In the Name of the Father, Manifesting Before Others

Yang City.

Inside an unfinished apartment in a certain residential area.

Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan were applying putty. The couple worked, one scraping the ceiling, the other the walls.

"Beep beep beep beep..."

The sound of a pager rang out.

Chen Xinghua threw the scraper into the putty bucket, took off the pager from his waist, and checked the message.

"Bring the debt ledger. Son."

Chen Xinghua read it several times, but he really didn't understand what it meant.

He jumped down from the scaffolding and handed the pager to his wife.

Yao Lan didn't know what their son wanted to do either, but she still said, "You go call back, I'll handle this here."

Chen Xinghua gave a few instructions and quickly went downstairs, leaving the residential area.

He didn't go to the rented room to get the debt ledger. He went directly to find a nearby phone booth to call back. He remembered clearly in his heart how much money he still owed whom.

"Liangliang, what do you want me to do with the debt ledger?" Chen Xinghua asked.

Chen Guiliang didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "Dad, I made fifty thousand yuan today."

Chen Xinghua was startled, "You didn't do anything bad, did you?"

"I used some business ideas and sold them to my cousin's boss's friend," Chen Guiliang explained. "If you don't believe me, you can call my cousin and ask."

Chen Xinghua was silent.

It wasn't that he didn't believe his son, he was just too surprised and didn't know what to say.

Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, read out the names and amounts, I'll write them down here and pay them back directly. If the creditor is currently in Yang City, you can withdraw the money from the card yourself and pay them back."

The father and son had primary and secondary cards for the same bank account.

Chen Xinghua said:

"There are two working in Yang City, I'll take a bus to pay them back myself. I'll take it from the university tuition money I saved for you, that way I can save on the inter-city withdrawal fee."

"You write down the rest. Yang Aijun from the first group of our village, we owe him 2360 yuan; Liu Yuejin from the fourth group, 2250 yuan. Tang Guangyao from the second group of Xiafeng Village, 2280 yuan; Liu Gang from the second group of Xiafeng Village..."

These were wages that had been owed for seven years.

Chen Xinghua had been cheated by a fellow villager who was a partner in a subcontracted project, and he had to pay the wages himself. Fortunately, the project had already been completed at that time, and a portion of the wages had already been settled. The fellow villager had only run off with the final payment.

For seven full years, Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan had been working hard to repay the remaining wages.

Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, stop working, you and Mom come back."

"The renovation work we have on hand isn't finished yet, we'll come home when we're done by the end of the year," Chen Xinghua said.

Chen Guiliang said, "Okay. I'll wait for you to come back for the New Year."

Chen Xinghua looked at the call duration and, counting the minutes, said, "I'll hang up now, it'll be charged again if it goes over the whole minute."

"Goodbye."

The tone of both father and son was relatively calm.

There was no excitement or joy, no choking or crying, and no need for warm greetings.

Surging emotions are often hidden behind calmness.

Chen Xinghua walked out of the phone booth, feeling that the sun was exceptionally bright today.

The heavy mountain that had been pressing on him for seven years was moved and thrown into the sea in one day. His whole body felt several pounds lighter.

Finally, he could go home for the New Year!

Chen Xinghua hurried back to the apartment they were renovating, eager to tell his wife the news.

Yao Lan let out a long sigh after hearing it and quietly walked to the balcony to sit down and rest. When her back was to her husband, she quietly raised her hand to wipe away tears, but the more she wiped, the more tears flowed.

Years of suppression and grievances all turned into tears in an instant.

Yao Lan rested for a few minutes, and when the tears stopped flowing, she returned to the living room to continue applying putty.

Although the debts were paid off, life still had to go on.

Their son needed money for university, and the dilapidated house back home also needed to be rebuilt.

There were too many places where money was needed.

After applying putty for a while, Yao Lan suddenly smiled and said, "Let's get off work early today, I'll go buy some meat, we haven't eaten meat in a long time."

"Buy some pork, lamb, and fish," Chen Xinghua also smiled. "Let's also invite the Old Zhang couple next door, they've always treated us before, it's our turn to treat them back."

Chen Guiliang suddenly made 50,000 yuan, but the couple didn't ask much about such a big matter, not even calling Feng Tao to confirm.

Because they trusted each other, and they trusted their son.

And, they never interfered with their son's affairs, respecting all his choices.

Beyond their reach.

It was useless for them to interfere or ask too many questions after not returning home for seven years; Chen Guiliang was completely left to his own devices.

Hanging up the phone, he walked out of the phone booth.

Chen Guiliang squatted on the side of the street, starting to think about how to proceed.

Even paying off debts had different methods, each achieving vastly different results.

Relying on distant memories, Chen Guiliang walked towards an old commercial street.

