Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

'Bang!'

The first gunshot of the Spring Festival in 1984 rang out in the courtyard in front of the Lianzhai Subdistrict Office. The children who were watching covered their ears and screamed and jumped up. The courtyard was packed with adults dressed in New Year's clothes.

In the entire town of Jiping, only Lianzhai and other communities and streets chose to hold the ceremony on the Spring Festival to pray to the gods for an auspicious day. However, Chen Xiangui directly declared in the Lianzhai council that no auspicious day could be better than the Spring Festival.

But there was another reason why other streets didn't choose today: they wanted to see if the government had really lifted the restrictions. You see, during that turmoil, many temples' incense burners were confiscated by those young rioters and sold as scrap metal.

The bronze incense burners enshrined in these temples of local deities in Tuocheng have been passed down for hundreds of years and have considerable cultural value. It was considered a waste at the time.

Fortunately, the people of Lianzhai were quite shrewd. They had hidden the incense burner and other items beforehand and replaced them with a wooden one. So if it got smashed, they didn't care.

As the crisp sound of wooden sticks striking the ground rang out, the Yingge dance troupe, formed by the villagers of Lianzhai, began to warm up the atmosphere. Dressed in various costumes and with different character masks, the young men, each holding two wooden mallets, began to dance on the open ground with vigorous and bold steps, guided by the sound of drums.

Chen Dong held little Chen Hui's hand, while in his other hand he carried various offerings to worship their ancestors at the ancestral hall. Zhang Yi held little Huiyi beside him, carrying folded paper money. Listening to the exciting and noisy sounds of gongs and drums, little Chen Hui, who had never seen Yingge dance before, was a little reluctant to leave.

"Daddy, what's this?" Little Chen Hui tugged at Chen Dong, refusing to leave, and pointed with his little finger at the Yingge team members dancing merrily in the crowd.

"Do you know the heroes of Liangshan? They're playing the roles of the Liangshan heroes who are storming the execution ground to rescue their brothers," Chen Dong explained to Xiao Chen Hui. "They're all heroes who act on behalf of Heaven!"

"Daddy, is that Zorro and Wayne?" Little Chen Hui jumped up excitedly. "Daddy, let's take a look, okay!"

"No, we still have to go to the ancestral hall to worship our ancestors. We can come and watch later after we finish worshiping them. Anyway, they're not just going to dance and leave. We can watch all day long." Normally, Chen Dong would have agreed to his son's request, but not today.

For the people of Tuocheng, the ancestral worship on New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival is a particularly solemn occasion. Unless there is a really special reason why you can't come, if you dare to be absent, at best your relatives will say you are not up to standard, and at worst they will say you are unfilial.

Although Chen Dong grew up in America, he grew up in the rich Chinese cultural sphere of Chinatown. Among overseas Chinese communities, the most stubborn and conservative are the Cantonese people. They have adhered to tradition for decades, and some are even more so than Cantonese people in mainland China.

Among the overseas Cantonese, the most stubborn and conservative are the people of Tuocheng. They insist on speaking their own language, and as long as you speak the same language as me, you are one of our own.

People from all walks of life should help each other. Among overseas Chinese, the people of Turkmenistan are known for their unity. If you beat up a Turkmenistan today, a constant stream of Turkmenistaners will come to retaliate against you tomorrow. Chinese people abroad are known for holding grudges and are so vengeful that they believe in killing the whole family!

Chinese people always waver between forbearance and killing your whole family. Once you cross the line with Chinese people, then you should be prepared for your whole family to become rich.

"snort!"

Little Chen Hui pouted as Chen Dong led him toward the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, glancing back every few steps at the Yingge dance troupe performing in the crowd. Zhang Yi smiled and said to him, "Walk faster, watch your step, or you'll fall."

"Brother, wait for me!"

Behind him, Xiao Rongguo was wearing a black and white vest over a white shirt, and his trousers were sharply angled. He had polished his little leather shoes himself that morning until his father, Chen Zaixing, scolded him, saying they were almost broken before he finally stopped.

"Hehehe, brother, look what this is!" Little Rongguo came running over, showing off his palm like he was presenting a treasure. Little Chenhui saw it was firecrackers and was overjoyed. "Little brother, where did you get these?"

"I picked them up there," Xiao Rongguo said, pointing to the pile of red firecracker paper not far away. "Fourth Brother picked up a lot too. We'll set off firecrackers together later!"

"Okay, okay!"

Chen Dong glanced at the firecrackers Xiao Rongguo was holding. Not bad. This kid isn't stupid. He knows that you can't pick up firecrackers with short fuses because they're easy to blow your hand up. When he was a kid, he was just like Xiao Chenhui and Xiao Rongguo, playing around Chinatown with a group of kids, setting off firecrackers to scare people.

Chen Dong cautioned the two, "Playing is fine, but don't throw things into glass jars or other people's water tanks. If they explode, it's no joke!"

Chen Dong had personally experienced this when he was a child. He threw a large firecracker into someone else's wine vat, and the whole vat cracked. His wife, Zhang Yi, knew this best because the vat Chen Dong threw belonged to Zhang Yi's father.

Afterwards, Chen Dong was beaten so badly by his father, Chen Xianhua, that he cried and begged for forgiveness. He then went to Zhang Yi's father's house with gifts to apologize. The two families became close again because of this incident and have maintained a long-term relationship.

"Yes, yes, we know," Xiao Rongguo said. Although he was only four years old, children who grew up in the countryside knew a lot more than children in the city. For example, once someone blew up a public toilet and was beaten by his family, no one else dared to do it again.

More than a dozen large mahogany tables have been set up in the courtyard in front of the Chen Clan Ancestral Hall, filled with various offerings: five kinds of sacrificial animals and five kinds of fruits, paper money, tea and wine, sweet soup cooked by the women themselves, and red peach cakes made by hand. People who arrive late have nowhere to start.

"Adong, Xiaoyi, over here," Chen Zaiguang waved to Chen Dong and Zhang Yi from afar. The three large square tables in front of them were set up by Chen Xiangui's family. Seeing that Chen Zaiguang and the others were there, no one else came over to join in the fun.

Chen Dong led Xiao Chen Hui over and looked at the table that Chen Zaiguang had left for him. He and Zhang Yi began to place offerings on it. As soon as Chen Dong let go of Xiao Chen Hui's hand, he immediately followed his younger brother Xiao Rongguo to the pond in front of the ancestral hall. The two brothers found a long incense stick and began to plan to light firecrackers.

Seeing this, Chen Zaiguang said to his second son, Rongjie, "Go and keep an eye on your two younger brothers, don't let them get blown up."

"Okay," Chen Rongjie walked over quickly and scooped up Xiao Rongguo from behind. Startled by being hugged from behind, Xiao Rongguo cried out. When he saw it was his second brother, Chen Rongjie, he immediately exclaimed excitedly, "Second brother, put me down quickly, we want to play with firecrackers!"

"You little brat, you'll be crying when you get burned. Come here, let your second brother light it," Chen Rongjie said without saying a word, taking the long incense stick from Xiao Rongguo's hand.

"Wow! No, I want to order myself!"