7 PM, March 14, 2022, J City local TV station.

A female news anchor in her early thirties, dressed in a suit, was broadcasting the news: "Mr. Shi Zhen, a well-known entrepreneur in this city, passed away at the hospital at five o'clock in the morning on the 12th at the age of forty-six."

The host shared some information about Shi Zhen, then added, "Over the past twenty years, Mr. Shi has donated 170 million yuan to charities. According to his will, all his assets will be donated to charity after his death..."

The television screen then switched to the scene of the memorial service.

Shi Zhen was a major taxpayer in J City, but his memorial service was arranged very simply, which was in line with his long-standing habit of being frugal and thrifty.

But at this moment, the simple memorial service was packed with people.

These people included the old and the young, men and women, the poor and the rich, and all of them wore expressions of sorrow.

They had received some form of help from Shi Zhen.

Shi Zhen had no children. His life consisted of nothing but making money and doing charity. It seemed that making money was also for the purpose of having money to do charity. How could such a person not be respected?

At 5:00 AM on March 12, 1994, under the newly built Wenhua Bridge in J City.

Wenhua Bridge spans a large river in the suburbs of J City.

In recent years, J City has been undergoing large-scale construction. Stone revetments have been built along the riverbanks, and a spacious bridge has been built over the river, which can allow four cars to drive side by side, and there are also pedestrian walkways on both sides.

The bridge is very large, and the archway beneath it is naturally quite large as well.

Children from nearby farmhouses loved playing on and under the bridge ever since it was built. Beggars even set up sheds under the bridge and settled down there.

Shi Zhen was awakened by the cold.

J City is located in the Yangtze River Delta, with long summers and short winters, but it is still quite chilly in March. Even though Shi Zhen wore a thick cotton-padded coat and wrapped himself in several snakeskin bags, he still couldn't keep out the chill coming from all directions.

He wasn't living in a warm house, but under a bridge.

After he woke up, he looked around, wrapped the snakeskin bag around himself tightly, got up and sat down against the stone next to him, remaining motionless.

Shi Zhen was no stranger to this place.

When he was eighteen, he left his small mountain village with his cousin Shi Xinghuo. They walked for half a day on mountain roads, then rode a tractor for half a day, and then took a bus for a day before finally arriving in J City. However, they had very little money left.

He couldn't bear to spend money on a hotel, nor did he feel that the place to sleep at night had to be a house. So he settled down under a bridge in the newly built suburbs of J City, where the surrounding area was still farmland.

He and Shi Xinghuo lived in the bridge hole for almost a month before they finally found jobs and moved to the construction site.

Shi Zhen was also born in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Z province has historically been a place where seven parts are mountains, one part is water, and two parts are farmland. It has both wealthy coastal areas and small villages nestled in the mountains.

When he passed away, Z province was already very developed, and his hometown had been developed into a good place for tourism and vacation. Some villagers went out to work, and some opened farmhouses. They all had spare money and were on the road to a well-off life. But in the 1990s, that remote mountain village was still very poor.

The road wasn't built yet, so it was inconvenient for the people in his area to get out, and they didn't like to go out. Year after year, they just grew enough food to eat and lived their lives day by day.

The only source of income for the villagers throughout the year is selling shiitake mushrooms. Every household grows shiitake mushrooms using the old methods passed down from their ancestors. After they are grown and dried, they are carried out in baskets to exchange for money.

For a long time, Shi Zhen thought he would farm in the mountains for the rest of his life. He was healthy, efficient, and good at growing shiitake mushrooms. He was sure he could save money. Once he had enough money, he could get married and have a child who would grow shiitake mushrooms like him.

But by the 1990s, the changes in the outside world had more or less affected their village.

He was the first person from the village to go out and work.

Last year, a student teacher in her early twenties came to their area. She was from J City and was shocked by their poverty.

