That year the flowers bloomed 1981

Chapter 1673 Going South by Driving North
The green trains of the 1990s were still very slow, so when they traveled across the North China Plain in autumn, they looked like a giant soybean worm, slowly crawling across the endless golden landscape.

Because this was a train bound for Beijing, the carriages were packed with people. The aisles were filled with people clutching their standing tickets, their eyes glued to the seats on either side, trying to spot the next passenger about to get off.

These days, train journeys can easily take more than ten hours. It's exhausting to always be crammed into the aisle. So if you want to find a seat to rest your aching legs, you have to keep your eyes and ears open and wait for others to get off so you can snag a seat.

Bi Hongwei, along with his elderly mother and son, had been squatting at the connection between the train carriages for three or four hours.

He has never traveled far from home, let alone competed for a seat with others; he couldn't even stand in the aisle.

Because people come and go in the aisle, squatting there will definitely cause inconvenience to others and you will inevitably suffer their disapproving looks.

Moreover, many people are snobbish. If they see you as a burly thug, they won't dare to say a word. If they see you as an honest, simple-minded person who has never left the house, they will naturally have nothing nice to say.

Bi Hongwei was a well-known good carpenter in his hometown, and he also had his pride. He couldn't stand being cursed with various accents and saying things like "a good dog doesn't block the way."

You can't just start a fight over a minor disagreement, can you? Do you think this is your own village? If you're angry, just hold it in.

So after holding his breath several times, Bi Hongwei had no choice but to take his mother and child to the connecting area between the carriages.

The connecting areas between the carriages are quite spacious, but it's not easy to find a seat, and you have to dodge and weave through the train conductor's calls every time you get on or off at a station.

"How could I have given birth to such a useless son? We finally managed to go to the capital, and you couldn't even get a seat ticket, leaving Qianqian and me to suffer like this."

"Mom, we're leaving in a hurry this time, so we need to buy the tickets with seats in advance, therefore..."

"How could others know Xiaojuan's wedding date in advance? How come you didn't know anything? You're just incompetent."

"."

Bi Hongwei's self-esteem doesn't exist in his mother's eyes. Ever since he got on the train, his mother has been spitting on him non-stop.

Bi Hongwei, who had been "filial" his whole life, never dared to argue with his mother, but after several hours of torment, he couldn't help but back down.

"Mom, why don't we go back? Xiao Juan never intended to acknowledge us. If we go looking for her ourselves, people will laugh at us."

"Who's laughing at whom? Are you afraid of being laughed at?"

Bi Hongwei's mother raised her head and spat in Bi Hongwei's face, then continued to nag, "You're such an idiot. It's Xiao Juan who's afraid of being laughed at."
Once we get to the capital, you don't need to say much. Just say you're Xiaojuan's biological father, here to escort your daughter to her wedding. See if she'll let you sit in the head seat. If she dares to deny even her own father, I'll go talk to her superiors about it."

“Let me tell you, Hongwei, the higher the official rank, the more careful they are about their image. Ordinary people can be shameless, but officials can’t. Since Li Juan has become a head at that mobile company, she wouldn’t dare to disown you as her biological father.”

"."

Bi Hongwei was thoroughly scolded by his mother and dared not argue back.

In fact, Bi Hongwei is now very afraid of Li Juan's daughter. Although the two are indeed related by blood, Bi Hongwei was too ruthless when he divorced Han Chunmei.

When Han Chunmei and her two children were kicked out of the house by Bi Hongwei, it was the dead of winter. Bi Hongwei's mother cruelly stripped off the thick cotton-padded coats that the two children were wearing, leaving them to leave the Bi family in only their thin clothes.

Bi Hongwei felt a pang of pity, but was met with a furious scolding from his mother: "We've raised them for so many years and it's been a complete waste of time! And they expect to leave this world dressed up? Don't they have any shame? They owe us a debt we could never repay in eight lifetimes!"

Li Juan owes the Bi family a debt of gratitude for raising her, a phrase that Bi's mother has been repeating for many years. After Han Chunmei and her two children's fortunes changed, Bi's mother talked about it even more frequently.

Without our Bi family, Xiaoying and Xiaojuan would have starved to death long ago. Now that they're all grown up, they won't even buy their own father a piece of cake. They're heartless and ungrateful!

[That Sang Xiaoling is just Xiaoying's classmate, and now she drives a car and travels the world doing business by plane. You're Xiaoying's biological father, so why doesn't she give you a few hundred thousand?]

Strangely enough, the more Bi Hongwei feared hearing news about Han Chunmei and her daughter, the more "kind" people seemed to bring news about Li Juan and Li Ying to his ears.

