Chapter 521 Memories
The day after visiting the Aihua Electronics Production Base in Ziyun Town was already the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month.

Ever since Zhang Yunqi returned to Jiangchuan, Zhang's mother has been busy packing up some things for the New Year in Yunxi. This year, the Zhang family will live in the new house in Yunxi and celebrate the Lunar New Year in their hometown.

The Yunxi Villas project has been completed. Building houses in rural areas is always fast, but it is not cheap. The total cost reached more than 1995 million yuan in 600, of which the village collective paid 300 million yuan and the villagers raised 300 million yuan. After sharing, each family had to pay nearly yuan.

To be honest, they did gain face. The news that the peasants in Yunxi Village were living in second-floor Western-style buildings had spread all over the country. Various media reports emerged one after another, which was quite similar to the previous Huaxi Village. Of course, the country did need this kind of model of getting rich, but they were too proud to show off. Later, under Zhang Yunqi's suggestion, Yunxi Village used 10% of the cooperative's option income to deposit million yuan into the bank, and then lent it to the villagers, using the villagers' equity dividends to offset the loss in installments.

The Zhang family was allocated two villas.

It's not that they are taking advantage of the village. Zhang Yunqi and Zhang Yunfeng have already separated. The two brothers now have two accounts, so according to the rules, they naturally have two quotas for housing.

Zhang Yunfeng was in charge of the decoration of the two houses. The villagers raised funds to build the houses, which cost a lot. The interior decoration was relatively simple, with a large white floor. Zhang Yunfeng felt that he could not lower the status of his younger brother Zhang Yunqi, so he specially invited the best decoration company from Lijin, the provincial capital, and spent a lot of money to prepare the project. It was completed in less than a month.

The most luxurious villa in Yunxi was built.

On the morning of the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, Zhang Yunqi, Zhang Yunfeng and Zhang Qiulan, three adult descendants of the Zhang family, drove three luxury cars loaded with fashionable New Year goods and a bunch of high-end foreign brand electrical appliances, and took Zhang's father and mother, Chunlan Xiaoxiao, and Chujian's family to Yunxi.

In Zhang Yunqi's car sat Zhang's parents, Chujian and Xiaoxiao.

With Zhang Xiaoxiao, a naughty girl, the journey will definitely not be boring. However, Zhang Yunqi found that he was increasingly unable to fool his sister. Ordinary things could not attract her at all. She always asked for Lego toys, beautiful foreign-brand dresses, and high-end gadgets such as PS game consoles and Sony MD.

In the past two years, she has accumulated so many high-end dolls, dresses and toys that she has to use a whole room to store them. In terms of keeping up with international trends, Zhang Xiaoxiao is undoubtedly at the forefront of the Zhang family.

While chatting, the Zhang family's three cars, a Mercedes-Benz, a Crown and a Passat, drove through Jiangchuan, where the city was bustling and the atmosphere of the New Year was strong. In less than half an hour, they were out of Fengyang City.

The rural scenery of my hometown always makes people feel at home.

What comes into view are vast and boundless fields and towering mountains. The air is filled with the fishy smell of mud and water at the beginning of winter. The rivers have swelled in spring, and the gray-green clouds in the sky are hanging low.

At this time of year, the birds and animals in the fields have disappeared, and everything is quiet. The earth and the village are looming in the mist. From the chimneys of the distant villages, thick green smoke rises, filled with the smell of fireworks and the feeling of weary birds returning to their nests at the end of the year.

Aunt Zhang hasn't been back to Yunxi for some time.

After the car entered the village, this shabby mountain nest changed every day in her eyes.

From the entrance of the village, there is a clear asphalt road leading directly to the depths of the village. It is beautiful and neat, with endless high-standard farmland on both sides. The fertile fields are all planted by machines. She heard the women in the village who went to the city to do business a few days ago telling her that the yield of the village's regular paddy fields has increased by more than 200 kilograms per mu this year! It was all the idea and credit of her third son, who invested a lot of money.

If the car goes further, you can see the public facilities newly built in the village in recent years, including the village cultural center, village primary school and basketball court. The most eye-catching are of course the rows of townhouses at the north end of the village. They are of Chinese style, and every household has a large courtyard. It is backed by Jiangjunling and faces thousands of acres of breeding bases to the east. It enjoys the beautiful water scenery and can overlook the Crescent River in the dead of winter. The scenery is beautiful and quite magnificent.

When Zhang Yunqi drove to the door of their new home, many villagers gathered in groups of three or four.

Everyone was quite enthusiastic.

Some came forward to greet Zhang Ma and chat with her, some directly helped unload the goods for the Zhang family, and some saw the sisters-in-law they had just met and muttered to Zhang Ma: "This is the wife of the third son Yunqi, oh, she is so beautiful, like a fairy."