Twenty years later, this street would be renovated and rebuilt, but at this time, it was still bustling with people. The shops and stalls on both sides of the street targeted the urban lower class and farmers who came into the city to buy things.

Casual pants printed with Meteor Garden stills cost only ten yuan a pair, and after some haggling, could be bought for six or seven yuan.

Chen Guiliang bought a pack of Hongtashan cigarettes, some loose tobacco, and a few catties of baked cake.

Then he withdrew cash, took a taxi to the urban-rural fringe, and found a small shop selling televisions.

"How much is this color TV?" Chen Guiliang asked.

The owner greeted him warmly: "Changhong, a famous brand. If you like it, young man, you can take it at the cost price of 1800. I'll just make a few dozen yuan for my hard work."

Chen Guiliang then asked about the price of a satellite dish, which looked like a radar with a diameter of one meter, commonly known as a "pot lid."

The owner said: "A pot lid is 500 yuan each, including installation within two kilometers. Installation fees will be added for distances over two kilometers."

Chen Guiliang directly cut the price in half: "I'll give you 2500 for two color TVs. Both must come with pot lid antennas, and delivery and installation must be included."

The owner complained bitterly: "Oh, you can't bargain like that, I won't even make back my capital..."

Chen Guiliang didn't bother with pleasantries and turned to leave.

"Young man, don't go, the price is negotiable," the owner quickly called out.

Chen Guiliang had already walked out of the shop.

The owner chased after him and asked, "Where should I deliver it?"

"Qianfeng Village, Yaojia Township," Chen Guiliang said.

The owner started complaining again: "Yaojia Township is too far, I wouldn't deliver even if you paid more... Sigh, don't leave! I'll deliver, I'll deliver. You have to pay first!"

Chen Guiliang returned to the shop and quickly took out the money to pay.

The owner loaded the color TVs and antennas onto a tricycle and left his wife to watch the shop.

As he started the engine, he kept complaining that this deal was a loss.

Chen Guiliang handed him a cigarette to shut him up, then jumped into the back of the tricycle and sat with the two color TVs.

After a long bumpy ride, the tricycle turned from the county road onto a village road.

The village road was even more rugged, as if the tricycle could overturn at any moment.

Chen Guiliang silently observed the rural scenery.

He didn't like it here, he didn't like his village.

Most of his memories of this place were not very pleasant.

Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan worked hard, settling the overdue wages one by one. But the villagers whose wages were owed blamed them for everything. Because the person who ran away with the money had disappeared, cursing a missing person was useless.

Chen Guiliang was also looked down upon, and even other children were not allowed to play with him.

It was understandable for the creditors to do this, but many villagers who were not owed money also inexplicably discriminated against Chen Guiliang's family.

Of course, more villagers were simply watching the show, keeping their distance.

It wasn't until more than ten years later, when the entire village was demolished for high-speed rail construction and a new city, that Chen Guiliang looked at his unrecognizable hometown and saw all the villagers moved away. He finally felt that he had lost something.

In fact, some villagers were good to him, but unfortunately, the kindness he felt as a teenager was completely obscured by his resentment.

His third brother, who was of the same generation in the clan but older than his father, rode him to the hospital on his bicycle in the middle of the night for emergency treatment.

Grandma Tan, who lived halfway up the mountain opposite the paddy field, would give him candy every time she met him on the road, even when he was already in junior high school.

And Uncle Li Two, who fished as a side job, would always deliberately pass by his house after selling fish, half-selling and half-giving away the leftover small fish...

No place was full of bad people.

"Stop at the bamboo grove ahead."

Before the tricycle could stop steadily, Chen Guiliang jumped down with a coordinated movement of his waist and legs and shouted to the person working in the field by the roadside: "Uncle Liang Four, come and help."

Most villagers were related, and this "Uncle Liang Four" was a distant relative of Chen Guiliang.

Uncle Liang Four threw down his hoe and came over, surprised: "Guiliang, you bought a color TV."

Chen Guiliang handed him a box of Hongtashan: "I bought one for Grandma and one for my maternal grandparents."

"Filial!"

Uncle Liang Four happily accepted the Hongtashan and worked very hard with the owner to carry the color TVs.

After walking about two or three hundred meters, four or five villagers had already been attracted.

Color TVs were not rare.

What was strange was that the person buying the color TVs, Chen Guiliang, still owed money!

Immediately, some villagers quietly ran home: "Quickly go inform Yang Aijun's wife, Chen Guiliang bought two color TVs. Tell her to hurry over and collect the debt. If she can't get the money, use the color TVs as collateral!"

His maternal grandfather was in the courtyard using sorghum stalks to tie brooms. These brooms could be sold at the market.

