Chapter 22: School Starts

At this moment, Wang Feng, who had been busy helping Zou Ni in the kitchen, reluctantly joined Li Qing at Li Xian's table.

Although renovating an old house costs less than building a new one, it is still a significant expense for an ordinary family. This time, the renovation included the old house, leaving Wang Feng quite exasperated. In the face of the Li family's generosity, Wang Feng also reflected on her previous actions and felt genuinely apologetic.

On the other side, Li You and Wang Tiezhu, the two families' in-laws, had started chatting and discussing past conflicts. Wang Tiezhu's face was also flushed red.

Seeing this, Wang Qinghe sighed heavily, filled his cup, and stood up.

He looked at Li Xian, and the farmer's lips twitched. "Li Laodi, to be honest, even if you are capable of making money, I, Wang Qinghe, don't admire you. But today, I'm convinced. I handled things wrong before. No need to say more. From tomorrow, our six brothers will come over, and your family's matters will be our family's matters. The rest is all in the wine!"

With that, he downed the full cup of liquor in one gulp.

With this statement, the past grievances were considered settled. Although Wang Qinghe had been quite angry with the Wang family before, upon reflection, he found that they were not so bad after all.

Li Xian chuckled. "There's no need to be so formal. My sister-in-law is your sister, and my brother-in-law is your elder brother. We are all relatives!"

"Ah! You're right, Laodi!" Wang Laowu slapped his thigh and raised his glass. "Here's to family!"

Seeing that the eldest brother and the fifth brother had expressed their intentions, the rest of the Wang brothers also joined in.

In an instant, the table that had almost turned into a brawl became the most lively one.

...

The evening was quite rowdy, and Li Xian drank a lot. By the time the guests had left, he was quite tipsy, with unsteady steps and blurry vision.

After tidying up, the family gathered in the brick house. With the new house still under construction, according to Li You's arrangements, he and Zou Ni would sleep on a makeshift bed next to the stove, while the old man and Li Xian, along with Li Pi, would sleep on the kang. As for Li Jie and Li Lingling, they would sleep in the radio room, which had a small bed for temporary rest.

That evening, after mending relations with Wang Feng, she had kindly suggested that since the old house still had an empty room, she and Zou Ni could move there to avoid crowding.

Now that they had enough money for the new house, and with the school season approaching, Li Xian prepared to make some final arrangements before heading to the forestry bureau in a couple of days.

While the family was together, he divided the deposit he had collected today into two parts. He kept one thousand for himself and handed the rest to Li You.

Including the previous six thousand, Li You now had ten thousand yuan. This amount was sufficient for building three new houses and renovating Li Qing's house.

Looking at the neatly stacked cash in his hands, Li You felt a deep sense of emotion.

"I never expected that in my old age, I'd become a ten-thousand-yuan household…" he muttered, looking at the money.

Li Xian laughed, feeling the effects of the alcohol, and waved his hand. "Dad… cough, cough… Father, what's so great about being a ten-thousand-yuan household? In our backwater place, it's considered rare. In the south, they say ten thousand is just the beginning. Wait and see, we'll earn a hundred thousand, and then a million, ten million, or even a billion!"

Li You was initially quite pleased, but hearing such numbers that he had never dared to imagine, he became annoyed.

He gave Li Xian a slap on the forehead. "You rascal, what are you dreaming of! Millionaire… What kind of life would that be? Don't even think about it… How much virtue would our ancestors have accumulated?"

Li Xian chuckled, feeling dizzy, and didn't say much more before heading to the kang. Soon, snoring filled the room.

That night, Li Xian didn't sleep well.

In his dazed state, he alternated between dreams of Li Daoyun discussing the "cannot approach the water" divination, visions of returning to an era with WiFi and online gaming, and fragments of familiar yet unfamiliar scenes from the forestry technical school...

It was a truly exhausting night.

...

With the house construction formally underway, the next day saw everyone arriving at the construction site, bustling with activity. The six Wang brothers, as promised at the dinner table, had set aside all their work and come to help with the construction.

Unlike before, the brothers now treated Li Xian as if they had grown up together. This left Li Xian somewhat bewildered—on one hand, he was surprised by the simplicity of people in such times, and on the other hand, he thought that if there was an opportunity in the future, he would help these straightforward guys.

And so, the days quickly passed, and before long, it was time for school to start.

On August 30th, Zou Ni organized Li Xian and Li Pi's autumn clothing and prepared some sausages that could be stored. She packed them into the two's bags.

On August 31st, Li Xian and Li Pi got up early, bid farewell to the family, and boarded the bus to the forestry bureau.

There were quite a few people on the bus.

The logging field only had an elementary school and did not meet the standard for nine-year compulsory education. So, children over twelve who could afford to continue their education had to go to the forestry bureau.

As Li Xian placed his luggage on the rack, he noticed that the driver, Old Zhou, was in low spirits, and the ticket seller, Miss Zhou, had a gloomy expression.

Seeing Li Xian looking at her, Zhou Yun blushed and nodded as a greeting.

Li Xian could roughly guess why they were worried—it must be because the bus was about to be bought out, leading to potential job losses.

Thinking of this, he asked Zhou Yun, "I heard that our logging field's bus is going to be bought out?"

Before Zhou Yun could respond, Old Zhou, who was smoking in the front, exploded in anger. "Buy it? I've been driving in the logging field for almost twenty years. If they don't arrange things properly for me, let's see who can kick me off this route! Dammit, they want to make a move on my daughter too? Dream on! They're just a bunch of local thugs. If necessary, I'll fight them to the end!"

Hearing Old Zhou's words, Li Xian frowned.

It seemed the situation was even worse than he had imagined...