Nowadays, many people in the supply and marketing system are watching Xu Zhenzhu and the Lu family make fools of themselves.
Everyone says that Lu Kai is such a shrewd and picky person, so how did he end up with a wife like Xu Zhenzhu who is not very bright?
Although Xu Ningyan is not yet a formal employee of the department store, she is very popular.
Whether it's Lin Hong, Sister Yang from the office, or Sister Hu from Li Jianguo's country, they are all people with extremely good information.
With them around, Xu Ningyan knew almost all the gossip and rumors in the county.
On a few occasions, Xu Ningyan let slip the information while having meals or chatting with Gu Zhiyuan, and Gu Zhiyuan was always amazed that Xu Ningyan was much more well-informed than him.
After those two times, Gu Zhiyuan developed a habit of chatting with Xu Ningyan every few days about the news and gossip she had heard.
Xu Ningyan roughly guessed that Gu Zhiyuan must have found this information useful.
However, since Gu Zhiyuan didn't say anything, she pretended not to know.
As someone's underling, I have that much self-awareness.
After Xu Zhenzhu was transferred to the county, she mostly kept to herself, except for the occasional time when she would run up to Xu Ningyan to show off.
The main reason was that there were plenty of people in the supply and marketing cooperative who fawned over her, and she found a new joy in life from that, so she no longer cared about making trouble for Xu Ningyan.
Without Xu Zhenzhu's antics, life went by uneventfully and quickly.
Winter came quickly.
After entering winter, Jingshan County has already experienced several heavy snowfalls. After the first heavy snowfall, Xu Ningyan made a plan with the Tuanjie Brigade to take a good rest before the New Year and to sort out the accounts so that they could be clearly verified before the New Year and the accounts could be distributed among everyone.
Xu Ningyan originally wanted to go back to the Tuanjie Brigade, so she stayed in the small house waiting for the New Year.
Gu Zhiyuan, however, refused. The hut was too close to the mountain, and there was little food on the mountain in winter. If a wild animal came down from the mountain, the hut would be the first to be hit, which was too unsafe.
He insisted on keeping Xu Ningyan in the county town, saying that the two of them would go back to the brigade together for the Spring Festival when they had a holiday.
It just so happens that it coincides with the brigade's calculation of work points, distribution of grain, and money.
The brigade leader and the party secretary also asked Xu Ningyan to stay in the county town to see if he could get some New Year's goods for the brigade members before the end of the year.
She patted her chest to reassure Xu Ningyan that her house was absolutely well maintained, with snow shoveled from the roof and plenty of firewood prepared to last until the end of the first month of the lunar calendar.
Xu Ningyan then felt at ease staying in the county.
It was cold, but since it wasn't in the north, there was no kang (heated brick bed).
The cold-blooded lackey slept every day by the stove in the kitchen. His once smooth and shiny fur was now scorched by the firewood, leaving it bald in patches, making him look like a spotted dog.
Xu Ningyan was also cold, so she wrapped herself up like a bear every day and needed to fill two hot water bottles to warm up at night.
Gu Zhiyuan still sought help from Sun Zhou.
Two days later, he brought back two bags of chestnut charcoal and a large copper basin-like brazier.
Chestnut charcoal is a famous type of charcoal in Jingshan County. There are large areas of wild chestnut trees in the mountains near Jingshan County, which do not produce many chestnuts, but the chestnut charcoal they produce is extremely famous.
Chestnut charcoal is durable, produces little smoke and ash, and has a high calorific value, making it an essential item for wealthy urban families to use for heating in winter.
There's an old saying: "No good fire is made without chestnut charcoal, and no good relatives are made without maternal uncles."
However, the quantity of chestnut charcoal is limited, and the price is not cheap. Many people want to buy it but cannot, and can only make do with ordinary black charcoal.
Looking at the brazier, Xu Ningyan suddenly had a good idea.
She had seen a heating device when she ate at a farmhouse in the countryside before: a wood-burning stove with a table around it and a special chimney to draw the smoke outside.
In the dead of winter, having such a stove not only keeps the whole house warm, but it can also be used for cooking and boiling water.
These large stoves are hard to find nowadays, but small coal stoves can be modified a bit.
She whispered a few words to Gu Zhiyuan, and Gu Zhiyuan quickly drew up the blueprints.
I took the blueprints to the factory, paid for them myself, and went to the factory's scrap materials area. I found a few pieces of scrap iron.
They had a welder make the flue, and then selected a few pieces of cast iron to weld a small round table with a hole in the middle, just big enough to fit the coal stove inside.
Although the welder didn't know what the strange things Gu Zhiyuan had asked him to weld were for, he squeezed the pack of Daqianmen cigarettes in his pocket, and without saying a word, he busied himself with Gu Zhiyuan's request.
Because I couldn't let it interfere with my work, it took me two days to get everything sorted out.
I had someone deliver it to my home.
After some tinkering, Gu Zhiyuan installed the coal stove in the living room, next to the wall near Xu Ningyan's room. He then installed a flue pipe, drilled a hole in the wall to let the flue pipe pass through Xu Ningyan's room, and drilled another hole in the other wall for the flue pipe to exit.
Not only did it ensure there was no soot in the room, but the pipe also increased the temperature in Xu Ningyan's room as it passed through.
After installation, light the coal stove, close the door, and place an aluminum kettle on the stove to boil water.
About half an hour later, the temperature in the room slowly rose.
Even in Xu Ningyan's room, it wasn't so cold anymore; at least her hands weren't freezing when she stretched them out.
Gu Zhiyuan was very satisfied. After looking around and making some adjustments, he went to the machinery factory in high spirits.
Before long, a type of heated table became popular in Jingshan County.
It is said to be very useful. A small coal stove and a couple of pieces of coal can keep a room warm at night. In the morning, there is no need to rush to boil water. There is a pot of hot water on the stove, which is enough for the whole family to wash their faces and brush their teeth.
It was well received by everyone as soon as it was released.
It is said that the machine factory has now stopped all other unimportant work and is focusing all its efforts on producing these heating tables and chimney pipes.
Because of this, Gu Zhiyuan was able to establish himself firmly in the machinery factory.
Putting everything else aside, although the cost of purchasing and installing such a small heated table is a bit high, it only requires a few pieces of coal a day, and the whole family won't suffer from the cold in winter. Who wouldn't be happy?
Gu Zhiyuan did not hide Xu Ningyan's contribution from the factory. He only said that it was because his girlfriend wanted to keep warm that she came up with the idea. He only drew up Xu Ningyan's idea and had it made. The biggest contributor was definitely Xu Ningyan.
If it was Gu Zhiyuan's design, then it would naturally belong to the factory, and at most Gu Zhiyuan would receive a small reward.
But this was Xu Ningyan's idea, and the machinery factory couldn't just take someone else's idea and make money off it.
After much deliberation, the leaders awarded Xu Ningyan 300 yuan, a new heating table, and a new coal stove for her family, effectively buying out her design.
Three hundred yuan was a considerable sum at this time, and Xu Ningyan knew that even if the machinery factory didn't give it to him, there was nothing he could do about it.
Therefore, he readily accepted the money and the goods.
Even so, Gu Zhiyuan still felt sorry for Xu Ningyan and promised to make it up to her properly in the future.
Xu Ningyan agreed without any hesitation; it was what she deserved, wasn't it?
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