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

Chapter 329 Sun Shunli Returns to Chuhua Village

On his way back, Yu Dawei went to see Xu Huang. He needed to find a dormitory at the construction site so that he could avoid traveling back and forth every day and could go directly to the construction site to operate the road roller in the morning.

He has already asked Taozi to go back and contact Lao Ji to help find a driver who can operate a road roller in the near future. He himself can only hold on for the time being.

Xu Huang and Yu Dawei are now comrades on the same front, so he naturally has to help the other if he can. Thinking that there was still an empty bed in that dormitory after Tang Chenwu left, he arranged for Yu Dawei to rest in that dormitory.

There was another reason for his decision: Wang San's men also lived in that dormitory, and Yu Dawei might be able to get some information out of them by staying there.

Yu Dawei agreed, and that evening he went to stay in Tang Chenwu's former dormitory.

Ma Gua, the road roller operator for Wang San, was somewhat surprised to see Boss Yu staying at their place. The others were even more guilty and none of them wanted to get too entangled with Yu Dawei.

Only Lao Ma has a good attitude; he was chatting and laughing with Yu Dawei.

When Yu Dawei saw that Sun Shunli's bed was empty, but his luggage was still there, he asked Lao Ma about Sun Shunli's whereabouts.

Old Ma didn't know either, only that a few days ago, Sun Shunli left with a few changes of clothes.

Yu Dawei didn't care. He treated Sun Shunli more as a friend than a subordinate.

As for wanting the other party to work under him, he had never even considered it, because Yu Dawei didn't think Ping Sun was capable of anything due to his skill level and his slow learning pace.

Thinking about it, Yu Dawei lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

He knew that the people in his dormitory were somewhat wary of him, but he believed that given time, they would eventually let their guard down or let something slip.

Luhe Town, Chuhua Village.

Outside the old mud-brick house, the wind howled, making the cracks in the windows rattle. There was no electricity inside; only a kerosene lamp flickered dimly.

Sun Shunli lay sprawled on the cracked yellow wooden table, staring blankly at the old kerosene lamp.

This kerosene lamp was the most valuable thing in his house; his mother had traded twenty eggs for it years ago.

He still remembers that year when he was eleven years old, his mother successfully made many little chicks float up from the quilt on the kang (a heated brick bed) during the transition from spring to summer.

Of course, there were also those that weren't born. Those that didn't hatch, or those that hatched but didn't emerge and died, all became fertilized eggs in the stove pit.

In those impoverished times, balut (fertilized duck egg) was a godsend.

That year, Sun Shunli finally stopped worrying about not having enough to eat, and his family had enough money to buy a small bucket of kerosene and this kerosene lamp.

That was the best year of my father's life.

My mother is gone. Now, probably no one in the world knows that today was actually his birthday.

On this day every year, I always manage to eat an egg.

"Mom, I miss you. But I'm too ashamed to see you..." Sun Shunli's expression was one of grievance and pain.

He had been back in the village for a few days and had been wanting to visit his mother's grave, but he didn't dare because he hadn't allowed her to rest in peace after her death.

He was too ashamed to go to her grave to see her.

In the end, Sun Shunli could only stay in front of the oil lamp, staring at it during the day and lighting it at night, just watching it.

"Gurgle, gurgle." My stomach started growling again, acting up.

Sun Shunli ate some corn porridge in the morning, which was made from the leftover cornmeal in the warehouse. He didn't eat anything else after that.

Hunger is a perfectly normal thing.

Sun Shunli was already tall and stout, and now that he was hungry, he couldn't hold back any longer.

He got up and touched his stomach, thinking of reheating the leftover cornmeal porridge from breakfast in the pot.

Firewood was burned, the fire was lit, and the food was heated... Before long, steam rose from the pot.

Sun Shunli quickly lifted the pot lid, brought the corn porridge from the basin to the table in the inner room.

Because I was so hungry, I couldn't resist taking a slurp from the bowl before thinking about getting a bowl and chopsticks.

The dish rack was somewhat dark. Sun Shunli groped around aimlessly and suddenly bumped into something, making a "clanging" sound.

Sun Shunli quickly reached out with both hands to steady the object that had been bumped inside, only to find that it was a small earthenware jar, which seemed to have been sitting on the dish rack all along.

However, there seems to be something in the sound.

Sun Shunli was slightly surprised. This was the house where Han Yanyan used to live with him, and Han Yanyan usually did the cooking. He really didn't know that she had put a jar in the dish rack.

So he groped in the dark, took the small earthenware jar out of the dish rack with both hands, and then placed it on the table in the inner room by the kerosene lamp, along with the bowl and chopsticks.

The small earthenware jar has a smooth, bluish-green pattern on its surface, and a small white porcelain bowl is placed upside down on top of its thick, round spout.

By the light of the kerosene lamp, Sun Shunli recognized the jar as his mother's usual pickling jar, which had always been kept in the small storage room where his mother lived.

