Outsider: The Fifth Young Master of the Kang Family

"What? Dad, you want to burn honeycomb coal?"

After Kang Qirui installed air-energy water heaters for the Kang and Zhu families, and added cold dishes, the Kang family basically no longer uses gas. But after eating a few meals, Lao Dou felt that the food was not tasty and still missed the taste of stir-fried dishes. Today, when he went out shopping, he happened to meet Uncle Guan who was buying a truckload of honeycomb coal to burn at home, so he also thought of burning honeycomb coal.

"Burning coal can allow everyone to eat normal meals and save money, and I agree. But where can you find a coal stove now?" The nanny said slowly, expressing her agreement while raising a new question.

"A Guang," the old man thought for a while and said.

But as soon as he said that, he was interrupted by Big Brother Guang, "Dad, don't call me. I don't know where to buy a coal stove even if you call me. Uncle Guan's coal stove was left over from the past. We threw away our previous coal stove a long time ago."

Kang Qirui asked Er Lao in a low voice: "Er Lao, do you know where to buy a coal stove?"

"If the boss doesn't know, how should I know?" The second boss frowned and asked, "Who burns coal now? It's unfair to have Wuli alone."

Kang Qirui shrugged, looked at the second brother again, and thought: In the previous life, when the stoves were divided, you could find the coal stove, but now you say you can't find it? Are you unwilling to burn coal or you really can't find it? But Kang Qirui didn't want to delve into it. He thought about it and said, "Why don't I go buy an induction cooker tomorrow?"

My father shook his head and objected, "Everything uses electricity. Although we save on gas, the electricity bill is still too expensive. Besides, Cantonese people prefer cooking over open flames. How can cooking on an induction cooker taste good without the aroma of a wok?"

Kang Qirui had no choice because there were no electric flame stoves in 2005.

Although he really wanted to tell his father that you can eat cold dishes, why can't you eat them without the smell of wok? But after thinking about it, he decided to forget it. This kind of argument is meaningless and his father will not listen at all.

"I told you at that time not to throw away the coal stove, but you guys just ignored everything because you already have a gas stove. I don't know who suggested throwing it away. I tell you, whoever throws it away should buy it back." The old man frowned and cursed.

The mother chuckled twice, then pointed at the old man and said, "It was you. You said you wanted to throw it away, and you threw it away with your own hands."

Hahahahaha.
Seeing the frustrated old man, everyone laughed, "You are really catching bugs, old man."

Faced with such an embarrassing scene, Lao Dou pretended to be laughing. When everyone stopped laughing, he said, "Okay, okay, it's no big deal. I can handle it. I can handle it."

"Are you so sure?" said Big Brother Guang.

"Looking for help." A Yao smiled when he saw his father pick up the phone.

I saw that the old man picked up the phone at home and called his cousin Bing. As expected, there was a coal stove at his cousin Bing's house. The old man asked him to take it out tomorrow. After hanging up the phone, the old man looked around at everyone and smiled, "Isn't it done now?"

When Kang Qirui was getting ready to go to bed at night, Er Lao and A Yao knocked on his door. He looked at his daughter who was already asleep and didn't let them in. Instead, he closed the door and asked softly, "What's the matter so late?"

Seeing him like this, the second brother also asked softly, "Is Siqi asleep?"

Kang Qirui nodded, and the second brother pulled the two of them to the coffee table in the patio garden. After the three of them sat down, the second brother wanted to make some tea, but Kang Qirui quickly stopped him, "Why make some tea so late? Just tell me what you want to say, and then go back to sleep."

"What else could it be? It's about the coal stove." Ah Yao nodded, without saying a word, and complained: "My father asked me to go to the street to find some branches to ventilate the coal stove. You are so stupid. Where do you want me to find them?"

Kang Qirui couldn't help laughing and said, "Whatever the boss says, you do what you want to do and he does what he wants to do. You don't have to worry about him. If he doesn't feel like it, he will just turn on the gas stove. Just like when he said he wanted to eat some cold dishes a few days ago."

"But he's making us run around in circles now." A Yao continued to complain: "He always asks us to find this and that, do you think he's going to die?"

Kang Qirui glanced at A Yao and said, "You said you couldn't find it, isn't that enough? Your father asked you to look for it, but who knows whether you found it or not?"

A Yao's eyes lit up when he heard this, "Oh, yes."

After solving A Yao's problem, Kang Qirui looked at Er Lao again and asked, "What about you, Er Lao? What did the old man ask you to find?"

"My father asked me to find the big sunflower fan." The second brother was also speechless and said, "Where can I find the big sunflower fan now? Which street can I find it?"

Kang Qirui thought about it and said with a smile: "You don't have to have a big sunflower fan, right? You can just go to those 2 yuan stores and buy a bigger fan, right?" Er Lao nodded when he heard it. Kang Qirui said: "Then it's okay, right? If it's okay, go back to sleep."

The next day, cousin Bing brought an old coal stove from the countryside, and the second brother also bought a big fan. Although A Yao didn't find any branches, the old man went to the houses that were being renovated and brought back some sawdust. The Kang family finally had fried food again after many days.

