Ye Yi recalled the kang she’d thought of at breakfast. Not knowing whether metal could be used to make one, she pondered a moment and asked, “Can you turn metal into a hollow tube?”
If she could get hollow tubes, she could connect them to the fire basin and use them to carry the gases from the burning wood out the window, then she wouldn’t have to fear carbon-monoxide poisoning.
Xie Yi stared at the metal in his palm and, controlling the little metal dog with his mind, slowly melted it into a mass of liquid, which slowly formed into a hollow round tube. Looking at the finished product, he handed it to the stunned Ye Yi and asked uncertainly, “Like this?”
Ye Yi stared, dazed. She really wanted this ability too. Out in the wild you’d never lack pots and pans, and you could even build a simple shelter, so tempting.
She took the round tube from his palm, it felt very smooth. She looked into the hollow center and nodded with satisfaction, it was exactly what she wanted.
“Can you conjure these out of thin air, or do you need physical metal to control it into the shape you want?” Ye Yi raised the question. If he could conjure it from nothing, that would be downright godlike.
She looked at it a while longer, then returned the tube to Xie Yi.
“I need the physical thing.” Xie Yi turned the round tube back into a dagger and put it away. If he could conjure it from thin air, he wouldn’t have gotten hurt.
Seeing someone glance over their way, Ye Yi quickly tugged Xie Yi, pretended to be shoveling snow, and said in a low whisper, “So if I had enough metal, could I ask you to help make a metal kang?”
A kang made of metal, the thought alone was exciting. She just didn’t know about its heat conductivity.
“Sure.”
Getting Xie Yi’s firm answer, Ye Yi couldn’t help giving him a pat. She accepted this Random Teammate, thank goodness she’d saved him.
Her shoveling sped up at once. Only by clearing the road could she get out to collect metal, and only then would building a metal kang have any hope.
And so, after about an hour of shoveling, everyone’s combined efforts finally cleared the road to the complex gate.
Ye Yi and Xie Yi stood at the gate, pressing their aching waists. She was truly worn out. Remembering Xie Yi’s wound, she immediately asked, “How’s your wound?”
“No problem.” Xie Yi felt a bit of pain, but still answered as if nothing were wrong.
As a real man, he couldn’t show the slightest hint of weakness.
Ye Yi saw that the road at the gate had already been cleared by a snowplow, the surface clean, leaving only traces of water.
Standing at the gate, she had no clue at all about collecting metal, and turned to ask Xie Yi offhandedly, “Do you know where there’d be metal?”
“The place that collects junk.” Xie Yi said with certainty. He’d just been there a few days ago, but with nowhere to store things, he’d only bought a little metal.
“This town even has a junk-collection place?” Ye Yi asked, surprised. She’d only seen such places in the small towns of her childhood, would there be one here?
She asked casually, “Do you know where the junk-collection place is?”
These past few days she hadn’t properly explored this map’s town, right now she was completely in the dark, knowing nothing. Was she going to have to go find Sister Ma?
“Over there.” Xie Yi pointed east and set off walking. After a few steps, he looked back and, seeing Ye Yi hadn’t kept up, called, “Keep up.”
Ye Yi quickly jogged to catch up, and the two of them walked in silence to a courtyard.
On the way there, her mind kept turning: after collecting the metal, how should she proceed? How to design the simplest kang for the room? How much metal would she need? Her brain whirred fast while the corner of her eye followed Xie Yi forward, bang, she walked right into his back.
Only then did she snap out of it, stop thinking, and ask, puzzled, “We’re here?”
Xie Yi lifted his chin, signaling her to look ahead.
Ye Yi looked at the “Little Li Junk Station” sign standing at the entrance, stepped up, knocked on the iron gate, and asked loudly, “Anyone home?”
After a burst of clattering from inside, a woman’s voice came: “Who’s there?”
“A customer.” Ye Yi answered loudly. She was probably the first person ever to come to a junk station to buy things.
After a moment, a tall woman opened the gate. Seeing Xie Yi, she said happily, “Young man, you’re back, what are you buying this time?”
She’d been collecting junk in this town for over a decade, and it was the first time she’d seen such a handsome young man come to a junk station to buy things. It left a deep impression, one visit and she’d remembered him.
“Sister Wang, it’s not me buying, it’s her.” Xie Yi turned to gesture at Ye Yi.
“Hello, Sister Wang. I’d like to buy some iron, do you have any?” Ye Yi communicated with her eyes to Xie Yi: So you’ve been to this place before!
Watching the interplay between the two, Sister Wang smiled, turned, and headed into the courtyard as she answered, “I’ve only got scrap iron here, you want it?”
Sure enough, the good-looking young men were all taken, her homebody daughter who stayed in all day had no shot.
“I do, how do you sell it?” Ye Yi followed close behind into the courtyard. The junk piles were all buried under white snow, so she had no idea where the iron was.
“2 yuan per catty.”
Ye Yi did a silent tally. An iron bed frame took about 60 catties, two would be 120 catties, and with the ventilation flue on top, she’d need about 150 catties. She’d round it up to 200 catties, in case 150 wasn’t enough. At 2 yuan a catty, 200 catties would be 400 yuan.
