In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 285 The Difficulties Encountered by My Cousins
"You can fix cars?!" Second cousin Zhang Yuheng, carrying a box of fruit, tilted his head and looked at Yu Dawei in disbelief.

"Hey, what are you saying? My dad is a master mechanic in the surrounding villages, so it's normal for me to know a little about car repair too." Yu Dawei took the last box of fruit out of the back seat of the car.

There were six boxes of fruit in total. Yu Dawei originally planned to give them to Supervisor Chang the next day. As for the big boss, he simply bought two cartons of Zhonghua cigarettes and kept them in the front trunk of Xiao Hong's car.

And Xiaobai, I don't know if he's in the oil city this year, but I brought him a sticky rice cake from his hometown.

Yu Dawei knew very well that Xiaobai had grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth and had been eating fine bran since birth. So he changed his approach and sent him some coarse grains from Northeast China, which he probably had never even tried before.

As for fruits and such, I can buy some for Manager Chang when I go to the oil city tomorrow.

"Second Aunt, are you and your husband doing well?" Zhang Yuming asked as he walked into the house.

"It's alright. The old man used to work too hard when he was young, and he developed a back ache. Our village's fourth uncle occasionally helps him by prescribing some medicine to help him get better." Yu Dawei followed his eldest and second cousins ​​into the house.

My cousin's house is the same as our front yard; it's a mud-brick house built with rammed earth. The house isn't big, with only two rooms. One room is the outer room, which is used for cooking, storing dish racks, firewood, water tanks, and dirty water buckets.

The inner room was for living. Upon entering, one would see newspapers pasted all over the walls, with white background and black characters. To the left was a heated kang (a traditional Chinese bed-stove), and to the right, against the north wall, were two long benches with an old, yellow, plug-in cabinet on them. The cabinet's paint had peeled off, but it was still functional overall.

My uncle was just putting on his shoes and leaning on a wooden stick he'd used for years, about to walk to the door to greet me.

"Dad, it's Yu Dawei, the eldest son of my second aunt's family." My cousin Zhang Yuming placed the fruit in the corner of the north wall.

"Yes! We brought quite a lot of things too." Second cousin Zhang Yuheng happily stacked the two boxes of fruit he was carrying on top of the boxes his eldest brother had placed.

"Oh, Dawei, you're here, why did you bring so much stuff?" Although his cousin Zhang Xinghua had been blind for more than ten years, his perception of sound had become more sensitive. He had just heard two rather heavy sounds, which meant that Yu Dawei was carrying a lot of heavy things.

"Uncle, it's almost Chinese New Year, and my parents are too busy taking care of a bunch of kids at home, so they asked me to bring some fruit over." Yu Dawei said, placing the two boxes of fruit he was carrying next to the box of fruit he had just brought.

At this point, there were three sizes of fruit boxes: small, medium, and large. Yu Dawei's six boxes of fruit were all small, weighing a maximum of ten kilograms.

So six boxes of fruit may seem like a lot, but for a family of four or five, it would only last a few days.

Yu Dawei was thinking that since Supervisor Chang had just returned to work after the New Year, he could give him a few boxes of fruit as a way to win over the people around him when work started.

These small details about gift-giving are lessons Yu Dawei learned from his repeated failures in his previous life.

"How are your parents?" My cousin was quite concerned about my second sister's family; in previous years, he often heard news about Yu Laonian's family.

We seem to have heard very little news about it in recent years.

"It's alright. It's not easy to support a child's education. My little sister only started high school last year, and we still have to support her." Yu Dawei turned around and plopped down on the long bench, right next to Zhang Yuheng.

This kid is going to be a big bank president in the future. He was a snotty-nosed kid when he was a child. Who would believe that?

According to their memories from their past life, these two should both have graduated from university and started working by now.

Logically speaking, after they all got jobs and were given permanent positions, their lives should be better than before. But the clothes the three of them were wearing were old, and all the household items were old too. Even the cotton shoes that the uncle was wearing were torn.

This doesn't look like a life that's going well.

“Sigh, it’s really not easy to send children to school.” Yu Dawei’s words just now hit a nerve with his cousin Zhang Xinghua.

He used to barely be able to support his two children through university by working as a porter. In addition, his two children worked part-time during their university years, which lightened his burden considerably.

But both of these kids were admitted to graduate school at the end of last year. If you don't let them study, you'll be contradicting yourself, since they said when they were young that studying was the only way out.

Both children are studious. After graduating from university, the eldest suggested taking the postgraduate entrance exam, believing that having this degree would make it safer to work anywhere.

The eldest son had a unique perspective. He not only took the exam himself but also encouraged his younger brother to take it. His reasoning was that with more and more universities being built in China, there would definitely be a large number of college students in the future. This would mean that the competition among peers would continue to narrow, and in the end, the only option would be to compete for postgraduate degrees.

