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

Chapter 82 Consolation
Yu Laonian's hand remained motionless as he smiled at Dazhi: "Since you know what I'm going to do, you should keep this money. You can't break the rules."

“This…” Yu Dazhi remembered the custom of burning paper money, so he dared not refuse anymore and hurriedly took the money back. “Dawei, so what kind of business are you doing in town? It’s so profitable. Why don’t you take me with you?”

"If you're not afraid your dad will break your legs, then come with me to the construction site to move bricks and stones." Yu Dawei shook his head speechlessly and followed his father out of the convenience store.

"Is this kid really doing backbreaking manual labor in town?" Yu Dazhi thought that, given Yu Dawei's stubborn personality, it wasn't impossible.

Actually, Yu Dawei wasn't lying when he said he was moving bricks and stones. He used his excavator to load and unload stones on the construction site, and he also helped load and unload the bricks on the dormitory floor.

The two arrived at the ancestral graves. On their way there, they passed a local earth god temple in Yujiatun that had stood for who knows how many years. They wanted to place a piece of yellow paper on the temple, light three sticks of incense, and pay their respects before finally arriving at the ancestral graves of the Yu family and finding the branch of Yu Laonian.

Yu Laonian first kowtowed and burned paper money for his ancestors, then for his own branch of the family, Yu Laonian's grandparents, and then he went to his parents' tombstone, lit yellow paper, knelt on the ground, burned incense, and prayed.

Yu Dawei silently knelt down beside him.

Actually, when Yujiatun was still Yujiabao, the old Yu family had an ancestral hall in the north of the village. Unfortunately, only a pile of broken tiles remains. Over the years, that place has become a forest and has completely merged with the adjacent forest.

"Mom, your precious grandson has redeemed the white jade Guanyin for you." Old Yu took out the package from behind him, opened it, and placed the white jade Guanyin on the yellow paper. "You can rest in peace now. The last thing left in our Yu family has not been lost, it is still here."

"First, kowtow to your grandmother, then go and kowtow to the ancestors," Yu Laonian instructed.

"Okay." Yu Dawei held the wooden stick and looked at the fire carefully, then kowtowed to his ancestors.

He's been doing this process since he was three years old, and he knows it inside and out!
Looking at Yu Dawei's retreating figure, Yu Laonian couldn't help but express his feelings: "Mom, Dawei is twenty-three years old this year. He's more mature and steady than before. He's no longer the silly boy who could only rely on you to protect him. He's really made something of himself."

"I couldn't keep the promise I made to you when you were leaving, but thankfully, your most beloved grandson has fulfilled your last wish. I am truly happy... truly."

"I really wish you could have stayed a few years longer, so you could have seen the redeemed white jade Guanyin with your own eyes. Mom, your son misses you..." Old Man Yu poked at the fire with a small twig, and suddenly lost control of his emotions, bowing his head deeply to the ground.

Yu Dawei was squatting next to the tombstone of his ancestor, chatting with him. When he turned around, he saw his grandfather kneeling on the ground and secretly crying. He didn't dare to stand up and look at him openly.

“Ancestor, look! My father is moved to tears because of my filial piety. Don’t you think I’m amazing?” Yu Dawei, being a bit unserious, wiggled his butt. “Tell me honestly, am I the most awesome descendant of our Yu family? Don’t be shy, praise me boldly.”

"Yes, yes, I heard you." Yu Dawei gave his ancestor's tombstone a thumbs-up, pretending to be impressed. "You have such good taste, you have a discerning eye!"

Yu Dawei's casual attitude is related to the fact that he has always burned paper money for his ancestors since he was a child.

Every time they burned paper money, the old man would bring Yu Dawei along. As for his younger brother Dasheng, he was a complete failure. He was so scared that he came back crying the first time he went and never dared to go again.

Yu Dawei, on the other hand, went from being terrified when he first came to the cemetery to later becoming sworn brothers with the oldest ancestor in the Yu family, and he was extremely happy.

Because of his unruly behavior in front of his ancestors, Yu Dawei was often scolded and beaten by his father, Yu Laonian. However, perhaps the boy was too stubborn, or perhaps his temperament was hard to change, so in the end, all that could be done was to sigh helplessly and let it be.

Anyway, Yu Dawei is a blood relative of the ancestors, and he would never really harm his great-grandson over such a trivial matter. At most, he would just teach this scoundrel a lesson in his dreams.

In fact, it seems that Yu Dawei never had nightmares while living in the village, and he was even stronger than his peers, growing up healthy until the age of 23.

"Dawei, come home." Old Yu knelt before his parents' tombstone, said a few more words, then stood up, composed himself, and called out to Yu Dawei.

