In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 7 A Bowl of Hot Noodle Soup (Combined Chapter)
Yu Dawei had been busy all morning. He dusted himself off, stamped his foot at the door, and then opened the door, lifted the curtain, and went inside.

As soon as I entered the house, I smelled the aroma of meat sauce. I looked up and saw Han Jingfan cooking noodles around the stove, with a bowl of gravy on the stove.

Northeastern-style braised noodles! Just looking at it and smelling the aroma made Yu Dawei's mouth water.

Now that I'm in my early twenties, I'm at the age where I have plenty of energy and digest things quickly. I've worked all day this morning, so I'm already hungry.

After taking off his thick military overcoat, Yu Dawei walked to the stove pit, broke off corn stalks from the house, and put them into the pit.

When Yu Dawei was young, every household burned firewood. A whole, thick log was split into pieces and piled up under the courtyard wall to serve as firewood for cooking in winter.

Later, when there were fewer trees in the mountains, propagandists went from street to street every day, advocating that tree branches be used for firewood. Every household gathered around the big trees to collect tree branches, but there were still too few tree branches, so someone thought of straw.

Many years ago, corn stalks became good firewood for burning in winter and summer. Every year during the autumn harvest, every household would bundle the corn stalks into hundreds of bundles and pile them into firewood stacks. Some would put them in the woods behind the house, while others would put them in the garden in front of the house.

People like Yu Dawei, whose large gardens were mostly empty, piled firewood in the southernmost corner of the garden, making it as tall as a house.

"The noodles are ready. Put them on the table and go eat." Han Jingfan placed a steaming bowl of noodles in front of Yu Dawei.

This bowl of noodles isn't just rinsed; it's scooped directly from the pot and placed in two large bowls. Since there's no broth, it's also called "hot soup noodles" in Northeastern villages.

Yu Dawei squatted beside the stove, staring at the steaming hot soup noodles, and was momentarily stunned.

Is it twenty years, or thirty years...?

He felt as if he had forgotten how to eat hot noodle soup since he started living alone.

When I was a child, my family was poor. In order to eat an extra bowl of noodles, I would take a small bowl and run to my mother's side. I would first ask for a bowl of hot soup noodles and eat it, and then I could eat an extra bowl.

Later, as I ate more and more, I got into the habit of first picking up a mouthful of noodles from the pot before eating the braised noodles, then adding the braised sauce and having a bowl of noodles.

But later, when I was alone, whether I cooked the noodles or not, it seemed like I was eating them all by myself. Of course, noodles cooked in water are not hot and are not sticky, so they taste better.

He has never eaten hot soup noodles without broth since then.

"What's wrong?" Han Jingfan used a strainer to scoop up all the noodles, put them in a basin of water, and carried it to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed).

"It's okay, it's okay. I've been craving it for days." Yu Dawei put the sauce and noodles on the table and took out a clove of garlic from the bag hanging on the wall.

"Eat up, there's only a little meat left at home. I thought it wasn't enough to make a stir-fry, so I added a diced potato and made a potato and meat sauce." After the incident of delivering the book last night, Han Jingfan had clearly opened up a lot about Dawei and was talking more.

"It's good, it smells delicious." Yu Dawei scooped up two large spoonfuls of sauce and put them on the noodles.

The steaming noodles and gravy were thoroughly mixed in two large bowls, and an even stronger aroma kept tantalizing the taste buds. Yu Dawei could no longer resist and took a big slurp.

Almost instantly, Yu Dawei's vision blurred, tears streamed down his face, and his heart clenched for no reason.

He was able to eat noodles again; it felt like a dream.

All the past debts, regrets, sadness, and heartbreak were poured into this mouthful of noodles. Half of the noodles were outside his mouth and half were inside, which looked somewhat comical, but more than anything, it showed his gratitude.

I'm grateful for everything that allows me to eat this hot noodle soup again.

"What's wrong?" Han Jingfan looked up and saw her husband crying sadly. For some reason, her eyes also started to redden.

"Don't cry, it's okay." She reached out and wiped the tears from her husband's face. "Although our family is a little poor now, as long as you don't spend money as recklessly as before, things will definitely get better in the future."

"Waaaaah." The last soft spot in Yu Dawei's heart seemed to have been touched by this hand.

He could no longer control himself; his whole body trembled. He was like a child who had made a mistake, repenting for the past with tears.

"Don't cry, everything will be alright." Han Jingfan put down her chopsticks, sat down next to Yu Dawei, put the other's head in her lap, and hugged the big boy with both arms.

She gently coaxed him and stroked him.

She guessed that he must have made a huge decision to buy that excavator, probably because he was under a lot of pressure.

But there was nothing she could do to help, so she could only offer this kind of comfort.

