Chapter 499: Final Chapter 2.0

After Sha Ruijin served one term as Provincial Party Secretary of Handong Province, because he had not yet reached retirement age, he—like Zhao Lichun—was promoted by half a rank and returned to Sijiucheng to serve as Vice Chairman of the CPPCC, and retired completely within two years.

Hou Liangping eventually made a clean break with Liang Lu, returned to the family of the "Big Wave," and eventually rose to the rank of Executive Deputy Procurator-General of the province.

Chen Hai had great staying power, and his family background was more solid than Hou Liangping's, so he took over the position after Ji Changming.

The seafood farming base that Gao Qiqiang cooperated on with the Oriental Group has spread all over the country, and at seventy, he is also surrounded by children and grandchildren.

Gao Qisheng was indeed the same as when he was a child; he applied for a major related to marine aquaculture in university and has been serving the company ever since.

Gao Qilan, just like in the original drama, studied Western medicine and was recruited into the Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine; she is also Zhang Ping'an's granddaughter-in-law.

Jia Youwei passed away three years ago at the age of one hundred and ten; the children's generation did not successfully intermarry, but three of the grandchildren's generation married into Zhang Ping'an's grandchildren's generation.

The second generation of the Siheyuan, with the exception of Jia Dongxu, almost all passed away in the last two years, including Shazhu, Damao, Jiecheng, and others, all of whom were old people who lived to be nearly a hundred.

Jia Dongxu is four years older than Zhang Ping'an and is one hundred and ten this year; thanks to the baptism of the Body Refining Technique, and because he lived close to Zhang Ping'an before and received the most care, he is still full of vigor and life, and living another eight or ten years is no problem.

The ten Traditional Chinese Medicine talents trained by Zhang Ping'an are now in their forties and are all Great National Hands who anchor their respective regions; each of them has also taken on five or six apprentices, so Zhang Ping'an can be considered to have carried forward Lao Wang's lineage.

In the old Zhang Family Village residence, which previously housed Zhang Ping'an and his four wives, the children have all retired and returned to live there, and for a time, it has become lively again.

Zhang Ping'an rarely goes to the Back Mountain anymore, though he still arranges for people to harvest the medicinal herbs every few years;

As for the Tea Tree in the deep mountains, Zhang Ping'an only told Weidong and Weijun, and they can only tell their eldest sons; if he leaves, at least they can still benefit from the Tea Tree for generations to come.

Now, after decades of being watered by Zhang Ping'an's Space Water, the Tea Tree is not much different from the two mother trees in the space; of course, if the watering stops, it will definitely degenerate slowly.

Just like that, forty-four years passed in a flash; Zhang Ping'an is now one hundred and fifty years old, and like his father Zhang Laohan, he has become the only remaining seedling of their generation in Zhang Family Village, the ancestor.

"Brother Ping'an, we've all become old monsters."

"That's right, brother-in-law."

"Hahaha, isn't that a good thing?"

Zhong Mingzhu and Li Aihua didn't speak, but they meant the same thing; now there are six generations living under one roof, and they have also become the "old immortals" of Sijiucheng.

This is because they moved to the Zhang Family Village Back Mountain ten years ago, built a Siheyuan at the foot of the mountain, and lived a life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset;

During holidays, cars pile up here, all coming to visit him, this old ancestor.

"Daddy, Great-Grandpa, Great-Grandma, can you still give me a big red envelope this year?" This is Weidong's great-great-granddaughter, Zhang Baobao, who is three years old this year.

"Hahaha, sure, you little rascal, you'll get it once you kowtow to Great-Grandpa in a moment."

"Mm, okay, then I hope Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma can live a long life," the little girl said with an innocent face.

"..."

"Don't talk nonsense, Great-Grandpa is already one hundred and fifty years old this year," the little girl's father hurriedly covered her mouth.

"No matter, children speak without taboo."

Zhang Ping'an happened to be passing by; at this moment, he was finally old, and he could feel his approximate lifespan, estimating it to be only three or five years left.

"Great-Grandpa..."

"Mm, the little girl is very cute, raise her well."

This was also a small interlude, but it is true that many younger generations do not know him, and likewise, he cannot recognize the children beyond his great-grandchildren.

Five years later, Zhang Ping'an sent off his four wives one after another, and he himself lay on a bamboo chair in the courtyard on a calm afternoon and never woke up again.

