Send me to the countryside? Turn around and make you homeless!

During the day, everyone in Pengcheng is an ordinary citizen, making a living by fishing. When night falls, whether they are locals or outsiders, they may become smugglers.

Smuggling has always been strictly prohibited in China, but people are so happy that they can't even afford to eat, so no one cares about the consequences of being caught.

A brother of Guan Jianguo who had shared life and death with him also started this business. He happened to see Guan Jianguo in Pengcheng. Because they were short of manpower and lacked capital, they asked him to join them.

No one would complain about making too much money, and Guan Jianguo was no exception. He asked someone to drive the truck back to the city, and he stayed there again and again.

This is a batch of watches. Watches are best-sellers in mainland China. The purchase price in Hong Kong is 40 yuan. As long as they can be successfully transported to Shenzhen, the original price will be tripled. This is the price given to the middleman. If you find a way to sell them slowly, the price can be raised to another level.

Guan Jianguo didn’t know whether others could resist such temptation, but he definitely couldn’t.

He has been in Changyun County for quite some time. He used to work with Boss Yang. Initially, he was in charge of sales. He earned a lot of money, but it wasn't much. In addition, he also needed to manage relationships, so he couldn't save any money at all.

After Boss Yang gradually began to value him, he was able to get more. If he wanted to say whether he really made money, it was after Boss Yang was transferred to the city, handed over the Changyun County black market to him, and gave him a few business orders, that he had some savings.

It costs money to manage the household, and it also costs money to improve the family's living standards. Guan Jianguo doesn't have much money, only 4,000 yuan in total.

The four thousand yuan also includes the small businesses he has been doing in Pengcheng during this period.

This would be quite a feat in Changyun County. An average dual-income family, excluding daily expenses, might not be able to save this much money even after seven or eight years of saving.

But it is not at all noticeable that this money is used for smuggling.

There are a total of 600 watches in this batch. Based on the cost of 40 yuan per watch, the total cost is 24,000 yuan.

Those who are involved in smuggling with Cao Jin are brothers who have shared life and death together. Their trust in each other is accumulated through repeated crises.

People like them are always worried about their lives and might be in trouble at any time. If the capital was not enough, Cao Jin would never have asked Guan Jianguo to join him.

It wasn't just Guan Jianguo; they also brought in two more people, and only then did they gather enough capital. The group of eight then boarded the fishing boat bound for Hong Kong.

The sea was calm and the men were dressed as fishermen. To avoid being seen, they cast their nets and fished as usual.

Cao Jin's accomplices are all from Pengcheng. They speak the local dialect of Pengcheng. Guan Jianguo cannot speak it but can understand it. They are all people who hang out on the ground, but they hang out in Pengcheng, while Guan Jianguo hangs out in Shu.

They had things in common, and quite a few of them, plus Guan Jianguo seemed to be born with the ability to get close to people. Not long after getting on the boat, they were able to play cards, drink and brag together. They looked like a group of fishermen who came out to fish together.

When doing smuggling business, the most feared thing is encountering the coast guard. If you are caught, you may lose your life on the endless sea.

Late at night, Guan Jianguo couldn't tell what he was feeling. Nervous? Afraid? Or perhaps excited about his impending fortune?

It seemed like none of them happened. Guan Jianguo only felt that he was surprisingly calm inside.

"Brother, this is your first time doing something like this, are you afraid you'll regret it?"

Cao Jin put one hand on Guan Jianguo's shoulder and held a cigarette in the other hand. He took a deep puff and then blew out smoke rings, with a hint of teasing in his tone.

"When I first went out to sea, I was so scared I couldn't sleep the whole night, fearing the coast guard would come and arrest me. I returned to the village and sold all my goods. I was terrified for several months, hiding from anyone in uniform until they left before I dared to go out."

When talking about the embarrassing things that happened to him, Cao Jin was not embarrassed at all, and even felt a little nostalgic.

Guan Jianguo shook his head: "Where's my sister-in-law?"

"At home, the old lady is paralyzed and needs someone to take care of her..."

Cao Jin took a deep breath. His family had split up a long time ago. He was the only able-bodied laborer in the family, and he had an old mother who was paralyzed in bed. His other brothers were unwilling to take care of such an old mother. He didn't have a formal job. If his family situation had not allowed it, he would not have chosen this path.

"Let's not talk about this. You are already an adult. Have you got married?"

Speaking of women, the already weird atmosphere became even weirder. It was completely different from what happened just now. However, it was also a kind of alternative relaxation on this depressing night.

"No, I'm in such a situation that I can't let down other people's good girls."

That being said, Guan Jianguo indeed thought so, but for some reason a person's figure suddenly appeared in his mind.

She is a good girl. There is no other good girl like her in the entire Huaiyin Brigade, the entire Changyun County, the city, or even the province.

She lives in the sunshine, has a bright future, and can live well with her own abilities, better than most people. But she, on the other hand, is like the night sky in front of her, dark and uncomfortable to look at.

Guan Jianguo felt like a rat in the gutter. Even getting close to the other person would be defilement.

But the other person's face appeared involuntarily in my mind, and I had no way to control it.

Huaiyin Brigade.

The weather was getting colder, and even Tan Yuan, who always paid attention to keeping warm, caught a cold and sneezed several times.

It's cold in Beijing, but at least the house is warm. It's not like in Huaiyin Brigade, where the house is even colder than the city.

Tan Yuan and Nian Lin are both from Beijing. Tan Yuan had experienced this in her previous life, but each experience was different. The only thing that was the same was that tears and noses flowed together.

Nian Lin was in much better condition than Tan Yuan, at least she didn't have a cold and a runny nose.

Whenever Tan Yuan is at home, she always puts her feet on the heating basket and holds a glass bottle filled with hot water in her hand.

If it weren't for the inconvenience of carrying the baking basket and the need to put red-hot firewood in it every few hours, she would really want to carry it with her wherever she went. Every time at this time, she missed the heating very much.

There was definitely no heating, so Tan Yuan could only rely on herself to overcome it.

However, in addition to these external heating devices, she can also keep warm through exercise. Whenever she has time, she will go to see the new factory building under construction. The foundation of the house has been dug and it is expected to be completed and put into use after the beginning of the year.

Huaiyin Brigade has many mountains and little flat land. The houses of the villagers in the brigade are built close to each other. Even growing crops requires clearing wasteland and planting crops. The land used to build factories is not that big, no matter how big it is.