Transmigrated to Twenty Years Ago and Adopted Myself

A bald old man with almost no hair left was guarding a stall, shivering while peeling sweet potato skins, with a strong smell of garbage on his body.

“Take a look,” the old man said vaguely, “It’s all cheap, very cheap.”

The little yellow bike and the steel basin of a vase were placed together. Two green onions were inserted into the vase, which looked very appropriate.

The plastic sheet was not firmly secured, and the corners were pressed with two bricks. Many old banknotes and silver coins were sold there but it was a mixture of real and fake.

Many things were stained with dirt or grime, and they stink as if they were pulled out of a garbage dump.

Only the bright yellow bicycle was parked next to it, making the style of the scene out of place.

Jiang Wang first flipped through the pile of antiques for a while, before finally turning his attention to the bike.

“The master is selling this too?”

“This?” The old man raised his eyes but continued to bury his head in the sweet potatoes. “Someone tried to sell it to me when I was collecting waste, saying that they wanted to sell it by the pound.”

“When I saw that it wasn’t pure iron, I told him it would be worthless after being melted,” He sneered, “That person is paying me fifty yuan to sell it. It’s priced at the original price. You take a look and decide.”

Ji Linqiu thought to himself that at most it was worth eighty yuan, the paint was chipped off in many places, so he definitely had to bargain.

Jiang Wang squatted down and took a closer look at the bike, then gestured with his hand.

“Fifty-five.”

The old man waved his hand impatiently: “Leave if you’re not buying it, don’t toss people around.”

“Just fifty-five,” Jiang Wang stared at him: “I won’t give you a penny more.”

The old man struggled to swallow, he finished half of the sweet potato with cold water, glanced at Jiang Wang, and waved his hand like he was dismissing a beggar.

“Fine, take it, take it.”

Ji Linqiu looked puzzled next to him.

Jiang Wang took the bike and walked away, turning to Ji Linqui, he boasted.

“This is the rule of the world.”

The old man spat: “Rules my ass, you’re just being stingy.”

Early the next morning, Peng Xingwang got up to look for his bike as soon as the alarm rang at six o’clock. Finally, he found the little yellow bike in the corner behind the back door of the building.

The child was so crazy with joy that he dragged the bike home, knocking on Jiang Wang’s door with three loud bangs.

“Brother!!” He yelled happily like a sparrow: “Brother, brother, brother!!”

The man opened the door with messy hair: “What’s the matter?”

“Bike! I got it back!!” Peng Xingwang couldn’t wait to lift Little Yellow to Jiang Wang’s face: “Look, look!”

“It must’ve been in the hallway. Which auntie in the hallway moved it? She even put it at the back door. How could I have found it?”

“I told you it must be here somewhere, but you didn’t believe me!”

“I have Little Yellow again, Hehehehe—”

Jiang Wang nodded perfunctorily: “Well, congratulations. I’m going back to sleep… it’s still pretty early.”

“Don’t sleep! Don’t close the door yet!”

The child stood up on his tiptoes and jumped up to kiss him.

“I’m in a good mood today, so I wanted to kiss you!”

Jiang Wang laughed along: “Kiss, kiss, go ahead, whatever you want.”

The child happily took his bike lock keys in the living room and went out to play with friends. Jiang Wang fell asleep until the afternoon and woke up to find seven missed calls on his phone.

Five of them were from the company, about some business matters that needed to be decided.

There were also two from Peng Jiahui, one at twelve noon and the other at one in the afternoon.

Jiang Wang yawned and called back.

“I had my phone on silent earlier, what’s the matter?”

“Boss Jiang, I finally came back from my long trip,” Peng Jiahui was also afraid of disturbing him, and felt embarrassed: “Do you have any free time soon? I’d like to cook you a meal. Please come over with Xingxing, is that okay?”

Peng Jiahui could think of nothing else to entertain guests.

There was too little money to give, not to mention that if he gave it to others, they might not accept it.

It wasn’t sincere enough just to invite the other to dinner, and Boss Jiang should’ve eaten and seen many places. What good places could he have never been to?

After thinking about it, inviting the other person to his house and cooking a meal for them himself would show the most sincerity.

Although Peng Jiahui couldn’t do much of anything else. He had always been very good at hands-on work. Cooking was as easy as fixing car parts, and his craftsmanship was quite good.

Jiang Wang had slept since they got home in the morning, his stomach was empty. He even let out a belch on cue.

“Sure.” He rubbed his messy hair and said, “Is it okay tonight?”

Peng Jiahui didn’t expect him to be so impolite, so he was taken aback but quickly agreed.

“Sure, sure! What do you want to eat? I’m going to buy it now!”

This father owed him too much in his past life, so Jiang Wang fully indulged himself without hesitation.

“Make a kelp and pork ribs soup, braised pork, and two more vegetarian dishes, like scrambled eggs with onions and so on.”

Peng Jiahui was very moved, “It’s all the food Xingxing loves to eat. Thanks for taking care of him. What does Boss Jiang want to eat?”

Jiang Wang woke up from a daze at this moment, with something wrong with his reaction.

“You decide,” he said unconcerned: “I’m not picky.”

They agreed to meet at 6 pm. Jiang Wang took the leftover steamed buns and ate them to pad his stomach. When it was time, he went out to find Peng Xingwang to mooch off a meal.

The child was helping put out a new book with the clerks in the bookstore. Before leaving, he politely said goodbye to his sisters and even got a kiss from a beautiful woman.

