Restart life

Chapter 27 0026 [In the Name of the Father, Show Your Holiness Before the People]

Yangcheng.

Inside a rough house in a certain community.

Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan were scraping putty, one on the roof and the other on the wall.

"Drip drip drip..."

The pager rang out.

Chen Xinghua threw the scraper into the putty bucket and took off the pager from his waist to check the message.

"Bring the debt book, son."

Chen Xinghua read it several times but still couldn't understand what it meant.

He jumped off the stool and handed the pager to his wife.

Yao Lan didn't know what her son was going to do, but she still said, "You go answer the phone, I'll take care of this."

Chen Xinghua gave a few instructions and quickly went downstairs and left the community.

He didn't go to the rental house to get the debt book, but went straight to a nearby phone bar to answer the call. He remembered exactly how much he owed to whom.

"Liangliang, what do you want me to do with the debt capital?" Chen Xinghua asked.

Chen Guiliang didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "Dad, I made 50,000 yuan today."

Chen Xinghua was shocked when he heard this: "You didn't do anything bad, did you?"

"I used some business ideas and sold them to my cousin's boss friend," Chen Guiliang explained. "If you don't believe me, you can call my cousin and ask him."

Chen Xinghua was silent.

It's not that he didn't believe his son, he was just too surprised and didn't know what to say.

Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, read out the name and amount, and I'll write it down and pay it back directly. If the creditor is currently in Yangcheng, you can withdraw the money from your card and pay it back yourself."

The father and son have a primary and secondary card with the same bank account.

Chen Xinghua said:
"Two of them are working in Guangzhou. I'll take the bus there to pay it back. I'll use the money I saved for your college tuition, which will save me the handling fee for withdrawing money from another place."

"You keep track of the remaining ones. Yang Aijun from Group 1 of our village owes him 2360 yuan; Liu Yuejin from Group 4, 2250 yuan. Tang Guangyao from Group 2 of Xiafeng Village, 2280 yuan; Liu Gang from Group 2 of Xiafeng Village..."

These are wages owed from seven years ago.

Chen Xinghua was cheated by his fellow villager, who had subcontracted the project with him, and had to pay back his wages out of pocket. Fortunately, the project had already been completed and part of his wages had been paid. The fellow villager simply absconded with the balance.

For seven whole years, Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan have been working hard to repay the remaining wages.

Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, stop working and come back with Mom."

"I haven't finished the decoration work yet. I will go home after the end of the year," said Chen Xinghua.

Chen Guiliang said, "Okay. I'll wait for you to come back for the New Year."

Chen Xinghua looked at the call time, counted the minutes and said, "I'll hang up first. If it exceeds the integer, it will be charged again."

"Goodbye."

The tone of voice of both father and son seemed relatively calm.

There was no excitement or joy, no sobbing or crying, and no need to ask about each other's well-being.

The surging emotions are often hidden behind the calmness.

Chen Xinghua walked out of the bar and felt that the sun was particularly bright today.

The mountain that had weighed on him for seven years was removed and thrown into the sea, and all the bones in his body seemed to have lost several pounds.

I can finally go home for the New Year!
Chen Xinghua hurried back to the house that was being renovated and couldn't wait to tell his wife the news.

Yao Lan heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this, and quietly walked to the balcony to sit down and rest. With her back to her husband, she quietly raised her hand to wipe away her tears, but the more she wiped away, the more tears came.

Years of repression and grievances turned into tears in an instant.

Yao Lan rested for a few minutes, and her tears stopped flowing. She went back to the living room to continue scraping the putty.

Although the debt has been paid off, life must go on.

It costs money to send my son to college, and the dilapidated house in my hometown also needs to be rebuilt.

There are so many places to spend money.

After scraping the putty for a while, Yao Lan suddenly smiled and said, "I'm leaving get off work early today. I'm going to buy some meat. I haven't eaten meat in a long time."

"Let's buy some pork, mutton, and fish," Chen Xinghua also smiled. "Let's also call the Zhang couple next door over. They used to treat us all, so it's our turn to treat them back."

Chen Guiliang suddenly earned 5 yuan, but the couple didn't ask much about this big thing, and didn't even call Feng Tao to confirm it.

Because they trust each other and their son.

Moreover, he never interferes in his son's affairs and respects all his choices.

The whip is beyond reach.

They haven't been home for seven years, so no matter how much they interfere, it's useless. Chen Guiliang has been completely left alone.

……

Hang up the phone and walk away.

Chen Guiliang squatted on the side of the street and began to think about what to do.

Even when it comes to paying off debts, there are different ways to do it, and the results that can be achieved are completely different.

Relying on his distant memory, Chen Guiliang walked towards an old commercial street.

