Chapter 36.1

The group was finally able to depart just before the New Year.

The main reason they set off so late was that Mother Zhou was reluctant to give up the profits from the stall. After most of the students at Wutong University left for winter break, she changed locations to the old town and the turnover was still considerable.

The closer it got to the Spring Festival, the busier the markets and street stalls near the residential areas became. There were all kinds of stalls: those selling Yan City’s traditional snacks, fortune tellers, traditional medicine dealers, stalls with fireworks (at this time, there was no ban on fireworks in Yan City), barbers, dentists, and foot care stalls… And all of them could make money. The market for self-employment and small businesses was slowly beginning to take shape.

Because they had made a lot of money, the Zhou parents were especially generous—they covered all of the children’s travel expenses, and the tickets they bought were for the sleeper car. This time, accompanied by this pair of elders and a group of buddies, Lin Jingzhe didn’t even touch his baggage and spent the whole return journey relaxing. Up until the moment he got off the bus, he still hadn’t finished the snacks Mother Zhou brought.

The train only ran to Qunnan City; to reach Liyun Town, they had to take a bus. Liyun Town was small enough that most residents knew each other on sight, and the Zhou couple were recognized as soon as they got on the bus.

The saying, ‘returning to one’s hometown in brocade robes’ didn’t exist without reason—no matter the era, no matter what their real situation was, people who worked outside would try to make themselves look as good as possible when they returned home. Mother Zhou was well-off now, as her stall brought in at least 3,000 yuan a month. Though she was meek and unassuming, that didn’t mean she had no temper at all. Before coming back, she bought new clothes for herself and her husband and, with encouragement from Lin Jingzhe, she had her hair permed.

Qunnan wasn’t very cold in winter, so she could wear a trendy cashmere coat and high heels. Adding that to the curly hair which was currently popular among the petite bourgeoisie in Yan City, it was as though she and the female factory worker who dressed simply and didn’t wear makeup were two completely different people!

Old acquaintances thought they’d recognized the wrong people and were very surprised when Mother and Father Zhou confirmed it was really them. After chatting for a moment, it was made apparent that the couple had gone to Yan City to do business, and judging from their appearance, they’d clearly done well for themselves.

On the bus, there were a few of the thermos factory’s old-time employees who had gone to the provincial capital to buy goods for the Spring Festival. They didn’t dare to speak at first, but they later discussed the layoffs. Observing that the Zhou couple didn’t seem to care about the matter anymore, they were surprised and somewhat envious.

In the end, the bus buzzed with lively chatter, mostly regarding current affairs in Liyun Town and Qunnan. Lin Jingzhe closed his eyes and dozed off as he listened.

People still shuddered at the mention of the previous year’s earthquake that was the arrest of the antiques smuggling ring!

The aftershocks even reached Yan City, so it wasn’t hard to imagine how turbulent Qunnan, the epicenter, had been. The changes in management and policies were conspicuous enough that residents actually felt the difference.

Several townsmen who worked as construction workers in Qunnan City looked helpless. “After the Spring Festival, we plan to go to the neighboring province to look for work. This year, it hasn’t been easy here in Qunnan—several construction sites turned out to be rotten. Fortunately, we were fine, but those at the site belonging to… whatchamacallit? Qiqing Real Estate—if everyone there hadn’t banded together and made a fuss, they wouldn’t have gotten even part of the wages they were owed.”

Lin Jingzhe’s closed eyes opened into a slit and glanced towards the speaker.

But this matter was only mentioned in passing and the topic soon shifted to the Zhou couple. Their dismissal from the thermos factory and the reason behind it had caused quite a stir and led to other workers being wary for a long time afterward.

“That whole thing was a farce! Wang Zhan and his family also speculated in stocks, and there was also that Liu fellow in our workshop along with who knows how many others? But was anyone else laid off beside you?” one of the thermos factory workers said, curling his lips. “Everybody knows the factory director just found a random excuse. And Feng Yuanlang—he really threw away his conscience! He used to have a close relationship with you but didn’t hesitate to abandon you just to be allocated better housing.”

Feng Yuanlang was the worker who had falsely accused Father Zhou of speculating in stocks. Father Zhou inevitably became a bit dejected at his mention.

“But maybe it was just as well—the director didn’t like you and always kept looking for trouble with you. Aren’t you much better off after going to Yan City? Tut, these shoes are really beautiful, they must’ve cost at least twenty yuan,” a middle-aged woman wearing red cloth cotton shoes said, looking at the satin high heels on Mother Zhou’s feet with some envy. Shaking her head, she continued, “Feng Yuanlang thought he was making a good deal, but guess how the factory director rewarded him?”