Yu Dawei, however, was enjoying the warmest embrace and the most beautiful tenderness in the world.

He himself never expected that this bowl of hot soup noodles would cause him to become like this, and after calming down, he felt extremely regretful.

During the meal, Yu Dawei mentioned his idea of ​​staying in town so that it would be easier to get his car repaired, and that he would come back to visit her every few days.

In his previous life, Yu Dawei was heavily in debt and had lost his equipment, so he left Han Jingfan alone at their old house and went to work in the oil city.

Back then, he was carefree and never thought about whether a young girl who had just turned twenty was afraid of the dark in an era without electric lights.

Am I afraid to live alone...?

Now he had thought of many things. This time when he went to town, he absolutely could not let Han Jingfan stay here alone.

After explaining the minor details of the car repair, Yu Dawei went to the backyard.

Yu Dawei's father lived on the last street in the village, and the villagers were used to calling such father-son separations "front yard and back yard".

He planned to borrow car repair tools from his father.

The old man was a skilled car enthusiast in the village, and he also knew how to repair cars. A good portion of the warehouse was filled with his own treasured tools.

When we were kids, I wouldn't let Yu Dawei touch me.

According to Yu Laonian, "This is the tool we use to make a living; even our own son wouldn't give it to us."

Now that Yu Laonian is semi-retired, his tools are gathering dust in the warehouse. Yu Dawei thinks there's a good chance he can borrow them.

In fact, most car mechanics have one or two sets of their own tools. Some are purchased sets, while others are self-assembled kits.

Because of their car repair habits and the tricky angles they encounter during repairs, mechanics need to use special tools to disassemble cars.

Yu Dawei had a set of tools he was most proud of in his previous life, some of which he had welded himself with an electric welder.

However, he later gave them all to his eldest son. There was no other way; he was too old to work and lacked the energy.

Mr. Yu is in his fifties. According to Grandma Yu Dawei, Mr. Yu was frail and sickly when he was a child, so it is normal that he can no longer do car repair work.

It's all thanks to his early plans to maintain his car business; otherwise, his whole family might have starved to death, and there would be no way he would be the richest man in Yujiatun.

"Mom." As soon as Yu Dawei opened the tin door and lifted the canvas curtain at the entrance, he saw his mother scrubbing a pot with a broom. (Author's note: The broom is made of millet broom; I can't explain this pot-scrubbing marvel. Please search for pictures yourself. Sorry!)

"Dawei, have you eaten?" Zhang Yunqin looked up at her eldest son, scooped out the dishwater with a ladle, and turned to open the dish rack on the north wall. "I steamed some sugar triangles this morning, there are still a few left."

"I'm not eating anymore, Mom, I'm full." Yu Dawei walked up to his mother and couldn't help but smile happily when he saw her familiar face.

"What's with the smile? What's the good news?" Zhang Yunqin put down her hand, turned around, and picked up a yellowish-white rag to wipe the stove. "Yes, I saw Mom." Yu Dawei smiled and came closer again.

Zhang Yunqin couldn't stand the brat's abnormal behavior any longer. She put down the burlap and looked up: "If you have something to say, just say it. Don't keep circling around me."

"Then I'll tell you." Yu Dawei smiled and picked up a rag to help his mother continue wiping the stove.

This action really scared Zhang Yunqin, making her doubt whether this was her own son!
Since he was born, with his grandmother as his eldest grandson, he has never suffered any hardship, let alone done any work for others.

The older generation in the village all say that his grandmother spoiled her eldest grandson rotten. In the past, he would definitely have been considered the foolish son of the landlord, Old Yu.

This kind of talk wouldn't have been allowed during the landlord era; now it's just a joke.

"This child's request to me can't be small, can it?" Zhang Yunqin felt increasingly uneasy as she looked at the situation and began to have doubts.

Yu Dawei glanced at the three men in the room and thought that with others around, his mother wouldn't be able to make a scene later, so he might as well just lay it all out.

“Mom, I found a job repairing cars in town, so I won’t be back for the next couple of days.” Yu Dawei turned his head. “I’m worried that Xiao Fan might be afraid of the dark sleeping alone in the front yard, so I thought I’d have her come and stay for a couple of days.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yunqin's face immediately fell: "She was so capable when she was bossing me around, but she can't even sleep alone?"

"There's no room at home, so don't let her come over."

Zhang Yunqin grabbed the rag from Yu Dawei and wiped the windowsill above the stove again and again, feeling quite helpless.

The fact that these two were able to get along is largely due to her.

She was visiting relatives with her eldest son when she met a matchmaker in Qiantun. During their conversation, they got to know the Han family from Gouwazi Village.

The matchmaker's words were sweet as honey, saying that the Han family's little darling was truly obedient and learned. Although she hadn't studied for many years, everyone in the surrounding villages knew she loved reading.

