Chapter 17: The Scrap Yard

Qin Zhiyi was sitting on a small stool outside the scrap yard at the moment.

He was repairing a rusty and severely damaged bicycle wheel with his hands.

He was focused on his work, and he noticed the footsteps, but he didn’t look up.

Xu Sangluo saw him at a glance, she was a little surprised, she glanced at the messy scrap yard, then pushed her bicycle over.

“Qin Zhiyi.”

She called out softly.

Qin Zhiyi stopped abruptly, he raised his head in surprise and looked at her.

When he saw that it was really her, his brows immediately furrowed, he quickly put down his work and stood up.

“Why are you here?”

Xu Sangluo pointed to the things in the bamboo basket.

“I came to town to look around and buy things, and I brought you lunch. I went to the brick factory just now, and a brother told me to come here to find you.”

She looked at the scrap yard, “Why are you here?”

Qin Zhiyi quickly squatted down and scooped water from a bucket next to him to wash his hands.

Then he walked over, “I had nothing to do at noon, so I came here to pick up some work. Didn’t I say you didn’t need to deliver it?”

Xu Sangluo smiled and pushed her bike aside, taking out the basket.

“It’s just a small thing. I haven’t eaten yet, let’s eat together.”

Qin Zhiyi frowned even tighter, “Why did you come out without eating?”

Then he didn’t hesitate, he took the basket, took out a worn-out small wooden table from it.

“Sit here.” He moved the small stool over, then lifted the lid of the bamboo basket and took out the cloth bag and lunch box.

Xu Sangluo didn’t stand on ceremony, she washed her hands and came back to sit down, took a bun, took the chopsticks Qin Zhiyi handed her, and ate a bun and a bite of vinegar-braised cabbage, it was very appetizing.

She didn’t wander around town for long, the buns were still warm.

“What kind of work are you doing here? Repairing scrap?” She turned her head to look around.

This scrap yard was quite large, with all kinds of scrap inside, very messy.

She even saw a television cover.

Thinking about Qin Zhiyi’s work just now, she guessed it was something like helping to refurbish scrap or assemble second-hand goods.

Sure enough, Qin Zhiyi’s answer was similar to what she guessed.

However, Qin Zhiyi was paid by piecework.

He would be paid 1 to 10 cents for repairing a piece of scrap, depending on the value of the scrap.

“You can actually repair machinery?”

Qin Zhiyi said, “I was a repairman in the army for a while.”

As for what he repaired, it was hard to say.

But Xu Sangluo just thought it was something like repairing vehicles.

Her attention was on the scrap at the moment, her eyes lit up.

“How does the boss sell the repaired things?”

Qin Zhiyi paused his chewing, looked up at her, “Do you want to buy something?”

Xu Sangluo nodded, “I want a tricycle, I don’t know if there’s one here. It doesn’t have to be too good, it just needs to be able to carry things.”

It was just a temporary thing, she didn’t need to buy a new one, and she didn’t need a ticket to buy one here.

Qin Zhiyi frowned and thought for a moment, he didn’t ask her why she needed it.

“Maybe we can try to assemble one, but it depends on whether the parts are complete. I’ll ask later.”

“Okay, ask about the price for me too.” Xu Sangluo smiled at him.

Xu Sangluo was full after eating two buns and a few bites of vegetables.

She didn’t bother Qin Zhiyi to continue working.

She left the rest of the food for him, took the small basket, and left first.

She planned to go to the county to take a look early.

She had only been gone for a short while, when the scrap yard owner, who had just finished eating at the state-owned restaurant, was humming a tune happily, chewing on a toothpick, and strolled back.

As soon as he reached the door of the shop, he saw Qin Zhiyi squatting by a small table outside, eating.

Wow, this is rare.

Usually, Qin Zhiyi would say he had already eaten when he came over.

Liu, the owner, knew that it was most likely an excuse.

But the other party clearly…

He didn’t need his sympathy, so he didn’t point it out.

When he came over at noon, he was the same as usual, he didn’t bring any food.

How come he’s eating now?

He walked over and saw a blue floral cloth spread out on the table.

There were also two buns on the cloth.

Qin Zhiyi had already finished eating, he was finishing the last bite of vegetables in the lunch box and preparing to clean up.

Xu Sangluo was afraid that he would get hungry easily doing manual labor.

So she brought ten buns.

She gave two away, ate two herself, and the rest were for Qin Zhiyi.

“Oh, Da Qin, you’re eating so late today. Wow, these buns are quite exquisite, homemade?”

Qin Zhiyi closed the lunch box lid and nodded, “My family sent them over. Would you like to try one, Brother Liu?”

“No, I’m full. You keep them for a snack in the afternoon.”

Qin Zhiyi smiled and wrapped the cloth bag, “Then you keep them for the afternoon. I don’t eat anything over there, it’s all homemade, it’s not worth anything.”

“Well… alright, I’ll leave them here, thanks.”

It was just two buns, Liu, the owner, didn’t stand on ceremony with him.

Xu Sangluo went around the county and bought a lot of things, filling a bamboo basket.

She originally planned to go back to the village early.

But when she passed a textile factory, she couldn’t help but stop and walk over.

There were two small stalls set up on the ground in front of the textile factory.

They were just covered with cloth, with piles of fabric on top.

Many people were surrounding the stalls, picking out fabrics.

Xu Sangluo stood there for a while, and she basically understood.

This was the textile factory disposing of defective fabrics and scraps.

These things would either be directly sent back to the chemical plant to be destroyed and made into new materials.

Or they would be sold at a low price.

Those with limited financial means were still willing to buy them.

Xu Sangluo took a look.

They were called defective fabrics, but actually, the problems weren’t big.

Most of them had ink stains, some had holes, and some were not dyed properly.

Xu Sangluo parked her bike and went to pick out some fabric.

There were wooden boards behind both stalls, with the prices of the fabric written on them, the same for each stall.

The left stall had the highest prices, each piece of fabric was three feet wide and one zhang long.

Ordinary cotton fabric was uniformly priced at 3 yuan, Dacron fabric was more expensive, at 4 yuan per piece.

But even so, there were still a lot of people scrambling for it.

After all, under normal circumstances, Dacron fabric cost 2 or 3 yuan per meter.

Although there were some flaws here, it was only 4 yuan for three meters, and you didn’t need a ticket, it was truly a bargain.

The fabric on the right stall was of different sizes, obviously scraps, sold by the jin.

But because they weren’t defective, they cost 2 yuan per jin, and when combined, they were about three meters long.

Xu Sangluo joined in the fun and picked out a lot of fabric, she could make some clothes when she got back.

She had worked many jobs in her previous life, and she learned a lot of skills.

One of them was tailoring.

But without a sewing machine, it would be difficult to do.

She would have to ask Qin Zhiyi if he could find a second-hand sewing machine at the scrap yard tonight.

As she was picking, she saw many people carrying bags of fabric coming out.

Some of the fabric was dumped on the stalls.

Some bags were directly thrown by the wall.

Xu Sangluo saw small pieces of fabric hanging from the untied opening of one of the bags.

She immediately guessed what they were.

They were probably scraps too, but they were very small scraps, they would be sent to the chemical plant to be melted down.

Suddenly, she thought of something, her eyes lit up.

She asked the female comrade who was collecting money.

“Comrade, do you sell those scraps?”

The female comrade was startled, she looked in the direction she pointed.

Then she frowned, “Those are just small pieces of fabric, what do you want them for?”