Faced with curious gazes, the middle-aged woman said, holding back laughter, “He got the farthest flat on the west side of the first floor. It’s dark, right next to the entry road, and it’s only 50 square meters. No one wanted it, so the director gave it to him! Both he and his wife are factory employees and should’ve gotten something better, but they didn’t dare make a peep of protest!”

Everyone chuckled but at the same time couldn’t help but sigh. Still, this kind of bad-mouthing was addictive, so the gossip continued until the bus rolled to a stop in Liyun Town.

Hu Yu, her husband, and Deng Mai’s parents had already been waiting at the station and immediately rushed forward to help carry the luggage. To accommodate everything and everyone, Deng Fengshou specially drove a minibus belonging to the Public Security Bureau. To be honest, it wasn’t supposed to be used for private purposes, but fortunately, things like that were usually allowed to slip in those days. Once everyone got in, Hu Yu grabbed Lin Jingzhe’s slender hand, asking with a bit of distress, “Should we go straight home?”

Lin Jingzhe knew she was worried that going back to his grandfather’s house would make him recall painful memories. In fact, before he left Yan City, Shen Juanying had visited him and solemnly invited him to spend the New Year together, but after thinking about it, Lin Jingzhe refused. Events from his previous life made him wary of getting too close—he was afraid that he’d once again bring harm to this currently happy family.

Shen Juanying was quite disappointed and not long after she left, Lin Runsheng came, looking stern but with red eyes. After getting to know his father’s real character, Lin Jingzhe was no longer afraid of his frown. He pretended to hesitate for a long time and expressed his refusal in a roundabout manner as mildly as possible, but even so, judging from Lin Runsheng’s appearance when leaving, it was obvious that he was about to cry.

Thinking of his strange father, Lin Jingzhe was filled with a sense of helplessness. He gave Hu Yu a smile and said in an equally euphemistic way, “I’ll go back to the house on Huayuan Road first. It’s been empty for quite a while—I should clean it for the New Year and light incense for my grandpa. I’ll go to Teacher Hu’s home after I’m done.”

“Oh! Good, that’s fine!” Hu Yu immediately smiled. Gao Sheng’s father, who was also squeezed into the back seat of the car, kept rubbing the bottle of Maotai brought back by Lin Jingzhe. His smile was so wide his mouth almost touched his ears as he chimed in, “Come as early as you can! I’ve got a lot of firecrackers for you kids to play with!”

Lin Jingzhe looked over with a complicated gaze at this man, whom, strictly speaking, he hadn’t seen for decades. At this time, the tragic incident where Gao Sheng’s father was killed and Zhou Haitang’s father lost his leg had not happened yet; Gao Changyuan was perfectly fine—in the prime of his life, strong and full of energy.

Lin Jingzhe nodded. “Okay.”

More cars could be seen in Liyun Town compared to a year ago, especially near Huayuan Road, the “wealthy area.” The old house, however, remained unchanged, standing there as though forgotten by time. Lin Jingzhe hadn’t been back for a long time, but the yard was still in order; the neat lawn and garden indicated that they were regularly taken care of, probably by Deng Mai’s father or someone ordered by Du Kang. Lin Jingzhe opened the door and came in, smelling the faint musty smell of air that had been still for too long, and his long-drifting heart slowly settled back into its proper place.

The past six months had been tinged with a sense of surreality; sometimes, he even felt like everything he was experiencing was merely a dream from which he would soon awaken. Maybe one day, he would open his eyes in his high-rise apartment in Yan City, realizing that he was still the same loser living a boring, tasteless life, with nothing but work to fill the emptiness.

He rolled up his sleeves and patiently cleaned the house. Once he was finished, he took out his grandfather’s memorial tablet, lit incense before it, and kowtowed in worship.

He knew that his grandpa had likely done a lot of wrong things in his life, but he didn’t want to think about it. No matter what, this was the family member with whom he had the deepest bond, the one who raised him and gave him a home. The love and care in his memories were not fake. Perhaps, the only thing that could be said was that people were like boats tossed about by the waves, and there would always be some circumstances they were helpless against.

Everyone gathered in the Gao family’s small main room. Fang Wenhao had given the Maotai to Lin Jingzhe, who didn’t really like to drink, so he brought it back for the three fathers who loved alcohol. Maotai had a full-bodied soy sauce flavor, sweet and mellow, with a long-lasting aftertaste—no wine drinker could resist this sugar-coated bullet. ‘In wine, there is truth’; as they ate Mother Zhou’s pig ear salad, they drank too much without care and began to pour out their troubles and hardships with enthusiasm.

