PCJ – Chapter 321 Going Home

“Jiaohua, you’re not planning to sneak off to Guangdong, are you?” Zhang Yuanbao asked.

“Why do you ask that?” Zhang Jiaohua really did have that idea.

“Grandpa and the others asked me to keep an eye on you; you mustn’t sneak off to Guangdong. My dad said there are a lot of human traffickers in Guangdong. Uncle Shicai said that Guangdong has a serious preference for boys over girls. Just think, if a trafficker sold me to Guangdong, that would be great! If I had a fight with Runtian, I’d definitely be the one getting beaten. Our family is a standard case of favoring girls over boys.” Zhang Yuanbao also felt a wave of bitterness, wishing he could go to Guangdong with Zhang Jiaohua, willingly find a trafficker to sell himself, and live a happy life.

“Aren’t you afraid someone would break your legs and make you beg on the street?” Zhang Jiaohua retorted.

“Boys can be sold for a lot of money. Why would they make me beg? I don’t look like a beggar at all!” Zhang Yuanbao pouted. Dreams can easily be shattered. Zhang Jiaohua cruelly destroyed Yuanbao’s beautiful dream. Better not to go to Guangdong after all.

Zhang Jiaohua wasn’t afraid of traffickers, but he was hesitating. Should he go or not? When he heard from Zhang Shicai that his parents might not come home for the New Year, Zhang Jiaohua wished he could fly to Guangdong and find them. But now, he began to hesitate again. What good would it do to go? They wouldn’t abandon the business they had started in Guangdong, and they wouldn’t let him stay there. Zhang Jiaohua didn’t want to stay in Guangdong either. Thus, he started to waver.

“Jiaohua, are you home?” Zhang Dayun, a man in his forties from Meizitang, walked in. Zhang Dayun’s family was in a difficult situation; both his parents were blind and disabled. It was hard enough for them to raise him; they had no way to find him a wife. As time passed, his parents grew older, and he had to take care of both, leaving their family in even worse shape, making him less attractive to others.

“Uncle Dayun, what brings you here?” Zhang Jiaohua asked, a bit puzzled.

“I came to see you about something. I want to clear the wasteland behind our house and plant tea trees there. What do you think?” Zhang Dayun’s eyes were filled with eagerness. He was afraid Zhang Jiaohua might refuse his request. Naturally, he didn’t need Zhang Jiaohua’s permission to plant tea trees, but the marketing would be related to him.

“Of course, it’s a good idea. Last time, Factory Director Zhao from the Zijiang City Tea Factory said there’s a huge demand for tea now, and the market is excellent. We can buy as much tea as you can produce. You plant the tea trees, and we’ll handle the technical modifications. Once the tea is produced, we’ll purchase it at the acquisition price. But Uncle Dayun, I must say this upfront: the Zijiang Tea Factory is a state-owned factory, and Uncle Zhao can’t be the factory director forever. When the director changes, I can’t guarantee they’ll still cooperate with us. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work out.” Zhang Jiaohua reminded him.

“I definitely won’t blame you. Jiaohua, don’t worry. It’s just wasteland, and I might as well put in some effort. I have no work to do now, and this energy has nowhere to go. I just don’t have the skills. If you don’t agree, I won’t dare to plant. As for whether the Zijiang Tea Factory will buy the tea in the future, there will always be a market for it. Don’t you think?” Zhang Dayun said with a hearty laugh.

“Alright, you clear the land first. I’ll have Uncle Zhao help with the tea seedlings. We can deduct the seedling costs from the tea earnings once they’re harvested. Does that sound good?” Zhang Jiaohua knew about Zhang Dayun’s situation and guessed he couldn’t afford to buy the seedlings.

Once Zhang Dayun received Zhang Jiaohua’s approval, he eagerly returned home to start clearing the wasteland behind his house. This wasteland belonged to their family. The Zhang Dayun family was struggling, and the people in their group bullied them. In name, they had a large tract of land, much wider than others. But this entire wasteland was still allocated to their family. However, land isn’t measured by area alone; it should be calculated by the trees in the forest. If the wasteland was good land, trees would have already grown there; it wouldn’t have fallen to Zhang Dayun’s family. Originally, such land was not suitable for planting tea trees. Only Zhang Jiaohua dared to promise him modifications.

Even though there were no trees on the wasteland, a vigorous type of thorny weed that could grow in any barren area had thrived there. However, Zhang Dayun had long been prepared. Before it started snowing, he had already set fire to the mountain. Their wasteland was far from the big mountains, and there were no houses nearby. Zhang Dayun’s house was also separated from the wasteland by a patch of dry land, allowing him to boldly set fire to the mountain.

When he set the mountain on fire, the villagers thought Zhang Dayun was going crazy. Who knew he actually had a plan in mind? Zhang Dayun had a disabled father and a blind mother. In the past, his father could still do some work, but in recent years he had developed rheumatism, and now he couldn’t move his good leg either. Zhang Dayun couldn’t go out and could only stay in Meizi’ao to farm. This wasteland was quite large, covering several hundred acres, but the soil was very thin. Nothing would grow there, which was why it became wasteland.

