HPDBC Chapter 49 Daily Life
Chapter 49 Daily Life
When Jiang Haiping arrived at the service station, Lao Fang had already wiped the three wooden signs.
The water used to wipe the wooden sign was seawater drawn directly from the stone trough.
I took an old cotton yarn, dipped it in the yarn, and wiped it. After wiping, a very thin layer of salt frost remained on the wooden sign, which shone slightly white in the morning light.
He wrung out the cotton yarn and draped it over the railing at the workshop entrance, then squatted down to light his first cigarette of the day.
He struck the match twice before it lit, put the cigarette in his mouth, and casually tossed the matchstick into the stone trough, where it went out with a hiss.
The crack on my finger, which had been soaked in diesel fuel for most of my life, bled a few more tiny beads of blood this morning, which congealed into dark red scabs in the morning breeze.
He wiped it on his trouser leg twice and continued smoking.
The light was on in the kitchen.
Lin Xiu'e was kneading dough by the stove, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, revealing her two tanned forearms with a few specks of dry flour on them.
The dough was fermented last night using sourdough starter. Sourdough starter makes the dough chewier than yeast starter, saves flour, and the steamed buns have a slightly sour and fragrant taste.
She rolled the dough back and forth on the cutting board, pushing it out with her palms and pulling it back with her knuckles, kneading it until smooth and then pinching it into small pieces.
Each portion of dough is of uniform size, arranged on the screen like a neat row of snail shells.
The fish ball soup in the pot was bubbling away. The fish balls were made from mackerel that Lin's father brought back from the Ping An ship yesterday afternoon, and the skin and bones had been removed.
Only the two thickest pieces of meat from the back of the fish are taken, mixed with egg white and starch, stirred until elastic, squeezed into balls, and slowly cooked in cold water until they float on the soup, plump and white.
Steam fogged the kitchen window. She reached out and wiped the glass, peering through the crack. She saw Jiang Haiping pushing his bicycle into the yard.
Today is the last day of the month.
On this day every month, Jiang Haiping would go through the account books from beginning to end.
The materials for the spring audit were delivered to the county fisheries bureau at the beginning of the month.
A few days ago, Director Sun asked Wang Cunzhi to convey a message saying that the accounts were clear, the ledgers were standardized, and the audit team had no objections.
Jiang Haiping followed the old routine and reviewed everything again at the end of the month.
The service station established a rule from day one at the ship repair shop: every penny must be known where it came from and where it went.
The ledgers were locked in a drawer in the workshop.
He always carried the drawer key with him, and his keychain also had a spare key to the old parts warehouse and a key to the house gate, the three keys strung together with a red string.
The red rope was a scrap of material that Lin Xiu'e tied to the rudder of the Ping An ship two years ago.
I cut it short, burned off the rough edges with a lighter, braided a small section into a knot, and wore it for several years. It has faded a bit, but it is still sturdy.
He untied the red string from his trouser strap and turned the drawer lock.
The drawer slides were a bit stiff; I had to lift them up a bit before they opened. The wood swells when it absorbs moisture in the summer.
He took the account book out and placed it on the worktable.
The first book is the earliest service station registration book. The plastic cover is worn white, and the edges of the wings of the two cranes on the cover are frayed. The corners are taped up in several places with transparent tape.
Turning to the first page, you see "three gears, five bearings, and two rudder posts," written by Ah Hai, using a ruler as a guide, each stroke deliberate and precise.
The ink in the ballpoint pen has faded a bit, but each stroke is still legible.
This register has been replaced time and time again after it was full; it's the sixth one now.
He set this one aside; it was for backup purposes and didn't need to be compared.
But every month he would flip to the first page to see if those words were still there.
He spread out last year's general ledger, the cover of which was made of kraft paper and the inner pages were made of ordinary lined letter paper.
I drew a table with a ballpoint pen, with three columns for income, expenses, and balance, and noted the date and the person who handled each entry.
The detailed accounts for the first half of this year have also been laid out. This book was kept by Ah Guang, and the handwriting is much neater than before. Every page has lines drawn with a ruler, and the numbers are written clearly.
The sales records of refurbished parts are placed next to it. This one is from the old square tube. Each refurbished machine has a separate card. The nameplate number, refurbishment date, major replaced parts, and warranty expiration date are all recorded on the card.
Ah Guang also brought over his latest registration book, which contained several sales orders for refurbished parts and acceptance forms for government vessels.
Each form bears the signature of Director Sun or Master Zhou, and the official seal is clearly affixed.
He sat down by the window near the workshop entrance and moved the stool to a brighter spot.
Let's look at the maintenance costs for government vessels first.
Last month, the seafood company had four transport ships undergoing major repairs. The settlement slip delivered by Master Zhou was stamped with a red seal, and the amount matched the figure recorded by A-Guang in the register.
The settlement statements for the four ships were issued separately, one for each ship.
