Chapter Ninety-Eight Home

  City S is a small mountain city in northwestern Hubei. It's not too far from City W, about 700 kilometers away, and the train ride takes around 7 or 8 hours.

  Because decades ago, when Country Z was first established, the surrounding powers were eyeing it covetously and the shadow of war loomed, so Country Z's heavy industry leaned towards developing in mountainous areas. It is said that this can effectively prevent air raids.

  S city took advantage of this opportunity because of its many mountains. The Second Automobile Manufacturing Factory, abbreviated as Erqi Factory, is located in this small mountain city. Those who have never been to S city think that the Erqi factory is a large factory when they hear about it. In fact, the entire Erqi factory is actually composed of dozens of small factories of various sizes, such as shock absorber factories, body factories, instrument factories and so on, which are scattered in every corner of Shiyan.

  Each factory is responsible for producing its own parts and then transporting them all to the main assembly plant, where they are assembled into a complete car.

  Chen Chu's parents were employees of the tire manufacturing plant under Erqi. In the 80s and 90s, the factory's efficiency was still good, and the workers' treatment was not bad either. However, with the introduction of national policies, the country's economy began to shift from a planned economy to a market economy, and the various drawbacks of state-owned enterprises gradually emerged during this period, and their efficiency gradually declined. The tire factory was no exception, and layoffs and wage arrears became common.

  Because he had been accompanying Han Xiaohui to play around for three consecutive days, Chen Chufan indeed consumed too much energy. As soon as he got on the car, he fell asleep leaning against the seat. When he woke up from his nap, the car had almost arrived in S city.

  The tire factory is located in the northernmost part of S city. The circular route of bus No. 4 is from the train station to the tire factory, which just goes straight through the entire urban area. So it's also convenient to go out.

  The tire factory is not big, but it's not small either. The factory has more than 8,000 formal employees. Including family members, there are probably over 30,000 people. Because everyone has been living and working in this area for years, they all know each other. Even if you mention someone's name, it may seem unfamiliar at first, but once you say who their son or husband is, people will nod knowingly, "Oh, that's him!" Maybe it's the same with state-owned factories all over the country - whenever something happens in a family, everyone knows about it within two days.

  So Chen Chufan was on the bus and it was all familiar faces, with uncles and aunts calling out non-stop, eliciting surprised responses from them. "Hey, isn't this Van Van? How long has it been since we last saw you? How did you grow so tall? By the way, I heard your dad say that your school arranged for you to study abroad on scholarship, when are you leaving?"

  "The school food is good, I play basketball every day, and then I grew taller. Going abroad has to wait until September or October!"

  Almost every adult who met Chen Chufan would ask these two questions. So Chen Chufan basically explained it all the way. After explaining, the adults in front of him would praise him for a couple of sentences, with different words but roughly the same meaning. In short, they said he had made progress. Old Chen has a good son.

  Chen Chufan's home was on a hillside, back in the 90s, when the factory spent money to flatten a mountain top and develop a residential area for employees, building over 20 houses. A third of the factory's workers moved to this hillside. Although they had to climb a long staircase every day, the environment of the community was unparalleled. There were leisure plazas, green spaces, and tall trees everywhere. As soon as you entered the community, the air felt much fresher than down in the valley.

  Climbed up to the fifth floor, knocked on the door, and a familiar and intimate voice came from inside, "Who is it?"

  "Mom, it's me! Open the door quickly!"

  Even through the door of the house, the footsteps inside sounded much faster. "Fang Fang, you kid didn't even call ahead to let mom prepare some good food for you!"

  "Hey, mom, you're still treating me like a guest? As long as there's food at home, that's all that matters!" Chen Chufan said with a silly smile, tossing his luggage into the house.

  "You're asking for trouble. There's nothing at home that you like to eat! Eh? Fangfang, you've grown again! How come I feel like you've grown so much in just half a year?" As the mother walked closer to help her son with his things, she suddenly found herself only reaching his shoulders and couldn't help but ask in surprise.

  "Mom, I've grown taller, isn't that good?! Every day playing basketball, eating and sleeping well, how can I not grow?! Chen Chufan casually replied. This topic had been asked countless times before, and the answer was extremely fluent. It wasn't that he intentionally hid his physical changes from his mother. It's just that family members aren't as easy to fool as classmates. Plus, he was afraid of worrying his mom, so he decided to casually brush it off."

  "It's good that you've grown taller, yes, just need to exercise more. You rest for a while, your dad will be off work soon. I'm cooking now, hungry, eat an apple first! Mom is going to stir-fry an egg for you."

  "Alright, mom, you go ahead and busy yourself. I need to make a phone call to my classmate anyway!"

  Mother returned to the kitchen, Chen Chufan then picked up and dialed to Han Xiaohui's home.

  "Hello, Xiaoxi! I'm home!"

  But on the phone came Xiaoxi's mother's voice: "Oh, is that Xiao Chen? Wait a minute, I'll get Xiaoxi to answer the phone."