In rural areas, there are always some people who "love to watch the drama unfold." As long as there's something to eat, they'll eagerly stir things up, not for money or profit, but just for the excitement.

For example, Li Juan's marriage was told to him by a distant relative of the Li family.

[Your biological daughter is getting married. This time, the Li family isn't having the wedding banquet in Qingshui County; they're holding it in Beijing! Wow, your daughter is now a manager at China Mobile! You know China Mobile, right? They sell a single phone for tens of thousands of yuan. You're so lucky!]

Bi Hongwei felt this was an insult to him, and he cursed, "I never gave birth to that bastard" before leaving. However, when the news reached Bi's mother's ears, she forced Bi Hongwei to go to Beijing to acknowledge his relatives.

"You can't hit someone who's smiling at you. If you, her own father, are seeing her off at her wedding, do you think she'll kick you out? The blind man at the east end of the village said, blood is thicker than water; she'll owe you for life, and what she owes you, she has to repay."

Paying back debts is a matter of course. Bi Hongwei also wanted to drive a car and travel abroad, so he was eventually persuaded by his mother to go north to find Li Juan to repair their relationship.

"It's always good to be at home, but it's hard to travel even for a short time." Just a few hours on the train made Bi Hongwei worried. What if he was bullied in Beijing, a place he didn't know?
As fate would have it, when night fell and the train stopped at a small station in Hebei Province, an accident occurred.

"Excuse me, make way, I'm getting off the bus."

A passenger carrying a suitcase was about to get off the train when he happened to pass by the connecting area between the carriages where Bi Hongwei and his two children were.

Bi Hongwei's legs were a little numb, and he was a little slow to dodge, so by sheer coincidence, a passenger bumped into him.

"Ouch~"

The passenger carrying the suitcase let out an exaggerated shout, then fell to the ground cleanly, suitcase and all, with a series of "crashing" sounds as the porcelain shattered.

Bi Hongwei was somewhat dazed and subconsciously reached out to help the passenger up, but the passenger grabbed his wrist and wouldn't let go.

"Are you blind or drunk? Why did you deliberately bump into me?"

"I...I didn't hit you, you hit me!"

Bi Hongwei was dumbfounded. Just now, the other party bumped into him, so how did it become that he bumped into the other party?
But when the other party heard that Bi Hongwei still dared to talk back, they dragged him off the train.

"Who are you saying hit whom? I shouted 'Make way! Make way!' from a distance, and you're saying I hit you? Are you looking for trouble? Come on, let's go downstairs and talk this over."

"I...I...you're the one who hit me!"

Bi Hongwei felt extremely wronged and continued to argue even after being pulled off the train.

But Bi Hongwei's mother was more quick-witted than him. She immediately followed him down and apologized to the passenger: "I'm sorry, comrade, it was so dark we couldn't see clearly. Please, don't hold it against us."

Bi Hongwei's mother apologized while twisting his arm.

Having been controlled by his mother his whole life, Bi Hongwei had no choice but to lower his head and apologize: "I'm sorry, comrade, I didn't notice and bumped into you."

"Hmph, why didn't you just admit it? You hit someone and you're still trying to deny it."

The passenger carrying the suitcase didn't seem like an unreasonable person. After hearing the apology from the Bi family mother and son, his expression softened considerably. However, when he opened the suitcase, he exclaimed in shock as if his parents had died.

"It's over, it's over! My precious item is broken, it's all over! 300,000 yuan is gone!"

Bi Hongwei was stunned, because there were two broken pieces of porcelain in the passenger's suitcase, and according to the passenger, these two pieces of porcelain were worth 300,000 yuan.

What kind of thing is worth 300,000?

Bi Hongwei was still in a daze when the passenger rushed over and grabbed him by the collar. "You bastard, you smashed my artifact! You owe me money, you owe me money!"

Bi Hongwei exclaimed in terror, "Why should I pay you? I didn't hit you at all, you hit me!"

Passenger: "You're talking nonsense! You and your mother just admitted it, and now you want to back out? Dream on! Not a penny less than 300,000! Come on, let's go to the police station. You're not getting away!"

Bi Hongwei panicked and started to grab the passenger, yelling, "You're accusing me! You're the one who hit me! We need to catch our train! Let go!"

When Bi Hongwei's mother saw her son getting the short end of the stick, she rushed over to help. However, the passenger was very strong and held his own against the two of them. He knocked Bi Hongwei unconscious with one punch, and even made Bi Hongwei's son cry loudly in fear.

"What are you doing? What are you doing? Why are you hitting me?"

Just as Bi Hongwei was on the verge of tears, two burly men got off the train, speaking with a standard Qingshui accent.

