After teaching Shi Zhen a lesson, he found a place to throw away his tattered raincoat.
This raincoat was an old thing that was found in Guan Baiyu's house. It should have been thrown away long ago, so it can be considered a way to make use of waste.
Back at the stall, Qian Qi was having lunch.
Shi Zhen told Qian Qiqi that he would provide meals, but it would be too much trouble to deliver lunch to Qian Qiqi, so Shi Zhen gave him an extra two yuan so that he could buy his own food.
Qian Qi couldn't be happier than this. He ate steamed buns, flatbreads, and noodles every day, and sometimes he would eat Shi Zhen's rice balls, which would save him two yuan.
Upon seeing Shi Zhen return, Qian Qi winked and asked in a low voice, "Master, did you go and beat up Yan Jiangtao's father?"
Shi Zhen did not deny it: "Yes."
“Sigh, I’ve met that guy before, he’s got eyes that look in the sky… I wanted to hit him back then,” Qian Qi said.
Everyone is poor right now, so when a rich person suddenly appears, it always attracts envy.
Yan Jiangtao's father came from a peasant background, but after suddenly becoming rich, he couldn't help but show off to others, speaking with an air of superiority... which made him even less likable.
Shi Zhen actually went through a similar period in his previous life. For a time, he made a lot of money and couldn't wait to tell the whole world that he was rich. Because he was naive and had never seen the world, he thought he was incredibly awesome.
However, he was not a local and was always seen as an "outsider" who was not respectable. Even if he offered better conditions than the locals when competing for the same project, they would still choose the locals.
He had just become arrogant when he hit a few walls in succession. He even heard people in the local dialect saying how stupid he was, so he stopped being so cocky and focused on expanding his business so that he could avenge Shi Xinghuo.
Later, after he avenged himself and Guan Baiyu was gone, he lost all desire to show off.
However, some of the people around him have become arrogant.
Shi Zhen remembered that after Qian Qiqi made a fortune by investing in real estate with him in his previous life, he had a bit of Yan Jiangtao's father's style, so Qian Qiqi really didn't need to look down on Yan Jiangtao's father.
Shi Zhen said, "Don't always think about hitting people. This is a society governed by the rule of law. If you injure someone, you will go to jail."
"Jail? Master, it's just a fight, why are you thinking so much about it? You were in the fight too." Qian Qi was a little confused.
People these days, especially those in rural areas, have been fighting since they were young. Many people don't take fighting seriously at all. At one time, the family with more sons was considered powerful. Even if someone was lazy, the person in charge of recording work points wouldn't dare to give them less work points.
Qian Qi's life goal is to become invincible.
Shi Zhen said, "I won't hurt anyone." In his previous life, he was imprisoned for a long time for "kidnapping and extortion" because he wanted to get his wages, so he was very careful when he took action again.
After Guan Baiyu was gone... he never laid a hand on him again.
Back then, very few things would cause him to have emotional fluctuations, but now... only things related to Bai Yu would make him angry.
Qian Qi felt something was off about Shi Zhen's words: "Master, have you encountered something?" Could his master have been in prison? What was it like inside?
Shi Zhen glanced at Qian Qi, who seemed a little excited, and said, "This matter must not be told to anyone, understand?"
"I know, I know," Qian Qi replied quickly.
Shi Zhen breathed a sigh of relief.
He's different from money.
Qian Qiqi is a local with a bunch of relatives. If he gets into a fight, as long as it's not serious, no one can really do anything to him; at worst, he'll just have to pay compensation.
But nobody cares about him here.
Let alone Yan Jiangtao's father, even Yan Jiangtao himself... Yan Jiangtao could easily spend some money and hire a few idle young people to smash up his business and cause him heavy losses.
Guan Baiyu was bullied for so long without daring to utter a sound, wasn't it because he was afraid of being retaliated against if he resisted?
He didn't let Guan Baiyu go to school because he was afraid Guan Baiyu would be retaliated against. Otherwise, at Guan Baiyu's age, it would definitely be better for him to stay in school and be with his peers.
There was another reason he took action this time—he was afraid that Yan Jiangtao would recover and hold a grudge against Guan Baiyu for causing trouble at his house, and would come to Guan Baiyu's house to cause trouble.
Now... after Yan Jiangtao's father was beaten, he must be worried that Yan Jiangtao will end up like him, with a sack over his head.
After all, this matter was directed at Yan Jiangtao.
After Yan Jiangtao's father lost face and beat him up, he will probably keep a close eye on Yan Jiangtao for a long time and prevent him from running around. In this way, Yan Jiangtao will definitely not have a chance to cause them trouble.
