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

Chapter 5 Peace Talks
Seeing that Yu Dawei remained silent, Wang Shuo felt an awkward atmosphere and roughly understood that this kid was probably not someone to be trifled with.

"Young man, what's your surname?" Boss Duan introduced himself. "My name is Duan Dahai, and I'm the small owner of this recycling station. If you really want this car, I can let you leave it here for now. It's the dead of winter, minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius, and you can't possibly repair it anyway. How about you take it back in the spring?"

Yu Dawei was immediately tempted.

It wasn't for any other reason, but because he didn't want to repeat the mistakes of his previous life, which led him to become arrogant as soon as he had a little money, ultimately making him a laughingstock.

After the incident of stealing equipment, Yu Dawei finally understood that no matter where he was, he had to learn to keep a low profile.

He should learn from the cunning ways in those novels: develop quietly, make sure he's well-fed and clothed—isn't that better than anything else? Why bother showing off those paltry sums?
“My surname is Yu, my name is Yu Dawei, and I am from Yujiatun Village, Heshan.”

Having made up his mind, Yu Dawei turned around, picked up the tobacco dustpan from the kang (a heated brick bed), and handed it to Duan Dahai: "Brother Duan, I'm grateful for your kindness. Whether I buy anything or not, thank you in advance."

Duan Dahai took the tobacco basket with both hands, smiling broadly. This kid is quite good at using someone else's money to curry favor.

Then she paused, surprised. Not buying? Please don't not buy!

If you don't buy it, where else am I supposed to find such a swindler?

Duan Dahai shook off the tobacco while giving Wang Shuo a meaningful look.

"Ahem, Brother Yu, just name your price. What if I agree? Don't be shy about asking." Wang Shuo could tell that this kid was a slippery eel. His earlier statement, "regardless of whether you buy or not," had given him quite a fright.

If you don't buy it, what will happen to my beat-up car outside? It annoys me every day just looking at it.
"Brothers, to be honest, I can only afford two thousand five hundred. If you agree, we can sign a contract on the spot, cash on delivery." Yu Dawei smiled sheepishly, a little embarrassed.

Two thousand five?! My car is only two thousand five?

Wang Shuo was immediately displeased. Although he knew the car would definitely be sold at a low price, the price still hit him hard.

Duan Dahai glanced at Yu Dawei, then looked at Wang Shuo and advised, "Brother Wang, I think 2,500 is not low. If you clean out the cement and sell it as scrap metal, it will definitely fetch more than that price. But the problem is, isn't this difficult to handle?"

Duan Dahai's timely reminder made Wang Shuo realize that there were problems inside and outside the car, and that he was powerless to help.

"Alright, alright, Brother Yu, selling you this car at this price is practically giving you a freebie. As long as you put in the effort, this car will definitely be usable." Wang Shuo sighed, his heart aching.

Yu Dawei was secretly pleased and began preparing for the three-party signing. With Duan Dahai as a witness, he wasn't worried that the other party might come back and renege on the agreement once they saw the car was usable.

Duan Dahai picked up the scrap paper his son had left over from doing his homework from the kang (a heated brick bed), wrote a note on it, and the three of them signed it. Yu Dawei paid the money, and that was it, the debt was settled.

Yu Dawei also wanted to find a printing shop to properly print out a sales contract, but in the rural Northeast of the 1990s, let alone printing shops, even finding a photo studio was extremely rare.

After receiving the money, Wang Shuo finally smiled and began to recount his many achievements in car maintenance over the years. Duan Dahai, being an honest and simple man, couldn't get a word in edgewise, keeping a cigarette dangling from his mouth and occasionally chiming in.

If it weren't for the fact that his recycling station had grown bigger and bigger over the years, and he barely spoke a few words, he could have made a lot of money as a garbage collector if times had changed.

Recently, Duan Dahai has been thinking about moving to a bigger place. Don't be fooled by how big his yard is now, and how little old and trash there is, that's because it's winter.

In the summer, he could bring back quite a lot of things from the village. But the north side of the town was too remote. He heard that a road would be built in the south of Luhe Town in the next two years. He thought that if he could fence off a piece of land next to the road construction site, it would be much more convenient to go to the village.

The group warmed up inside the house for a while before going to the yard to unload Old Hitachi from the cart. Since Old Hitachi was essentially disabled from the waist down, he couldn't move at all. Yu Dawei ran out and found a 40-ton crane to lift Old Hitachi down. It cost him 200 yuan.

Suddenly, Yu Dawei's original 2,800 yuan was reduced to just over 100 yuan.

Even a hero can be brought down by a penny. Looking at the old Hitachi in the yard, he found a small silver tag under the excavator frame and confirmed that it was the UH03. He finally felt relieved.

Although this Hitachi UH03 is a product of the 1960s and 70s, and now it's the 1990s, more than 20 years later, it is still the excavator that Hitachi has used the most high-quality materials and the most sincere effort in making.

Apart from the oil leak, it has no major problems; you could say it's quite resilient.

"It's noon, Brother Duan. Let me find you a place to have lunch." Yu Dawei ignored Duan Dahai's attempts to refuse and insisted on taking him to a small Northeastern Chinese restaurant.

We ordered a sauerkraut and blood sausage dish and a stir-fried liver tip dish. In Northeast China, dishes are served in huge platters. There weren't many dishes, but it was definitely enough for two people.

Duan Dahai loves to drink, so he ordered two glasses of sorghum liquor. Yu Dawei drank one with him, so it wouldn't be too cold on the way back.

For someone like him, driving a four-wheeled vehicle without a canopy would be quite a hardship, and it's fortunate that Yu Dawei is young and strong.

"Brother, you can rest assured that the car is with me. My hometown is Chuhua, which is far away. I usually eat and sleep here." Duan Dahai raised his glass of wine, a little embarrassed. "Don't laugh at me, brother. Actually, I don't want this excavator. I just don't have time to deal with it, but your price is definitely not a loss."

“Next year, if your old man really knocks down the cement, it will cost at least this much.” Duan Dahai held up two fingers.

Eight thousand.

Yu Dawei grinned, reached out to clink glasses without saying a word. He knew the other person was a seasoned collector of antiques and had a keen eye for such things.

He suddenly remembered that in his previous life, there was a secondhand collector in Luhe Town named Duan Dahai, and he wondered if it was the same person in front of him.

That man was a legend in their small town. At the age of forty, he invested in and acquired the town's flour mill, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. He turned his fortunes around the following year. Unfortunately, his good days didn't last long. Later, Yu Dawei heard that the town's flour mill had been blown up.

After a few rounds of drinks, the two got up and returned to the recycling station. Yu Dawei put the drunken Duan Laoge on the small heated kang bed and drove his father's four-wheeled vehicle towards home.

Despite the biting cold wind, his heart was burning with passion.

Next, he planned to pack his bags, squeeze in with Brother Duan, and then take advantage of the winter break to properly repair the car.

He found the greatest meaning in this meal.

As for whether repairing a car in temperatures of minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius would freeze someone to death, this hermit had his own clever plan.

He needs to pay close attention to the road repair project in the town.

However, for now, we can only take it one step at a time.

(End of this chapter)