Traveling through 70's wine

"I want to see if there is a suitable water pipe?"

The fat woman said, "The scrap metal is in the back yard. Yingzi, take her there."

A skinny young woman put down what she was holding and said to Wen Qing, "Come with me."

Wen Qing followed her around the corner of the house and saw a large yard at the back. There was a shed in the northeast corner of the yard, which was filled with steel bars, wires, scrap parts, and some scrap iron whose original appearance could not be recognized.

Yingzi said, "It's right here, you can choose."

Wen Qing thanked her and started searching slowly.

As expected of a scrap yard next to a steel plant, there are a lot of steel materials inside. Although they are not very long, there are still a lot of steel pipes that are more than one or two meters long.

Wen Qing found the less rusty water pipes, steel, iron wires and nails.

She went to search in the scrap pile next to her, which contained broken iron pots, copper basins, and some other metal objects. Wen Qing found an iron box, a small rusty iron plate, a small iron stove, and an iron kettle with a broken ear at the bottom. She moved the things to the door and piled them together.

I went to the yard and called Yingzi over. Yingzi dragged over a large scale and weighed it. The total weight was 130 kilograms, which was 1 yuan per kilogram, so the total price was 130 yuan.

Just now I saw someone selling scrap steel at the door. The scrap station buys it at 0.4 yuan per catty. They only spent 5 or 60 yuan at most to buy this stuff, so the profit is quite high.

After paying the money, Wen Qing moved the things onto the pickup truck, said goodbye to the aunts, and returned to Erxia Village.

She took out the rust remover she had mixed herself and applied it to the purchased water pipes, iron wires, and steel. She then took out the iron pots and iron stoves and placed them in the yard, checking them one by one. Except for the iron pots, the iron boxes, plates, kettles, and the small stove were probably not made of iron.

It should be copper or other alloys, but it is too rusted and there is a thick layer of mud on the outside, so its original appearance cannot be seen and it can all be mistaken for an iron product.

Wen Qing first soaked those things in clean water with laundry detergent to wash away the dirt, dust and oil, then took out the copper rust remover and applied it one by one.

After waiting for a while, I saw that the rust remover took effect and cleaned them one by one.

The box was a bronze box with cloud patterns on it. I looked carefully at the switch of the box and found that there should have been a lock on the box, but it was gone now and the lock was also damaged. The lid was rusted and connected to the box below, so it could not be opened. It was probably because it had been placed in a humid place for a long time and had caused severe rust. This needed to be dealt with separately.

The kettle was not tall, and after being washed it shone with a bluish-black luster. The mouth of the kettle was about five inches long, and the lid was heart-shaped. There were no patterns on the kettle, and one ear was missing, so it was a bit heavy to hold. There was an inscription in regular script on the bottom of the kettle: "Made in the Yongzheng Period of the Qing Dynasty."

The metal plate was only ten centimeters wide and four centimeters high. After washing, it showed a silver rust color. Wen Qing took out alcohol and wiped it gently with a cotton cloth dipped in alcohol. After a while, the plate showed a bright silver color. Looking closely, there were grape patterns on the body and edge of the plate, and the bottom of the plate had the regular script inscription "Made in the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty".

Finally, after she cleaned the incense burner, she found that it was a wide-mouthed incense burner with a pair of lion-shaped ears. The body of the burner was flat and bulging, emitting a dark brown luster. The inscriptions on the bottom of the burner were somewhat corroded, and it was unclear what the words were.

These things looked simple in shape. Although some of them were missing, they all had a sense of time. Wen Qing put them into the space.

In the evening, Wen Qing took out the iron wire, steel and water pipes soaked in the rust remover, rinsed them with water, and put them aside to dry.

The next day, Wen Qing took out the steel, iron wire, and water pipes needed at the entrance of the courtyard, and temporarily placed the rest in the east wing.

When she entered the yard, Lao Hu had already dug the drainage ditch and laid the cement sewer pipes. He was installing them with several workers. When Lao Hu saw her, he said, "Xiao Wen, you are here. Take a rest. Let's install the sewer pipes first. Look, the sewer pipes are placed like this, and the water pipes are connected from above."

