When I woke up, the room was still pitch black.
Shi Zhen went to bed early last night, and naturally woke up early today as well. He got out of bed, removed the door bolt, opened the wooden door and went out.
It was still dark and a bit cold, but everything felt incredibly real.
He's back.
Shi Zhen felt an urge to shout to the heavens, an indescribable joy and happiness.
Taking a deep breath, the coolness in his lungs reminded Shi Zhen that making money was an urgent matter.
Putting everything else aside, since he and Shi Xinghuo are living here, they need to buy some daily necessities.
For example, the toilet.
In J city's rural areas, water and electricity are available, but almost no one installs flush toilets; instead, they use latrines and toilets.
The outhouse is usually located behind the house, and a small hut is built there. A toilet is placed inside the house so that people don't have to go outside to use the toilet late at night.
He and Shi Xinghuo were both men; they could make do without a toilet for a short time, but not for an extended period.
And then there's... if he doesn't have money, how can he ensure Guan Baiyu lives a good life?
In his previous life, he was able to bring together a group of villagers to become contractors and make money because his uncle, who was also Shi Xinghuo's father, lent him 20,000 yuan of the compensation that the contractor gave him after Shi Xinghuo's death.
He's so poor now that he doesn't even have the money to send his fellow villagers out of the village, let alone buy tools.
In J City, family planning is implemented very well, and there are almost no cases of having more children than allowed in rural areas.
However, according to the regulations of Z province, if a rural household has a daughter as their first child, they can have another child, so many rural families still have two children.
However, if someone has a daughter as their first child, they won't have a second one. Firstly, no one can guarantee that the second child will be a son. Secondly, some factories in the area hire female workers, and women with jobs naturally have more confidence.
Guan Baiyu's adoptive parents only had one daughter, and Guan Jianguo also only had one daughter.
Guan Jianguo's daughter, who looked about four or five years old, was one of the children playing at the door yesterday. She had short hair, a round face tanned dark, and bright, clear eyes; she looked quite cute.
When Shi Zhen saw that the door next door was open, he went in to find Guan Jianguo and saw the adorable child holding a large bowl and drinking porridge with gusto.
People here usually drink porridge in the morning and eat rice for lunch and dinner.
However, since they weren't wealthy, the side dishes were rather ordinary. Right now, there was only a big bowl of pickled vegetables on the table, which the whole family ate together.
"Uncle Guan, are there any job postings nearby? We'd like to find some work," Shi Zhen explained his purpose.
Yesterday, he told Guan Jianguo that he and Shi Xinghuo came from a village in a neighboring city to look for work and also to find their relatives. It's not surprising that he's asking Guan Jianguo about work now.
Guan Jianguo looked a bit fierce, but he had a good temper: "Jobs are hard to find. If you were girls, you could ask at chemical fiber factories or textile factories. Since you are men, many factories don't want you... But you can work as laborers."
There are quite a few factories in Anshan Town, especially in the past few years, when many villages followed the example of Huaxi Village and set up factories.
Their village has two fairly large factories, one is a chemical fiber plant and the other is a cement plant.
However, factories generally prefer female workers, and if a worker is short, someone will quickly fill the gap, so it's not up to people from other places.
Guan Jianguo muttered a few words, saying that his wife used to work in a chemical fiber factory, and had worked there for several years, but after giving birth, she needed to breastfeed, so they wouldn't let her go anymore, and replaced her with someone else.
As for men, the cement factory does need men, but it's not easy to get in. He has a friend who works at the cement factory, and he got in by asking a town official for help.
However, there are many places to find laborers. As Guan Jianguo spoke, he remembered something: "I know someone who also drives a tractor. He's been selling mud lately and wants to find someone to help him dig mud. Would you be willing? But he only needs one person."
“We are willing,” Shi Zhen said without hesitation.
He now only has about thirty yuan left, which, in terms of purchasing power, is less than three hundred yuan in later times.
The so-called "selling mud" simply means digging up mud and selling it to cement plants.
This usually involves first finding a place where mud can be dug, and then painstakingly digging the mud and delivering it to the cement plant.
The tractor driver, who worked hard to dig by himself, couldn't earn much money in a day, so he would hire someone to help him dig.
The man had originally asked his brother-in-law to help him dig mud, paying him ten yuan a day. But his brother-in-law was too lazy. He made him drive a tractor to his mother-in-law's house every day to wait for her to get up. In fact, he dug less than half the amount of mud he could by himself in a day.
He couldn't stand it anymore and decided to replace him.
Shi Zhen remembered that at this time in his previous life, he worked as a laborer in J City, earning ten yuan a day, which was quite a high price, but it must have been very tiring—his brother-in-law could slack off, but they certainly couldn't.
Shi Zhen told Guan Jianguo that he and Shi Xinghuo could work together first, and once they were familiar with the job, Shi Xinghuo could work there alone.
Given Shi Xinghuo's condition, he could only do manual labor, but construction sites in those days didn't pay as much attention to safety as they would in later years, and there were many safety hazards.
