N-M Chapter 47 Cousin
Chapter 47 Cousin
The life at the service station is like the tide, with its ups and downs.
After the spring fishing season, the number of boats in the stone trough decreased by more than half. After the fishermen finished fishing and had money in their pockets, they were reluctant to repair their boats. They would make do with what they could and would never spend money to fix them themselves.
Old Fang's tin shed is bustling again. Today someone borrows a wrench, tomorrow someone borrows a hammer, and the day after tomorrow someone will come to ask if they can borrow a gas cutter.
Old Fang refused to lend any of his boats, but said, "Bring the boat over here and I'll show it to you."
Upon closer inspection, it turned out the water pump belt was loose. Tightening it would fix the problem, and they wouldn't charge me.
Feeling bad about it, the fishermen brought over two ribbonfish in the afternoon.
Summer Solstice has arrived in the blink of an eye.
Spring is short on Moon Island. Before May is over, the sea breeze gets hot, and the dried elm trees on the rocky beach rustle under the sun.
The loquat trees in the service station courtyard were ready to bear fruit again. Ah Guang used a bamboo pole with an iron hook to pick the green fruit one by one and put them in a bamboo basket, saying that they would be ready to eat in another half month.
Jiang Haiping squatted at the workshop entrance, flipping through the newly arrived ship repair technology manual. This manual was compiled and distributed to all pilot units by the province.
Inside was an official document with an official header, titled "Notice on Promoting the Standardized Maintenance System for Fishing Vessels Throughout the Province."
Old Fang squatted down beside him, finished smoking a cigarette, took the document, and read it from beginning to end. He said this was something that should have been done a long time ago. It records when each boat was maintained, what parts were replaced, and who handled it. If a fishing boat has a problem in the future, you can just open the book to find out.
Jiang Haiping folded the document and put it back in the manual, planning to hold a meeting tomorrow to explain the standardized maintenance to everyone.
As they were talking, Old Zhou from the dock duty room jogged over, leaning against the gate and calling out, "Ping-ge'er, it's your mom calling."
Jiang Haiping walked into the duty room and picked up the receiver. Zhouzhou's mother's voice on the phone was filled with joy.
She said her eldest brother's second son had come from their hometown and was looking for work, asking if the service station was hiring.
"This kid's name is Jiang Haibo. He's nineteen this year. He graduated from junior high school and has been unemployed at home for about half a year. Your dad said to let him try living with you. What do you think?"
Jiang Haiping hung up the phone and stood at the door of the duty room for a while.
He has many relatives on his maternal grandfather's side, including several uncles and aunts, and even more cousins, but the service station has never had anyone from the Jiang family's main branch come to visit in recent years.
Old Fang, who was squatting at the workshop entrance, saw him standing there without moving and asked him whose phone number it was.
Jiang Haiping said it was my mother calling; my uncle's second son wanted to come looking for work.
Old Fang said, "Isn't your uncle's family your dad's older brother?" Jiang Haiping replied, "No, he's not my uncle. He's the second son of my mom's older brother."
Old Fang said that's your cousin.
Jiang Haiping thought for a moment and said, "He's not my cousin. My mother's older brother is my maternal uncle, and his son is indeed my cousin."
Zhou Zhou's mother's surname is Zhou. Jiang Haiping calls the brothers on Zhou's side "uncle," and the children on the uncle's side are the cousins.
But this second son isn't from the Zhou family's side; he's from the Jiang family's side.
Jiang Weiguo's brother's child is considered his cousin.
Jiang Haibo arrived the following afternoon.
The 19-year-old boy was not short. He wore a faded blue school uniform with short sleeves that revealed his tanned arms.
He stood at the entrance of the service station, looking inside, carrying a snakeskin bag in his hand, his hair disheveled by the sea breeze.
Jiang Haiping was squatting in the workshop repairing a gearbox. He wiped his hands with cotton yarn and came out to greet him.
Jiang Haibo quickly put down the snakeskin bag and called out, "Brother Ping."
Jiang Haiping said, "You must be tired from the journey."
Jiang Haibo shook his head. His lips were dry and cracked, but he neither sat down nor took the enamel mug that A-Guang handed him.