After he installed the sewer pipes, Wen Qing handed him the things she brought, and all the building materials for repairing the house were ready.

She looked at the yard that was being repaired. Only a week had passed, but the walls and roof as soon as she entered the yard had been repaired, the wooden floor had been sawed and was being painted, the demolished debris had been cleaned up, and the usable bricks and stones had been put aside. The sewer had also been installed today. Lao Hu's work was very effective.

The brackets under the eaves of the main house have also been repaired. The new varnish looks simple and delicate. The new windows are made of carved wood lattices, and when glass is installed in the future, the whole house will have the flavor of an ancient building.

Wen Qing went to check on the progress of the project about every two or three days, and soon it was time to start school.

After school started, class monitor Liu Wenming found Wen Qing and said to her, "Wen Qing, you're amazing. You were number one in the grade again last semester."

She smiled modestly, "It's mainly luck."

She was at the top of her grade for both semesters of her sophomore year, so there was a high probability that she would receive a scholarship, not because of the money, but because of the honor.

Wen Qing went to visit Professor Wang Huazhen and Director Xu. Professor Wang taught them material mechanics this semester, and Director Xu taught them mechanical design. She went to the two professors to get a list of extracurricular reading books.

I went to the classroom to meet my classmates, and also made an appointment with my former roommate from dormitory 307. After class in the afternoon, we went to a restaurant off-campus to have dinner.

After 6 o'clock in the afternoon, all the students in dormitory 307 arrived. Zhu Hongying brought Xiao Mingli with her, and the nine of them were very cordial when they met each other.

Wen Qing ordered shredded pork with fish flavor, braised pork, mutton soup pot, fried spare ribs, glutinous rice chicken, three fresh vegetables, sweet and sour pork, and a few vegetables. When everyone saw so many delicious dishes, they couldn't help but pick up their chopsticks to show off.

Wen Qing asked: "Hongying, has Mingli gone to school?"

"The kindergarten has started. Mingli is now 4 years old and is in the middle class."

Wen Qing picked up a piece of sweet and sour pork for Mingli and asked her, "Mingli, what did you learn in kindergarten?"

Mingli said in a baby voice: "The kindergarten teacher taught us to play games and sing songs."

After saying that, he twisted his body and got down to the ground and performed for everyone: "Little duck, quack quack!".

With her hands behind her back, she swayed like a duck, making everyone laugh. They all praised Mingli. Mingli's face turned red and she shyly hid behind Zhu Hongying.

As they ate, they talked about their studies. Wen Qing said, "This semester we have a major course called mechanical design, so we can start designing some mechanical equipment."

Zhao Na is from the Chemical Engineering Department and said, “This semester we are going to take courses like thermodynamics and reaction engineering.”

Wen Qing asked: "Are you going to take the lab class?"

Zhao Na said: "You have to take the experiment. The management of the experiment class is very strict. The experimental procedures are also very rigorous. You have to design the experimental plan first, and the professor will review it before allowing you to operate."

Zhao Lanlan said: "It's the same in our chemistry department. If we are not rigorous, accidents are likely to happen when doing chemistry experiments."

When talking about her exam results last semester, Zhao Na said, "Alas, I didn't do well. Most of them were good or passing."

Zhu Hongying said: "I got an excellent grade in one subject, good grades in three subjects and a passing grade in one subject."

Xian Yumei, who is also from the Department of Physics, said, "Hongying, your grades are not good. I got good grades in three subjects and passed two."

"Wen Qing, you will definitely get another scholarship." After dinner, everyone dispersed.

Wen Qing did not go home directly, but went to find Zhuang Xien.

She walked to a deserted place, put the bicycle into the space, took out the tricycle and two hundred sets of gear kits sent by the machine repair shop from the space, and rode slowly towards Zhuang Xien's shop.

Zhuang Xian and the other two were all there. When he saw Wen Qing, Zhuang Xian stood up happily and said, "Wen Qing, you're here," with a somewhat complaining tone in his voice.