Shi Zhen dared not let Shi Xinghuo go to the construction site; it was best to let Shi Xinghuo do simple physical work such as digging mud.
As for himself, Shi Zhen wanted to find another job.
Guan Jianguo let Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo have some porridge at his house before taking them to the house of the tractor driver.
The man was about the same age as Guan Jianguo, and like Guan Jianguo, he had worked hard to save money to buy a tractor to make a living.
After hearing Guan Jianguo's introduction, he was willing to take Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo on as employees, but he also said, "Even if there are two of you, I will only give you ten yuan a day. If you work slowly, it will be even less."
Shi Zhen readily agreed.
When he met Guan Jianguo through Guan Baiyu in his previous life, Guan Jianguo no longer drove a tractor, but a minivan.
He went to Guan Jianguo to rent a house because he actually wanted to use Guan Jianguo's connections to get Shi Xinghuo a job as a mover.
Of course, if he can't find another job for the time being, he can move goods first.
Now, dredging is almost like moving cargo.
Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo sat in the tractor and when they arrived at the dredging site, they buried themselves in their work without a second thought.
He and Shi Xinghuo were both used to doing manual labor in the village; although they looked thin, they were quite strong.
Although he was very rich in his previous life, he didn't really enjoy it much. Now that he's asked to do manual labor, he doesn't mind.
The tractor driver worked with the two men, and in no time, the three of them had filled the truck with mud, leaving the driver stunned.
He used to work with his brother-in-law, and they could only dig one truckload in a morning.
Once the truck was full, the man drove it to the cement plant to deliver the mud.
While he was delivering the mud, Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo were not idle either, continuing to dig with hoes.
When that person arrives, use a shovel to load the excavated mud into their vehicle.
Selling mud is a business where the more you sell, the more you earn. Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo worked very hard and dug for many people. In the end, this person not only took them home for lunch, but also gave them fifteen yuan after they finished working in the evening.
After all, he earned significantly more today than usual.
As for inviting him to lunch... he's also a countryman. Besides driving a tractor, he also farms. It's not like the old days when everyone ate from the same pot. They take good care of the fields, and there's enough food for them.
Shi Zhen accepted the fifteen yuan the man gave him.
While he was working with this man, they chatted and he asked him many questions in the local dialect, including about Guan Baiyu's situation.
Guan Baiyu has indeed had a tough time these past few years.
Guan Baiyu's adoptive father and his biological father actually had a bad relationship since childhood.
Guan Baiyu's father was fostered by the Guan family, who paid him money. In the 1950s and 60s, this money was not a small amount for the Guan family; it could even save their lives.
Therefore, the old lady of the Guan family treated Guan Baiyu's biological father very well. Whenever there was something delicious or good to eat, she would always give it to Guan Baiyu's biological father first.
Guan Baiyu's adoptive father was mistreated, so naturally he had a bad relationship with Guan Baiyu's biological father.
Later, Guan Baiyu was brought back and registered in his household, but he was unwilling to take care of her. After having his own child, he was even more reluctant to pay attention to Guan Baiyu.
However, in the eyes of the villagers, he had already done a good job. After all, Guan Baiyu had grown up well and he hadn't made Guan Baiyu do any work.
But food alone is not enough for a person to live. Guan Baiyu needs clothes, shoes, stationery, and so on. If people don't give him money, Guan Baiyu can't buy them. So over the years, Guan Baiyu has basically been wearing other people's old clothes.
When this person spoke of Guan Baiyu, he showed some sympathy, but he didn't think Guan Baiyu's adoptive parents had done anything wrong.
Shi Zhen didn't hold a grudge against Guan Baiyu's adoptive parents. In his previous life, Guan Baiyu had always kept in touch with them, though not very close; they treated each other like ordinary relatives.
After Guan Baiyu followed him, the couple stopped asking him for money. After losing money raising chickens when Guan Baiyu was in high school, they focused on farming and gradually improved their lives by selling vegetables.
Guan Baiyu's younger sister did not continue her studies after graduating from junior high school. Instead, she learned hairdressing and later opened a hair salon, earning a lot of money.
When he passed away, this woman had moved her barbershop from Anshan Town to Changxi City to make it easier for her child to attend school, and her son had just been admitted to the best high school in Changxi City.
That evening, Shi Zhen and Shi Xinghuo ate the rice noodles and rabbit meat they had brought from the village that they hadn't finished eating.
After finishing his meal, Shi Zhen looked at Shi Xinghuo and said, "Brother, I'm going out for a bit. You stay home."
He was going to talk to Guan Baiyu.
After meeting Guan Baiyu yesterday at noon, he had been thinking about how to approach Guan Baiyu, and now he had figured it out.
Shi Zhen went to knock on Guan Baiyu's door.
Guan Baiyu quickly opened the door and saw Shi Zhen looking surprised.
Shi Zhen smiled at him: "You must be Guan Baiyu? I'm your cousin."
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