Su Wei said she understood, Dong Qing got out of the car and casually closed the door, and Su Wei started the tractor and drove home.

Back at her doorstep, Su Wei parked the tractor against the wall of her yard.

The mother came out of the yard when she heard the tractor engine. She asked, "Why is the tractor so close to the wall?"

Su Wei said, "We won't be running the tractor before the New Year; we'll just park it in front of our house."

Su Wei and her mother went into the house together. Su Wei handed her mother the thousand yuan that Dong Qing had given her. Her mother asked, "Why do you have so much money this month?"

Su Wei said, "It's Chinese New Year, so the boss gave me an extra five hundred yuan."

“Your boss is really generous. Work hard for him; it’s rare to find a boss like that. Work for him for two years and he can renovate our dilapidated house.” The mother paused for a moment, then said, “Your second uncle said yesterday that Yi Xiaofan has been sentenced to six years in prison.”

With tears in her eyes, Su Wei angrily said, "A person like him should be sentenced to death!"

Mother said, "Let's not talk about him anymore. Your third aunt came to our house yesterday and introduced you to a young man. Why don't you two meet before the New Year? You're twenty-three this year, and you'll be twenty-four after the New Year. If it goes well, then you can get engaged."

Su Wei said, "Mother, don't worry about my marriage anymore. I don't trust any man now."

Yi Xiaofan had hurt her daughter too deeply, and she really couldn't force her now. The mother shook her head and said nothing more, she could only wait and see.

Dongqing had planned not to drive anymore before the Lunar New Year. When he returned to his second sister's house, she handed him two order forms, saying, "The Lunar New Year is almost here. I tried to turn down these two orders for you, but I can't. Their warehouse is almost out of stock. You have to deliver them to them before the New Year no matter what."

Plates and bowls are the best-selling items during the Spring Festival. The wholesaler is pressing so urgently that we can't delay delivery; this shipment must be delivered before the New Year. Dongqing took the order from his second sister and said, "Okay, I'll load the goods tomorrow morning."

After the father and wife left the second sister's house and got into the car, Dongqing said, "Yuzhu, why don't you not go this time? Tomorrow when we go to Su Village, we'll take Suwei with us and the two of us will go."

Li Yuzhu said, "This girl has been with us for four months without a single day off. Forget it, it's not appropriate for her to go home and find someone else right after the holiday. I'll go instead!"

After listening, Dong Qing nodded and started the tractor, heading towards his wife's hometown.

Su Wei went back into the house to get a towel, a bar of soap, and a change of clothes. She went to the yard and said, "Mom, I'm going to the mine to take a bath."

Mother said, "It's getting dark, let's go tomorrow."

"I haven't showered for half a month, and I feel uncomfortable all over. I should be able to get back before dark!"

After Su Wei finished speaking, she pushed her bicycle and walked towards the gate.

Her mother said from behind, "Ride your bike slowly on the road."

Su Wei said she understood and rode her bicycle toward the coal mine.

In rural areas, there are generally no bathrooms, and men and women go to the coal mines to take a bath.

The coal mine was five miles from home, and I could get there in no time by bicycle.

Su Wei parked her car at the entrance of the women's bathhouse, locked it, and took her change of clothes, towel, and soap as she walked towards the bathhouse.

Normally, showering here is free, but today a woman is suddenly charging people. The sign says: "Non-mine employees pay 20 cents per shower."

Several women refused to pay and argued with the toll collector.

Su Wei thought, "It's just two cents, is it worth arguing about?"

She took out two cents to pay the fee, and just as she was about to enter the bathhouse, a woman behind her said, "Girl, you have money, right? When has the mine's bathhouse ever charged a fee? You're paying just because she charges!"

"What's wrong? I charged according to regulations, and you're saying I made a mistake? This is outrageous!"

Su Wei didn't want to get angry with them, so she turned and walked towards the bathhouse after saying that.

It wasn't the employees' off-get off work hours, and perhaps because it was a paid service, the bathhouse was completely empty, making it very quiet.

The pool must have just been filled with fresh water, and steam was being pumped into it. Su Wei touched the water and found it was already heated.

I took off my clothes and jumped into the pool, submerging my whole body in the water. As the water temperature gradually rose, I was soon covered in sweat.

Su Wei finished showering and getting dressed when two other women came in to shower. She washed her clothes and left the bathhouse with the clean clothes and towel.

When I went outside, those women were gone; they had apparently had a fight and gone back.

Su Wei returned home, hung out the washed clothes to dry, went outside the gate, drained the water from the tractor. Draining the water tank was necessary in winter, otherwise it would freeze and break. Then she took out her keys, locked the door, and turned to walk home.

The next morning, Dongqing and his wife loaded their last truckload of goods before the New Year. The two families had ordered a particularly large amount of goods, and the truck was so full that it exceeded the width of the truck bed.

Today is the 23rd of the lunar year. This trip was quite far, as the two companies that wanted the goods are more than 160 kilometers apart. If all goes well, I'll be back on the 26th; if not, it will be the 27th.

They won't deliver any more goods until this truckload is finished. There's really no day left before the New Year. The couple will set off after lunch.

Sports cars may seem like a lucrative business, but it's not easy at all. They get unbearably hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. If the car runs smoothly without any problems, it's fine, but once a problem arises, it's a nightmare. In winter, you might even have to repair the car while it's stuck in a snowdrift.

Around 4 PM, the vehicle broke down on the road. The tractor's rear tire blew out. Back then, unlike now, there weren't mobile tire repair shops where you could just make a phone call and someone would come to your vehicle to fix it. In those days, it really wasn't possible. You had to take the tire off and take it to a repair shop for repair, and even repair shops were rare.

The tractor's rear tire is 1.2 meters in diameter and extremely heavy, making it difficult to repair and repair.

Repair shops are only available in rural towns, and the place where the car broke down is about nine kilometers away from the repair shop. Breaking down on the road is one of the most troublesome things.

If a tractor has a tire blowout in the rear trailer, all four axles have dual tires. If one tire blows out, it's not a problem to get to a repair shop, and there's always a spare tire available. Where would a tractor get a spare tire for its rear wheels?

The tractor cab is different; if any wheel blew out, it couldn't run away and would have to be taken off and repaired at a repair shop.

Dongqing lifted the jack off the vehicle, placed it under the rear axle of the tractor, and pressed the hydraulic rod to slowly raise it.

Then I went back to the car, got the tools, and removed the screws.

The couple couldn't move the tractor wheels, which were too big, so they had to wait for someone on the road.

After waiting for a long time, a man finally passed by pulling a cart. Dongqing paid the man 5 yuan to help him unload the tractor wheels. The three of them worked hard to put the wheels back on the cart and then secured them with ropes.

Dongqing told his wife to wait in the car while he and the man pulled the cart toward the repair shop. The nine-kilometer journey took them nearly two hours.

It was already past 7 p.m. when Dongqing took his wife to a restaurant for dinner. He also cooked a dish for his wife and brought two steamed buns.