Around noon, after many hardships, Xu Zhengyang finally arrived safely at Shuanghe Village and came to his doorstep.
As soon as they arrived at the door, they heard their mother, Yuan Suqin's, somewhat angry voice coming from the yard: "Sister-in-law Wang, our Rouyue is still in school!"
"Oh, what's the big deal about going to school? It's alright, it's alright. The national policy now allows college students to get married. Oh right, you're not old enough yet, you're only nineteen this year, right? That's okay, let's get the marriage settled first."
"Let's talk about it later. We have to wait until the child graduates." Yuan Suqin's voice sounded like she was asking her to leave.
However, the middle-aged woman addressed as Sister Wang seemed oblivious to her misunderstanding and continued, "Alright, Zhengyang's mother, I know you're still having trouble figuring things out. It's just that you think Fusheng's legs are a bit off, right? But his family is rich. Besides, Zhengyang is of marriageable age. Do you have the money to get him a wife? If you agree to this marriage, Han Dashan said they'll offer 30,000 yuan just for the betrothal gifts..."
“I don’t care!” Yuan Suqin’s voice turned cold, and her words became increasingly harsh.
"Oh dear, how can you be so ungrateful?" Aunt Wang said angrily, "If you're not happy with this marriage, your husband can forget about working at Han Dashan's factory!"
Yuan Suqin was clearly wary of this, and gritted her teeth but said nothing more.
Hearing the conversation in the courtyard from outside the gate, Xu Zhengyang's anger flared up instantly. He pushed his bicycle into the yard, his face darkening as he looked at Wang's wife, who was sitting on a small stool under the shade of a tree talking to her mother. He coldly said, "Get out!"
Hearing the sound, Aunt Wang turned around and saw Xu Zhengyang with a sullen face, leaning his bicycle against the window of the west room, looking at her coldly. She couldn't help but feel uneasy. After hesitating for a moment, she forced a smile and said, "Oh, Yangzi, you went out to do business again today? You're back quite early. Oh, I always tell people that Zhengyang is such a hardworking and promising boy... I was even thinking of finding you a wife these past few days."
"Get out!" Xu Zhengyang narrowed his eyes.
"Hey, how can you talk like that, child?" Aunt Wang said angrily, feeling embarrassed. "Why is everyone in your family like this? I meant well..." Before she could finish speaking, she quickly stopped, got up, and hurriedly walked out—or rather, ran out.
Because she saw Xu Zhengyang turn around, walk to the west corner, and pick up a broom.
Volume One, Land, Chapter 008: Things Will Get Better
When Xu Zhengyang took out the money he got from selling gold bars and placed it on the kang (a heated brick bed), Yuan Suqin's eyes widened instantly, and she even showed a hint of fear.
She couldn't imagine where her son got so much money.
Could it be that this child has done something illegal or criminal?
No wonder a mother would be so worried about her son. Firstly, because there was so much money, she simply couldn't believe it and wondered if she was dreaming; secondly, it reminded her of her husband's disappointed assessment of their son: "Yangzi is hopeless. With just those few people, sigh, the prison gates are always open for them. Who knows when they'll end up in there."
Seemingly to confirm Xu Neng's words, Chen Chaojiang and Liu Bin were indeed sentenced to prison for causing injury and disability in a fight. That fight also directly led to Xu Zhengyang and several others being detained for half a month.
Although Xu Neng and his wife were well aware that the young men were not troublemakers or unreasonable people, nor were they hotheads who were inherently combative. They had not caused much trouble, and in the few fights they had, apart from their brotherhood, the reasons were really not their fault.
However, the few fights that occurred were more sensational and shocking than the last!
That's a bit of a tangent.
Well, Xu Zhengyang excitedly grabbed his mother's hand, bringing her back to her senses from her astonishment. He told her that our family was rich and we didn't have to worry anymore. Yuan Suqin still found it hard to believe. She stared at her son and asked with concern, "Zhengyang, so much money...where did you get it?"
"Hehe." Xu Zhengyang chuckled, then said cautiously in a low voice, "Mom, please don't tell anyone, okay? Yesterday, when I came back from spreading fertilizer in the rice paddies, I took a bath in the Fu River, and I hurt my foot. I held my breath and dove down to feel around, and guess what? I pulled out two gold bars..."
"What? Why didn't you say that when you came back yesterday?"
Xu Zhengyang scratched his head and explained, "At the time, I wasn't sure if it was a gold bar. I thought I'd go to the city today and have someone check it out at a gold and silver shop. Once they confirmed it was gold, I figured gold can't be used as money anyway, and my family was short of cash, so I just sold it to them for over 87,000 yuan!"
