Among the things Shi Zhen bought for the New Year, there were no fireworks or firecrackers; most of them were food and household items, with food making up the majority.

This is to prevent accidents from happening.

What if you're driving a tractor loaded with fireworks and firecrackers into the mountains and something goes wrong during the bumpy ride?

They bought only food and household items, and there was another advantage: even if they couldn't sell them all during the Lunar New Year, they could keep them and sell them slowly.

After summer, he stopped selling popsicles in Guanjian Country, but he continued to sell soda, and later he sold candy as well, which was fine.

As for the couplets and such, we can sell them next year, it doesn't matter.

As the year draws to a close, some people have become more relaxed, while others have become busier.

Guan Guangguo and Zhang Xiumei were very busy.

They cleaned their house thoroughly and then went to town to sell chickens themselves, leaving them no free time.

However, by the end of the year, the price of chicken had risen, and they finally broke even.

Guan Jianguo, on the other hand, had plenty of free time.

After selling the tractor to Shi Zhen, Guan Jianguo planned to partner with someone to buy a ship and start operating it.

The ship he bought was really expensive, costing over 80,000. He and his friend used up all their savings and even borrowed some money to afford it.

But even if you buy a ship, it doesn't mean you can set sail immediately—shipyards only start building ships after someone buys them!

Guan Jianguo has nothing to do now except occasionally go to check on his unfinished ship. He just squats at his doorstep every day, holding fragments of red bricks, teaching his daughter to write and draw.

As a result, his daughter disliked his drawing, saying that it wasn't as good as hers.

Then Guan Er Nai Nai would press Guan Jianguo to have another child with his wife.

Family planning is strictly enforced in Changxi City. There are almost no more births than allowed, and no one goes for ultrasounds. However, according to local policy, if a couple with rural household registration has a daughter as their first child, they can have another child.

Elderly people generally still want sons, and families with only one daughter will inevitably be pressured to have a child.

Most families will have another child. Those who insist on not having another child are generally women who have jobs and a voice in the family.

Giving birth is hard work, and having another child doesn't guarantee a boy, so many women are unwilling to have another child.

As for men... when there are more and more people around them with only daughters and no sons, most men don't care anymore.

What else can we do? We can't just get a divorce.

In the end, many people started thinking about having their daughters' future children take their family name.

When Shi Zhen passed away, it was very common for young men and women in Changxi City to get married and have two children, one taking the father's surname and the other the mother's.

Guan Jianguo is the kind of person who doesn't care whether or not he has a second child, but his wife doesn't want to have one. His second grandmother nags about it all the time, but it's no use, so she can only sulk.

While Guan Jianguo was painting with his daughter on the threshing ground, Shi Zhen split bamboo and tied it to both sides of the tractor to make arches.

He then covered it with a plastic film and tied it with a rope to ensure it was airtight and rainproof.

He had already cleaned and washed the tractor's cargo bed, then used a small portion to load goods and laid out mats and blankets on the other large portion for people to sit on.

For extended periods, sitting on the ground with your legs stretched out, leaning against cargo or a tractor trailer, is more comfortable than sitting on a bench.

If Zhao Meiyun's back hurts, she can lie down for a while.

Shi Zhen and his group didn't set off for home until three days before Lunar New Year's Eve.

Zhao Dongjuan had said long ago that she wouldn't go back. The only ones who went back were Shi Dalin, Zhao Meiyun, Zhao Qiujuan, Shi Ting, Shi Zhen, and Guan Baiyu.

Shi Zhen prepared a deck of cards and had the others sit in the carriage to play cards while he drove the car.

The riding experience of a tractor is actually terrible; it's not only very bumpy when you're driving, but it's also very noisy.

But Shi Dalin, Zhao Meiyun, and Zhao Qiujuan all had a strange fondness for tractors, and whenever they sat on a tractor, they felt like they were different from others.

So, as the tractor started moving forward, Zhao Meiyun complained with a radiant face, "Ugh, why do they have to put up a shed behind this vehicle? You can't even see clearly outside."

"It's too cold without a shelter," Guan Baiyu said.

"It's just a bit of wind, what's the big deal? In this state, no one can even see us." Zhao Meiyun said, somewhat disappointed.

Guan Baiyu: "..." So she wants to be seen?

“This lifestyle, tsk tsk, if people back home saw this, they would definitely have something to say,” Zhao Meiyun added.

They all took off their shoes and sat on an old cotton quilt.

They wore thick socks without holes, and some even wore more than one pair.

My hands and feet used to crack all the time, and sometimes in winter they would crack so badly that they would bleed. This year, I only got a few small cracks, and now that I've applied some moisturizing glycerin, they feel smooth.

