ryethenovel Chapter 1 Ship 2nd Generation
Chapter 1 Ship 2nd Generation
In the summer of 1992, 18-year-old Jiang Haiping squatted by the dock for an entire afternoon.
We weren't there to see the sea, but to see people repairing boats.
A 40-ton trawler was sitting upside down in the No. 3 shipyard, its hull exposed by barnacles that had gnawed into its planks.
Two workers squatted under the boat, using chisels to shovel barnacles. The shoveled-off shells piled up on the ground, mixed with rust and seaweed, and when the sun shone on them, they smelled pungent and fishy.
Jiang Haiping squatted by the dock and watched. He watched from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. He saw one of the workers straighten up and curse, "Damn it, my back is broken." He saw another worker throw down his chisel and say, "I'm not doing this anymore, this little bit of money isn't enough to buy medicated plasters." He saw the foreman come over, offer cigarettes, and coax the man back to work.
He watched for an entire afternoon without saying a word.
Until the foreman, Lao Gong, came over and plopped down next to him.
"Director Jiang, what are you looking at?"
"Look at them shoveling barnacles."
"What's so interesting about barnacles?"
"I'm wondering if there's a faster way."
Old Gong chuckled, pulled out a crumpled cigarette case, took one out, and handed it to Jiang Haiping. Jiang Haiping took it, didn't light it, and tucked it behind his ear.
"We've been shoveling barnacles like this for decades, ever since the Japanese occupied the shipyard." Old Gong lit a cigarette, took a deep breath, and continued, "Your grandfather shoveled them like this when he was repairing ships, your father shoveled them like this when he was in charge of the shipyard, and you're still shoveling them like this in your generation. It's not going to happen anytime soon."
"Why can't it be faster?"
"Because the boat is made of iron, and the barnacles are made of calcium, the calcium grows on the iron, making it even stronger than if it were welded on. High-pressure water guns can't wash them off, and steel brushes can't clean them properly. The only way is to use a chisel to scrape them off bit by bit. It takes three days to scrape one boat, three people, ninety workdays."
Jiang Haiping didn't ask any more questions.
He wasn't concerned about the slowness of removing barnacles; he was thinking about the thousands of fishing boats along the coast, who had to remove barnacles, rust, and paint them every year during the fishing moratorium. That alone was a huge undertaking.
But nobody does it.
The shipyard's repair dock is half empty most of the year, not because there aren't enough boats to repair, but because the fishermen can't afford it. A single trip into the dock costs several hundred yuan just for the loading fee, and with labor and materials, even a minor repair can easily cost several thousand. Most fishermen would rather squat on the mudflats with chisels and shovels than go into the shipyard.
Going to sea while sick, going to sea while sick.
Jiang Haiping had heard these four words since he was a child.
"Brother Ping!"
Someone called from behind.
Jiang Haiping turned around and saw Lao Sun, the workshop dispatcher, leading a person over.
To be precise, he was leading a girl.
The girl was about seventeen or eighteen years old, very tanned, with two braids hanging over her shoulders, wearing a faded blue floral shirt. She wore black cloth shoes that were half a size too big, and her heels turned outwards when she walked.
She kept her head down, avoiding eye contact. She clutched a floral cloth bundle so tightly her knuckles turned blue.
"This girl was looking for you. She waited for you at the factory gate all afternoon," Old Sun said. "I asked her what she wanted, but she wouldn't say. She just said she was looking for you. I told her you were busy, so she squatted at the gate and waited. The sun was so strong, she squatted there for three hours."
Jiang Haiping stood up.
He recognized him.
"Lin Xiu'e?"
The girl raised her head.
Jiang Haiping saw her face. It was sunburnt red, her lips were chapped and peeling, and her forehead was covered in sweat. But her eyes were bright, clear and distinct, like the seawater that washes up at high tide at the dock.
"Ping-ge," she said softly, as if afraid of disturbing someone, "I've come to borrow something from you."
Old Sun wisely left.
Jiang Haiping looked at her.
They hadn't seen each other for four or five years. After graduating from junior high school, he went to the shipyard's staff university, while she returned to Moon Island. They only saw each other once in between, during the Spring Festival two years ago, when she came to the shipyard with her father to deliver fish. They bumped into each other at the factory gate, exchanged greetings, and then left.
"What is it?"
Lin Xiu'e gripped her bundle tightly.
"My dad's boat sank."
She spoke very slowly, uttering each word one by one.
"Last month, I was out at sea when a cargo ship collided with me off the coast of Zhoushan. We were pulled out of the water, but the boat was gone. I bought that boat with a loan, and I owe the credit union 80,000 yuan. My mom says she wants to marry me off to a fishmonger in town; he's willing to offer 20,000 yuan as a bride price. I don't want to go."
After she finished speaking, she lowered her head and looked at her cloth shoes, which were half a size too big.
