With the development of the economy and the relaxation of migrant worker policies, fewer and fewer young adults remained in their rural hometowns.
It was the same on grandmother's side of the family.
Several uncles, younger than mother, had all gone out to work.
They didn't even come back for the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The reason Eldest Uncle Zhang Qingfeng was home was because he was already over 50 years old.
As for his exact age, Tan Jincheng wasn't sure.
He only remembered that the last time he went home before his rebirth, Eldest Uncle had already celebrated his 70th birthday.
He figured he must be over 50 now.
In the city, people over 50 were already waiting to retire and enjoy life; however, in the countryside, it was very normal for people over 50 to work in the fields.
Because there was a pregnant woman, Zhang Qingfeng drove the electric tricycle very steadily and not fast.
Along the way, Zhang Qingfeng chatted with his sister and brother-in-law from time to time, and occasionally asked Tan Jincheng some questions.
But Tan Jincheng's thoughts had already drifted away.
The moment he saw Eldest Uncle, Tan Jincheng remembered his mother's second younger brother, Fourth Uncle Zhang Qingliang.
There were many children in the family.
Except for Youngest Uncle who went to high school, the other uncles didn't study much.
They started working as soon as they learned a few characters.
Fourth Uncle Zhang Qingliang was currently working in Northeast China, doing renovation work.
In September 2005, Zhang Qingliang died of accidental electrocution at a construction site.
He was only 36 years old when he died.
Second cousin had just turned 10 at the time.
Tan Jincheng couldn't remember the exact day in September, but at this point in time, it was less than a year until Fourth Uncle's accident.
Fourth Uncle's accidental death dealt a heavy blow to his grandmother and mother.
His mother had the best relationship with this brother.
Even until his rebirth in 2023, she had not fully emerged from the shadow of this event.
He remembered that when Fourth Uncle died, the construction site compensated 70,000 or 90,000 yuan.
Fourth Aunt did not remarry after that, instead she single-handedly supported the family.
Although there were many brothers who could help each other, Fourth Aunt, strong-willed by nature, was mostly unwilling to accept direct financial assistance from her brothers.
The mother and son lived a relatively difficult life.
Second cousin also developed a reticent personality after that.
Except for having a good relationship with Tan Jincheng's paternal cousin, he was unwilling to speak to anyone else.
"No matter what, I have to prevent this from happening,"
Tan Jincheng thought to himself.
Fourth Uncle did renovation work.
When the time came, he would have to trick him into going to Yongcheng to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
Anyway, he was planning to set up a factory next year, and it would need renovation then.
Tan Jincheng knew that even if the inertia of history could not be stopped, he still had to try.
For his mother and relatives, even if the accident were to happen again in the future, he would bear the risk without complaint.
Moreover, his uncles were truly very good to him.
This was especially true for Fourth Uncle, who had the best relationship with his mother.
Reborning in 2003, besides making money, wasn't it to make up for all sorts of regrets from his previous life?
Fourth Uncle would come home for Chinese New Year.
He would trick him into going to Yongcheng first, then talk about it.
However, Tan Jincheng hadn't quite figured out how to trick him yet.
After all, Fourth Uncle was doing quite well in Northeast China.
Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt were honest and hardworking, and they had saved a lot of money from working these past few years.
According to his mother's account in his previous life, if nothing unexpected happened, their family should have been preparing to build a new house by the end of 2005 or early 2006.
How could an inexperienced young man under 20 trick an adult with a stable income into another city?
"What are you thinking about? Your uncle is asking you something."
Just then, Tan Lihua's voice rang in Tan Jincheng's ear.
"Huh? What?"
Tan Jincheng responded, startled.
"Your uncle just asked you something. What are you thinking about so intently?"
Zhang Suzhi was more observant.
Her son had been staring blankly in the car and not answering questions.
"I was thinking about what I talked about with Pengya last night. What did Uncle ask me?"
Tan Jincheng, having come back to his senses, covered up.
"Your uncle asked what you plan to do since you're not going to study anymore,"
Zhang Suzhi said.