  Although it was over the phone, Chen Chufan's face still involuntarily turned red. "Next time I call, I mustn't be so anxious!" The young man warned himself in his heart.

  "Hey, I heard someone mistook my mom for me?" When Han Xiaohui's voice came from the other end of the phone, Chen Chufan had already adjusted his mood.

  "Yes, yes! Who made someone know that I'm home at this time and still not waiting by the phone?" Chen Chufan complained.

  "Pfft! Who do you think you are? Let me take care of your phone for you. I'm already giving you face by coming to pick you up." The girl's disdainful voice came through, and Chen Chufan even imagined Xiao Xi's proud expression in his mind.

  It was just a phone call to report safety, but the two of them ended up arguing on the phone for half a day, until there was a voice on the other end calling Xiao Xi to go eat. The two reluctantly hung up the phone.

  Not long after hanging up the phone, Chen Chufan's father also got off work and returned home.

  Chen Chu's father, Chen Zhenquan, is an honest man. His hometown is in the provincial capital, and after drinking, he boasted that his academic performance was quite good when he was young, but later responded to the country's call for intellectuals to go to the countryside and came to S city, where he was assigned to this tire factory, and has been working here for over 20 years.

  After his father came back, it was another round of ordinary family greetings. But as a father, he was much more strict than as a mother, seeing that his son had suddenly grown taller, and with joy, he found a ruler to measure his son's current height.

  "Wow, I'm 186 cm now! There's a trend towards growing to 190 cm! Haha!" Chen Zhenquan exclaimed after measuring his height.

  "Alright, you old worrywart, come and eat quickly." The mother was getting impatient, afraid that her son would go hungry.

  "Come on, let's go! Your mom is in a hurry, hurry up and eat, you little brat!"

  The three of them sat down at the dinner table, and Chen Chufan felt a bit uneasy.

  "Dad, Mom, is this all you usually eat at home?" There were only three dishes on the table: a stir-fried bok choy, a plate of pickled vegetables, and a scallion omelette. Chen Chufan couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat. He remembered that when he was at home, there was never a shortage of meat at every meal, especially since he recalled the scallion omelette being made by his mother specifically for his return, which made him even more sorrowful.

  "You're the same! The son is back, don't you know to go buy some meat? There's not even a single dish that Fangfang likes. Come on, Fangfang, eat an egg, and tomorrow I'll get your mom to make two good dishes for you." Chen Zhenquan complained to his wife.

  "Dad, that's not what I meant! I don't care what I eat, but you can't just eat these things every day!" Chen Chufan said hastily.

  "You know what, it's hot now and we're both old, every day just wanting to eat lighter dishes!" Dad said seriously: "You think you still need to have children, so you need to eat meat?"

  "Come on, come on! Let's have some eggs with rice!" As she spoke, Chen Chu's mother picked up a large piece of egg from the plate and put it into his bowl.

  Chen Chufan didn't say a word, but his heart felt particularly uncomfortable. In the past, whenever he returned home, he would always call ahead of time, and when he arrived, there would be a sumptuous dinner waiting for him. This made Chen Chufan never think about how the two elderly people lived when he was not at home. It wasn't until today, seeing the food on the table, that Chen Chufan realized that in order for him to go to school, his family had really paid a lot.

  At least his father was also a meat-lover in the past.

  Chen Chufan only then deeply felt how painful it is to have no money. "If I had known, I should have worked more hours at the club!"

  Silently finishing his meal, when the family sat together, Chen Chufan took out 1,500 yuan and handed it to his mother. "Mom, this money was earned from my part-time job, you guys take it first and use it."

  This money is the 2200 yuan salary from the club, plus the 500 yuan reward from the police station. After living expenses for over a month, and not going out to play with Xiao Xi for three days, which also cost a lot, only over 1600 yuan was left. I kept 100 yuan for myself and took out all the rest to prepare to supplement my mom's household expenses.

  "Keep it yourself, there's still money at home. Aren't you going abroad soon? You'll definitely need it then!" Mom didn't stretch out her hand to take the money handed over by her son.

  "It's just that your dad can still support this family, the money you earn yourself, keep it for yourself first. When you're out, what don't you need money for?" Chen Zhenquan chimed in on the side.

  "I'm going abroad and I'll be using US dollars, plus someone is fully sponsoring my living expenses and tuition fees. I don't need to worry about these things at all, just take it as if it's my living allowance back home!" Chen Chufan stuffed the money into his mother's hands, although it wasn't a lot, but at least it could improve the lives of the two elderly people.

  "Alright, alright, just take it, kid. Ah, Fangfang has grown up." The father's tone was very pleased.

  After seeing his mother put away the money, Chen Chufan felt a bit better and the three of them started talking. The focus was on Chen Chufan's going abroad. By the time Chen Chufan had explained everything clearly, it was already late at night.

  "Fanfan has been on the train all day and is tired, let's go rest!"

  Lying on the familiar bed, Chen Chufan couldn't sleep no matter how hard he tried. A simple dinner not only filled his stomach but also made him realize his own responsibility. "I have to think of a way to make money!"