The high school entrance exam lasts for two days. Because it is far away, students from Xiaqiu Junior High School who have registered and paid in advance with their teachers can have lunch in the high school's cafeteria.

Guan Baiyu did not sign up, but Shi Zhen said he would take him home to eat and let him rest at home.

The high school entrance exam lasted two days. On this morning, the Chinese exam was held, starting at 10:00 AM and ending then.

The teachers at Xiaqiu Junior High School were afraid that it would be embarrassing for their students to hand in their papers early and disappear, so they repeatedly emphasized before the exam that students should not hand in their papers early. They said that even if you don't know how to write the questions and are sleeping on your desk, you should not hand in your paper early. Therefore, everyone left the classroom at the same time.

The students in the whole school were mixed up for this exam, and students from other schools were also taking the exam with them. Guan Baiyu was not in the same exam room as Yan Jiangtao.

After handing in his exam paper, he ran quickly towards the door.

His brother was waiting at the door!

It would be good if he ran faster so his brother could wait a few seconds less!

Yan Jiangtao was determined to cause trouble for Guan Baiyu during lunch.

He signed up to eat at the school cafeteria. If Guan Baiyu also ate at the school cafeteria, he could teach him a lesson there. If Guan Baiyu ate outside... he could eat outside too.

But Yan Jiangtao never expected that after he handed in his paper and left the examination room, he would see Guan Baiyu run away in a flash.

This was the first time he had ever known that Guan Baiyu, who was always slow to react, could run so fast.

Yan Jiangtao took off after him.

Then he saw Guan Baiyu run to a tall, burly man and talk to him, and then climb onto the man's tricycle.

Yan Jiangtao: "..." If Guan Baiyu were alone, he would dare to cause trouble for Guan Baiyu, but if there were parents present... Yan Jiangtao could only stop and go back to eat.

Then he got angry because the food at the high school was bad.

The other students: "..." He thinks braised chicken legs aren't tasty enough? Is Yan Jiangtao crazy?!

Shi Zhen did not bring Guan Baiyu back to the village.

The village was a bit far away, and there was no telling if villagers would come over and ask him questions... He led Guan Baiyu to the house he had just rented in town.

It takes at least fifteen minutes to ride a tricycle back to the village from high school, but it only takes five minutes to get here. They won't need to ride tricycles anymore; he and Guan Baiyu can just walk to the exam.

Shi Zhen has been moving his stall items here over the past few days, and naturally there are also cooking utensils here.

Since there was no rice cooker, Shi Zhen simply made noodles.

He sliced ​​a sausage, then sliced ​​shredded meat, carrots, and water chestnuts, stir-fried them all, added them to the cooked noodles, and made two servings of stir-fried noodles, one for himself and one for Guan Baiyu.

These are all things that Guan Baiyu usually likes to eat and often eats. He dares not make things that Guan Baiyu has never eaten before on this day—if Guan Baiyu accidentally eats the wrong thing and gets diarrhea, that would be terrible!

After Guan Baiyu finished eating, Shi Zhen let him take a nap.

Guan Baiyu, however, couldn't sleep and excitedly told Shi Zhen, "Brother, I think this exam was very easy. I've been doing practice questions for the past two months, and it's been very helpful!"

In the bookstore, he would pick out problems he couldn't solve and work them on in his notebook. After finishing, he would check the answers. If he got them right, great; if he got them wrong, he would neatly copy the answers back.

This greatly improved his grades.

“Of course, your foundation is quite good, you just lack experience in answering questions,” Shi Zhen said.

Guan Baiyu basically knows all the content in the book, but for math, it's too difficult for someone who has only done the examples in the book to get a high score!

It's perfectly normal for Guan Baiyu's grades to improve after practicing for more than two months.

Hearing Shi Zhen say this, Guan Baiyu began to look forward to the upcoming exam.

Guan Baiyu couldn't sleep, so he just lay down and rested for a while. When the afternoon exam was about to start, Shi Zhen took him to school.

The afternoon session was long, with two exams: math and English. Guan Baiyu felt the same way as in the morning, finding these two subjects much easier than usual.

After the exam, he still rushed out without stopping.

Yan Jiangtao: "Damn it!"

The two-day exam ended quickly.

During the exam, Guan Baiyu was very careful and tried his best to avoid Yan Jiangtao.

In addition, Shi Zhen was waiting at the door... Although he had run into Yan Jiangtao several times, it was always before the exam. Apart from saying a few words to him, Yan Jiangtao couldn't do anything else.

The high school entrance exam was finally over, and Guan Baiyu felt a sense of relief, but also a bit lost.

That's how he finished junior high school.

Many of Guan Baiyu's classmates felt completely relieved after the exam and went to work with peace of mind. Some who hadn't found jobs before started looking for work now that the exam was over.

A new chemical fiber factory opened nearby and needed many female workers. Many girls in their third year of junior high school went to sign up together. It was more difficult for boys to find factory jobs, but there were some jobs that only they could do, such as carrying cement at a cement factory.

However, boys who have just graduated from junior high school are generally not allowed to do this at home.

In the end, regardless of gender, some people will be unemployed after graduation, with more men among them.

