After Shi Zhen finished building Fang Changming's house, many people asked him to help them build houses.

Now, the second batch of houses he built has been completed.

The villas he built in the countryside during that period were definitely a unique sight.

Even more people are asking him to build houses.

However, Shi Zhen is no longer willing to take on just any job, as he is too busy to handle everything, and next year... he wants to try taking on larger projects.

Changxi City is about to undergo large-scale development.

As the year drew to a close, Shi Zhen took on another job building a factory, and he dragged Shi Daniu and his team there again.

This factory building was different from the ones he had built before. It had some special requirements, and the boss even brought him special design drawings to make sure he could understand them and build it. He also signed a contract with him before giving him the job.

Initially, fearing that the locals wouldn't be able to build the factory, the boss even considered finding a construction team from J City or the provincial capital to build it.

For this reason, the boss was very generous with the money, since the person who designed the factory for him had given him a budget based on the prices of construction teams in the provincial capital.

This factory cannot be taken lightly, so Shi Zhen spends most of his time here.

"Fang Miyan, we have to work the night shift tonight. Before you leave, cook some meat porridge so we can heat it up and eat it tonight," Shi Zhen said to Fang Miyan early in the morning.

If he had to work the night shift, he would ask Fang Miyan to make some late-night snacks and leave them on hand.

Meat porridge is their most common late-night snack. In the dead of winter, a bowl of hot meat porridge before bed is incredibly comforting.

"good."

"By the way, are you going to buy groceries later?" Shi Zhen asked again.

“Go,” Fang Miyan said.

"Then buy two preserved eggs, cut them up and put them in the porridge," Shi Zhen said.

Fang Miyan's meat congee is made by cutting pork into small pieces and cooking it in congee. Shi Zhen thinks it would taste even better if he added some preserved eggs.

Century egg and lean pork congee is so delicious!

"Okay." Fang Miyan replied succinctly as always.

Shi Zhen glanced at her and noticed that she didn't seem to be in a good mood. He then asked, "Have you encountered anything recently?" Fang Miyan had gained some weight before, but she has now lost it all back.

Fang Miyan glanced at Shi Zhen, but didn't answer. Instead, she asked Shi Zhen, "Boss, can I borrow your bicycle for a bit?"

"You can take it," Shi Zhen said. Fang Miyan had recently learned to ride a bicycle and would borrow his bicycle to ride.

His bicycle was a bit too tall for Fang Miyan, and there was an obstructive bar in front of it, and Fang Miyan was...

People at that time were much shorter than the young people who came later. Fang Miyan was not short among them, but she was less than 1.6 meters tall. She had some difficulty riding Shi Zhen's bicycle and could only stretch one leg under the handlebars to ride it crookedly.

But for her, it still saves some effort.

Fang Miyan went out for a while and returned about an hour later.

Fang Miyan had been going to Shi Xingchao's place to pick up the sweater embroidery for a while, but she hasn't been going recently. Instead, she's been taking naps every now and then. Right now, she's cooking the meat and has closed her eyes again, feeling a bit drowsy.

Shi Zhen glanced at her and continued working.

At this time in her previous life, Fang Miyan was already cooking for them. Around this time, her father and brother approached them, demanding that they give them Fang Miyan's wages and pay for the damage to her reputation.

Has something happened to the Fang family?

Just as Shi Zhen was thinking this, a furious roar came from outside: "Fang Miyan! You really are here!"

Upon hearing this, Shi Zhen immediately walked outside, and then saw Fang Miyan suddenly wake up and almost trip over her own feet.

At the same time, Shi Zhen saw Fang Miyan's father and younger brother.

Seeing the two people, Shi Zhen felt somewhat dazed.

He remembered that in his past life, when these two people came to his door, he was actually a little scared and thought they were very fierce.

But now...

Fang Miyan's father was less than 1.6 meters tall, a bit fat, with a very red face, and was panting heavily... In short, he looked like he had been overindulging in wine and women and had his body completely drained.

Fang Miyan's younger brother is about 1.7 meters tall and looks alright, but he has just come of age. Right now, he doesn't even dare to walk in front of his father. Instead, he stands behind his father and secretly looks at them.

He was actually afraid of these two people back then...

Well, at that time he was a newcomer from out of town and was actually very afraid of being ostracized by the locals. Even though he had driven Fang Miyan's father away, he was still uneasy for several days.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Shi Zhen asked.

"I am Fang Miyan's father! What is she doing here?" Fang's father glared at Shi Zhen.

Shi Zhendao said, "Why are you cooking for us?"

"She cooked for you? Where's her pay? Give me her pay!" Mr. Fang said, then went to scold Fang Miyan, "You little beast, I was wondering why you were never home. Turns out you were out working, and you kept it a secret from me. If I hadn't gone to your sister's and not seen you, I wouldn't have known you were here!"

