Chapter 300: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 300: People and Things Are No Longer the Same, Time Is Ruthless

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

After Li Xiulan came out of the Village Committee Office, she returned to the construction site to tell Wang Zhanggen. Upon learning that she had refused Zhang Zhongtian, Wang Zhanggen couldn't help but feel an inexplicable melancholy.

He wasn't as determined as Li Xiulan to build a new house in the rural area; facing this choice, he was actually quite lost inside, and simply didn't know whether building a house in the countryside was better or buying a house in the city was better.

The reason he leaned toward building a house in the countryside was entirely because he felt he must have a new house in the countryside to have face.

Especially when he saw the luxurious villa and grand house He Dazhu had built next to his own home, the contrast made his own ghost building seem like a joke, which made him feel even more that it was necessary to rebuild a new house.

Nowadays He Dazhu rarely returned to Shanggou Village, only coming back for the two major festivals of Spring Festival and Qingming; even when he returned, he wouldn't stay long, at most one or two days.

Thinking back to those days, He Dazhu was still that useless wretch with an unhappy marriage and impotent body, but in the blink of an eye so many years had passed, and He Dazhu had long since transformed into one of the few rich people in Shanggou Village.

It was said that He Dazhu had already bought a house in Guangzhou, his wife and children were all in Guangzhou, so it was normal that he didn't often return to Shanggou Village.

Wang Zhanggen occasionally sighed in his heart: fate is truly unfathomable; who could have thought that the weak and incapable He Dazhu would eventually become a successful person?

As for him, Wang Zhanggen, he thought his abilities weren't bad, and his looks and physique when young weren't bad either, but fate played tricks on him, and he simply never made a name for himself.

In the end he returned to the countryside in dejection and became a masonry builder.

Once he started, it was more than half a lifetime.

Now that he was older, it was impossible for him to switch careers.

So now he was a mason, and in the future he estimated he would still be a mason.

His fate had already been fixed here.

His only hope was that his three sons could make something of themselves; then he would have face, feel proud and honored, and be able to stand straight when meeting people in the village.

In the end Wang Zhanggen and Li Xiulan chose to rebuild a new house in their hometown.

That evening they wore their old flower glasses, flipping through the almanac, checking the lunar calendar, and choosing a date to start construction.

Their family no longer had any extra land.

To build a new house, they had to demolish this dilapidated old building they had lived in for over ten years.

Where to live after demolishing the house was a problem.

Li Xiulan felt that the old house of her elder brother-in-law Wang Zhangtian's family could be lived in temporarily for a while.

Anyway, the Wang Zhangtian family had already moved out, and that old house was just sitting empty.

Wang Zhangtian, as the elder brother, could not refuse Wang Zhanggen's request.

But Wang Zhanggen was somewhat unwilling to open his mouth and ask his elder brother; he felt it was very embarrassing, very shameful.

He would rather rent someone else's house to live in than beg anyone, even if that person was his own elder brother.

"The convenience store Li Yunxia opened at the village entrance closed down and went bankrupt not long ago; that house is also empty. Why don't we go live there? As long as we tell Zhang Zhongtian, give him two hundred yuan every month, he will definitely let us live there."

Wang Zhanggen would rather open his mouth to Zhang Zhongtian than to his elder brother.

Because if he asked Zhang Zhongtian, spending a little money meant he wouldn't owe a favor.

But if he asked his elder brother, his elder brother definitely wouldn't take his money, and then he would have to owe a favor.

And him, Wang Zhanggen, disliked owing favors to others the most.

"Wang Zhangtian is your own elder brother; you just need to say a word. Why spend two hundred yuan for nothing?"

Li Xiulan was somewhat unhappy.

She was different from Wang Zhanggen; she had been saving money all her life and had long developed very frugal behavioral habits.

So she felt that if money could be saved, it should be saved as much as possible.

Besides, deliberately spending money to rent that broken house at the village entrance was truly unnecessary.

But Wang Zhanggen said:

"Anyway, I won't talk to my elder brother; I don't want to owe him a favor!"

Seeing Wang Zhanggen's attitude, Li Xiulan immediately became furious.

She said coldly:

"Your elder brother wants to relocate the ancestors' graves; doesn't he still owe us a favor?"

But Wang Zhanggen said:

"The matter of relocating the graves was decided by the two of us brothers after discussion; how does that count as him owing me a favor?"

But Li Xiulan said:

"That feng shui treasure land was chosen by the Geography Master we hired back then. The Geography Master said that feng shui treasure land would bring prosperity to our family, but didn't say it would bring prosperity to your elder brother's family. In recent years your elder brother hasn't been doing well, while our family has been getting better and better. Maybe he thinks we stole his family's good feng shui, which is why he wants to relocate the graves, and you foolishly agreed!"

Li Xiulan actually wasn't very willing to relocate the graves, but this matter she as a woman couldn't decide.

However, now it was just a casual remark; she had no evidence, she was just guessing wildly, and saying such sarcastic words was only to vent her inner dissatisfaction.

The speaker meant nothing, but the listener took it to heart.

But Wang Zhanggen's heart trembled involuntarily.

However, he immediately hurried to defend his elder brother:

"That's impossible. My elder brother isn't that kind of person. Think back to when we were in difficulty, he even lent us money."

Li Xiulan said coldly:

"Anyway, I'm unwilling to live in that old house at the village entrance convenience store. If you're embarrassed to tell your elder brother, then I'll personally go tell him myself. Your elder brother should return for a visit around the fifteenth of the eighth month this year, and after the festival they will relocate the graves. He will definitely come back in person then, and I'll just say a word to him."

The reason Li Xiulan was unwilling to live in that old house at the village entrance convenience store was actually out of some selfishness.

That convenience store was full of the marks of her youth. Thinking back to when she and Niu Chunsheng ran the village entrance convenience store together, what a wonderful and happy time that was.

Now everything had changed; the village entrance convenience store, after many twists and turns, finally fell into Li Yunxia's hands. After Li Yunxia ran it for many years, with the sharp decline in the rural population, she finally chose to close down and go bankrupt.

Now Li Yunxia wholeheartedly followed Wang Zhanggen's construction team to work as a small worker.

As for this old friend Niu Chunsheng, Li Xiulan had not contacted him for a long time.

In the past when going to town for market day, she would still bring fruit to visit Niu Chunsheng's convenience store; later Niu Chunsheng opened the New Era Restaurant, became busy, Li Xiulan went several times but could not see Niu Chunsheng, and moreover Niu Chunsheng now had his own wife and children, so she gradually stopped visiting.

Now hearing that Niu Chunsheng not only bought shares in a pig slaughterhouse in town but also opened a supermarket in the county town, his business was even busier, the gap between her and him was even larger, Li Xiulan felt there was even less need to visit him.

She herself also did not have the qualifications to be friends with him anymore.

After all, they were no longer people of the same level.

He was a successful person, while she was a poor and ugly old woman in a mountain village.

Li Xiulan insisted on not willing to live at the village entrance convenience store, precisely because she feared being moved by the scenery and grieving over the past, feared recalling the bits and pieces of the past, feared old wounds would be peeled open by memory in the deep quiet of night, feared midnight insomnia where she could only silently shed tears.

In the end Wang Zhanggen had no choice, only able to impatiently say:

"Fine fine fine, then when the time comes you go and bring this matter up to my big brother, I don't have the face to ask them for a house to live in!"

Li Xiulan coldly said:

"If I open my mouth then I open my mouth, what's the big deal!"

Li Xiulan also scolded Wang Zhanggen:

"Your whole life, you just die for face and live in suffering!"