She felt the 1,200 Xie Yi had given her in her pocket and said with full confidence, “I’ll take 200 catties.”
Sister Wang led the two to a tall pile of white snow and said apologetically, “Sorry, wait a moment, I’ll go push a scale over.”
With that, she turned and pushed over an iron platform scale from not far off.
Standing before the pile of white snow, Ye Yi looked left and right, all snow. She could only tell it was iron from the pointed corners poking out, and there were speckles of rust on it too. For a moment she doubted her decision, could this stuff even be used?
Sister Wang crouched to one side, carefully brushing the snow off the scrap iron with her hand, gripped a corner, pulled a piece out of the snowdrift, and threw it onto the scale. Before long she’d weighed out 200 catties.
Looking at the scrap iron heaped on the scale, how was she going to carry it home?
Sister Wang brought over a rural-style plastic sack, loaded the scrap iron in piece by piece, and handed it straight to Xie Yi. By the time Ye Yi had paid, she found Xie Yi had already carried the scrap iron to the gate.
She hurried after him, snatched the sack from his hands, and heaved upward with all her might, couldn’t lift it.
Gripping the sack’s mouth with both hands and using every bit of her strength to lift, the scrap iron didn’t budge in the slightest. It didn’t look like much, how was it this heavy?
Awkwardly, she looked up at Xie Yi. There was no help for it, she couldn’t lift it.
Xie Yi chuckled quietly, reached out, picked up the sack, and kept walking toward their lodging.
Ye Yi watched Xie Yi’s condition as they walked, afraid he’d add injury to injury. Suddenly spotting a corner up ahead, she quickly pulled Xie Yi over there, reached for the sack in his hand, and put it into the system Backpack. Thank goodness she’d cleared out the system Backpack that morning, moving the boards and blocks to the bedroom, otherwise there’d have been nowhere to store this scrap iron.
Without the scrap iron, it was much easier. Xie Yi looked at the sack vanishing from his hands, discreetly shook his arm behind his back, and turned to follow Ye Yi.
On the way back they passed a small mall. Ye Yi walked in and took it all in at a glance, empty, with only a scattering of items left on the shelves.
She went in for a look and found some vegetable seeds in a corner, picking a few bags of each kind. Carrying them to the clerk, she asked, “Um, how do you sell these seeds?”
The clerk, bored, was playing on a phone. He glanced up and answered indifferently, “1.5 a bag.”
Ye Yi counted, exactly 30 bags of seeds. She handed them over and said, “I’ll take all of these.”
The clerk took the seeds and counted them one by one, listlessly, taking quite a while to finish. “Thirty. That’s 45 yuan total.”
Faced with such service, Ye Yi swallowed the urge to blow up, paid, and left the shop.
Truly infuriating. With an attitude like that, she wouldn’t want to come again.
The way back went without incident. Safely home, Ye Yi took out the scrap iron and seeds and set them in the living room.
She rubbed her ice-cold hands together. Sure enough, home was warmer, indoors and outdoors were truly two different temperatures, though it wasn’t very warm indoors either. She checked the wristband: nearly noon. A good time to light a fire and cook, then study how to make a metal kang in the afternoon, aiming to get it done before bed tonight.
Sitting by the fire basin, she arranged boards, sprinkled alcohol, lit them, practiced motions, and before long the fire was going. She glanced at the stove beside her and took 10 honeycomb briquettes straight from the system Backpack, setting them by the stove.
She looked at Xie Yi warming his hands by the fire basin and asked tentatively, “Do you know how to light honeycomb coal?”
If he did, she wouldn’t have to figure it out herself.
Xie Yi nodded. He’d often seen his family use this kind of stove as a child, and had frequently helped the grown-ups change the briquettes. This was a trifle to him.
Reassured, Ye Yi handed the task of lighting the stove to Xie Yi and got up to cook lunch.
Before leaving, she saw the frying pan and bowls on the coffee table, took them to the kitchen, and washed them clean with a little water.
Staring at the clean bowls, she fretted: what to eat for lunch? The instant noodles were all gone.
She thought she’d seen a stone pot in the kitchen, maybe she’d make a simple version of stone-pot mixed rice (bibimbap).
She dug out the stone pot, washed it clean, scooped in three bowls of rice, rinsed it a few times, and poured the rinse water into a basin, it could still be used for washing hands and vegetables, saving water. She slipped into the bedroom and took out the vegetables, eggs, salt, and corn oil she’d bought at the supermarket, and returned to the kitchen.
Then she took the meat from the system Backpack, picked up a carrot and some baby greens, washed them with the rice-rinse water, gave them a rinse with a little clean water, diced the carrot, broke the greens into leaves, and set them on a plate ready to use.
She picked up the meat and gave it a sniff, still very fresh. It seemed the system Backpack had a preservation function too. She cut off a small piece marbled with fat and lean, washed and sliced it, and lightly marinated it with salt and ginger.
The leftover vegetables and meat she couldn’t use went into a plastic bag and back into the system Backpack.
Xie Yi turned to look at the busy figure in the kitchen, then picked up a piece of scrap iron and turned it into a fire poker from his memory. He speared the briquette he’d lit earlier on the boards, carefully placed it in the center of the stove, then speared an unlit briquette and set it hole-to-hole atop the burning one to catch fire.