Zhang Yunqin thought to herself, "It's good that he loves reading. His family can't possibly marry a girl who doesn't understand human relationships, can they? After all, he's considered the richest man in the village."

When she arrived, she was greatly disappointed. She sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) for a long time without uttering a sound.

He came in without even saying hello, just stealing glances at me.

An old saying goes: "Don't associate with someone who has a tortoise-like back and a snake-like waist; don't use a knife if someone looks at you askance."

Would anyone dare marry someone like that? Wouldn't she, as the mother-in-law, be living in constant fear?
She decisively took her child and ran away, determined not to become in-laws with the Han family.

But man proposes, God disposes. After arranging blind dates for his eldest son for a year, he ended up falling for the daughter of the Han family.

The whole family was against it, but Yu Dawei was determined to marry the girl no matter what.

Ultimately, they had no choice but to get together.

After the marriage, Zhang Yunqin was still worried, so she secretly went to Gouwazi to inquire again, and that's when she found out.

The girl had actually been in an ambiguous relationship with a primary school teacher, and there were even rumors that she had been pregnant with him.

How could Zhang Yunqin feel comfortable after hearing this? She immediately went to Old Han's house to reason with him, and after a barrage of complaints, she returned home.

She originally wanted to talk to Yu Laonian about this, but she couldn't bring herself to say it.

After enduring it for a whole year, seeing Han Jingfan constantly in front of her, she finally couldn't take it anymore.

He came up with a plan and kicked Yu Dawei and his wife out to separate from the family.

Zhang Yunqin felt both heartache for her son and a sense of misfortune for her family.

She had five children, and she loved her eldest child, Xiao Fang, the most. Besides Xiao Fang, the eldest child was the most beloved.

Xiao Fang is clever, quick-witted, and well-behaved, while the eldest son is simple-minded and honest, and his mother is always afraid that he will be bullied.

"Mom, Mom..." Yu Dawei murmured to his mother.

"Shut up. Everything else is negotiable, but when it comes to Han Jingfan, absolutely not." Zhang Yunqin glanced at Yu Dawei sideways. "Go do what you're supposed to do."

"Mom, do you have some misunderstanding about Xiaofan?" Yu Dawei asked again.

“I misunderstood her?!” Zhang Yunqin glanced into the inner room and whispered to him, “Go ask around in her village, and you’ll know whether I’ve misunderstood her or not.”

"What are you doing, making such a racket?" Old Yu came out of the house, his brows furrowed as he looked at the two people in the outer room.

The second sister, Yu Yan, and the eldest sister, Yu Feng, both came over.

Yu Dawei glanced at the three of them, thinking that since things had come to this, he might as well go all out: "Mom, tell Dad that Xiaofan is always picking on you and arguing with you all the time. How can someone like her, who hardly ever says a word a day, argue with you?"

Old Man Yu originally didn't want to get involved in these matters, but his eldest son brought it up again today, and he became a little curious.

Zhang Yunqin's breath hitched, and she glanced at everyone with a hint of grievance: "Yu Dawei, you ungrateful brat! Yu Laonian, your Yu family is truly unfortunate to have married such a thing!"

Then Zhang Yunqin recounted what happened half a year ago when she secretly went to Gouwazi.

There was a moment of silence. Old Nian was deep in thought, but he didn't offer any opinion.

"Mom, don't you know what the village is like? If someone drops a chicken feather in our yard today, they'll accuse us of stealing their chickens the next day. How can you believe that?" Yu Dawei was utterly speechless.

After all these years, he has finally solved the case.

Back then, the relationship between this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was like oil and water!

One of them constantly argues with the other whenever they meet, and makes sarcastic remarks.

One of them neither avoided nor spoke, but used their eyes to kill.

He clearly remembers a battle of the century between his mother and daughter-in-law when his eldest son was five years old, which lasted for two whole hours in the backyard.

Yu Dawei wanted to separate the two, but his wife was as stubborn as a mule, glaring at him even with tears in her eyes.

My mother herself is even more afraid of offending me.

As it turned out, the conflict between the two stemmed from a rumor circulating in the village.

"Third Sister, come out for a moment." Old Man Yu rarely spoke, and led Zhang Yunqin out the door and into the adjacent storeroom, where they talked about something.

Zhang Yunqin's family has two older brothers, and she is the third child. When she married into the family, Yu Laonian always liked to call Zhang Yunqin "Third Sister".

Yu Laonian was the second oldest in his family and the ninth oldest in his clan, so Zhang Yunqin liked to call him Second Brother Yu Laonian.

Of course, Zhang Yunqin was a little shy when she called him "Second Brother," she had been like that for half her life, so she usually only called him that when the two of them were together.

(End of this chapter)