Chapter 100 Homecoming (Exclusive on Jinjiang Literature City)
Su Ruyi has been away from home for over a year and hasn't even gone back for the Spring Festival.
During the Spring Festival, Su Ruyi planned to go home for the holiday, but Ms. Su Ying told her not to come back because she was invited to watch the Spring Festival Gala.
Su Ruyi was stunned. She had already achieved some success with hula hoops and leggings, but she never expected Ms. Su Ying to fly even higher! She was invited as a representative of outstanding grassroots women, and there were only three such people in the entire province.
Ms. Su Ying said that this was nothing; she had received awards in Beijing when she was young.
She's just attending a party now; if she didn't intend to use this opportunity to meet people and facilitate the sale of local fruit, she wouldn't have bothered going.
Su Ruyi's initial smugness was sobered up by Ms. Su Ying's sudden provocation.
Look at Ms. Su Ying's intelligence and vision; she can't even come close. If it weren't for her foresight and her past experience of following others, she wouldn't have achieved what she has today.
Of course, she wouldn't underestimate herself; even these days, there aren't many people who can get rich as quickly as she has.
The pager that Ms. Su Ying was carrying was a gift from her. Although Ms. Su Ying led the villagers to develop the agricultural economy and gradually make them richer, she herself didn't have much money.
When Su Ruyi left, Ms. Su Ying gave her most of the family's money, and she also spent a lot of her own money on her work.
Before, because she had to raise Su Ruyi, she wasn't so loose-fisted. But ever since she learned that Su Ruyi was now earning money, she started to do as she pleased.
These were certainly not things Ms. Su Ying had told her, but Su Ruyi also had friends and relatives in her hometown. At first, because she had just gained memories of another life, she was still somewhat confused, so she did not contact them.
After Su Ruyi fully integrated, she began to contact people from her hometown. She knew that Ms. Su Ying was a workaholic, and now that no one was around to supervise her, she would only work harder.
Therefore, Su Ruyi must maintain contact with her hometown people and cannot allow Ms. Su Ying to act recklessly.
Regardless of her past life, Ms. Su Ying was truly willing to risk her life for her work.
Therefore, Su Ruyi knew Su Ying's situation very well, and the mother and daughter would call each other from time to time.
For the sake of convenience, Su Ruyi specially bought a pager for Ms. Su Ying, as it would also make work easier. Ms. Su Ying readily accepted it and did not criticize her child for wasting money like other parents would.
Ms. Su Ying also lamented that letting Tong Aihua leave was the right decision; otherwise, Su Ruyi wouldn't have been able to make her fortune there. Su Ruyi's wealth was largely provided by Tong Aihua, who even left behind a sum after her death. If she had stayed in the countryside, given Tong Aihua's small stature, she could only cook at home; she couldn't have earned any money at all.
Although Su Ruyi's hometown is not far from Guangzhou according to the map, you have to take a bus from Guangzhou to the city, then change buses to the county, and then change buses again to the town.
It takes two or three hours to walk from the town to the village along the mountain road. Su Ruyi set off from Guangzhou early in the morning and didn't arrive in the town until after 4 p.m.
As soon as Su Ruyi got out of the car, she saw a familiar figure, and a smile appeared on her lips:
"Brother Liang! What brings you here?"
Su Renliang grinned broadly, his dark face revealing a striking set of white teeth.
"Your aunt asked me to come pick you up. Look how beautiful you've become after a year! Why are you still so thin? Are you having trouble getting used to the food outside?"
Su Renliang's words kept falling like beans. He was the grandson of Su Ruyi's maternal grandfather's older brother, two years older than Su Ruyi, and the two had grown up together since childhood. When they were in elementary school, the small river they had to cross every time it rained flooded, submerging the stones they usually used to cross. It was Su Renliang who carried her across the river.
"You don't know me. I eat a lot, but I just don't gain weight."
That's true.
Su Renliang chuckled and said that Su Ruyi's family always ate well. When he was a child, he was ignorant and often took advantage of going to Su Ruyi's house for meals on his way to and from school. Every time he came home, his parents would get a good beating, but he would still do it again and never repent.
As he grew older and more sensible, he was unwilling to go, but his aunt would often call him over under the pretext of making him do chores, and then make him stay for meals after he finished his work.
Su Renliang's mother often jokingly scolded him, saying he was almost becoming his aunt's son, and suggested that they should just adopt him.
Su Renliang only realized now that his aunt was helping them out because she saw that they had many children, mostly boys, who were making the family poor.
Many of the clothes worn by the sisters in the family were hand-me-downs from Su Ruyi, and many of them are still quite new.
Su Renliang carried Su Ruyi's luggage down from the roof of the bus, thankful that he had driven the tractor over; otherwise, how would he have carried all that stuff back?
Did Su Ruyi buy the entire store?
"What's my mom busy with?"
Su Ruyi wasn't surprised at all that Ms. Su Ying hadn't come to town to pick her up. Both generations of Ms. Su Ying had always prioritized work, or more precisely, herself. They both loved her, but they wouldn't give up their careers and ideals for her.
And you'll see them when you get home; you don't necessarily have to get off the bus to see them.
“A Hong Kong businesswoman came to the county. She brought all the fruits and dried fruits from our village with her, hoping that the other party would like our dried fruits.”
"What's the situation this year? I heard it's a bumper year, with lychees and longans growing very well and yielding a very high output."
Su Ruyi sighed with regret at the mention of lychees. If she hadn't been busy with the matter of the prince's trousers, she would definitely have come back earlier to eat lychees.
