By the time Granny Jiang finished cleaning the big goose, the sky was already growing dark. Jiang's father, Mother Jiang, Jiang Tianfu, and Granny Jiang had all arrived, and the three women were busy in the kitchen.
Both Jiang Nanzhou and Jiang Tianfu were holding their phones, tinkering with Douyin.
Jiang Tianfu looked at his phone screen excitedly and nudged Jiang Nanzhou to get him to look.
"Xiaozhou, I gained over ten followers today."
Jiang Nanzhou was somewhat speechless. Was that supposed to be a lot?
He opened his own Douyin. His ID was the default nickname from when he registered, and his profile picture was also the default cartoon avatar.
Jiang Nanzhou thought for a long time before he came up with a suitable nickname. He clicked to change his nickname to Fisherman and hit confirm to save, but a message popped up saying it was already taken. Fine, then he would try another one: I Am a Fisherman. He clicked confirm to save, and the change was successful.
He also changed his profile picture to a photo of the ocean scenery he had taken in Shidao.
His following list had thirty-something people—all classmates, friends, and family—and his followers list consisted entirely of those same people mutually following each other.
He had never posted a single video; usually, he just scrolled through funny skits without liking, commenting, or following anyone. As for livestream shopping, he wouldn't even look at it, let alone buy anything.
He tried opening the livestream feature, only to find out he had to go through real-name verification and link a bank card. It took him quite a while to figure it out.
*Beep, beep, beep*—the sound of a car horn came from the entrance.
Jiang Nanzhou shouted into the house, "My aunt and the others are here!"
Jiang Nanzhou and Jiang Tianfu both stood up and walked toward the courtyard gate.
As soon as they reached the entrance, they saw two people stepping out of a car first.
"Brother! Aren't you surprised? Aren't you stunned?"
"Did you miss us?"
It was Aunt Jiang's children, a pair of fraternal twins. The older brother was Hu Minghao, and the younger sister was Hu Mingzhu. They had just started their freshman year of college and were both studying in Suzhou.
Because they were close in age to Jiang Nanzhou, they had always been very close and affectionate with him.
"You guys are something else. When you WeChat messaged yesterday, you said you wouldn't be back for a few days. You really gave me a huge surprise."
"You kids stop blocking the gateway! There's still stuff in the trunk, get to work already."
Uncle-in-law walked into the courtyard carrying two jugs of white liquor he had specially bought for his father-in-law.
Aunt Jiang opened the trunk, revealing it packed to the brim.
Jiang Nanzhou saw three boxes of beer, along with fruits, cooked food, and snacks—quite a lot of items.
Aunt Jiang directly picked up a large bag of snacks, tossed out a single sentence, and walked away.
"You youngsters can unload the rest. Don't forget to lock the car when you're done."
Liang Guilan, Jiang Tianfu's grandmother, looked at the lively scene at Jiang Nanzhou's house and felt a twinge of envy.
Jiang Tianfu's parents had passed away when he was young, and ever since elementary school, he had lived with his grandparents. A few years ago, Jiang Tianfu's grandfather suffered a heart attack and couldn't be saved. Ever since Grandpa Jiang passed away, Granny Jiang's health had been declining day by day. Several people had offered to take Jiang Tianfu to the city to work odd jobs, but he turned them all down because he couldn't bear to leave his grandmother at home all by herself.
Normally, a square table was enough for meals, but today Grandpa Jiang brought out the large round table usually reserved for Chinese New Year.
Braised eel, garlic abaculus, braised big goose in an iron pot, boiled sea snails, stir-fried webfoot octopus, cold skin noodles with shredded cucumber, plus the spiced pork intestines, pig trotters, pig's head meat, and sausages that Aunt Jiang had bought—altogether, there were ten dishes.
The braised eel and the braised big goose were both served in large basins. Tonight's theme was eating well and drinking well.