Twenty years later, the street was renovated and rebuilt, and it is still very popular. The shops and stalls on both sides of the street target the lower classes of the city and farmers who come to the city to buy goods.

Casual pants printed with stills from "Meteor Garden" are only ten yuan a pair, and you can bargain and get them for six or seven yuan.

Chen Guiliang bought a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes, some leaf tobacco and a few pounds of baked cakes.

He then took out some cash, took a taxi to the urban-rural fringe, and found a small shop selling televisions.

"How much does this color TV cost?" asked Chen Guiliang.

The boss greeted him warmly: "Changhong, a famous brand. If you like it, young man, take it at the cost price of 1800, and I will make a few dozen dollars of your hard-earned money."

Chen Guiliang then asked about the price of a satellite antenna, which resembles a radar with a diameter of one meter and is commonly known as a "pot cover."

The boss said, "The pot cover is 500 yuan each, and installation is included within two kilometers. If it exceeds two kilometers, there will be an additional installation fee."

Chen Guiliang bargained directly: "I'll give you 2500 for two color TVs. Both must be equipped with satellite dish antennas, and they must be delivered to your door with installation included."

The boss complained bitterly: "Oh, you can't bargain like this, I don't even have the capital..."

Chen Guiliang was too lazy to talk nonsense and turned around and walked out.

"Young man, don't go. The price can still be negotiated." The boss hurriedly stopped him.

Chen Guiliang has already walked out of the store.

The boss chased out and asked, "Where should I send it to?"

"Qianfeng Village, Yaojia Township." said Chen Guiliang.

The boss started complaining again: "Yao's hometown is too far away. I won't give you a ride even if you pay more... Hey, don't go! I'll give you a ride, I'll give you a ride. You have to pay first!"

Chen Guiliang returned to the store and quickly paid.

The boss moved the color TV and antenna onto the tricycle and asked his wife to stay and look after the store.

As he started the engine, he complained that the deal was a loss. Chen Guiliang shoved a cigarette in his hand to silence him, then jumped into the back of the tricycle and sat down with the two color TVs.

After a bumpy ride for a long time, the tricycle drove from the county road into the village road.

The village roads are even more rugged and bumpy, as if the car could overturn at any time.

Chen Guiliang silently observed the rural scenery.

He doesn't like this place, he doesn't like his village.

Most of my memories of this place are not very good.

Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan worked diligently, paying off their unpaid wages one by one. But the villagers who were owed wages blamed them for their misfortune. The man who absconded with the money was already missing, and cursing a missing person was a waste of effort.

As a result, Chen Guiliang was also looked down upon, and even his own children were not allowed to play with him.

There is nothing wrong with the creditors doing this, but many villagers who are not owed money also discriminate against Chen Guiliang's family for inexplicable reasons.

Of course, more villagers just watched the fun and did not care about it.

More than a decade later, the entire village was demolished to make way for a high-speed railway and a new city. Seeing his now-destroyed home and the relocation of all his fellow villagers, Chen Guiliang finally felt what he had lost.

In fact, some villagers were nice to him, but unfortunately the kindness the boy felt was completely blinded by his resentment.

His third brother, who was of the same generation as him in the clan but older than his father, took him to the hospital for emergency treatment on a bicycle in the middle of the night.

Granny Tan, who lived halfway up the mountain opposite the paddy fields, would give him candy every time she met him on the road, even though he was already in junior high school.

There was also Uncle Li, who had a sideline job as a fisherman. He would always deliberately pass by his house after selling fish and half-sell or give away the leftover fish noodles...

There's no place where all the people are bad.

"Stop at the bamboo forest ahead."

Before the tricycle came to a complete stop, Chen Guiliang jumped down and shouted to the man working in the fields beside the road: "Uncle Liang, come and help me."

Most of the villagers are related to each other, and this "Uncle Liang" is a relative of Chen Guiliang in a roundabout way.

Fourth Uncle Liang dropped his hoe and came over, surprised, "Guiliang, you're buying a color TV."

Chen Guiliang stuffed a box of Hongtashan cigarettes into his hand and said, "Buy one for my grandmother and one for my grandparents."

"Filial piety!"

Uncle Liang happily accepted the Hongtashan TV and worked very hard with his boss to lift the color TV.

After walking about two or three hundred meters, four or five villagers were attracted.

Color TVs are not uncommon.

What’s strange is that the person who bought the color TV, Chen Guiliang’s family, is still in debt!
Immediately, a villager quietly ran home and said, "Hurry up and tell Yang Aijun's wife that Chen Guiliang bought two color TVs. Tell her to come over and collect the debt. If she can't get the money, use the TVs as collateral!"

My grandfather was making brooms in the yard with sorghum stalks. These brooms could be sold at the market.