"Oh, oh." Yuan Suqin nodded excitedly, feeling that it was truly a stroke of good luck from heaven that their family could have such good fortune.
Just as the mother and daughter were excitedly discussing how to allocate the money, Xu Neng returned home from get off work looking dejected.
Xu Neng works at a cement products factory in the south of the village, which is the factory that the old woman from the Wang family mentioned before, owned by Han Dashan's family. The salary is not high, only five hundred yuan a month, and the work is very heavy. However, the advantage is that it is right next to the village, so he doesn't have to go too far, and he can still do his work at home and in the fields without any problems.
For some reason, as soon as he got off work this morning, Han Dashan called him into his office, settled his wages, and told him that he didn't need to come to work anymore. As for the reason, Han Dashan was too lazy to explain.
Xu Neng was furious, but he was an honest man and couldn't bring himself to vent his anger. He could only go home dejected and depressed.
This was a significant blow to Xu Neng, as he was not good at speaking and therefore could not run a small business. He also had a wife with poor health, which made him reluctant to travel far away to work. As a result, he lost his job at the cement products factory and found it difficult to find other work.
Without a job, where would he earn money? You see, his family was burdened with a mountain of debt, weighing him down so much that he could hardly stand up straight.
Inside the house, the mother and daughter were chatting happily when they heard a noise outside. Yuan Suqin hurriedly picked up the pile of money spread out on the kang (a heated brick bed) and stuffed it into the cabinet next to the kang. When she saw that it was her husband returning, she smiled and got up, saying, "Oh dear, I was so busy talking to Zhengyang that I forgot to cook. Zhengyang, quickly pour your father a bowl of water, I'll go cook."
"Okay." Xu Zhengyang replied, got off the kang (a heated brick bed), poured water while calling out, "Mom, could you go buy a few bottles of beer and a couple of side dishes?"
“Okay, okay, wait!” Yuan Suqin replied from outside the courtyard.
Xu Neng was a little stunned. When did his wife become so generous? Usually, when her son came back from business and bought a bottle of beer, she would make him leave half a bottle for his father, let alone buy groceries. What was wrong with her today?
Filled with doubt, Xu Neng remembered that he had just lost his job and suddenly panicked. He quickly said, "Zhengyang, go and call your mother back right away. Don't waste money, don't buy beer or food..."
"It's alright, Dad, don't worry about it. We're in a good mood today, let's all have some beer!" Xu Zhengyang said cheerfully, then took out a cigarette from his pocket, handed one to his father, and lit one for himself.
Xu Neng sighed, not in the mood to say anything more. He thought to himself, "Let them drink. Even if I drink a few less beers and eat a few less dishes, I won't become a millionaire." So he sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), drinking water and smoking, muttering absentmindedly, "Our family isn't like other families. We should save money. Sigh..."
Xu Zhengyang smiled but didn't say anything else. He thought that when his mother came back, the three of them could sit together, eat and drink beer, and he could tell his father about how he made tens of thousands of yuan selling gold bars, so that his father could be happy.
In no time, Yuan Suqin returned with three cold dishes and five bottles of beer. She set them out on the small table in the outer room, then called her son and husband to come out and drink. She went to the kitchen to steam rice, and then returned to the table. With a radiant face, she opened a bottle of beer for each of her son and husband, and then opened one for herself, saying that she was happy today and wanted to drink too.
Xu Neng was even more puzzled. What could possibly make his wife so happy? He was puzzled, but too lazy to ask. Firstly, he wasn't good with words, and secondly, he was in a bad mood, so he didn't bother to pay attention to his wife and son's unusual behavior today. He just frowned and sipped his beer, thinking about where he could find work in the future.
"Dad, what's wrong with you?" Yuan Suqin finally noticed that something was wrong with Xu Neng and asked.
"It's nothing."
"Then who are you giving that long face to? I had some good news to tell you today," Yuan Suqin grumbled unhappily.
Xu Zhengyang said from the side, "Dad, is it... is it that Han Dashan won't let you work at his factory anymore?"
"Hmm?" Xu Neng looked up at his son. "How did you know?"
Xu Zhengyang grinned, and his mother chimed in, "If you don't want to go, then don't go. We can't live without their factory, can we? Bah! The Han family is all bad!"
Xu Neng looked completely bewildered, not understanding what had happened.
