After returning home for lunch, Geng Wenyang didn't care about resting, and continued to meditate and write a masterpiece. When he was writing hard, he suddenly heard Zhuang Fujin shouting outside the window: "Yangyang, come out and do me a favor." ”

Geng Wenyang hurriedly put down his pen and came outside the house, only to see Zhuang Fujin holding a shovel and an iron bucket and said, "Yangyang, help me expand some honeycomb coal." ”

In the 80s, there was no central heating, and the common people could only burn coal stoves for heating. Some people in good conditions buy several sets of radiators, connect them with pipes, and then use special jacketed coal stoves as heat sources for heating.

But most ordinary people do not have this condition, and can only rely on coal stoves for heating, so they have to prepare coal, firewood, wood chips and loess at home.

Needless to say, firewood and sawdust are used to ignite fires, and loess is used to make dry and wet briquettes.

At the end of a heating season, the money spent on coal is not a small amount. Of the various types of coal sold in coal mills, lump coal is the most expensive but best burned, and pulverized coal is much cheaper.

Although pulverized coal is cheap, it cannot be added directly to the furnace, because it is easy to leak below the flame layer and wasted, and it is easy to extinguish the flame. Therefore, pulverized coal must be made into molded coal and then added to the furnace to be used as fuel.

Larger coal mills also sell rows of briquettes and honeycomb coal, but the price is naturally higher than that of pulverized coal. In order to save that pitiful processing cost, most families will buy pulverized coal and mix it with loess to make briquette.

Geng Wenyang took the shovel and bucket in Zhuang Fujin's hand, walked straight to the coal shed in the corner of the backyard, and talked about the shovel filled with a bucket of pulverized coal.

After lifting two buckets of pulverized coal to the front yard and pouring them on the ground, he went to the loess mound in the backyard to dig up most of the buckets of loess. After mixing the loess with pulverized coal evenly, water is poured intermittently, and mixed with an iron shovel to form a suitable coal slurry for dry and wet.

Zhuang Fujin took an iron honeycomb coal mold from the house, and Geng Wenyang skillfully stepped the round mold into the coal slurry, and stepped on it firmly and then lifted it to the flat open space.

The mould is placed close to the flat ground, and after maintaining the balance, the movable handle is slowly pressed down, and the push plate at the end of the mould extrudes the formed cylindrical honeycomb coal onto the ground.

A finished honeycomb coal is now made.

This is repeated until the coal slurry is used up as much as possible. The remaining scraps should not be wasted, and can be used as briquettes to fill the furnace as fuel after drying.

When all the work was done, it was already more than three o'clock, and Geng Wenyang was already tired and sweating profusely. Zhuang Fujin glanced at the more than thirty honeycomb coals neatly placed on the ground, and nodded with satisfaction: "Well, not bad!" Thank you for your hard work, Yangyang! ”

Geng Wenyang smiled innocently, returned the tool to him, and returned to his home.

Father Geng Huizhong looked at it and said with some unhappiness in his eyes: "Lao Zhuang is easy to use our son, and if he has a job, he will find Yang Yang to do it, and he really doesn't treat us as outsiders." ”

"Alas!" Outsiders use their baby son as a free coolie, and the mother also has some opinions. After Geng Wenyang, who was exhausted, returned home, Li Yufen said distressedly: "Son, take a soap towel and go to your father's factory to take a bath." ”

In the late eighties, ordinary people did not have bathing facilities at home, and they could not take a bath at home. In the summer, you can also bask in some warm water and simply take a shower, but in winter, you can't take a bath when it's cold at home, so you can only go to the bathhouse to solve the problem of personal cleaning.

Slightly better units have their own boiler rooms and bathhouses, and they are issued with bath tickets to employees on a monthly basis, which can be regarded as a kind of welfare for employees.

Don't look at Zhuang Xiaomeng as a bank clerk with a good career, but taking a bath is a big problem for her. Because there is no boiler or bathhouse in the general savings house, if you want to take a bath, you can only go to the factory where you have a family to take a bath.

Fortunately, Zhuang Xiaomeng's second aunt is an employee of the district guest house, so she can go to the guest house bathhouse to solve the bathing problem, otherwise she can only go to the public bath with noisy personnel and poor hygiene.

The bearing factory is a unit with better benefits, so the bathhouse area is relatively large, and the facilities are more complete, in addition to the large bath, there are more than 20 shower heads.

Geng Wenyang came from later generations, so he naturally refused to go down to the large bath where dozens of people mixed together to take a bath. Although infectious diseases were still relatively rare in third-tier towns in the late 80s, he could not accept this ancient way of bathing.

As the old saying goes, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. Geng Wenyang also took a big bath when he was young in his previous life, and he didn't feel sick at that time, but now he can't accept it anymore no matter what.

I took a comfortable hot bath and felt much more refreshed and clean. When Geng Wenyang returned home, it was already more than five o'clock, and his mother Li Yufen, who had just entered the door, said: "Xiaomeng came to look for you just now, and when I saw that you were not there, I went back, and I didn't say anything wrong." ”

"Oh, I see." Geng Wenyang went to the table and picked up a few pages written last night, turned around and came to Zhuang Xiaomeng's house, and before he entered the door, he met Zhang Minhua who came out with a basin to pour vegetable water.

"Yangyang, are you looking for Xiaomeng? She went upstairs in the back. Zhang Minhua pointed to the embroidery corridor behind the house.

Geng Wenyang said politely: "Thank you, Aunt Zhuang." ”

"Look at this kid, so polite." In Zhang Minhua's praise, Geng Wenyang turned around and walked to the backyard.

After the moon gate, you will come to the backyard, and the front is a two-story blue brick building in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Geng Wenyang looked up and saw that the lights were on upstairs, so he pushed open the door and stepped into the small building.

The small building is paved with blue bricks, filled with antique smells, and some messy debris has piled up against the wall, which looks a little unsightly.

Geng Wenyang shook his head secretly and said: "Such a good house, the dealer actually used it as a storage room, it is really a tyrannical thing." ”

He swerved slightly, striding up the wooden staircase at the corner. The wooden staircase was in disrepair, and the creak of stepping on it was really harsh. Walking up the wooden staircase to the second floor, the lacquered wooden floor slabs are empty except for a few rattan chairs.

"Wen Yang, I guess it's you" Zhuang Xiaomeng lazily lay on the rattan chair and stretched his body comfortably, turning his face to the side to look back at him and smiling.

Geng Wenyang unceremoniously found a rattan chair and sat down and said, "Sister, why did you come here?" It's cold and dark, aren't you scared when you're alone in the building? ”

Zhuang Xiaomeng sighed and said, "My jaw hurts here, and I haven't seen it for a few days." I can't eat the painful food at noon today, I'm almost annoyed to death, so I can calm down here. ”

"Oh? Jaw pain? Geng Wenyang stood up and said, "Let me see." ”

"You're not a doctor, what do you see?" Zhuang Xiaomeng said angrily.

Geng Wenyang smiled and said, "If it's not a doctor, you can't watch it?" I've had pain there before, and I know how to treat it. ”

"Oh? Is it? Zhuang Xiaomeng hesitated and turned his pretty face sideways, put his slender fingers on the jaw joint next to his ear and said, "Look, it's a little swollen!" ”

The girl's face was as white as jade, with a seductive luster in the warmth, and it was even more charming under the light of the lamp.

Geng Wenyang was moved by it, and said secretly: "Zhuang Xiaomeng is in Erjiu Fanghua, which is the most youthful and energetic age for girls, and it is a wonderful interpretation of the wise saying "Women are made of water". ”