Chapter 70: Heavy-Duty Appliances Invite Trouble
A burnt, acrid stench began to diffuse through the air.
Smoke and sparks erupted from the electric wires.
Lin Wan was completely dumbfounded. She hastily pulled a military greatcoat out of her space and smothered the area with it, pressing it down firmly. With an electrical fire, she didn’t dare pour water on it.
Immediately after, she hurriedly shoved the microwave back into her space. Then she checked around to see if any other wires were sparking.
My god! Her heart literally skipped a beat or two from pure terror.
“What’s going on?”
“Did the transformer blow up?”
“Why would the transformer blow up out of nowhere?”
Noisy, clamoring voices drifted in from outside the courtyard.
Lin Wan felt incredibly guilty. But the guiltier she felt, the more she needed to go outside and register her presence.
Closing the courtyard gate, she plunged headfirst into the crowd of old men and old ladies, patting her chest as she said, “That scared the life out of me!”
“Did the transformer for our area break down?”
An elderly uncle nodded. “Yes, it’s just our sector. The second uncle went to find the electrician from the subdistrict office.”
In this day and age, power outages happened at the drop of a hat, and power facilities frequently ran into issues, so no one found it particularly strange.
“I just don’t know how many days the power will be out this time,” the third uncle murmured, smacking his lips.
An old lady chimed in, “Well, doesn’t that just save money!”
“Young people only know how to turn on electric lights, without a single shred of concept about saving. Once night falls, they have lights turned on everywhere…”
“If you ask me, we’d be better off not installing this electricity at all!”
The older generation had all lived through hardships, poverty, and starvation; the life they had now was considered an exceptionally grand time for them, which showed what kind of life they must have led in their youth. Consequently, thriftiness was carved right into their bones.
“Exactly! When my grandson comes back, he insists on turning on the radio. What’s there to listen to in that thing? Doesn’t the massive loudspeaker broadcast every single day? Is it worth using our own electricity!”
The old men and old ladies launched into a heated discussion. Lin Wan felt that as a young person, she truly couldn’t wedge a word in.
Whimper whimper. She had actually managed to completely wreck a transformer just by using a microwave. How on earth could she be that unlucky! Was the wattage of a microwave truly this high? She had even planned to use a space heater or an oil radiator in the winter. Both of those items were heavy-duty, high-wattage appliances. How could she possibly dare to use them now!
Lin Wan let out a heavy sigh. If she had known they couldn’t be used, why the hell did she buy so many to hoard in her space? It felt like a massive loss.
Lin Wan followed the crowd to look at the transformer. The electrician comrade had already arrived, scratching his head as he stared at the smoking transformer. This shouldn’t happen—he had checked it just a few days ago! Could it be because it had been too hot these past few days? Was the late-summer heatwave truly this fierce?
Three master electricians came over. Not a single one of them even thought in the direction of high-wattage household appliances. Who could blame them—they didn’t even exist in this era! This allowed Lin Wan to escape a disaster.
Having put her heart firmly back into her stomach, the culprit Lin Wan stealthily sneaked home, closed the courtyard gate, and dutifully used the honeycomb coal stove to heat up the dishes. She had invited a massive disaster this time. She was guilty to the absolute extreme.
After finishing her meal, she checked her household fuse and found it had already burned out. She pulled the fuse out anyway, then used electrical tape to wrap up the wires that had been scorched bare to prevent any electrical leakage.
Then, she fetched two handfuls of candles out of her space and set them on the square table in the central parlor. She also pulled out six comforters, twelve pairs of pillowcases and pillow towels, liberation shoes, socks, bedsheets, two eight-pound iron-cased thermos flasks, one five-pound iron-cased thermos flask, four porcelain basins, five bars of soap, five bars of scented soap, five bottles of shampoo, five tubes of toothpaste… A massive heap of bedding and daily necessities was brought out.
She even brought out a bolt of dark blue fabric, a bolt of light gray fabric, and a bolt of military green fabric.
Among the coupons Director Xu had compensated her with earlier were a bicycle coupon, a wristwatch coupon, and a sewing machine coupon. Seizing the opportunity while there was no one home, Lin Wan simply brought these big-ticket items out as well. Oh, and an electric fan. She pulled out one. Pulling out too many might look too conspicuous.
