A bus painted with a light blue background and the advertisement of a certain small hospital wobbled along the seemingly new concrete road. The bus wobbled along, and from time to time, people or motorcycles dashed in front of it, causing the bus driver to honk and make a lot of noise along the way.
The bus wasn't peaceful either. The bus had 16 seats, but there were more than 20 people crammed into it. This didn't include the bus driver and the ticket seller. It was like a sardine can.
In particular, some people who were planning to go home from the market even brought chickens or ducks into the car. Not only was it noisy, but there was also the sound of chickens and ducks crying in the car from time to time. It was like a symphony.
Fortunately, there weren't any traffic police on the roads. Otherwise, the bus company would probably go bankrupt from the fines.
Ye Xuan got on the bus at the station. He did not choose to sit in the back. Instead, he sat in the front passenger seat, enjoying the hot air blowing in through the window. Listening to the honking of the bus and the noise of the passengers in the bus, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
The bus driver was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties. He spoke with a Xiangnan accent and didn't have a good temper. This could be seen from the way he honked and urged the people and cars in front of him to move away.
Listening to the middle-aged man's nagging, Ye Xuan didn't feel annoyed. He just smiled and casually talked along with him. He managed to get a lot of information out of him.
It was said that he was a retired soldier who had once fought in Jiaozhi. However, he didn't succeed. He had just gotten on the railway when the war at the frontline was over. After that, he retired. His pension wasn't much. He had five children at home, so he became a driver.
"We've reached the bus stop. Get off, get off!" After sitting in the bus for about an hour, they finally arrived at the bus stop in town. Under the shout of the ticket seller, the people in the bus swarmed toward the door.
Ye Xuan naturally didn't stay for long. He thanked the driver and picked up a backpack that he had randomly picked up on the street. He opened the door of the front passenger seat and jumped out.
The bus stop in town wasn't big. It only had a small parking lot, a ticket office, and a waiting room. However, there were quite a lot of people.
This was because this small town was located on the main road to another county. If one wanted to enter the other county, they could only pass through here.
There were a lot of people coming and going from the south to the north. There were also a lot of motorcycles parked outside the bus station to attract customers. As long as they saw a bus coming, these motorcycles would run after it. They were not afraid of being run over by the bus.
Ye Xuan knew that this couldn't be helped. Now that the domestic economy had just begun to recover, in order to survive, they had to chase after those cars just to earn more money.
This kind of thing, even in the twenty-first century, still existed.
"Hey, young man, where are you going? How about I take you there?"
"Take my car. My car is fast, stable, and new. Look, it's over there!"
As soon as he got off the car, he saw Ye Xuan carrying a backpack and dressed quite fashionably. Several motorcycle drivers ran over to greet him.
"No, thank you!" Ye Xuan smiled and waved at these people, then walked toward the street.
Although he wanted to go home, since he was in town, he wasn't anxious. Instead, he walked slowly on the street like a person who hadn't returned home for a long time.
The streets of the small town weren't as good as he had imagined. They were also paved with concrete, and some places were full of potholes. This road seemed to be in use for a few more years, and it wouldn't be renovated until the new century.
There weren't many shops on both sides of the street. Most of them were carelessly smeared with cement and sand. There were all kinds of goods inside.
There were electric poles on both sides of the street. The electric wires crisscrossed on them like a huge spider web.
The largest shop in the entire town belonged to the town's public marketing agency. This was the town's collective property. There were many things inside. Many people could be seen picking and choosing inside. Even the cashiers and waiters looked a little arrogant.
There weren't any tall buildings here. The tallest buildings were only four or five stories. Most of them were gray without much color. It was like an old photo frozen in the river of time.
Ye Xuan walked on the street step by step, reminiscing. He had lived here for more than ten years. It wasn't until his grandfather passed away that he left to work.
Oh, there was a park there. Hmm, it wasn't much different from 20 or 30 years later. It was newly built and even newer. There were bumper cars, pirate ships, and the like, but they were removed after 20 or 30 years.
When he was young, he would come here with his friends from the village every year. He would take the 10 yuan that his grandfather gave him as a New Year's gift and walk more than 10 kilometers, weaving through the lively crowd. He was happy to see others playing bumper cars and pirate ships. Then, at noon, he would go to the opposite side to eat a bowl of wonton noodles.
This could be said to be the most important memory of his childhood. He would do this every year until he was 13 years old. He never got tired of it.
Thinking about this, Ye Xuan's gaze fell on the small noodle shop opposite. It was very small, and the layout was similar to Shaxian snacks. There was a stove for cooking noodles and stir-frying vegetables in front of it, and there was a row of tables inside.
He walked over and ordered a bowl of wonton noodles. When the noodles were served, there were white wonton, light yellow noodles, green chives, and bits of oil floating on the noodle soup. It was fragrant.
He picked up the chopsticks next to him and took a bite. The noodles were a little mushy, and the wonton was not chewy. Who would have thought that he would walk more than 10 kilometers for this bowl of noodles when he was young?
Smiling and shaking his head, Ye Xuan didn't waste the noodles. He ate the whole bowl of noodles quickly and even drank the soup. Then, he paid and walked back to the street.
Unknowingly, Ye Xuan walked to the entrance of the village.
Heshan Village was just a very ordinary small village. There were no resources, and no rich people. Most of the houses here were made of mud bricks. There were only a few cement brick houses that were not renovated. The only thing that could be seen was the red brick walls. Even so, these houses were already considered new houses in the village that people envied.
As he walked closer to the village, Ye Xuan felt that many people in the village were looking at him differently. However, Ye Xuan ignored them and continued to walk deeper into the village. When he reached the foot of a mountain, he saw an old house halfway up the mountain. He couldn't help but have mixed feelings.
As the saying goes, one feels shy when one is close to one's hometown. Gazing at the old house that was not as old as it was twenty years ago, Ye Xuan took a deep breath, then strode up a dirt road...
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