After packing up his stall, Shi Zhen went to Xinhua Bookstore to deliver food to Guan Baiyu.
He gave Qian Qi two yuan, and Qian Qi would spend it to buy food. But if he gave Guan Baiyu money to buy food himself, Guan Baiyu would definitely skip a meal and save the money.
He himself was the same; he was always reluctant to spend money on food and drink, so he and Guan Baiyu usually ate braised eggs and rice balls.
After delivering the food and going home to sleep for a while, Shi Zhen discovered that the sky had cleared up.
He thought about it for a while, then went to town to buy some ingredients for making fried skewers, and set up a stall in town that very evening.
The next few days were peaceful for Shi Zhen.
As for occasionally encountering some strange guests, Guan Baiyu's grandmother always tries to take advantage of him, and some villagers are jealous and say a few sarcastic things to him, but these are all minor issues.
Shi Zhen had encountered countless more serious things in his previous life, so he didn't care about these.
However, Shi Zhen did not expect that a few days later, he would hear about the Yan family's situation from Qian Qilai's friend, who lived not far from Yan Jiangtao's house.
These past few days, Yan Jiangtao's father has indeed been keeping a close eye on him, personally picking him up and dropping him off at school, and forbidding him from going to town to play.
He even went to cause trouble for Guan Baiyu's homeroom teacher.
This was something Yan Jiangtao's grandmother told someone.
Shi Zhen hit Yan Jiangtao's father a few days ago, and when Yan Jiangtao's father got home, he naturally scolded his son.
Yan Jiangtao is the only son in their family. No matter how angry Yan Jiangtao's father is, he can't really do anything to Yan Jiangtao. Even if he hits him, it's all bark and no bite. If he doesn't give Yan Jiangtao money, Yan Jiangtao's mother and grandparents will give him money in secret.
So Yan's father actually couldn't do anything about his son.
He couldn't teach his son well, so he blamed the teacher, thinking that it was all the teacher's fault for not managing his son well, which was why his son's grades were so bad and he was causing trouble everywhere. So he went to the teacher in private to discuss it.
"Yan Jiangtao's grandmother kept telling people that her grandson bullied others at school because the teacher was bad. She said the teacher took her family's money and didn't keep an eye on her grandson, which led to him being bullied at school..." Qian Qilai's friend clicked his tongue in amazement: "Teacher Chen is also from our area. At first, he didn't say anything, but later, when Yan Jiangtao's grandmother was making a fuss everywhere, he couldn't stand it anymore. So he told people that if Yan Jiangtao's father insisted that Yan Jiangtao sit with Guan Baiyu, he would definitely not let Yan Jiangtao affect Guan Baiyu. He also mentioned that Yan Jiangtao was always causing trouble at school and not studying properly. He had actually told the Yan family about this, but they didn't take it seriously at all, which is why he stopped complaining all the time."
Shi Zhen had previously visited Guan Baiyu's school and met with her teacher.
In his opinion, the teacher did not dislike Guan Baiyu; in fact, he liked him.
That makes sense; a student like Guan Baiyu, who gets good grades and doesn't cause trouble, is unlikely to be disliked by teachers.
As for Guan Baiyu's previous lack of neatness in his clothing... these days, there are very few students in rural schools who are always well-groomed, so teachers can't discriminate against them all.
That teacher's own home is probably littered with chicken droppings every few steps.
The teacher favored Yan Jiangtao because he preferred to avoid trouble and had Guan Baiyu tolerate him, and also because Yan Jiangtao's father had given him money.
However, now that this has spread, it will likely have an impact on the teacher.
Fortunately, Guan Baiyu will graduate soon.
After listening, Shi Zhen smiled but didn't say anything, while Qian Qi went on a long gossip session with his friend.
Recently, Qian Qiqi has been following Shi Zhen out to set up a stall every day, and he's fallen behind on all sorts of news from the surrounding area, so he naturally needs to catch up.
Shi Zhen had heard some strange stories, such as how the men in some families couldn't have children, so the women would find other men to have children with. Or how a woman from out of town had married someone in her hometown and brought her children from back home... her child here was only six years old, while her children back home were already adults!
In the late 1980s, just a few years ago, the world was in chaos. At that time, some human traffickers went to remote mountain villages, pretending to bring girls out to work, to lure them out of the mountains and sell them.
Go all over the country.
In fact, compared to the online discussions about selling city girls to mountain villages in later generations, this kind of thing was much more common. During this period, the number of women who were tricked out of remote mountain villages and sold was unimaginable.