By the time Lin Jingzhe arrived, Father Gao was almost crying. Apparently, the rumored high wage of twenty to thirty yuan a day on the construction site wasn’t easy to earn, and on top of that, the work started early and ended late, so he couldn’t live with his wife and had to stay in Qunnan City. He really felt miserable.

He had barely listened for a moment before Mother Zhou, frowning in displeasure, stuffed a plate of pig ear salad into his hands and ushered him into another room to join the rest of the children. The innocent boys must not be polluted by coarse old men who stank of alcohol.

However, the sound insulation of Gao Sheng’s house was not very good. Lin Jingzhe leaned against the door, listening to the conversation in the main room as he picked up pieces of fatty pig ears with chili oil, coriander, and chopped scallion, and put them into his mouth.

Father Gao said, “Ai, this year wasn’t easy for the construction workers in Qunnan. Many real estate projects have been suspended. My group said they’re going to change cities next year, so I’ll probably work further away.”

“Changyuan!” Father Zhou’s voice cut in. “Running from one construction site to another like this—the fact that it’s tiring is one thing, but the key point is, such a life is unstable. Ding Xiang [Mother Zhou] and I have actually discussed this matter. We’ve set up a food stall in Yan City. The business is very good and we’re earning some profit. We plan to expand the scale next year, set up a store, and hire a few people, you know, make it a little more official.”

There was a pause and the sound of someone taking a sip of their drink, then Father Zhou cautiously continued, “We’re making money now, but it’s running us ragged—sometimes there are too many customers for the two of us to handle. It’s not easy to find someone dependable to help, so Ding Xiang told me to ask you if you would be interested in partnering up with us?”

“Huh?” Father Gao was surprised. “Are you serious? But I’ve never done any business, and I have no experience working in a restaurant.”

“It’s not working as a waiter or anything—we would be partners, running the store together, hiring employees and so on, and you’d get a share of profits,” Father Zhou explained. “Well, I know that you’ve never done anything like this. I wouldn’t have asked you, but strangers really aren’t trustworthy…”

Hummm mmm, mm, mmmmm…

Lin Jingzhe hummed a line from a popular song and stopped listening. In a good mood, he walked to the bed, chewing on the tasty meat.

Deng Mai, sitting on the edge of the bed, was reading one of Lin Jingzhe’s freshman year textbooks. He looked at it as if it was very interesting. Sensing Lin Jingzhe’s approach, he didn’t look up from the book and just moved to the side, making a snug space for him.

Housing in the southern part of the country tended to have no central heating, and the room was almost as cold as outside the house. All three of Lin Jingzhe’s friends were wearing identical leather jackets that he had given them.

After the first jacket he bought had been inexplicably carried away by Xiao Chi, Lin Jingzhe had no choice but to pick three more pieces according to the size that Xiao Chi had tried on. Xiao Chi, however, seemed to be a little taller than the three; when Deng Mai and the others put on the jackets, the jackets were a little loose at shoulders and didn’t fit as well.

Lin Jingzhe squinted at the three and pondered for a long time. In the end, he could only attribute the reason for the difference to their looks.

While they were handsome enough, their features were markedly less outstanding than Xiao Chi’s sculpted face, and their haircuts weren’t as stylish.

Putting aside the man’s personality problems, Lin Jingzhe had to admit that Xiao Chi’s appearance was striking, especially his curly hair. At first, Lin Jingzhe thought it was a perm, but later he realized that it was actually natural. Lin Jingzhe had seen a lot of naturally curly hair, but not many of them were like Xiao Chi’s; Xiao Chi’s hair didn’t consist of small, tight, stiff, spring-like curls, but rather was fluffy and supple, with a large curl pattern appearing only close to the ends of his hair. It looked similar to the style pursued by employees of the PR department in the company Lin Jingzhe had worked for in his last life. In order to style their hair like this, they were even willing to get up at five o’clock every day.

T/N – Xiao Chi’s hair
Alas, what a pity that such a good-looking man was a weirdo.

Lin Jingzhe couldn’t understand why Fang Wenhao was so awed by Xiao Chi, to the point that his voice was full of reverence every time he mentioned him; what’s more, Xiao Chi seemed to have much prestige in their circle. How the heck did he do it?

A silver tongue?

Deng Mai had already graduated from the short-term cram school and recently he’d been reviewing his notes and digesting what he’d learned. Probably following someone’s advice, he also took to wearing fake glasses, suppressing his original ruffian aura. The eyes behind the lenses seemed softer and his smile didn’t look as scary as before, but somehow, this made him appear even more difficult to deal with.

Lin Jingzhe ate half a plate of pig ears as he answered Deng Mai’s questions and explained some things in the textbook to him. Then, Gao Sheng, who’d been agonizing over something the whole way back to Liyun Town, finally plucked up the courage to talk to Lin Jingzhe.