Their bellies were also full of fat; Zhao Meiyun could even grab a handful of fat when she pinched her own belly.

Even in this state, there was still a basket in front of them containing a few candies, a bag of walnuts, a bag of peanuts, and a bag of sunflower seeds, for them to eat when they were bored on the road.

Six months ago, Zhao Meiyun wouldn't have dared to eat something this delicious.

But things are much better now. She peeled a piece of candy, popped it into her mouth, and then started playing cards.

None of the five of them knew how to play cards, so they played a very simple card game called Solitaire. After the cards were dealt, they would put the seven in the middle and then play the next card one by one... and they actually enjoyed it very much.

Shi Zhen took the national highway; without GPS navigation these days, he wouldn't dare take the back roads.

There's a reason he drove the tractor back—he'd done it more than once in his past life.

At that time, almost all the people working with him on the construction site were from his village. At the end of the year, everyone naturally had to go home together.

The fare back by car was not cheap, so they simply squeezed into a tractor or van and drove back themselves—at first, Shi Zhen only had a tractor, but later he got a van.

Shi Zhen had driven this road a few times, though he couldn't quite remember them all, but he was still able to get through it.

These days there are few cars, and no one checks for overloading or drunk driving. Shi Zhen encountered many strange people along the way.

For example, five or six people were crammed into a small tricycle.

For example, there are five pigs and four people locked in a tractor.

There were also some tractors or trucks, heavily loaded with goods, looking like they were about to collapse.

Shi Zhen was worried that the cars would fall over.

Compared to those vehicles... his tractor looked rather empty. Well, the combined weight of his family and goods was probably only about half a load of bricks.

Along the roadside, there are cars that have broken down from time to time, and the drivers are fixing them themselves.

Occasionally, people will wave down a car, wanting a ride.

When faced with the latter, Shi Zhen never stopped.

In the 1990s, it was not uncommon for drivers to be robbed and murdered while driving.

At the same time, there are countless cases of drivers hitting people outside and fleeing the scene without hesitation.

After the tractor had been running for three hours, Shi Zhen found a place to rest and let the people on the vehicle get off to use the restroom and stretch their legs.

Then he continued driving.

The car broke down once on the way, but Shi Zhen was prepared and fixed it quickly.

In the afternoon, Shi Zhen also took some time to let the others get off the bus and eat something, while he slept in the bus for half an hour.

He can't hold on without a rest.

Tractors are much slower than cars, but in the past, taking long-distance buses required transferring back and forth, often waiting at the station for hours. Now that they drive their own tractors, this problem doesn't exist, and they don't have to detour through the provincial capital.

That evening, Shi Zhen stopped in a town along the way, found a hotel, and booked two rooms.

These hotels have only appeared in the last few years. They are mainly for long-distance bus drivers who are passing through. There are large dormitory rooms and small single rooms. The small single rooms are completely empty except for a bed. If you need to use the toilet, you have to go outside.

However, the price is very cheap.

Shi Zhen rents two rooms for only six yuan, or one yuan per person for sleeping in a shared dormitory.

He assigned Guan Baiyu and Shi Dalin to one room, and Zhao Meiyun, Zhao Qiujuan, and Shi Ting to the other. As for himself, he planned to live on the tractor.

In their past life, when they went home, no one was watching the car. As a result, when they woke up after taking a nap, the things in the car had been stolen.

It's one thing to have your car stolen, but some people will even take all the fuel from the gas tank!

There were a lot of things on the tractor, and it would be quite troublesome to unload them all, so Shi Zhen decided to sleep on the tractor and keep watch over them.

Shi Dalin didn't think there was anything wrong with what Shi Zhen was doing; the tractor really needed to be watched over. But Guan Baiyu was genuinely worried: "Brother, won't you get cold sleeping on the tractor?"

“There are blankets, you won’t get cold,” Shi Zhen said.

Guan Baiyu then said, "Then I'll sleep in the car with you."

"There's only so much space in the car. If you come with me, I won't even be able to turn over."

Shi Zhen wouldn't let Guan Baiyu sleep in the car, urging him to go to the room to sleep, and added, "My dad is old, and his hygiene habits might not be very good, so please bear with it."

The day before returning to his hometown, Shi Zhen took Shi Dalin and the others to the town's bathhouse to take a bath, spending one yuan per person to scrub their bodies clean.

He went in with Shi Dalin and rubbed a layer of mud off Shi Dalin's body.

After winter set in, Shi Dalin and his family stopped taking baths and just wiped themselves down with hot towels at home... naturally accumulating a lot of grime.

Even if he were cleaned up, Shi Dalin was still a middle-aged man, and he was afraid that Guan Baiyu would not be comfortable sleeping with him.

However, giving Guan Baiyu a room alone would make Shi Dalin and the others uncomfortable.