Sun Shunli felt a pang of guilt when he thought about how his mother insisted on sleeping and living in the warehouse so that he and Han Yanyan could have a good life.

He hated Han Yanyan, but he hated himself even more. "Mom, your son is a complete idiot." Sun Shunli gritted his teeth, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, filled with anger but unsure how to vent it.

It wasn't until his stomach rumbled again that he looked at the cornmeal porridge, which had cooled down a bit.

He filled a bowl for himself, picked up the bent wooden chopsticks, and began to shovel the porridge into his mouth.

These past few days, he's been thinking about what his nominal "brother-in-law" had told him. In reality, he never truly considered Yu Dawei as his brother-in-law.

The term "brother-in-law" came out of his instinct to be close to the other person.

Actually, he didn't really understand these things; it was just an instinctive understanding that doing this would bring him closer to Yu Dawei.

He also knew that Yu Dawei never acknowledged that he was his brother-in-law.

Just a few days ago, Yu Dawei's words to him and the beating he received, while not exactly out of concern, made him realize that his brother-in-law had shown him a little bit of kindness.

Actually, what he's best at all these years is farming. He knows that repairing cars and driving are lucrative, but it seems that, as his brother-in-law said, he's learning and observing, but he hasn't really put his heart into it.

His mind was filled with thoughts of his mother and the land that had been rented out.

Farming day after day for more than a decade, it's hard not to think about things.

The flame of the kerosene lamp grew weaker and weaker. Sun Shunli poked the wick with the other end of his chopsticks, then rubbed the almost burning chopsticks on the table before continuing to slurp the kerosene.

He stared at the flames, his mind blank for a moment, when he remembered there was something in the jar. Driven by curiosity, he opened the jar. It was dark inside and he couldn't see clearly, but he could smell a sour smell.

The small jar seemed to be full of salt water. Sun Shunli reached inside and touched the smooth, hard outer shell of the jar.

Because the jar is too small, you can only use two fingers to pry it open.

Before long, Sun Shunli managed to hook out an egg, or rather, a thoroughly pickled egg, with just two fingers.

Salted eggs.

Sun Shunli's first thought was of his mother. He quickly got up, took an empty bowl from the dish rack, and then used chopsticks to scoop the eggs from the jar into the bowl one by one.

Including the one that was taken out, there were a total of thirteen salted eggs in the small earthenware jar.

Sun Shunli stood there like a log, his mind filled with the words his mother had once told him.

“Ali, Mom is willing to live in the barn. As long as I see you living a prosperous life and smiling, Mom will be very happy. It doesn’t really matter where Mom lives.”

……

“Ali, it’s getting cold in winter, so Mom borrowed a few pounds of cotton from your third aunt next door and made you a new pair of cotton-padded trousers. Mom is old, and the thigh area wasn’t sewn up properly, so just wear them for now, and I’ll alter them for you next year.”

……

“Ali, you have to eat eggs on your birthday. Sigh, I feel like my health is getting worse every day. If I'm not around anymore, don't forget to check the jars and baskets and cook yourself an egg or something. Don't be too hard on yourself.”

"Mom hopes that my silly son can live a good life and become more prosperous."

……

Night fell, the porridge grew cold, the firelight flickered, and the big fool was in tears.

----

Yu Dawei drove the road roller for two days and felt like his whole body was about to fall apart.

It's not that he can't do it, it's just that Yu Dawei is really not used to it. He spent his whole life repairing cars in his previous life and never worked on a road roller for even a day.

As a result, after spending my life owning a car, I thought I would live a more comfortable life, but I didn't expect to end up working myself to the bone like a grandson.

Life seems to be about gaining some things and losing others...sigh.

That noon, Yu Dawei parked the road roller and was about to go to the canteen for lunch when he saw a black Volkswagen parked next to his construction vehicle.

"Want to go eat?" Xu Huang rolled down the car window and looked at Yu Dawei.

"Otherwise what? Do you think you can just hide away and have some peace and quiet like me?" Yu Dawei rolled his eyes. The two had been working together for some time, but the results were not satisfactory.

Yu Dawei had already asked his second uncle to help him find connections and search the oil city for any trace of Tang Chenwu, but to no avail.

Now he gets angry whenever he sees Xu Huang. In the past, when he planned something on his own, at least he could achieve something.

But ever since we started working with this guy, something has happened, and both of our IQs have started to decline.

"Okay, go ahead. I'm going to eat too. Goodbye." Xu Huang ignored him, rolled up the car window, and stepped on the gas to leave.

"Hey? You son of a bitch! Give me a ride!"

"Haha, sitting in a car all day will take a toll on your back. Walking more is good for your physical and mental health."

"Shameless!" Yu Dawei pouted indignantly, and finally swung his fist at the billowing dust.

(End of this chapter)