Once upon a time, as now, when you walk into the village on the first day of the Lunar New Year and see all kinds of luxury cars parked in one place, the villagers will think that they have gone to the wrong place. In the past, when I returned to my hometown for the New Year, I saw backwardness and poverty, and there were exquisite cars, which became more and more bleak and lonely year by year. Now I can't believe that Mercedes-Benz and BMW come and go on the spacious village roads and open spaces. 
Not only that, but there are also Hongqi cars, Porsche sports cars, and even the most expensive Rolls-Royce. After not returning home for a long time, he looked around blankly, and the scenery of this familiar and unfamiliar village was jaw-dropping. For a while, Zhang Xiaoming, a young rural worker, almost thought that he had gone to the wrong hometown. It is strange to think that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, many villagers who went out to work chose to return to their hometowns early for the New Year. On the one hand, there is a fear of lockdown, and on the other hand, there are three years of separation, and the homesickness is overflowing. For most of the villagers, it was a lingering nightmare. In the first two years, they wandered in other cities, longing for the idyllic reunion atmosphere of their hometown, and it was difficult to resist the loneliness and melancholy in their hearts. 
Only a handful of relatives have returned to normalcy. Now that the policy has been relaxed, they are eager to empty their savings just to embark on the journey home as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, in the joy of returning home, they were greeted by their hometown after a long absence, and an army of luxury cars that dazzled the eyes. Zhang Xiaoming is not the only one who is puzzled. The villagers who returned to their hometowns were talking about it, and they were all speculating about who the owner of the luxury car was. The son of the old Li family?The juniors of his family?Or a relative of a village cadre?Familiar names came to mind, and they were eliminated one by one. After all, there is no impression in memory of who is rich. 
I think it's Lao Zhao, his son went to Southeast Asia to do business, and said that he made a lot of money. Aunt Zheng, a village woman, speculated. "Guess what, the old Zhao family opened a small supermarket, and the profit is only a few catties and taels, how can they afford to buy a BMW!The village chief said disapprovingly. The villagers muttered, but they couldn't guess whose family had suddenly made a windfall. The neighbors in their memories are basically not related to the word "get rich". For a while, the life history of the old neighbors who became like a nouveau riche like magic became the talk of the villagers. While the villagers were whispering, the doors behind several luxury cars opened, and people poked their heads out. 
I'll go, isn't this Wang Xiaozi and his wife, when did they buy their Audi?"And the three fools of the Li family, this kid has only been in the city for three years, where did he get the money to drive a BMW?Most of the light-footed figures were familiar faces in the village. They are either well-known people in the village, or young people who have been working outside all year round. The elders, who are constantly doing trivial things on weekdays, are now dancing with their eyebrows and high spirits. This is similar to the villagers' impression of the poor old neighbors. 
Zhang Xiaoming looked at his old friend suspiciously and beckoned to him happily, and for a while he couldn't tell whether this was a dream or a reality. The old friend in his memory also cried to him last year and borrowed money to remedy his family. How did you drive a million-dollar sports car in a year?Zhang Xiaoming felt extremely confused. There seems to be a "face-changing" event in the village this time, and the faces of acquaintances are hidden under the unfamiliar aura of money. Zhang Xiaoming's family sat around the kang table for Chinese New Year's Eve dinner, and his father shook his head and sighed: "Nowadays, there are many people in the city, and it is easy to follow the boss, hold real power, and earn some money." 
I think Lao Su is a good mix. The mother said: "After only a few years, the children have become real estate developers, and they have several properties under their hands." A doubt rose in Zhang Xiaoming's heart, he remembered that Lao Su's son ran into walls everywhere, and in the end he only got a marginal position as a small leader. "Not everyone is so lucky. Zhang Xiaoming interjected lukewarmly, "Lao Wang's son works in an oil company, and I heard that he relied on connections to get in." 
But people are living well now, and I think the car is a newly bought BMW. "Well, luck is real. Mrs. Zhang nodded, "But there are also people who temporarily rent luxury cars for the sake of face." Just like my niece, they are so poor that they can't even pay the rent, so they have to rent a BMW and come back for a walk. Zhang Xiaoming suddenly realized, no wonder the old friends all pretended to be very rich, it turned out that they borrowed a car and came back to have a good time!They played the role of "getting rich" with recklessness, but they didn't know that the lines in this scene had already been seen through by the villagers. That night, Zhang Xiaoming couldn't sleep, and the questions in his mind bounced one after another. Until the early hours of the morning, he slammed into a flashing light, as if he had found the truth—the threshold of the car was significantly lowered. 
