booktalesy Chapter 81 Old Debts
Chapter 81 Old Debts
At the workbench by the entrance to the used parts warehouse, Ah-Guang squatted on the ground flipping through the register.
After the Frost's Descent, the morning air was cool. He squatted for a short while before his knees became stiff. He stood up, stomped his feet a couple of times, and then squatted back down.
The sixth register is almost full. From the first page to the last page, each page has twenty lines, and each line contains one old item: name, specifications, source, destination, and date. The five columns are drawn with a ruler, and the lines are straight.
Ah Guang flipped to the last page, counted the blank lines with his finger, and found there were seven lines left.
"I need to get a new notebook," he muttered to himself.
"Does the old parts warehouse register need to be changed?" Hong Xiaobing walked over from the workshop, carrying a tin bucket half-filled with diesel fuel, which was used to wash the grease off the old parts.
He placed the bucket on the side of the worktable, the diesel fuel swayed a couple of times, and the smell spread, pungent and strong.
"This is the sixth one." Ah Guang closed the register. The cover was already worn and frayed, with a small curled corner. "The first one was written by Ah Hai. I only took over the second one, and now this is the sixth one."
Hong Xiaobing peeked out but didn't reply.
He was a little intimidated by the writing in the register. His own handwriting was uneven, with one big hand and one small hand. Old Fang had scolded him several times and made him practice according to Ahai's notebook.
He bent down and fished an old bearing housing out of the diesel drum, then used cotton yarn to wipe off the grease and grime.
The bearing housing was removed yesterday from an old sampan on Hongjia Island. The outer shell was badly rusted, but the balls inside were still usable.
"Where should I write this?" Hong Xiaobing placed the cleaned bearing housing on the worktable.
"Don't write yet," Ding Haifeng's voice came from behind the old parts shelf.
He was squatting in front of the last row of shelves, holding a vernier caliper, measuring the outer diameter of the impeller of an old water pump.
The white tape on the handle of the vernier caliper had the word "peak" written on it with a ballpoint pen, but it was already a bit blurry, as it had been smudged by sweat.
After measuring the impeller and writing down the numbers on the draft paper beside him, he stood up and walked to the worktable.
"Before the bearing housing goes into the warehouse, we need to check the specifications." Ding Haifeng picked up the bearing housing, turned it over to look at the casting on the bottom, "This is number 206, the same model as the ship dismantling part on page five of the register. Put the two together, don't mix them up."
Ah Guang turned to page five, his finger tracing the lines downwards until it stopped on the middle line: "The one that was demolished last November."
"Yes." Ding Haifeng placed the bearing housing on the left side of the worktable. "Put the old ones on the left and the newly disassembled ones on the right. Register them separately."
Hong Xiaobing watched for a while, then scratched his head. "You've only been here a short time, but you know the registration book better than I do."
Ding Haifeng didn't respond to that, and continued to record the impeller data with his head down.
His fingers were still a little stiff as he held the pen, and his entire wrist was pressed on the paper when he wrote. When he lifted his hand after finishing a line, there was a small blue stain on the side of his palm.
He wiped his hands with cotton gauze and continued writing.
Ah-Guang watched from the side, turned to the last page of the register, wrote "bearing housing, model to be checked" in the blank line, and stopped writing.
He didn't fill in the model number field; he'd tell Ding Haifeng after he finished measuring.
The entrance to the used parts warehouse was quiet for a while. The sludge in the diesel drum had settled, and a layer of black stuff had accumulated at the bottom of the drum.
Hong Xiaobing retrieved another coupling, wiped it with cotton yarn, and rust shavings fell onto the worktable.
The sea breeze blew in from the courtyard gate, causing the corners of the registration book to flutter, which Ah-Guang pressed down with his palm.
The diesel engine in the workshop was running from morning till night. Ah Hai was adjusting the valve clearance again. The sound of the feeler gauge being inserted and pulled out was faint, mixed with the sputtering sound of the diesel engine.
There was no movement from the welding machine. Ding Haisheng practiced overhead welding of thick plates until dark yesterday, but Lao Fang told him to take a half-day off today, saying that his wrists were shaking and he was no longer able to weld.
"My brother isn't practicing this morning?" Ding Haifeng looked up and glanced towards the workshop.
"Master Fang told him to take a break," A-Guang said. "When he took off his mask yesterday after work, his hands were shaking so badly he couldn't unbutton it."
Ding Haifeng grunted in agreement and lowered his head to continue measuring the impeller. His vernier calipers were clamped on the outer edge of the impeller, the fine-tuning screw was tightened, and he squinted at the scale.
The main scale reads 42, and the sixth division on the vernier scale is aligned, 42.6.
He wrote down the numbers on the draft paper and then turned the impeller over to measure its inner diameter.
"You measured even more precisely than I did." Ah Guang leaned over and glanced at the draft paper, which was covered with numbers, each with its unit clearly indicated—millimeters or silk.
"The clearance of the refurbished water pump impeller cannot be even slightly off." Ding Haifeng put the impeller back on the shelf, wiped his hands with cotton yarn, and said, "If it's off, the speed won't be high, and the bearing will burn out when the water temperature gets too high."
Ah Guang kept these words in mind, turned to the page for water pumps in the register, and added a line in the remarks column: "Impeller clearance shall not exceed 0.05".
The sun moved over from behind the loquat tree in the yard, and dappled sunlight fell on the worktable.
The broken seashells around Ah Guang's head gleamed in the sun, the dew clinging to them dried, giving them a grayish-white sheen.
The largest loquat tree is about one and a half times the height of a person, with thick leaves that rustle in the wind.
Ah Guang looked up, got up and went to the well to pump out half a bucket of water, which he then slowly poured into the circle of broken seashells around the tree roots.
