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After waiting for about half an hour, Zhao Dongchan and his companions' food was ready, and the three began to eat.

Li Yuer ate slowly and gracefully, a pleasant sight to behold.

Zhao Dongchan and Hu Jianjun, however, were not as elegant; they were barely maintaining their image by not wolfing down their food.

It had been two days since they had a proper hot meal, and the stir-fry chefs at that time were all highly skilled, earning good wages with exquisite culinary skills, incomparable to the shoddy, profit-driven cooking of later generations.

After finishing their meal, the three split the bill and returned to their respective berths.

Zhao Dongchan continued to do practice problems as usual, while Li Yuer read the novel "Children of Xisha" with great interest.

Hu Jianjun, having nothing else to do, found someone to play poker with.

After a journey of three days and two nights, the train finally arrived at its terminal station, Pengcheng.

The conductor announced their arrival over the loudspeaker, reminding everyone about maintaining order, and as the train wheels came to a complete stop, the passengers in the carriage once again engaged in a "fierce competition," scrambling to get off, afraid of being left behind.

The three young people had no large luggage or family to look after, so they were not in a hurry, merely moving slowly with the crowd.

After exiting the station, Hu Jianjun asked Zhao Dongchan if he had a place to stay and offered his dormitory for Zhao Dongchan to make do, saying he could go home to sleep.

Zhao Dongchan naturally declined his kind offer, stating he intended to stay at a guesthouse.

He needed a quiet place for the things he had to do.

Hu Jianjun did not press the matter further.

Li Yuer, on the other hand, had someone waiting to pick her up.

It was a stern middle-aged man, with a car parked nearby, wearing a dark blue trench coat, walking with a very upright and imposing gait, likely a leading cadre from the area.

Li Yuer spoke a few words with the man, then walked towards them.

"Brother Zhao, you're going to the guesthouse, right?" Li Yuer asked, her big eyes blinking.

"I'll take you along; we have a car and it's on our way."

Zhao Dongchan indeed wanted to go to the guesthouse, but he had no car and didn't know the way, which was causing him some distress.

Since Li Yuer had a car picking her up and it was on their way, Zhao Dongchan naturally had no reason to refuse.

So, he bid farewell to Hu Jianjun, promising to meet up again when they had time, and got into the car.

The driver was at the wheel, Zhao Dongchan sat in the passenger seat, and Li Yuer and the middle-aged man sat in the back.

"This is my father, and this is Zhao Dongchan, who came from Huangyuan City," Li Yuer introduced.

"Uncle Li, hello, thank you," Zhao Dongchan said, turning to Li Yuer's father.

"You're too kind; I should be thanking you for looking after my Yu'er on the journey."

"I heard you came from the Huangyuan region; what's the situation like there now?" Mr. Li asked.

So Zhao Dongchan briefly explained the situation in the Huangyuan region.

Mr. Li could only sigh helplessly, "Doing things this way will surely make the farmers suffer!"

"Uncle Li, there might be some detours, but eventually, we will all reach the broad and bright road.

I believe that day is not far off!" Zhao Dongchan said calmly.

They soon arrived at the guesthouse, and Zhao Dongchan smiled as he bid farewell to Li Yuer and her father, then entered the guesthouse with his bag.

On the way back, Mr. Li remained deep in thought, pondering Zhao Dongchan's words.

He always felt that those words carried a strange confidence, as if Zhao Dongchan was very certain about a beautiful future.

Mr. Li couldn't help but chuckle self-deprecatingly, "I'm such an old man, yet I'm not as open-minded as a young person!"

Li Yuer, of course, also spoke about Zhao Dongchan's behavior on the train.

"Yu'er, you can befriend this person; he's quite interesting!" Mr. Li said to Li Yuer.

Zhao Dongchan took out his work permit, checked into the guesthouse, and entered his room with the room number slip and key.

It was a small room with only a bed, a table, and a desk lamp.

Fortunately, it had an independent bathroom, likely built to accommodate visitors from Hong Kong.

Zhao Dongchan put down his luggage, took out his toiletries from his space, and took a refreshing shower.

After changing into fresh clothes, Zhao Dongchan didn't even feel like eating; he just lay on the bed and fell asleep.

Although he had a sleeper berth on the journey, it was too cramped and exhausting.

If he was so tired even with a sleeper berth, one could imagine the fatigue of those in hard seats or standing tickets.

Zhao Dongchan slept very soundly.

When he woke up, it was already dark.

Zhao Dongchan splashed cold water on his face and prepared to go out for something to eat.

After leaving the guesthouse, Zhao Dongchan began to stroll around Pengcheng Town.

At this time, Pengcheng was still just a small town with a population of about 30,000.

The most distinctive building around was the train station; all the others were small bungalows, but they didn't look any worse than those in Yuanxi County.

Zhao Dongchan wandered around the town for a while, found a state-run restaurant, and ordered a stir-fry dish and rice.

As he ate, he carefully listened to the conversations of other customers in the restaurant.

As long as they weren't too far away, with his current hearing, he could basically hear everything clearly.

Although Hong Kong and Pengcheng were separated by only one river, the economic levels of the two places were vastly different, and many local people had relatives or friends who had fled there.

They would occasionally discuss how someone's son sent money back home, or how a friend had made a fortune there, with one remittance often exceeding a year's income here.

Their tone revealed deep envy when they spoke of the prosperous life in Hong Kong.

When he was almost finished eating, Zhao Dongchan returned to the guesthouse.

It was completely dark now, not suitable for wandering around.

For the next few days, whenever Zhao Dongchan left the guesthouse, he would put on his system glasses to change his identity and go to restaurants, vegetable markets, and other places to gather information.

One day, Zhao Dongchan learned from an old farmer secretly selling tobacco leaves that there was a "black market" near the Luohu border checkpoint.

Zhao Dongchan decided to go and see.

Although the border control was very strict due to constant attempts by people to "cross the net" or "go into the water," it wasn't impossible for a black market to exist nearby.

It was a case of "darkness under the lamp," and the demand was too great.

Leveraging geographical advantages to create wealth, I think this is what most people would choose to do.

Perhaps this was originally intended by those in charge to turn a blind eye; without this kind of activity to earn some money, even more people would probably leave.

Wearing his glasses, Zhao Dongchan quickly arrived at the "black market" the old man had mentioned.

It was an abandoned park.

In one corner of the park, there was a dilapidated courtyard, and Zhao Dongchan walked towards it.

"Hey! Where are you from?" a voice suddenly came from the shadows on the side.

Zhao Dongchan turned to look; it was a dark-skinned man in black clothes.

"Brother, I'm from the North.

I heard there are all sorts of rare goods here, so I came to take a look," Zhao Dongchan said softly.

"No, you're mistaken.

This is just a ruined courtyard; there's nothing here.

Go back where you came from," the man in black said impatiently.