Chapter 4: I Can Fix Refrigerators

Chapter 4: I Can Repair Refrigerators

After a brief silence, Lin Wanqiu spoke again.

“Jiang Hai, I won’t force you to go to work if you don’t want to. If you want to do business, that’s fine too. But could you please avoid dealing with those people from now on? I heard they’re not honest businessmen!”

Chen Jianghai was momentarily stunned, then he recalled exactly who Lin Wanqiu was talking about.

“Okay, I understand,” Chen Jianghai said calmly.

“Jiang Hai, you…” Lin Wanqiu was about to say more, but Chen Jianghai suddenly grasped her hand gently. His voice was warm and tender: “Wanqiu, I know what you’re worried about, but don’t worry. From now on, I, Chen Jianghai, will never let you suffer again. I will make sure you live a good life!”

Hearing his heartfelt words and feeling the strength and warmth from his hand, Lin Wanqiu was suddenly overcome with the urge to cry.

Isn’t this exactly what she wanted—a man who cherishes her and is dependable?

Yet all of this seemed too sudden, almost unbelievable.

After Chen Jianghai drifted off into a drowsy sleep, a soft sigh echoed quietly in the room.

When he woke up, Chen Jianghai sat up, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and found that Lin Wanqiu had already left. On the table sat a bowl of plain rice porridge and a boiled egg.

Filled with determination, Chen Jianghai immediately got up, washed, drank the thick porridge, ate the egg, and then took out the radio he had collected yesterday.

This radio was bought for just two yuan—it couldn’t be discarded as junk.

With practiced ease, he opened it and discovered the reason it wouldn’t turn on was a minor issue: the integrated power switch had oxidized.

This was a trivial fault. Chen Jianghai fetched a file and gently rubbed off the oxidized layer, then dipped a chopstick in some rapeseed oil and applied it as a lubricant.

After cleaning the dust accumulated inside and out, he reassembled it, plugged it in, and switched it on.

Familiar strains of “Singing the Motherland” rang out crisply from the radio.

“Central People’s Broadcasting Station, now presenting news and newspaper summaries. Good morning, listeners. Today is July 25th, Thursday, the fourteenth day of the sixth lunar month…”

The radio was fixed.

His original plan to mortgage the property for startup capital was clearly unfeasible.

If he dared mortgage the house, he had no doubt his wife would really fight him to the death.

He didn’t want to ruin the good impression he just built with his wife.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

No money for a storefront couldn’t stop his enterprising spirit.

Chen Jianghai found a half-meter-long thin piece of cardboard, wrote two lines in large characters with chalk:

“Professional home appliance repair. No charge if not fixed.”

“Buying scrap appliances!”

Below, in smaller letters:

“Radios, tape recorders, pagers, starting at 50 cents.”

“TVs, refrigerators, starting at 5 yuan.”

Chen Jianghai was not only a “repairman” but also a “scrap collector.”

He hung the sign on his bicycle, packing wrenches, screwdrivers, and other tools in his bag.

With skills in hand, he would never starve.

He planned to earn some quick cash by going door to door.

Compared to professional appliance repair shops, his prices were much more reasonable.

Those who lived through those times would be familiar with such scenes.

The calls of street vendors echoed through the long alleys.

“Hair cutting…”

“Sharpening scissors, chopping knives…”

“Scrap buying…”

The voices were melodious yet thick with local accent.

For Chen Jianghai, entering this trade was also a way to reconnect with his past memories.

Just as he reached the entrance of an alley, a familiar figure stopped him—it was the elderly man who had asked him to fix the radio yesterday.

“Ah, young man, finally found you!”

The old man wiped sweat from his brow, a hint of urgency in his voice.

Chen Jianghai looked at him curiously. “What’s wrong, sir? Did your radio break again?”

The old man waved his hand hastily. “No, no, an old friend of mine has a broken refrigerator. Can you come have a look right away?”

Before Chen Jianghai could respond, the old man grabbed his arm and started leading him in a direction.

