pertwk Chapter 112 Old Ship Deed
Chapter 112 Old Ship Deed
Chapter 112 Old Ship Deed
Three days after Qingming Festival, Jiang Haiping squatted on the rocks and turned to the page of Hong Laowu's account book.
The remarks column was written in pencil: "The remaining amount shall be repaid before the start of summer. If not repaid, the old tugboat shall be used as collateral."
Next to it is Hong Laowu's red inkpad handprint, with bits of barnacle shell embedded in the inkpad.
He closed the notebook, stood up, and patted the sand off his knees.
The screeching sound of a bicycle chain running out of oil could be heard from the seawall.
Ding Haifeng rode his old bicycle back from the direction of Baishakou, with a bulging snakeskin bag tied to the back seat.
He parked the car next to the loquat tree and unloaded the bags, placing them on the stone slab.
"It was sent by Mr. Chen, the owner of the secondhand shop. It's not old items, it's old files." Ding Haifeng untied the rope at the opening of the snakeskin bag and took out several yellowed old account books. The kraft paper on the cover was so brittle that the edges were frayed.
Underneath the ledgers was a stack of old ship deeds, some handwritten, some mimeographed, with curled edges. Several were stained with water, the ink stains spreading into a grayish-blue hue.
"Boss Chen said that when he delivered the ribbonfish last time, Lao Fang mentioned that Hong Laowu owed money."
He went back and looked through the old files of the secondhand shop, and found out when Hong Laowu's father bought that tugboat.
The deed states that the boat and dock were rented from the supply and marketing cooperative, and the lease expires before Qingming Festival this year.
His father passed away later, and the lease was never renewed.
If the charter expires and is not renewed, the right to berth the ship will no longer be in Lao Wu's hands.
Ding Haifeng pulled the ship deed out from under the ledger.
The ship deed was handwritten; the penmanship had turned gray, and the paper was covered with rings of water stains.
The inscription above states that Hong Laowu's father rented a section of boat rafts and the corresponding waterway on the west side of Baishakou Wharf from the supply and marketing cooperative nineteen years ago. The lease term was nineteen years, ending this year during the Qingming Festival.
The rent was five yuan per year, and after the sixteenth year, it stopped being paid. The receipts for the last three years were all blank.
Jiang Haiping squatted on the stone slab and looked through the ship deed.
He turned the ship's deed over, and on the back was a line of writing in pencil, the handwriting different from the front, clearly added later:
If the lessee wishes to renew the lease upon its expiration, a written application should be submitted to the Logistics Department of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative thirty days prior to the expiration date.
Those who fail to apply within the time limit shall be deemed to have automatically waived their right to renew the lease, and the original lessee shall restore the raft to its original condition.
"The lease has expired. Fifth Brother's father didn't pay rent for the last three years. Does Fifth Brother know about this?" Jiang Haiping stood up and put his hands into his work clothes pockets.
He said he didn't know. He was young when his father passed away, and the ship deed was locked in an old iron box, but the key was lost.
No one had come to collect the rent over the years, so he assumed the boat belonged to his family. It wasn't until a few days ago when he found the key, opened the metal box, and saw the boat deed.
He couldn't read, so he showed it to Boss Chen. After reading it, Boss Chen told him that this was a troublesome matter.
Ding Haifeng retied the opening of the snakeskin bag.
Old Fang walked out of the workshop and took the cigarette out of his mouth.
He took the ship deed, glanced at it, squatted down, spread the deed on the stone slab, and pointed to the line of pencil writing with his finger: "Those who fail to apply by the deadline shall be deemed to have automatically waived their right to renew the lease."
This clause was added later by the supply and marketing cooperative; it wasn't a clause that Hong Laowu's father signed back then.
But the lease signed by Lao Wu's father definitely had a clause stating that it could be renewed upon expiration. The supply and marketing cooperative added this clause on the back, meaning that if you didn't renew it by the stipulated date, the supply and marketing cooperative could take the boat back.
"It's been three days since Qingming Festival. If the supply and marketing cooperative makes a fuss about this, Hong Laowu's boat will have to be moved from the dock."
His old tugboat, parked under the crooked banyan tree, didn't even have the right of way to moor.
Jiang Haiping leaned against the loquat tree trunk.
"The supply and marketing cooperative's logistics department must have a record of the expired lease." Old Fang put the cigarette back in his mouth.