The modern Xiao Ping'an lived to be ninety-five and also passed away on this same day without illness or disaster.

The two souls met miraculously in the space, and the moment they merged, they knew each other's experiences in their respective worlds.

"Thank you," the two said to each other, and both turned into flower rain and disappeared in the space.

Zhang Ping'an's consciousness fell into darkness, but when he opened his eyes again, it was a familiar environment; he was still lying on the floor, looking at the time on his phone: December 5, 2022. Zhang Ping'an could not recover for a long time.

"Was it a dream or a trans-world journey?" Zhang Ping'an muttered to himself.

"Right, the space."

Zhang Ping'an moved his mind, and he really entered the space, but the space was collapsing;

There was no time to think too much; Zhang Ping'an took out two jars of sealed old wine, two jade bottles of Space Water, one jade box of tea leaves, and a box of gold ingots at the fastest speed, and only then did he flash out in a narrow escape.

"Phew."

Afterwards, Zhang Ping'an could not care about checking; he moved his mind again and again, but he could no longer sense the existence of the space.

"Not a loss; the knowledge in my brain is still there, and these things are enough for me to lie flat in modern society."

The jade bottles were hollowed out from Jade that the Siheyuan Zhang Ping'an had dug in Myanmar, with a capacity of about five liters, used for giving to the family's younger generation; he didn't expect it to benefit his current self.

The jade box was the same, only with a larger capacity, but it held no more than five jin of tea leaves.

Zhang Ping'an cooked while organizing his memories, and then brewed himself a cup of tea.

"Tsk tsk, authentic, it's still the taste from decades ago, only the people to enjoy the tea with are missing: Xiao Ling, Xiao'e, Mingzhu, Aihua..."

"Sigh..."

Zhang Ping'an let out a sigh and quickly pulled himself together; there was no possibility of them meeting again in this lifetime.

For the next half month, Zhang Ping'an used Space Water and the Body Refining Technique to recuperate his body, finally regaining a bit of his original appearance.

At this moment, he was brand new, as if he were a different person; the wretched aura from living alone for a long time was gone, and he was glowing with health.

Afterwards, he went to Hangzhou, found Tingshui, and sold a fifty-tael gold ingot, all from the Jiajing era; because it didn't go to auction, the price was a bit cheaper, only over six million, but it won on speed.

The moment he got the money, he paid off his external debts, bought a Cadillac XT6, and returned to his hometown in the county.

Then, following Xiao Ping'an's memory, he organized the business plan, used the same steps, the same brothers, and took down the same farmhouse resort...

Returning to his hometown at the end of the year, Zhang Ping'an drove back; at over thirty and still unmarried, he and his parents had often been gossiped about, but now with a car, the Cadillac XT6 would explain everything for you.

"Mom, Dad, I'm back."

"Son, this car?"

"Mom, I won the lottery, but don't tell anyone; just tell people you gave me the money to buy it on a loan."

"You child, no, just say you worked hard and bought it on a loan."

If they said it that way, wouldn't their son be gossiped about behind his back? How could parents allow others to disparage their own son?

"Alright, alright, alright, I'll listen to you."

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhang Ping'an also transformed into the most generous uncle on the entire internet, giving his nephews and nieces large red envelopes.

On the fifteenth, after finishing his sweet rice balls at home, Zhang Ping'an spent the time nourishing the bodies of his parents and siblings, left a bottle of Medicinal Wine for his parents to nourish their health, and then returned to the county seat.

After the New Year, while managing his short-video account, Zhang Ping'an also planned to take the Traditional Chinese Medicine exam; with his current foundation of over a hundred years, he could easily pass it after familiarizing himself slightly with the rules.

In the capital, Zhang Ping'an finished his exam that day and took a taxi directly to the airport; inside the first-class cabin of the plane, the passenger sitting in the seat next to Zhang Ping'an's was a woman wearing a large hat.

A large hat, a face mask, and sunglasses—there was no need to guess, she was likely a celebrity, but Zhang Ping'an did not follow celebrities, so he didn't pay much attention and fell asleep in his seat.

"Hello, I am Liu Qianqian."

In a daze, Zhang Ping'an heard someone greeting him, and when he opened his eyes, he saw Wang Xiaoling.

"Xiao Ling..."

At the same time in 1948, Xiao Ping'an also woke up on a hospital bed, similarly experiencing initial confusion, and then he laughed out loud.

"It's really good to be back..."