Ugly

Chapter 36 - 40

Chapter 36 – Ship repair and news

Sun Xiaoshan was not feeling well last night, but he felt better today and was able to sit up.

These days, the nine-year-old child could do almost everything at home, so Wang Haisheng asked Wang Yuer to take care of Sun Xiaoshan and took Jiang Zhen to clean up the boat.

The ship was a little dirty, but it was well cared for. It could be seen that the owner loved it very much.

"This ship was newly built seven years ago when the previous one got too broken to hold on. At that time, I had some money saved, so I changed it," Wang Haisheng said when he cleaned the ship according to Jiang Zhen's requirements, then he said where the ship needed to be repaired and where more shelves could be added.

"Can you?" Jiang Zhen asked.

"Yes. I've been dealing with ships for a long time, so I can repair them. I have several tools," Wang Haisheng said. "If I had enough materials and a few more tools, I could build another one."

When he was a child, he lived on a fishing boat with his parents. At that time, the boat was a bit broken in the beginning and had to be repaired from time to time. When he was looking for someone to build the boat, he watched the whole process and learned something about shipbuilding.

Wang Haisheng didn't think that what he could do was amazing. After all, many people who depended on fishing for a living could repair their boats and build them. But Jiang Zhen was surprised nevertheless. He even wanted to ask Wang Haisheng why he didn't live on this, but he soon realized that in these times craftsmen were worthless.

Everyone was equal, but knowledge was important. In these times, people didn't care much about craftsmen. Many people who mastered exquisite skills were classified as craftsmen, but they had no freedom at all.

It was true that being a carpenter in the countryside could lead to a better life than being an ordinary farmer, but it was also limited. There were such carpenters in almost every village already and no newcomer was accepted.

After learning about Wang Haisheng's skills, Jiang Zhen specially went to cut down a few trees. After repairing the boat, he made some furniture together with Wang Haisheng. Carpentry was not very difficult. If you didn't pay attention to appearance, you could easily make some stools or the like.

People these days liked heavy furniture with fine carvings, but Jiang Zhen and Wang Haisheng had limited skills, so their furniture was very simple and ugly.

It couldn't be sold for money, and some pieces of their furniture couldn't even be used, which was related to the wood they had chosen. Not all wood was suitable for furniture making. They didn't understand it at first. Fortunately, even if that wood couldn't be used as furniture, they could practice their skills and use it as firewood afterwards.

Jiang Zhen and Wang Haisheng had been busy for more than ten days. In those ten days, it rained almost every day, but not all day long.

In some places, spring rain was as expensive as oil, but here, spring rain went on and on.

The days were warm and the rain abundant. Hexi Village, which was full of green even in winter, looked lusher, and the camphor trees started losing their leaves. After a year's growth, the old green leaves from the winter would fall from the trees in spring. At the same time, the new green leaves would soon cover the whole crown of the trees.

For Wang Haisheng's family, it used to be a very sad time when it rained all day.

Although the mud house was wet, they could at least make a fire and dry their clothes, but it was very troublesome on the boat. When the clothes and quilts were wet, they could only be used like that.