Old Fang came out of the workshop, looked him up and down, and asked him what he had done before.
Jiang Haibo said he farmed at home, but failed his high school entrance exam and wanted to learn a trade.
Old Fang said that for the first three months, the service station apprentices were provided with meals but not paid wages. They slept in asbestos-roofed sheds where the beds creaked when they turned over.
Jiang Haibo said, "Let's do it."
He carried the snakeskin bag into the asbestos-roofed shed and put it down. Then he went out of the yard and looked at the three wooden signs, stone trough, and workshop door of the service station again. He squatted down at the entrance of the old parts warehouse and carefully washed his hands.
Ah Guang poked his head out of the old parts warehouse carrying the registration book, tapped the book with a pen, and said, "Brother Haibo, you should learn to recognize old parts from me first."
Jiang Haibo responded and squatted down next to A Guang, obediently watching him open the register. He then took an old bearing with a number on it from the shelf and told him that the bearings were classified by their inner diameter, and that he had to remember the inner ring size in millimeters and the year the outer diameter was removed.
Jiang Haibo took the bearing, touched the thin layer of machine oil with his fingertips, examined it for a while, and then gently placed it back on the shelf at the exact same angle as A-Guang had just placed it.
At lunchtime, Lin Xiu'e placed a bowl of fish ball soup in front of him.
Jiang Haibo quickly stood up to accept the message and thanked Sister Xiu'e.
Lin Xiu'e said she would learn the craft well at the service station and ask questions if she didn't understand. Jiang Haibo nodded vigorously.
In the afternoon, Lao Fang asked Hong Xiaobing to take Jiang Haibo to the dock to identify the tools.
Hong Xiaobing squatted by the dock and laid out the wrenches one by one: open-end wrenches, box wrenches, and socket wrenches, explaining their uses and strengths.
Jiang Haibo asked how to calculate torque. Hong Xiaobing thought for a long time and had no choice but to turn around and call Ding Haisheng, who was welding the hull plate, for help.
Ding Haisheng pushed the mask up to his forehead and walked over, pointing to the wrench in his hand and telling him that tightening bolts is not about using as much force as possible. The cylinder head bolts must be tightened diagonally in sequence, and you must stop when you reach the specified torque with a click.
Jiang Haibo silently repeated these words to himself twice, then bent down to collect the wrenches on the dock one by one, checking the numbers on each wrench in the afterglow of the setting sun.
After finishing work, Lao Fang squatted at the workshop entrance smoking and said to Jiang Haiping, "Your uncle's second son is very capable. He didn't utter a word on his first day and did whatever he was asked to do."
Jiang Haiping said that this doesn't belong to my eldest uncle's family. My dad is the second oldest, and this child's father is my dad's younger brother. I call him uncle.
Old Fang paused for a moment and said, "You have so many brothers, I can't remember them all." Jiang Haiping replied, "I can't remember them all either; I only see them once a year during the Spring Festival."
After dinner, Jiang Haiping sat on the rocks at the entrance of the courtyard wall and mentally reviewed the exhaust valve cleaning process for tomorrow.
Several official vessels are scheduled for maintenance tomorrow, and Ahai has already begun compiling repair records according to the new maintenance file format issued by the province, creating a separate form for each vessel.
Jiang Haibo poked his head out of the shed and asked if he could go on the boat with Hai Ge tomorrow.
Jiang Haiping said, "You should spend three days learning from Ah Guang to identify the old parts first. Once you've identified them all, then you can start working on them." Jiang Haibo responded and shrank back inside, and the shed fell silent.
The moonlight shone on the row of wooden signs at the entrance of the service station, and the waves gently lapped against the stone trough, one after another, without rushing.
Another person has joined the service station.
Jiang Haiping recalled that many years ago when he first came to Moon Island, he also stood alone at the gate of the courtyard, carrying his luggage, feeling both shy and curious.
I wonder if Jiang Haibo was just as shy and curious as he was back then when he stood at the gate looking inside.
He placed the enamel mug on the rock, stood up, and walked towards the workshop. The workshop lights were still on, and Ahai was filling in the numbers on the maintenance records under the light. The torque wrench made a soft click on the cylinder head.