Starting with vegetable greenhouses in 1988

Chapter 30 Learning to drive
The Li family's old house.

There were two square tables in the main room. Several men sat at the one against the wall, while the Malay girl, along with her daughter and sister-in-law, sat at the table by the door.

Both tables were packed full. The men's table had several dishes of braised carp. Wang Xiuying used the tip of her chopsticks to poke a piece of fish belly meat, then carried the bowl to the small table.

Li Na sat at the table, munching on a mooncake, her cheeks puffed out and eyes squinting, looking just like a little mouse stealing oil. Her husband, Malay, held her daughter in his arms, feeding her a bite every now and then.

"Let's skip the cheap liquor today for the holiday and open a bottle of good wine." Wang Xiuying brought out Fenjiu from the inner room. Old Li stared at it intently, swallowing hard. "That's great! I've been wanting to drink this for days."

Li Weidong took the bottle, held it in his hand, and twirled it around to examine it. "Second brother, how much is a bottle of this?"

"28."

"Damn, this is so expensive! It could buy more than ten kilograms of pork." Li Weidong's hand trembled. He knew the wine wasn't cheap, but he didn't expect it to be this expensive.

Unscrew the bottle cap and pour a cup for Old Li first. Old Li held the cup to his nose and inhaled, "This is the aroma of the cellar! Come on, fill them all up!"

"Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, Dad and Mom."

"Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, grandpa and grandma!"

Everyone raised their wine cups, touched them to their lips, and hesitated to drink them in large gulps. Old Li squinted and savored the wine for a long time, with wine beads still clinging to the tips of his beard. "Fragrant, this is real good wine."

He couldn't explain exactly how good it was, and he'd only drunk it a few times.

"Come on, everyone, let's start eating!" Old Li, enjoying his drink, warmly invited everyone to start eating.

Zhao Tiezhu liked the warm atmosphere and laughed along with everyone, but he felt a little lonely and missed his family.

My deceased father, my mother and younger brother who live far away in Tongzhou...

After finishing their reunion dinner, everyone cleaned up together and went home.

Li Zhe also said goodbye to his parents and went back to live in the greenhouse.

Although they lived in the same village, Wang Xiuying still felt uncomfortable and saw her second son to the door.

Zhao Tiezhu and Li Zhe walked together and saw Wang Xiuying standing at the door of her house. She said with a hint of drunkenness, "Brother Zhe, I really envy your family's lively and bustling atmosphere. Unlike me, I don't even have anyone to talk to when I go home."

“I also live alone in a greenhouse.” Li Zhe patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t overthink it, let’s go home.”

Zhao Tiezhu stood at the door, unable to move. He used to have a big yellow dog for company, but now that the dog had given birth, he felt even more lonely. "Brother, it's still early. How about we have a couple more drinks?"

In their past lives, the two had spent many holidays together, so Li Zhe could easily guess what the other was thinking. "Do you have any alcohol at home?"

"Not only is there wine, but also snacks to go with it."

"Take this and come drink it in my greenhouse."

Zhao Tiezhu quickly ran back to the house, grabbed some wine and food, and went to the greenhouse with Li Zhe.

Previously, the group had only drunk one bottle of Fenjiu, which was not enough to satisfy them. Both brothers had a high alcohol tolerance and could easily drink two rounds.

Inside the greenhouse, the two set out a plate of peanuts and four salted duck eggs and started drinking.

After a few drinks, Zhao Tiezhu's eyes reddened, and he became more talkative. "Brother Zhe, I dread holidays the most. Everyone else is with their families, but I'm all alone... My father passed away five years ago, and my mother remarried three years ago. Since then, I've been all alone... I've never told anyone this." Zhao Tiezhu pounded his chest with his right hand. "My heart is so heavy."

“I understand.” Li Zhe was a bachelor in his past life, so how could he not understand this feeling?

Zhao Tiezhu shook his head, "You don't understand... I miss my mother, I miss my brother. I know what outsiders think of my mother, they think my mother... is bad, that she abandoned me and remarried, but that's not true."

When my mother took my younger brother away, we had a frank conversation. I was seventeen that year. I could live just fine without her. The family's cart and three acres of land were all mine, and plenty of girls would be willing to be with me.

"If my mother hadn't remarried, the burden of having two boys in the family would have been too heavy, and it would have been difficult for me to find a husband... She remarried with my younger brother because she was afraid of being a burden to me."

“Your mother is right.” Li Zhe had to admit that Zhao’s mother was a shrewd woman. She left her eldest son a family fortune so that it would be easier for him to find a wife in the future. She then remarried and moved to Tongzhou with her younger son, who later became a resident of the capital.

As for why Zhao Tiezhu's marriage was not smooth later, it can only be said that personal plans are no match for the tide of the times.

Before the 1980s, horse-drawn carriages were the mainstream of the transportation industry in the north. A carriage driver was a skilled trade who could train horses, raise horses, and repair carriages. He had a high status and good income, and many people were willing to marry him.

In the late 1980s, with the mechanization of agriculture after the reform and opening up, tractors and farm vehicles gradually replaced animal-drawn vehicles, horse-drawn carriages withdrew from the mainstream transportation market, and the drivers of these vehicles also declined.

“Brother Zhe, do you know what? I just want to earn more money so I can bring my mother and brother back and the whole family can live together.”

"I understand, that day will come."

Zhao Tiezhu waved his hand, "Brother Zhe, being a cart driver is getting harder and harder. Not only do we have to compete with other drivers, but now we also have to compete with tractors. How can my two-wheeled cart compare to a four-wheeled one? They drink oil, we eat grass, we simply can't compete. This money is getting harder and harder to earn."

“Zhu Zi, the country is promoting mechanization. In the future, there will not only be tractors, but also trucks and freight trucks. It will become increasingly difficult for horse-drawn carriage drivers. If you want to make money, you have to change careers as soon as possible.”

Zhao Tiezhu looked a little confused and paused for a moment. "I don't know how to drive or haul goods, I don't know how to do anything else."

Li Zhe poured him a glass of wine, saying, "You can be a driver and learn to drive a tractor."

"Can I do it?"

"Why not? You have experience hauling goods and know the way, that's your biggest advantage." In later generations, as long as you have navigation, you can travel all over the country, but this era is different. Drivers have to know the way, and this job also depends on talent.

Some people can remember a route after walking it once or twice, while others will still get lost even after walking it five or six times. Especially when traveling long distances, if you don't know the way, you're practically blind.

In the next decade, being a driver will be a highly sought-after and lucrative job.

"Brother Zhe, these tractors are expensive, I heard you need to get a license. Where can I learn to drive one?"

"Don't we have some in our village?"

"You mean the Iron Ox in our village?" Zhao Tiezhu asked, then immediately shook his head. "No, no, the village tractor is Wang Tietou's precious possession. He lets me practice on it."

“How will you know it won’t work if you don’t try? Your father was a cart driver in the production team back then, and he had a good relationship with Secretary Wang. Now that your father has passed away and your mother has remarried, how could he not take care of you? Secretary Wang is a cold-faced but warm-hearted person. As long as you tell him the truth and don’t take advantage of the collective, he will agree.”

If all else fails, we'll pay for the tractor's fuel ourselves and haul goods for the village; consider it practice driving, as long as the village helps us apply for driver's licenses.

Zhao Tiezhu listened attentively, knowing that Li Zhe was doing it for his own good. He picked up his wine cup and downed it in one gulp. "Brother Zhe, I'll listen to you. I'll go see Secretary Wang tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)