Rebirth in the 50s: The Couple with the Hidden Space

Chapter 1072 - 945: An Unexpected Discovery

The East Suburban Waste Collection Station that Zhao Dashan mentioned is just three to five hundred meters east of the yard. Before heading to Beijing, Zhang Guoqing had visited the place two or three times to sell junk when there was too much trash at home.Why only two or three times over so many years? Besides having collectors come to the door, each household would mend broken items and continue using them.

Back in the day, Zhang Guoqing vaguely remembers every year-end big cleanup in the deep winter when carrying junk there, the old man would sit on a chair, sipping tea and reading the newspaper, looking utterly at ease.

After all these years, who knows if that old man is still in the humble room, living a contented life, possibly still enjoying a black-and-white chess endgame?

Pulling the cart closer and closer to the East Suburban Waste Station, the eternally tidy courtyard in memory has vanished, the big locust tree is gone, and the dirt road is full of potholes...

"Xiao Wu, bro?"

Just as Zhang Guoqing was pointing to the side of the gate reminiscing with Zhou Jiao, a voice rang out. He immediately turned to look at the young man in front of him.

Hmm, Zhang Guoqing was sure he didn’t recognize this person!

"Brother Xiao Wu, I’m Zhang Le."

Zhang Guoqing suddenly remembered, the old man’s surname was Zhang, and this boy, he had indeed seen before, albeit as a little brat. Unexpectedly, he had grown up, and he immediately smiled, "Is the old man retired?"

Zhang Le grinned with delight, nodding repeatedly, "Yeah, yeah, retired for over three years. I took over my grandpa’s job; now it’s just me and Aunt Yu manning the place."

"Xiao Lezi, didn’t expect you’ve grown so big and are working now. If you hadn’t said so, I’d have thought you were still small. The last time I saw you, you were about as tall as my son Ping’an."

"Brother Xiao Wu, you still remember me. Heh heh..." Hearing this, Zhang Le was overjoyed. He didn’t expect Zhang Guoqing to remember him from childhood.

Being able to get close to him was a matter of pride for these young folks. This is Brother Xiao Wu—forget the family elders, even the Red Guards would say, "That Zhang Xiaowu, he’s from our county."

A few years ago, when a neighboring county had a scuffle, if any of these folks encountered trouble, all they had to say was that Zhang Guoqing from XX county was their brother, and hey, no problem ensued.

Zhang Guoqing had no clue about this, amused, he watched the young guy in front of him giggling, "Had you not said your name, I’d have never recognized you. Are you married yet?"

This hit Zhang Le’s dead spot; he blushed in embarrassment, "My grandpa and grandma are making inquiries. Brother Xiao Wu, where are you pulling the cart with your wife to?"

Zhang Guoqing burst into hearty laughter; this kid was clever, calling Zhou Jiao ’sister-in-law’ at once. He liked this kid—sharp-eyed.

Zhou Jiao cast him a sideways glance, smiling, "We wanted to come check if there’s any scrap wood here, buy some to take home for the elders to use during winter."

"Sister-in-law, you’ve come to the right place! Last year, several warehouses were built here; we are the sixth big collection station in the provincial city.

If you were to go to other collection stations, apart from broken glass bottles, you wouldn’t find even a splinter of wood. Our county is almost entirely dual-income households, and now nobody in the villages sells firewood, so before winter, they’ll come to nearby collection stations to buy scrap wood and paper.

Zhou Jiao and Zhang Guoqing exchanged a smile; they had indeed chosen the right spot.

Through Zhang Le’s words, they learned a bit more; every Wednesday, the collection stations from other counties bring all their inventory here.

This place is located along the road towards the provincial city, with the largest paper mill and refining factory in the province along the route. This collection station alone has six warehouses.

The collection station employs six staff members, operating on a two-shift system. Working here is quite leisurely, apart from inventory being delivered from below every Wednesday and pick-ups on weekends from the provincial city, there’s hardly any work; ordinarily, guarding the gate suffices, with a monthly salary of twenty-three yuan.

Just now, aside from Zhang Le and a young fellow, another who reportedly took leave will come in the afternoon. Even Zhou Jiao envied this job. Had she not gone to Beijing, she would have loved to work in such a place.

Unlike some collection stations in Beijing, upon entering the yard here, the front courtyard wasn’t piled high with clutter. According to Zhang Le, they need to sort and organize each waste item into categories and store them regularly.

The warehouses were right against the yard wall, with a string of large warehouses. Each roof hung with bright red National Day flags and the entrance adorned with portraits of leaders.

Hmm, it really looked the part.

The collapsed old furniture, scattered scrap wood, and old newspapers, broken books, and plaques were placed together; next-door connected warehouse housed broken bottles, enamel basins with big holes, ruptured hot water flasks, shattered coarse porcelain bowls, and broken ceramics, Buddha statues in one pile...

Indeed prepared for the paper mill and refinery!

"Brother Zhang, are you sure it’s fine to let them come alone? There’s quite a bit of reactionary stuff in there..."

"Enough, what are you worried about, this is Brother Xiao Wu. Would Brother Xiao Wu fancy this junk? If he wanted anything, would he need to come to a remote place like ours? Beijing is full of people catering to him."

"I was just worried."

"Do you know what makes Brother Xiao Wu most admirable? Righteousness! He wouldn’t put us in a difficult position; don’t worry, in this scorching summer, he’s just wearing a thin short-sleeve, what could he hide?"

"Now I see why you’re so relaxed letting them pick their scrap wood and paper on their own."

"Alright, come with me to pick out some little picture books for his kid. I remember Brother Xiao Wu’s eldest was just that little and already holding picture books."

"..."

Inside the warehouse, Zhang Guoqing heard the murmurs outside, and, amused, shook his head, patted Zhou Jiao, "You stay inside; I’ll go chat with the youngsters. Make it quick."

Zhou Jiao nodded knowingly.

The vast warehouse was filled with all sorts of things—books, paintings, ceramics, furniture, plaques, Buddha statues, etc., jumbled together, with a hazy smell that wasn’t pleasant.

First, Zhou Jiao wandered around, finding that there was indeed a lot here, even discovering a chamber pot with a broken bottom. Could this item be worth taking?

Could it be just because it had a bit of landscape painting on it?

She picked a corner filled with books and started rummaging, thinking, though she couldn’t carry things out openly, it didn’t mean she couldn’t take them, heh heh, a great find indeed.

After searching for a while, Zhou Jiao quickly discovered her ambitions were rich, but reality was harsh. Though there seemed to be many things, apart from gold and silver jewelry, authentic antique calligraphy and paintings were quite scarce.

The unfortunate thing was that not everything was genuine; there were counterfeits; even precious calligraphy and paintings were just common fare, excitement drenched by the cold water of reality.

Given the tight timing, she reluctantly stopped inspecting closely; things that seemed slightly passable were stored directly in her space, especially some so-called banned books.

As she searched, she found that each warehouse side had a door over a meter wide, convenient for internal transport between warehouses. Having rummaged through nearly everything, especially collecting from one place too much made detection likely, it’s better to search elsewhere.

Just when she was happily exploring in the last warehouse, she suddenly paused, surprised to find a back door.