Zhang Suzhi had only learned last night that her son didn't want to study.
Today, she was returning to her parents' home and hadn't had a chance to lecture him yet.
It was a good opportunity to let Eldest Brother educate this boy later.
He had become wild after a year away.
How could he not study in this day and age?
"I was just thinking about that. Last night, I chatted with Pengya about future plans,"
Tan Jincheng said with a grin.
Seeing his mother's expression, he knew this matter wouldn't be easily brushed aside.
In reality, Yicheng people placed great importance on education.
Yicheng, known for producing many famous people throughout history, had a thriving scholarly atmosphere.
Anyone with a bit of means would desperately support their children's schooling.
Tan Jincheng, who already had good grades and was capable of getting into university, actually not studying, seemed somewhat rebellious to the locals.
Influenced by Tan Lihua getting into vocational secondary school and being assigned to work in a large state-owned enterprise in the city, the study atmosphere in both the Tan and Zhang families was also quite good.
Except for his older cousin, those younger than Tan Jincheng were all enthusiastic about studying.
In his previous life, many of his younger siblings and cousins got into 985 and 211 universities.
If his business hadn't done reasonably well later and he had earned some money, Tan Jincheng would really have been too ashamed to return to his hometown.
But this group of younger siblings and cousins, the oldest was only fourteen or fifteen now; all of them were little kids.
Especially on his grandfather's side, there were five uncles with a very large age span.
The oldest uncle was over 50, and the youngest uncle was only 26 this year.
Eldest cousin was one year older than Youngest Uncle.
Eldest cousin, who had a child at 18, his son was already 9 years old.
And his uncle had only just gotten engaged this year.
Adding up uncles and maternal uncles, the family members were actually quite numerous.
They were a presence no one dared to bully in the village.
Entering the new century, although it was very different from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, the rural environment had basically not changed much.
Families with many members had a certain advantage in the local area.
It was common for them to gang up if reason didn't prevail.
When he was young, his parents had to work.
Tan Jincheng, who was sent back to the countryside every winter and summer vacation, had seen this scene many times.
Even the educated Tan Lihua, before being formally assigned a job, had personally taken part in many such situations.
After entering the village, the road conditions were noticeably worse than in town.
Zhang Qingfeng's driving speed on the tricycle slowed down once again.
Pedestrians passed by the roadside from time to time.
Most of them were elderly.
Zhang Qingfeng and the couple Tan Lihua greeted the roadside pedestrians occasionally.
Of the people in his grandmother's village, Tan Jincheng didn't know many.
At this point, he wisely chose to keep quiet to avoid calling someone by the wrong name.
Before long, the car stopped in the courtyard of Tan Jincheng's Youngest Uncle Zhang Qingxuan's house.
The youngest son was not married.
The old couple now lived with their youngest son.
Chinese people all have a "house complex."
People in the city dreamed of buying a house; it was the same for rural people.
Building a satisfactory multi-story house on their homestead was the dream of most farmers.
Several uncles' family conditions were not very good, but not bad either.
Building a small red-brick and precast-slab building would leave them a bit in debt, but they could all afford it.
Youngest Uncle had gone to high school.
After graduating from high school, he went out to work hard.
Without the ties of children, his conditions were the best among his brothers, and he was also the first to build a house.
A one-and-a-half-story building, with three rooms on each floor.
The layout of master bedroom, living room, and secondary bedroom was the same on both floors.
The top half-story was for storage.
Next to the small building was a row of three small bungalows.
These were the kitchen and where his grandparents lived.
The other room was designed as a pigsty and a toilet.
No pigs were kept in the pigsty.
However, many chickens were raised there.
White walls and blue tiles were very consistent with the Huizhou architectural style, except for lacking horse-head walls and stone carvings.
However, these could be seen in the ancestral hall of the village.
"Elder Brother, Sister; they've been picked up, the family of three has arrived,"
Zhang Qingfeng, having parked the car, shouted towards the small bungalow.
(End of chapter)
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