Siheyuan: Returning to 61 to collect waste

As a person who is good at cooking, Sha Zhu could smell the aroma of bones as soon as he smelled it.

Although he was greedy for a moment, the contempt in his heart did not diminish in the slightest.

After dinner, Liu Yue carefully picked up the bones.

"Leave these bones here, I'll make some soup with them tomorrow morning, and then you can take them to work and exchange them for some money."

Ye Chuan nodded in agreement.

Bones are indeed listed in the recycling project catalog of the recycling company where he works, but there are very few people who come to sell bones.

After eating, Ye Chuan returned to the room and lay on the bed. He picked up the Tang Dynasty bronze mirror and studied it carefully.

After looking at it for a long time, it was still a large, shiny black plate. He was cautious about the use of tools and did not dare to damage the mirror even a little bit.

In his mind, he called up the system interface to check the energy value required to repair the bronze mirror, but to his shock, when he opened his personal data, the energy value showed 65.

65?! Ye Chuan was stunned. Where did this energy value come from? He didn't do anything!

Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind: Could it be because...

When he left the office during lunch break, he was sitting on the back seat of a cart. The bronze mirror in his hand flashed a tiny light for a moment, and he still remembers the scene vividly.

Perhaps it was the bronze mirror that was providing him with energy? Ye Chuan's guess became clearer.

He picked up the teacup on the table next to him and stared at it for a few minutes, but no changes occurred.

He took out a novel and continued to look at it, still as silent as ever.

This may mean bronze mirror because of its long history?

Only old objects from a specific era have the ability to supply energy to the system?

After coming to the conclusion, Ye Chuan couldn't contain his excitement and was eager to go to work.

He refocused his thoughts on the system, selected the "Repair Item" function in the item list, and chose the Tang Dynasty bronze mirror without hesitation.

"Ding! Can you please repair the Tang Dynasty bronze mirror?"

"Yes!"

"Ding! Repairing the Tang Dynasty bronze mirror requires 200 units of energy. The owner's energy is insufficient, so the repair failed.

"Ye Chuan sighed and put away the system. Although it took two hundred energy points to repair the bronze mirror, he still felt a little fortunate. After all, it was possible to repair it.

Finally, he had a general understanding of the basic gameplay of the system. Feeling tired, Ye Chuan decided to go to bed first.

After turning off the bedroom light, he slowly fell into a deep sleep.

The next day at work, I followed the chubby Brother Han to collect waste as usual.

Sitting in the back of the truck, Ye Chuan sat comfortably on a thick mat, enjoying this peaceful time.

Fatty Han rode his tricycle leisurely, always keeping an eye on his surroundings. If anyone wanted to sell scrap, he would stop and ask.

In his hand was a broken flashlight, which he had found in the utility room. There were also damaged fans, radios and other items, but they were all missing parts and obviously could not be repaired.

The equipment is piled there out of convenience, as workers often find themselves short of parts when repairing household appliances, and any savings here are worth it.

Among those junk items, this flashlight is not eye-catching and is also the cheapest.

There was only 65 energy points in his system, and Ye Chuan had no clear understanding of how to repair it, so he planned to use it as an experiment.

I turned on the system and selected to repair the flashlight, and a mechanically synthesized sound echoed in my ears.

“Ding! Want to repair the Unity flashlight?”

"Sure!"

"Ding! Repair successful, consuming 1 unit of energy!"

The old flashlight in my hand suddenly disappeared and it quietly appeared on the repair list.

Ye Chuan had a thought in his mind, and the flashlight returned to his palm. The originally worn-out flashlight and the cracked glass were now brand new, like a new product.

"Only consumes 1 unit of energy?" Ye Chuan was a little surprised.

He stared at the intact flashlight in his hand and fell into thought.

Although that bronze mirror is a cultural relic from the Tang Dynasty, it is of little value in the 21st century and is estimated to be worth only tens of thousands of yuan. In this era's junk stalls, it is even less valuable than a piece of rubbish.

