Guangzhou.
Inside an unfinished apartment in a residential complex.
Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan were applying putty. The husband worked on the ceiling while the wife worked on the walls.
"Beep beep beep..."
The pager sounded.
Chen Xinghua tossed his putty knife into the bucket and took the pager from his waist to check the message.
"Bring the debt ledger. Son."
Chen Xinghua read it over several times but still could not make sense of it.
He jumped down from the scaffold stool and held the pager before his wife.
Yao Lan did not know what their son wanted either, but she said, "Go call him back. Leave this to me."
After giving her a few instructions, Chen Xinghua hurried downstairs and left the complex.
Rather than going to the rental to get the debt ledger, he found a nearby phone booth and called back. He remembered exactly who he still owed money to and how much.
"Liangliang, what do you need me to bring the debt ledger for?" Chen Xinghua asked.
Chen Guiliang did not beat around the bush. "Dad, I made fifty thousand yuan today."
Chen Xinghua was startled. "You didn't do anything bad, did you?"
"I sold some business ideas to my cousin's boss friend," Chen Guiliang explained. "If you don't believe me, call my cousin and ask."
Chen Xinghua fell silent.
It was not that he did not believe his son. He was simply too shocked to know what to say.
Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, read me the names and amounts. I'll write them down and pay them off directly. If any of the creditors are in Guangzhou right now, withdraw the money from the card and pay them yourself."
Father and son had the primary and supplementary cards for the same bank account.
Chen Xinghua said:
"Two of them work in Guangzhou. I'll take the bus and pay them myself. I'll use the tuition money we saved for you, so we can save on the out-of-town withdrawal fees."
"Write down the rest. Yang Aijun from Group One in our village, 2,360 yuan; Liu Yuejin from Group Four, 2,250 yuan. Tang Guangyao from Group Two in Xiafeng Village, 2,280 yuan; Liu Gang from Group Two in Xiafeng Village..."
These were all wages that had been owed for seven years.
Chen Xinghua had been cheated by a fellow villager who had partnered with him to subcontract construction work. He had to pay the workers out of his own pocket. Fortunately, the job had already been completed and some of the wages had been paid. The fellow villager had only run away with the final payment.
For seven whole years, Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan had worked hard to repay the remaining wages.
Chen Guiliang said, "Dad, stop working away from home. Come back with Mom."
"The renovation job we have isn't finished yet. We'll go home after working until the end of the year," Chen Xinghua said.
Chen Guiliang said, "All right. I'll wait for you to come back for the New Year."
Chen Xinghua checked the call time and said, watching the minutes, "I'm hanging up first. If it goes past a whole minute, they'll charge us again."
"Goodbye."
Both father and son sounded rather calm.
There was no wild excitement or joy, no choked sobs or tears, and no need for concerned pleasantries.
The most turbulent emotions were often hidden beneath calmness.
When Chen Xinghua walked out of the phone booth, the sunlight seemed especially brilliant that day.
The mountain that had weighed on him for seven years had suddenly been lifted and thrown into the sea. Even the bones in his body seemed several pounds lighter.
He could finally go home for the New Year!
Chen Xinghua hurried back to the apartment they were renovating and eagerly shared the news with his wife.
After hearing it, Yao Lan let out a long breath and silently went to sit on the balcony. With her back to her husband, she quietly raised a hand to wipe away her tears, but the more she wiped, the more tears came.
Years of repression and grievance turned into tears in an instant.
After resting for several minutes, Yao Lan's tears stopped flowing, and she returned to the living room to continue applying putty.
The debts had been paid, but life still had to go on.
Their son needed money for college, and their old house back home needed to be rebuilt.
There were too many places where money was needed.
After applying putty for a while, Yao Lan suddenly smiled. "Let's get off work early today. I'll buy some meat. We haven't eaten meat in a long time."
"Buy some pork, mutton, and fish," Chen Xinghua said with a smile as well. "Invite Old Zhang and his wife from next door too. They always used to treat us. It's our turn to return the favor."
Chen Guiliang had suddenly earned fifty thousand yuan, yet such a major matter barely prompted any questions from his parents. They did not even call Feng Tao to confirm it.
Because they trusted each other, and they trusted their son.
And they had never interfered in his affairs. They respected every choice he made.
Out of reach of the whip.
Having not returned home for seven years, there was no use in them interfering no matter how much they asked. Chen Guiliang had been raised in complete freedom.
After hanging up and walking out of the phone booth.
Chen Guiliang squatted by the roadside and began considering how to proceed.
Even repaying debts could be done in different ways, with vastly different results.
Relying on distant memories, Chen Guiliang headed toward an old commercial street.
Twenty years later, the street would be renovated and rebuilt, but at this time it was still bustling. The shops and stalls on both sides targeted the city's lower-class residents and farmers who came into town to shop.
