Fang Bai didn't know what others thought of him riding his new bike, but he was certainly having a great time.
The closer he got to home, the more he felt a sense of trepidation and a longing for the familiar sight of his house.
"Huh, isn't that Fang Shi's son?" a villager who worked with him at the same valve factory said, "They say three of his fingers were severed by a machine. Ah, so young, it's truly tragic."
"Yes, it is. It'll be hard for him to find a job and get a wife later. What bad luck."
"Whose bike is he riding? It's a new one."
Many villagers on the road looked at Fang Bai with pity and immediately started gossiping.
Fang Bai wasn't riding fast, so he heard a lot of what was said, but he didn't say anything, having long been used to it in his previous life.
Besides, what these villagers said wasn't wrong; losing three middle fingers meant his right hand couldn't exert force, which implied it would be very difficult to earn a living.
When he was about a hundred meters from home, he ran into his neighbor, Second Aunt, who also greeted Fang Bai, so he had to brake and stop to talk to her.
"Fang Bai, you're out of the hospital?"
"Yes, just discharged and came back."
"Oh, what a mess this is. What are your plans for the future?"
"I'll take it one step at a time, haha." Fang Bai smiled and replied perfunctorily. If he said he was going to re-study, people might think he couldn't afford it.
If he said he was going to do business, wouldn't he be laughed at? And if it didn't go well, within a few hours, the whole village would know he didn't know his place and was trying to do business!
"That won't do! You can find an easy job, save more money, and marry early. Look, there are quite a few bachelors over thirty in the village. Don't join them."
Fang Bai still wore a smile. At that time, if you weren't married by thirty, villagers would criticize you as having a problem with your brain. But thirty years later, there were many bachelors over thirty in the village.
After chatting for a while, he continued cycling home.
Judging from the villagers' attitudes towards him, they didn't have high hopes for his future; he was practically sentenced to death.
Whenever there was something new in the village, it quickly spread. Those old women and men gathered under the banyan tree at the village entrance, chatting away, were all active propagandists, capable of dissecting his family's affairs inside and out.
As he got closer to home, the path became narrow and winding, with layers of ruts left by ox carts, making it inconvenient to ride. Fang Bai had to get off and push the bike.
He met several villagers carrying farm tools, just returning from working in the fields, and many children, most of whom he knew, and exchanged greetings.
"Brother Bai, people in the village said your hand was broken, that you can't work, and can't get a wife. Is that true?" A five or six-year-old child saw Fang Bai and chased after his bike, asking. Children don't think much about what they say, asking whatever they want, which made Fang Bai a little embarrassed.
"Uh, it was my fingers that were broken, but they've been reattached. My hand isn't broken. Who's spreading such nonsense?"
Seeing Fang Bai get angry, the little kid took another look at his hand, then ran off, shouting to his friends, "Brother Bai's fingers were broken, not his hand! I saw it clearly!"
Hearing the little kid shout this, Fang Bai gave a wry smile and continued walking towards home.
Fang Bai's village was built at the foot of a mountain, and most of the houses in the village were brick-and-wood structures, with red walls and dark tiles, simple and warm.
In that era, building multi-story houses in rural areas was still relatively rare, but in the rural areas of Jiangnan Province, where the people were generally prosperous, building multi-story houses was more common, with most floor slabs being precast panels.
It could be said that in Fang Bai's village, sixty to seventy percent of rural families had already built multi-story houses, most of them built in recent years.
However, his family didn't have the money to build a multi-story house.
Fang Bai's home primarily consisted of three south-facing tiled rooms and two side rooms.
His parents occupied one bedroom, the central room was the main hall, also serving as the living room, and the other bedroom was shared by Fang Bai and his sister, with each having their own bed.
The side rooms were the kitchen and bathroom, both very simple. The bathroom, in particular, dripped when it rained and didn't even have an electric light, so one had to bathe early.
