Wushui County, a bus stop along the provincial highway.
This stretch of rural road connects to Beilin Town and is also the only route leading to Duan Village.
A beat-up BMW, its origins unknown, crawled sluggishly along the cement road, moving at a snail’s pace.
The driver, Huang Bo, had a young man riding shotgun—none other than Liu Yushan, the older brother of Liu Yutong.
Originally, Liu Yushan hadn’t planned on coming home for the New Year. After all, returning held little appeal for him (mainly because his pockets were empty, leaving him no room to show off).
If he stayed away, whenever someone called to ask, he could huddle in an internet café, scratching his greasy, fry-pan-worthy hair, and spin tales about how busy he was during the holidays—how his boss valued him so much that he’d been given tens of thousands in bonuses and even begged on his knees for Liu Yushan to stay and work overtime.
As long as he didn’t go back, who could possibly know how he was really doing out there? It was all up to his gift of gab.
But if he actually returned, with his pockets emptier than his face, the truth would come out sooner or later—and he’d probably end up humiliated.
As for asking his old man for money? Forget it. If anything, his father was more likely to demand cash from him.
Liu Yushan might be a bit of a slacker and a troublemaker, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew exactly how terrible his father’s reputation was in the village.
(Of course, his own reputation wasn’t much better.)
So why had he suddenly decided to come back?
Simple—he’d heard the news that his father had struck it rich, swindling a million out of his sister.
Never mind how she’d gotten her hands on that much money. The point was, the old man now had cash to burn. If he didn’t hurry back now, when would he?
Wait until his father gambled it all away? Then it’d be too late.
So, scraping together just enough for a bus ticket, Liu Yushan rushed back to his hometown in a hurry.
He had just stepped off the bus from the city to the town, about to spend a few bucks on a rickety motorized tricycle for the final leg of the trip, when he ran into Huang Bo—an old classmate from the same village.
Huang Bo had dropped out of school early too. Later, with some family support, he’d opened a small barbershop in another city, made a bit of money, and then immediately splurged on a used BMW before racing back home.
He was convinced that this time, he’d be the coolest guy in the village. Aside from the village head’s Santana and a handful of other families with sedans, most households relied on motorcycles or bicycles for transportation.
A car was already a rare sight in the village—let alone a BMW. That was the cream of the crop.
Sure, his ride was secondhand, but those country bumpkins wouldn’t know the difference.
If he said it was new, then it was new.
Before heading back, he’d even paid to have the car thoroughly cleaned inside and out, waxed to a shine, making it look almost brand-new.
No matter what, this was going to earn him some serious face.
Huang Bo had arrived at the intersection not long after Liu Yushan got off the bus. Spotting him waiting by the roadside, he rolled down the window and called him over, looking every bit the show-off with his sunglasses, suit, and tie.
Liu Yushan might have sneered inwardly, but a free ride was a free ride, so he climbed in.
At the same time, he was already scheming—once he got home, he’d squeeze at least a few hundred thousand out of his old man to buy his own BMW.
After all, if the money stayed in his father’s hands, it’d just end up lost at the gambling tables. Might as well use some of it for a car.
And so, the two of them puttered along in the BMW at a leisurely 10 mph, inching toward the village.
Liu Yushan, annoyed by Huang Bo’s sluggish driving, assumed he was babying the car to avoid damage.
"Are you sure this is a BMW?" he grumbled. "Even a bicycle could outrun us. What, is it leaking oil or something?"
Huang Bo: "What’s the rush? Trust me, this car’s meant to be driven slow."
Liu Yushan: "Since when do you need to be precise about driving a BMW?"
Huang Bo: "First, tell me—what time is it?"
Confused but obliging, Liu Yushan checked his phone. "Past noon. Can’t you speed up? I’ve got lunch waiting."
Huang Bo kept one hand on the wheel while fishing out a pack of cigarettes with the other, tossing it to Liu Yushan.