After graduating from junior high school and finding a job, some families start thinking about getting their children engaged or finding partners.

This summer, most of Guan Baiyu's classmates who are no longer going to school will grow up quickly with the encouragement of those around them.

Of course, these are all things for the future.

The day after Guan Baiyu finished his exams, Shi Zhen embarked on his journey home, intending to bring his family out of the mountains.

The bus from Changxi City to the provincial capital passes by the bus stop in Anshan Town. Shi Zhen bought a ticket, went to the provincial capital first, and then bought another ticket in the provincial capital to go to his hometown city.

In the 1990s, there were many petty thieves and criminal cases.

Anshan Town is a small place, which is actually considered peaceful. In some big cities... the original inhabitants of big cities have always lived in their familiar circles, so the environment is safe. But the lower class who go to big cities to work face many things.

These days, people who go out to work don't have cell phones and don't keep in close contact with their families, which makes it easier for some bad people to prey on those who are alone away from home.

It's a bit better for men, but it's not uncommon for women to go out to work and lose contact with their families.

Or perhaps they haven't lost contact, but have been bullied outside... They might find themselves helpless and desperate.

Take Guangzhou for example. Back in the early 2000s, there were still cases of snatch-and-grab robberies and people having their arms chopped off on the streets.

This is also why Shi Zhen decided to settle his family in Anshan Town.

Compared to other places, Anshan Town is relatively peaceful, at least there are no rampant criminal gangs.

When he returned home this time, Shi Zhen changed into the tattered clothes he had worn at home. The clothes were long-sleeved, and since it was a bit hot, he rolled up the sleeves, revealing his muscular arms.

These days he does all sorts of work every day, and the food isn't bad. Even without deliberately training, he's gained muscle, and his skin has gotten tanned from setting up a stall all day.

In short, he looked a bit fierce and not someone to be trifled with.

Shi Zhen noticed that some people who were glancing around would quickly look away when they saw him.

Although Shi Zhen's disguise deterred thieves from attacking him, he remained cautious and vigilant.

Upon arriving in the city where his hometown was located, he took a bus to the county seat below. It was already late, so Shi Zhen stayed overnight in the county seat. The next day, he first followed a tractor to a town near his home, and then had someone take him to a village near his home.

It was already past five o'clock in the evening.

When Shi Zhen set off from Anshan Town, he brought some rice balls and eggs with him. He had already finished the rice balls, but he still had three eggs left.

He ate the rest of the eggs and then headed back to the village.

Ten years from now, when you visit their village, there will be a winding mountain road, but now you can only walk there or drive a motorcycle.

But he couldn't find anyone in town willing to take him to the village on a motorcycle.

It took Shi Zhen more than two hours to reach the village where he had lived since childhood.

It was already dark by then.

In fact, everything along the way was unfamiliar to Shi Zhen, and he even thought he would get lost at one point.

Of course, he didn't get lost in the end. Firstly, there was only one road, with no forks, and once he got there... he realized that he was very familiar with this place.

That sense of familiarity was ingrained in his very being, and he would never forget it, even after decades.

At eight or nine o'clock in the evening, Anshan Town is brightly lit, and he was even selling fried skewers in the town at that time.

But at this time, there was no light left in their village.

Shi Zhen found his house and knocked on the door.

He had always thought Guan Baiyu's house was dilapidated, but in reality, his house was just as dilapidated.

Their house is a single-story building with four rooms in total, all of which are very small.

His parents lived in one room, his three sisters lived in another, and the remaining two rooms were used as a storage room and he lived in the other room, where he also cooked and ate.

At that time, his stepmother would come to his place to make breakfast before he even got up, so he really had no privacy at all.

Shi Zhen knocked on the door and heard his stepmother's voice: "Who is it?"

When Shi Zhengang was reborn, he had almost forgotten how to speak his hometown dialect.

He later settled in Changxi City, where he spoke mostly the local dialect and Mandarin. In his later years, he spoke almost exclusively Mandarin.

His sisters' children all only speak Mandarin, except for his eldest sister's children who can understand and speak a few words of the local dialect.

However, after talking with Shi Xinghuo for a while, he remembered all of his dialect.

“Aunt Zhao, it’s me,” Shi Zhen said.

He was eight years old when his mother passed away.

His mother treated him very well, so after his father married his stepmother, he didn't change his address to "Mom" and always called his stepmother "Aunt Zhao".

Although he didn't call her "Mom," he didn't have any hostility towards his stepmother. When people are struggling to get enough to eat, most people won't be dramatic.

His stepmother married his father not out of love or anything else, but simply because she wanted a place to live and food to eat.

"Shi Zhen, you're back?" The sound of the door bolt being pulled out was accompanied by Shi Zhen's stepmother's voice, "Da Lin, Shi Zhen is back!"

Shi Zhen's father, Shi Dalin, heard his wife's voice and hurriedly got out of bed and turned on the dim light bulb in the house.

Their village doesn't have running water, but it does have electricity. However, even so, many households don't install electric lights to avoid electricity bills.

Shi Dalin installed the light because he thought Shi Zhen was getting older and would be getting married soon, and it would make his family look better.

