Rebirth 90: The Long Road to Finding a Son

After a few days, various departments started to return to work, and Qian Jingui began to go to the county town to inquire about transfers to the county education bureau and the admissions offices of several primary schools.

Both of them are from rural areas. If they want their children to go to school in the county town, they need a rental contract if they don’t have housing in the county town.

There are three primary schools in the county. The first one is the best school, and it is very difficult to get a place. There is no possibility of vacancies. The same is true for the second one.

Although the teaching staff and school facilities of the Third Primary School are a bit inferior, fortunately there are still vacancies and it is said that it can accept transfer students.

After Qian Jingui brought the news home, Shen Nan immediately decided to rent a house in the county town and try to get this matter done before the new semester starts.

They now have more than 20,000 yuan in hand, and the housing prices in the county town have risen to more than 1,000 yuan per square meter. If they want to buy a house in the county town, they will have to work hard for a few more years.

But now they have skills, and people in the county town are more willing to spend money than those in the countryside. After going to the county town, life seems to be more promising.

Besides, no matter how bad the conditions of the county primary school are, they are still better than their village primary school, so Shen Nan is already very satisfied that his child can go to the third primary school.

With a goal in life, the couple are now full of energy, thinking about how to make their lives more prosperous.

Another week passed, and on the eve of the start of the second semester of the second grade, Qian Baoge's transfer procedures were finally completed.

When Qian Baoge heard that she was going to go to school in the county town, she danced with joy. It was only because her mother repeatedly told her not to tell anyone about this that she resisted sharing the news with her good friends.

The family packed up their things and drove a tractor to the county town before the Lantern Festival, taking all their daily belongings with them. The couple worked together to move the things on the tractor to the rental house.

At that time, the county town had not yet been fully developed. In addition to houses built with funds raised by units and commercial buildings, there were also some bungalows or two-story self-built houses.

Shen Nan and Qian Jingui rented a bungalow with a small courtyard near the school.

The house was built in the 1980s, more than ten years old, but it didn't look old. The two of them cleaned the house carefully inside and out.

Qian Jingui works on the construction site, and is responsible for all kinds of masonry work and simple decoration.

Before moving his family here, he went to a place in the county town that sold decorative materials and bought some sand, cement, lime, putty, scrapers, brushes and other materials, and painted the house himself.

The originally dim room suddenly became bright. After a few days of drying, the wall surface has dried and does not affect living at all.

Both rooms use old-fashioned light bulbs with low wattage, which makes the rooms appear dim when the lights are turned on at night. In order to make it easier for the children to study at night, Qian Jingui bought a higher wattage light bulb.

After the household belongings are brought into the house and arranged neatly, it looks like home and immediately has a homely feel.

The family stayed in the new house for one night. They were filled with emotion and were so excited that they could hardly sleep.

The next day was the Lantern Festival. After getting up early and washing up, they took the children out shopping to buy some food and daily necessities and make a sumptuous meal at noon to celebrate their family's new home.

They also heard that there was a lantern festival in the city at night. In the past, in the village, the Lantern Festival was a cold time, and it was not safe to drive to the county town at night. The weather was cold and children could easily get cold, so not many villagers who lived far from the county town went to watch the lantern festival during the Lantern Festival.

Qian Baoge had never seen lanterns in her life. Just listening to her mother describing the Lantern Festival scene made her look forward to it.

After they had lunch at noon, they rested for a while. Shen Nan was happy today, so she didn't cook dinner at night. Instead, she chose to go out for dinner with her family of three to enjoy the life of the city people.

They bought two plates of dumplings, a bowl of Yuanxiao (Chinese rice dumplings), and a dish of stir-fried vegetables at a small restaurant and had a delicious meal. Then they strolled to the Lantern Festival in the center of the county town.

There are many people coming and going on the street, all heading for the Lantern Festival. When the Lantern Festival arrives, there are not only dazzling beautiful and spectacular lanterns, but also people selling snacks and balloons.

Qian Baoge was envious of the hydrogen balloons held by other children. Shen Nan took the child directly to the balloon vendor and let Qian Baoge choose her favorite one. She readily paid three yuan.

The aroma of the snack stand spread far away, and Shen Nan bought a few fried skewers for the children. When she saw the fried skewers, she suddenly remembered that she had also learned this craft.

At that time, I tasted the fried skewers made by the chefs at school. They were so fragrant that I never got tired of eating them.

Unfortunately, I was running the stall by myself before and was too busy, so I could only make stone cakes which are simple and easy to make and can be handled by one person.

Thinking of this, she bought a few more skewers and shared them with Qian Jingui to taste. Qian Jingui thought it was good, but Shen Nan had tasted better, so naturally she thought the taste of this skewers was average.

Since the couple wanted to settle down in the city, Shen Nan thought, next they should set up another fried skewers stall. The opening hours of these two stalls could be staggered.

Among them, stone cakes are mainly used for breakfast, while fried skewers are mostly sold at noon and in the evening.

Moreover, the profit from fried skewers is definitely greater than that from stone cakes, so the income can basically double. Wouldn't it be easy to buy a house in the city?

Shen Nan is a person of action. A few days later, Qian Baoge went to a new school, and she started discussing with Qian Jingui about selling fried skewers.

The two of them bought a second-hand tricycle, found a place to weld several layers of metal racks, put up partitions, bought plastic baskets of uniform specifications for different dishes, and also bought frying pans, seasonings and other things needed for making fried skewers.

During the preparation period, she and Qian Jingui went to the nearby market and found a satisfactory source of fried skewers. As for vegetables, the amount needed was not large, so they could buy fresh vegetables directly at the market every day.

At the end of the month, their fried skewers stand was ready. In the morning, Shen Nan got up early to make the cake dough and sell the stone cakes at the stall. Qian Jingui was responsible for making breakfast for his daughter, sending her to school, and then going home to skewer and fry the skewers according to Shen Nan's requirements.

After 8:30, there were few people at breakfast, so Shen Nan closed the stall and went home to rest. By noon, the day's skewers were basically done, and the couple went to pick up Qian Baoge from school and set up a stall near the school to sell fried skewers.

Qian Baoge had lunch at the stall with her parents. In the cold winter, the couple let Qian Baoge sit in the cab of the tricycle so that she could study.

After sending Qian Baoge to school in the afternoon, they counted the number of fried skewers, went home to replenish the stock, and prepared to set up the stall in the evening.

Although such days are hard, they are also extremely fulfilling. Seeing that they have considerable income every day, the couple are full of energy.

The fried skewers they sold were made with fresh ingredients and tasted great. They soon gained a group of loyal old customers and successfully opened up the market in the county.

This is repeated day after day, just to make more money as quickly as possible and create a better life for the children.

What if, one day, they find their son, and the child sees that the family is penniless, he will inevitably be upset, right?

If the family has prepared everything and the children have no worries, they will naturally be more willing to come back and live with them.

With the money, in addition to asking around and handing out flyers all over the country, they can also appear on TV shows and advertise to spread their information about finding their son to all parts of the country...