Ten Thousand Soul Banner: Deceased, do you have any unfulfilled wishes?
Chapter 27 Returning Home

Chapter 27: Chapter 27 Returning Home

Shen Siyuan called for a rideshare while having breakfast.

The reason Shen Siyuan did not book the car in advance last night was that there were many rideshares available heading back to his hometown.

This was because there were many tourists traveling between Bin Hai and Coconut City every day, and Shen Siyuan’s home was located between these two cities.

After breakfast, Shen Siyuan went to the roadside and soon a car slowly pulled up next to him.

A person was sitting in the passenger seat, so Shen Siyuan opened the rear door and got in.

"User 2817, heading to Qingshui Town?" the driver turned and asked.

"Yes, no more passengers? Shall we leave now?"

Shen Siyuan did not like sitting in the back with strangers.

"Just you two, we’ll leave now," said the driver.

Hearing this, Shen Siyuan did not inquire further but took out his phone and started browsing.

However, the car was not quiet, as the passenger in the passenger seat was quite talkative and continuously spoke with the driver.

"What are some fun places in Bin Hai..."

"The cost of living in Bin Hai is too high..."

"Any good spots in Coconut City..."

"It’s a pity I have a plane this afternoon; I’ll have to come again next time."

From their conversation, Shen Siyuan learned that the middle-aged man had come to Bin Hai for a leisure trip and was preparing to take a flight back from Coconut City.

The reason he didn’t just fly back directly from Bin Hai, where tourism and vacations are expensive, was that direct flights were very pricey. So many tourists chose to fly to Coconut City and transfer there for a much cheaper price.

Shen Siyuan caught the seven o’clock ride and arrived at Qingshui Town before nine, which was halfway to Coconut City. The remaining passenger would not reach Coconut City until after eleven, just in time to have lunch there.

Starting from Bin Hai, one could take the coastal highway for a quicker route, but the driver obviously wanted to pick up another passenger, so he chose to take the national road instead.

Shen Siyuan’s home was not in Qingshui Town but in a small village underneath the town.

After getting off the car, Shen Siyuan did not rush home, but instead went to a drugstore and bought several boxes of Blood Circulation and Pain Relief Ointment, as his mom, an enduring teacher, suffered from severe periarthritis due to constantly lifting her arms to write.

Besides that, he also bought a pack of cigarettes, naturally intended for his father, Shen Jianjun, who had an unremarkable tobacco habit but ran a chicken farm, which meant he frequently gave out cigarettes in social interactions.

Speaking of Shen Jianjun, he was quite capable, having run a restaurant before, dealt with a sand field, raised fish, kept ducks, and now managed a chicken farm.

Though Shen Siyuan worked with livestock in Bin Hai, his family’s living condition was actually quite good.

This was why various relatives and acquaintances were keen on introducing potential partners to him, mainly because his family was well-off.

After purchasing the items, Shen Siyuan caught a motor-tricycle at the end of the street.

The tricycle shuffled through villages and alleys, specifically transporting people from the town to various villages, acting like a local taxi but charging per passenger without measuring distance—free for children and five yuan per adult.

After a bumpy twenty-minute ride, he arrived at the entrance of his village.

Shen Siyuan’s village was called Linjiapo, a small village of about two hundred households mainly inhabited by elderly and children, as most young people had gone out to work.

Carrying the goods, Shen Siyuan walked to his door, only to see it wide open; his mother, Huang Huijuan, was sun-drying shrimp shells in the courtyard for making shrimp sauce.

Huang Huijuan, fifty-one this year, wore a blue floral V-neck dress and had freshly permed hair. Her fair skin made her look quite young, and it was evident she had been a beauty in her youth, though her figure had slightly filled out, adding more to her charm.

"Mom~"

Shen Siyuan called out to her.

Huang Huijuan looked up, saw Shen Siyuan, and was visibly overjoyed, immediately coming over to greet him.

"You’re back, and buying things again? Have you had breakfast yet?"

Even though they snapped at each other on the phone, they were warm and affectionate in person, though this only lasted till the initial moments of their meeting and wouldn’t even prevail for a full day.

"I already ate. I bought you a few boxes of Blood Circulation and Pain Relief Ointment on the street. Didn’t you say your arm was hurting last time? Is it better now?"

"It got better long ago, waiting for your ointment might just kill me from pain." Huang Huijuan said discontentedly.

Yet, she still reached out her hand to take the bag from Shen Siyuan.

Just then, she suddenly stopped her motion, looking at Shen Siyuan up and down with some surprise.

"What’s wrong?" Shen Siyuan asked, somewhat puzzled.

"You seem a bit different." Huang Huijuan said suspiciously.

She reached out to touch Shen Siyuan’s face, but he dodged it with a look of disdain.

"Your hands stink, don’t touch me."

Upon hearing this, Huang Huijuan slapped him twice on the shoulder discontentedly.

Then she leaned in close to Shen Siyuan’s face, scrutinizing him carefully, "Are you wearing some type of colored contacts?"

"You even know about colored contacts?"

"Why would that be strange? Your mom isn’t an old antique. Besides, why haven’t you liked my WeChat posts or followed me on TikTok?"

While saying this, she reached out to knock on Shen Siyuan’s head.

Shen Siyuan hurriedly covered it, complaining: "Can you not post that stuff?"

"What stuff?"

"Things like ’if you don’t have kids, you most likely can’t take care of yourself in old age; or, the brutal truths that will give you chills; or, eating salty vegetables every day will extend your life by at least ten years; or, the truths that TV stations dare not report..."

"You might as well believe that your son is Qin Shi Huang."

"Say that to your dad."

Huang Huijuan rolled her eyes at him and then pulled him by the wrist toward the house.

"I don’t have anything to be afraid of saying."

"Do you know who Qin Shi Huang’s mother is?"

"Zhao Ji, who doesn’t know that?"

"Zhao Ji doesn’t have a very good reputation..."

"Uh..."

Shen Siyuan’s house is very large, although it is in the countryside, it is built quite luxuriously, not inferior to any urban detached villa.

It has two floors, six rooms, two halls, one kitchen, and two bathrooms, looking quite beautiful.

Walking into the entrance hall, you face a huge floor-to-ceiling window; the light from north to south is penetrating, making the view extremely open.

"Where’s Dad?" Shen Siyuan switched to slippers and asked casually.

"He went to the chicken farm, should be coming back soon."

Huang Huijuan put down the stuff and went to wash her hands in the kitchen, her hands indeed smelled bad from handling dried shrimp.

"How did you come back?"

"How else? Hitched a ride as usual."

"Always riding isn’t a solution, get a driver’s license and your dad and I will pool some money to buy you a car."

Shen Siyuan looked up at the luxurious big house, they still treat him like a child, always saying that the family is too poor to afford anything.

"Forget it, riding is pretty good."

While they were talking, a motorcycle noise came from the outside and Shen Siyuan walked to the doorstep, seeing a portly middle-aged man riding a motorcycle into the yard.

The person was Shen Siyuan’s father, Shen Jianjun.