Fang Miyan goes out every day, using the excuse of going to her sister's house.

Originally, Mr. Fang had no doubts; he was content as long as he had wine to drink and didn't care much about anything else.

His daughter not eating at home saved him money!

But these past few days, something terrible has happened at home!

They gave Fang Miliang all their belongings, plus the five thousand yuan they had borrowed, to buy a motorcycle. However, Fang Miliang was scammed and not only lost all his money, but also ended up owing ten thousand yuan in high-interest loans.

When Mr. Fang received the news early in the morning, his eyes turned red with anger.

He wandered around aimlessly, thinking that the only thing he could do was go to his two daughters, but the five thousand yuan he had received earlier was borrowed from them.

He wanted to borrow again, and his daughter agreed, but his daughter's in-laws and her husband disagreed.

Their money didn't come from thin air.

However, Mr. Fang learned something else from his eldest daughter's in-laws—his youngest daughter was not with his eldest daughter at all, and in fact, she hadn't eaten at his eldest daughter's house for the past few months.

Where did this little girl go? Did she find a boyfriend?

Mr. Fang asked around.

There were few people around these days, and most of them were locals. After asking around, someone told him that they had seen his youngest daughter in such and such a place.

He searched all the way here and actually found it.

"Fang Miyan is the one who came to work, so of course our wages will go to Fang Miyan. As for you... this is a construction site, and unauthorized personnel are not allowed to come in," Shi Zhen said.

"What's wrong with us making a fuss? My daughter is working here, and you won't even let me speak?" Mr. Fang said angrily, then looked Shi Zhen up and down: "This is a construction site, isn't it full of men? Why did you bring my daughter here to work? Do you have some ulterior motives towards her? You need to pay compensation..."

He doesn't want anything else right now, he just wants money.

Shi Zhen: "..."

What this father said was almost identical to what he said in his previous life.

Back then, they were afraid of him. At first, they spoke to him politely, but he got more and more carried away, and that's how he became...

Shi Zhen didn't want to waste his time on such a person.

He stepped forward, grabbed Fang's father's clothes, and dragged him outside.

Even in the dead of winter, Fang's father wore a thick cotton-padded coat, which was still quite easy to carry. Of course, the most important thing was that Fang's father was lightweight.

Although he looks fat, he's actually just chubby and quite light.

Shi Zhen's action startled everyone present. Fang's father, in particular, was terrified: "What do you want to do?"

"Let go of my dad," Fang Miliang also said.

However, by this time, Shi Daniu and his group had already come out.

There was a group of burly men here, and they were all holding tools for working!

Fang Miliang started shouting at first, but later he didn't even dare to shout anymore.

Seeing this, Shi Zhen laughed, put Fang's father down, and said, "Do you know what you were doing just now? That was extortion."

“What extortion? We…we just want our wages,” Mr. Fang said, trembling.

"You didn't do any work for me, why should I pay you?" Shi Zhen said, "Alright, you should leave now. If you keep nagging here, I'll call the police."

Shi Zhen took out his phone and waved it.

Shi Zhen no longer works as a bricklayer; most of the time, he supervises construction and provides technical guidance.

His clothes were naturally quite nice as well.

In addition, he had a strong presence and looked like he was not to be trifled with... Fang's father was a little frightened. He glared at Fang Miyan and then dragged his lame leg away.

Seeing this, Fang Miliang quickly followed.

After they left, Shi Zhen asked Fang Miyan, "What happened?"

Fang Miyan's usually expressionless face showed embarrassment: "Boss, I don't know either..."

Fang Miyan truly had no idea what had happened.

She hasn't been in a good mental state lately, mainly because she's tired.

To buy her younger brother a motorcycle, her family incurred a debt of 5,000 yuan. Her mother was extremely anxious and thought about making money every day.

Her mother had very few ways to make money, so she bought ten piglets and planned to raise them to earn money.

Pigs eat anything, but if you feed them grass, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, etc., they grow very slowly. They should be fed feed.

But her mother couldn't bear to feed the pigs, so she told her to take a bucket and go to town to ask the restaurants for leftovers, or rather... swill.

However, she wasn't the only one who thought this way; the swill from the restaurants in town was in high demand!

She didn't get much at all, but she was exhausted from all the trouble.

Her mother was still thinking about farming, and with Shi Zhen's work hours now being more regular, eating around 5 PM, she often got home after 6 PM... So busy, she naturally felt sleepy during the day.

However, although I don't know exactly what happened, I remember my younger brother saying he wanted to buy a motorcycle, but he still hasn't...

Fang Miyan suddenly had a bad feeling.

Shi Zhen asked, "What are you planning to do next? If you go back like this, won't you get beaten up?"

