Guan Baiyu's village is next to Anshan Town, while Xiaqiu Township is in the opposite direction.

Shi Zhen was unfamiliar with Xiaqiu Township, so he asked for directions in the local dialect before heading to the school.

Back in the 1990s, most people in J City still spoke the local dialect. When he first came to J City, he couldn't speak the local dialect, so communication was difficult, and the people there didn't trust him much.

In order to do business well, he spent a lot of time learning the local dialect. Now he speaks the dialect of Changxi City and his speech is not much different from that of the locals, which makes everything easier for him.

"Ah Zhen, where are we going? I'm hungry," Shi Xinghuo, who had been quiet all along, asked Shi Zhen.

Shi Zhen said, "When we go to the countryside, I'll buy you some sesame seed cakes."

After a morning of travel, Shi Xinghuo, who had been feeling a bit listless, suddenly perked up and asked, "What is a sesame seed cake?"

"It's something delicious," Shi Zhen said simply, not really in the mood.

Shi Xinghuo swallowed hard and obediently followed Shi Zhen.

Before Shi Zhen even reached the village, he met Guan Baiyu.

Guan Baiyu was completely different from the Guan Baiyu he remembered.

The first time he met Guan Baiyu in his previous life, Guan Baiyu was already nineteen years old, tall and handsome, but the Guan Baiyu in front of him was different.

The boy was fifteen years old, but looked no more than twelve or thirteen, and was also excessively thin.

He was wearing a slightly short and faded outfit. His thin cheeks were slightly sunken, his face was pale, and his hair was dry and yellow. He had a pair of big eyes on his small face. He was thin and pitiful.

In the countryside these days, it's rare to see people dressed smartly, but it's also uncommon to see someone like Guan Baiyu who doesn't have clothes that fit and looks like he's starving.

Shi Zhen felt as if his heart had been struck, a mixture of pain and bitterness.

He knew that Guan Baiyu had a difficult childhood, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

After all, he himself had a hard life when he was young. His village couldn't grow much grain, and his family couldn't eat as much as they wanted. They could only eat pork a few times a year.

That means he can raise rabbits so that he can eat rabbits from time to time.

He always thought that living in a relatively affluent place like J City, Guan Baiyu's life wouldn't be too bad even if he didn't live well, but Guan Baiyu was so thin and small... could he usually get enough to eat?

Of course, the most important thing right now is not this, but... Guan Baiyu is still alive.

The person he loved deeply is still alive and well.

After his rebirth, Shi Zhen had always felt a sense of unreality. At this moment, that sense of unreality finally disappeared, and his heart settled down.

He knew what he had to do next.

Shi Zhen didn't look at Guan Baiyu much, afraid that Guan Baiyu would notice him.

He had never looked in a mirror, but he knew he looked terrible.

Although they had already seen Guan Baiyu, Shi Zhen still led him into the countryside because he had promised to buy Shi Xinghuo some sesame cakes.

The village sells a variety of foods, including steamed buns, noodles, and sesame seed cakes.

The flatbread is made by wrapping lard and scallions in dough, rolling it into a thin pancake shape, and baking it on the oven wall. Of course, some people also wrap lean meat or dried plum vegetables in the flatbread, just like the famous Jinyun flatbread of later generations.

The sesame seed cake stall also sells fried dough sticks; eating fried dough sticks wrapped in sesame seed cakes is especially delicious.

Shi Zhenhua spent two yuan to buy two sesame seed cakes and two fried dough sticks, which he shared with Shi Xinghuo.

At that time, food was all about large portions and filling meals. Five cents could buy a filling sesame seed cake, and three cents could buy a particularly large fried dough stick. The seven-cent sesame seed cake and the three-cent fried dough stick together were enough to fill his stomach.

After they finished eating, he said to Shi Xinghuo, "Let's go get haircuts, then rent a place to live, and then look for jobs."

When he was young, he was filled with anxiety facing this unfamiliar world and dared not spend money recklessly, but now he is not so stingy.

His and Shi Xinghuo's hair used to be just cut haphazardly, and it was always very messy. Getting it short would make them look more presentable, and having a place to live would make it easier to find work.

The haircut cost three yuan per person. After the haircut was finished, Shi Zhen led Shi Xinghuo toward the village where Guan Baiyu lived.

He plans to rent a place near Guan Baiyu's house.

He had been to Guan Baiyu's dilapidated house before. It only had two small, cramped rooms with mud floors, and he couldn't rent one there.

Shi Zhen stopped in front of a house about 100 meters away from Guan Baiyu's house.