Jiang Haiping pushed his bicycle out of the yard.
It took almost an hour to ride from Moon Island to the supply and marketing cooperative. The north wind had passed, but the southeast wind hadn't picked up yet. The yellow soil on the road had been softened and dried by the rain of the past few days, leaving deep marks on the bicycle wheels.
A wooden sign reading "Binhai County Supply and Marketing Cooperative" hangs at the entrance of the gray brick building of the supply and marketing cooperative, with a notice about the supply of spring farming materials posted next to it.
He pushed open the door and went in. The logistics department was on the far west side of the second floor. There were several stacks of old burlap sacks piled up at the door, with the words "fertilizer" printed on them.
The logistics department's office was small, with metal filing cabinets stacked against the wall.
A middle-aged man wearing glasses looked up from his desk.
The young man with a pen clipped to the upper left pocket of his gray cadre uniform was the same one who had accompanied Director Zheng to the service station to look through the account books last time.
"The file for Hong Laowu's father's boat rental. The rental period ends at Qingming Festival." Jiang Haiping placed a copy of the boat deed on the table.
The copy was made by Ah Guang using the registration form he got at the service station; the characters were neat and legible.
The middle-aged man picked up the copy and looked it over. He then stood up, walked to the filing cabinet, rummaged through it for a while, and pulled out a brown paper file bag.
A thin layer of dust had accumulated on the bag, and it was sealed with cotton thread.
He untied the cotton thread and pulled out the documents inside. On top was a lease registration form, mimeographed, with Hong's father's name on it, a lease term of nineteen years, and an annual rent of five yuan.
Attached is a rent payment record, with the payment columns for the last three years completely blank.
"The lease expired three days ago. According to the supply and marketing cooperative's regulations, if no renewal application is submitted after the expiration date, the mooring rights of the boat raft and the dock will be automatically revoked. The lessee must restore the boat raft to its original condition and move the boat within fifteen days." The middle-aged man placed the file folder on the table.
"Can the rent for the last three years be paid in full?"
"It's possible to make up the rent. But making up the rent and renewing the lease are two different things. For renewal, a written application must be submitted thirty days before the lease expires."
The application is now overdue. Even if the rent is paid, the renewal application will have to go through the approval process again. The approval process will take at least half a month.
For the past two weeks, the boat raft has belonged to the supply and marketing cooperative, and the boats cannot remain there.
The middle-aged man pushed the file folder to Jiang Haiping, saying, "Director Zheng signed the recall notice the day before yesterday."
Hong Laowu's old tugboat must be moved within fifteen days; otherwise, it will be disposed of by the supply and marketing cooperative.
Jiang Haiping opened the file folder and flipped through it from beginning to end.
The notice of withdrawal was signed the day before Qingming Festival, and the red stamp was printed neatly.
He closed the file folder. "Is there any way to make an exception? The boat is just sitting empty anyway. The service station can guarantee that he can complete the renewal procedures within fifteen days."
"The guarantee is useless. The recall notice has already been issued, and the process cannot be changed. However, the fifteen-day relocation period can be made more flexible. Director Zheng approved fifteen days in the document, but did not specify which day it would start."
I gave him the notice today; it's a 15-day period starting today. If the lease renewal approval is granted within these 15 days, the ship doesn't need to be moved.
The middle-aged man took his pen out of his pocket and wrote a line in the remarks column of the registration form: "Notice of withdrawal delivered today. Fifteen-day relocation period starts from the date of delivery."
After finishing writing, screw the pen cap back on.
Jiang Haiping took the file folder, left the supply and marketing cooperative, and rode his bicycle back home.
Two planks were moored at the ferry crossing on Hongjia Island. Old Chen squatted on the plank, shoveling barnacles, scraping the bottom of the boat with his shovel.
He saw Jiang Haiping riding his bicycle from the dock and placing his shovel on the boat raft.
Jiang Haiping propped his bicycle up under the crooked banyan tree.
Old Hong was squatting beside the old tugboat, scraping the rust off the hull with a shovel. As he pushed the shovel up, rust chips fell off in a flurry, revealing the gray-iron hull underneath.
Next to the crack that ran from the hull edge to the bilge, the wire had been cut off, and the edges of the crack had been chiseled back into neat grooves, ready to be filled with hemp fibers and tung oil putty.
"Fifth brother." Jiang Haiping stood under the banyan tree.
