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

Chapter 72: Commission Arrives in Second Month
"Do you think Yu Dawei can buy that antique back?" Old Man Tian quietly asked Uncle Twelve.

Uncle Twelve shook his head: "You can only dream about it. Look at Dazhizi, the most successful guy in our village, do you think he has ten thousand yuan in savings?"

Yu Dazhi immediately retorted: "Where would I get that much? If I had ten thousand yuan in my pocket, I would have found a place in our village and built a new house long ago. Why would I stay here in this tiny place every day?"

Old Man Tian also didn't think highly of Yu Dawei. There's a saying that goes, "It's easier to change mountains and rivers than to change one's nature."

The village is such a small place. Everyone already knew that Yu Dawei had been working as a bricklayer at a construction site in town, but no one said it out of politeness.

Old Man Tian was also involved in what happened back then. In order to get back the white jade Guanyin, Yu Laonian went to great lengths, calling on the villagers to put pressure on Wang Ergouzi and earnestly persuade him to ask for less.

In the end, it was all for naught.

Outside the convenience store, Yu Quan, Yu Dazhi's biological father and the eldest member of the Yu family, was sitting on a small stool by the window, leaning against the wall, his figure hidden under the willow tree next to him, enjoying the gentle breeze.

He kept his eyes closed, enjoying the rare tranquility. He felt a sense of comfort, especially when he thought about how the cucumbers and persimmons in his backyard were almost ripe. He knew that he could sell the cucumbers and persimmons in town and earn some pocket money.

When Yu Dawei left, he greeted his great-uncle, Yu Quan, who simply hummed in response and then ignored him.

Only after Yu Dawei had walked away and the sounds in the room had faded did he slowly open his wrinkled eyes.

In those weathered eyes, there was a fierce, arrogant, and domineering look, but it vanished in an instant. As if remembering something insignificant, he leaned against the wall, facing the wind where willow catkins danced in the air, and slowly dozed off.

Everyone in the village knew that the eldest son of the Yu family had once killed people and served as a prison warden.

None of the old Yu family members in Yujiatun dared to contradict this old man Yu.

On the other side, Zhang Yunqin from the front yard returned to the back yard with her daughter-in-law and second daughter. Seeing that Yu Laonian was still lying on the kang, she didn't say anything and went about her own business.

When Yu Dawei came back, his mother started complaining that he ran out of the stove while the fire was burning, and almost burned the pot dry.

Yu Dawei wasn't angry. He grinned and carried the two containers of soy sauce and vinegar to his mother's dish rack.

Zhang Yunqin was not one to listen to gossip; she didn't ask a single question about what Yu Laonian and his eldest son had talked about last night.

As the woman of the house, she knows very well what she should and shouldn't ask, and if the father and son want to tell them, she will.

In fact, Yu Dawei really didn't plan to tell his mother about this, mainly because he himself wasn't sure if he could buy the white jade Guanyin back.

The villagers knew Wang Erge's temperament, and he certainly knew it too.

He had already considered the worst-case scenario, but he never expected that Old Wang's second brother wouldn't even sell it for 10,000 yuan. This further refreshed his understanding of Old Wang's second brother.

If he were to forcibly take things from the antique dealers later on, given Wang Ergouzi's temperament, wouldn't he just raise the price on the spot?
Headache.

On the other hand, he was also curious about what the white jade Guanyin statue in his Yu family looked like. It was something his grandmother had been thinking about before she died, and something his father had been striving for for most of his life. It was absolutely impossible for Yu Dawei not to be curious.

"What are you thinking about?" Yu Dawei sat on the old chair below the landlord's, and Han Jingfan's question came to his ears. "Nothing." Yu Dawei shook his head, "Honey, I originally planned to completely tear down our house in two months and build a proper new one, but I guess the plan will have to be postponed, and you'll have to live here for a while longer."

Han Jingfan smiled gently, sat on the small stool next to the chair, and looked at the cloudless east: "Do you know? Before I married you, I thought that even if the future was just a mud house and a fenced yard, and every year was just the same routine of planting, digging holes, sowing seeds, watering, and harvesting... I would still think that would be fine."

“As long as you’re not the kind of person in the village who smokes, gambles, and spends his life on prostitution, I can spend my whole life with you. I admit I was disappointed at first, but I didn’t resist because I wasn’t a normal person before. I never knew what was wrong with me, but I knew I was sick.”

"No one would want to marry a woman with a disease, but you are, so I am willing to do my best to tolerate you."

As Han Jingfan said this, she turned her head and suddenly smiled sweetly at Yu Dawei: "To use the words in the book, my happiness is very small, one life, one love, and nothing else matters to me. Whether we live in a high-rise building or a thatched hut, it doesn't matter."

Looking at his now so well-educated and reasonable lover, Yu Dawei felt as if his heart was melting. Subconsciously, Yu Dawei's lips kept getting closer to her pretty face.

"Hey! Big brother, what are you doing in public?" Er Yan walked up to the landlord from the doorway without anyone noticing. She covered her eyes with her small hands, but the gaps between her fingers were a little too big, revealing her big eyes.

Yu Dawei stood up abruptly, his hands behind his back, looking serious: "I think your sister-in-law has mosquitoes on her face. It's outrageous! Even mosquitoes have become lewd now. Don't let me catch you!"

He pretended to be calm and hurriedly went into the house to coax the child, leaving Han Jingfan with a flushed face.

"Sister-in-law, Mom asked if you're having fish tonight. Old Gao next door caught a lot of crucian carp from the river." Er Yan hadn't forgotten her business and asked her sister-in-law. (Author's note: "crucian carp" refers to small crucian carp from Northeast China.)
"Eat!" Han Jingfan's lips curled up happily, her face filled with bliss.

After more than 20 years of living at rock bottom, it's as if a ray of light has shone in, and what I felt was a "disease" seems to be gradually disappearing.

"Sister-in-law, let me tell you, Dad woke up just now and saw the whole family looking at him. His face turned as red as a bottom, hahaha, it cracked me up. I've never seen Dad like that before, it was so funny," Er Yan said.

"You, just pretend you didn't see anything or know anything when you come in. And whatever you do, don't mention to Dad that you drank too much yesterday," Han Jingfan reminded him.

"Yes, yes, don't worry, sister-in-law, I know."

In fact, after waking up, Yu Laonian pretended to have amnesia, not mentioning his drunkenness the night before, and not even allowing others to mention it. Whenever someone tried to steer the conversation back to yesterday's drinking and chatting, the old man's eyes would pierce through them like two sharp knives.

However, the family members were considerate of the patriarch's feelings, and no one brought it up.

Only Yu Dawei was occasionally absent-minded when doing farm work.

The day for Yu Dawei to collect money from his savings account arrived quickly. In the past few days, he had been helping his wife feed the chickens and ducks while keeping a close eye on the activities of Old Wang's family next door.

I took a day off to go to the site and check on the old Hitachi machine. In the summer, the temperature rises and the machine is too old, so the engine inevitably overheats.

Fortunately, it is within the working range and does not require repair.

Yu Dawei thought that now was the time when money was needed, so he should try to make the old Hitachi machine last as long as possible, and hopefully until the project was completed.

(End of this chapter)