HPDBC Chapter 69 Old Wounds and New Scars
Chapter 69 Old Wounds and New Scars
Before dawn, the outline of Moon Island was hidden in the gray-blue morning mist.
The seawater in the stone trough was half-tide, lapping against the hull of the ship with muffled sounds that traveled from the shed all the way to the workshop entrance.
The service station courtyard was quiet, and the loquat leaves were wet.
The water that Ah Guang watered last night was still clinging to the tips of the leaves, shimmering with tiny sparkles in the morning light.
As usual, Lao Fang was the first to arrive.
He wiped the three wooden signs one by one, swept the yard clean, and squatted at the workshop entrance to strike a match.
The wind was blowing in from the seawall. He struck the match twice before it lit. He cupped the flame in his hand, lit his cigarette, and took a deep drag.
The crack on my finger didn't bleed this morning; instead, a thin, hard scab formed, dark red, the same color as the calluses on my palm.
He casually tossed the matchstick into the stone trough, stood up, dusted off his trousers, and began wiping the three wooden plaques.
The light was on in the kitchen, and Lin Xiu'e was already kneading dough.
Sleeves rolled up to elbows, a few specks of dry flour clinging to forearms. The dough rolls back and forth on the work surface, palms pushing out, knuckles pulling back, kneading until smooth, then pinching off small pieces.
The fish ball soup in the pot was bubbling away, and the steam completely covered the windows.
She wiped the glass and peeked out through the crack, just in time to see Jiang Haiping carrying a jar of boiling water out of the dormitory.
Jiang Haiping squatted down at the workshop entrance and placed the jar at his feet. "Today is the eleventh day. Those two unfamiliar faces haven't shown up since they left last time, and those two fishing boats from Hongjia Island haven't come either."
Old Fang, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, thought for a while. "The more things are like this, the more careful we need to be. I know Ding Fugui too well; he's not the kind of person who would just accept defeat after suffering a loss."
His son is with us; he won't just let this go.
Those two unfamiliar faces were most likely sent by him to scout ahead. Their silence suggests they're either waiting for something, or they've changed their approach.
Jiang Haiping picked up the jar and put it down again. Old Fang stood up and threw the cigarette butt into the stone trough. "No matter what method he uses, we should just do our own thing."
"For that batch of refurbished water pumps, all the warranty commitments in the register need to be checked. After the inspection, have Ah Guang send them to Wang Cunzhi for filing."
When Ding Haifeng arrived at the used parts warehouse, Hong Xiaobing was already there.
He opened all the warehouse windows, turned the register to today's page, and noted that the impellers of the refurbished water pumps on the shelves had just been cleaned yesterday and were to be registered for storage today.
Ding Haifeng placed the canvas tool bag on the side of the workbench and picked up the old wrench with the character "方" (square) marked on the back.
Hong Xiaobing said that the big one they were dismantling today was an old water pump brought back from Hongjiadao. The impeller was stuck and the casing was rusted beyond recognition.
Ding Haifeng squatted down and began to remove the outer casing bolts. He removed them very slowly, and when he encountered rusted areas, he would spray some diesel oil and wait for the oil to seep in before tightening them.
Hong Xiaobing noticed a new wound on the back of his hand, which hadn't scabbed over yet, as if it had been cut open by some sharp weapon.
"What happened to your hand?"
Ding Haifeng glanced down, then rubbed the back of his hand on his trouser leg. "It's nothing, I bumped into it accidentally on my way back yesterday."
Hong Xiaobing remained silent for a while, without asking any further questions.
Ah Shun came over from the new workshop, carrying a welding training record sheet that he had just retrieved from Ding Haisheng's welding area.
He placed the record sheet on the worktable, squatted down next to Ding Haifeng, and asked if the water pump impeller belonged to the fishing boat on Hongjia Island that the two unfamiliar faces had mentioned last time.
Hong Xiaobing said no, the last batch of water pumps still had the pre-inspection mark on the registration book, and the two unfamiliar faces hadn't called since they left.
Ah Shun pulled out a clean old parts box from his pocket, saying it was an old fuel injector teaching aid that he had cleaned yesterday, and that he was giving it to Ding Haifeng to use for registering training course teaching aids in the future.
Ding Haifeng took it and placed it in a convenient spot on the worktable.
More than half the morning had passed when Lao Fang went into the diesel engine room of the government vessel in the workshop to continue major repairs.
Ah Hai stood beside him, handing him a wrench; the torque wrench kept making a clicking sound.
Ding Haisheng squatted in the welding area, repairing the hull of the aquatic product company's transport ship. When welding overhead, molten iron dripped down and burned a hole in his glove, but he never dodged it. After finishing the welding, he would knock off the flux residue, and the weld would still be so neat.
Lin Xiu'e was carving out the grooves in the stone trough, using up one pine plank after another.
