I washed my face with cold water and instantly woke up. Then I heard a commotion outside; it seemed almost every household was up. Every year when it was time to hand over the grain tax, almost every family would send one or two strong laborers to go with them.
There's no other way; the village only has one cow, and so much grain still needs to be carried over by people. This year is a bit better with three cows, but we still need manpower, and there's also the issue of grain security. What if someone robs it? It's safer to have more people go with us.
Qian Xiao ate a boiled egg and drank a bowl of porridge before going out with her second and third uncles. She really couldn't eat anything this early in the morning, but her grandmother packed her some bread and water and secretly gave her a dollar.
She sat on the big oxcart and let it pull her along, with the calf following behind. If the calf misbehaved, Qian Xiao could react in time to stop it. Big Ox and Little Ox were the names given to the two oxen by her third uncle.
The village's original cow was called Old Cow, and it's said to be five years old this year, so that's a good name for it.
Qian Xiao fell asleep shortly after being swayed on the oxcart. The oxcart was unusually slow, and the road was rough, making the swaying feel like being in a cradle. Qian Xiao slept quite soundly.
The cacophony of voices seemed to lullaby itself. By the time Qian Xiao opened her eyes, the sun was already high in the sky. If it weren't so noisy and bright in the sun, Qian Xiao could have continued sleeping.
Qian Erbao smiled憨厚ly: "Erdan is awake, have some water," and handed the water bottle in his hand to Qian Xiao.
Qian Xiao took the water bottle and drank several mouthfuls before she felt less hot and more energetic: "When did we get here? Did Da Niu and Xiao Niu cause any trouble?"
"We arrived before dawn, and they're doing great. They'll behave as long as you follow them."
Qian Xiao tilted his head and looked ahead: "Why isn't the grain station open yet?"
Qian Erbao glanced at the sun in the sky: "It'll be soon. We came early today. There's only one village ahead. Once they're done, it'll be our turn. Erdan, are you hungry?"
Qian Xiao shook her head. She had just woken up and couldn't eat anything. She shook her little head and looked around: "Second Uncle, where is that scrap metal collection station?"
The commune was really small. This used to be a village, but it had a good location, very close to the county seat. This place mainly consisted of offices, a supply and marketing cooperative, a post office, a state-run restaurant, and a grain station. It probably wasn't even as big as their village.
Qian Erbao pointed to an alley not far away: "There, turn in and you'll see it."
The distance really isn't far: "Second Uncle, can I go and take a look by myself? I won't go anywhere else, and I'll be back in a little while."
Qian Erbao shook his head: "Wait, I'll call your third uncle to come and watch the grain. I'll go with you." Anyway, there are plenty of people coming from the village, so it won't matter if he's not there.
"Alright."
Soon Qian Sanbao came over: "What do you want?" He was chatting with the villagers when he was called over.
"You watch, I'll take Erdan to the junkyard."
"Oh right, Erdan is going to the recycling station. Okay, I'll watch you guys go ahead, it'll be a while before it's our turn."
The recycling station was a large courtyard with several large sheds made of wooden planks. It was relatively clean inside, at least the items were sorted in a simple way, but despite its cleanliness, it didn't smell good.
Qian Erbao didn't go inside with his niece. Instead, he squatted outside watching the workers at the scrap yard, his eyes filled with envy. Don't think that working at a scrap yard is bad. These days, as long as you get a government job, there's no such thing as a bad job; countless people would kill for it.
Qian Xiao was a little child and no adults paid attention to her. She went to the place where the paper was stored. Apart from old newspapers, there were very few books. It was said that the commune would not have anything good. But as long as it was a book, it would be fine. There was nowhere to get books now, so she could use it to pass the time.
She picked out the ones that could be taken through the open road and put them aside, while those that couldn't be taken through the open road were placed in a secluded corner in her space. Of course, she didn't dare to have too many of them.
Then she went to the scrap metal area. There wasn't much of that stuff, and it was all rusty. She secretly kept some and picked up a few pieces, putting them on the open ground. She figured she could get it weighed and paid later, which would be a legitimate way to get away with it.
As for things like Taobao in novels, even if you dream about it, there's never a shortage of smart people. If they had any good stuff, they would have already hidden it away. How could it possibly be her turn, a little kid? The reason they didn't split up all that wood was to look for any treasures that might be inside.
As for comic books? I only found three or four that weren't full pages. Anyway, I can only fool my younger brothers when I get back, so that's enough. I'll have to go to the county and city to look for more when I have the chance. I guess I can find more comic books like that there.
"My god, Shuangdan, look what I found! It's a radio, isn't it? Someone even threw this thing away! Unless it's too badly damaged, this thing can be repaired and still be used!" Qian Xiao was quite excited when he suddenly saw this old, big thing.
Shuangdan scanned it and said, "Then why don't you buy it and fix it up? Didn't you say this thing is quite valuable?"
Qian Xiao... Damn it, if she knew how to fix it, why was she whining? She would have already taken it back with her, okay?
"I studied literature in my past life," which means I know nothing about these things.
Shuangdan really understood: "What's so special about this? You can buy it and I'll teach you how to repair it. I've got a lot of information that I can teach you. I can't guarantee anything else, but as long as you learn it all, becoming a scientist won't be a problem."
Qian Xiao... You really have a lot of faith in me, more than I do.
"Well, how about we just forget about it? I'm not really interested in this stuff."
"No way, you should learn from him. Like you said, you can't stay in the countryside forever. You can't go out without some skills." Its host can't be too much worse than that big, dumb guy, that would be such a disgrace to Shuangdan.
Qian Xiao thought about it and realized that what this guy said made some sense. Could it be that she really couldn't live a lazy, unambitious life? If she wanted to be lazy, she had to work in the fields to earn work points; if she didn't want to be lazy, she had to have some skills. It was truly a dilemma.
"Let's not talk about anything else for now. Show me, can this thing be repaired without buying spare parts?" If it needs other spare parts, forget it, she has nowhere to buy them.
"In that pile on your right, there's a piece of copper. Pick it up. As long as you go back and grind it into parts, you can fix the radio."
Qian Xiao squatted down and moved over to find a copper piece the size of a thumb: "Can we make this by hand? This thing isn't cheap, and I can't use my money openly. If I can't fix it, my mother will definitely give me a scolding."
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