However, repairing that mirror requires two hundred energy points, while this flashlight only requires one unit, the difference is obvious in comparison.

He became increasingly convinced that ancient objects were more expensive to restore, while ordinary objects that were closer to the present were much cheaper.

This is an indisputable rule.

At this time, Brother Han braked suddenly, causing him to almost crash into it.

"You little bastards, are you looking for death?"

Hearing the scolding, Ye Chuan stuffed the flashlight into his trouser pocket, stood up and saw four or five young boys standing in front of their car.

"Uncle...Uncle, we want to sell something!" The leading little boy held a vase and spoke to them in between sniffs.

Fatty Han got out of the car helplessly and asked, "What are you selling?"

“Just sell this vase.

"The boy said.

Brother Han waved his hands and said, "I don't want it! It's a piece of junk! Take it away!"

The children looked a little frustrated and were about to leave with the vase.

"Wait!" Ye Chuan called out to them.

The little boy in the lead stopped and looked back at him expectantly.

Taking a step closer, Ye Chuan grabbed the vase and said, "Did your parents allow you to do this? You won't get beaten when you get home, will you?"

The little boy sniffed again and replied, “My family doesn’t want this.

Dad wanted to smash a bunch of vases in front of the wooden gate, but Mom wouldn't let him.

"

Fatty Han muttered quietly, "If you break it, you can get a few dollars for the broken glass."

Faced with this behavior, Ye Chuan suddenly realized that it was a pity for such a treasure to be destroyed at will.

The vase I just saw was a product from the late Qing Dynasty. The maker's name was Liu Yuanqing, and he should have been made by a folk craftsman.

Since it was confirmed that this was a vase from the late Qing Dynasty, the vase flashed with light while Fatty Han was speaking, bringing 30 energy points to the system.

Suppressing his inner joy, Ye Chuan asked, "Are there any other similar collections at home?"

The little boy responded: "There are still two left at home!"

"Take them all out!" Upon hearing this, the little boy immediately turned around and ran home, but he stopped after running half a step, turned his head and said, "Uncle, do you want to take these treasures of mine away?"

Fatty Han shouted disdainfully, "Stop talking nonsense. You treat a few cents worth of stuff like that as a treasure! Are we going to run away?"

"How much?" Ye Chuan seemed a little surprised.

Fatty Han said as a matter of course: "If it's smashed, it won't be worth a penny!"

"Fatty, don't just think about these junk." Ye Chuan said dissatisfiedly. It was obviously out of awe and admiration that Fatty Han, who only had a second-grade primary school education, could respectfully call him Brother Ye.

Then, the group of children returned again, two of them holding a vase in their hands.

One of them was similar to the previous one, and the other was a jade vase, but the mouth of the vase was a little damaged.

Ye Chuan examined the vase and said with emotion: "What a pity."

Fatty Han took a closer look, wondering why others would be interested in such a thing. He curled his lips but said nothing.

Then, Ye Chuan asked about their asking price: "How much do you want to sell it for?"

The leading boy asked timidly, "Five... fifty cents each, okay?"

Fatty Han obviously had a unique talent for bargaining. Upon hearing the price, he immediately criticized: "Hey! This piece of junk is so expensive. Fifty cents for three is already good enough."

The children were obviously frightened and very dissatisfied with the pricing, but fearing Fatty Han's anger, they dared not say anything more.

Ye Chuan smiled and took out two dollars and handed it to the boy in charge: "This is for you. If you want to sell something in the future, come and buy it from us!" The boy was surprised, took the money and ran away in disbelief.

Seeing this, Fatty Han said distressedly: "Brother Ye, these broken things are sold for so much, it's too cheap, this can buy more than ten kilograms of noodles."

But Ye Chuan did not respond. He carefully put the three vases and the radio into the cargo box behind the cart and jumped up.

“Fatty, for things I like, no matter how much they cost, they are not expensive, and for things I don’t like, don’t expect a penny.

Remember, these may come in handy in the future." Fatty Han nodded to show his understanding, and then began to pedal hard to send Ye Chuan away.

