From Robinson Crusoe

"Ah."

Upon seeing the words on the resignation letter, Deputy General Manager Wang couldn't help but sneer twice.

"Fine, I'll see where you can go. Hurry up and pack your bags, get ready to get out of here."

Having already lived a second life, Chen Zhou wasn't angry at the sarcasm in Deputy General Manager Wang's words; he simply offered a reminder.

"Deputy General Manager Wang, if you want to fire me, hurry up and call HR to process the paperwork. Don't just talk the talk."

……

After completely breaking ties with Deputy General Manager Wang, Chen Zhou's resignation procedures were processed surprisingly quickly. Before 3 p.m., the HR department was working overtime to settle his salary.

At the same time, he packed his personal belongings, hailed a taxi, loaded his clothes, luggage, and the thick stack of paintings he had brought back into the car, and left the cement factory.

……

"Where are you going, young man?"

Local taxi drivers are all very talkative. As soon as Chen Zhou sat in the passenger seat, the driver immediately struck up a conversation.

Hearing this, Chen Zhou was taken aback. He thought for a while before recalling his home address and replied to the driver.

"Green Tree Home Community, Building 1"

"Okay, Green Tree Home is 14 yuan."

The driver quoted a price.

Chen Zhou hadn't taken a taxi in a long time and had long forgotten how much it would cost to get home. He simply nodded and then stopped talking, turning his head to look out the car window.

Seeing that the passenger was not good at talking, the driver wisely shut his mouth and focused on driving.

……

The taxi sped along the highway, where the roadside trees swayed gracefully in the breeze.

Cars came and went on the road, the sound of engines, the strong smell of perfume in the cars, people honking their horns, and people ignoring the traffic lights and crossing the zebra crossing in groups, all creating a noisy mess.

Looking at this bustling and hurried scene, Chen Zhou felt little joy at returning to his old haunts.

He hadn't seen vehicles passing by, heard these sounds, or smelled these odors for far too long. Everything here felt unfamiliar to him, even frightening.

The closer one gets to home, the more timid one becomes. When I lived on the island, I always felt lonely and isolated.

After 28 years away, when he returned, he didn't feel as warm and familiar with the town as he remembered it.

His father and mother, his flesh and blood relatives, had been left deep in his mind by time. Thinking about seeing them again soon, Chen Zhou couldn't even think of what to say.

He lowered his head, opened his phone, and flipped through the photo album. Looking at the photos that should have been taken a few days or months ago, he felt as if he had lived through another world.

Before the thought could linger, the taxi had already left the remote suburbs and entered the old town.

The residential buildings here were all built in the early 2000s or late 1990s, and most of them are staff housing.

Back then, construction technology was not advanced, and old residential buildings did not have elevators. The tallest buildings were only six stories high, with two households per floor. People living on the top floor had to exert a lot of effort to climb the stairs.

Chen Zhou's family bought an old staff housing building, which cost them over 200,000 yuan. This building is considered their most valuable real estate.

……

The town of Balinqi was first built in the late 80s. When the town was planned, it was not considered that cars would develop to the point where each family would own one or even two.

As times change, roads that were once wide enough are now filled with more and more vehicles.

There are no parking lots along the roadside or in the old town's residential areas. If you want to shop in the bustling pedestrian street or supermarket, driving is a very unwise choice because you simply cannot find a parking space.

Of course, with the planning of the new urban area, wider roads and parking lots were built one after another, but the housing prices in the new city were too high, and no vendors were willing to patronize the new commercial street built by the government.

In particular, with the rise of online shopping in recent years, the early large-scale clothing stores have been severely impacted.

After customers learned to shop online, many clothing stores could no longer afford rent and utility bills and had to close down.

During the pandemic, the already sluggish physical industries were further impacted, and now both the new and old urban areas of Bairin Banner appear somewhat desolate.

However, the town's catering industry has developed quite well since the pandemic ended.

Bahrainis may be reluctant to spend money on clothes or luxury goods, but they never skimp on food.

Restaurants serving Sichuan cuisine, hot pot, spicy stir-fry, as well as Shandong cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, and even teahouses from the south have all opened. As long as the taste suits the local palate, the shop is clean, and the service is good, even if it's a bit pricey, there are still many customers, and business is quite booming.

In the evening, the pedestrian street area is even more crowded.

