Chapter 3: Hardship and Trouble Bind My Body

  "Qi Shu, haven't sold out yet."

  A worn-out Dongfeng Sokon minivan, a head with a pompadour hairstyle stuck out and asked the boss of this familiar food stall on Zifang Road. The old boss, who was wearing an apron, looked at it and thought for a moment that he could still sell some, and shouted: "Leave three to five catties behind."

  "Alright, wait a minute." Danyong stopped the car, pulled open the rear door, and with a swift swing of his knife, he lifted a piece of meat onto the scale. "Five catties, nice and heavy!"

  The sauce donkey meat at Ma Village, the stall owner didn't even look at the scale, counted the money and handed it to Dan Yong, saying: "Yong ah, order 10 catties for tomorrow, deliver here at 6 o'clock in the afternoon."

  "No problem, delivered on time." Danyong said with a smile, put the money in his waist bag, sat in the car, and took note of the order. The stall owner had already shouted "Zhongma Village's sauce donkey meat, Changzi's pig head meat... Do you want some? Look, absolutely fresh, we don't sell overnight ones."

  The street vendors selling cooked food were the places where Danyong discovered he could make his first bucket of gold. This loose market, as long as the price was cheap and the goods were good, and the delivery was timely, it was easy to win the trust of the stall owners. The fermented donkey meat from Yangma Village, its reputation spread even more among these vendors, and Danyong drove his car to the next vendor location.

  These past few months, I've been working from dawn till dusk, delivering food to restaurants during the day and night markets in the evening. Half of my orders are pre-ordered, while the other half are on-demand. In the summer, I can deliver goods until after 10 pm. These past few months, my first priority has been this second-hand three-wheeled bread van, which I've managed to pay off with some money left over. Having a car is much faster than riding an electric bike, and every day I'm shuttling back and forth between the city district, Songma Village, and Luyuan Town. Now looking at Danyong, his body was already thin from being a student, but now he's even thinner.

  He's quite skilled at driving through the streets, but as soon as he gets stuck in traffic, he sticks his head out and starts yelling, a typical Luoyang thug image. But when he arrives at a street food stall on the corner, he immediately changes to a smiling face, calling out "big brother" or "uncle", with such enthusiasm that it's embarrassing if you don't buy a few pounds of donkey meat from him; when he arrives at a certain restaurant, the first thing he does is offer cigarettes to those clever and fat little bosses.

  Business has been booming, and he's gotten thinner and darker. Originally, he was a part-time businessman while in school, but now he's the spitting image of a second-hand dealer.

  Face, that thing is really worthless. Shanyong threw away the awakening of a contemporary university student early on. He still has this self-awareness, although he also graduated from the Chinese department, but if you want him to hold a pen, it's much harder than holding a meat knife.

  Tiedong Road, Zijin Road, Hero Road, West Avenue, North Avenue, almost ran half of the city in one night. Fortunately, the car was modified to run on gasoline, otherwise the fuel cost for this night would not be small. After filling up with gas at the Zijin Road gas station, looking at the remaining familiar meat in the back seat, Shanyong waited a while without receiving any phone calls, and then drove the car back to the mountains of Huiyuan Village in the northern suburbs.

  As he passed by Hero Road, he turned a corner as usual and stopped the car near the Donkey Meat Fragrance Grand Restaurant. He took a deep breath, quietly gazing at the colorful neon lights shining in the night sky, watching the customers entering and exiting with a drunken swagger, looking at the beautifully decorated entrance and the uniformly dressed waiters, and then looking at the various luxury cars parked in front of the restaurant... This familiar yet strange place gave Danyong a slightly different feeling every time he came, just like when he taught Lei Dapeng to shout "The east wind blows, the war drum beats, I am the city manager, who am I afraid of?" Every time he looked at it, it would add a bit of strength to his tired body and mind.

  Here, I always remember the prosperity of the past, think of the happiness of a family of three, and also think of the ideals that my senior sister Zuo Xiying had mentioned here.