The sound of water seeping down was faint, and a few small bubbles rose to the surface of the soil.
Hong Xiaobing wiped the coupling clean and placed it on the right side of the worktable.
He glanced at the bearing housing on the left, then at the coupling on the right, and suddenly remembered something. He turned to Ah Guang and asked, "On which page are the old parts of my third uncle's boat listed?"
Ah Guang flipped through the register and turned to a page from three months ago, which read, "Hong Laosan, sampan major repair, list of dismantled parts."
The bottom row contains seven or eight items: one gearbox, one rudder stock, two bearing housings, and one coupling.
Each line is followed by "on credit," with the repayment date written in parentheses.
"The repayment date is before the Frost's Descent." Ah Guang pointed to the date. "Frost's Descent has been three days ago."
Hong Xiaobing's face stiffened for a moment.
He put down the cotton yarn in his hand, wiped the oil off his hands on his pants, and said, "My third uncle..."
"He knows." Ah Guang closed the register and said nothing more.
The practice of buying on credit was a rule established by Master Fang and Jiang Haiping. No one at the service station could urge them to pay, but if the debt wasn't repaid by the due date, the words on the ledger wouldn't disappear on their own.
Ding Haifeng had been keeping his head down taking notes, but then he stopped writing.
He flipped the draft paper over; the back was blank. He hesitated for a moment, then flipped it back over.
He looked up at Hong Xiaobing, who was staring blankly at the oil noodles in the diesel drum. A small clump of cotton yarn floated on the oil noodles, slowly spinning in circles.
"If we can't pay it back before the Frost's Descent, we need to let Master Fang know," A-Guang said. "It's not about urging him to pay, but it needs to be recorded in the register."
"He knows," Hong Xiaobing said again, his voice lower than before.
The sound of the diesel engine in the yard suddenly stopped.
Ah Hai shouted at the top of his lungs, "Master Fang, the valve clearance is adjusted!" Old Fang walked out of the workshop with a cigarette in his mouth and a torque wrench that he had used for more than ten years in his hand.
He walked over to the diesel engine, bent down to look at the valve cover, pressed his finger on the rocker arm twice, then inserted a feeler gauge to test it, and straightened up to take the cigarette out of his mouth.
"Tighten the intake valve a little more."
"Tighten the intake valve a little more." Ah Hai immediately repeated it and squatted down to tighten the adjusting screw.
Old Fang turned around and glanced towards the old parts warehouse.
His gaze swept across the worktable, landing on the cleaned bearing housing, and then on Hong Xiaobing's face.
"What are you spacing out for?"
Hong Xiaobing pulled his hands out of the diesel drum, wiped them on his trousers, and said, "Master Fang, the account for my third uncle's boat..."
"Is it your turn to worry about this?" Old Fang put his cigarette back in his mouth, walked over, picked up the bearing housing, and examined the lettering on the bottom against the light. "Did your third uncle take this out?"
"Yes."
"The bearing housing works, and the balls aren't rusted." Old Fang put the bearing housing back. "Just write it in the register. Talk to Haiping about the credit issue, don't talk to me. I don't handle the accounts."
After he finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the workshop. He took two steps and then stopped without looking back. "Tell your third uncle that after the Frost's Descent, half of the debt must be repaid before the Winter Solstice. Before the Winter Solstice."
"I understand," Hong Xiaobing said in a muffled voice.
After Lao Fang left, the entrance to the old parts warehouse was quiet for a little while.
After finishing writing the last line on the draft paper, Ding Haifeng wiped the jaws of the vernier caliper with cotton yarn and put the caliper back in the box.
He moved slowly, pressing the button on the box lid twice before fastening it.
He stood up, tore off the draft paper filled with data, and handed it to Ah Guang.
"The data on the water pump impeller will be useful in the logbook."
Ah Guang took it, glanced at it, folded it, and put it into the register.
Ding Haifeng turned and walked towards the workshop. When he reached the back door of the old parts rack, Hong Xiaobing called him back.
"Haifeng".
Ding Haifeng turned his head back.
"That bearing housing, thank you." Hong Xiaobing pointed to the old parts separated on the workbench. "You sort them more clearly than I do."
Ding Haifeng didn't speak, but the corners of his mouth twitched, which could be considered a smile.
He pushed open the door leading to the new workshop; the hinges were a bit stiff, and it creaked as he pushed it open.
The hull of that scrapped ship was parked in the new workshop. Half of the frame had been dismantled, and old wooden planks were stacked in the corner. The smell of tung oil and old wood mixed together, so strong it was hard to ignore.
The shadow of the loquat tree in the yard had shortened; it was almost noon.
Lin Xiu'e came over from the stone trough, carrying an enamel basin in her hand. The basin contained tung oil putty that she had mixed that morning, which had already been set and was covered with a thin layer of oily sheen.
She walked to the kitchen door, placed the basin on the windowsill, lined it with the other three basins, and covered it with a damp cloth.
She looked up at the sky; the sunlight had changed from gray to pale gold, shining on the blue tiles on the roof of the kitchen. A few pine trees growing along the edges of the tiles swayed slightly in the wind.
Hong Xiaobing was still squatting at the entrance of the old parts warehouse, holding that ball of cotton yarn in his hand, rubbing it over and over.
The couplings were cleaned, the bearing housings were sorted, and the sludge in the diesel drum had settled to the bottom.
He stood up, threw the cotton yarn on the worktable, took two steps toward the gate, and then stopped.
On the seawall outside the courtyard gate, a person was riding a bicycle this way, with a bulging snakeskin bag tied to the back seat.
The bike wasn't going fast; the chain was low on oil and made a creaking noise the whole way.
Hong Xiaobing recognized the person. It was his third aunt.