My Return to Life

After four o'clock, Fang Nian and Li Annan left the Internet cafe together.

In the past tens of minutes, Fang Nian has seen the fragile hearts of Internet users who have not experienced too many 'shocks'.

Countless Internet users who are forced to rely on it have used what they have learned all their lives to express that they have been pierced to the heart.

The most direct manifestation is that, for example, a forum directly goes down.

For example, the book review section was massacred.

"So crazy?"

"Are you going to be so crazy?!"

Well, Fang Nian felt very sorry for them. In 2008, they were so cute.

… Li Annan, who was carrying a single-room cross-body bag, followed and left the Internet cafe with doubts written all over his face.

"Why did you leave so early today?"

It's summer now, and it's getting dark late. Usually, at such a time, it would take at least five o'clock to leave Tangli Town by car.

Fang Nian's answer was simple and direct: "There is no money."

Hearing this, Li Annan sighed a little worriedly: "I don't know what to do, whether the holiday is long or short."

"Are you rich?" Fang Nian asked casually.

A child of seventeen or eighteen has a bunch of dreams buried under his pillow.

When I was about to take the first step, reality suddenly came into my dream—there was no money under my pillow, so the pile of dreams shattered.

Li Annan was like this, the melancholy atmosphere was shattered all at once.

So, Li Annan began to mutter.

"It's so annoying to make up classes so early in the third year of high school. I went to work next door. I work in an electronics factory. I heard that I sit at work, and I get 1.5 times the salary for overtime work. The monthly salary is more than 2,000 yuan. The basic salary alone is 1,000 yuan!"

"When I come back before school starts, I will have more than 3,000 yuan in my hand!"

As he spoke, he became envious, and even his eye sockets were reddish with blood.

Because Li Annan's current living expenses are only 500 yuan a month.

Just thinking of the figure of a thousand dollars is very exciting.

From the beginning to the end of the year, only during the Chinese New Year, the New Year's money may exceed 1,000.

Fang Nian is a little less than Li Annan, only 400 yuan a month.

In 2008, the basic salary of 1,000 yuan was indeed not low.

Fang Nian remembered that at this time next year, his basic salary for going out to work was still 1,000 yuan, and he was still in Pengcheng.

It is also an electronics factory, and the salary I got in the first month after entering the factory was 3020 yuan.

It was July, and I worked every day for 31 days in that month. I often worked overtime until 11 o'clock in the evening, and worked overtime on Saturdays and Sundays, which was divided into 1.5 and double overtime wages.

Fang Nian will never forget this matter.

After all, it was the first time I earned money by myself, and it was also the first time I was so tired. After working hard for a month, my weight dropped from 128 to 105 catties.

"You don't have any relatives over there, no one to take them with you, so you're not afraid of getting lost on the road?" Fang Nian joked, thinking that this was something deep in his memory.

Li Annan froze for a moment, unable to speak anymore.

The two of them crossed Tangli main street from the side street of the Internet cafe, and then turned to the station.

It says it is a station, but there are no signs such as a parking lot or a stop sign.

Even in 2020, when Fang Nian accidentally returned to his hometown, there was still no parking lot or stop sign.

The so-called station in the town is that all the minibuses going in different directions stop on the same two-way road and wait for passengers.

There are cards on the front and rear windows of the minibus to mark the starting area and the important places passing by.

Divided into two types, between different townships and between cities and counties.

Roughly, it can cover different township-level units along the way.

"The ones going to Daping got in the car and left!"

"Go to Tian's house, get in the car and leave!"

"go……"

Just after entering this street, the voice of the conductor yelling to get on the bus came over.

The half-public and half-private minibuses are operated in a contracting manner similar to that of urban taxis, earning more or less depends on the number of customers they solicit.

One after the other, Li Annan boarded the minibus bound for 'Daping'.

The scene in the car is just like the mess in memory.