Upon hearing the familiar accent, Bi Hongwei's mother felt like she had found a savior and immediately launched into a tearful plea to the two burly men.

"Brothers, you be the judge. We were just squatting there peacefully when this guy bumped into us with his box, then claimed that the earthenware pot in the box was broken and demanded 300,000 yuan in compensation. Isn't that extortion?"

The burly man immediately came over to look at the passenger's suitcase: "Three hundred thousand? What's worth three hundred thousand? Let me see!"

The passenger jumped aside, hurriedly asking, "What are you doing? Who are you? What's it to you?"

The burly man said coldly, "You're supposed to be a good person, helping those in need? We don't think you're a decent one."

The passenger jumped up and down, shouting, "Who doesn't seem like a good person? Who doesn't seem like a good person? I don't think either of you seems like a good person! The police station is over there, don't try to bully me just because you outnumber me!"

"Fine, I'll go. What are you afraid of? Today I'm going to expose your true colors as a liar!"

"."

Bi Hongwei and his mother were in a daze when they were dragged out of the station by two burly men and the passenger.

As the two burly men walked along, they asked the mother and daughter questions, and it turned out they were all from Qingshui County.

But after Bi Hongwei's mother followed for a while, she heard the "whoosh" of the train starting.

"Oh no, the train's leaving!"

"train?"

The two men from Qingshui looked back and saw the train "whoosh" as it pulled away from the platform.

The passenger immediately said, "I don't have time to argue with you. Just give me 30,000 yuan and I need to catch my train."

"Thirty thousand? Not even a penny. I think you're a repeat offender."

"Damn it, I'm so unlucky to have run into you guys today!"

The passenger carrying the suitcase cursed and suddenly ran away, abandoning even the suitcase containing 300,000 pieces of porcelain.

Bi Hongwei and the others gave chase, but failed to catch up.

By the time they realized what was happening, they rushed to the platform, but the train had already left.

"Oh my god, how could this guy be so wicked! He actually tried to swindle us out of 300,000 yuan. Not only did you not arrest him, but you also wouldn't let the train wait for us. Give us our ticket money back!"

Bi Hongwei's mother cried and lamented, heartbroken over the cost of her two train tickets, but these days the railway authorities don't offer friendly service and completely ignored her late at night.

"Grandma, please stop crying. It's normal to encounter things like this when you're out and about. Where are you going?"

"We're going to the capital!"

"We go there often too. Go buy five tickets for the nearest stop right now."

"Oh, how could I possibly accept this?"

"Hey, we're both from Qingshui! By the way, which town are you from?"

"We're from Bijia Village in Hetou, what about you?"

"We are from Liuwan."

"Oh, we're not far apart! We're so lucky to have you two brothers today, otherwise we wouldn't know what to do."

"Yes, yes, what a coincidence!"

The two fellow villagers from Qingshui were very generous; one of them immediately went to buy tickets and, quite "coincidentally," managed to buy five sleeper tickets.

Bi Hongwei instinctively reached for his money, but his mother held him back firmly.

"You fool, these few train tickets are nothing to them, but they're a month's wages for you. We're all from the same village, so remember to repay them when you're rich."

"Yes, we must repay them properly."

Bi Hongwei nodded heavily, remembering this kindness in his heart, and his obsession with "getting rich" became even stronger.

Once a person becomes wealthy, everything becomes much easier, but the process of becoming wealthy requires the help of benefactors.

And his former money-losing daughter is now Bi Hongwei's benefactor.

"Once we get to the capital, I'll give Xiaojuan a good talking to."

Exhausted, Bi Hongwei muttered "get rich, get rich" to himself as he drifted off to sleep in his sleeper berth.

However, when Bi Hongwei woke up the next morning, he found that the train had not yet arrived in Beijing.

Bi Hongwei asked curiously, "Didn't you say we'd arrive in the capital the next morning? Why haven't we arrived yet?"

The two fellow villagers chuckled and said, "Hey, the train is just delayed. Train delays are normal these days."

Bi Hongwei nodded repeatedly: "Oh, oh, oh, the train is delayed."

Trains are indeed frequently delayed these days. Bi Hongwei, who was taking the train for the first time, didn't think there was anything wrong, but his middle school son felt something was amiss.

"Dad, I learned in geography class that north is up, south is down, west is left, and east is right. In autumn, the sun is in the south, and the capital is in the north of us. But why is this train going south?"
Yesterday when I boarded the train, I saw the sign said "Beijing - Guangzhou." Could this train be going from Beijing to Guangzhou?

Bi Hongwei quickly covered the child's mouth: "What do you know, you little kid? Your two uncles are big bosses, do you think they don't know which way is which?"

(End of this chapter)