1. Memories [I]

Zhang Fei's ancestral home was in a small mountain village in Tangshen City of Fushen Province. It was quite far from the city of Tangshen, and was surrounded by mountains. The life of the villagers was very poor, but Zhang Fei was not born there.

Soon after his parents got married, they went to Shanghai with a group of young people from the same village. It was at the beginning of the country's reform and new beginning.

After a few years, the couple started to pick up the tatters, and slowly started a small business with the money they had saved. Later, the business gained a certain foothold, and the couple finally settled down in Shanghai. And then, Zhang Fei was born.

Fei had been very smart since he was a child. He was also quite handsome. He had always been a top student in his class, and was also the school's most recommended sports student.

Originally, Fei had a bright future, but unfortunately it didn't last long. When he graduated from junior high school, the school told him that he was not a locally registered permanent residence.

So, he could not take the Shanghai high school entrance examination. He had to go back to his hometown of Fushen to take the high school entrance examination.

After many setbacks and no results, Fei's parents had no choice, but to drive the whole family back to their hometown in their newly bought car for Zhang Fei to take the high school entrance examination.

They decided to also use their time in their hometown to visit their relatives, and also enjoy the beautiful scenery. Unexpectedly, Fei's father received a call in the middle of the road while driving, saying that his warehouse was on fire.

The firefighter truck was stuck on a narrow road row and was unable to drive in to the warehouse. Almost all their properties which were accumulated over the years were turned into ashes.

His father immediately lost his mind due to the sad news. He couldn't regain his senses and forgot that he was driving on the road. His wife tried to shake him loose, screaming, but her husband was far gone. He had a collision with an oncoming truck and died on the spot.

After this development, my mother sold all of their Shanghai's assets and returned to her hometown, along with Fei and the little money left. Of course, Fei failed his high school entrance examination.

Fortunately, the money she brought back was a wealth of money in the village. She built a new house back then, and spent money to let Fei go to a technical school to learn professional skills.

After graduating, Fei failed to find a suitable job. So he took a group of villagers to the big cities in the south to work hard. Due to the fact that he grew up in a big city, he knew city ways more than others. Hence, it was logical that he had become the leader of this group of city wage earners.

Fei was already a smart kid. Seeing how many electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and bricklayers were hired and disposed of, he decided to form his own decoration team.

At the beginning, he took some small jobs, but later he got more and more comfortable. So he started looking for new buildings to get their contracts for larger renovation projects.

After two years, Fei had made some money.

Just the previous year, Fei met a contractor, and through this contact, he discovered that this person was originally a Tangshen fellow. A contractor from his own home. Fei became more hopeful. In addition, this contractor was also surnamed Zhang. And that he and Fei were from the same ancestral family.

Gradually, the two of them became closer together.

It was said that if the Northeast people were the tigers, then the Tangshen people were the wolves.

The people of Tangshan were very compact and hard-working in the respective fields, and it was always a neat job when they worked. Boss Zhang also took great care of Fei, a fellow villager, and let his group did any good work!

Unexpectedly, it was about the end of the year, when Boss Zhang Hao was meant to dole out wages, that he disappeared.

The workers who didn't get their wages smashed his office, and then someone finally called the police. But this boss Zhang had disappeared from the world, and vanished without a trace with the engineering money.

In desperation, everyone could only return to their hometown lonely. Those with money and with no money must celebrate the New Year! But thinking of the millions of dollar in engineering money that had vanished, Zhang Fei was so angry.

He also took a few of his brothers to the village that Mr. Zhang had told them about, if they were ever in need of him. The villagers said that the police had been there several times too, and there was no such person in the village at all.

Chapter end