Gulizha and his whole family, old and young, stayed in the Fierce Dragon capital for about five days,
seeing to their household registration and the enrollment of the eldest, second and third children.
A week later they could attend school in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, like the other children.
The reason it was a week later
was that Gulizha had one more matter to see to.
He took his whole family, old and young, by plane back to their hometown on the Southern Continent.
His hometown lay in a corner at the very southern end of the Southern Continent; though it was now one of the Southern Continent's ten kingdoms, it ranked last.
Had it not chosen to join the Fierce Dragon Kingdom early on, the kingdom would probably have long since ceased to exist.
As one of the first countries to join the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, its existence had been preserved by the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
But because of the country's geography, and for all sorts of other reasons, even with the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's support it still could not develop quickly.
So the great majority of the local people went elsewhere to work.
And joining an enterprise under the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was, in the locals' eyes, an act that brought glory on one's ancestors.
Even if you were only a delivery truck driver at a logistics company under the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, when word got back here, everyone thought you were really something.
If you were single, you need not worry at all about finding a match for life.
The matchmakers introducing you to prospects would wear out your doorstep.
And in a small town at the southernmost end of such a country,
there was no airport yet; the nearest airport was still five hours from here by car.
When Gulizha's plane landed, the rental car booked in advance was already waiting.
At Gulizha's request, the driver had also bought a great many gifts and goods, stuffing the trunk full to bursting.
That afternoon,
the minibus arrived back in Gulizha's hometown, a remote small town of under ten thousand people.
Though in today's society there were already motor vehicles,
the whole town's vehicles put together numbered no more than fifty, and half of those were official.
Most of the rest still used bicycles and e-bikes; even motorcycles were few.
The standard of living here was far below that of Dragon Star as a whole now.
This was why Gulizha believed his children had to leave this place.
The moment the minibus drove into the town, it caused a stir among the people here.
Here, any vehicle from outside drew outsiders' attention.
"Isn't that Gubazha in that vehicle!"
"It really does look like Gubazha. How come his family came back by car?"
"Isn't that Gulizha? I know: it's Gulizha come back!"[1]
"Gulizha? You mean the Gulizha I heard went off to be a soldier two years ago, joined the Fierce Dragon army?"
"Your news is out of date. Gulizha won merit in that campaign a while back. Did outstandingly. A week ago he specially had someone take the whole family off to the Fierce Dragon capital to see the world. Who knows why he's back now."
The news of Gulizha's return soon spread all over the town.
When Gulizha's minibus pulled up at the door of their old house,
quite a few neighbors had already gathered around.
Some had even taken leave specially to come back.
"It really is you, Gulizha, back home. I thought someone had seen wrong!" A middle-aged man in old clothes came over and, seeing Gulizha get out of the vehicle, was greatly startled.
He wanted to step up and shake hands, but looking at Gulizha's clean clothes, then at his own clothes with their several patches, an embarrassed look came over his face.
"Uncle, these are gifts I've brought for you all. Little Sister and the others aren't back yet, are they? There are gifts in here for them too." Gulizha took several bags from the trunk; on each he had written a name on a sticky note in advance, so that he would not forget or give the wrong one.
He took off the note
and put the bag into this middle-aged uncle's hands.
This uncle was his father's cousin.
They were not very close by blood, but he had always looked after their family.
His mother's job back then had been arranged by him through a contact.
All this Gulizha remembered.
"This gift is too valuable; I can't accept it!" the middle-aged uncle said, waving it off again and again.
He glanced at the things in the bag.
There were clothes, a handheld terminal and some other things besides.
All put together, they were probably worth as much as three months of his wages.
"I've already bought it. If you don't take it, you're not giving me any face," Gulizha said with mock sternness.
The middle-aged uncle looked in some difficulty at the bag pressed into his hands.
At this point Gulizha's father got out of the vehicle and saw this cousin of his.
He said with a laugh, "Gulizha got these ready for you specially. He's given it to you, so keep it. We're all one family; why stand on ceremony?"