However, he was puzzled for long before Yuan Suqin told him about the Wang family woman coming to propose marriage that day. Xu Neng was furious when he heard this. His daughter, who was in college, was to marry Han Dashan's crippled son? And an ugly one at that... But he was an honest man, and all he could do was sigh and complain.
Seeing his father's distress, Xu Zhengyang couldn't wait for his mother to speak. He went to the inner room, opened the cabinet, took out two stacks of money, threw them on the table, and said, "Dad, our family is not short of money now, so don't worry. We won't go to work for him anymore. From now on, our family's life will get better and better."
Seeing the two stacks of money lying on the table, Xu Neng was dumbfounded and stammered, "Where did all this money come from?"
“Hehe, there are still many more. This is only a small amount.” Yuan Suqin said happily, “Dad, our Zhengyang is so lucky. He even found two gold bars while taking a bath. He went to the city to sell the gold bars today and made more than 87,000 yuan.”
"What?" Xu Neng couldn't catch his breath and coughed violently. It took him a while to recover. He frowned and pondered for a long time before finally saying, "No matter what, we can't not go to work. If we're lazy and don't work, even mountains of gold and silver can't withstand spending without earning. Besides, Rouyue is still in school, which costs seven or eight thousand yuan a year. Sigh."
Hearing her husband say this, Yuan Suqin fell silent, and most of her previous joy vanished.
Seeing his parents' faces darken again, Xu Zhengyang smiled and said, "Dad, Mom, don't worry. We have eighty or ninety thousand yuan. We'll pay back the money we owe, set aside some for Rouyue's schooling these next two years, and then, well, we'll have over thirty thousand yuan left. I'm planning to open a grain store in Fuhe City. One person can't handle it all, so the whole family can go and help out. That way, everyone will have work to do!"
Upon hearing Xu Zhengyang's words, Xu Neng paused for a moment, then shook his head and said no, what if we lose money?
Yuan Suqin, however, did not think so. Ever since her son started to get on the right track and earn money by selling rice, Yuan Suqin felt that her son was the most promising. Especially when she heard the neighbors praising him with envy, she felt that her son was more and more promising, at least... a hundred times better than his good-for-nothing father.
So Yuan Suqin immediately nodded in support of her son, believing that he had a great talent for business and would definitely make a lot of money.
“No, no, what do you know, you woman? Don’t meddle. Zhengyang is still young. Opening a shop isn’t that simple…” Xu Neng firmly disagreed.
Yuan Suqin said angrily, "You know so much, always afraid of this and afraid of that, but I've never seen you earn any money in your life. If you weren't so incompetent, Yangzi would be in college now..." At this point, Yuan Suqin suddenly realized that she had let something slip and quickly covered her mouth.
Xu Zhengyang was taken aback for a moment, then smiled wryly and said, "Father, Mother, you both know?"
The couple both lowered their heads and sighed.
When Xu Zhengyang took the high school entrance exam, he was admitted to the county's top high school with excellent grades. However, he knew that his family's financial situation simply couldn't support his continued education, especially since he had a younger sister who had always excelled academically. So, Xu Zhengyang simply hid the admission notice in his bookshelf as a keepsake, and then lied to his parents, saying that he hadn't passed the exam and had dropped out of school.
At the time, he thought very simply: even if he didn't earn money, at least not going to school would save his family money, right?
The room fell silent for a moment. Seeing this, Xu Zhengyang smiled and said, "Alright, alright, Dad, Mom, why are you saying all this? Come on, let's be happy today. From now on, our family's life will get better and better. I bet that next year, next year our family will be able to rebuild our house, build a two-story, no, a three-story house!"
"You're talking nonsense!" Xu Neng scolded.
Yuan Suqin said with a smile, "Son, I believe in you! Don't you want to open a shop? Go ahead, I'll work at your shop. Your father wants to go, but we're not happy about it. He's clumsy and won't be able to help there, he'll just cause trouble."
The family of three all laughed.
Just then, an annoying voice came from outside the courtyard gate: "Brother Xu Neng, are you home? Oh dear, I'm just destined to be a busybody, always wanting to take care of this and that for others. What's the point? I never get anything in return..."
It was that old woman from the Wang family who had come to their house once before, only to be scared away by Xu Zhengyang.
Upon hearing her voice, Yuan Suqin hurriedly gathered the money from the table and went into the inner room.
Xu Zhengyang and his father both frowned.
As they were talking, Mrs. Wang entered the house. Seeing that there was beer and snacks on the table, suggesting a comfortable life, she smiled and said, "Oh, you're living a good life. Looks like Zhengyang has been making a lot of money these days..."
"What do you want?" Xu Zhengyang asked with disgust.
