Reborn during the early days of China’s reform and opening, the narrator finds himself in the 1980s countryside. In this setting, the past is still a cold reference, yet it is also a fresh start....
When Luan Changyuan and his wife came back, Wan Feng was looking after the two pigs he raised in the yard.
There were two pigs, one white and one flowery, weighing about a hundred pounds, and they were howling and accusing Wan Feng.
Maybe they felt it was inhumane that the Wanfeng people came but didn't bring any food for them.
Wan Feng picked up a stick and started tickling the pig.
After all, it is an uncivilized animal. The pig that was full of hatred and resentment towards Wan Feng the moment before, was lying on the ground and groaning the next second.
Wan Feng had told Luan Feng not to let her mother raise pigs, and that they could just buy a ready-made one and kill it during the Chinese New Year.
Liu Jiu’s pig farm can have more than 200 fat pigs.
It's useless.
But Luan Feng's mother disagreed, saying that they were free anyway and having a pig at home would make them feel like they were living a normal life.
This statement is seriously out of touch with the times. City people don't raise pigs because they can't make a living.
Her mother has no way to support her.
"Xiao Wan! Are you here?"
"Uncle! Aunt! Are you back? Where did you go for a stroll?"
"Just now, I was watching the match between our Wahou Willow Team and the Shoe Factory Machete Team in the village square."
Willow vs. Machete?
Who named this after someone who didn't even graduate from elementary school?
"So who wins?"
"The shoe factory wins."
"Haha! How can you win if they call you Willow Tree and you're called Machete?"
Luan Changyuan chuckled: "Your interpretation is novel."
Luan Feng's mother went into the house to heat up the pig food to feed the pigs, while Luan Changyuan took a small stool and set it up under the flower tree at the door for each of them.
"Xiao Wan! You bought our shoe factory, but what about the project you promised us? As the team leader, I have a hard time explaining this."
"I've got it in mind! Our company's design studio will have it ready soon and will deliver it to you in two days."
"What project? Let me reveal it in advance."
"Nothing much! Just three or four wheels."
"Four wheels or three wheels? Don't we have all of those?"
"That's an old model, it needs an upgrade. I've designed a high-powered tricycle for you, and I've also transferred my Sibu Xiang project to you. Is that okay? While the sales of my Sibu Xiang aren't exactly booming, it shouldn't be difficult to make tens of millions a year."
Luan Changyuan thought about it and it made sense. The Wahou Machinery Factory was still producing the old-style three-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles from a few years ago. The sales of the three-wheeled vehicles were still good in the past two years, but the sales of the four-wheeled vehicles had begun to decline because there were too many places in the country making four-wheeled vehicles.
In the three northeastern provinces alone, there are now more than a dozen companies selling four-wheel tractors.
When there are too many people, there will be more chaos and drought. When there are too many tractors, they will naturally become less valuable.
Both sales and profits of four-wheeled vehicles have declined sharply.
"I think there's not much potential in the four-wheeled vehicle market. Machinery factories can consider reducing four-wheeled vehicle production and discontinuing it in the future, or switching to high-horsepower tractors. They can also focus on three-wheeled vehicles and develop more series. There's still a huge market for three-wheeled vehicles."
Wahou Machinery Factory has been manufacturing tricycles for six or seven years. If Wan Feng hadn't left, Wahou Machinery Factory might have launched several series of tricycles by now.
Nanwan Group's mechanical focus was immediately shifted to automobiles, and the Sibu Xiang thing was also transferred to the Wahou Machinery Factory.
In the future, the Wahou Machinery Factory will specialize in the production of three-wheeled forklifts, which will be enough to make itself fat and white.
"It's time for dinner!" Luan Feng poked her head out of the kitchen and shouted.
In the hot summer, you don’t have to eat indoors.
The dining table was placed on the platform in front of the door, and Luan Feng arranged eight dishes with her hands like a Hot Wheels.
In addition to the dishes that often appeared in the past, such as fish-flavored shredded pork, flower fish tofu, sweet and sour pork ribs, and candied potatoes, there are two more dishes on the table today.
Steamed roast chicken and braised pork with preserved vegetables.
Wan Feng glanced at the table and found something wrong.
Where was Luan Feng’s favorite seafood? There wasn’t a single seafood dish among the eight dishes on the table.
"Where are your favorite seafood?"
"I won't eat it anymore. You don't like seafood, but I do. This is a contradiction. What should I do if you don't want me anymore?"
"That's bullshit. You eat yours and I eat mine, isn't that enough?"
The family of four started eating, listening to Wan Feng telling interesting stories from all over the world. When he talked about the interesting things, the whole family laughed.
After dinner, Wan Feng would accompany Luan Feng for a stroll in the village as usual. This has become a habit.
All the houses in Wahou Village are now made of brick and tile, and more than a dozen families have built two-story buildings.
In the late afternoon, the village was peaceful.
On the basketball court in the middle of the village, a mixed team of adults and children was playing a game, and a group of people were surrounding the court serving as live commentators.
The sound of you stinky hands is heard everywhere.
The person who said the hand was stinky was laughing, and the person who was called a stinky hand was also laughing. Everyone was having fun on and off the court.
Luan Feng is not very interested in basketball. Her explanation is that what's the point of ten people fighting for one ball? Wouldn't it be enough for one person to serve one?
Wan Feng was speechless in response to her statement.
"Let's go to the river and see the small hydroelectric station your uncle built. He said that once it's completed, we won't have power outages anymore."
When Luan Feng mentioned this, Wan Feng remembered that this was indeed the case. In the spring, Zhu Ping had told him about building a hydroelectric power station.
In summer, the banks of the Inna River are still crowded with people.
Because of the construction of the hydroelectric power station, the river channel was changed to the northern bank of the river, and there is almost no water on the southern bank of the river.
The river bank has now been completely hardened, and the river embankment has been paved with stones and covered with cement. Taking advantage of the current river channel diversion, the original riverbed has been paved with stones.
Some children run on the hardened cement surface without worrying about falling and knocking out their front teeth.
Although the project of building this hydropower station is not huge, it still requires a considerable investment.
Because a hydroelectric power station is to be built here, the embankment surrounding the Shanhou team needs to be raised and reinforced, and the embankment on the north bank of the river also needs to be raised.
Just to raise and reinforce these two embankments, Jiangwei Village invested hundreds of thousands of yuan. Together with the hydropower station, the total investment is over one million yuan.
Now the embankments on both sides of the river have been almost raised and reinforced, the embankment of the hydropower station in the river has been built, and it seems that the turbines are being installed.
According to this progress, this small hydropower station will have the possibility of being connected to the grid and generating electricity this winter.
At this time, two old men on duty at the hydropower station were loudly warning the children who were trying to approach the gate, threatening them that if they were caught, they would be in danger of having their genitals cut off.
The children didn't take it seriously at all and just played with the rice seedlings happily.
Wan Feng and Luan Feng stood on the river bank for a while, then walked downstream along the river bank.
Now the Inna River and its banks have been built like a riverside garden, with blooming flowers filling the air with fragrance in the evening.