"Grandma, why did the coal stove go out last night?" When my father woke up early in the morning, he immediately noticed that the coal stove was out. Because honeycomb coal is cheap and for the convenience of morning use, coal stoves are usually not turned off at night.

The maid walked into the kitchen and said, "I clearly asked you to add coal and seal the stove last night." "A Bing, you didn't even take out the iron seal on this old coal stove. I forgot about it and you didn't remind me." Only then did the old man remember that the coal stove didn't have an iron seal, and the coal had burned out after a night of burning.

"What else can I say? I haven't used a coal stove for more than 20 years. How can I remember how to use it?" The nanny was speechless when she saw her father throwing the pot on her.

"What should we do?" the old man asked, and then he saw his second sister-in-law also walked into the kitchen. He rolled his eyes and said, "Achan, Xiu Gu asked for leave today to attend the wedding. I'm going out with your mother to buy groceries. You fix the coal stove. We'll come back later to make soup."

The second sister-in-law was completely shocked. She pointed at herself and said, "Me?" She wanted to ask the old Dou's wife why she thought she was capable of fixing the coal stove. But before she could say anything, the old Dou's wife had already left.

The second sister-in-law thought for only a minute before she decisively called Xianglan and Zhu Wanling out. She didn't call Xingzi and Diana because they had gone to work. The second sister-in-law said, "The coal stove went out for no reason. Grandma is out buying groceries now. She told you two to keep the stove on."

Zhu Wanling glanced at her and said, "Second sister-in-law, I'm telling you, right?"

The second sister-in-law smiled awkwardly and said, "It doesn't matter who you tell. You guys have a share to eat, right? Come on, come on, come on."

Zhu Wanling and Xianglan looked at each other, but did not refuse, and went to light the coal stove with the second sister-in-law. The three of them worked for a long time, and everyone's face was covered with coal, black, and they didn't do it well. The second sister-in-law even poured peanut oil into it, "This is the difference between me and you, just watch, after adding oil, it will light up quickly and there will be smoke. Help me fan it."

When the old lady came home, she saw the three of them slumped on the sofa with disheveled hair. "Haha, what's wrong? They all look like clowns, are they really that bad?" the lady asked with a smile.

All three shook their heads.

Xianglan said, "Mom, I can't handle that thing."

"Can't handle it?" The mother looked at the second sister-in-law, "What about you?"

"I know how to get into a house, but I don't know how to get through a house." The second sister-in-law said nonsense. The maid touched her head and said softly, "Silly girl, you are talking nonsense." Then the maid turned to look at Zhu Wanling, "How are you? Can you get through it?"

Zhu Wanling shook her head, too exhausted to speak. "No? Damn it, several people said no." The mother also shook her head, a little helpless.

"None of the three of us can light the coal stove, so isn't that what I have to do?" The old man sighed, put his hands behind his back, and went in to light the coal stove.

When the old man was cleaning the coal stove, he thought of a problem. He couldn't let him do this job alone every day, right? He pondered for a long time and finally came up with a solution that he thought was perfect. When it was time for dinner, he said to everyone while eating: "Well, since it is a family matter, everyone should pay attention to it. We calculated that the coal stove is most likely to go out between dinner and the next morning. During this period, everyone in the family can take turns to look after each other and check on the coal stove."

"Ah? How do we take turns?" The second sister-in-law raised her doubts, "Then how do we watch TV at night?"

"It's not that you are not allowed to watch TV. What I mean is that everyone takes turns. When it is your turn, you watch the coal stove. When it is not your turn, you can watch TV." Dad explained.

The boss nodded and said, "Then we will take responsibility first. We will be responsible from 7 to 9 o'clock. If the light goes out at other times, it has nothing to do with Xianglan and me."

The second brother snorted, then said, "There is no TV to watch between 7 and 8 o'clock. It's all news broadcasts. No, no, we have to divide it into prime time and non-prime time. One minute of prime time should be worth two minutes."

"This is very troublesome." Big Brother Guang frowned.

"What's the trouble? It's easy to double it." The second brother retorted.

"It's easy to forget when is the prime time and when is not the prime time." said Big Brother Guang.

"Just make a shift schedule." Kang Qirui thought for a moment and suggested, "It will be simple and clear if we schedule everyone's shifts. When it's your turn, you can go on duty. If the coal stove goes out, we can also figure out who is responsible."

The old man thought Kang Qirui's suggestion was good, nodded, and then instructed: "Then, A Rui, after dinner, you should make a duty roster. Arrange them in the order of Guangzong Yaozu Rui. The prime time from 8 to 10 o'clock will be calculated at double time."

"Okay." Kang Qirui nodded and agreed while eating.

"This shift schedule follows the principle of a man waking up other men, a woman waking up other women, a husband waking up his wife, a wife waking up her husband, and the principle that men should take more responsibility in the middle of the night." Kang Qirui arranged the shift schedule quickly after dinner. Since A-Zu had not returned from a business trip yet, he was not scheduled.

Everyone had no objection after watching it.

"Then from now on, we will follow this schedule." Lao Dou announced. (End of this chapter)