The villagers were curious to see Zhang Dayun bent over with a hoe, clearing the wasteland little by little.

“Dayun, what are you digging this wasteland for? Don’t even think about it; the production team tried to plant masson pine here, and all they got were weeds. A few dozen workers from the team worked all winter, but it was in vain. You see, the masson pines planted that year haven’t grown taller than a person’s head. It’s just that your group bullied your family’s honesty. They allocated this large area of wasteland to you. If you’re planning to build a thousand-year house (coffin) for your parents, you should go cut trees from Zhang Qianlong’s mountain. That dog’s daughter was your group leader before; only someone as shameless as him would do something like this,” Zhang Jiwei said as he passed by with a bundle of firewood.

“I made an agreement with Jiaohua; after I clear this wasteland, I’ll plant tea trees here, and Jiaohua promised to help me modify the tea tree mountain,” Zhang Dayun said, smiling honestly.

“Jiaohua promised? But this wasteland doesn’t have any trees. Will tea trees survive here?” Zhang Jiwei was uncertain.

“I told Jiaohua that since there’s nothing to do in winter, I’ll clear this wasteland and plant if I can; if not, it’s just a bit of effort wasted,” Zhang Dayun replied with a smile.

“That’s true. If all this wasteland is planted with tea trees, it’ll become a garden. The people in your group will probably be green with envy in the future,” Zhang Jiwei chuckled.

“Their fields are good rice paddies, and their lands are vegetable gardens; their mountains are good mountains. Who would envy me this little wasteland?” Zhang Dayun was honest, but he wasn’t foolish. He was aware of the bullying and had held onto this resentment in his heart.

“They might not envy you this wasteland, but they’ll envy you for making a fortune. Hahaha, I just want to see what those envious faces in the village will look like in the future!” Zhang Jiwei laughed heartily as he carried his firewood back home.

Meizitang had a total of three small teams, and Zhang Dayun’s team had a lot of shady dealings during the land distribution. Zhang Dayun’s family was weak and bullied, so they suffered a great loss in the distribution of fields and mountains. However, the other members of the production team couldn’t say much about it.

Zhang Dayun had a lot of strength and could cultivate one or two acres of mountainous land a day. By the time the New Year came, he had already cleared an entire hillside.

Guangdong.

Liu Qiaoye’s workplace finally had a holiday, but it was already the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth lunar month. The year 1993 was a small year, and the twelfth month only had twenty-nine days. There were only three days left until the New Year. Liu Qiaoye still wanted to go back to her hometown. She had promised her child that she would return home for the New Year no matter what. Other people’s parents had returned home, and now her child must be waiting every day for their return.

Zhang Youping also wanted to go home; the closer it got to the New Year, the stronger his longing to return. He could earn a lot of money at the recycling station every day, but Guangdong wasn’t home after all. If only this place were home! His parents and child were waiting for the couple to return home for the New Year.

“I went to the bus station today to ask; the tickets were all sold out long ago. Your factory has no definite holiday notice. I’m afraid of wasting money since I didn’t buy the tickets in advance. What should we do?” Zhang Youping said with a bitter face.

“If I had known, when Lihua and the others were ordering tickets, we should have ordered ours too. What do we do now? If we wait too long, it’ll be New Year’s. Jiaohua is so small; we can’t just leave him alone at home. He must be looking forward to our return every day. His eyes might have grown long from waiting. If we don’t go back for the New Year, how sad will he be?” Liu Qiaoye couldn’t help but start sobbing softly as she spoke.

“Don’t rush. I’ll close the recycling station. We’ll take our luggage and flag down a ride on the road. There will surely be cars heading toward Zijiang. We can just switch cars a few times if needed. Three days should be enough time for us to get home,” Zhang Youping thought for a moment and decisively made the decision.

The couple immediately tidied up their bags; they had already prepared what they needed. Liu Qiaoye was determined to go home. However, there were too many orders at the factory, and no one knew when they could finish the work. There was no definite holiday notice, so they hadn’t dared to book tickets, fearing wasted money. Most of the things were already packed in several bags. After tidying up for a while, they locked the door of the recycling station. Normally, they wouldn’t spend money on a ride, preferring to walk, but today they indulged and called a car to take them directly to the outskirts of the city.

Guangdong had developed rapidly in recent years, and cars were coming in one after another at the junction. Whenever he saw a car heading toward Zijiang, Zhang Youping would wave his hand. However, the passenger cars were all full, making it impossible for them to squeeze on. When they saw the two of them with so much luggage, the cars didn’t stop; instead, they stepped on the gas and sped past them.

“Don’t worry; there are so many cars, we’ll definitely find a ride,” Zhang Youping comforted, seeing his wife’s anxious expression.