  Still far from the ideal, so far that Shanyu didn't know how far it was. The master's sister returned to Xiamen to continue her interrupted master's degree, which had been suspended for two years. For a clever and knowledgeable master's sister, Shanyu knew she wouldn't be foolish enough to follow a poor boy. The environment around him hadn't changed much except that he didn't have to worry about exams anymore; if anything, the rest of it might give him more worries.

  Or maybe it's just that I'm too tired every day and often can't even remember what worry and depression feel like.

  By this time, the day's labor had come to an end. Up the mountain and back home, the car stopped at the door, carrying the big case behind the car, just put it in the yard, Lao Ma Tan Hongyu came out, helping with the work, Lao Ba was tidying up the kitchen, at this time, except for the guests playing mahjong at the farmhouse, no other sounds could be heard.

  After putting down his things, Dan Yong washed his face with the water pipe in the courtyard and dried it. When he was done, his mother had already brought out a bowl and two dishes of food and placed them on the stone table in the courtyard. As she watched her son wolfing down the food, Teng Hongyu stroked his head with a hint of pity and asked: "Yong, why don't you just quit this job?"

  "A few hundred a day is pretty good, isn't it? What's wrong, mom?" Dan Yong asked.

  "Mom, you're suffering a lot, running hundreds of kilometers every day!" Teng Hongyu said, affectionately stroking her son's head, but was dodged by him, clearly unbearable. Moreover, she disdainfully said: "At home, I'd rather be willing, but who gives us money?"

  "Mom gave you..." Hongyu Teng made a decision, got up, and suddenly, it made Yong Single very confused. He turned back to shout "Dad", and Changqing Single smiled and brought out the soup, placing it directly in front of his son. Yong Single looked stunned and asked: "What's going on, Dad?"

  "Good thing."

  Dad smiled, maintaining that air of mystery, and blinked. Mom came out with a red booklet, a passbook, and a single courage was surprised for a moment. When it reached his hands, Teng Hongyu smiled and said: "This is for you. Dad and mom think that finding a stable job is more practical, can't always run around in the wind and rain? Mom asked Uncle Lei to find out if there are any connections in education or other places, and if the procedures need to be done at that school, or even a government agency would work, suburbs are fine too... slowly transfer to the city later... this money..."

  Bang... The deposit book was thrown onto the table, startling Tong Hongyu and Shan Changqing. The son seemed dissatisfied, pouting his mouth: "100,000 yuan is enough for what? I worked for over three months and bought a car with more than 10,000 yuan left. Now buying a job, at this price, can't even get a good job, and if you do, the most you'll earn is 2,000 yuan in salary. It'll take years to make it back! Give me more!"

  "How much do you want?" Dan Changqing was taken aback and slightly displeased.

  "At the very least, I need a million, including salary, house, and wife, all calculated in. A million is not even enough." Single Yong was eating his rice while speaking loudly, this sentence made Old Man Single Changqing feel quite disheartened, clearly unable to satisfy his son's appetite. Teng Hongyu got angry, and with a "pa", she slapped him. Although Single Yong dodged quickly, he still got hit, but he just chuckled and pointed at his furious parents: "Haha... look at you, if I earn it myself, you're not happy, if I ask for everything from you, you're even more unhappy. Don't mention that we don't have it yet, even if we did, Dad and Mom, if you gave me everything, what would I do?"

  In an instant, he amused his mother who was full of anger again. His father, Zhang Changqing, knew that this son, who had been clever and eccentric since childhood, was very determined. He sighed and said: "Dad knows you care about the family, it's just a token of thought, our family is just capable of this."

  "Who said that? Dad, you were a millionaire years ago, can't just stay on this mountain and lose all your edge? I'm still looking for an opportunity to do business with you again." Shanyong teased his old man, not without encouragement, but unexpectedly his dad shook his head and said happily: "You won't understand until you're my age. What is gained must be lost, what is lost is also gained. The happiest years of my life are the ones I've spent on this mountain."

  As he spoke, he looked at his son with infinite deep affection, and then, with his arm around his wife, he looked even more deeply into her eyes. But his mother seemed like a little woman, her eyes hinting that the happiness was a bit too much to bear, so much so that Danyong almost spat it out, staring at them with wide eyes: "Wow wow wow, Dad and Mom, you two see each other every day, but you still like this?"