It's just for one night, and the blankets are separate, so Guan Baiyu doesn't feel he needs to endure it.

To be honest... he felt that room was much dirtier than Shi Dalin's.

However, no matter what, a room is definitely better than sleeping in a car.

After Guan Baiyu left, Shi Zhen lay down to sleep.

He had barely lain down when Guan Baiyu came again, this time with a hot water bottle: "Brother, put this hot water bottle in your bed."

"Okay...you should go back to sleep now," Shi Zhen said with a smile.

Guan Baiyu then went back to sleep.

Shi Zhen hugged the hot water bottle to his chest and covered his eyes with his hands.

The Guan Baiyu of today is far more dazzling than the Guan Baiyu he knew in his previous life.

Guan Baiyu is studying at the best high school in Changxi City. He's sure he'll go to university. He's already started a business with his friends, and there are girls who like him...

I don't know when he will leave me and spread his wings to fly away.

Shi Zhen continued driving the next day.

That day... their tractor broke down again.

Shi Zhen was already used to this, and he fixed it in no time. Finally, that evening, he arrived at the county town where his hometown was located.

They rested in the county town for one night, and could head into the mountains the next day.

Previously, getting into the mountains required walking, but since the 1980s, roads have been under construction, so tractors can now drive to the place where Shi Ting used to attend junior high school.

Previously, they would ride tractors here when they came out of the mountains.

As for the rest of the journey, they would have to walk on their own. Their village was a bit remote, and it would take another two hours or so to walk along the mountain path.

On their way from the county town to their village, Zhao Meiyun and Shi Dalin were unwilling to be confined in plastic sheets any longer.

They rolled up the plastic sheet that Shi Zhen had used to shield them from the wind, and sat on the iron plate next to the tractor carriage, happily looking around at everything.

This is where they have lived for many years.

Zhao Meiyun and Zhao Qiujuan don't like to go out much and don't know many people. Shi Dalin is different... He's very dull now, but when he was young, he was actually similar to Shi Zhen. He liked to travel around and knew a lot of people.

The roads here are far worse than those in J City. The tractors are moving very slowly, so Shi Dalin keeps an eye on the people walking along the roadside and calls out their names.

Hearing someone call out, these people would all look over, and when they saw Shi Dalin, they would be both surprised and delighted: "It's Shi Dalin! You've come back from outside?"

"You're dressed so brightly!"

"I've never seen this tractor before! Is it yours?"

"Your son is driving, Shi Dalin, your son's really something!"

...

Hearing these words, Shi Dalin was overjoyed, his face crinkling with laughter, revealing his false teeth.

After Shi Zhen told him about getting dentures, he found a place and got some dentures for himself.

He chose the cheapest dentures, which looked very fake, and were initially quite uncomfortable in his mouth.

However, he has now gotten used to the dentures and has realized how good they are, so he is now deliberately making sure that people can see them.

Very few people here wear dentures!

Shi Dalin, who was not good with words, tried his best to greet everyone who passed by. Zhao Meiyun and Zhao Qiujuan sat upright and also felt that they were different.

In Anshan Town, their family was considered poor, incomparable to the surrounding people, but back here... the clothes they're wearing now are guaranteed to be among the best in the area!

When Zhao Qiujuan was in Anshan Town, she would go out to set up her stall in the morning and didn't get much sun exposure, so she became a bit fairer. In addition, she washed her face with soap every day, so her face became much cleaner. She also ate well... so she looked much better than before.

Before coming back, she gritted her teeth and bought herself a red wool coat, underneath which she wore a turtleneck sweater she had knitted herself... Although it was a bit cold, she felt great.

Zhao Meiyun felt a sense of triumph.

She used to be an object of pity, and many people said she had a hard life.

But now? She's wearing all new clothes!

She felt embarrassed to wear a red wool coat, but she tied a red silk scarf around her neck!

Because she had been recuperating at home after breaking her leg, Zhao Meiyun had become fairer and gained weight... She looked much younger than before, which surprised many people who saw her: "Meiyun, you look so much younger."

"Your new clothes look great."

"Meiyun, I'll come to your house in a couple of days and talk to you!"

...

Zhao Meiyun's face no longer showed any expression other than a smile.

Needless to say, Shi Ting dressed up quite nicely this time!

Unfortunately, she was too young, not many people knew her, and therefore not many people paid attention to her...

Shi Zhen saw the reactions of his family members and was both amused and exasperated.

But he can understand them.

He once had the same mindset, and he was also delighted by the envy of others.

Back then, many people who went out to work like him lived frugally and were reluctant to spend a penny. But when they returned to their hometown, they would be very generous, just to let others know that they were doing well.

Humans can be vain at times.