He moved a small stool, sat across from Lin Jingzhe, and told him about the club he was in at school and the software the team members had been working on for a long time.

He was quite uncomfortable. Seeing Lin Jingzhe listen carefully, he immediately began to explain the risks and disadvantages of the project, seemingly worried that he’d really persuade his friend into getting involved.

Indeed, in today’s China, the Internet was something that was just being mentioned and had no concrete concept yet. The situation was better in big cities like Yan City or Shen City, but in rural places like Liyun Town, many people had never even heard of a computer—even Liyun No. 1 High School, the highest academic institution in town, didn’t own one. The extremely limited customer base meant that it would be immensely difficult for the programming industry to develop.

Gao Sheng felt that the vision of the future painted by Wu Wangfei was likely to come true, but he didn’t have much confidence in his own judgment and as such didn’t want to drag Lin Jingzhe into muddy waters.

Lin Jingzhe listened quietly, maintaining a poker face the whole time, but in actuality, he was extremely surprised. He’d noticed that Gao Sheng had been holding something back for a while, but he never expected it would be this.

He knew about the future status of Wutong University’s Department of Computer Science. When the age of the Internet finally arrived, he’d often attended various economic summits and was fortunate enough to meet several big shots in the computer industry. There was one who had graduated from Wutong University and often brought up his alma mater at the wine table. That successful businessman joked that Wutong University was “the soil that cultivated China’s IT entrepreneurs.”

Indeed, the number of IT industry leaders that came out of its doors spoke for itself.

But he didn’t realize that this phenomenon had appeared so early on. Who knew that the group of unassuming youths he’d met that day had such lofty ambitions?

To tell the truth, Lin Jingzhe admired them very much. At their age, he’d had neither a clear goal nor such a bold and enterprising spirit.

However, he would never agree so easily, even if the person who came to tell him about the project was his childhood friend. The Internet industry would undoubtedly flourish in the future—it would be so lucrative that with a bit of luck, one could earn higher profits than when engaging in illegal business. However, each ship that successfully made a long-distance voyage was preceded by countless others which sank while exploring the way; Lin Jingzhe could become a pioneer, but he wasn’t a saint and didn’t want to sacrifice himself for the cause.

“Well, your idea seems promising, I’m quite interested. The leader of your club is the one called Wu Wangfei that I met that day, right?” After getting Gao Sheng’s confirmation, he nodded and said, “Okay, when we get back to school, tell him to come to me with a concrete plan—I’ll discuss this with him in person.”

When Gao Sheng started talking about this project, Deng Mai’s attention had been completely drawn away from the textbook. After Gao Sheng, still looking troubled, left the room, he put the book down and moved to Lin Jingzhe’s side.

He’d already gotten a basic understanding of economics and finances, and could now understand many of Lin Jingzhe’s past actions that had previously seemed incomprehensible. He was also able to follow along with what Gao Sheng was saying about the computer club’s project. After learning about the situation at Shen City’s stock market, he’d specifically asked Lin Jingzhe about it. Lin Jingzhe told him not to mention it to Gao Sheng and the others though, so he was very careful in his everyday speech and behavior. Bearing in mind that Zhou Haitang was sleeping in the room, his voice was very soft as he asked, “Big Bro, do you want to invest in the Internet? Aren’t you in real estate? Did you make that much money in the stock market?”

“Not that much, and I haven’t decided yet.” In the future, it was rare to see a big company specialize in a single industry, and it seemed like that would be a reasonable strategy for Lin Jingzhe—you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. Even though the Internet was a promising field, and it was much easier to get a foothold in an industry before it boomed, at this point, he was still considering various ideas and hadn’t yet decided on a definite plan. Deng Mai was very smart, and Lin Jingzhe didn’t intend to conceal his intentions from him. “I’m considering investing, but whether or not I do depends on how promising Gao Sheng’s club’s project is.”

“That’s how it should be!” Deng Mai, originally a little uneasy, immediately let go of his worries. Somewhat embarrassed, he continued, “It’s not a nice thing to say, but one should keep clear accounts even with his own brother. Lending money is one thing, but when it comes to cooperation, I think we have to be as careful as possible no matter who the other party is. I’d say the same even if the other party was my parents.”

He hurriedly finished speaking and closed his mouth. His expression was a little tense, as if he was afraid that Lin Jingzhe would think he was too cold-blooded.

Lin Jingzhe gently patted him on the head, encouraging him. “You’re completely right.”

Deng Mai’s eyes which appeared calm and intelligent due to the glasses, lit up with worship—

As expected of his Big Bro!