Sitting in the cargo box, Ye Chuan was in a very good mood. The 80 energy points brought by the three vases brought his total energy value to 144.

In this era, old things are no longer precious, just like how Mr. Ma took advantage of the convenience of the times to make primitive accumulations.

With the convenience of the system, he can thrive in the circle.

After lunch, Ye Chuan said to Fatty Han, "Fatty, go and have a rest first. I'll take the vase to them by bike and come back to see you on my way back."

After consideration, Fatty Han replied, "Then I'll go with you." Ye Chuan agreed in his heart. He didn't want to sweat from riding a bike. It was not easy to take a shower in this era.

Remembering the flashlight from the morning, he decided to go to the warehouse again and find an old radio.

This radio has a lot of damage and although it still looks like a radio on the surface, it is actually no longer worth repairing.

After sitting down, Fatty Han whistled and drove out of the office, which made people around him feel strange.

Are those who don’t rest during lunch break thinking of becoming the main force?

After returning home, Ye Chuan took the vase and the old radio back to his room, and his mother warmly invited Fatty Han to come in for tea.

Fatty Ye looked at the two houses of the Ye family with envy in his eyes: "Brother Ye, your house is really big. It's not like our house, where several people are crowded in one room and it's uncomfortable!"

Ye Chuan smiled and said, "Work harder to earn more money, and then you can buy a house and move in."

Fat Han smiled and said nothing more. They each drank a few glasses of cold boiled water and felt much better. They were ready to go out and continue working.

Soon after I stepped out of the house, I heard a man in work clothes rushing into the courtyard, running straight to the gate of the Jia family, and banging on the door loudly.

"It's so frustrating! Why are you knocking so loudly?" Jia Zhang's angry voice came from inside the door.

The man didn't care about etiquette and shouted loudly: "Auntie, the factory sent me to inform you that Jia Dongxu secretly operated the machine during lunch break today and got his leg stuck in it. He is now in the hospital for treatment. Go and take a look!"

"This..." The door opened and Jia Zhang appeared with a terrified face. Qin Huairu, who was holding Xiaodang, followed closely beside her, with a frown on her face, looking anxious.

Upon hearing this, Ye Chuan secretly laughed in his heart: It turned out that the accident was caused by Jia Dongxu's own initiative, no wonder the factory paid so little compensation and there was no follow-up assistance.

Qin Huairu eagerly handed the small bag to her mother-in-law, then followed the workers to the hospital.

Ye Chuan didn't take all this to heart, nor did he feel any sympathy.

The Jia family was the least sympathetic family in the entire courtyard. The reason behind this was that it was a period of poverty. Although Jia Zhang herself was fat and plump, it was largely due to the canteen leftovers that Sha Zhu secretly gave her.

Qin Huairu controls Sha Zhu's emotions with her own conditions. She is very gentle to him but does not allow others to get involved.

It's different for other members. A random piece of steamed bun can make her be controlled by others, not to mention accepting food provided by Yi Zhonghai late at night. Who can really be sure that they have no private feelings for each other?

What Ye Chuan had not expected was that Yi Zhonghai showed his true face so undisguised when facing the Ye family. Behind the gifts of cigarettes and alcohol, he was coveting the Ye family's real estate.

Maybe Yi Hai felt that their family was easy to control because Ye Yongshun was just a loader in a factory and would not have much chance to make a breakthrough in his life.

In the past, Ye Chuan was silent and taciturn, and no one in the courtyard ever looked at him straight in the eye.

The work that day was quite busy. After the two men loaded a truck with waste materials, they drove back to the business point and set out again to continue purchasing.

When I returned to the business point for the second time, I saw someone moving in a pile of messy discarded items, among which was a deformed bicycle.

The front wheel is askew and the crossbar is broken.

"Comrade, was it your car that was chewed by a dog?" Ye Chuan said jokingly.

The man was a little disappointed: "Alas, I was too excited on the way home from drinking last night, and I drove too fast, and ended up crashing into a tree."

This remark caused everyone to laugh, and the man looked at his broken bicycle in pain.

