The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 2 Returning home

Jiang Cheng and the educated youth took a bus to the county bus stop and then dispersed.

The educated youth had to gather at the educated youth point in the county seat. In fact, the educated youth came from all over the country. There were more than a dozen towns and communes under Yi'an County. If the educated youth who came with Jiang Cheng on the same train were unlucky, they might not be assigned to the Jinhe Commune where he was.

After arriving in Yian County and separating from the educated youth, Jiang Cheng went to the supply and marketing cooperative in the county to purchase things.

When he was discharged from the army, the army gave him a sum of money and some national food coupons. This money was not called retirement pay, but preferential treatment. In total, it was 100 yuan plus 180 kilograms of national food coupons.

In addition, Jiang Cheng's green shoulder bag contained candies, which were bought by the original owner of the body at the military service community when he was discharged from the army. One pound of candies cost 1.3 yuan, and he bought five pounds, spending 6.5 yuan. In addition, he also bought a few clothes and some daily necessities when he was discharged from the army.

So Jiang Cheng didn't have much money now. If the army hadn't arranged a job for him because of his good performance and driving skills, he would have had to live a hard life soon after returning to the commune with his retirement benefits.

After buying some rice, flour and oil, Jiang Cheng returned to the station. In the original owner's memory, when he went to the army, there was no bus to Jinhe Commune. Unexpectedly, when he came back four years later, there were buses from the county town to the towns, but there was only one bus in the morning and one in the afternoon every day. If you missed it, you would miss it.

After buying rice and flour, Jiang Cheng had more stuff on him. In a place where no one was paying attention, he moved his mind and all the stuff on him disappeared into the space at any time, and then walked towards the county bus station.

To be honest, Jiang Cheng is very satisfied with his current body and appearance. He has tendons and abdominal muscles. He looks thin when dressed and muscular when undressed. This is something that Jiang Cheng, who has not traveled through time, cannot compare to. Of course, in this day and age, you cannot drive without strength.

Most cars nowadays use a rocker to start the car. To start the car, you need a lot of strength and skill when rocking. In addition, the steering wheels of cars these days are relatively large, which makes it easier to exert force. It takes strength to turn the steering wheel, especially for trucks and buses.

Because cars of this era do not have power steering, turning the steering wheel requires a lot of strength. Especially when driving a truck, if you need to turn the steering wheel quickly in an emergency, you have to use all your strength.

So even if Jiang Cheng didn't put his things in the space, he could carry everything with him, and even if there was no shuttle bus to Jinhe Commune, he could walk back.

Jinhe Commune, Kaiyang Village, Jiang Changhe’s home.

Jiang Changhe is Jiang Cheng's father. Jiang Cheng also has an uncle named Jiang Dahai and an aunt named Jiang Xiaoxi. Fortunately, Jiang Cheng's father's generation only has three siblings. If there were more, they would probably be called Shuigou or something like that.

Three adobe houses and a kitchen, which used to be considered good conditions in the village, all earned by Jiang Changhe when he was young. But now Jiang Changhe lies in bed every day and needs help even to go to the toilet.

Originally, the family had a son and daughter-in-law to take care of them, and they could barely get by. But Jiang Quan had an accident and died while saving someone, and the family could no longer hold on.

With three children who were too young and Jiang Changhe who couldn't work, the family depended on his sister-in-law Li Xianglan and mother Zhao Yuxia. When they went to the fields to earn work points, they had to bring their children with them, and because they were women, the team would not assign them work that would earn them full work points.

But they could only hold on if they couldn't. The brigade would not give them food for free just because Jiang Quanren was gone. At most, they would feel sorry for Jiang Changjiang's family and let them owe some food to feed themselves, and then deduct the money when the food was distributed later.

"Mom, we are running out of food at home. What should we do?"

Li Xianglan looked at the empty rice jar and said worriedly, "These two women have to take care of a whole family. They have to take the children to work in the fields during the day, and go home to take care of Jiang Changhe who is lying in bed during their rest time."

There is not much free time at ordinary times, so it is difficult to dig some wild vegetables.

"Well, I'll go find the captain later and then go to the brigade to buy some food on credit. Adults can go hungry, but children can't." Zhao Yuxia also replied with a sigh.

It would take another month to distribute the food. It was not difficult to buy some food on credit from the brigade. But their family did not earn much work points. Even if they added some work points when Jiang Quan left, they would not be able to get much food after deducting the food they owed on credit. "Mom, do you think my brother-in-law will come back?"

Li Xianglan felt relieved when she heard her mother say she was going to ask the captain to borrow food. But without a man to support her family, she really didn't know how to get by.

It’s a good thing that it’s not like ten years ago. If we were to encounter a famine like the one ten years ago, where people could starve to death, we wouldn’t be able to borrow food from the brigade.

"It's hard to say. The letter has been sent out for almost a month." Zhao Yuxia said worriedly.

Life was slow in those days, and so were the mail. The letters from home to other provinces to Jiang Cheng were sent out in May, and at that time they were written by the educated youths at the educated youth camp and sent out with borrowed stamps.

It has been almost a month since the letter was sent, and there is still no news. In their opinion, it is hard to say whether Jiang Cheng will come back. Going out to serve in the army is also a way out for those in the countryside. At least they can have food to eat in the army and don't have to worry about starving.

Moreover, if you stay in the army for a long time and are promoted to an officer, you will also get a salary. However, to be promoted to an officer, you have to be very outstanding.

If a person with urban household registration goes to the army, that is, a non-rural household registration, the current domestic policy is to give priority to solving the problem of job placement. With this priority solution, basically after returning home from discharge, it won’t take long for them to be arranged.

In the army, many soldiers with urban household registration apply for discharge after serving for two or three years. If you join the army from the countryside, you will basically serve for life unless something unexpected happens.

If Jiang Cheng didn't come back, it would be understandable. After all, being a soldier is hard, but it's better than working hard and not having enough food in the countryside. But the current situation at home is that if he doesn't come back, they really can't hold on.

Even if the brigade was willing to lend grain, the children might not be able to eat a piece of meat or wear a new piece of clothing for the whole year until the grain was paid back.

At this time, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in the kitchen were talking about Jiang Cheng, and they placed all their hopes on him, but they didn't know that he was almost home.

He was wearing a military uniform and a quilt tied to a rope and carried on his back. Thermos, enamel basin, water cup, etc. were all wrapped in a large net bag and hung on one side of his shoulder. On the other side were spare clothes and shoes.

Both hands were not idle, holding rice and flour food, some oil and candy.

After not coming back for four years, Jiang Cheng's appearance had changed a lot since he joined the army. People who were familiar with him before might not recognize him immediately, let alone other people.

Jiang Cheng was not the original owner. Although he had the memories of this body, they were not his own. So when facing many people, even if he knew them before, he had to "think carefully" before he could remember them.

Jiang Cheng followed the original owner's memory and walked back home. He saw someone on the way and asked him where he was from.

There was a question, and as soon as Jiang Cheng said it, everyone who followed to watch the fun knew it. Jiang Cheng, the second son of Jiang Changhe's family, came back from the army, and brought a lot of rice, flour, oil, and milk candy.

On the way, Jiang Cheng used the original owner's memory, and gave one or two candies to anyone he remembered. It was also a courtesy, and as for those he didn't know, naturally he gave nothing.

According to his memory, when Jiang Cheng returned to his hometown, he saw three children squatting outside a few adobe houses and playing with insects.

(End of this chapter)