Casual pants printed with stills from Meteor Garden cost only ten yuan a pair. After bargaining, they could be bought for six or seven yuan.
Chen Guiliang bought a carton of Hongtashan cigarettes, some leaf tobacco, and several pounds of baked cakes.
He then withdrew cash, took a taxi to the urban-rural fringe, and found a small shop that sold televisions.
"How much is this color TV?" Chen Guiliang asked.
The owner enthusiastically received him. "Changhong, a famous brand. If you like it, young man, take it for 1,800 at cost price. I'll only make a few dozen yuan for my trouble."
Chen Guiliang also asked about the price of satellite dishes. They resembled radar dishes about a meter in diameter.
They were commonly called "pot lids."
The owner said, "A pot lid costs five hundred yuan each. Installation is included within two kilometers. Beyond that, there's an extra installation fee."
Chen Guiliang immediately cut the price in half. "I'll give you 2,500. I'm buying two color TVs. Both need pot lid antennas, and you have to deliver them and install them at my home."
The owner complained bitterly. "Ah, you can't bargain like that. I can't even recover my costs..."
Chen Guiliang could not be bothered to waste words. He turned and walked out.
"Young man, don't leave. We can still discuss the price," the owner hurriedly called after him.
Chen Guiliang had already reached the entrance.
The owner chased out and asked, "Where are they being delivered?"
"Qianfeng Village, Yaojia Township," Chen Guiliang said.
The owner started complaining again. "Yaojia Township is too far. I wouldn't deliver there even if you paid extra... Hey, don't go! I'll deliver them, I will. You need 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, leaving his wife behind to watch the shop.
As he started the vehicle, he kept complaining that he was losing money on the deal.
Chen Guiliang stuffed a cigarette into his hand to shut him up, then climbed into the cargo bed of the tricycle and sat beside the two color TVs.
After being jolted around for a long time, the tricycle left the county road and entered a village road.
The village road was even rougher, as though the tricycle could overturn at any moment.
Chen Guiliang silently watched the rural scenery.
He did not like this place. He did not like his own village.
Most of his memories of it were not pleasant.
Chen Xinghua and Yao Lan had worked hard, paying off the overdue wages bit by bit. But the villagers who had been owed wages blamed them for all their resentment. The man who had run away with the money had vanished, and cursing someone who had disappeared was pointless.
Chen Guiliang had been looked down upon as a result. People even refused to let their children play with him.
The creditors could hardly be blamed for that, but many villagers who had never been owed money also discriminated against Chen Guiliang's family for no reason.
Of course, more villagers simply watched the show, staying aloof from anything that did not concern them.
More than ten years later, the entire village would be demolished to make way for a high-speed railway and a new city. Seeing his hometown utterly transformed and all the villagers relocated, Chen Guiliang finally felt that he had lost something.
Some villagers had actually treated him well. Unfortunately, the kindness he felt as a boy had been completely obscured by the resentment filling his heart.
Third Brother, who was of the same generation in the clan but older than Chen Guiliang's father, had ridden him to the hospital on his bicycle in the middle of the night for emergency treatment.
Granny Tan, who lived halfway up the hill across from the rice paddies, always gave him candy whenever she saw him on the road. She still gave him candy even after he started middle school.
Uncle Li Two, who fished as a side job, always deliberately passed by his home after selling fish and half-sold, half-gave him the remaining ribbonfish...
No place was filled entirely with bad people.
"Stop by the bamboo grove ahead."
Before the tricycle had even come to a full stop, Chen Guiliang jumped down in one fluid motion and shouted at someone working in the roadside fields, "Uncle Liang Four, come help out."
Most villagers were related in one way or another. This Uncle Liang Four was distantly related to Chen Guiliang.
Uncle Liang Four threw down his hoe and came over, surprised. "Guiliang, you bought color TVs?"
Chen Guiliang handed him a carton of Hongtashan cigarettes. "One for my paternal grandparents, and one for my maternal grandparents."
"Filial boy!"
Uncle Liang Four happily accepted the Hongtashan cigarettes and eagerly helped the owner carry the color TVs.
After walking only two or three hundred meters, they had already attracted four or five villagers.
Color TVs were nothing unusual.
What was unusual was the person buying them. Chen Guiliang's family still owed debts!
A villager immediately ran home in secret. "Hurry and tell Yang Aijun's wife! Chen Guiliang bought two color TVs. Tell her to come collect the debt right away. If she can't get the money, she can take the TVs as payment!"
His maternal grandfather was weaving broomsticks from sorghum stalks in the courtyard. Such brooms could be sold at the market.
Seeing his "revived" maternal grandfather, Chen Guiliang's smile became especially bright. "Grandpa, I bought you some leaf tobacco."