Chen Guiliang looked at his "resurrected" grandfather and smiled brightly: "Grandpa, I bought you some leaf tobacco."

"it is good."

Grandpa happily continued to make brooms.

Chen Guiliang added, "I also bought you a color TV."

Grandpa was so shocked that he stood up and squinted his presbyopic eyes to look at the people behind Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang said to the boss, "Carry the color TV in and put it in the bedroom."

"Go this way." Grandpa hurriedly led the way.

Since there was no TV cabinet, I cleaned up a broken table and moved it to the bedroom to place the color TV.

More and more villagers came to the scene after hearing the news, gathering in the courtyard to chat. A few gossipy women stood in the distance, pointing and criticizing Chen Guiliang.

A few minutes later, my grandmother and uncle received the news and hurried back home from the fields.

As for my uncle and his wife, they have been working in coastal cities and sent their children to attend a school for migrant workers.

"Where is Chen Guiliang? Where is Chen Guiliang?" A peasant woman came running over quickly. She was the wife of the creditor Yang Aijun.

Chen Guiliang took the initiative to greet her: "Hello, Miss Zhu San."

The peasant woman, clutching the IOU for her wages, grabbed Chen Guiliang by the shirt and said, "You have money to buy a color TV, but you don't have money to pay back your debt? You have to pay me back today, no matter what. If you don't pay, I'll take your color TV away!"

Chen Guiliang smiled, pulled out a stack of banknotes, held it high, and said to the crowd, "My parents have become rich. They asked me to go home and pay off all my old debts!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers began to talk about it.

Someone curiously asked, "Guiliang, what business did your father do to make a fortune?"

Chen Guiliang lied without hesitation: "My parents run a renovation team. Not long ago, they took on a big job and asked them to renovate half of the rough houses in the building."

The villagers were completely furious.

"I told you that Chen Xinghua is not someone who defaults on his debts. He has been paying off his debts over the past few years."

"More than that. Of all the people in the village who go out to work, he and Shi Qiang are the ones who get along the best. He's been working as a foreman in Yangcheng for a long time."

"Don't mention Shi Qiang. It was that bastard who ran away with all the project funds!"

"Guiliang, is your dad's renovation team still short of people? How much can you make a year working with him?"

"Guiliang, will your father come back for the New Year? I also want to go out to work next year, but I don't know any decoration skills. Can I be his apprentice?"

"..."

A few minutes ago, Chen Guiliang's father was looked down upon by the villagers, and he had been secretly laughed at by countless people over the years.

But in the blink of an eye, he went from being a deadbeat to a capable person in the village!
The peasant woman stopped grabbing Chen Guiliang's clothes, but her tone was still not very good: "You took seven years to pay back the money. If you put it in the bank, the interest would be several hundred yuan."

In 1996, bank deposit interest rates were close to 10%, and only plummeted after the Asian financial crisis.

If you really calculate the interest strictly, it's scary.

But since it's a debt repayment, a little interest is enough, and even a small amount is a pleasant surprise.

Chen Guiliang added two hundred yuan and handed it to the peasant woman along with the principal: "Miss Zhu San, this two hundred yuan is interest. My father has become rich, and he will give you everything he owes. Those of you who didn't pay the interest before can come to my house during the New Year, and I will definitely pay you back the interest in full!"

The peasant woman's face lit up with joy. She quickly exchanged the IOU for money, flattering him, "I've always known that Brother Chen is honest and resourceful. He'll definitely be able to repay the debt. Guiliang, you have a lot of potential too. You'll be a college student in the future, and I'm afraid you'll want to stay in a big city to work."

It is human nature to flatter the powerful and look down on the weak.

Of course, the reason Chen Guiliang went through all this today was so that his parents could stand up straight and live a decent life when they returned home.

If you just pay off your debt, you will still be slandered by gossips!
Therefore, parents must "get rich".

My grandmother and my uncle were grinning from ear to ear at this moment. They were surrounded by villagers who were watching the fun, and all kinds of compliments came to their ears.

Especially those villagers who heard that Chen Xinghua had become rich and wanted to join him in the renovation work next year. Everyone kept saying good things about him, completely forgetting the bad things they had said behind his back before.

"Mother-in-law, I bought you your favorite baked cake." Chen Guiliang carried the cake over.

The grandmother was even happier and told her neighbors, "My grandson is very filial."

The neighbors echoed the compliments.

Chen Guiliang also laughed, but he felt like crying inside.

Before he was reborn, his grandparents had died of illness one after another.

Especially when his grandfather passed away, he didn't even see him for the last time, and when he rushed back to his hometown, he could only go straight to the mourning hall.

(End of this chapter)