Rows of food stalls stretched from one end of the street to the other, selling fruits, vegetables, secondhand toys, antiques, pets, rat poison, and athlete's foot medicine. Some people were shouting through megaphones, while others sat on small stools fanning themselves, waiting for customers to come...

Although it is just an inland town, it has its own unique prosperity.

The Green Tree Garden residential complex was originally staff housing for the Industry and Commerce Bureau. As the salaries of the bureau's employees gradually increased and they accumulated savings, many of them moved out of the complex and rented or sold the vacant apartments.

Don't let the age of the buildings in this complex fool you; the location is actually quite good.

Just two streets away from the residential area is Nanxin Street, where the town's morning market is located. Chen Zhou remembers that his mother would get up early every morning and ride her electric bike to the market to buy groceries.

The vegetables at the morning market are fresh and cheap, and they also sell pork, beef, and mutton, but you have to go early.

It's late summer and early autumn now. The morning market starts around 5 a.m., but if you go at 7 a.m., all the fresh vegetables will be sold out, leaving only some wilted old vegetables.

Three streets to the west of the residential area is the town's largest supermarket, which has a children's playground, a buffet, and a pastry shop, all at very affordable prices. This makes it so appealing that residents of the new town are willing to take a taxi to the old town to shop.

Supermarkets in the new urban area are expensive and have poor product quality, making them unpopular with the residents.

……

As the taxi drove onto the crowded asphalt roads of the old town, the slowing speed gave Chen Zhou time to browse the small shops along the street, and long-forgotten memories surfaced in his mind.

Not long after, the taxi drove into a narrow street that could barely accommodate two cars, and then stopped after driving another fifty meters or so.

"We've arrived. Will you be scanning a QR code or paying cash?"

The driver pulled the handbrake and turned to look at Chen Zhou.

Chen Zhou was already staring blankly at the faded "Green Tree Home" sign at the entrance of the community.

Only after the driver reminded him again did he take out his phone to scan the code and pay, then carry his bags into the residential area.

……

It was already dark, and the last rays of the setting sun could not penetrate the courtyard of the residential complex surrounded by buildings.

The evening breeze was slightly cool.

Next to the long shed filled with bicycles and electric bikes, several elderly men sat around a folding table, playing cards or chess, surrounded by a group of "strategists" offering advice. Chen Zhou, who appeared even larger due to carrying a bag, attracted the attention of these retirees as soon as he entered the courtyard.

Chen Zhou is a skilled chess player and often "exchanges" chess skills with these elderly men during his holidays.

Of course, what was called a friendly competition was actually Chen Zhou unilaterally tormenting the old men, often leaving them speechless for a long time, staring blankly at the chessboard.

However, although they couldn't defeat Chen Zhou, the old men were not discouraged and often teamed up to take on Chen Zhou alone.

Each of them had their own approach, analyzing Chen Zhou's intentions from various angles, and then discussing to come up with the most correct solution.

It's said that two fists can't beat four hands, but with the help of many people working together, the old men actually managed to beat Chen Zhou a few times.

Once they win a game, the old men always have a smug smile on their faces, and what they say is always the same thing: "Kid, you still need to practice," or "Old ginger is spicier, your grandpa will always be your grandpa."

Unfortunately, even when they teamed up, Chen Zhou still managed to maintain a win rate of over 70%.

When they win, everyone is happy. But when they lose, the old men's advisory group falls into infighting. They accuse each other of being terrible players and say that they can't go wrong if they play according to their own ideas. They act like sore losers, which is quite a unique scene in the neighborhood.

Criticisms were one thing, arguments were another, but no one really got angry.

They're all in their sixties or seventies. Although they've become "old children," they still retain the composure and maturity that old people should have.

They were just retired, and with nothing to do, they chatted and teased each other for fun with friends they'd known for most of their lives.

Despite his strained relationship with his superiors, Chen Zhou was quite willing to spend time with these lovable old men.

The elderly men also admired Chen Zhou's chess skills. When Chen Zhou couldn't find a job after returning home, they introduced him to many job opportunities.

Chen Zhou simply didn't want to owe them favors, so he declined them all.

In fact, in terms of company benefits and income, the jobs introduced by several older men were much better than those at the cement factory.

After all, he was a retired cadre who had worked in the Industry and Commerce Bureau his whole life. Even if he had no connections, arranging a job for a young person would be a piece of cake for him.