"Alright!" Upon hearing this, Yu Dawei was about to go himself, but before leaving, he didn't forget to whisper to his ancestor, "Hey, ancestor, I need a rotary excavator lately. Do you know what that is? It doesn't matter if you don't. Just please bless me and let me find a cheap rotary excavator. Your great-great-great-grandson is really, really, really broke right now."

"Grandpa, given our long-standing relationship, I'll leave this matter to you. My dad's calling me, so I'll be going now." Yu Dawei waved his hand. "I'll come see you again when I have time."

When Yu Laonian saw Yu Dawei casually getting close to the ancestor again, he was furious. He suppressed the urge to punch him and forced a smile: "What, finished chatting with the ancestor?"

Yu Dawei nodded awkwardly: "The old man hasn't heard me chat with him in a long time, so I'm keeping him company to relieve his loneliness."

"There are eldest grandmothers, second grandmothers, third grandmothers, fourth grandmothers... all the way up to sixth grandmothers beside the ancestor. Does she need you to accompany her?" Old Man Yu put the white jade Guanyin into the package and put it back on his back.

Yu Dawei forced a smile. The old man must be in a good mood today. Judging from his tone, if this were when he was a child, he would have been beaten to a pulp.

"Ahem, Dad, actually, some things are easier for men to discuss." Yu Dawei reluctantly took over the conversation, but noticed that the old man's face was ashen. He quickly grabbed the old man's arms and coaxed him, "Dad, it's getting late, let's go home. We haven't fed our chickens, ducks and geese yet, I have to take Xiaofan home in a bit."

"Hmph! This is only because it's the Yu family's ancestral land that you dare to be so arrogant. Try going to other people's territory and see what happens!" Old Yu rolled his eyes at his eldest son.

He regretted it a little; had he gone too far in praising his parents' eldest grandson in front of them? There were some things about the kid that he really couldn't stand.

There are too few times when we do things in a rigid and methodical way.

But then he thought, if Yu Dawei had all the same characteristics as him, wouldn't he be living as a completely different version of himself?

His eldest son has proven to him that he can handle things and support the family.

This is enough.

After thinking about it, Yu Laonian stopped being angry and even felt much better. When he saw someone from a village on the road, he would take the initiative to greet them.

Yu Dawei followed his father home, chatted for a while, and then took his wife and children back to their own home in the front yard.

Before leaving, Zhang Yunqin took out three thousand yuan and gave it to the couple. In Lao Nian's words, this white jade Guanyin belongs to the Yu family, so it's not fair that only the two of you children have to pay for it.

Yu Laonian is not well-off these days, and three thousand yuan is the most he can afford.

Finally, Old Man Yu specifically mentioned to Yu Dawei: "That white jade Guanyin is yours since you bought it. It's currently being kept here on my behalf. When I die, you can take the white jade Guanyin. There's no share for the other children. I'll explain this to them when all the children come back for the New Year."

Yu Dawei thought about it and didn't refuse. The old man valued fairness above all else, especially when it came to his children. Even if he had some favorites, he always distributed resources fairly in practice.

This white jade Guanyin statue was redeemed by Yu Dawei with great effort, even emptying his family's coffers. It's perfectly reasonable for his eldest son to take it away in the future, and he believes no one will object.

Thus, the matter of the White Jade Guanyin came to an end.

When Yu Dawei got home, he hurriedly put rotten potatoes, grass leaves, and corn husks into a pot and started simmering them aimlessly.

He let Han Jingfan play with the children on the kang (a heated brick bed), while he fed the poultry in the yard. Whether they were chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, or pigs, they all ate the same things.

The large iron pot used for cooking was filled to the brim, and the chicken and duck carcasses were placed in separate troughs. The goose and duck are now roommates, sharing the same duck carcass, and they eat and drink together on a daily basis.

Then there's the pigsty, located under the east wall of the yard. It was something Han Jingfan insisted on building when the house was being renovated, saying that they wanted to raise two piglets so that the whole family could eat pork raised by the New Year.

Yu Dawei, of course, agreed wholeheartedly!

For no other reason than that Han Jingfan possesses the innate talent of raising anything robustly.

In my past life, my family was poor, so we raised a pig. By winter, it had grown to over 300 jin (150 catties)! That was over 100 jin (50 catties) more than the pigs raised by other women in the village!
The problem is, they didn't feed the pigs anything good, and they had to go hungry every few days.

As Yu Dawei fed the two piglets, he carefully observed them, suspecting that one of the piglets was the one he had brought back from his previous life.

