Chapter Four: The Road Home

At 5:10 AM the next day, Li Yancheng set off, shivering and chattering his teeth. It was fortunate that he was wearing the military-issued cotton-padded jacket, hat, gloves, and boots; otherwise, cycling in sub-zero temperatures would have surely done him in.

Cycling on a dirt road is a grueling test for one's backside, but due to his limited time, he dared not slow down. He could only grit his teeth, keep his eyes fixed on the narrow beam of light from his flashlight, and try his best to avoid the larger potholes.

After pedaling hard for over an hour, it was 6:30 AM. The eastern sky was beginning to brighten. Checking the prominent landmarks along the way and comparing them to the route Zhou Guotao had described the night before, he realized he had already covered half the distance—and then he suddenly realized something was wrong.

This "wrongness" wasn't about the route, but his own body. He noticed that despite pedaling at full effort for over an hour, he didn't feel tired. His breathing was only slightly heavy, and he had only broken a light sweat. Was this guy's physical stamina really this good?

As he continued to pedal, Li Yancheng searched his memories. That didn't seem right. In his memories, when the original owner first arrived at the military unit for basic training, his stamina and strength were strictly average. When throwing wooden-handled grenades, he barely struggled to reach the passing mark without a running start.

However, the guy was a crack shot. Whether prone, kneeling, or standing, he consistently scored over 48 points with five rounds at one hundred meters. Even at night, he could guarantee at least eight rings per shot. Once, at the firing range, he had even taken down two flying birds with three shots. That was impressive enough that if he hadn't been a medical student—a professional specialist—the company commander would have tried to keep him in the unit.

Tsk, tsk... Li Yancheng’s face was full of envy, which quickly turned into a grimace as he silently cursed the original owner for being a total idiot. Staying in the military was such a good deal; he was an officer, yet he chose to resign. If it were him, he would have clung to that position until retirement. If he had stayed in the military, he wouldn't be left with this current mess to clean up.

Damn it, he hadn't even tasted the woman, and although he had the memories, it wasn't the same as the real experience. It was truly a case of "not getting the mutton but ending up with the smell on his clothes."

After cursing the original owner a few more times, he felt a surge of strength and quickened his pace. By 7:30 AM, he had already reached Yishun County. Having cycled over twenty kilometers early in the morning, he was starving. He hurried to a breakfast shop in town, devouring two deep-fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk.

A dough stick cost four cents, and an unsweetened bowl of soy milk was two cents, totaling one dime and two ounces of grain coupons. If he had wanted sweetened soy milk, it would have cost five cents. In this day and age, if you were eating out, money alone wouldn't get you anything without grain coupons.

In the memories Li Yancheng inherited, the original owner had visited the "ghost markets." There, a pound of Beijing grain coupons would fetch two yuan, while national grain coupons—the most liquid form of currency—went for four yuan. Other types of coupons had their own market prices; expensive ones like watch, bicycle, wool blanket, sewing machine, or radio coupons could sell for seventy or eighty yuan, or even more.

As for industrial vouchers, they were rarely traded because everyone received them monthly with their salary—one voucher for every twenty yuan earned. Since Li Yancheng’s current salary was 79.50 yuan, he received four vouchers a month. If he wanted to buy something, he could save up or borrow from others. The specialized coupons for major items were not issued to the public; they were awarded to employees for meritorious service. Because they were rare and in high demand, they fetched high prices.

From the fifteenth year since the founding of the nation to the twenty-ninth, for fourteen long years, aside from a wage adjustment for some "old second-grade" workers, no other employees had received a salary increase. Even if a couple were both eighth-grade workers today, with a combined monthly income of two hundred yuan, they still couldn't just buy whatever they wanted. That was the basic reality. The current policy of "broad employment, low wages" did ensure that many people had jobs.

Having a job meant earning money; even a temporary worker earning just over twenty yuan a month could support a family of four. Li Yancheng was quite satisfied with arriving in this era. He had never been ambitious; he didn't want to be a high official or the richest person. As long as he had meat to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to live, whether he had a wife or not didn't matter.

Sigh, that entertainment activity so beloved by his male peers was out of reach for him in this life. By the time that industry reached the "club" stage, he would be long past his prime. Thinking of this, his desire to earn money after the reform and opening up instantly waned.

Wait, I’ve transmigrated, but what about my son? After leaving the restaurant and pushing his bicycle out, Li Yancheng thought of this, but then he shook his head. That kid was already working, had a house and a car; if he really encountered any problems, he could go to his grandparents, uncle, or aunt. He was already here; why worry about that? Children and grandchildren have their own destiny, and without them, I can enjoy my own life.

Following the directions he had just asked for from the restaurant staff, he swung his long leg over the bike seat and headed toward the bus station. After riding only three or four hundred meters, he saw a vegetable market by the road. He glanced at the "Five-One" brand all-steel watch on his wrist—which the original owner had bought for seventy-five yuan after returning from the military—and saw it was only 7:35 AM. He still had time, so he turned in.

He wanted to try his luck to see if he could buy some meat. The meat stall was the first one at the entrance of the market. Experience proved that trying to buy meat at this hour was wishful thinking, but...