In recent years, whether he was working in the fields or looking for wild things in the mountains, Shi Dalin would pick up any broken stones he saw and bring them home. He also cut down a few trees and put them behind his house, all in preparation for building a house for Shi Zhen.

As a result, before his house was even built, Shi Zhen went out to work elsewhere.

Shi Zhenyi had been gone for several months. Although he had received a letter, Shi Dalin was still worried. Now that he saw that Shi Zhenyi was alright, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Shi Dalin walked around the room and finally poured Shi Zhen a bowl of water.

Shi Zhen took the water and drank it all in one gulp before looking at his father.

His father is forty-five years old this year. He is not old, but he looks much older. He even has a few missing teeth.

If he walked out looking like this ten years from now, everyone would definitely think he's in his sixties or seventies.

As for his stepmother, Zhao Meiyun, she was also dark-skinned, thin, and looked quite old...

Zhao Meiyun looked nervously at Shi Zhen, who seemed lost in thought, and asked, "Shi Zhen, have you eaten? Do you want me to make you something?"

"I haven't eaten yet, thank you Aunt Zhao," Shi Zhen said. The three eggs he had eaten earlier had long been digested, and he was extremely hungry now.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Meiyun immediately went to start a fire and cook.

Shi Zhen knocked on the door of Shi Dalin and Zhao Meiyun's room, but the sound could be heard from the next room. Shi Zhen turned around and saw his stepsister Zhao Qiujuan and stepsister Zhao Dongjuan come out.

Before marrying Shi Dalin, Zhao Meiyun had been married once before, during which she gave birth to four daughters.

Her youngest daughter, Zhao Dongjuan, who is Shi Zhen's stepsister, is a few months younger than Shi Zhen.

Zhao Dongjuan and Shi Zhen were born in the same year; Zhao Meiyun was thirty-one years old at the time.

After giving birth to Zhao Dongjuan, Zhao Meiyun became pregnant several more times, but each time she couldn't conceive. Later, she simply couldn't get pregnant anymore. Her ex-husband's family was well-off and wanted a son, so they kicked Zhao Meiyun out, and they didn't want her two younger daughters either.

Zhao Meiyun's family was poor, so they couldn't keep her at home. They looked for a new husband for her everywhere. Just then, Shi Dalin wanted to find someone to take care of his children, so the two of them got together.

Zhao Meiyun cherished this marriage and treated Shi Dalin very well. She was also good to Shi Zhen and Shi Zhen's sister, Shi Ting. Of course, she didn't neglect her two daughters either. If anything happened in private, she would always put her daughters first.

Zhao Qiujuan and Zhao Dongjuan are of average appearance, but they are young and not unattractive.

Zhao Qiujuan was not talkative. She was not originally the eldest daughter, but after coming to this family, she had to become the eldest daughter who had to take care of everything. When Shi Ting was a child, she was basically the one who took care of her.

When she saw Shi Zhen, she smiled at him and went to help her mother tend the fire.

Zhao Dongjuan's personality was completely opposite to her sister's. She glanced at Shi Zhen, her eyes filled with complex emotions: "Why are you back so soon? It's not easy to make a living out there?"

Of the three sisters, if you had to pick the one Shi Zhen disliked the most... it would definitely be Zhao Dongjuan.

Despite her tantrums and spending money, Shi Ting genuinely treated him like a brother. During the years when Guan Baiyu was in a bad mood after losing him, Shi Ting was particularly well-behaved. Not only did she not ask him for money, she also carefully coaxed him to eat a few more bites of food.

Later on, Shi Ting would always remember him during holidays or his birthday, sending him gifts to keep him from feeling lonely.

Shi Zhen could tell that she was genuinely good to him.

She's... someone who has an empty head but can't control her buying things; she can't help wanting anything she sees that looks good.

In contrast, her children, perhaps because times have changed, are all driven by self-interest.

Thinking about his younger sister's tendency to believe whatever others say and to want to buy whatever she sees online, Shi Zhen felt exhausted.

However, his sister resembled his mother; she was truly beautiful, even though she was a simpleton, she still wore exquisite embroidered pillowcases.

Regardless of what kind of people his two brothers-in-law were, Shi Zhen was certain that they genuinely loved his sister.

Most men like this kind of beautiful, easily fooled, silly woman, but once they've won her over, they tend not to cherish her.

But Zhao Dongjuan is different. She is quite cunning and harbors deep hostility towards him.

He came from the mountains to work hard and eventually became rich. His poor education level doesn't meet the standards of the modern "phoenix man" (a man from a poor background who achieves success), but there are actually some similarities.

For example, he always wanted to help the villagers, and he was also very concerned about saving face.

So, although he had never liked Zhao Dongjuan since childhood, he still helped her at first.

Unfortunately, this person not only didn't appreciate it, but also said to his father and others that he was biased, so he eventually stopped paying attention to this person.

He gave a portion of his inheritance to his eldest sister and youngest sister, but not to this person.

However, given his current mindset of being in his forties, he wouldn't stoop to arguing with a young girl who's still a few months away from adulthood.