"I only bought this car a month ago, and the paperwork is all new!"

Director Tang, the office director, noticed the movement in the courtyard, came out of the room, circled around the bicycle a few times, and asked, "Hey, buddy, how much do you want to sell it for?"

After a little thought, the man held up five fingers.

"Fifty... dollars! I'll give it to you along with the paperwork!"

After hearing this, the director laughed and said, "My friend, are you kidding? The car is just a frame, and only the rear tire has some value. We will just take it as scrap."

"Then decide how much money to give me."

Director Tang pondered for a while, and then Ye Chuan quietly walked up to him and whispered, "If no one wants it here, Director, I want to buy it."

The director nodded in agreement: "In fact, there is only one relatively good tire left, I will buy it for ten dollars.

Once you leave here, you won’t get such a high offer again.”

The corner of the man's mouth twitched, obviously agreeing that Ye Chuan's words were correct. He had indeed traveled all over the place and had not found any goods priced below ten yuan.

"Okay! This is for you!" Ye Chuan quickly took out a hundred yuan and handed it to the other party. After taking the receipt and checking it carefully, he nodded with satisfaction.

After the person left, Director Tang was quite surprised: "Xiao Ye, do you want to save some money to buy a bicycle?"

"Yes, Director Tang, I do want to buy a car for my dad. The tires and rear rack of this car are quite solid. I will slowly find the rest of the accessories." Ye Chuan replied, his gratitude evident in words.

Director Tang didn't take it seriously, he thought it was just an easy thing.

It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon. Fatty Han and Ye Chuan did not hang out outside anymore, and their fellow workers returned one by one.

This job is extremely flexible, and completing the task is the bottom line. Director Tang rarely interferes with employees' private time.

Even so, no one was willing to take on this task, and now Ye Chuan understood the reason.

It was a busy day today, as the two of them frequently went back and forth to deliver the waste items. Even the sturdy Fatty Han was exhausted. If his weight was allowed to support the tricycle, he would probably need to take a break after a few trips.

The weather outside was fine, but it was scorching hot. Fatty Han had only been working for more than two years, but his skin had already become tanned.

On the way home from get off work, Ye Chuan quietly avoided his mother's eyes and brought those old bicycles into the house.

Ye Yongshun had not yet finished work, and Liu Yue was busy making dinner. The stewed pork ribs smelled delicious, and they could not be left in today, otherwise they would go bad.

When the neighbors returned, they were no longer chatting as before, and the courtyard was unusually quiet.

Obviously, everyone has heard about Jia Dongxu's accident.

Ye Yongshun arrived home, looking calm as usual. Liu Yue asked, "I heard that Dongxu got into trouble. How is he? Is everything okay?"

He took a gulp of water and replied, "How could he be okay? That machine was so huge. He was lucky to have saved his life, but he couldn't save his legs." His words were filled with deep regret.

"I was really careless." Liu Yue frowned.

She was glad that her son did not go to the steel mill. Although collecting scrap was hard work, at least he was safe.

"I heard that a colleague secretly took on some private work, and Dongxu insisted on getting involved. He made a mistake and got both his legs stuck in it."

"You deserve it!" Ye Chuan interrupted from the side.

Ye Yongshun glanced at his son but did not refute. He knew that Dongxu was a bully and was very arrogant both at the factory and at home. He brought this injury upon himself.

The Jia and Ye families had never communicated with each other. He didn't care about what happened to others. The family sat around the dinner table, gnawing bones with contentment.

"Really? Bones do taste better than fat." Ye Yongshun commented while chewing.

Liu Yue pouted slightly, feeling secretly distressed. How much fat and how many drops of precious oil could this amount of money buy?

The three of them quickly cleaned up the bottom of the pot, and Ye Chuan burped with satisfaction.

Suddenly, there was a strong knock on the door.

"Old Ye, everyone come to the meeting immediately!" It was Yi Zhonghai's voice outside the door. Ye Chuan exchanged glances with his parents and had vaguely anticipated something.