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....
Wan Feng and Zhang Xian stayed in Gala Village for only one day.
After deciding to follow Wan Feng to see the scenery outside, my uncle and his family were in a mess.
The uncle went to find his brother-in-law and asked him to come over to help look after the house, while the aunt was worried about whether her chickens, ducks, geese and dogs would starve.
Her sister and brother-in-law are a pair of careless people. No one knows who introduced them to each other. When two careless people get together, their life is miserable.
I guess these dumb beasts under her will suffer a little bit these days.
Grandma is worried that it will be inconvenient for her to go out as she is old.
"Grandma, you're only in your sixties and still young. You don't have to worry about anything with me around."
"Grandma is afraid that if she goes out, she might get sick or something unexpected..."
Wan Feng quickly interrupted his grandmother and said, "Spit on the ground three times and stop saying such unlucky things. Nothing will happen as long as I'm here."
Only two children were so happy that they were waving their arms and legs, their faces as red as apples with excitement, and they wished they could spread their wings and fly away.
In the afternoon, my third aunt's brother-in-law came. It depended on him whether the animals in her house would starve in the next week.
Wan Shuiming prepared a pack of cigarettes for his brother-in-law, but no wine.
It's not that I don't want to drink, but how can I look after the house if my brother-in-law is drunk? What if he falls asleep drunk and a thief comes in and steals the TV?
It is the most valuable thing in the house.
Everything was ready, and the next day, my uncle's family of four and Wan Feng and Zhang Xian left home.
Wan Feng had contacted the vehicle when he arrived, and two taxis took them to Changtu Railway Station.
Even though the train whirrs every day right next to their commune, my uncle's family has never ridden a real train.
I took it a few times, from Qiantou Commune to Changtu County, using the train as a passenger bus.
Wan Feng bought a ticket to Dongdan and boarded the train at around seven in the morning.
Although July is the tourist season, there were not many people traveling in 1985, and the route to Dongdan was a cold one, so the train was very crowded.
There were only about thirty or forty people in a carriage, which seemed sparse.
Wan Yan and Wan Hongxia had a great time this time. Wan Feng took them through one carriage after another, almost visiting all the carriages.
The two children laughed loudly, but they were also very tired. When they came back, they collapsed on their seats together.
Now that the two children stopped running around, Wan Feng had time to chat with his grandmother and uncle.
"Uncle, have you ever thought about starting your own business in the past six months?"
Wan Shuiming stammered and looked very useless.
Seeing that he was very unwilling to do so, Wan Feng did not delve further into the topic.
When he arrived in Wahou, he was naturally attracted by the prosperity of Wahou and the scale of Wanfeng's new factory.
After eight or nine hours of train travel, the train arrived at Dongdan Station in the late afternoon.
The next morning, Wan Feng took his grandmother and her family to the Yalu River to visit the Yalu River Bridge.
If I don’t visit the Yalu River when I arrive in Dongdan, my trip to Dongdan will be in vain. Naturally, I have to let my grandma see the scenery here.
"Across the way is Sinuiju in Cao County. This bridge is the one the Chinese People's Volunteers used to cross the Yalu River. It was from here that they crossed the Yalu River with such pride and valor. Unfortunately, it was later blown up by the US invaders. The steel beams in Cao County were removed, but we still have it here as a memorial."
Wan Feng patiently introduced the scenery here to his grandmother.
Cao County's golden age was the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, the scenes on both sides of the Yalu River were similar, and the two sides were basically on par with each other.
However, from then on, especially in the 1990s, there was a significant imbalance in the construction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. The disintegration of the Soviet Union and especially the collapse of the CMEA made Cao County lose its blood-sucking channel. The country was in a period where it could not even solve the problem of food and clothing, so how could there be any urban construction?
Dongdan is beginning to see rapid changes, while Sinuiju remains the same.
In his previous life, in 2010, when Wan Feng traveled to Dongdan, Dongdan was full of tall buildings and bright lights, while Sinuiju was like a remote countryside.
Especially at night, when the lights are so bright and the other side is pitch black.
Wan Feng took a lot of photos with his own camera along the Yalu River, using up three rolls of film.
The morning passed quickly and we had a sumptuous lunch at a big restaurant in Dongdan at noon.
After dinner, we took a bus to Wahou. The bus ride took about four hours, and it was already past five o'clock when we got off at Gushan. From here to Wahou, we had to take a three-wheeled motorcycle.
Is it time to get a car?
If you have your own car, you don’t have to ride the rumbling three-wheeled motorcycle.
Driving a Crown is too conspicuous nowadays, but driving a broken Lada or something should be okay, right?
I'm thinking of getting a second-hand Lada or Prado and starting with it.
When motorcycles start mass production next year, I will buy a Santana. Of course, not to drive it myself, but to let the craftsmen disassemble it for fun.
Let them familiarize themselves with the car in advance.
At around five o'clock, the three-wheeled motorcycle finally brought Wan Feng and his family to the back of the depression.
When he arrived at the depression, Wan Shuiming was stunned. He never dreamed that a village of the same size as their Gala Village would be built like this.
There are buildings everywhere, buses, trucks and people coming and going everywhere.
"Are there usually so many people here in Wahou?"
"That's not the end of the world. It's still quiet now because quite a few buses that came to pick up goods at noon and in the afternoon have left. Those that haven't left are long-distance buses with a range of 500 miles. Some will leave tonight and some tomorrow morning. But there will be a lot of cars coming in tonight too. If you go to the parking lot tomorrow at noon, you'll see it's packed with cars."
"I can't believe it! It's even more prosperous than Changtu County."
Hongya, a coastal county town, is not necessarily more prosperous than Wahou, let alone Changtu, an inland county town.
"Let's go home first and see what delicious food your granddaughter-in-law has prepared for us."
"You have a wife? Why haven't I heard you say that?"
Wan Feng was also confused: "Didn't you say that?"
"I never said that!" Grandma answered firmly.
"Maybe I forgot."
"You can even forget your wife?"
Why can’t I forget my wife?
Luan Feng came back an hour earlier today. When Wan Feng left, he said that he would definitely come back today, so she came back early to get busy.
Of course, we have to treat our nanny and uncle well when they come.
When Wan Feng brought his people into the house, she had already prepared a table full of dishes and bought all the seafood available in the market.
Grandma's family lives inland and rarely sees seafood on a daily basis. This time, they must eat their fill.
As for whether the people in her grandmother's family would not be used to eating seafood like her own son, she didn't consider it.