Qiu Changhai sat on a stone stool turning walnuts, occasionally glancing up at his apprentice picking the walnuts, then continuing to turn them.
After dismantling the third water pump impeller, Ding Haifeng traced the impeller's outer diameter in the register and then checked it again on the draft paper.
He drew with great force, the tip of his pen pressing indentations into the paper. After finishing, he closed the register, stood up, walked to the warehouse door, and glanced outside.
Lin Xiu'e and Qiu Changhai were squatting side by side by the stone trough, sewing. The sound of the diesel engine in the workshop was sputtering intermittently.
He squatted down again, carried the fourth water pump onto the worktable, and picked up the open-end wrench to continue removing the casing bolts.
He twisted very slowly, stopping whenever he encountered a rusted spot, wiping the rust clean with cotton yarn before continuing.
Hong Xiaobing leaned against the shelf and flipped through the few pages of the register that Ding Haifeng had just transcribed.
Ding Haifeng's handwriting isn't particularly beautiful, but every stroke is deliberate and there are no corrections.
He saw Ding Haifeng write the data again next to him with a pencil, and the pencil writing was much neater than the ballpoint pen writing.
So he picked up the old wrench with the character "方" (square) on the back, wiped it clean, and put it back where Ding Haifeng could easily reach it.
Jiang Haiping walked over from the workshop entrance and asked Hong Xiaobing if he had checked all the warranty commitments for the batch of refurbished water pumps in the register.
Hong Xiaobing said that everything had been checked and that each transaction had the buyer's signature or fingerprint.
He added that Ding Haifeng had been working late every day for the past few days, and this morning he had traced several more pages of registration data, and he had even retraced them with a pencil.
Jiang Haiping opened the document and looked at it, then told Hong Xiaobing to continue training him, to let him handle the refurbishing of the water pumps as needed, and not to loosen the rules.
Ding Haisheng practiced overhead welding in the welding area for the big competition. He increased the current by more than ten amps compared to usual. The welding rod moved at a constant speed, and the flux coating peeled up on its own.
Ding Haifeng was carrying a water pump when he passed by the entrance of the new workshop and saw his brother squatting in front of the welding machine, welding with his head tilted back. Molten iron was dripping down, and a hole was burned in his glove.
He stopped, placed the water pump at the doorway, and took out the old welding gloves he had found in the corner of the old parts warehouse yesterday.
Those were the first pair of gloves Ding Haisheng received when he first came to the service station a long time ago.
He threw his worn-out knuckles next to the scrap heap, soaked his gloves in kerosene for two nights, and then used hemp thread to repair the holes in his knuckles.
He placed the gloves on the bench at the entrance of the new workshop, said nothing, picked up the water pump, and returned to the old parts warehouse.
Ding Haisheng turned off the welding machine, took off his mask, walked to the door, and picked up the old gloves.
He recognized the gloves at a glance; they were the ones Old Fang had given him when he first arrived at the service station, and he hadn't been able to throw them away since his knuckles were worn out.
Now the holes in his knuckles are neatly patched with hemp thread, and the texture of the hemp thread is exactly the same as the technique he used to teach Ding Haifeng to disassemble the water pump gasket.
He put his gloves on the worktable, pulled his mask down again, and continued welding the seam in his hand.
Ah-Guang came out of the used parts warehouse carrying a newly arrived old water pump impeller.
In the corridor, I saw Ding Haifeng placing the cleaned parts box neatly on the teaching aid shelf in the corner of the old parts warehouse workbench.
He recalled that many years ago, when he first started learning how to use the register, Ah Hai had led him into the old parts warehouse in the same way.
He placed the impeller beside the shelf, walked to the kitchen door, and softly said to Lin Xiu'e, who was kneading dough, "Ding Haifeng repaired his brother's old welding gloves from when he first came to the service station."
Lin Xiu'e placed the dough ball on the steamer lid and wiped her hands with her apron. "Master Ding accepted it?"
Ah Guang nodded. "I'll take it." He didn't say anything, put the gloves on the workbench, and continued welding.
Lin Xiu'e didn't say anything more and picked up the rolling pin again.
As the sun slowly rose to the height of the mast, the light in the old parts warehouse changed from gray-blue to bright white.
After dismantling the last old water pump to be cleaned that day, Ding Haifeng arranged all the impellers according to their models, wiped them clean one by one with cotton yarn, and then finished the last stroke in the register.
He picked up the dull wrench with the character "方" (square) marked on the back, ran his fingertips over the teeth that were mostly worn down, and then put it back in the most convenient position on the workbench.
Outside the window, the walnuts on the stone pier were gently touched by Qiu Changhai's palm.
The arc light from the welding work on the ship's hull shone through the windows of the new workshop, casting flickering shadows on the opposite wall.