Chapter 12 Summary and Coal

On May 28th, I got up early before the delivery guy woke me up.

After getting up, I didn't even have time for breakfast and drove straight to town.

Just as I expected, I received a call from the delivery guy on the way.

His tone was relatively kind, and I hope he will be as emotionally stable when I see him.

When I arrived at the courier station, I saw a mountain of packages piled up at the entrance, and I knew they were all mine.

It seems the delivery guy has already picked out all my packages and put them together.

The delivery guy recognized me at a glance, and his expression was happy, without the slightest impatience.

Come to think of it, they earn money by piecework, so the more packages they deliver, the more they earn.

Why should I be humble? I am the God of Wealth.

With that thought in mind, I walked over with my head held high and full of confidence.

"So many packages today! Could you let me know in advance if you have any more deliveries coming up? I'll be able to prepare accordingly."

The delivery guy greeted me as soon as he saw me coming.

"Thank you for your help."

After saying four words, I scanned the payment code on the wall to make the payment.

"200 yuan received via Alipay".

The deliveryman's eyes lit up when the mechanical female voice rang out.

"I'll have to trouble you to help me load the truck again, just like last time. I'll treat you to some meat tonight to help you recover."

I smiled and spoke to him.

"No trouble at all. Even if you don't need meat for nutrition, I'll help you load it into the car."

As he spoke, the deliveryman began loading boxes onto the vehicle.

He thought for a moment and added, "But eating meat gives you more energy."

Although the post office charges for sending packages, I still feel like I'm causing them trouble every time such a large number of packages suddenly arrive.

Furthermore, there was only one post station in the entire town, and only the couple worked back and forth there.

We were already busy and short-handed, and he also had to help me load all my things into the car.

After thinking it over, I decided to pay him some money. I felt less guilty then, and the delivery guy felt better too.

I was initially hesitant about giving 500 or 200, but considering that there would be packages coming later, it would be more appropriate to give 200 each time.

After the landlady finished picking up other people's packages, she came over to help me load my car.

The delivery guy is more experienced; the truck he loads is less likely to fall apart.

He was in charge of organizing things upstairs, while the boss's wife and I moved the goods over.

One truck wasn't enough to carry all my packages, so I had to take them back halfway. The second trip brought back all the packages.

Looking at the food filling the yard, I really had a headache.

But we still cheered ourselves up and worked hard.

The basement has the same layout as the ground floor, but it's a bit larger, so I divided the various stockpiled items into sections according to the layout.

The master bedroom area is used for storing grains, oil, and salt. The kitchen area is used for storing various clothes and bedding.

Several shelves were placed on the west side near the entrance to store tools, while the rest of the west side was used to store food.

First, take all the packaged foods in, sorting them by their expiration date. Organize them from the inside out.

Products with longer shelf lives are placed on the inner shelves, while those with shorter shelf lives are placed on the outer shelves.

This way, you won't forget to eat food that was only eaten a short time ago.

Boxes of canned goods, instant noodles, and various types of rice noodles and hot and sour noodles that can be cooked are all neatly stacked on the shelves.

Various seasonings were also neatly arranged on the shelves.

The dried vegetables were packaged in individual bags and placed in burlap sacks. I didn't put them on the shelf, but instead piled them up against the wall.

After all the food except the cured meat was moved in, the entire west side was filled, and all the shelves were used up.

The only remaining space is in the middle section and half of the kitchen.

I pushed the cured meat in one cart after another and placed it in the other half of the kitchen.

Once all the items were brought in, the other half of the kitchen floor was almost full as well.

However, the space above is empty, which I find wasteful, but I don't know what to put there.

There were just too many goods; in addition to simply moving them, we also had to sort and store them.

As a result, I spent the entire day of May 29th moving and organizing, and finally finished.

My whole body ached after everything was done.

After washing up, I lay in bed and started researching the prices and properties of coal and honeycomb briquettes.

Coal produces more heat and is slightly more expensive, while honeycomb briquettes burn well, are clean and easy to maintain, and are relatively inexpensive.

I hesitated between the two types of coal, but ultimately decided to have them both.

Then they started calculating how much coal to buy, more was the only option, not less.

According to information compiled online,

50 tons of honeycomb briquettes cost about 50,000 yuan each, and an average family burns about three briquettes a day.

I have two stoves, and I can use a maximum of eight a day. Even if I burn them all year round, they can last for 17 years.

The largest room in the west wing is still empty; it's about 50 square meters.

Based on the standard dimensions of honeycomb briquettes, a height of 1.5 meters and 21 layers would be sufficient to store 70,000 honeycomb briquettes.

My 50,000 yuan worth of honeycomb briquettes are more than enough to store in this largest west wing room.

Buying just honeycomb briquettes would be enough, but I'm still not comfortable with that, so I also plan to buy some coal.

We'll decide on the exact amount to buy tomorrow after asking around.

In northern Inner Mongolia, most families still use stoves in winter, so some places specialize in selling coal.

The next day I got up early again, drove to town for breakfast, and asked around where I could buy coal.

Then we drove to the place where coal was sold, which was somewhat remote.

It was a farmhouse with a large courtyard, or perhaps a factory; I couldn't quite tell.

A considerable amount of coal is stored here.

A man with a beer belly and a bunch of keys on his belt saw me and came up to say hello.

"What's up, girl?"

"I want to buy coal."

What kind of product do you want to buy?

He didn't ask me why I bought coal in the summer.

Customers here probably have all sorts of reasons for buying coal in the summer; this is quite common, isn't it?

"What kinds of coal do you have? I want both coal and honeycomb briquettes."

I went inside with him, and he took out his phone and showed me some pictures.

As they looked at it, they explained to me that there are three types of coal and five types of honeycomb briquettes.

After all that talk about the place of origin and performance, I still don't quite understand.

After he finished speaking, I asked directly, "Does that mean the more expensive the product, the better its performance?"

"Of course, no matter what you're doing, the more expensive the coal, the easier it is to burn."

I'm prepared to get the most expensive coal and the most expensive honeycomb briquettes.

This is not the time for me to save money; the coal is smoking and difficult to burn, and I'm the one who suffers.

"I have an 80-square-meter yard. How much coal can it hold?"

“That’s a huge amount, at least several hundred tons. You can’t fit too much in if you don’t want to pile it up too high.”

I felt a little relieved; it seemed there was enough space for storing coal, and we could just pile it up higher if necessary.

He sells coal, so he's never short of coal. Even in the extreme cold, he won't try to steal my coal; he'll go back to his own factory to get it.

With that in mind, I asked all the questions I needed to ask.

How much coal does a normal household burn in a winter?

"If you only use the stove and not the underfloor heating, one to two tons is enough. If you have underfloor heating, you'll need three tons."

This is similar to what I found online, so it seems my previous month-end figures were quite accurate.

I continued, "I'm buying a lot, can you give me a discount?"

"Of course, girl! How much do you want to buy? I'll give you a big discount if you buy a lot."

Upon hearing this, the beer belly became even more enthusiastic.

"I want the best of everything, 40 tons of coal and 50 tons of honeycomb briquettes."