“So well-behaved! You are so cute!”

Peng Xingwang giggled mischievously.

Jiang Wang couldn’t watch it anymore, “Are you coming or not?”

“Coming, coming!”

Peng Jiahui still lived in the slums. Although the place was indeed dilapidated and old, it could still receive guests after being carefully cleaned.

He hurried to boil the bone soup in a pressure cooker, and then stir-fried the vegetables in a race against time, with the fire turned up to the maximum.

So much so that the entire alley got filled up with the fragrance.

Peng Xingwang smelled the scent floating past, and the expression on his face was happy and content.

Before, his father either got drunk and cursed the heavens and the earth while beating people up, or he wouldn’t come home for half a month. Now, he actually took the initiative to cook and invite them over.

“Xingwang!” Peng Jiahui was dressed very neatly, even wiping his hair with water: “I’m back! Dad has been out on a business trip all month, and has missed you so much!”

“I missed you too!!”

Jiang Wang didn’t bother to watch the two of them being slimy, so he found a place to sit and watch TV.

The house was small and there was no dining table. The meals were all placed on the coffee table. Peng Jiahui also specially prepared a tablecloth to cover it in advance.

“Please, please! Just some small dishes, don’t mind me!”

One big and one small person sat in front of the kelp soup, their expressions as they took deep breaths were completely synchronized.

“It smells so good!! Dad, you’re amazing!!”

Peng Xingwang drank vigorously after speaking. He was not afraid of getting scalded at all. He emptied a bowl in the blink of an eye: “More!”

Peng Jiahui frowned and added more for him, “I know you like to drink this. Dad will make it for you every day from now on.”

While paying attention to whether Jiang Wang’s drinks and soup bowls were empty, he whispered to Peng Xingwang that he had gone to Shenzhen and saw a lot of amazing things.

“—In the future, I will strive to be promoted to supervisor early and buy a big house for Xingxing to live in, okay?”

“Okay!”

After Jiang Wang finished his portion he wanted to add more by himself, but Peng Jiahui took his bowl away with both hands.

“You have worked hard to take care of Xingxing, I’ll do it! I’ll do it!”

Peng Xingwang was also a little embarrassed and changed the subject to talk about Little Yellow.

The father and son laughed loudly. Peng Jiahui saw that Jiang Wang was not joining the topic, so asked him curiously about the current situation.

“Boss Jiang seems to have been here for several months. Do you plan to go home and take a look anytime soon?”

When Peng Jiahui said this, he couldn’t help but add another sentence.

“Your parents must be very happy to have such a capable and accomplished son.”

Jiang Wang looked at Peng Jiahui’s appearance in his thirties, and said after a while: “Maybe.”

“They left early,” he said, avoiding eye contact. “I almost forgot what they look like.”

Peng Jiahui didn’t expect to poke his benefactor’s sadness, so he hurriedly apologized.

“However, your parents must also be very good, otherwise they would not be able to raise such a good person like you.”

Jiang Wang hasn’t adapted yet to chatting with his father as a peer, so he was very slow to answer.

“Excellent… I can’t really say.” He continued to lower his head to drink the soup, but he was also smiling: “They had a lot of quirks and sometimes did silly things, but their nature wasn’t bad.”

Peng Jiahui nodded seriously and couldn’t help but heap some food onto Jiang Wang’s plate, wanting to show his gratitude.

“By the way,“ Peng Jiahui remembered something: “Xingxing, your grandparents called me several times this month and said they missed you. They asked when you would go back to play.”

“The summer vacation is almost over, do you still want to go back? I will drive you.”

Jiang Wang suddenly froze.

That’s right, his grandparents.

His grandparents spoiled him the most when he was a child.

The elders of the Peng family lived in the countryside. The highway was only recently paved this year. It used to cover the car with mud when they drove there.

“Can I go play there?” He said it subconsciously, but was afraid of offending so he added: “My business just happened to be idle, so I can go over and accompany Xingxing.”

“Yes, of course, you can!” Peng Jiahui was worried that he had nothing to repay him so he immediately became enthusiastic. “Boss Jiang can also bring two friends over. My parents opened a small fish pond there and planted crops on a few plots of land. People from the city often go there to experience the farmhouse activities– there are also electric mahjong tables and KTV, and the scenery is also quite good!”

Jiang Wang also became excited in his heart and quickly agreed.

After eating and chatting, he said goodbye and sent a message to Ji Linqiu as soon as he left the alley.

[I’m going to accompany Xingxing to the countryside to play. Why don’t Teacher Ji also come?]

[The air is good and the scenery is beautiful, and there are fireflies at night.]

Ji Linqiu thought for a while, but couldn’t resist the temptation of fireflies.

[Okay.]

The child was afraid that others would not go, so he raised his head and waited for Teacher Ji’s answer.

“Did the teacher agree?”

“Promised already.” Jiang Wang said thoughtfully: “Should we buy a tent?”

“Buy a kite! A big one!” The child was afraid that the kite wouldn’t be big enough, so he immediately changed his words: “Why don’t I take a bamboo stick and make one myself, I want to make it as big as me!”

Jiang Wang’s mind was not on the kite. He nodded in agreement as he listened and thought about the two old people.

They should still be young at this time.

Jiang Wang missed a lot of things in his previous life and even missed the chance to see his grandfather for the last time.

Now that time has gone back, he suddenly had another opportunity.

He had another twenty years to accompany them as they grew old.