Guan Baiyu believed what Shi Zhen had told her and that Shi Zhen wanted to do good for her.

After Shi Zhen first came to see him, he inquired about Shi Zhen's affairs and observed Shi Zhen over the past few days.

His life was pretty bad; he could hardly afford anything good to eat. Shi Zhen's life didn't seem to be much better either.

Putting everything else aside, Shi Zhen's clothes were even worse than his.

He used to resent his mother for not wanting him, but when he saw Shi Zhen's appearance, that resentment disappeared.

His mother must have genuinely been unable to support him, which is why she gave him away to someone else.

Shi Zhen is already so poor, yet he still comes to him and gives him money; it's impossible that he wants to harm him.

That's right, someone like Shi Zhen might not have the money to send him to school.

The tuition for vocational school is at least two or three hundred yuan per semester, plus living expenses, so he can easily spend one or two thousand yuan a year without realizing it.

If all else fails, I should try to find a job.

Guan Baiyu returned home, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.

He dared not use too much electricity, since he would have to pay the electricity bill.

Guan Baiyu went to bed early. Meanwhile, Shi Zhen told Guan Jianguo that Guan Baiyu was his cousin.

Guan Jianguo was a little surprised, but like Guan Baiyu, he had no doubts.

In fact, over the years, the Guan family had always wondered why Guan Baiyu's biological grandparents' side hadn't come looking for him. Now that someone had come looking for him, he only had a feeling of "finally, they've come."

After explaining his situation with Guan Baiyu, Shi Zhen then mentioned that he would be having meals at Guan Baiyu's place in the future.

Guan Jianguo had no objections, but his mother was a little unhappy—since Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo weren't eating at their house, she wouldn't get any money.

After Shi Zhen finished speaking and was about to leave, Guan Jianguo said again, "The rice over there is probably enough for Xiao Yu to eat by himself. When you go there to eat, remember to buy some rice for him."

“I will,” Shi Zhen said.

Shi Zhen came to talk to Guan Jianguo, and Shi Xinghuo came with him. When they returned to their room, he immediately asked, "Zhen, do you have a cousin?"

“Yes! I came here to find him,” Shi Zhen said.

There's a reason why Shi Zhen dared to make up this story—his mother married into the mountains from outside, and no one in their village knew where she was from, not even his father.

However, her mother probably had a bad family background, which is why she hid in the mountains. Otherwise, her mother was exceptionally beautiful, and there was no way she would have married her father.

Now, his mother is gone.

When he was eight years old, his mother died of illness, leaving him and his sister to live with their father.

His younger sister was only four years old at the time, and she was in poor health and cried all the time. His father couldn't manage her, so through an introduction, he married his stepmother.

His stepmother was a few years older than his father. She was not particularly attractive, but after marrying his father with her two daughters, she settled down and lived a relatively peaceful life with him. She treated him and his sister quite well.

His stepmother couldn't treat them badly. He and her sister were native villagers, while she and her daughter were outsiders. His father valued his own flesh and blood more and couldn't tolerate his stepmother treating them badly.

As for favoritism... their village was too poor, and there was nothing materially that would allow her to show favoritism. It's understandable that she was closer to her two biological daughters.

Because of all this, Shi Zhen created a cousin for himself, and no one suspected anything, not even his father.

Shi Zhen knew his father quite well.

The next day, Shi Zhen got up at around 4 a.m.

Rubbing his shoulders, which ached from digging in the river mud, he opened the door and went out, heading towards the town.

He couldn't go to Guan Baiyu's house for a meal empty-handed.

There was a vegetable market in town, which had just been built and had two floors. It was quite large for people at that time.

This is the center of town. Upstairs in this building are small shops, rented to merchants to sell clothes, toys, needles and thread, and other small items. Downstairs is a vegetable market.

This was Shi Zhen's first time here. Fortunately, the place was easy to find, but he arrived too early; the market wasn't even open yet.

Although the market was closed, there were people waiting at the entrance. As soon as the door opened, they rushed in.

Shi Zhen followed them inside and saw what the market looked like.

There's a lingering, unpleasant smell here. Each stall is set up by the vendor themselves, and they sell all sorts of things, forming long, continuous rows.

Some of the people who rushed in climbed over the stalls, while others crawled under them.

Not long after these people entered the market, other shoppers arrived. Some of them were early risers, while others were shop owners who planned to buy the ingredients they needed for the day.

Shi Zhen found a stall and asked about the price of pork.

The stall owner pushed half a pig in on a bicycle, with a woman beside him carrying a basket full of pork. He placed the half pig on his stall and, while unloading the pork, answered Shi Zhen: "Strip pork is 2.5 yuan per jin, and rump pork is 2.8 yuan per jin."