Besides, there are also the chicks in the house. One of the roosters, when it grows up, has colorful feathers in the sunlight. The whole chicken is majestic and imposing. If you give it a pair of wings, it can actually fly over the outer wall.

Every day, it goes to Old Wang's house next door to fight with other roosters, and it won't stop until it pecks the other roosters until they're covered in blood! All the hens in the surrounding houses, including its own, belong to this rooster. Other roosters can't even touch a hen; they'll either die or get injured.

Several times in his past life, Yu Dawei wanted to chop up this hairy beast; it was just too much trouble.

This guy had the worst luck; he pecked at the landlord's penis while Xiao Muyu was taking a dump.

Xiao Muyu cried and called for "Dad," which angered Yu Dawei, who grabbed a kitchen knife and chopped the rooster down on a stool.

Yu Dawei stood there, seemingly remembering the rooster, and turned to look at one of the fastest-growing chicks in the coop, whose wings were almost fully grown: "You better behave yourself. If you dare to peck at my son's chicks again, I'll chop them up without hesitation!"

After emptying the pig feed, the rest was given to the dogs.

"Sigh, with such a large flock of chickens, ducks, geese, dogs, and pigs, at this rate, they won't last more than a few days. I need to find some time to go to the fields and gather some wild vegetables." Yu Dawei leaned against the doghouse, watching the five dogs eat with their heads down, his mind racing.

Around June, wild vegetables grow everywhere in the woods and fields. The wild vegetables that people in Yujiatun often pick are called "Po Po Ding" (婆丁), which is edible. As for geese, ducks, and other common wild vegetables that grow on the ground, they are all edible.

During Yu Dawei's absence, Han Jingfan would take Er Yan to herd geese, along with several geese and ducks from her mother's house in the backyard, and release them into the wild.

"Take some time, these two pigs really eat too much." Yu Dawei sighed helplessly, went back to the outer room, and poured the swill from the bucket into the pig trough in the pigsty.

The swill in the house was undigested by chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs, so it was also used to feed these two piglets. I don't know what Han Jingfan thought of these two pigs in the first place; they could eat and sleep so much.

Yu Dawei spent the rest of the time tidying up the garden.

In June, the weeds in the garden grew faster than the vegetables. Yu Dawei picked up a hoe from the warehouse and started weeding. Occasionally, he could hear Han Jingfan teasing the children behind him, and she even took him along.

"Look what Daddy is doing? What is Daddy holding? It's a hoe." Han Jingfan held Xiao Muyu's hand, leaned against the window, and waved to Yu Dawei.

Yu Dawei turned around with a simple smile and continued working with his head down until he reached the base of the west courtyard wall. There, he looked at the mustard greens in the yard with a worried expression. In addition to the mustard greens, there were also ginger vines.

Neither of these two vegetables were grown by Yu Dawei; they were grown by the previous homeowner, and they look quite old.

The sprouts that grow from mustard greens are called mustard green lumps, while the sprouts that grow from ginger vines are naturally called ginger vines.

These two things can be dug out of the soil during the autumn harvest and used to pickle vegetables. Almost every household in the village has a plate of pickled mustard tubers mixed with soy sauce and chili on their winter dinner table.

Yu Da's family was no exception, but there was just too much mustard greens and ginger shoots in front of them, taking up two and a half rows, which was far too much to eat.

After much thought, Yu Dawei decided to ask his wife for her opinion. When it came to farming and raising chickens and ducks, Yu Dawei was no match for Han Jingfan. She was practically a genius in these areas, so Yu Dawei didn't want to worry about anything related to land and would just ask her directly.

Finally, the whole family voted by raising their hands to keep the two and a half rows of pickled vegetables. Han Jingfan's idea was to pickle more vegetables so that they could eat them all year round.

Even if you grow too much, you can steam the extra mustard tubers and ginger and feed them to the pigs; the pigs can eat that too.

Very well, Yu Dawei finally understands the role of those two pigs in the yard at home: they are definitely all-purpose trash cans.

No wonder those two pigs grew faster than any other livestock; they were given special treatment every day, it's no wonder they grew so strong.

After a busy afternoon, Yu Dawei started preparing dinner: stir-frying a small green vegetable, reheating some leftover rice, and chopping some pickled mustard greens.

Take the pickled vegetables out of the small jar, cut them into shreds, add some soy sauce, scallions, garlic, vinegar, chili oil, and MSG, and it's ready to eat.

It smells amazing.

Yu Dawei sat on the table by the kang (heated brick bed) eating rice and pickled vegetables. Sure enough, listening to his wife was the right thing to do.

(End of this chapter)