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

Chapter 627 Long Time No See
On Tuesday afternoon, Yu Dawei drove Huang Linlin to the Hohhot airport, which is also the only airport in Hohhot.

Two days ago, when Huang Linlin told the class monitor that the class monitor would be coming, Snotty was very surprised and didn't even have the thought of making fun of Huang Linlin.

Then, he hurriedly agreed to tell Meng and Ai that Yu Dawei would be picking them up at the airport, and then hung up the phone.

Today, on the way to the airport with Yu Dawei, Huang Linlin happily recounted the whole process with the class monitor.

He could imagine that over the years, Snot Bubble must have made a lot of sarcastic remarks about his fourth brother. He hoped that at this class reunion, the Snot Bubble who liked to stir up trouble back then would tone it down a bit.

The two waited at the airport for a long time. Yu Dawei remembered that he had left his phone in the car, so he went to the parking lot to get it.

When I took my phone out of the car, I found several missed calls. Looking at the area codes of the callers, some were from the oil city and some were from my hometown.

Yu Dawei immediately dialed the number for Youcheng, and then Li Liu's voice came through the phone.

"Boss, I have some bad news."

"What bad news?" Yu Dawei frowned as he closed the car door.

“The monkey told me that there are always a few people sneaking around the gas station at night. So yesterday I was on night shift at the gas station and didn’t go home. Sure enough, there were a few people acting suspiciously nearby. I was afraid something might happen, so I turned on the lights, and those people ran away,” Li Liu said.

"Did you see who it was?" Yu Dawei asked.

"I couldn't see clearly, but the figures were of varying heights."

Yu Dawei fell silent. The first person he thought of was Chen Haifeng, but there was another possibility: that he stole the oil.

These days, especially in oil cities, there are quite a few people stealing oil. It's not just private gas stations that get their oil stolen; they even dare to steal oil from public gas stations. These people are incredibly ruthless!

Back in the early 2000s, the oil city cracked down on oil thieves, and those arrested were severely punished, which gradually extinguished their arrogance.

Of course, it is also related to the installation of surveillance cameras in cities.

Nowadays, government-owned gas stations are already equipped with CCTV surveillance, but Yu Dawei was thinking of waiting a few years until network surveillance became available so he could upgrade directly.

However, it seems we'll have to install surveillance cameras near the gas stations when we get back, especially near the fuel tank openings.

His gas station is not very busy now; he closes around 6 p.m. and doesn't operate 24 hours a day.

If someone is really stealing oil, it's highly likely they'll start doing it at night when no one is around, by robbing the oil storage area.

Yu Dawei thought for a moment and then instructed Li Liu: "Here's what we'll do. Go find Monkey and tell him to take two people to take turns on night shifts at the gas station, especially the oil storage area. Tell him to pay attention to it. We'll talk about everything when I get back in a couple of days."

"Boss, don't worry! I'll have my guys keep a close eye on things tonight!" Monkey's voice suddenly came from the other end of the phone.

"Okay, thank you for your trouble. I'll be back in the next couple of days," Yu Dawei said before hanging up the phone.

After dealing with the gas station issue, Yu Dawei glanced at the caller ID on his phone again. There was another call from his hometown, which seemed to be from the flour mill.

When Yu Dawei dialed the number, it was indeed Brother Duan calling him.

"Dawei, when are you coming back?"

"In another two or three days, we should be going back." Yu Dawei hasn't seen his grandfather yet. Although his uncle helped him negotiate the villa deal yesterday, the location hasn't been finalized.

"Then hurry back and come find me. Old Guo is making things difficult for us two brothers again." Duan Dahai gave a bitter laugh on the other end of the phone.

Old Guo is the top leader of the town, and he is actually a bit older than Director Yang of the grain depot, but he still works enthusiastically on the front line.

The reason for this is that he was not sent down to Luhe from above, but was a native of the area, and it seemed that building up his hometown was ingrained in his bones.

Every time Yu Dawei and Brother Duan drank with Mr. Guo, what they heard most was his story about the local customs and traditions of his hometown over the years, as well as the changes in his hometown.

The final message is definitely that I hope they can work hard to build their hometown well, and I will fully cooperate.

But ideas are always good, and many things are not up to a few people to decide.

The plan to upgrade the town to a county had failed, so Yu Dawei deeply admired the old man who had dedicated most of his life to his hometown and China. However, he was also helpless, as he and Lao Duan were indeed unable to fulfill the old man's wish.

"Is it still about vigorously developing the town?" Yu Dawei leaned against the back of the car, blocking the wind while also giving a wry smile.