Hong Laowu placed the shovel on the side of the boat and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
His face was covered in rust, which was soaked with sweat and rubbed into streaks of gray and black.
He saw Jiang Haiping holding a brown paper file folder in his hand, wiping his hand on his pants a couple of times without reaching into the old tin box on the boat.
"Your father didn't pay the rent for the boat raft for the last three years. The lease expired on Qingming Festival, and the supply and marketing cooperative issued a notice to take it back. The boat raft is going to be taken back." Jiang Haiping opened the file folder, took out the notice of takeback, and handed it to him.
Hong Laowu received the notice but didn't read it.
He was illiterate, and he clutched the paper in his hand, the edges of which were wrinkled from being pinched by his fingers.
He spent almost half a month repairing that old tugboat; he had already removed the cracks and filled it with half of the hemp fibers, but hadn't even filled it with tung oil putty yet.
The bottom of the boat hasn't been painted with anti-rust paint yet.
He squatted down beside the side of the boat and placed the notice next to the shovel.
"The boat rafts have been retrieved, but where are the boats stored?" His voice was dry, not asking a question, but asking himself.
Old Chen stood up from the boat raft next to him, threw his shovel on the sand, and walked over.
He squatted down beside the old tugboat and ran his palm over the bottom of the boat, getting rust all over his hand. "When Lao Wu's father rented the raft, he rented this tugboat along with it. Now that the notice has been withdrawn, are they taking back the raft or the boat as well?"
"Take back the boat raft. The boat belongs to him, but the right to moor it follows the raft. After the raft is taken back, the boat cannot moor at the supply and marketing cooperative's dock."
He has five days to move the boat. Jiang Haiping squatted down and turned the notice back over.
The back shows a map of the supply and marketing cooperative's dock. There are four boat rafts on the west side of Baishakou, and Hong Laowu's father rented the westernmost one.
"Can the lease be renewed within fifteen days?"
"Yes. You need to pay 15 yuan for three years' rent and a 2 yuan renewal fee."
The lease renewal approval process takes half a month, and once approved, the boat berth will still belong to him. The boat cannot remain on the berth for those two weeks.
Hong Laowu squatted on the sand and picked up the shovel, holding it tightly in his hand.
The handle of the spatula was worn smooth and shiny, and he gripped it tightly. "The rent is seventeen yuan. I still owe the service station thirteen yuan and ten cents. I can pay back the service station by fishing before the start of summer, but I can't raise the seventeen yuan rent."
Old Chen took a plastic bag out of his pocket, inside which were a few crumpled bills.
He opened the bag and poured out two 100-yuan notes, two 5-yuan notes, five 1-yuan notes, and a few small bills crumpled into a ball.
He smoothed out each bill with his fingers and counted them. "Thirty-five. I was saving it up to buy rust-preventive paint. You can use it to pay the rent first. I have half a bucket of rust-preventive paint that I haven't finished using, I'll share it with you."
Hong Laowu stood frozen on the sand, the shovel in his hand slipping on the side of the boat, the blade hitting the deck with a dull thud.
He kept his head down and didn't take the money. Instead, he used a shovel to scrape off a loose, rusty piece of skin on the side of the boat. Only after he finished scraping did he reach out and take the thirty-five pieces of paper.
I'll return it to you before the start of summer.
"No rush. Let's save your dad's boat first. I went out to sea with him on that boat when I was a kid." Old Chen stood up, picked up the shovel from the boat raft, brushed the sand off his trousers, and went back to his own boat raft.
The sound of the shovel scraping against the bottom of the boat started again, one after another.
Jiang Haiping took the ledger out of his pocket.
He turned to Hong Laowu's page and added a line in the remarks column: "Another seventeen yuan is owed for the rental of the boat raft. The total amount owed to the service station is thirteen yuan and ten cents, and to Lao Chen is thirty-five yuan. The service station will be paid before the start of summer."
After finishing writing, turn the notebook over to show Hong Laowu.
Hong Laowu placed the shovel on the side of the boat and pressed his finger on the remarks column again.
He stood up and walked to the old tugboat, running his hand over the crack in the side of the boat again and again.
The crack was chipped away with a chisel, the groove was neat and tidy, and half of the hemp fibers were twisted away.
The bottom of the boat hasn't been painted with anti-rust paint yet, but the keel is good and the frame is still sturdy.
As long as the lease renewal approval comes through within fifteen days, this ship will still be the one his father left behind.