Changxi City has always been relatively prosperous, and the people are not known for their fierceness; incidents of violence are rare.

Shi Zhen lived in Guanjia Village for more than a year and never saw anyone fighting.

But hitting children is common; there are frequent instances of people grabbing children and spanking them.

He met Fang Miyan when it was hot. Although Fang Miyan was thin, she had no wounds on her body, so she shouldn't have been beaten at home. But this time the situation was different.

“If they hit me, I’ll run away,” Fang Miyan said.

Shi Zhen laughed: "If you need anything, you can come to Guanjia Village to find me." Fang Miyan is not the kind of person who will sit idly by and wait for death, so there is no need to worry about her suffering losses.

Honestly, her dad and her brother probably couldn't beat her even though she works every day.

Fang Miyan thanked her earnestly: "Thank you."

Fang Miyan did not come to see Shi Zhen that night, but she came to Shi Zhen's place to cook the next day as usual.

"You didn't encounter anything yesterday, did you?" Shi Zhen asked.

"It's nothing," Fang Miyan said. "I'm going to my sister's house."

As soon as she got home yesterday, her family started making a ruckus, demanding money from her.

Not only was her room turned upside down, but her father also had her mother search her body.

She ran away and went to find her older sister.

She learned the whole story from her sister.

Her younger brother wanted to buy a motorcycle, but she thought it was unnecessary. Unexpectedly, her brother didn't buy the motorcycle and instead went gambling.

I'll leave the gambling aside; in total, I lost 40,000 yuan.

Over the past few years, Fang Miyan had been doing odd jobs, but before meeting Shi Zhen, she had only saved 500 yuan. She earned 200 yuan a month cooking for Shi Zhen and the others, and with the addition of embroidering sweaters, her savings reached 1,700 yuan.

Her younger brother lost money, losing a whopping 40,000 yuan.

Fang Miyan was already cursing her younger brother to the bone in her stomach.

Perhaps in their past life, because they weren't assertive enough and worked for others near the Fang family, Fang's father confronted them several times, demanding money from them.

But in this lifetime, Fang's father never came looking for him.

Fang Miyan looked at it and everything seemed normal.

The way things are going seems to be different from what happened in my previous life... Shi Zhen was struggling with this when he was shocked by Fang Miyan.

One day at the end of December, it started to rain. He gave Shi Daniu and the others the day off, and then went to Changxi City to learn some technical advice from a retired engineer...

It was very late when he got home. He was having dinner when Shi Xingchao came to his door and gave him a bag of candy: "Shi Zhen, here's some wedding candy for you. I'm getting married."

Shi Zhen was a little confused: "You're married?!"

“Yes, he’s married to Fang Miyan,” Shi Xingchao said. “Thank you for the introduction!”

Although Shi Zhen did not openly act as a matchmaker, he did say things to Shi Xingchao such as "Fang Miyan meets your requirements very well".

However, Shi Xingchao and Fang Miyan actually had very little contact, at least far less than in their previous life.

I never expected that even after all this, these two would still be able to get married, even earlier than in their previous life... In their previous life, they got married after the New Year and had their son in 1997.

"You got married...so suddenly?" Shi Zhen couldn't help but ask.

“I talked to her about it before, and she said she wanted to see how things went. But this time, her family had a problem, and she didn’t want to stay at home anymore, so she stole her household registration book and got married to me,” Shi Xingchao said.

This speed... it's like being on an airplane.

Shi Xingchao added, "She was also angry. She had been keeping the money she earned with her sister, but her sister gave the money to her father."

Shi Xingchao talked on and on about the Fang family to Shi Zhen.

Fang Miyan's younger brother owed money, and people came knocking on their door. The Fang family dared not not pay it back, so they borrowed money everywhere... They had quite a few relatives, one family borrowed a thousand, another family borrowed five hundred, and they also pestered Fang Miyan's two older sisters to contribute some, so they raised seven or eight thousand.

But that still wasn't enough. Later, Fang Miyan's sister took out Fang Miyan's money and gave it to Fang's father.

This didn't happen in his past life. Shi Zhen thought about it and figured it out. Fang Miyan probably didn't have much savings back then, so her sister didn't take it out.

At that time, Fang Miyan's younger brother also owed money, but fortunately the Fang family found a way to raise the money and pay it off.

But... later her brother went gambling again and incurred debts again.

When Fang's father ran out of money, he set his sights on Fang Miyan's marriage, wishing he could sell Fang Miyan by the pound. That's how Fang Miyan married Shi Xingchao.

Fang Miyan got married early in this life, probably because she was too angry when all her belongings were taken away.

Shi Zhen was quite envious of Shi Xingchao.

He could marry the person he liked, and so, in just a few months, he brought her home as his wife.