This teacher taught at a local primary school for over a month, and after eating pickled vegetables mixed with shiitake mushroom pieces for over a month, he suddenly developed appendicitis.

He happened to be visiting his sixth-grade sister when he saw her. He carried her out of the mountains that very night and took her to the county hospital for surgery. After that, the teacher kept talking to him and advising him to go out and work.

He was not one to be content with the status quo. The young man had ambitions that his small frame could hardly contain, and at the same time, some people from the nearby villages had already gone out to work... He immediately decided to go out too.

However, he didn't have any money at the time, so he planted shiitake mushrooms for a year to save up money. Only after the Chinese New Year this year did he bring his cousin Shi Xinghuo out.

Coincidentally, he turned eighteen this year.

He and Shi Xinghuo came to J City and saw a world outside that shocked them.

There are five- or six-story buildings everywhere, and occasionally you can see even taller buildings. There are many cars here, and the people here are all dressed smartly.

The fire in his heart was ignited, and intense emotions surged forth from the bottom of his heart—he wanted to make money, he wanted to buy a car, he wanted to live the life of a rich person!

For a long time after that, he bravely moved forward toward his goal.

Shi Zhen exhaled a long breath, the heat condensing into a cloud of white mist in the morning light.

Just then, a rustling sound came from the side.

Under the bridge arch lived not only him and Shi Xinghuo, but also an old woman. The old woman was a beggar. She had built a small hut under the bridge using bamboo, wood, plastic sheeting, and other similar materials. During the day, she would carry a cloth bag to beg for food nearby, and at night she would come back to sleep.

The old lady was a little afraid of him and Shi Xinghuo. Although he and Shi Xinghuo were poor, they considered themselves different from this old beggar woman. In addition, they didn't understand each other's language very well. In their previous life, they lived together under the bridge for almost a month and didn't say a word to each other.

Yes, in a past life.

Everything before him felt incredibly real. If nothing unexpected happened, he should have returned to twenty-eight years ago, when he was eighteen years old.

Shi Zhen took a deep breath.

He inhaled the cool air and tried to smile, but didn't.

The old lady next door built a small stove outside her little house with broken bricks and carefully smeared it with mud. Right now, she's cooking porridge on the stove with trembling hands.

Shi Zhen looked at her for a while, then stood up and began to clear away construction debris such as broken bricks and cement blocks under the bridge.

There were quite a few of these things here. Shi Zhen hadn't paid any attention to them before, but today he moved them all out and piled them up in a corner.

He also gathered up some usable broken bricks and neatly stacked them next to the old woman's shack.

He made quite a commotion, which woke Shi Xinghuo up. He sat up blankly and asked, "Azhen, what are you doing?"

Shi Zhen said, "Clean this place up, and you can help too."

Shi Xinghuo said, "Oh!"

After Shi Xinghuo agreed, he followed Shi Zhen and started working, occasionally asking, "Do you want this?"

Where should we put this?

Shi Zhen answered him, and he shouted, "Oh!"

Shi Xinghuo was four years older than Shi Zhen. When his mother was pregnant with him, she contracted what they called jaundice hepatitis, which was actually hepatitis A. She took a lot of medicine, and it is unknown whether this was the reason. Shi Xinghuo was born a little slow. He attended primary school for six years, but he only knew about ten characters. He had to use his fingers to do addition and subtraction within ten.

Therefore, although he was Shi Zhen's cousin, he listened to Shi Zhen in everything.

The reason Shi Zhen brought him along this time was twofold: firstly, because Shi Xinghuo was obedient, and secondly, because Shi Xinghuo's parents had asked him to.

Shi Xinghuo was known as stupid in his village and even in several nearby villages. Everyone knew that when he was in school, all he could do during exams was draw circles.

His family didn't have much money, so it was difficult for Shi Xinghuo to find a wife. His parents wanted him to try working outside, hoping that if he could earn a few hundred yuan, he might be able to find a wife with a disability.