Most of these minibuses are second-hand vehicles purchased from different places. The doors do not have automatic devices and are opened and closed manually by conductors.

The number of seats is scarce, and the load is 19 people.

When it comes to the market, it is often crowded.

The seat is in the form of fabric padded sponge, but it is not comfortable to sit on.

The overall experience is not very good, there is no air conditioning, and the windows may not work well.

So it is generally hot in summer and cold in winter.

Due to the poor road conditions and the poor suspension and shock absorption of the car body, the ride is very bumpy.

However, until 2020, minibuses like this are still the only public transportation in Tangli Town, because businesses like taxis cannot develop.

Fang Nian and Li Annan were lucky, the car started to leave shortly after getting in the car.

"Where?"

"Flowers."

"2 bucks 5."

"..."

On the country road, the speed of the vehicle is not fast, about forty or fifty kilometers per hour.

Even so, Li Annan arrived in less than ten minutes.

"I go first."

A few minutes after Li Annan got off the car, Fang Nian also arrived at his destination, Huajia Market Street.

It is said to be a market, but it is actually a two-way main road passing through it, with houses connected on both sides, so it developed into a market.

Fang Nian couldn't tell how it developed like this in the first place, because no one cared.

It's been that way for as long as I can remember.

In summer, even the market is sparsely populated.

Use a fan indoors to cool off.

After getting off the car, Fang Qian looked around, it was empty, not even a stall, let alone the small bread that solicited customers in his memory.

But Fang Nian was not in a hurry to use the 11 route to go home.

He remembered that he still had 20 yuan backed up all the time in his pocket.

I also remember that Tangli and other places have always had a motorcycle rental business.

Sure enough, he quickly found this business in the market.

Talk to the driver for a few words.

The driver replied: "It costs 10 yuan."

"Okay."

Then the motorcycle started booming, and Fang Nian climbed up and roared away.

"Fortunately, there is a backup, so this will come in handy."

If it wasn't for the backup of 20 yuan, even if he remembered that there was a motorcycle rental, Fang Nian still had to go back on the 11th road.

Only nine minutes later, Fang Nian arrived at the villager group to which he belonged: the Maoba Villager Group.

After climbing another uphill, I saw my own home.

From 2008 to 2020, my hometown has not changed much, and most of them are familiar.

Except that in about 13 years, a road less than two kilometers inside the villager group was hardened, and there were almost no changes.

Fang Nian quickly walked back to his home along the dirt field.

I walked past the door of the neighbor's house, said hello, and crossed a small mound of bamboo growing to the north side of the house.

Fang Nian paused.

Looking at the two-story six-lane house within sight, it was a house built together with his uncle's family when he was three years old.

Separated by the hall, the uncle's house is on the south side, and Fang Nian's house is on the north side.

The hall is shared, and there is an altar inside, enshrining the memorial tablets of the deceased ancestors, and there are tables for sacrifices, which are not used daily, and are only used during festivals and so on.

After more than thirteen years of wind and rain, the long white tiles on the wall of the small tiled building that was still fashionable in Maoba at the beginning of this century have already fallen off.

There are traces of wind and rain mottled inside and outside the building.

On the north side of the small building, completely shaded by bamboo forests, there is a miscellaneous house that is common in the southern countryside, where chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and other poultry are raised.

And the toilet on the inside - an old-fashioned latrine that can be done by digging a hole and putting a wooden board on it.

Fang Nian glanced away, and about seven or eight years later, the miscellaneous house and small bamboo forest disappeared into history under the action of excavators.

The small building belonging to Fang Nian's house was cut off, and a new country villa was built on the cleared land.

Compared with the current appearance, what Fang Nian remembered more clearly was the appearance of the small villa.

Looking at the small open space overgrown with weeds and rocks, as well as the huts and bamboo forests that still exist, there is a sense of trance brewing in Fang Nian's heart.

At this time, a voice came from the steps outside the hall at the other end: "Fang Nian, you're back."