Hearing this,
the middle-aged uncle declined no further and accepted it with a smile, not forgetting to praise him: "Then I won't stand on ceremony. I always said this boy would make something of himself. I hear you won great merit in the Fierce Dragon army; you must be a big official by now."
Gulizha glanced around and saw an Auntie.
Auntie was rather old, her hands all wrinkled.
But when he was little and his parents were away from home, Auntie had looked after him for half a year.
Back then every household had trouble just getting enough to eat; to give him a mouthful of food was already a great kindness.
"Auntie. This is a gift I've brought you, a gold bracelet. And some other gifts for your boy." Gulizha took out that gold bracelet himself and put it on Auntie's wrist.
This gold bracelet was not as thick as the one his wife wore, but it was finely made.
Still, in this small town it already counted as a very valuable gift.
"I must not, I must not. An old woman like me, how could I wear such a thing?" Auntie refused again and again, but her eyes, once they fell on the gold bracelet, could not be pulled away.
What woman does not love something glittering with gold like that? Watching television, when they saw those women decked in gold and silver, they all envied them.
"Sister, Gulizha's giving it to you, so keep it. You looked after our family plenty in the past. This gift, you've earned it." Gulizha's mother stepped up and fastened the gold bracelet on her.
Auntie looked at the gold bracelet on her withered wrist and could not help wiping away her tears: "Good, good. Our children are all doing well now, all doing well."
After that, Gulizha sought out several more relatives and friends who had looked after the family before, and gave them the gifts he had prepared.
The remaining gifts were for some who had not arrived yet.
When they arrived, he would give them.
"Neighbors and fellow townsfolk, all of you. All these years we've had your care. For these three days, I'll have people set up an open-house banquet here, three days running. Anyone who'll do us the honor is welcome to come and eat," Gulizha announced loudly.
Hearing this, even those who had not received gifts clapped and applauded one after another,
saying among themselves that Gulizha had made it too.
Gulizha felt the envious looks of those around him.
His father's back, bent for the better part of his life, could be said to have straightened at this moment.
The family walked into the house.
The house before them, compared with the house they had newly bought in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, could be said to be heaven and earth apart:
two different classes altogether.
Gulizha looked at the old house before him; the ground at its door was still sandy earth, and with a few people walking on it, the dust would rise.
But he did not look down on this place.
After all, this place had sheltered his parents, wife and children for decades.
Had it not been for this place, their family would not even have had a place to stay.
"The mayor's here!" someone outside exclaimed.
Gulizha and his father exchanged a look and walked out the door.
Several cars had appeared outside the door.
Those who got out of the cars were all the big men of this small town:
the mayor, the deputy mayor, and the heads of a few of the town's few enterprises.
"Gulizha, you came back without a word of warning. I was going to have people fix up this house of yours properly. How about this: you all stay at the guesthouse first. Give me a week with your house here, and I guarantee I'll fix it up nice and comfortable." The mayor came over full of warmth, his face wreathed in smiles.
This mayor had been mayor here for decades; his father had been the mayor here before him.
On his face such a fawning look was seldom seen.
Gulizha still remembered how, when he had first gone to be a soldier, the mayor would make a crack about him being a grunt.
But as a man whose thinking had matured,
he naturally would not bring up the past.
He said with a smile, "The mayor has ten thousand matters to see to every day; we didn't like to trouble you. I was going to come invite you when we held the banquet."
"You're holding a banquet? Good, good, good; then I'll certainly come!" The mayor stood beside Gulizha like an old brother.
Looking at Gulizha's father, he went further, clasping his hand and congratulating him: "Uncle, you've got a fine son. Gulizha has really made something of himself. Do you all know? Gulizha is now deputy commander of the Fierce Dragon army's Mecha Corps. By order of military rank, that's now the rank of captain! A year of his pay and benefits is a match for ten years of wages for me, the mayor."