In the rural areas of J City, many people "married" wives from other places in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Although they were called "marriages," they were all actually bought. It's just that the economic conditions here are relatively good, so the women stayed after they came and didn't want to leave at all. Many of them had children here and even started to visit their families, so no one cared about whether they were sold or not.
Of course, some did run away... Shi Zhen only recently learned from Guan Baiyu that Guan Baiyu's great-grandmother's eldest son, Guan Pingguo, had bought a wife back in 1988.
The woman didn't like Guan Guoping. After staying at his house for a while, she turned around and got together with a tall and strong man from the next village. She even went back to her hometown to get her household registration book and married him.
Guan Pingguo was furious and went to ask the man for the money he had spent on the woman. The man was willing to give it to him, but the woman said she would divorce him if he dared to give her the money... In the end, the man didn't dare to give Guan Pingguo the money.
The money used to buy women was already going to human traffickers, so it was unreasonable to ask women for money back. Guan Pingguo had no choice but to accept his fate.
Guan Baiyu told Shi Zhen this because his grandmother had taken advantage of him again, stealing the coal briquettes that Shi Zhen had just bought and piled up at the front door. Guan Baiyu was furious.
Grandma didn't even have a coal stove, so we don't know why she stole coal briquettes!
After selling rice balls that day, Shi Zhen went home to rest as usual. As soon as he got home, he saw that behind Guan Baiyu's house, which was also the door of Guan Baiyu's adoptive father's house, there were many large bamboo cages. Those cages were filled with chickens.
Shi Zhen's heart skipped a beat.
He remembered clearly that Guan Baiyu dropped out of school because his adoptive father lost money raising chickens and couldn't afford the tuition.
It was probably because of Yan Jiangtao in his past life that Guan Baiyu, despite having excellent grades, was unable to be admitted to a key high school or a vocational school. In the end, he ended up attending the high school in their town, a high school with a very low admission score.
Shi Zhen didn't know how Guan Baiyu fared in high school, but it was certain that Guan Baiyu didn't even finish the first year of high school.
During this period, there were fewer subsidies for impoverished students than later, and the worse the school, the harder it was to apply.
If Guan Baiyu were attending a top-tier high school in the city, he could find a way to cover the tuition fees by applying for subsidies or seeking financial aid. However, since he attends a less prestigious high school, it's more complicated.
He couldn't get government subsidies because his parents were both working, and he needed help from kind-hearted people, corporate scholarships, and so on. There are so many poor people and so many people in need of help these days, who would sponsor a student from a third-rate high school?
When Guan Baiyu's adoptive father couldn't afford to pay, he dropped out of school.
In the past month or so, Shi Zhen had also been thinking about the Guan family's losses from raising chickens, and he was even thinking that once his own business was more stable, he might be able to persuade Guan Guangguo to do something else.
However... Guan Guangguo still bought chicks and prepared to raise chickens.
Although Guan Baiyu can now earn his tuition fees, it wouldn't be a good thing if his adoptive father were to fall into a lot of debt because of raising chickens, just like in his previous life.
But he really didn't have much of a relationship with Guan Baiyu's adoptive father's family. They just had casual interactions, but if he went to tell people not to raise chickens... they would think he was crazy.
Guan Baiyu's adoptive father is forty-five years old. Would he listen to an eighteen-year-old?
Shi Zhen followed and saw that Guan Baiyu's adoptive father had cleaned up the two south-facing rooms downstairs, intending to use them to raise chickens.
At this moment, a neighbor asked Guan Guangguo where he kept his grain and firewood.
Guan Guangguo chuckled and said, "I've moved them all upstairs. We've put some in our room and in Jinjin's room."
The Guan family's place is quite small. In order to make room for raising chickens, they filled their upstairs bedroom with things, and even moved their dining table upstairs. They will be eating upstairs from now on.
"Raising chickens must be expensive, right?" someone asked.
Guan Guangguo said, "Buying chicks and feed both cost money, and even the feeder for putting the feed costs money. Sigh, I borrowed money."
Shi Zhen watched for a while and then asked, "Uncle Guan, have you learned how to raise these chickens?"
Actually, raising chickens is not a bad idea.
If we can raise chickens properly, we'll definitely make money.
If you raise chickens without experience, it's easy for them to get sick and die.
"Raising chickens is just about feeding and watering them, right? I've raised them before... Of course, I specifically asked people, and they said that if you raise a lot of chickens, you have to give them medicine. If you give them medicine, the chickens won't get sick, so I bought some medicine from them," Guan Guangguo said.