The person living here is one of Guan Baiyu's cousins. He's a very nice person, and according to Guan Baiyu, he takes good care of him.

He ate at this house when he came back with Guan Baiyu in his previous life.

He could remember the location of this house because there were two large peach trees planted in front of it.

Shi Zhen walked up and saw an old woman sitting at the door sewing shoe soles, with two girls, about four or five years old, beside her, drawing on the cement-paved drying ground with fragments of red bricks.

The two children are still young, and they drew simple circles.

"Grandma, I'd like to ask if there are any rental houses around here?" Shi Zhen asked with a smile in his dialect. "My brother and I want to rent a house to live in."

The old lady was somewhat surprised: "You want to rent a house?"

Twenty years from now, people won't find renting out houses strange, but back then, you really wouldn't see many people renting out houses in rural areas.

"Wait a minute," the old lady put down the insoles she was holding and called into the house, "Jianguo, someone wants to rent a house!"

Guan Baiyu's cousin is named Guan Jianguo. He is in his early thirties. Although he is not tall, only about 1.65 meters, he has broad shoulders and a wide back. His arms are full of muscles, and he looks very strong.

His job was driving a tractor to load goods, earning money by transporting bricks, mud, and other materials.

It's physically demanding work, but it pays well. You can easily earn 20 or 30 yuan a day, and if you work hard, you can earn 50 or 60 yuan a day, but there isn't always work available every day.

Upon learning that Shi Zhen wanted to rent a house, he immediately asked Shi Zhen if his own house was suitable.

His house was a typical two-story building, square with two rooms in the front and two in the back. But he had both upstairs and downstairs. Upstairs, two of the four rooms were used as bedrooms, and the remaining two were used to store grain and other items. Downstairs, there was space.

Guan Jianguo suggested that he could seal up the door leading to one of the two south-facing rooms in his house and rent it to Shi Zhen for 30 yuan a month.

Shi Zhen agreed.

Shi Zhen spoke a dialect and was quite young, so Guan Jianguo trusted him. After Shi Zhen gave him thirty yuan, he immediately started tidying up a room and even installed several latches behind the door to block the way to the inside.

Not only that, seeing that Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo didn't have beds, he found two old door panels and a few benches, and laid them out to make two single beds for Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo to sleep on.

After tidying up, the afternoon was over.

Guan Jianguo's room had a cement floor and plastered walls. Although it was empty and didn't have much stuff inside, it was the best room Shi Xinghuo had ever lived in.

"Ah Zhen, this is a cement floor!"

"This room is so big and spacious!"

"Are we really going to live here from now on?"

When Shi Xinghuo is outside, he won't say a word even if you beat him with a stick, but if there are no outsiders around, he will occasionally chatter on and on.

Shi Zhen used to find Shi Xinghuo annoying, but this time he agreed to everything.

In his previous life, Shi Xinghuo worked with him on the construction site. They worked themselves to the bone every day, sharing a room with more than a dozen other people. Their meals consisted mainly of vegetables and tofu, with maybe a little bit of fatty meat at most.

Then he died.

He died too young, never having experienced a day when he had enough to eat and wear, and he rarely ate things like meat buns or sesame cakes.

There's also Guan Baiyu.

He had to support himself at such a young age, and he couldn't even go to school...

However, all will be alright.

"Ah Zhen, I'm hungry." Shi Xinghuo looked at Shi Zhen.

Shi Zhen said, "The food should be ready soon."

He had previously told Guan Jianguo about dinner, and Guan Jianguo said he would put in extra rice when cooking and would bring him some later.

Sure enough, a short while later, Guan Jianguo brought over two large bowls of rice and a large bowl of garlic leaf tofu.

Neither Shi Zhen nor Shi Xinghuo were picky eaters; they sat down at the entrance of Guan Jian's house and finished their meal.

The two little girls who used to play at the entrance are no longer there. The circle they drew with red bricks has been filled with flowers and plants.

So these are plates.

As darkness fell, Shi Zhen led Shi Xinghuo back into the house and lay down on the bed made of door panels.

The first day of his rebirth was busy, but Shi Zhen was in an exceptionally good mood.

In his previous life, he became somewhat indifferent to many things and was able to make money continuously, all thanks to some reliable investments he made in the early stages. After Guan Baiyu's death, he never worked on construction sites again, but he continued to invest in real estate development and even bought several plots of land to build several 4S stores. Thanks to the continuous rise in housing prices in J City, he made a fortune and also had money to do charity.

As long as we are alive, we should always do something for this world.

He was glad he had done those things.

Being able to return to this world is perhaps God's reward for him.