Each form is accompanied by a maintenance record and follow-up visit record, which includes the fishing boat number, main engine model, maintenance items, and the source of the parts.
When he flipped to the few records where Ah Hai had independently led the maintenance team last month, he took a second look. The first few files had been approved by Lao Fang.
After Ah Hai recalibrated the torque values, the following records were clean, with each column of the torque values filled in neatly.
Let's restock on new parts sales.
Old Chen's refurbished diesel engine, Liu's Hangzhou forward gearbox, several water pumps and heat exchangers—each item was marked with a warranty period and a follow-up record.
Refurbished parts have a shorter warranty period than new parts, but service stations do not apply this policy regardless of whether the parts are still under warranty.
If anything goes wrong, just bring it over and we'll fix it; we only charge for the materials.
When he turned to Old Chen's diesel engine, he paused for a moment. The water temperature was recorded as normal in the first two follow-up records after the refurbishment.
In the remarks column, there was a line that Lao Fang added the day before yesterday: During the spring flood emergency repair, the seawater filter was found to be clogged. It has been cleaned and the sealing gasket has been replaced.
The handwriting was messy, and the last character "垫" was stained with a small patch of oil. The oil had dried and turned into a translucent light brown.
He picked up the page and looked at it against the light. The oil stain was on the back of the first row of the next table, so it didn't affect the data.
Some fishermen pay in cash, while others pay after they have caught fish at sea.
He used a pencil to mark on the list of debts. There were a few outstanding payments before the end of the year, and he circled the few that had already passed their promised repayment dates.
The service station doesn't chase after debts, but the rule is that you have to repay what you borrow, and you have to make it clear when you'll repay.
Ah-Guang peeked out from the used parts warehouse, holding an old bearing in his hand. There were three slight wear marks on the inner ring of the bearing.
"Brother Ping, Master Zhou from the seafood company said he wanted to transfer this bearing last month, but he hasn't come to pick it up yet. Should we keep it for them?"
Jiang Haiping glanced at the bearing model: "Call Master Zhou and ask if he still wants it. If not, put it back on the shelf and add it to the available inventory."
Ah-Guang put the bearing back on the shelf and made a note in the remarks column of the register.
Hong Ashun squatted at the entrance of the old parts warehouse, wiping an old wrench.
The wrench was an old man's hand-me-down for him to practice with; most of the teeth were worn down.
He dipped some machine oil in cotton yarn and wiped the wrench from end to end, carefully cleaning the grease from the teeth with a thin wire.
The serial number that Lao Fang had stamped on the handle with steel lettering has been worn down to just a few shallow marks.
He held the wrench up to the light from the window and looked at it sideways. In the deepest part of the mark, he could vaguely see the outline of the character "方" (fang).
After wiping it, he placed the wrench next to the old wrench with the word "Hai" on it on the bottom shelf. The two old, broken wrenches were placed side by side.
As Ah Guang passed by, he glanced at them and said, "These two wrenches were made in the same year, the year the service station first opened."
Old Fang crawled out of the cabin and wiped his hands with cotton yarn.
He squatted down next to Jiang Haiping and picked up the sales records of refurbished parts to look through.
He stopped when he turned to Old Chen's diesel engine: "When I went back for a follow-up visit the day before yesterday, I found that the water temperature was too high. Later, I found out that the seawater filter was clogged. After cleaning it, the water temperature stabilized."
He put the notebook back on the table and then picked up the standardized maintenance records that Ah Hai had just copied and flipped through them page by page.
Turning to the third page, he stopped, pointing to a line: "The model number and torque value of this gasket do not match."
Ah Hai came over and took a look, saying that he had forgotten to fill in the number of the new gasket when he copied it yesterday, and that he would go to the old parts warehouse to check and correct it immediately.
Jiang Haiping counted the blank forms of the standardized maintenance records. More than twenty were used last month. This month, the maintenance schedule for government vessels is half again as many as last month. He needs to ask Ahai to print another batch in advance.
Ahai walked out of the workshop, holding a stack of blank maintenance record forms and two new blank registration books that had just been printed from the printing room; the smell of ink had not yet dissipated.
He placed the form on Jiang Haiping's table and put the new registration book on A Guang's old documents shelf.
Lin Xiu'e brought out two bowls of fish ball soup from the kitchen.
One bowl was placed beside Lao Fang, and the other was placed in front of Jiang Haiping.
The soup noodles were topped with a layer of finely chopped scallions, and the fish balls were freshly made mackerel fish balls that morning.
Old Fang picked up the bowl, blew on it, and took a sip: "This soup is more flavorful than usual."
Lin Xiue said, "It's not that the soup is delicious, it's that I feel at ease when I check the accounts at the end of the month. After the spring flood season, I can collect those few debts on the list one by one, and the service station's account will have one more item."
Old Fang held his bowl without saying a word, but the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.