  "Hey, you little stinker." Mom was furious, raised her hand again, and Single Courage laughed, almost choked on his rice. The hand that was about to slap him turned into a pat on the back instead. Single Courage felt quite embarrassed, almost crying from laughing. He quickly finished eating, handed the passbook back to his mom, and said: "Put it away, put it away! You're still showing off with this little money? Wait till I earn tens of millions, then you two can retire and just take care of the kids for me."

  "Not... brave enough." The old mother pulled her son, that deep concern was very strong, uncertainly advising: "After all, it's a university graduate, can't really be treated as a second-hand goods?"

  "Not a second-rate kid, even if he's just a vendor or a peddler, it's still okay, as long as he makes a lot of money."

  "This kid is so obsessed with money. How can I just watch you suffer like this?"

  "What a torment! Let me stay at home and listen to your nagging, that's what I call torment."

  "Hey kid, mom was just saying, what's wrong with you......"

  "Mom, don't mention this again... Wait until I've hit a dead end and have no way out, then you can think of a solution, okay?"

  Shanyong turned around to intercept his mother, intercepting her about to start nagging. Looking at his mother, he also suffered a lot and added weight: "Mom, it's not me saying you, can't always listen to you. When I was in elementary school, you forced me to attend extracurricular classes every day, and I didn't even have time to play. As a result, I failed the small exam miserably; when I was in junior high school, you forced me to learn English, calligraphy, and piano, but I didn't master anything, and I couldn't even get into high school; when I was in high school, you sent me to a noble school. You didn't think about it, did you? You only attended elementary school and entered the drama troupe. Can you give birth to nobility? Haha..."

  "You're a dead thing. You don't study well, and you blame your mom." Old mother Teng Hongyu was so angry that she slapped her son twice, but lightly. Shan Yong smiled and ran to wash the bowl, and after finishing washing it, he didn't say much, just said he wanted to sleep, and tomorrow he had to get up early, and rushed upstairs. Teng Hongyu's plan fell through again, and with a mix of relief and regret, she turned back to scold her husband: "Changqing, why don't you help me say something? Can you just watch?"

  "Hongyu, it's better to have one less thing than one more. If you're not afraid of hardship, you'll only suffer for a while; if you're afraid of hardship, you'll suffer your whole life. What can we do about it? We still have to rely on him ourselves." Shuang Qing said this, but the words couldn't completely convince his wife. Teng Hongyu held the passbook, looking somewhat regretful as she said: "It's a bit less, if our family doesn't collapse, now giving our son a big house would be great, seeing him get married and us enjoying family bliss early."

  As she spoke, she leaned happily against her husband, but unexpectedly, there was no response for a long time. When she turned back, Tan Changqing's disapproving expression pained her. Teng Hongyu asked discontentedly: "What's wrong? Was I wrong?"

  "You're still not making progress, you've finished everything, what can he do? If our family doesn't fall apart that's the real bad thing. I reckon your son is 80% likely to be spoiled by you into a second-rate person." Single Changqing said weakly, this sentence infuriated Teng Hongyu, who pushed Old Single so hard he almost fell off his seat, then looked around and punched him heavily on the back, scolding: "I think these two years have really spoiled you rotten, daring to lecture me!"

  She punched her husband and shouted at her son, "The newly cooked peanuts are still there!" The son upstairs unhappily shouted back that he didn't want any. But his mom wouldn't take no for an answer and brought some up anyway. Her husband smiled, feeling a happiness he hadn't felt in many years...

  ………………

  ………………

  "In July... an average of 146 catties per day. In August, a total of, an average of 235 catties per day, in September, an average of 340 catties...... In the first few days of October, as high as 460 catties..."

  Shan Yong pressed the calculator, flipping through a thick stack of sales records. After graduating, he sold donkey meat every day. Counting with his fingers, it had been about four months. In those four months, he earned enough to buy a second-hand car and saved 10,000 yuan. Calculating the profit per kilogram of meat, it was around three to five yuan. However, the expenses were too high. Almost every day, he traveled back and forth between the donkey farm, city, and Zhangma Village, spending money on fuel, food, and unsold goods. Additionally, he couldn't avoid occasionally eating and drinking with his friends from the donkey farm, so there wasn't much left over.

