At that moment, Qin Zhiyi was sitting on a small stool outside the scrap collection station.
In his hands was a severely rusted and damaged bicycle wheel, which he was repairing.
With his head lowered, he focused completely on the task at hand. He noticed the sound of approaching footsteps but didn’t look up.
Xu Sangluo spotted him at a glance and was a little surprised. After briefly glancing around the messy scrap yard, she pushed her bicycle over.
“Qin Zhiyi.”
She called out softly.
Qin Zhiyi’s movements suddenly stopped. He lifted his head in surprise and looked toward her.
When he saw that it was really her, his brows immediately furrowed. He quickly set down what he was holding and stood up.
“Why did you come here?”
Xu Sangluo pointed to the things in the bamboo basket.
“I came to the town to look around and buy some things. I also brought you lunch. I just went to the brick factory, and a worker there told me to come here to find you.”
After saying that, she glanced at the scrap station.
“Why are you here?”
Qin Zhiyi quickly crouched down, scooped some water from a bucket nearby, and washed his hands.
Then he walked over. “I had nothing to do at noon, so I came here to take on some small jobs. Didn’t I say you didn’t need to bring food?”
Xu Sangluo smiled, pushing the bicycle aside and lifting the basket.
“It was just convenient. I haven’t eaten yet either. Let’s eat together.”
Hearing this, Qin Zhiyi frowned even more deeply.
“Why did you come out without eating first?”
But he didn’t argue further. He took the basket from her and pulled out a small, worn wooden table from inside.
“Sit here.”
He moved the little stool over, then opened the bamboo basket and took out the cloth bundle and lunch boxes inside.
Xu Sangluo didn’t stand on ceremony. After washing her hands, she returned and sat down. She grabbed a steamed bun, took the chopsticks Qin Zhiyi handed her, and ate—one bite of bun followed by one bite of stir-fried cabbage with vinegar. It was very appetizing.
She hadn’t wandered around town for long, so the buns were still warm.
“What kind of work are you taking here? Repairing scrap?” she asked, glancing around.
This scrap station was fairly large, filled with all kinds of junk, piled chaotically.
She even spotted the casing of a television set.
Thinking about what Qin Zhiyi had been doing earlier, she guessed he was helping refurbish scrap or assemble secondhand items.
Sure enough, Qin Zhiyi’s answer matched her guess.
However, he was paid by the piece.
For every item he repaired, the payment depended on its value—usually between one fen and one mao.
“You can even repair machinery?”
Qin Zhiyi replied, “I worked as a mechanic for a while when I was in the army.”
As for what exactly he repaired, that wasn’t something he could easily say.
But Xu Sangluo simply assumed it was vehicles or similar equipment.
At the moment, her attention was entirely on the scrap around them. Her eyes shifted thoughtfully.
“How does the boss sell the repaired items?”
Qin Zhiyi paused mid-chew and looked up at her.
“You want to buy something?”
Xu Sangluo nodded. “I want a pedal tricycle. I wonder if there’s one here. It doesn’t have to be in great condition—just something that can carry things.”
It would only be a temporary solution anyway. Buying one here meant she wouldn’t need ration coupons like she would for a new one.
Qin Zhiyi frowned and thought for a moment, not asking why she wanted it.
“We might be able to assemble one, but it depends on whether the parts are complete. I’ll ask later.”
“Alright. Please ask about the price for me too,” Xu Sangluo said with a smile.
Xu Sangluo ate two buns and a few bites of vegetables before she was full.
She didn’t disturb Qin Zhiyi’s work any further.
Leaving the remaining food for him, she picked up the small basket and left.
She planned to head to the county early to have a look around.
Not long after she left, the scrap station owner returned from lunch at the state-run restaurant.
With a toothpick in his mouth, humming cheerfully, he strolled back.
As soon as he reached the entrance, he saw Qin Zhiyi squatting beside the small table eating.
Oh—this was rare.
Whenever Qin Zhiyi came here before, he always said he had already eaten.
Boss Liu knew that was most likely just an excuse.