My face turned red when I first saw you.

Zhang Ma smiled and said, "They haven't gotten married yet. Their daughter is still studying at Peking University. They are young now, so studying is more important."

"Look at what you're saying. At Yunqi's age, there are already several married couples in the village, some with babies! Of course, our Yunqi is a very capable person, and his career is more important, but this girl is really good, and she's very pretty. She's also a top student at Peking University. With Yunqi's help, she'll definitely have a bright future!"

Aunt Zhang smiled even more happily.

She muttered, "Yes, my daughter is called Chu Jian. She is cute, has a good personality, and is a top-notch student. She is the top scorer in the liberal arts in our province's college entrance examination this year! She is currently studying at Peking University and writing articles. Her articles have won awards in the capital. She is going to be a great writer in the future!"

Zhang Qiulan and Zhang Xiaonan, who were standing nearby, heard what Aunt Zhang said and were both stunned.

No one knows a mother better than her daughter. Their mother praised Chu Jian so much, it seemed that she didn't want the villagers to look down on Chu Jian, and she also wanted to make it clear that Chu Jian entered her Zhang family not as an outsider, let alone as a nanny's daughter!
They had heard the gossip in the village about the third son of his family and the daughter of the Ji family. Their mother had heard even more. In fact, no matter what the other members of the Zhang family thought, their mother obviously had a deeper relationship with Chu Jian.

I’ve been raising it for more than three years, how could it not be deep?

So my mother said this to Yunqi. But Yunqi was passing cigarettes to his uncles and uncles, so he didn't seem to hear it. But the little girl's face was red when she first saw her, and she was a little nervous.

The neighbors were very cooperative and showed surprised expressions. Whether they were sincere or not, they praised Chu Jian a lot. If nothing unexpected happened, this matter would spread throughout Yunxi Village in two days. The uncles didn't have so much gossip. They helped the Zhang family unload all the goods. Zhang Yunfeng enthusiastically distributed Zhonghua cigarettes to everyone. Zhang's mother wanted to keep them for tea, but every household had things to do at the end of the year. On the other hand, the Zhang family had just moved into a new house and had a lot of things to do. It was not easy to disturb them, so they left in twos and threes.

After a simple lunch at noon, Zhang Yunqi took Chu Jian to visit Yunxi.

Chu Jian had been here before, but at that time Yunxi Village had just started to develop, and was far from being as prosperous as it is today. Chu Jian was very happy, with a little emotion on her face: "It feels so special to come to Yunxi to celebrate the New Year this time. In fact, it seems that not much time has passed, but it seems that it is not an exaggeration to describe the changes in Yunxi as vicissitudes of life." At this point, she smiled and said to Zhang Yunqi: "This is all thanks to you."

Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "To be honest, I would be modest when others said this to me, but I would still be very vain in my heart. I am not modest about what my wife said, but sometimes I would reflect on it. This kind of vanity can easily affect my judgment. In fact, my greatest contribution to Yunxi Village is to put forward some practical ideas. Everyone is willing to believe me, and this is also a good era. As long as you work hard, getting rich will come naturally."

Chu Jian smiled and said, "That's great. But no matter what, Yunxi has developed now, and the villagers are living a better life. The villagers are very grateful to you. In fact, looking at the enthusiastic villagers in Yunxi Village, I will think of the time when I lived in the countryside, that is, Wutong Village in Guiping County, but many memories have become blurred."

Zhang Yunqi said, "There should be some relatives and childhood playmates there. I'll go back with you when I have the chance."

Chu Jian thought for a moment and said, "I still have relatives, but I haven't seen them for many years. It's like I don't have any playmates from my childhood. If I did, I wouldn't have any memories of them. My mother is mute and was abandoned by my biological father. My family was poor, so many children in the village discriminated against and bullied me. I basically spent my childhood with my mother."

At this point, Chu Jian asked Zhang Yunqi: "What about you? You must have had a lot of friends in your childhood, right? Was Ji Ling the one you played with the best?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "Yes, I guess so. When she was little, Ji Ling seldom came back during the winter vacations. She was always at her grandfather's place in Zhuzhou. But she would come to Yunxi Village almost every summer vacation. She followed her cousin Zhang Xiaomei around every day. Zhang Xiaomei and I were neighbors and classmates, so I knew her when we were very young. Now that I think about it, we did a lot of stupid things back then. I remember one time when we ran to pick fruit, we were discovered by the orchard owner and we ran all over the mountain in fear. But her family was too well-off. After I became more sensible, I felt very inferior to her. Then our relationship wasn't very good for a while in junior high school."

Chu Jian nodded and said nothing more.

Zhang Yunqi said, "Come on, I'll take you to the place where I often stayed when I was a child."