A few years ago, cars seemed like an unattainable luxury to the vast majority of rural households. In my memory, almost everyone came and went by bicycle or electric car, and only a few could afford cheap domestic cars. At present, the Honda Accord and Nissan Teana, which can be seen everywhere, have become close to the people and within the purchase range of ordinary farmers. Coupled with the boom in the second-hand car market, buying a second-hand luxury car is no longer a fantasy. This may explain the "local tyrants" who came out of the villagers, all of whom drove valuable cars. In addition, during the epidemic, many people chose to travel by car, and it has become a new trend to drive back to their hometowns. This has undoubtedly stimulated the demand for returning villagers to buy cars, even if they rent a car. 
After all, they have been wandering and working hard all these years, and they also want to raise their eyebrows in their hometown. When Zhang Xiaoming clarified all these doubts, he suddenly realized that there are deeper reasons for the changes in the village - with the national poverty alleviation policy in place, the income level in the vast rural areas is gradually increasing, and the villagers' consumption concepts are also quietly changing and upgrading. In the past, for most villagers, the problem of food and clothing had not been solved, and there was no spare money to buy a private car. And now it coincides with the east wind, and after their lives are gradually prosperous, they also have the mentality of being on par with the people in the city. Buying a car is an important sign that they have turned over. 
Among them, there are many positive cases of successful entrepreneurship or part-time work in the city to get rid of poverty. For example, Boss Zhang, who got rich by planting potatoes, even hired villagers to help take care of the estate. Presumably, the old man is also proud of his career when he drives a newly modified pickup truck. Driven by the national policy, more and more villagers are slowly getting rich. It is not only the top few that have surfaced, but the quality of life of most ordinary people is also steadily rising. The automobile era not only heralds the changes in the appearance and infrastructure of the village, but also portrays the sublimation of the villagers' inner goals.
When Zhang Xiaoming gradually sorted out the ins and outs of this "luxury car parade", his inner doubts gradually sublimated into admiration for the villagers' struggle. He understood that this seemingly ostentatious homecoming event actually confirmed the industrious image of the vast number of rural people who are accumulating and climbing step by step. For example, Li Si, a handicraft master in the village, could only make a living from a small workshop with no name. However, in the past two years, he has been actively studying, which has made a qualitative leap in his craft. Now he has opened his own brand store in the county, and he is also well-known for bringing goods through Internet celebrities, and his business is booming. At present, he is driving a newly launched domestic SUV model back to his hometown, and he looks so refreshed. Another example is Lao Zhang's son Xiaofu, who was originally a young man who worked part-time in An'an. But he broke out of the city with his diligence and studiousness, and was promoted to project manager by the company.
Now he is driving his wife and children back to the village in a newly purchased car, clearly telling the villagers that he has settled in the city and has a successful career. The vehicles coming and going in the village are like a history of struggle staged in front of the villagers. After the annual "luxury car parade" on his way home, Zhang Xiaoming walked happily to eat. As he turned around the construction site of the soon-to-be-completed high-speed rail station next to the village, he couldn't help but feel that his hometown was undergoing earth-shaking changes at an unimaginable speed. In the past, the hometown of poor mountains and bad rivers was once regarded by Zhang Xiaoming as a shackle that must be shaken off. Nowadays, with the help of various national policies, the infrastructure is advancing rapidly, and it is gradually moving towards a well-off society in an all-round way.
High-speed railways and expressways will closely link this land to the express train of national development, bringing unprecedented convenience to the masses. Seeing the telephone poles become street lamp poles, the chimneys become skyscrapers, the ditches in front of the village are no longer silted, and the grain harvest in the fields... Quiet changes are taking place here, and people's lives are getting on a normal track day by day. Zhang Xiaoming knows that the real prosperity of the country and the strength of the people in his hometown begin with the struggle posture in the heart of every villager. They may still be living on the subsistence line, but they are already climbing to the stage of post-affluence.