Moreover, Chen Zhou himself has a high level of education, is young, and has an excellent appearance, so it wouldn't be considered a favor to be assigned to any place.

……

"Hey, the Great Chess Master is back! You've saved up enough vacation time to stay home for a few days?"

An elderly man who was watching his old friends play cards recognized Chen Zhou as soon as he entered the community carrying a package and called out to him.

His shout alerted the old man playing chess at the next table, who swept the chess pieces off the board and stood up.

"Little Chen, you're finally back."

You don't know, a kid came to our neighborhood this month. He's really good at chess, I don't think he's any worse than you. I certainly can't beat him.

I told him to arrange a game of chess between the two of you, so you can have a match sometime.

Hey, isn't that a coincidence? I told him the day before yesterday, and you're back today. After he gets out of school later, I'll call him out to play a game with you..."

Before the old man could finish speaking, his chess partner got impatient.

"Wang Zhanguo, you old bastard, I'm about to kill you, why are you flipping the table?"

If you can't beat them, don't beat them!

……

The old men's vulgar arguing and cursing trapped Chen Zhou in place.

The lights at the entrance of the residential building are different from the solar streetlights in the factory; the light is dim and warm.

The sun had just set, and the old men had already turned on the lamps to make it easier to play cards. The small square table and the people around it were all bathed in the light.

Small advertisements were pasted on the gray and blackened exterior walls of the building, with locksmiths' phone numbers painted in bright blue paint.

The bicycle shed was extremely dilapidated and had no charging stations. Someone had thrown a long socket down from the second floor and dragged it on the ground to connect their electric bike.
Further away, children were playing, and someone's pet dog was wagging its tail and running happily by...

Watching all this, Chen Zhou gradually relaxed his grip on the suitcase, letting the wheels fall to the ground.

To outsiders, he was just a big kid who had returned home after being away for more than a month. But who could understand the long, arduous, and lonely journey of those 28 years, and who could he talk to about it?
Remaining silent, Chen Zhou could only shout in his heart—

"I'm home! I'm finally home!"

……

In stark contrast to Chen Zhou's silence, the "battle" between the old men quickly escalated. Knowing he was in the wrong, Grandpa Wang made an excuse to leave the chess table and went to Chen Zhou's side.

"Why did you bring so much stuff back this time?"
What are all these?

Chen Zhou was practically a child that Grandpa Wang had watched grow up, and he was quite familiar with the elderly people in the neighborhood.

Despite not having seen each other for a while, Grandpa Wang was not at all distant. He immediately reached out to help Chen Zhou carry the large bags and packages in his hands, not minding at all that Chen Zhou didn't reply to him.

Only then did Chen Zhou come to his senses, clenching his fist slightly to prevent Grandpa Wang from taking away the painting he cherished.

"This is your luggage, sir."

He smiled sheepishly and explained, then added another sentence.

"I quit the cement factory job, I'm done."

"Oh, I was wondering why you came back early, since you weren't supposed to be on vacation yet. Turns out you quit."

Unable to help, Grandpa Wang stayed by Chen Zhou's side, chatting with him casually.

"I've said it before: working in a cement factory is no good job. Look at all the smog and pollution all day long; it's bad for your health."

I saw something on my phone a couple of days ago that said working in dusty environments can lead to pneumoconiosis, which is very difficult to treat. Once you get it, you cough constantly and it can really ruin your health.

Although Grandpa Wang didn't intend to advertise, once he started shouting in his loud voice, the old men gathered at the entrance of the building couldn't help but want to know.

The neighbors were all old acquaintances. When they learned that Chen Zhou had lost his job, several kind-hearted old men gathered around him. Some comforted Chen Zhou, while others introduced him to new jobs. No one said anything inappropriate.

When living on the island, no one on the entire island had a higher status than Chen Zhou, and no one dared to show him any concern as an elder.

Feeling cared for and remembered again, Chen Zhou was both touched and somewhat at a loss.

Surrounded by a group of elderly men, he politely declined their offers of help while continuing to walk forward, and soon he arrived at the entrance of Unit 1 of Building 1.

"Sir, I'll put my things up first, and we can talk another day."

"Okay, I'll call you when that kid's free. You don't get any sense of accomplishment playing chess with us all the time..."

Grandpa Wang escorted Chen Zhou to the entrance of the building before turning to leave, seemingly craving more chess and wanting to play a couple more games with his old buddies. (End of Chapter)