The next day, the heavy snow finally stopped. They had been delayed here for four days and could not delay any longer. Even though there was a lot of snow on the road, Director Jiang began to organize everyone to tie anti-skid chains on the truck's tires and prepare to set off at noon.

As they set out, Chu Tian looked at the young man standing next to Officer Jiang, carrying a package, and his eyes widened in surprise. He was wondering what was going on. Why was the young man following Officer Jiang? Was he going to leave with them? When he saw Officer Jiang leading the young man to his side, he saw Officer Jiang leading the young man to his side.

"Captain Chu, this child must come with us."

Chu Tian lowered his head and looked at the young boy in front of him. He wiped his face and raised his head to look at Secretary Jiang again, "Secretary Jiang, what are you doing..."

Officer Jiang pulled Chu Tian over to a few meters away, leaning close to him and whispering, "This child is very pitiful. Both his parents died a long time ago, and his blind grandmother passed away in the autumn. He used to have a silly aunt to keep him company, but at the beginning of winter, she got greedy or something, and secretly ran to the small fish pond next door to catch some fish, and ended up drowning."

"He's the only one left in the family now. When his grandmother died, a lot of the family rations were used to buy a coffin, so there's nothing left to eat."

Chu Tian raised an eyebrow, "So?"

Secretary Jiang smiled. "So, when the captain heard we were from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and heard from someone that as long as you work, you can have enough to eat, he begged me to let him settle down in the Corps. He said that Xinjiang is vast and sparsely populated, and if you work hard, you can always have food to eat. It's better than staying in their place..."

"...Doesn't he have any other relatives?"

Chu Tian always thought Yao Xiujuan was kind-hearted, but now he sees that his wife is far inferior to Secretary Jiang...

Secretary Jiang sighed, "Their ancestral home is not here. They fled here a few years ago and settled here. They don't have any relatives here, only their family. Now..."

Chu Tian rubbed his temples with a headache, "Secretary Jiang, what do you want to talk to me about?"

Secretary Jiang chuckled upon hearing this. "Look, there are already two of us sitting in the passenger seat of our car, so there's no room for him. Besides, he has a clean background, so he can't sit in the truck bed with all those people, right? Look at his body. He's thirteen years old, but he looks like he's ten. How can he suffer in the truck bed?"

Chu Tian tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at him, "So, you let him sit in my passenger seat?"

Secretary Jiang nodded repeatedly, "Yeah, well, the passenger seat is a two-seater anyway, and he's small, so he can't squeeze you guys."

Secretary Jiang was their temporary leader. He had said so, so what could he do even if he didn't want to? He could only nod in agreement.

The car speed was already slow because there was no highway, and now it was even slower because of the snow on the road. Normally, even if the road conditions were bad, we could still travel 50 to 60 kilometers in an hour, but now we can only travel about 20 kilometers at most. It took us more than ten days to travel, and the distance we traveled was not as far as the three days when we first set out from Beijing.

Chu Tian woke up and rubbed his swollen temples. He said with a headache, "With such a slow speed, I wonder when we can reach Xinjiang."

Chu Min turned his head to glance at Chu Tian, ​​"Are you awake?"

Chu Tian nodded, "Well, when the car stops to rest later, let's switch and you can rest for a while."

Chu Min was indeed tired. He saw the car in front of him stop, so he slowly stopped as well and smiled at Chu Tian, ​​"It won't take a while. The car in front has stopped again. I wonder what happened again."

Chu Tian put down his hand upon hearing this and looked towards the car in front. He saw the driver of the car in front jump out of the car, look at Chu Min, and gesture for him to look at the head on his arm. "Second brother, you hold Xiangyang's head while I get off to take a look."

Xiangyang's full name is He Xiangyang. He is the young boy that Director Jiang kindly took away. He was very reserved in the first few days and slept with his hands close to the car door for fear of squeezing Chu Tian or Chu Min. But after spending more than ten days together, perhaps because he felt that Chu Tian and Chu Min had no ill will towards him, he relaxed a lot and would unconsciously sleep close to them.

Chu Tian let Chu Min rest. He got out of the car and walked to the car of Brother Zhang, who had an average relationship with him. Seeing that all the drivers had come over, he went up to ask.

"Brother Zhang, what's going on?"

"Chu Tian, ​​there might be something wrong with my engine..."

"What? Something's wrong with the engine?"

"It should be. I saw smoke..."

“Oh, this…”

Just listening to their speculations made Chu Tian irritated. It was always like this. Brother Zhang's car had broken down on the road so many times, and they'd always guessed the same thing. Wouldn't it be better to have a thorough inspection instead of guessing? Could he have figured out the problem with the car by just guessing? He even wondered how Brother Zhang had gotten that so-called intermediate mechanic's license?

Thinking of this, Chu Tian took out a double-line glove from his pocket and pushed away Brother Zhang who was blocking his way. Before he got angry, he lay down in front of the car and began to check. After eliminating them one by one, he found the culprit. He pointed to the belt that was about to break, took off the gloves on his hands, bent down and grabbed a handful of snow from the snow to wipe the oil off his hands, and gestured.

"Brother Zhang, do you still have a belt? If you do, change it. This one is about to break. The smoke coming out of the front is probably because of it. Try starting the car after you change it and see if it works."

After saying this, without waiting for his reaction, he turned and walked towards the lead car.

Officer Jiang was about to get out of the car to check when he saw Chu Tian approaching. He leaned out of the car window and asked, "What's wrong with the car behind?"

Chu Tian looked back at the driver who took out a half-worn belt from the car and was about to change it while lying on the car. He then answered, "Brother Zhang's truck belt is broken. He is going to change it."

Secretary Jiang frowned and said unhappily, "Why is it him again? His car has more damage than all the cars along the way combined."

"I always told him to check during breaks. Didn't he check it?"

Chu Tian shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Secretary Jiang was very angry and was about to say something when he looked down and saw Chu Tian holding a pair of gloves stained with engine oil in his left hand, which made him even angrier.

"And that's why you found it for him?"

Chu Tian didn't deny it, but he didn't answer it either. Instead, he changed the subject and said, "Secretary Jiang, we've been traveling day and night for more than ten days. How about we rest here for a night? It's getting dark soon. We've been driving all night these past few days, and everyone is exhausted..."