In front of the house was a small vegetable patch, about a tenth of an acre, where seasonal vegetables were grown.
As Fang Bai parked his bicycle in front of the main hall, his sister, Fang Tingting, heard a sound outside from her bedroom where she was reading. She came out and saw her brother, her face lighting up with joy.
She was a boarding student in the second year of junior high at Oubei No. 1 Middle School. She had returned from school yesterday afternoon and would go back to school tomorrow, Sunday.
"Big brother, you're back from the hospital! I was going to visit you there, but Mom said you'd already been discharged and there was no need." As she spoke, her eyes reddened. "I only found out about this yesterday when I came home and heard it from the villagers. It scared me so much."
Fang Tingting spoke while examining her brother's hands. Seeing the obvious scar on his right middle and ring fingers, her tears couldn't help but fall: "Brother, does it still hurt now?"
Fang Bai stroked her head, which was a head shorter than his, and then looked at her slender figure, so thin she looked like she could be blown over by a typhoon. He felt a pang of sadness.
Although his sister was carefree, her grades were quite good. She got into a second-tier normal university and became a teacher.
When he got married, his sister was as happy as a blooming flower, her laughter echoing throughout the village. To her, having an older brother who could marry a beautiful and cultured sister-in-law made her feel very proud.
Later, when she learned that her niece and sister-in-law had passed away one after another, she was also deeply grieved. Seeing her brother so heartbroken he couldn't cry, she hugged him and sobbed uncontrollably.
In her eyes, her brother was the family's spiritual pillar, sacrificing his own re-study to work and earn money to support her education. She felt she owed her brother too much, but with her personality and lack of ability, she always felt guilty.
During those years when Fang Bai was in a daze, his sister lost her usual cheerfulness and vitality, doing her best to help him regain his fighting spirit.
Putting aside the past, Fang Bai smiled gently: "It doesn't hurt anymore, I've recovered. Don't worry. Are Mom and Dad home?"
"Dad's here. Mom just left a little while ago, said she was going to Second Aunt's house. Huh, whose bike is this? It's so new. Brother, you didn't..." Fang Tingting wiped away her tears, her expression turning to surprise.
"Get out of here, I bought it!" Fang Bai rolled his eyes at his sister and grumbled, "Can't you think of something positive?"
He didn't plan to hide the bike. After all, having a car was more convenient; he could use it, and his family could use it too.
He planned to tell his family he got a thousand yuan in compensation plus his wages from the boss, and he intended to give his family eight hundred yuan for emergencies, keeping some money for his own plans.
Fang Bai didn't plan to mention the remaining money. Buying equipment would cost three thousand, renting a house another 360 yuan, and there would be some unknown expenses. He needed to keep some funds for turnover, and he could make it up to his family once he earned money; a month or so wouldn't make a difference.
Fang Bai had to plan every penny now, wishing he could split one yuan into two.
"Ah, where did you get the money?"
"I robbed a bank! Luckily, your brother ran fast."
"Tsk, don't say anything then. When Mom asks you tonight, you'll still have to confess honestly. Can you escape Mom's needle pricks?"
"Hehe, I remember the year before last, someone naughty did something bad, and their hand was pricked by a needle until they cried uncontrollably, hiding in the corner saying 'no, no'..."
"Ah, don't say it, don't say it!" Hearing the embarrassing story, his sister shyly quickly covered her brother's mouth, not letting him continue.
Fang Bai chuckled, pushed her small hand away, wiped his mouth, and said disdainfully, "Your hand is so dirty. Didn't you wash your hands after going to the toilet?"
"Hehe, you found out!" Fang Tingting joked.
"Gross. Seriously, why did Mom go to Second Aunt's house?" Fang Bai was a bit curious why his mother would go to Second Aunt's house at this time, but he could probably guess that it was most likely to borrow money for his re-study.
Second Aunt wouldn't lend them money even if she had it. In his previous life, when he had the accident, his father tried to borrow but failed.