The others nodded in agreement, saying they would give the chickens medicine.
Shi Zhen: "..." He had known all along that at this time, due to poor food market supervision, all sorts of messy things were happening.
For example, it is not uncommon for carcinogenic chemical dyes like Sudan Red to be added to food.
In addition, antibiotics and hormones are often abused in the livestock industry. Some people feed their chickens and ducks antibiotics whenever they feel like it.
He didn't know what kind of medicine Guan Guangguo bought to feed the chickens, but it probably contained antibiotics.
Shi Zhen grew up in the countryside and had seen many people raise chickens, but they were all just a few to lay eggs for food. Now Guan Guangguo was raising broiler chickens, a lot of chickens together, and Shi Zhen didn't understand this at all, so he couldn't offer any opinions.
The chicks were all lively and healthy right now, and there was nothing wrong with them. He couldn't say anything, lest Guan Guangguo think he was jealous of his success.
However, at this time the country is working hard to develop rural areas, and many books on animal husbandry have been published. He can look for them and see if there are any books on raising chickens, and then bring one back for Guan Jinjin.
Guan Guangguo was born in 1949. He had some schooling, but he couldn't even read all the characters. His wife was illiterate. It would be better to rely on Guan Jinjin to help them with their studies.
Although Guan Jinjin is still a child at heart, and recently bought a very long new rubber band, she jumps with people in front of her house every day, she was a strong and capable woman in her previous life, and Shi Zhen still trusts her a lot.
Thinking this, Shi Zhen saw Guan Jinjin shouting, "It pulled! It pulled! Mom, it pulled on my hand!"
She picked up a chick to play with, and then the chick peed in her hand.
"Why are you making such a fuss over something so trivial?" Zhang Xiumei glared at her daughter, snatched the chick from her daughter's hand, and told her to go wash her hands.
Guan Jinjin ran towards the river.
Not far from Guan Baiyu's house, there was a stone-paved staircase where people washed things. Guan Jinjin washed her hands and stood up, only to see Shi Zhen tidying up his things in front of Guan Baiyu's house. She immediately stopped and didn't move.
She really liked Shi Zhen, her older brother, since he was very handsome.
However, she didn't know how to start a conversation with Shi Zhen, and she didn't have much to say to him. She would usually just look at him a few more times.
"What are you looking at?" Shi Zhen asked.
Guan Jinjin quickly replied, "I didn't see anything."
Shi Zhen added, "When you have time, think carefully about how to raise chickens... I've heard that chicks are hard to take care of and die easily."
"I have no idea how to raise one, how could I possibly think of that!" Guan Jinjin laughed.
“You can learn it,” Shi Zhen said.
Guan Jinjin took Shi Zhen's words as a joke and didn't take them seriously at all.
Shi Zhen had no choice but to give up.
A few days passed in the blink of an eye.
Shi Zhen was concerned about Guan Guang's family's situation. Several of their chicks had died, but this was normal. Overall, the chickens were growing well.
Shi Zhen couldn't see anything wrong with them either.
At this point, he finally saved enough money to buy a tape recorder.
Shi Zhen remembers that radios that could play cassette tapes and listen to the radio became very cheap after 2000. At that time, many miniature models were produced, which everyone called Walkmans, and you could buy one for a few dozen yuan.
However, tape recorders were still quite expensive at that time, costing several hundred yuan.
Some families can't afford a TV for their wedding, so they buy a radio instead.
With the money in hand, Shi Zhen sold his rice balls that morning and then took a bus to Changxi City.
He bought a radio that could play cassette tapes in Changxi City for 280 yuan, and then went to the Xinhua Bookstore in Changxi City.
This home
The Xinhua Bookstore was much larger than the one in Anshan Town, and it had a much wider selection of books. Shi Zhen asked if they had English textbooks with cassette tapes, and the staff immediately said yes.
After reading it, Shi Zhen simply bought all the English textbooks for all three years of high school.
If Guan Baiyu falls behind in math, he might not be able to understand the later lessons, but English is different. Even if Guan Baiyu's foundation is a little weak, it doesn't matter if he goes straight to high school English.
With that in mind, Shi Zhen bought another English-Chinese dictionary.
The textbooks and books were very expensive; they cost over a hundred yuan in total!
Shi Zhen asked the staff to pack up the books, then looked around and finally found a book on a bookshelf about how to raise chickens.
There are also books about pig and fish farming here. These books are much cheaper than English-Chinese dictionaries, mostly costing only two or three yuan.
Shi Zhen opened the book, looked at it, and bought it, intending to give it to Guan Jinjin.
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