registration forms into a drawer.

Lin Xiu'e brought over two bowls of fish ball soup, sat down next to him, and placed one of the bowls on his lap.

He picked up the bowl, blew on the scallions to disperse them, and said that the competition registration form was filled out and would be submitted to the county by the end of the month.

Lin Xiu'e scooped up a fish ball, took a bite, and said that when they went to Yantai next spring, she would let A-Guang take on more of the work at the service station.

Among the old parts that Master Zhou brought this time was a set of water pump bearings that could be used for the maintenance of government vessels.

The parts for refurbishing the water pump are almost ready, and Ah Shun and Jiang Haibo can help watch the warehouse then.

In the courtyard, the loquat tree, wrapped in straw rope, stood quietly under the moonlight. The vegetable garden had been turned over, and dried ribbonfish hung under the eaves, swaying gently in the sea breeze.

The service station was still lit up. In the workshop, Ahai and Hong Xiaobing were working overtime to assemble that old gearbox. The torque wrench made a soft click on the cylinder head.

The waves lapped against the stone trough.

Several more government vessels will be coming for maintenance tomorrow, a new training course will start next week, and the skills competition training will begin soon.