But since Qin Zhiyi clearly didn’t want anyone’s pity, he had never exposed the lie.
When he came at noon, it had been the same as usual—he hadn’t brought any food.
So how was he eating now?
He walked over and happened to see a piece of blue floral cloth spread out on the table.
On top of the cloth were two steamed buns.
Qin Zhiyi had already finished eating and was just taking the last bite of vegetables from his lunchbox, preparing to pack up.
Xu Sangluo was worried that doing physical labor would make him hungry easily.
So she had brought ten buns.
Two were given away, two she ate herself, and the rest were for Qin Zhiyi.
“Well now, Old Qin, eating lunch so late today, huh? Heh, those buns look pretty delicate. Homemade?”
Qin Zhiyi closed the lunchbox lid and nodded.
“Someone from home brought them. Brother Liu, would you like to try one?”
“No need. I’ve already eaten. Save them to fill your stomach this afternoon.”
Qin Zhiyi smiled and wrapped the buns up in the cloth.
“Then you can keep them for the afternoon. I can’t really eat while working over there anyway. They’re homemade, nothing special.”
“Ah… alright then. Just leave them here. Thanks.”
It was only two buns, so Boss Liu didn’t stand on ceremony with him.
Xu Sangluo wandered around the county for a while and bought quite a few things, filling an entire bamboo basket.
She had originally planned to return to the village early.
But when she passed by a textile factory, she couldn’t help stopping and moving closer.
At the entrance of the textile factory, two small stalls had been set up on one side.
They were very simple—just cloth laid on the ground, with piles of fabric stacked on top like small hills.
At the moment, quite a few people were gathered around the stalls selecting cloth.
After standing there for a while, Xu Sangluo quickly figured things out.
The textile factory was clearing out defective fabrics and leftover scraps.
These materials would either be sent back to the chemical plant to be destroyed and remade into raw materials,
or sold off cheaply.
People with tighter financial conditions were quite willing to buy them.
Xu Sangluo took a look.
They were called defective fabrics, but the problems were actually minor.
At most, some pieces had ink stains, some had small tears, and others hadn’t been dyed evenly.
Xu Sangluo parked her bicycle and joined the crowd to pick out some cloth.
Behind both stalls were wooden boards listing the prices of the fabric, and the pricing was the same at each stall.
The fabrics at the left stall were the most expensive. Each piece was three chi wide and one zhang long.
Ordinary cotton cloth was uniformly priced at 3 yuan per piece.
Dacron cloth was a bit more expensive—4 yuan per piece.
Even so, people were still scrambling to buy it.
Under normal circumstances, dacron cloth cost 2–3 yuan per meter.
Here, although the fabric had slight defects, three meters only cost 4 yuan—and no cloth coupons were required.
It was truly a bargain.
The fabrics at the right stall varied in size.
They were clearly scraps and were sold by weight.
However, because they weren’t defective, they cost 2 yuan per jin. When pieced together, they amounted to roughly three meters of fabric.
Xu Sangluo joined the excitement and picked out quite a lot of cloth.
She could take them back and make some clothes.
In her previous life, she had worked many jobs and learned quite a few skills.
Clothes-making was one of them.
However, without a sewing machine, it would be much harder.
Tonight she would have to ask Qin Zhiyi whether he could find a secondhand sewing machine at the scrap yard.
While she was selecting fabrics, she saw several people carrying out bags of cloth.
Some of the fabric was dumped onto the stalls.
Other sacks were tossed directly against the wall.
Through the slightly open mouth of one of the sacks, Xu Sangluo saw small strips of cloth hanging out.
She immediately guessed what they were.
They were probably scraps as well—but extremely tiny scraps, the kind that would be sent straight to the chemical plant to be melted down.
Suddenly, something occurred to her, and her eyes lit up.
She spoke to the female worker across from her who was collecting the money.
“Comrade, are the scraps over there for sale?”
The woman froze for a moment and followed the direction Xu Sangluo pointed.
Then she frowned.
“Those are just tiny fabric scraps. What would you want them for?”