Fang Bai was all too familiar with his Second Uncle and Second Aunt's family. The two families had many conflicts, mainly due to the grandparents' favoritism.
His grandfather had four children. His eldest uncle and fourth uncle died young, and Fang Bai's father was the third in line.
Second Uncle, Fang Lei, was five years older than Fang Bai's father, Fang Shi. He had good academic performance, and his grandparents fully supported him, showing ordinary affection to the third son. When naming them, to save trouble, they directly took a character from Second Uncle's name.
Grandfather made Fang Bai's father give up his studies to earn work points to support Second Uncle's education. Later, Second Uncle got into a vocational secondary school, which was very impressive at the time. However, after Second Uncle graduated and was assigned a job, he looked down on the third son who was still farming.
After Fang Bai's mother married into the family, she constantly complained about this matter, arguing with the grandparents, saying that the elders were unfair. Not only did they support Second Uncle's vocational secondary school education, but even their marriage and family division were unfair, leaving them with nothing.
Over the years, Fang Bai's mother had always harbored resentment and didn't want to associate with Second Uncle's family, and they also didn't want to interact with them.
In recent years, Fang Bai's mother worked in logistics at Yongjia Middle School. When she ran into Second Aunt, who was a teacher at the school, she had to bite the bullet and greet her.
Now that her children were grown, Fang Bai's mother was truly desperate. She had borrowed from all the relatives she could, so she reluctantly went to seek help, hoping that Second Aunt would forget the past and help for the sake of the children.
If Fang Bai's mother really went to borrow money, she would most likely be turned away.
Around 2010, Fang Bai's hometown underwent development, and they received a lot of money from demolition and relocation. Second Uncle and Second Aunt then resurfaced, claiming they should get a share.
At that time, Fang Bai's mother immediately cursed: "In the 1980s, when the production brigade divided farmland, it had nothing to do with you city folks!"
They didn't get anything from Fang Bai's family, but his still-living grandmother gave her and the old man's demolition money to Second Uncle's family.
However, Fang Bai's mother was too lazy to bother. She thought that if she cursed a few more times, the old people might pass away, and besides, her relationship with the elders had been neither good nor bad over the years.
Fang Bai had a deep impression of these matters. This wasn't unique to his family but was the situation in many households.
He didn't hate his grandparents and Second Uncle's family; he was just very indifferent to them, unconcerned. Everyone lived their own lives.
Alas, every family has its own difficulties.
"I don't know, ask Dad."
As the siblings talked, their father, who was busy in the kitchen, heard voices and came out. He was surprised to see his son pushing a new bike back, but he was more concerned about his son's hand. He observed it carefully and felt relieved when his son said he didn't care. He also felt a little guilty; if the family hadn't been poor, his son wouldn't have gone to work in the factory.
"Your mom went to your Second Aunt's house to talk to her about your re-study, hoping you can re-study at Yongjia Middle School. After all, if you can re-study there, the teaching staff is good, and it's easier to get into university."
"What's the use of finding her? I've already decided to study at Oubei No. 1 Middle School," Fang Bai said with a frown.
Yongjia Middle School was a key high school, much better than Oubei No. 1 Middle School, which he hadn't gotten into that year.
"I told her too, but your mom just wouldn't believe it and wanted to try anyway." Fang Shi sighed. He had also tried to borrow money from his brother, but he didn't get it and was even mocked by his sister-in-law, who said her own son didn't have much money for school and couldn't even spare two or three hundred yuan. But he didn't plan to tell his son this.
"I'll go there. Tell Mom not to bother anymore." After saying this, Fang Bai turned the bike around, quickly got on, and left, disregarding the bumpy road.
Fang Shi watched his son leave, unable to persuade him in time.
However, he still hoped his son could make it in time, to avoid being nagged by his sister-in-law.
Seeing his son leave, Fang Shi decided to buy some pork to cook a meat dish for the children tonight.