Lychees have good and bad years; if there's a bumper harvest this year, there will be a poor harvest next year. Lychees are her favorite fruit, but these days, preservation technology and logistics are inadequate. By the time the lychees reach Qing Province, they're no longer fresh. Many of the ones sold on the roadside have already turned black, and they've already been thrown away at the production site.
The slightly better ones are ridiculously expensive, and Su Ruyi hasn't eaten a single lychee this year.
Let alone in this era, even decades later, the lychees eaten in the north and the freshly picked lychees from the local area will taste completely different.
Su Renliang sighed, "The yield is indeed very high. You didn't see it because you weren't back. This year is a bumper year, and the weather is just right. Unlike last year when it rained non-stop and all the flowers were destroyed, the fruit weighed down the branches, and the quality was particularly good. But with so much fruit, the price couldn't go up. The buyers came to the fields and drove the price down very low, so we didn't make any money at all. My aunt has lost a lot of weight trying to find markets for the fruit."
This problem will be difficult to solve even decades from now, let alone now.
"Didn't we buy a batch of machines for making dried fruit before? Shouldn't that use up some of them?"
These machines were second-hand machines that Su Ruyi entrusted Lu Ting to buy. Although they were second-hand and needed to be modified, and the models were relatively outdated, they were already very advanced for a small mountain village factory, and the price was also cheap.
Ms. Su Ying had already been considering the issue of sales since she started encouraging villagers to plant fruit trees.
Transportation is their biggest obstacle. Over the years, Ms. Su Ying has spent countless efforts to get the road repaired.
The road from the town to the village is still not paved, but at least one road has been built, and it's now covered with gravel. Before the gravel was laid, it became a muddy mess after it rained.
Relying solely on selling fresh fruit makes one vulnerable to market fluctuations, which is why Ms. Su Ying has been preparing to establish a dried fruit factory.
However, they had already invested too much in the early stages of fruit planting, and even after traveling all over the town and county, it was still difficult to obtain the funds to open a factory.
It wasn't until Su Ruyi made some money, Lu Ting found a way to get cheap machines, and Ms. Su Ying took out a loan from the credit union in her own name that the factory was finally set up.
So Su Ruyi owns 10% of the dried fruit factory, but she never manages it. The factory was only recently established, and she hasn't seen any dividends yet.
Su Renliang now works at the dried fruit factory, where he is responsible for running errands and doing odd jobs.
"Thanks to the factory, otherwise a lot of fruit would rot on the trees. But there's still too much dried fruit, and my aunt has been busy trying to open up the market."
Although the dried fruit factory is a village-level factory, it has taken on tasks from the county and also purchases fruit from other townships, providing a basic guarantee for fruit farmers.
As a result, there was an excessive amount of fruit, and the factory had to operate around the clock. The distributors they had contacted couldn't buy all the dried fruit, and Su Ying was busy with sales throughout the entire harvest season.
Su Ruyi returned this time not only to visit Ms. Su Ying, but also to help out.
Su Ruyi got on the tractor driven by Su Renliang. On the tractor were longans and mangoes, all fresh, ripe fruits picked from the trees.
Su Ruyi had been craving this for a long time, and despite the constant up-and-down jolting on the tractor, she still ate with great relish.
Back in the familiar village, people greeted her along the way, and children ran after the car. Su Renliang slowed down, and some children even climbed onto the car.
"Sister Ruyi! You're finally back! Hu Zi and the others said you weren't coming back and were going to marry someone in a big city. I don't believe it! Your factory is still in the village, how could you not come back?" the child shouted excitedly as he climbed onto the car.
Ms. Su Ying named the dried fruit factory Ruyi Dried Fruit Factory. Although she built the factory for the village, she wanted to make it clear whose factory it was, so she didn't use the village's name.
She's invested so much effort and money in this factory; she won't let anyone else have a chance to reap the benefits.
Ms. Su Ying is an ambitious person, but she is not the kind of good person who is wholeheartedly devoted to the village; she also knows how to protect her own interests.
I can give it to you, but you can't take it for granted that what I have is yours, and you certainly can't take it from me.
Su Ruyi patted his head: "Even if I get married, this will still be my home. Since you're so sensible, I'll give you a set of test papers later."
The child's face fell immediately: "Sister Ruyi, you repay kindness with enmity!"
"Not bad, you can even say idioms now, your schoolwork is going well."
"Of course, I'm someone who gets perfect scores, unlike that idiot Tiger," the child said proudly.
"Since you're so capable, I'll give you something good later."
The child asked warily, "Could it be a test paper?"
"Just tell me if you want it or not."
The child gritted his teeth: "Yes!"
The tractor stopped at the gate of the yard, and Su Ruyi got off with a bag. Before even entering the house, she started distributing things to the children.
It's summer vacation now, and it's almost mealtime, so all the children in the village are at home. They all run over when they hear any noise.
Although Su Ruyi had been living at school since high school and only came back once a month, she was still the leader of the village children and was very popular among them.
Everyone knew that Su Ruyi had made a fortune in the city, so they all came over asking for candy.
Su Ruyi had made preparations in advance; one of the large bags was filled with snacks, toys, notebooks, and pens for the children.
Upon seeing these items, the children cheered and surrounded Su Ruyi, but none of them tried to snatch them.
Even the most domineering child in the village wouldn't dare to lay a hand on Su Ruyi without her permission.
Su Ruyi is capable of hitting people, and even if she goes home and complains after being hit, it's useless; she's lucky if she doesn't get beaten up again.
Su Ruyi was the village bully, and her mother was the most domineering of all. Even her own parents didn't dare to utter a sound in front of her parents.
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