Hu Minghao and Hu Mingzhu were drooling just looking at it. The food at their school cafeteria was notoriously awful—clear soup and watery dishes—and with their limited monthly living expenses, they could only occasionally order takeout to improve their meals.
The elders poured themselves white liquor, while the younger ones drank beer.
Even Mother Jiang, who had a very low tolerance for alcohol, joined in the fun and poured herself a glass of beer.
Aunt Jiang had already laid down the law today: her family wasn't going back to the township tonight, so everyone could let loose and drink.
That evening, Jiang Nanzhou's house was even livelier than during the New Year.
Perhaps due to the alcohol, Jiang Nanzhou slept exceptionally well that night, out cold until dawn.
Mother Jiang had prepared breakfast early. Seeing Jiang Nanzhou come out of his room, she hurriedly called him over to eat so the porridge wouldn't get cold.
"Mom, why isn't Dad up yet today?"
"Your dad drank too much yesterday. He just got up to vomit and fell back asleep."
"Dad really drank a lot yesterday, so let him rest today. After I finish breakfast, I'll go feed the animals."
"Alright, I'll go with you in a bit."
As soon as Jiang Nanzhou finished feeding the chickens, ducks, and geese, he saw Jiang Tianfu waiting for him at his house.
Although his head didn't hurt, Jiang Tianfu still felt groggy—the classic hangover aftereffects.
"Brother Tianfu, your alcohol tolerance isn't very good either."
"Oh, give me a break. Who could survive getting cornered and toasted by you three siblings?"
Especially since they were three college students; they had a slick speech for every occasion.
"If you feel miserable, you should go back home and rest some more. I can go by myself; it's not like it's serious business anyway."
"No need, the fresh breeze will wake me right up. I specifically brought a few large garbage bags to hold the trash, and we can take all the plastic bottles that can be sold for money straight to the recycling station."
Passing by the old family home, Jiang Nanzhou called out to the siblings Hu Minghao and Hu Mingzhu.
Under the noble pretext of taking them to play by the seaside.
The seaside wind was howling fiercely today, and all the fishing boats in their village were docked at the pier, with none venturing out to sea.
They were all bundled up in warm layers, wearing hats and gloves. Jiang Nanzhou handed each of them a crab-catching tong and a large garbage bag.
Hu Mingzhu looked at the large bag in her hand, her mind buzzing.
"Brother, is this what you call 'coming to play'?"
Hu Minghao gave his younger sister a sideways glance.
"Are you an idiot? What kind of fun is there to be had at the beach in this freezing weather?"
Hu Minghao had followed at Jiang Nanzhou's heels ever since he was little, and back then, Hu Mingzhu used to call him her older brother's lackey.
Jiang Nanzhou reached out and tapped Hu Mingzhu on the forehead. "Stop yapping, hurry up and get to work, and I'll make you guys something good to eat when we get home."
It didn't take long for the group to fill several bags with garbage, along with plenty of water bottles, which would probably fetch a few yuan.
Jiang Tianfu drove the trash over to the village dump to unload it, where a garbage truck would periodically come by to haul the waste away.
Jiang Nanzhou had originally planned to host a livestream today, but since doing physical labor made it a bit inconvenient, he dropped the idea and decided to post a video instead.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang Nanzhou edited the footage he had shot while picking up trash. The video started with some plastic garbage floating on the sea, followed by clips of their group picking up trash in the background, and ended with a piece of text: "Pay attention to marine ecology, reject plastic garbage, start with you and me."
The group had worked with furious enthusiasm and were all sweating, yet the harder they worked, the more energized they became.
Every time they looked back and saw the areas they had cleaned up, their hearts filled with emotion.
A beach without garbage turned out to be so much more beautiful.
Not long after Jiang Nanzhou's video was posted, his phone started ringing incessantly with the *ding-ding* sound of notifications.
He pulled out his phone and saw that it was entirely filled with like notifications from the Douyin platform, interspersed with a few comments.