“Dad, stop sighing. Dawei finally came all this way to our house, let me make you some tea.” Cousin Zhang Yuming stood up, picked up a teacup, a thermos, and a small tea canister. “This tea is something I brought back from the south. It’s quite niche; I doubt you’ve ever tried it.” “Then I’ll have to try it.” Yu Dawei waited for his cousin to prepare the tea, then glanced at the three of them. “Uncle, are your two cousins ​​having any difficulties with their studies? We’re all family, why don’t you tell me?”

"Oh, what's there to say?" The older cousin, a man who cared a lot about his image, handed the teacup, still filled with tea, to Yu Dawei.

“Dawei isn’t an outsider.” Seeing that his older brother had poured the second cup, the second cousin Zhang Yuheng took it first and sat back down on the bench. “Your older brother and I both got into graduate school last year, but the tuition was more than I spent in four years of college. Although they give us some money every month, it’s just a drop in the bucket. Anyway, I don’t want to study anymore.”

"You dare!" The older cousin turned around and glared angrily at his younger brother. "Zhang Yuheng, I'm warning you, if you dare to drop out of school, I'll break your legs for Dad!"

Zhang Yuheng dared not speak, but he still stubbornly pursed his lips and then silently drank some tea to calm his nerves.

He originally had no intention of taking the postgraduate entrance exam, but his older brother insisted that he take it, saying that it might be useful in the future. Just for that "maybe," he had to spend four years' worth of tuition in one year!
Go on! If you keep reading like this, you're really going to pry our dad's head out.

"How much is it per year? From what you're saying, the tuition seems pretty outrageous." Yu Dawei picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, and turned to look curiously at his second cousin beside him.

“No, brother, it’s not an exaggeration, it’s fucking outrageous!” Zhang Yuheng felt like he had found a kindred spirit, and he patted Yu Dawei on the shoulder and started talking, “I’m majoring in finance, and the tuition is three thousand a year! Your older brother is majoring in civil engineering, and the tuition is two thousand a year.”

“This is just tuition. There are also book fees, miscellaneous fees, dormitory fees, living expenses... Anyway, all the miscellaneous costs add up, and the two of us together cost at least ten thousand yuan a year.” Zhang Yuheng looked at his older brother with some resentment. “Zhang Yuming, don’t you know the score? For so many years, we’ve only spent money and not earned any. How can you continue reading?”

“I’ve already thought it through. We can find some part-time jobs while we’re in school. With our qualifications, we can earn extra money doing anything.” Zhang Yuming still insisted on taking the postgraduate entrance exam. “Anyway, we have to do this postgraduate degree. We’ve already taken the exam, so we have to tighten our belts and finish it, right?”

"You, you've really gone mad from studying too much, you're too idealistic." Zhang Yuheng was too lazy to pay attention to him and turned his head away, not wanting to say another word to his older brother.

The two are only one year apart, but their personalities and ways of dealing with people are completely different.

"Alright, alright, at worst I'll find someone to help me out. I'll definitely scrape together your tuition for this year's enrollment, but after that, you'll have to rely on yourselves." Uncle Zhang Xinghua's tone revealed exhaustion, and he was also uncertain, wondering who would lend him, a blind man, money.

If even your own wife can run away, who in this world can you really rely on?

Yu Dawei silently drank his tea; he had finally understood.

My two older cousins ​​have both been accepted into graduate school! But it seems the news hasn't spread far. Otherwise, given how quickly rumors spread in the village, it would have reached every corner of the village long ago, and his own uncle would surely know.

Yu Dawei really didn't know what kind of education these two brothers had in their past lives.

Years later, he remembered the first time he called them both was when his eldest son, Yu Muyu, was taking the college entrance examination.

He wanted to probe his eldest and second cousins ​​to see how they would arrange a future for his eldest son.

My older cousin was already working in Qin Province at that time. He told his younger cousin, Yu Dawei, that the child should at least go to university. It didn't matter which university it was, but if he could take the postgraduate entrance exam, he should definitely do so.

You can come here to learn something first, and when the government holds a unified civil service exam, he will arrange for your nephew to take it.

The original words.

As for my second cousin, it's not that complicated. Once the child gets into university, he can come and see him anytime he wants.

As it turned out, his eldest son was disappointing and ended up only getting into a junior college.

Actually, it was his fault. Back then, he was often away repairing cars and rarely came home. Every time he did come home, he would argue with Han Jingfan.

The sensible eldest son was at a loss and could only hug his younger brother and shrink into a corner, watching his parents argue fiercely.

Moreover, his eldest son has a strong learning ability, which may have been inherited from his mother, but he can't sit still for long periods of time! This is definitely inherited from him.

Furthermore, he, as the father, was also a bit arrogant. When his child took the college entrance exam for the first time, he only got into a third-tier university, but he was unwilling to accept it and insisted that Yu Muyu go to the best high school to repeat the year, regardless of whether the child wanted to or not.

The result was the opposite; the child only got into a junior college on his second attempt.

(End of this chapter)