Good luck—right at the start, a big job!

Chen Jianghai calmly said, “Sir, if it’s broken, it’s broken. No need to be so anxious, right?”

The old man shook his head. “Hey, you don’t know—the son is getting married in a few days. They bought a lot of seafood and stored it in the fridge. Now the fridge is broken, and the seafood will spoil quickly. If this delays the wedding preparations, it’ll be a big problem.”

Now Chen Jianghai understood the urgency.

Seafood is indeed hard to preserve in the scorching summer heat; without refrigeration, it spoils fast.

Moreover, this old man was really trying to save money…

He could afford a refrigerator but was reluctant to spend hundreds on repairs.

The old man led the way through bumps to a small brick courtyard.

“Old Hu, Old Hu, are you home?”

The old man knocked heavily on the closed gate and called loudly.

“Old Jiang?” a voice inside replied irritably. “I have things to do, no chess today!”

The old Jiang outside called back loudly, “Hey, I know what it is—it’s just the fridge. I found a repairman who might fix it.”

Silence followed, then the gate opened.

A tall, gray-haired elderly man appeared, looking anxious as he gazed at Old Jiang. “A repairman? Where is he?”

Chen Jianghai, standing nearby, was completely ignored.

In Old Hu’s mind, anyone who could fix a refrigerator had to be an experienced master.

A young man barely out of adolescence wasn’t worth considering.

“That’s him! He fixed my radio yesterday,” Old Jiang said, pointing at Chen Jianghai. “And it’s cheaper than the repair shops.”

The key point was cheap.

Old Hu eyed Chen Jianghai doubtfully, blinking. “Just him? Will he do?”

Chen Jianghai wasn’t surprised by the reaction and answered calmly, “Old Hu, no fix, no pay.”

Old Hu frowned. “What if he makes it worse?”

Chen Jianghai confidently replied with two words: “Guarantee compensation.”

Old Hu raised his eyebrows, glanced at Old Jiang, then nodded and led them inside.

Old Hu’s home was well-off. The courtyard was full of plants, and though the main house was a single-story, it was spacious—at least two hundred square meters.

After all, who else at that time could afford an electric refrigerator?

Inside, Old Hu pointed to the refrigerator beside the sofa. “This thing just isn’t cooling properly. Take a look and see what’s wrong.”

Chen Jianghai said nothing, quickly stepping over to examine it.

Wow, it was a brand-new Haier refrigerator.

From the late 1980s to the 1990s, Haier was undoubtedly a leader among domestic appliance manufacturers.

Since 1985, when Chairman Zhang Xiorui smashed over a hundred substandard refrigerators to uphold quality, Haier had become the top domestic brand, the industry leader.

Even now, this forty-year-old company still shares the market with Gree and AUX.

Chen Jianghai pressed close to the fridge, listening for the compressor’s operation.

The compressor is the core component responsible for refrigeration.

After listening for a while, the compressor was working normally. The problem likely lay with the evaporator.

He borrowed a screwdriver from Old Hu and opened the fridge’s back panel.

A quick glance revealed the issue.

A thick layer of frost covered the evaporator, blocking the airflow and greatly reducing cooling efficiency.

This fault was caused by a broken heating element.

Replacing the heating element would fix the problem.

Unfortunately, Chen Jianghai didn’t have the part on hand; he’d need to buy it before proceeding.

“So, can you fix it?” Old Hu asked nervously, watching Chen Jianghai’s swift disassembly.

“Yes, but I need to buy a part first,” Chen Jianghai said, standing up.

“Wait here, I’ll see if I can find the part,” he said and hurried out.

Buying parts now wasn’t like in later times—no online shopping where you could order anything instantly.

Even ordinary components were only available at specialized repair shops, which were rare, especially in a small county town like this.

Thanks to memories from his previous life, Chen Jianghai immediately thought of one place.

There was a component factory in town, where he’d likely find the heating element he needed.

(End of chapter)