We agreed upon this upon first meeting.

At the beginning of spring, the winter snow has melted.

The wilderness outside Yunxi Village is vast and boundless, with distant mountains hidden in the mist. This increasingly famous village is shrouded in the warm afternoon sunshine, with lanterns hung high in front of the gates of every household's villa. Zhang Yunqi took Chujian for a walk and chatted with him. They walked past the elementary school they attended when they were young and the dilapidated old auditorium, and before they knew it, they arrived at the Crescent River. Green buds had already sprouted among the dry grass by the river. They were white wild lilies of the valley.

Along the way, Zhang Yunqi talked a lot about his childhood.

One of the things that left a deep impression on me was when he was in the first grade of primary school. One day at noon, he suddenly disappeared from school. The teacher at that time was extremely anxious and found Zhang Ma who was loosening the soil on the mountain. Finally, he mobilized the whole village to look for him all over the world. It was not until dark that he was found in the old room of his home. He was sleeping soundly on the bed, and then he could not avoid being beaten with meat on a bamboo board by Zhang Ma.

Chu Jian smiled and said, "Did your aunt often beat you when you were a child?"

"My mom is old now, so she has less things to worry about. In addition, her health is not good, and her personality has changed a bit. She used to have a bad temper, and she was quite irritable." Zhang Yunqi said, and found a clean big rock by the river, and sat down with Chu Jian, leaning on his shoulder. "On the other hand, compared to my older brother and sister and Chunlan who have been sensible since childhood, Xiaoxiao and I have similar personalities. We are lazy and like to eat. The farm work at home is really hard and hard, especially pulling tobacco leaves. I hate it. So it's common for my mom to beat me. Later, in order to have a sufficient reason to be lazy and not get beaten, I studied hard."

I smiled when I first met you: "I didn't expect that you got the top score in the high school entrance examination this way. But when I first knew that you were the top scorer in the high school entrance examination in the first year of high school, I was quite curious about you."

Zhang Yunqi leaned close to Chu Jian's ear and said, "So you want to sneak up on me, right? I remember that during the evening study session, you always came over to ask me questions."

When she first met him, her face turned red again, and her ears felt a little hot, but she didn't deny it. She held Zhang Yunqi's arm, rested her head on his strong shoulder, looked at the sunny day in winter, and said slowly: "There are countless scenes in the world, with joys and sorrows, ups and downs, and they are gone in a flash. To love someone, climb a mountain, and chase a dream, you might as well be bold."

Zhang Yunqi turned his head to look at the profile of Chu Jian and smiled: "My Yu will definitely become a great writer in the future."

Chu Jian smiled and said, "If there is a day, I will write an autobiography for my big entrepreneur, just like Inada Kazuo's. You dictate and I'll record."

Zhang Yunqi looked up at the white clouds in the sky, smiled and said yes, then he asked: "What memorable things did you have when you were a child in your hometown?"

Chu Jian thought for a moment and said, "Yes, after my biological father was admitted to Tsinghua University and left us, my mother and I lived in our hometown, Wutong Village, for a few years. Those days were quite hard, and I have many bad memories of them. I followed my mother to collect firewood, fetch water, and pick jasmine flowers. I was inseparable from her like a little follower, and I slept with her in my arms at night. Sometimes my mother got up in the middle of the night and carried jasmine flowers to various villages to sell. I woke up in the dark, crying and grabbing her, but my mother still had to go, otherwise we would have no food to eat. I could only wait anxiously in the dark for the light of dawn."

Chu Jian said, "I remember when I was eight or nine years old, I followed my mother to the lake to release ducks. One day, the wind and waves were fierce and strong. Dozens of ducks were scattered by the storm and panicked in the lake. My mother and I sat on a bamboo raft to chase them. A wave hit us and the raft was sinking. I was on one end of the raft and my mother was on the other. I felt that I would soon be submerged by the lake and there was no hope for me."

Chu Jian said: "I wanted to call my mother at that time, but my voice could not be heard in the wind and rain. Although my mother was a mute, she was my guardian angel at that time and the person who loved me the most in this world. Of course, I knew that she was powerless at that time and her love was powerless. In that brief moment, I felt the helplessness and panic of fate. Later, the lake water flooded to my waist, and the bamboo raft floated up again. I was saved, but the panic of being drowned has not dissipated for many years. Especially after my mother married my stepfather, many things she encountered in the past many years were similar to the feelings at that time."

At this point, Chu Jian turned his head to look at Zhang Yunqi, smiled and said, "It wasn't until I met you that that feeling slowly dissipated. Perhaps, this is the meaning of loving someone boldly."

Zhang Yunqi reached out, held Chu Jian in his arms, and bent down to kiss her fair and clear cheek.

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