"Zhengyang, how can you talk like that?" Xu Neng scolded, then smiled and greeted, "Sister Wang, haven't you eaten yet? Sit down and have some with us."
"No, no." Wang's wife said politely, but plopped down in a chair next to the main table and said, "Brother Xu Neng, I heard that Han Dashan won't let you work at their factory anymore, right? Sigh, tell me, working at a cement products factory is such a good job! Not to mention staying at home, have they ever owed anyone a penny of wages?"
"Yes, yes, yes." Xu Neng nodded in agreement.
Seeing Xu Neng's attitude, Wang's wife laughed and said, "Look, you're the only one who's reasonable. You came to our house earlier to tell your wife about your Rouyue's marriage, and you even complained that I was meddling. Tell me, I'm just being kind and getting the cold shoulder. I'll tell you..."
"Bang!" Xu Zhengyang slammed the beer bottle down on the table, gritting his teeth as he said, "Get out!"
"Hey, you kid... Brother Xu Neng, you'd better keep a close eye on him. If you don't, he won't even be able to find a wife in the future. Who would dare to marry into your family?" The old woman's words clearly had a threatening tone, meaning that if anyone tried to arrange a marriage for Xu Zhengyang, she would cause trouble and speak ill of him.
Xu Neng opened his mouth but didn't say anything. He lowered his head, picked up the bowl on the table, and started drinking beer. He must have been feeling angry inside.
Xu Zhengyang stood up, holding the wine bottle, squinted at Wang's wife, and squeezed out a sentence: "Get out! If you ever come to my house to talk about this again, I'll break your son's legs!"
Seeing the fierce glint in Xu Zhengyang's narrowed eyes, Wang's wife shuddered, feeling her calves spin. She knew Xu Zhengyang was a man of his word, so she hurriedly got up and headed out. But at the door, feeling she'd lost face, she turned back and said fiercely, "I can't afford to offend you, but if you don't agree to Han Dashan's demands, hmph..."
Before she could finish speaking, seeing Xu Zhengyang approaching, Wang's wife hurriedly fled.
Volume One, Land, Chapter 009: The Mighty Wife
There's a saying: "Children from poor families learn to be independent early." There's definitely some truth to that.
People's diligence is often driven by living conditions and the pressures of reality;
Similarly, human laziness is mostly born from superior living conditions and an easy lifestyle.
If it were Xu Zhengyang instead, after he obtained two gold bars with his so-called supernatural abilities and sold them for a huge sum of 80,000 to 90,000 yuan, his diligence in making money by trading millet would definitely have gradually faded without him realizing it.
Since you can easily earn tens of thousands of yuan, why bother to work hard every day to earn only twenty or thirty yuan? You won't even earn 100,000 yuan in ten years. Instead of wasting time exchanging millet, you might as well wander around the whole village looking for treasures buried underground. Even if you find a gold bar in two years, it's still more worthwhile than working so hard to exchange millet, isn't it?
Even the most confused person can figure this out.
However, our protagonist Xu Zhengyang is not this kind of person. Perhaps it is because he was influenced by his father, who has been completely influenced by the red spirit and ideology, or perhaps it is because he was prescient and matured psychologically at a relatively early stage.
After careful consideration, Xu Zhengyang overturned his previous idea. He believed that it was absolutely unacceptable to follow the left-leaning adventurist line, let alone to enjoy the fruits of others' labor and be greedy for this little bit of wealth.
He did the math: after paying off the family's debts, he would have over 40,000 yuan left from selling the gold bars; his younger sister, Xu Rouyue, would need to attend university for another three years, which would cost at least 20,000 yuan; and he himself was 21 years old, the age to get married and start a family, and the old house needed to be renovated, plus the engagement and wedding, which would cost at least 60,000 yuan; well, he would put aside the life-changing event of engagement and wedding for the time being, and adopt the idea of establishing a career before starting a family, but the house still needed to be renovated, after all, he didn't need it for himself, and he also had to consider that his parents should live comfortably, right?
After all the calculations, the family needs to prepare at least 60,000 yuan.
If he could find gold bars or treasures every day, tens of thousands of yuan would not be a large sum. The problem is that Xu Zhengyang knows very well that even if he has a little bit of the supernatural power of the local earth god, finding treasure still requires an absolute element of luck. Otherwise, why did he only find two gold bars after searching for several days? Moreover, this little bit of supernatural power is only limited to one village.
It is unreliable to think that you can get rich this way.
And my father has just lost his job at the cement products factory, so the family's financial situation is worrying!