"Good."
His maternal grandfather cheerfully continued weaving the broom.
Chen Guiliang added, "I also bought you a color TV."
Only then did his maternal grandfather rise in shock, squinting through his presbyopic eyes at the people behind Chen Guiliang.
Chen Guiliang said to the owner, "Carry the color TV inside and put it in the bedroom."
"This way." His maternal grandfather hurriedly led the way.
There was no TV stand, so they cleared off a broken table and moved it into the bedroom to hold the color TV.
More and more villagers arrived after hearing the news, gathering in the courtyard to chat. Several gossiping women stood farther away, pointing at Chen Guiliang and whispering among themselves.
A few minutes later, his maternal grandmother and younger maternal uncle received the news and rushed home from the fields.
As for Eldest Maternal Uncle and his wife, they had been working in a coastal city all along, and had brought their child there to attend a migrant workers' school.
"Where's Chen Guiliang? Where's Chen Guiliang?" A farm woman ran over quickly. She was Yang Aijun's wife, one of the creditors.
Chen Guiliang greeted her first. "Hello, Aunt Zhu Three."
The farm woman held the wage IOU in her hand and grabbed Chen Guiliang by the clothes. "You have money to buy color TVs, but no money to repay debts? You're paying today no matter what! If you don't give me the money, I'll take your color TV!"
Smiling, Chen Guiliang pulled out a stack of banknotes and held it high for everyone to see. "My parents got rich. They asked me to come home and settle every old debt we owe!"
The villagers immediately began discussing it among themselves.
Someone asked curiously, "Guiliang, what business did your father get rich from?"
Chen Guiliang's lie came effortlessly. "My parents run a renovation crew. They got a big job not long ago, renovating all the unfinished apartments in half a building."
The villagers exploded into an uproar.
"I said Chen Xinghua wasn't the kind of person to dodge debts. He's been repaying them all these years."
"More than that. Among all the people from our village working away from home, he and Shi Qiang have done the best. He became a contractor in Guangzhou ages ago."
"Don't mention Shi Qiang. That bastard was the one who ran off with all the project money!"
"Guiliang, does your father's renovation crew still need people? If we work with him doing renovations, how much can we earn in a year?"
"Guiliang, is your father coming back for the New Year? I want to work away from home next year too, but I don't know renovation work. Can I apprentice under him?"
"..."
Just minutes earlier, Chen Guiliang's father had still been looked down upon by the villagers. Who knew how many people had mocked him in private over the years.
But in the blink of an eye, he had gone from a deadbeat to a capable man of the village!
The farm woman no longer gripped Chen Guiliang's clothes, though her tone remained unpleasant. "You only repay the money after dragging it out for seven years. If I'd put it in the bank, the interest alone would have been several hundred yuan."
Bank deposit interest had been close to ten percent in 1996, only plunging after the Asian financial crisis.
If the interest were calculated strictly, it would be frightening.
But when repaying debts, a token amount of interest was enough. Getting even a little extra was already an unexpected delight.
Chen Guiliang counted out an extra two hundred yuan and handed it to the farm woman with the principal. "Aunt Zhu Three, these two hundred yuan are the interest. My father got rich, so he'll pay what should be paid. Anyone whose debts were repaid without interest before can come to my house during the New Year. We'll definitely make up all the interest!"
The farm woman immediately beamed. She hurriedly exchanged the IOU for the money and flattered him, "I always knew Brother Chen was upright, and he's very capable too. He'd definitely repay the debt. Guiliang, you've got promise too. You'll be a college student in the future, probably working in a big city."
People were naturally inclined to fawn over the powerful and trample the weak.
Of course, Chen Guiliang had gone to all this trouble today so that once his parents returned home, they could hold their heads high and live with dignity.
If he had merely repaid the debts, the gossiping women would still slander them!
So his parents had to have "gotten rich."
His maternal grandmother and younger maternal uncle were grinning from ear to ear. Surrounded by villagers who had come to watch the excitement, they heard all kinds of flattering remarks.
Especially from the villagers who had heard that Chen Xinghua had gotten rich and wanted to work renovations with him next year. Everyone kept saying nice things, completely forgetting the cruel words they had spoken behind his back before.
"Grandma, I bought your favorite baked cakes." Chen Guiliang carried the cakes over.
His maternal grandmother became even happier and told the neighbors, "My grandson is so filial."
The neighbors all chimed in with praise.
Chen Guiliang smiled along with them, but he felt a little like crying.
Before his rebirth, his maternal grandfather and grandmother had both passed away from illness.
Especially when his maternal grandfather died, Chen Guiliang had not even seen him one last time. By the time he rushed back to his hometown, he could only head straight to the mourning hall.
Before you continue