A single man checks into a couples' room; his life of ease and comfort begins.

When Hao Qiangqiang woke up, he was already in Nanxiang City.

Turning around to look at my surroundings, the scenery gradually became familiar.

The roadside trees were lush and verdant, their leaves covered in dust. The further we went in, the more it felt like stepping back into reality from a fantastical future compared to the previous Shenzhen city.

The most common vehicles on the road are three-wheeled motorcycles, with people sitting on either side of the driver's seat, and two fixed wooden benches in the rear canopy, which are crowded with people.

Hao Qiangzhuang remembers that last year when he left his hometown, he rode in Liu Xiaoyu's tricycle in the next village. He sat in the back, and the long bench was not fixed. When the road was steep, he and the bench would bounce up once.

Especially when you're completely unprepared, it feels like your heart is about to jump out of your chest.

Development here is very slow, and the scene remains unchanged from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The old-fashioned diesel tractors all emitted ear-piercing noises. The tractor's head, which was originally white, had been discolored and rusted by years of black smoke.

As the tractor made regular thumping sounds, black smoke billowed from its exhaust pipe, and dust particles could be seen emerging from it from time to time, though they were barely noticeable unless you looked closely.

Besides these, there were a few other vehicles scattered around, including some sedans, but very few of them.

There are people like Hao Qiangzhuang who drive luxury pickup trucks into the county town, but they are very rare.

Back then, tall buildings were rare in the county town, and there weren't many of them. During festivals and holidays, there would be a lot of people coming to the streets.

This area is called Shangjie, pronounced (gai) in the local accent.

The busiest place in the county town was called the crossroads, which was the only place in the entire county town at that time with traffic lights.

The traffic light is placed in the very center of the intersection, with an iron pole fixed to a concrete post, and a traffic policeman on duty standing on it.

The roads are not crowded because in this remote small county, urban development has not been fully planned, and traffic flow is relatively low.

However, there were many people coming and going on the roadside. Several farmers were carrying two chicken coops filled with chickens and ducks to sell at the farmers' market. They were also carrying vegetables, rice and other agricultural products to the county town to exchange for money and buy daily necessities.

Besides the intersection, there are dense commercial shops, and the flow of people is very concentrated here, so you can see crowded scenes.

The second place with the largest flow of people is the farmers' market, where the flow of people is even more concentrated, and it can be packed with people when it's busy.

Hao Qiangzhuang clearly remembers that when he was a child, he went to the farmers' market with his father and got lost. He was only eight years old at the time. Fortunately, he was lucky enough to run into an acquaintance from the same village, an uncle, who took him home.

The county town was also very chaotic at that time. It was a remote place where people often robbed and extorted money from people on the road.

Hao Qiangzhuang had also been robbed and extorted on the road by seven junior high school students who were four or five years older than him. He was in the fifth grade and had gone to the county town to find study materials at the teacher's request.

Looking back, I've long since let go of those things. My memories of that time are all blurry, and I can't remember what those people looked like.

At the bridgehead, there was an open space for parking. Hao Qiangzhuang immediately pointed there and said, "Elise, park the car there."

Miss Elise is now a dutiful daughter to Hao Qiangzhuang; if he tells her to go east, she wouldn't dare go west.

After parking the car, Miss Iris and Hao Qiangzhuang got out. Hao Qiangzhuang pointed to the rice noodle shop in front of them and said, "People from here always think about eating a bowl of rice noodles whenever they go to the county town."

There are more than a dozen shops on this side of the bridge, including seven or eight rice noodle shops. Each coal stove has a pot on it, where pork bones are simmering. The aroma is so strong that Hao Qiangzhuang can't help but swallow his saliva.

There are many rice noodle shops here. As long as you have the skills to cook rice noodles, you can open a shop and make a living.

Hao Qiangzhuang is an old friend of the rice noodle shop owner and his wife. Hao Qiangzhuang likes to eat rice noodles at this shop. One reason is that the taste is good, but the main reason is that it is clean and hygienic.

The owner and his wife are both over fifty years old, and they have a beautiful daughter who is still in college.

Upon seeing Hao Qiangzhuang arrive, the boss immediately came out to greet him with a smile: "Qiangzhuang, you're back from building your fortune?"

When we go out to work, we always say it's about "building a wealthy business".

When Hao Qiangzhuang saw the boss, he immediately took out a cigarette from his pocket, handed one to the boss, lit one for himself, and said with a smile, "I'm back to play for a while, and I'll be leaving next month."

Miss Elise's high heels were probably covered in mud. She bent over and tried to remove it for a long time but couldn't. Feeling a little frustrated, she walked over and said, "Brother Hao, I stepped on something in my high heels and I can't get it off."

The boss looked at Miss Elise and asked Hao Zhuangqiang, "Zhuangqiang, is this your wife?"

Hao Qiangzhuang didn't speak, but nodded with a smile, waved to Miss Iris, and said, "Don't worry about that, come here, let me introduce you."

After Miss Elise walked over, Hao Qiang put his arm around her shoulder, smiled at the shop owner, and said, "Elise, this is the owner of this shop, call him Uncle Zhao."

Miss Elise flashed a radiant smile, her pearly white teeth gleaming in the sunlight.

Miss Elise bowed to the shop owner and said, "Hello, Uncle Zhao, I am Hao Qiangzhuang's wife. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hao Qiangqiang was somewhat surprised by Miss Elise's explanation; he hadn't expected that Miss Elise had done all her homework before coming.

"Good, good, good." Uncle Zhao, the shop owner, seemed particularly happy and called out to his wife, who was busy inside the shop, "Wife, give Qiangzhuang two bowls of the best rice noodles."

As the shop owner, Uncle Zhao, spoke, his face lit up with joy, and he continued, "Qiangzhuang, it's rare for you to come back to your hometown from Shenzhen today, so I'm treating you to rice noodles."

As the saying goes, one should not accept a reward without merit. After thinking it over, Hao Qiangzhuang took out two packs of Yuxi (Jingjie) cigarettes from his pocket. Each pack cost 100 yuan. He handed the two packs to Uncle Zhao and said with a smile, "Uncle Zhao's kindness is appreciated. I hope you will accept these two packs of cigarettes."

The shop owner was a smoker, so he recognized the good cigarettes. When he saw them, he was a little dumbfounded, but subconsciously reached out and took them, saying with a smile, "Then Uncle will accept them. Qiangzhuang and his wife, please come in and sit down."

The proprietress didn't smoke, but seeing that two packs of cigarettes were worth the equivalent of two bowls of the most expensive rice noodles in the shop—that would cost over twenty yuan! A dark feeling crept over her, and she muttered, "They're giving it away for free. How much could two packs of cigarettes possibly be worth?"