Jiang Haiping remained silent for a few seconds.
Where is your dad?
"At home. His leg got caught in the boat plank, and he walks with a limp. His mother won't let him go out, afraid that the people from the credit union will see him."
"Did you go to the hospital?"
"without."
Why?
Lin Xiu'e did not answer.
Jiang Haiping didn't need her answer. He knew why.
An 80,000 yuan debt, a lame leg, four children, and a daughter who is to be married off to pay off the debt. What kind of hospital would a family like this go to?
"Wait for me a moment."
Jiang Haiping turned and walked into the shipyard.
Old Gong was squatting under the boat smoking. Jiang Haiping walked over and squatted down.
"Uncle Gong, I have something to ask you."
"explain."
"A 270-horsepower steel-hulled trawler has a hole in its starboard side, the main engine is flooded, and the second gearbox shaft is broken. How much would it cost to repair?"
Old Gong took the cigarette out of his mouth.
"How big is the hole?"
"I don't know. The ship sank and was salvaged."
Old Gong thought about it.
"Just patching the hole, disassembling and cleaning the main engine, and replacing the secondary shaft will cost at least four or five thousand in materials processing alone. If the gearbox assembly is broken and needs to be replaced, that'll cost tens of thousands. What, you want to repair a ship?"
"It wasn't me who repaired it. A boat sank, and I was just checking on it."
Old Gong glanced at him but didn't ask any further questions.
"Four or five thousand is an understatement. In actual practice, it will be more than that."
Jiang Haiping nodded and stood up.
He walked up to Lin Xiu'e.
"Walk."
"Where to?"
"Your home."
Jiang Haiping did not call the factory's jeep.
He went to the bike shed and pushed a bicycle, a 28-inch model, which was provided by the factory to the technicians for field trips, with a hard sponge pad strapped to the back seat.
"Come up."
Lin Xiu'e sat sideways on the back seat, clutching her bundle in one hand and gripping the spring under the seat with the other.
The car drove out of the factory gate and turned onto the coastal highway.
It takes an hour and a half to cycle from the shipyard to Moon Island. The road is newly built, the asphalt softened by the sun, making a crunching sound as the wheels roll over it. On one side are mountains covered with low pines and shrubs. On the other side is the sea, a bluish-gray that merges seamlessly with the sky.
Lin Xiu'e sat in the back and didn't say a word.
Jiang Haiping and the others rode away for twenty minutes before speaking.
How did you know I was here?
"I asked."
"Ask whom?"
"The people in town. I said I was looking for Jiang Haiping at the shipyard, and they said you must be at the shipyard. You don't go to school, you just sit in the dock watching people repair ships every day."
Jiang Haiping smiled.
His reputation in the factory was probably that of "the factory manager's son who didn't like going to school and spent all his time in the workshop."
"Did you walk here?"
"I hitched a ride on a tractor that was carrying fishmeal to town, and then walked here from town."
"How long have you been walking?"
"More than an hour."
Jiang Haiping remained silent.
It's five kilometers from the town to the shipyard. Under the midday sun, a girl walked for over an hour just to say a few words to him.
Why didn't you take the shuttle bus?
"The shuttle bus costs 50 cents."
Five cents.
Jiang Haiping pedaled the bike a little faster.
By the time we arrived at Moon Island, the sun was already setting in the west.
Although Moon Island is called an island, it was actually reclaimed in the early years and has become connected to the mainland. A seawall connects the island to the shore. Inside the seawall are salt fields and shrimp ponds, while outside the seawall are mudflats with densely packed bamboo poles used for cultivating laver and kelp.
The houses on the island are all made of stone. The walls are made of reef, the courtyard walls are made of reef, and even the roof tiles are made of reef. The sea breeze has pockmarked the surface of the stones, making them look like an old man's face.
Lin Xiue's house is at the deepest part of the alley.
Three stone houses, a corner of the courtyard wall collapsed and was blocked off with a tattered fishing net. Shrimp shells were drying in the yard, and flies buzzed around. A middle-aged man with a limp sat on a stool mending fishing nets, his leg wrapped in yellowed gauze.
"dad."
Lin Xiu'e walked over.
Lin's father looked up. His face, weathered by the sea breeze and sun like old tree bark, had prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes. He froze when he saw the young man behind his daughter.
"This is... Ping-ge'er?"
He remembered. The year before last, during the Spring Festival, he took his daughter to the shipyard to deliver fish and ran into the factory manager's son at the gate. His daughter called out "Brother Ping," and the man nodded and left. That one encounter was enough for him to remember.
On the way home that day, my daughter said, "Dad, Ping's dad is the factory director, and he himself is a manager in the factory. It would be great if we knew him."
He laughed at the time: "What's the use of knowing who they are and who we are?"