"Skip lunch. Missing one meal won’t kill you. Listen—when you come home for the holidays in a BMW, you can’t just show up whenever. Timing is everything."
Liu Yushan pulled out two cigarettes, lighting one for himself and sticking the other between Huang Bo’s lips.
"Cut the act. Since when does showing off need a schedule?"
Huang Bo exhaled smoke smugly. "Ah, that’s where you’re wrong. Let me teach you the art of making an entrance. I learned this online—people swear by it. Works every time."
Back in school, the two had been thick as thieves, cut from the same cloth. That’s why Huang Bo was willing to share his hard-earned wisdom on how to flaunt in style.
When Liu Yushan heard this, his interest was immediately piqued, and his impatience vanished. He realized that his father still had a million yuan stashed away. If he could get his hands on that money from Old Man Dao, buying a car would be the perfect way to put this show-off method into practice.
"Then hurry up and explain," he urged.
Huang Bo also got excited. "First, you need to figure out who you're showing off to—that's crucial. The old folks in our village probably wouldn’t even recognize my car, so they’re not our target audience. We’ve got to aim for the migrant workers coming back home—that’s how I can prove I’ve done better than them out there!"
"Then there’s the timing. Think about it—who doesn’t sleep in during the cold winter, curled up under the blankets, dragging themselves out of bed only around noon? By then, everyone’s usually eating at home and not going out, so who’s even going to see me driving this fancy car back? How am I supposed to show off then?"
"So, I’d rather skip a meal and drive slower, timing my arrival in the village around one o’clock. By then, they’ve already eaten, and since it’s the warmest part of the day, won’t they be out for a stroll? Maybe gathering at the village entrance to brag or heading to the convenience store to play cards?"
"Point is, there’ll definitely be more people around."
"That’s when I make my grand entrance in this 'Don’t Touch Me' car, roll down the window, and casually greet them—'Hey, everyone here?'"
Huang Bo clapped his hands at this point. "Perfect!"
Liu Yushan was stunned by this elaborate theory. He couldn’t help but admire the guy—putting in this much effort just to show off back home?
Learned, learned.
Once he got his hands on the money, he’d pull off the same stunt.
Seeing that Liu Yushan seemed to have grasped the essence, Huang Bo nodded in satisfaction.
The reason he was willing to share his show-off expertise with Liu Yushan wasn’t just because they were close—it was also because Liu Yushan’s younger sister, Liu Yutong, seemed to have hit the jackpot!
Being able to casually fork over a million yuan already placed her among the village’s top-tier wealthy.
So, showing off to him was pointless.
Many people knew that Liu Jianyi had received a million yuan from his daughter, Liu Yutong.
After all, Liu Jianyi wasn’t exactly the low-key type, and his notoriety in the village was sky-high—almost every household talked about him.
Especially when it came to educating the younger generation.
"If you ever dare to gamble like that Liu family’s second son, I’ll break all three of your legs!"
Liu Jianyi, the village’s cautionary tale, was a degenerate gambler with a rotten reputation—yet his daughter was the one who turned things around!
Not only did she score over 600 points on the college entrance exam and throw a celebration banquet with her scholarship money, but she also befriended some rich second-generation types in college and effortlessly made back over a million.
Thanks to Liu Yutong’s achievements, parents in the village with kids suddenly became much more invested in their children’s education.
Before, village kids were mostly left to their own devices, with few parents actually overseeing their studies.
Of course, part of the reason was that the parents themselves were uneducated and couldn’t teach their kids, plus they were busy with farm work or working away from home. If the kids learned anything, it was mostly through sheer self-discipline.
Sometimes, even the schoolteachers skipped class to go work in the fields.
There was another important reason, though.
They knew that going to college could change their children’s fate, but in reality, there weren’t many college graduates from the village who had actually brought any tangible change to their families or the community.
So, they never really saw the practical benefits or uses of higher education—and that was crucial.
Of course, another factor was that there simply weren’t many college graduates from the village to begin with.