  It's not bad, definitely better than being an intern or a temporary worker. I mean, even Da Peng's company didn't pay much before he got promoted, but somehow Xiao Mu Xian's salary wasn't low either. When he joined the preparation team, his starting salary was already around 3,000 yuan, which is considered high in a second-tier city like Lucheng. The first month after graduation, I treated two of my brothers to a meal. After that, we didn't really keep in touch, and only occasionally heard about each other's situations - some were idle at home, while others were busy running between job fairs and companies. As for finding a stable place, my brothers were actually ahead of the crowd.

  He put away today's bill, let out a long sigh, and lay down on the bed, feeling a bit tired. Every day when he came back, his bones felt like they were falling apart, and as soon as he lay down, he wouldn't even dream, able to sleep soundly until dawn. What he thought about most was still the business he had chosen for himself. Perhaps it wasn't about how much money he made. Every time he lay down, the scenes that flashed before his eyes were always the endless resources of the donkey farm and the dazzling neon lights of the Great Wine House. In the famous donkey meat production area, Shanyong knew that these mouth-watering businesses could be done for a lifetime. He didn't lack ideas, but he still lacked an entry point, or rather, an opportunity, one that was created by himself, not given by others.

  What an opportunity! Of course, it's the chance to establish itself in the donkey meat sales market and to regain control of the Donkey Meat Fragrance Building. These two things, Shanyong felt more and more that they were almost one and the same. If one day he really became the dominant force in the donkey meat circulation link, even if it was just like now, developing and growing into a wholesaler in a certain market segment, then it wouldn't be far from his own ideas.

  But it's still far from now, Shan Yong closed his eyes, feeling a bit disappointed. Maybe he had to wait until he was old and gray to see that day. For example, the donkey farm was operated by two generations of people; for example, the donkey meat market in the city, no matter whether it was transportation, refrigeration, slaughter, or processing, every link was a giant compared to Shan Yong's family property. The more he understood this market over the past few months, the more he realized that some hidden giants were even more terrifying. For example, Shi Baquan, who only raised donkeys, was still a big player, but when it came to sales, he was far behind. Even for a large restaurant or hotel with high sales volume, the big players had their own slaughter and supply chain. This market had long been occupied by giants, leaving only room for small players like Shan Yong to struggle and find opportunities in the cracks.

  Ding... Ring... Ring...

  The sound of a text message, as soon as this sound comes, Shanyong knows it's midnight, and it's a greeting from Zuo Xiying. One is busy with studies, the other is busy making money, now it seems that going to Xiamen to see his sister is still far away. Shanyong flips through the message, one sentence: Have you rested?

  Just about to rest... Shanyong replied, his eyes filled with infinite tenderness, this is the longest lasting emotion for himself, but for Shanyong who has returned to an ordinary and mundane life, the continuation of emotions feels more like a distant distance.

  Don't be too tired, having high expectations for life will lead to great disappointment... Zuo Xiying's responses always carry a philosophical tone.

  It won't be too tiring, I'll find an opportunity to expand the business, so it won't be as tiring as it is now. Dan Yong replied.

  I wish you all the best, but get some rest early and take care of your body... Zuo Xiying replied.

  You too, take care and get some rest early... Shan Yong replied, this is a signal of goodnight.

  As expected, the phone fell silent. Looking at the time, it was exactly midnight. For months, the two people's contact had been as precise as a clock, and every time they talked on the phone or sent each other messages at this hour, they could always let Shanyong An enter a peaceful sleep while savoring the bits and pieces of their time together. Slowly, thinking about the awkwardness when they first met, the excitement when they first got to know each other, the joy when they held hands, and also reminiscing about that sweet and unforgettable kiss, not long after, Shanyong An fell asleep with his pillow in his arms.

  A hard day has passed, another hard day is about to begin...

  （）