In 1994, the average monthly salary of an ordinary worker in J City was about two or three hundred yuan. However, in a remote mountain village, it was very difficult for people to earn even ten yuan. A thousand yuan was enough to pay the bride price.

Shi Zhen had saved up some money over the years. He brought a little over one hundred yuan with him this time. Shi Xinghuo's parents also gave him twenty yuan. After deducting expenses such as transportation, he now had eighty-nine yuan and fifty cents left.

This amount of money wasn't a small sum at the time. They had lived under a bridge before, mainly because he was afraid of going hungry if he couldn't find a job, so he didn't dare to spend it recklessly.

He has always been cautious.

Shi Zhen is the most capable fighter among the younger generation in their village and has a great reputation. Although Shi Xinghuo is not very bright, he is quite strong. The two of them hadn't thought about this matter before they cleaned the bridge hole. Now they are focused on their work and have cleaned the place in less than an hour.

The bridge arch, which used to be a mess, looks much better now.

After finishing tidying up, Shi Zhen began to pack up his belongings.

He and Shi Xinghuo didn't have much in total. He put their clothes and shoes into a snakeskin bag, then took out a packet of fried rice noodles and a pickled rabbit leg, and handed them to the old lady who had already cooked porridge and was eating it.

He brought a lot of food with him when he came out. The pickled rabbit legs were made by himself from rabbits he raised. The fried rice noodles were made by frying rice and then having it ground into powder at a mill.

These are the foods he and Shi Xinghuo have been eating for the past few days.

The old woman was startled, but she accepted it.

Shi Zhen slung the snakeskin bag over his shoulder and said to Shi Xinghuo, "Let's go!"

“Oh!” Shi Xinghuo responded loudly.

After Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo left, the white-haired, hunched-over old lady noticed that the stones and bricks that used to trip her up under the bridge were gone, and she swallowed hard.

Shi Zhen didn't have a watch and didn't know the exact time, but the sun had already risen, so it was probably past seven o'clock.

Shi Xinghuo said with a hint of grievance, "Azhen, I want to eat rabbit legs."

Shi Zhen said, "Rabbit legs aren't very tasty, I'll buy you some meat buns."

Shi Xinghuo was immediately delighted: "Oh!"

Shi Zhen led Shi Xinghuo toward the bus station.

Next to this newly built station in J City, there is also a newly built hospital. Although the surrounding area is empty, it has already become lively, and several breakfast shops have opened.

A basket of xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) costs 1.5 yuan, and three large meat buns cost 1 yuan. Shi Zhen looked at them and bought four yuan worth of large meat buns.

The meat buns are about the size of an adult's fist. Most people would be full after eating three, and even a girl with a small appetite would only need one.

But Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo both had big appetites, and they ate to their hearts' content. Shi Zhen could eat five or six at a time.

Shi Zhen gave Shi Xinghuo six meat buns, and Shi Xinghuo picked them up and started eating them, saying as he ate, "These buns are so delicious. I've never eaten such delicious buns before."

They don't grow wheat in their village, and no one makes noodles. Shi Xinghuo had only eaten steamed buns a few times before, when he went to the market in a nearby town with his parents. No wonder he's happy to eat a simple meat bun now.

Shi Zhen was very hungry. He ate all six of his own meat buns in one go, then took Shi Xinghuo into the bus station and asked at the window in J City dialect, "Do you have any tickets to Changxi City?"

"Yes, one train departs every half hour, and the one at eight o'clock is about to leave."

"I'll buy two tickets." Shi Zhen took out ten yuan and bought two tickets.

J City is a prefecture-level city, while Changxi City is a county-level city under J City.

The Yangtze River Delta region is home to many of the top 100 counties, and Changxi City is one of them. In his previous life, Shi Zhen mainly developed his career in Changxi City.

In fact, he started his fortune in a town under Changxi City.

The town was called Anshan Town, and the person he loved most lived there.