Anyway, when they moved the previous day, they had hauled several flatbed carts full of items covered with fabric, so the neighbors had no idea what they had actually brought over. Lin Wan just happened to exploit a blind spot. Later on, she would just tell Huang Guixiang and the others that these things were secured with the help of Huo Xiao’s comrades-in-arms.
Hehehe. The title of her cheap husband truly was far too useful!
The bicycle was a 26-inch ladies’ model, meant for Comrade Huang Guixiang. The wristwatch was also for Comrade Huang Guixiang. Initially, she wanted to give Comrade Huang Guixiang an Omega or a Tissot, but fearing it would be far too ostentatious, Lin Wan could only painfully choose a Shanghai brand instead. After some thought, Lin Wan pulled out another men’s Shanghai watch. Comrade Zhang Aimin couldn’t be left out either.
Lin Wan brought out a duck and set it to stew in a clay pot. After closing the holes of the honeycomb coal stove to the absolute minimum, she headed out to the scrap collection station.
“Old Uncle, I want to scrounge for some waste wood.” Arriving at the scrap collection station, Lin Wan tore her throat open to holler at the old man who was burying his head to organize the junk.
The old man took a long while to straighten his frame and turn his head to look at her. His weathered face was completely long, looking as if Lin Wan had borrowed his grain and returned him chaff.
“None!” he grunted in a highly unfriendly manner.
Lin Wan wasn’t the least bit angry. With a beaming smile, she parked her bicycle under the shade of a tree, walked over, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes to hand to the old man. “Old Uncle, I want to buy some waste wood and a writing desk.”
The old man accepted the cigarettes. It was Daqianmen. A whole pack of Daqianmen! A smile instantly broke across his face, as if the person with the long face earlier wasn’t him at all.
“Follow me!”
“Push the bicycle inside,” the old man reminded her.
Lin Wan hurriedly followed him through the open-air yard packed with junk. Turning left and right through a maze, they reached the back, where she spotted a massive pile of waste wood and a massive pile of broken furniture.
The old man pushed open one of the room doors. “This room is full of furniture, it’s just that they all have some damage. Pick what you want and bring it back to fix up.”
“Calculated by the piece—five yuan an item.”
This room was filled with confiscated tables and chairs. The marks of smashing and battering were exceptionally heavy; they were all missing arms or legs. The good, usable ones wouldn’t be sent to a scrap collection station. Being piled here, their ultimate fate was to be chopped up and burned as firewood.
With that, he pointed to the broken wooden boards piled against the wall outside. “For those, you can just give me fifty cents and haul away a whole cartload.”
Lin Wan quickly agreed. She shoved another yuan into the old man’s hand and lowered her voice to say, “Could you help me find someone and a cart to help haul them back for me once I’ve picked them out? I’ll pay for the transport. I’ll give two yuan!”
Hearing this, the old man’s face cracked into an even wider grin. “Go ahead and pick first, I’ll pull the cart over for you.”
Lin Wan pulled a pair of canvas work gloves from her space and buried her head to begin selecting. She picked out some wooden strips and boards. The old man pushed over a three-meter-long handcart and helped her secure the selected wood onto it.
Then Lin Wan went to choose the writing desks. She managed to find three that weren’t so heavily ruined—at least the tabletops were intact. As for the drawers and legs, she rummaged through the pile of junk; as long as the color and size matched reasonably well, she took them along. Even if they didn’t match perfectly, she could just alter them later.
Lin Wan also bought a box of scrap iron nails from the old man. Aside from the three writing desks, Lin Wan also unearthed three chairs. All of them were the incredibly heavy kind.
After settling the bill, the old man helped her tie all these items securely onto the handcart. Then he slipped on a three-inch-wide strap, raised both hands to grip the handles, and threw his whole weight onto it, exerting a massive amount of effort before he finally managed to press down the highly tilted handles.
Lowering his upper body like a heavily strained boatman, he dragged the cart forward with immense effort. His face flushed crimson and his veins bulged, causing him to let out several loud farts from the sheer exertion.
Lin Wan was startled into a jump, hurriedly stepping forward to help push the cart from behind.
“Old Uncle, are you personally delivering it for me?” Lin Wan was terrified he would exhaust himself to death.
The old man gave a huff. “Every item in this scrap collection station is hauled by me. Rest assured, my pace is exceptionally fast.”
Lin Wan: “…” Your uncle truly was still your uncle!