Deputy commander of a corps?
The rank of captain?
The equal of ten years of the mayor's wages?
The neighbors around had only guessed that Gulizha had made something of himself out in the world.
But they had never imagined that Gulizha had actually made this much of himself.
All of them were greatly astonished,
and looked enviously at Gulizha's parents.
"Lord Gulizha, here's my card. I run a transport business in our town. We could work together."
"Lord Gulizha, my company has been thinking of opening up new markets lately; we could work together."
As for the several businessmen, they handed Gulizha their cards one after another.
At these businessmen's eager manner,
Gulizha naturally knew what they were after.
In the army he had heard of certain things.
Because the status of some senior officers of the Fierce Dragon army carried great weight in local places, all you had to do was make your status known, and some hard-to-get-done things could all be got done.
Add to that, no few retired Fierce Dragon officers would hold important posts in the various departments of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
And doing business with the Fierce Dragon Kingdom now was the most profitable trade there was.
So those businessmen would try every means to cultivate ties with these Fierce Dragon officers.
Some had been corrupted, too.
Almost every month, the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's internal Embroidered-Uniform Guard would expose news of this kind:
someone in such-and-such a post had traded favors with businessmen, embezzled so much and so much money, been stripped of Fierce Dragon officer status, sentenced, and so on.
Almost every time such a thing came out, the Fierce Dragon army's propaganda department would go over it with everyone as a warning.
"If you're willing, all of you, you can stay for the open-house banquet tonight. But as for doing business, I don't understand it, and I have no thoughts of it either." Gulizha refused outright in front of everyone, his expression very stern.
The several businessmen were not angry; they all knew that no few Fierce Dragon officers were quite firm at the start.
But who could guarantee they would not be corrupted in the future?
"We were presumptuous. Since you're holding a banquet, I can get in touch with cooks and a crew on my end and make sure it's put on for you in grand style!" one of them at once found a way to do something for Gulizha.
Whether or not they could work with Gulizha, so long as they could leave a good impression on Gulizha,
it might in the future bring several times the return.
It was business that could not lose.
The other businessmen chimed in one after another.
Gulizha did not refuse this entirely either.
After all, in matters of this kind, in this small town, they were the professionals; with them in charge, nothing would go wrong.
But Gulizha made it clear too that he would pay the costs himself and would never take advantage in any way.
"Mayor, this time we've come back mainly to see the townsfolk and thank them for looking after our family in the past. I've already decided to bring my parents, wife and children to live in the Fierce Dragon capital. So the house will be kept as it is; no need to renovate or repair it. When we have time in the future we'll come back and visit, so we'll have something to remember it by," Gulizha said, looking at the mayor.
"Moving to the Fierce Dragon capital, that's good. Gulizha has really made something of himself. Uncle, you're blessed. All right, then the house stays as it is. I'll have someone look after it from now on, and I guarantee that whenever you come back, the house will still be just like this!" The mayor looked at Gulizha's parents with some envy.
To be able to live in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was in fact his dream too.
But he knew very well that the cost of living in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was very high,
above all for those without Fierce Dragon Kingdom status.
For on Dragon Star now, everyone wanted to go to the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
And the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was only so big a place.
If people from outside were allowed in freely, its system would run into trouble.
So there were limits on those who came in.
A visa had to be obtained.
According to different people's status, these visas were valid for different lengths of time.
Someone like Empress Nancy, though she did not hold Fierce Dragon citizenship, could enter the Fierce Dragon Kingdom at any time, with no limit on her length of stay.
While some other businessmen would be given lengths of stay of half a year, three months and so on.
For tourists, it depended on whether they traveled independently or with a tour group.
Those with a tour group went through a travel agency, on a group visa.
Independent travel was generally allowed only about half a month.
And to stay on longer, one had to pay a steep fee.
Even a mayor like him could not afford it!
So everyone was quite envious that Gulizha's family could settle in the capital of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
Others might have the money and still not have such a chance!