The term "strip meat" refers to pork belly, while "rump meat" refers to pork hind leg meat.

In previous years, pork belly was always more expensive, but in recent years people have suddenly started to prefer lean meat, so pork hind leg has become more expensive.

Shi Zhen asked carefully and finally bought a pound of pure fat to take home and render into lard.

Fatty pork was only one yuan per pound. After buying the fatty pork, Shi Zhen bought two chicken frames for two yuan at a nearby stall.

Frozen chicken frames have had the chicken breast, drumsticks, wings, etc. removed, so there isn't much meat left, but the price is cheap.

After buying those two items, Shi Zhen thought for a moment and then bought ten eggs.

Guan Baiyu is growing, so he needs to eat well.

Shi Zhen returned to the village after buying the goods, around 6:30.

He took his belongings, called Shi Xinghuo, and went to Guan Baiyu's house.

Guan Baiyu had gotten up early, but hadn't gone to school yet. He was somewhat surprised to see him bring these things.

Shi Zhen smiled at him and said, "We're eating together, so I just bought some vegetables."

Time was tight in the morning. Guan Baiyu had to leave for school at seven o'clock, and he and Shi Xinghuo also had to leave at seven o'clock... Shi Zhen didn't delay. He asked Guan Baiyu to start a fire and render lard in an iron pot. Then he scooped out all the lard and cracklings. Finally, using the little bit of oil left at the bottom of the pot, he added four eggs and scrambled them. Then he added the rice that Guan Baiyu had prepared yesterday for today's meal and made fried rice.

There wasn't much food; after dividing it into three portions, it wasn't enough for him and Shi Xinghuo, but Shi Xinghuo had a packet of instant noodles, which was barely enough.

As for him, it's fine if he eats less.

"You actually put four eggs in..." Guan Baiyu was shocked.

He also ate fried rice when his grandmother was alive.

His grandmother would dip chopsticks wrapped in gauze in oil, spread it around the pan, add rice and salt, and stir-fry. That was fried rice. She absolutely wouldn't add an egg.

Now Shi Zhen has actually put four eggs in one go!

"Eat more." Shi Zhen gave Guan Baiyu a full bowl of rice.

Guan Baiyu lowered his head and began to eat slowly.

The fried rice with lard was incredibly delicious; he hadn't tasted anything this good in a very long time.

The last time he ate meat was during the Lunar New Year when he went to his adoptive parents' house for New Year's Eve dinner.

But he couldn't eat too much back then, because the chickens killed on New Year's Eve would be used by his adoptive parents to entertain guests on the second and third days of the Lunar New Year.

After dinner, Su Baiyu took the instant noodles that Shi Zhen had given him yesterday to school, while Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo went to work.

There's a saying among those who do odd jobs: changing jobs is like changing your body.

For example, if you do a lot of work carrying mud and bricks all day, and you get used to it, you won't feel any pain or soreness in your body. But if you switch to digging mud, your body will start to hurt again.

Shi Zhen has been in pain all over his body these past few days, but he is still full of energy.

He's even more motivated than he was at this time in his previous life.

He is alive, and everyone around him is alive; that is the best thing ever.

Today's lunch was taro and pork stew, but of course, there was more taro than pork.

Shi Zhen would save the vegetables for the past two days, but he didn't today. Firstly, he ate little this morning and was quite hungry, and secondly, he had already bought vegetables this morning.

"You rascal, you've finally decided to eat some vegetables today," Wang Chengfa said with a smile as he saw Shi Zhen eating heartily.

He had a good impression of Shi Zhen, after all, Shi Zhen worked hard.

Shi Zhen smiled at him but didn't say anything.

Wang Chengfa then said, "This silt will be dredged in two more days. Next, we'll work on repairing the riverbank slope. Do you want to stay and continue working on it?"

"Yes," Shi Zhen said.

“Then you stay and move the stones,” Wang Chengfa said.

“Uncle Wang, I used to be a bricklayer. If there are other jobs, I can do them too.”

Wang Chengfa said, "You've also studied bricklaying? Okay, I got it. I'll keep an eye on you and see if you can do anything else."

Shi Zhen smiled and agreed.

He's been working so hard these past few days, he hasn't done anything wrong, and he can continue working on the construction site.

He couldn't find any other job for the time being, so he had to keep doing this one.

After finishing work in the evening, Shi Zhen jogged back home, but Guan Baiyu hadn't returned yet.

At that time, many houses in the countryside did not have locks. They were left open all day, and when people went inside at night, they would bolt the door shut from the inside.