Chen Guiliang looked at his "resurrected" maternal grandfather, his smile becoming exceptionally bright: "Grandpa, I bought you some pipe tobacco."

"Good."

His maternal grandfather happily continued tying brooms.

Chen Guiliang added, "I also bought you a color TV."

Only then did his maternal grandfather stand up in surprise, squinting his presbyopic eyes at the people behind Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang said to the boss, "Carry the color TV inside and put it in the bedroom."

"This way," his maternal grandfather quickly led the way.

There was no TV stand, so they cleared off a broken table and moved it into the bedroom to place the color TV on.

More and more villagers who heard the news gathered in the courtyard, chatting. There were also a few gossipy women standing far away, pointing and gesticulating at Chen Guiliang.

A few minutes later, his maternal grandmother and youngest maternal uncle received the news and hurried home from the fields.

As for his eldest maternal uncle and his wife, they had been working in coastal cities, and had also brought their children to attend a school for migrant workers' children.

"Where's Chen Guiliang? Where's Chen Guiliang?" A farm woman ran over quickly. It was Yang Aijun's wife, the creditor.

Chen Guiliang greeted her proactively: "Aunt Zhu Three, hello."

The farm woman held a wage IOU in her hand, grabbed Chen Guiliang's clothes, and said, "You have money to buy color TVs, but no money to pay back debts? You have to pay up today no matter what. If you don't give me the money, I'll take your color TVs!"

Chen Guiliang smiled, pulled out a wad of cash, held it high, and said to everyone, "My parents are rich. They told me to come home and pay off all the old debts!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers started discussing amongst themselves.

Someone asked curiously, "Guiliang, what business did your dad do to get rich?"

Chen Guiliang's lie came out effortlessly: "My parents are running a renovation team. Not long ago, they got a big job, renovating half a building of unfinished apartments."

This completely set the villagers abuzz.

"I knew Chen Xinghua wasn't someone who would default on debts. He's been paying them back all these years."

"More than that. Among those who went out to work from the village, he and Shi Qiang were the most successful. He's been a contractor in Yang City for a long time."

"Don't mention Shi Qiang. That son of a bitch ran off with the project money!"

"Guiliang, does your dad's renovation team still need people? If I follow him to do renovations, how much can I earn in a year?"

"Guiliang, is your dad coming back for the New Year? I also want to go out to work next year, but I don't know renovation skills. Can I be his apprentice?"

"..."

A few minutes ago, Chen Guiliang's father was still looked down upon by the villagers, and had been secretly ridiculed by countless people over the years.

But in the blink of an eye, he went from being a deadbeat to a capable person in the village!

The farm woman no longer clutched Chen Guiliang's clothes, but her tone was still not very good: "You dragged it out for seven years before paying. If it were in the bank, the interest alone would be several hundred yuan."

The bank deposit interest rate in 1996 was close to 10%, and it plummeted sharply after the Asian financial crisis.

If you were to strictly calculate the interest, it would be terrifying.

But for paying back debts, a little interest is enough, and giving even a little is an unexpected bonus.

Chen Guiliang counted out an extra two hundred yuan and handed it to the farm woman along with the principal: "Aunt Zhu Three, this two hundred yuan is the interest. My dad is rich, and he'll give what he should. For those whose debts didn't include interest before, you can all come to my house during the New Year, and we'll definitely make up all the interest!"

The farm woman immediately beamed with joy, quickly exchanged the IOU for the money, and even flattered him: "I've long known that Brother Chen is straightforward and very capable, and he'll definitely be able to pay back the debt. Guiliang, you're also promising. You'll be a university student in the future, and you'll probably stay and work in the big city."

Praising the high and stepping on the low is human nature.

Chen Guiliang's efforts today were, of course, so that his parents could hold their heads high and live with dignity after returning home.

If he had just paid off the debts, he would still be slandered by the gossipy women!

Therefore, his parents had to be "rich."

His maternal grandmother and youngest maternal uncle were now smiling from ear to ear. They were surrounded by villagers who came to watch the excitement, and various compliments filled their ears.

Especially those villagers who heard that Chen Xinghua had gotten rich and wanted to follow him to do renovations next year. Everyone kept saying good things, completely forgetting the malicious words they had said behind his back before.

"Grandma, I bought you your favorite baked cake." Chen Guiliang carried the cake over.

His maternal grandmother was even happier and said to her neighbors, "My grandson is very filial."

The neighbors all echoed the compliments.

Chen Guiliang also smiled, but he felt a little like crying inside.

Before his rebirth, his maternal grandfather and grandmother had both passed away from illness.

Especially when his maternal grandfather passed away, he didn't even see him for the last time. When he rushed back to his hometown, he could only go straight to the mourning hall.