Old Guo's stubbornness is truly remarkable.

"Yeah! The only hope for developing our town now rests on the two of us, and we're both leaving. Do you think he won't be anxious? He used to meet me about once a month, but lately he's been asking me to come see him about once a week." Duan Dahai's voice on the other end of the phone was full of helplessness. "What do you suggest we do, brother?"

“What can we do? It’s not that we’re unwilling to develop our hometown, but firstly, there’s no support policy from above. None of the things that Old Guo submitted before have been approved.”

"Furthermore, since the year before last, the population loss in our entire town, including the town itself, has become increasingly serious. We can't retain people, making it too difficult to develop the town."

“I know it’s difficult, but Old Guo is determined to keep us tied down. You’re a clever guy, come back and think of another way if this doesn’t work,” Duan Dahai said again on the phone.

Yu Dawei didn't speak, but instead raised his eyebrows. Brother Duan's words clearly indicated that he was leaning towards Old Guo's side, and it seemed that he was determined to help his hometown again.

Can they really manage with their combined strength of two and a half people? Definitely not.

"Sigh, let me finish up here, then we can go back and think about it properly." Yu Dawei lowered his head and kicked some snow off the ground with his right foot.

He wasn't being selfless; he just believed that if his hometown was developed well, everything, from Yujiatun to the kindergarten and tutoring centers his wife had worked so hard to establish, would become better.

"Okay! That's enough. I believe Mr. Guo isn't someone who can't see the situation clearly. Let's do our best. Whether it succeeds or not, we won't have let Mr. Guo down or let our hometown down." Duan Dahai breathed a sigh of relief on the other end of the phone. "By the way, I saw a nice house in Qiqihar a few days ago. Do you want to buy it? How about we become neighbors?"

"I don't want it! My future development center will definitely be in the oil city. Qiqihar is your strategic location, not mine. Besides, I recently bought a house here, a villa." Yu Dawei became smug.

"Wow, that's quite a generous move, Mr. Yu. When did you become so extravagant? You bought a villa just like that and transferred 200 yuan to my account for drinking. Let me see how much you've got."

"Hehe, Brother Duan, you're teasing me again. Aren't you more extravagant than me now? Besides, the houses here are cheaper!"

"How cheap? 800 per square meter? If that's true, I'll move in to be your neighbor tonight." Duan Dahai was referring to the housing prices in his hometown county, which were from a couple of years ago. Back then, he regretted not listening to his wife and buying a house in the county. "Around 1700 or 1800, that's the discounted price my uncle and his family got when they bought their house. I managed to snag a spot," Yu Dawei explained.

Why did you suddenly decide to buy a house over there?

“My parents are here. Besides, this is a vast grassland. Whenever I have some free time, it would be nice to take my wife and kids here for a trip. Brother, you shouldn’t always be thinking about making money. You also need to learn to enjoy life and find a balance,” Yu Dawei said.

Duan Dahai on the other end of the phone was clearly impressed by the price of the villa. He had heard of some villas before, which were much more expensive than this one. Although the location was relatively remote, it was, as Yu Dawei had said, right next to the vast grassland.

It would be nice to take my wife and kids on a trip or even a vacation.

Don't city dwellers all like this feeling? After all, he's made quite a bit of money, so this price is really reasonable for a villa.

He then inquired about the location of the villa and other details.

Just as Dawei hung up the phone and was about to return to the airport, he saw Huang Linlin walking towards his car with two other people.

A man with a refined appearance, wearing black-rimmed glasses and a hooded jumpsuit, was dragging a large black suitcase with his right hand.

One of the men was more robust than the one next to him, with a face as large as Teacher Zhao's shoehorn. His eyes were half-closed as if he couldn't wake up. He was also carrying a large suitcase behind him and a large hiking backpack on his back.

When Yu Dawei saw the two people, the two people also saw Yu Dawei, especially the one with the long face, whose drowsy eyes suddenly lit up with a sharp light the moment he saw Yu Dawei.

Upon seeing Meng Kai and Ai Yongqiang, Yu Dawei was instantly excited. He had never seen his two brothers again in his previous life. If it weren't for this class reunion, he didn't know if he would ever have the chance to see them again.

Just as Yu Dawei opened his arms, wanting to embrace someone he hadn't seen in years, the two of them seemed to have made a pact: one took off his glasses and handed them to Huang Linlin, while the other threw down his backpack and suitcase.