Guan Baiyu's room did have a lock, but there was only one key, which Shi Zhen didn't have.

He sat on a stone by the door for a while before Guan Baiyu and Shi Xinghuo returned, and they went inside together.

Guan Baiyu scooped three small bowls of rice, washed them, and put them in the pot to cook. He originally wanted to steam some vegetables at the same time, but Shi Zhen stopped him: "Let's cook them separately."

When the rice was almost cooked, Guan Baiyu stopped cooking and stopped burning the fire. Seeing this, Shi Zhen scooped the still undercooked rice into several large bowls, added some water to the pot, and then put in the chopped chicken carcass and pork cracklings.

After that, he put in all of Guan Baiyu's remaining soy sauce, chopped up the garlic sprouts that Guan Baiyu had pulled from the vegetable garden, and threw them in, and cooked a pot of it like that.

When cooking, he put the rice on a steamer rack, covered the pot, and steamed it for a while, and the rice was no longer undercooked.

The chicken frame didn't taste very good, but it was still meat.

Neither Guan Baiyu nor Shi Xinghuo were disgusted at all; Shi Xinghuo even chewed and swallowed some chicken bones.

Shi Zhen ate his meal, but he was somewhat dissatisfied, as there were still too many things missing from the house.

In this day and age, many households in the city already have home appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators, and televisions are no longer particularly rare. Gas stoves are also widely used.

But Guan Baiyu had none of these!

And the place where they lived... the ground was still muddy, and such a place was very damp. It wouldn't be good for Guan Baiyu's health to live there!

Shi Zhen's mind was full of ways to make money, but he had only been reborn a few days ago, and he had no capital or connections, so it was difficult for him to make money.

After the meal, Guan Baiyu started cleaning up, and Shi Zhen, seeing this, quickly said, "I'll wash the dishes."

"I'll do it," Guan Baiyu said. Shi Zhen had given him eggs and chicken today, so how could he let Shi Zhen wash the dishes?

"I'll do it," Shi Zhen insisted. "You go do your homework."

Guan Baiyu paused for a moment, then had no choice but to go do his homework.

Shi Zhen poured water into the pot and used an old loofah to wash the bowl.

In his past life, Guan Baiyu did all the housework when they were together, and he never thought of helping. He couldn't let it be like that in this life.

He hoped that Guan Baiyu could grow up being loved and pampered by his family, just like other children his age.

Guan Baiyu rarely goes home to do his homework.

His school doesn't have much homework, so he can basically finish it at school.

But Shi Zhen made him do his homework, so he took out his book and started reading.

He thought he would feel very uncomfortable having a cousin all of a sudden, but now... he feels quite happy.

While washing the dishes, Shi Zhen chatted with Guan Baiyu and also mentioned some of the upcoming arrangements: "You don't need to worry about not having firewood. I'll go buy some mulberry branches tomorrow."

The so-called mulberry branches are the branches of the mulberry tree. Nowadays, apart from Guan Baiyu, everyone else in the village has enough firewood because in addition to straw, they also have mulberry branches to burn—the branches of the mulberry tree need to be pruned every year.

These don't cost much; he could probably buy a cartload of mulberry branches for just one yuan.

"Mm," Guan Baiyu replied.

Shi Zhen then mentioned that they could have porridge tomorrow morning and asked Guan Baiyu how things were at school.

Guan Baiyu didn't have a good time at school.

Yan Jiangtao came to school today. He was playing during class, which not only affected him, but also publicly called him dirty.

However, as long as Yan Jiangtao didn't damage his things, he didn't care about being scolded.

Guan Baiyu didn't say any of this, only that he was doing quite well.

"Xiaoyu, how are your grades?" Shi Zhen asked.

Guan Baiyu said, "It's alright."

"Where do you usually rank in the class?"

Guan Baiyu thought for a moment and then said, "Usually it's the first place."

"That's amazing?" Shi Zhen was pleasantly surprised. "How does it rank in the rest of the grade?"

Guan Baiyu said, "He's also number one."

Shi Zhen was even more surprised, but also somewhat puzzled.

Guan Baiyu has such good grades, how come he only went to an ordinary high school? Logically speaking... he should have been able to get into the best high school in the city, right?

He chatted with someone at work today and learned that each junior high school has a few guaranteed admission slots, which can be used to directly send students to Changxi No. 1 High School, the best high school in the city.

Shi Zhen asked, "Then can you go to No. 1 Middle School?"

Guan Baiyu was taken aback, then said, "I want to go to a vocational school to study to become a teacher, so I can become a primary school teacher in the future."

Without a second thought, Shi Zhen said, "Why go to a vocational school? You have to go to high school so you can take the college entrance exam!"