Unexpectedly, this person is standing in his yard today.
"Uncle Lin," Jiang Haiping squatted down to look Lin's father in the eye, "How's your leg?"
"No...it's nothing." Lin's father subconsciously pulled his injured leg back.
Jiang Haiping glanced at the gauze. The outside of the gauze was clean, but there were yellow seepage stains along the edges.
"Xiu'e told me about the boat."
Lin's father's hand stopped on the fishing net.
"That boat... was bought jointly by three families. I owned 40%, Old Chen's 30%, and Old Ma's 30%. I took out the loan, 80,000 yuan. The boat sank, and the insurance company said the other party was fully responsible, but the cargo ship was from another province, and the shipowner was only willing to pay 30,000 yuan. The credit union is pressing us every day, and the interest rate is still rising. Old Chen and Old Ma's families are blocking the door every day demanding an explanation, saying that I was careless in sailing the boat and ruined their business."
His voice was calm, as if he were talking about someone else.
"I want to get the boat repaired. Once it's fixed, I can go out to sea again and pay off my debts. But the shipyard people came to look at it and said it would cost five thousand dollars to repair. I can't afford that."
"Five thousand dollars." He repeated the three words as if weighing them.
Lin Xiu'e stood to the side, tears falling onto the bamboo tray where shrimp skins were drying.
Jiang Haiping took an envelope out of his pocket.
"Uncle Lin, here's a thousand yuan. Let's get your leg checked first."
Lin's father looked at the envelope but did not reach for it.
"Ping-ge'er, I can't accept this money."
Why?
"I can't pay it back."
I didn't say you had to pay me back.
Lin's father shook his head.
"Your dad is the factory director, and you're a cadre. I'm just a fisherman. If I take your money, what will people say? They'll say the Lin family is trying to climb the social ladder, that Lin Xiu'e is shameless for seducing the factory director's son. I may be lame, but I'm not deaf. I've heard the gossip on the island my whole life."
The courtyard fell silent.
The only sounds were the buzzing of flies and the crashing of waves.
Jiang Haiping placed the envelope next to the shrimp-shaped plaque.
"Uncle Lin, this money isn't given away for nothing."
Lin's father looked at him.
How many boats are there on your island?
"About a hundred."
"Where do they all go for repairs?"
"For minor problems, we fix them ourselves; for major problems, we go to your factory. But your factory is too expensive, so many people go to private boats on the other side of the strait."
"How's the repair of the private boat raft coming along?"
Lin's father paused for a moment.
"It's cheap, but the craftsmanship is lacking. Last year, Old Chen's boat was pulled from a private boat fleet, and on its first day at sea, the main engine buckled."
Jiang Haiping nodded.
"Uncle Lin, I'm thinking of setting up a boat repair shop on Moon Island. I don't need to make a profit, just break even. But I need someone who knows about boats to help me figure out which boats need repair, which don't, and to what extent they need to be repaired before they can go out to sea."
He looked at Lin's father.
"Please do me this favor. This thousand yuan is an advance payment for your work."
Lin's father was stunned.
He looked at Jiang Haiping, then at his daughter.
Lin Xiu'e wiped away her tears.
"Dad, please say yes."
Lin's father lowered his head.
After a long time, he reached out and picked up the envelope.
It was almost dark when we left the Lin family's house.
Jiang Haiping pushed his bicycle toward the seawall, with Lin Xiue following behind.
"Brother Ping."
"Um."
"Is the ship repair shop you mentioned real?"
"real."
Why?
Jiang Haiping stopped.
He turned around and looked at Lin Xiu'e.
"This afternoon, I watched people shoveling barnacles at the dock. One boat, three people, shoveling for three days. I was thinking, there are thousands of fishing boats along the coast, and every year during the fishing moratorium, they have to shovel barnacles. If there were a place where fishermen could afford to repair their boats, so they wouldn't have to go out to sea with sick boats, or risk their lives for fish—that place should exist."
Lin Xiu'e looked at him.
The sunset glow on the horizon turned orange-red, shining on Jiang Haiping's face.
"Ping-ge, you're a good person."
"I'm not a good person," Jiang Haiping said, pushing the cart forward. "I just owe your father a life."
Lin Xiu'e was stunned.
"During my spring outing in my third year of junior high, at Longwan Beach, I swam outside the shark net and got a leg cramp. Your dad pulled me out."
"You remember?"
"I'll never forget the time I almost drowned."
Lin Xiu'e stood on the seawall, watching Jiang Haiping push his bicycle away into the distance.
The sunset cast a long shadow that stretched all the way to the sea.
She suddenly remembered something.
When she returned from a spring outing that year, her father told her: "Today we rescued a boy, the son of the shipyard manager. This boy is brave, daring to swim so far; he'll be someone important someday."
She didn't pay attention at the time.
Now she thinks: her dad was right.