Immediately afterwards, the two rushed towards Yu Dawei like madmen, reaching out their arms to knock him down!
"Holy crap!" Yu Dawei couldn't help but curse when he saw that things were going wrong, but it was too late to turn around and run away.

His body was slammed to the ground by the two men, but Yu Dawei managed to withstand their punches thanks to his agile movements and strong physique.

He then gave Meng Kai a bear hug, turned around and threw the thin Meng Kai aside, then used his knee to pin Ai Yongqiang to the ground.

Meng Kai and Ai Yongqiang, having been brothers with Yu Dawei for a long time, were very familiar with Yu Dawei's punching style and easily dealt with him.

After that, the three of them, just like before, started wrestling in the snow, not caring about cleanliness or dirt.

Huang Linlin stood quietly to the side, carrying her bag and luggage, watching the three of them play and frolic in the snow. Her eyes reddened slightly at that moment, as if she had returned to her carefree high school days, watching the three of them finish drinking and play Mongolian wrestling on the snow-covered grass.

Just like today, they started to ignore everything else while they were playing.

After a while, the three of them, exhausted, lay down on the snow, breathing in the cold northern air and gazing at the clear blue northern sky in the afternoon.

"How have you been all these years, class monitor?"

"How could my brother be doing badly? Don't you even look at what kind of car he's driving now? A Toyota Land Cruiser, we call that a Land Cruiser." The speaker was Ai Yongqiang, who had a slight bloodstain on his nostrils, but he didn't care at all. Instead, his long, narrow face was full of smiles.

"Sigh, it was both good and bad. My biggest regret is not having had the chance to see you two." Yu Dawei was referring to his past life. He then stood up from the snow and extended his hands to the two of them. "What about you two? I heard you both got into good universities."

“We’re both pretty average. Actually, you and Huang Linlin should have been able to get into university.” Ai Yongqiang reached out and was pulled up by Yu Dawei.

But as soon as he finished speaking, he glanced at Huang Linlin not far away, then at the silent Meng Kai, and finally sighed helplessly.

Yu Dawei knew why Ai Yongqiang sighed, but he didn't say anything. He patted the two of them on the shoulder and said, "Go get your luggage. You have a class reunion to attend later."

After putting their luggage away, the group boarded the vehicle.

It was during the conversation that Yu Dawei learned that Meng Kai was now a teacher abroad, teaching sociology, while Ai Yongqiang had become the software engineer he had once longed to be.

After a nonsensical tussle, the sense of estrangement that had been building up among the group after so many years vanished without a trace, and they chatted enthusiastically about the changes that had taken place over the past decade.

Ai Yongqiang is married, just like Yu Dawei, but Meng Kai is still single.

"You guys don't know, this guy used to date a domestic celebrity, but she dumped him later." Ai Yongqiang excitedly told Yu Dawei and Huang Linlin the gossip from the back seat.

"A celebrity?" Yu Dawei was instantly taken aback.

What the hell! Back then, Meng Kai told him that when looking for a partner, he should find the most beautiful one, like Li Ruotong, who played Little Dragon Girl. And now, years later, you're telling me he actually found a celebrity!
"How can this be calm!" Yu Dawei glanced at Meng Kai through the rearview mirror with a sour look.

After many years, this kid seems even more silent than when he was in school.

"What kind of celebrity? Not even third-rate. I met them when I was abroad. We had a few meals together, saw a few operas and movies, and that was it." Meng Kai habitually adjusted his glasses, then leaned against the window in a very flamboyant manner and replied casually, "Celebrities, I've touched them, I've had my way with them, they're just like that."

"That beast, that beast!" Ai Yongqiang roared helplessly from the back seat. "How come I never heard you say you touched or rubbed that part?"

"Hmm, I can explain in detail." Yu Dawei's lips curled into a strange smile.

"Hey! There's a girl sitting in the car, can you guys please be careful!"

"Hehe, she's already a mother, how can she still call her a girl?" Yu Dawei spoke up righteously.

"That's right, that's right." Ai Yongqiang was no longer sleepy at all and climbed the pole in the back seat.

"Ai Yongqiang!!!"

The car was noisy, but all sound stopped abruptly after Huang Linlin's last subconscious and angry shout of "Ai Yongqiang's" name.

But the memories, like a jigsaw puzzle at sea, kept piecing together in everyone's mind.

"Linlin, I want to apologize to you on behalf of Meng Kai for the argument we had a few years ago." Ai Yongqiang felt that it wouldn't be good not to say something in the current atmosphere, so he decided to resolve the old grudges in front of Dawei.

With the elder brother around, I believe all the consequences can be contained.

(End of this chapter)