Divine Level Witch Doctor

”Ugh, why did I have to say I had headaches and dizzy spells? I can’t believe it actually came true. What rotten luck!” Scarface let out a long sigh, his face filled with regret.

When his men heard this, they all began to confess their own regrets.

”I regret it too. I shouldn’t have said I had prostate trouble. It’s so bad now I feel like just cutting the damn thing out!”

”Yeah, and I shouldn’t have said I had stomachaches and bloating. Now it feels like my stomach is about to explode!”

”BOO HOO HOO, I shouldn’t have said I had diarrhea. I’ve been on the toilet so much I’m starting to question my life choices...”

At first, Scarface didn’t pay much attention to his men’s complaints. But as he heard more and more of their regretful sighs, a thought suddenly struck him. He hesitated for a moment before asking, ”Hey, you guys think this sudden, weird illness we all have might be related to that Zhao kid?”

His men were all taken aback. ”What does us getting sick have to do with that kid?” one of them asked, confused.

Scarface’s expression turned grim as he laid out his analysis. ”That kid could have just paid us and left, but he insisted on asking if we were sick. He even gave us an extra eighty thousand yuan for it. We all thought he was just an idiot, but now that I think about it, things might not be so simple. Think about it! The illnesses we have now are the exact same ones we faked. I said I had headaches and dizzy spells. Xiaochao said he was paralyzed from the waist down. Erhongzi pretended to be deaf. Every single illness that each of you lied about has come true! Isn’t that weird?”

As the others mulled it over, they realized he was onto something and broke into a clamor of discussion.

”He’s right! Every single one of us has the exact illness we faked!”

”If it were just one or two of us, you could call it a coincidence. But there are more than a dozen of us, and every single one is sick. This is definitely no coincidence. It has to be that Zhao kid! He did something to us!”

”Now I remember! That kid gave every one of us a so-called check-up. You think that’s when he did something to us and gave us these weird illnesses?”

”That’s got to be it, one hundred percent! Son of a bitch! That Zhao kid is so damn treacherous and shameless! And here I was thinking he was a Scatter Money Child, but it turns out he’s a walking disaster!”

The group of scammers weren’t complete idiots. After some discussion, they had actually managed to guess the truth, more or less.

”Boss, what do we do now?”

”That kid dared to screw us over. We can’t let him get away with it!”

”Damn right! I’ve never been screwed over this badly in my life! We have to get him back for this!”

Scarface raised his right hand, signaling for silence. He considered for a moment, then gave his orders. ”First, find that family’s address. We’ll go to their house and play pitiful. The moment he’s cured us, we rush them. We’ll beat the hell out of their whole family and get our revenge!”

The riled-up crew immediately voiced their support.

”The boss is brilliant!”

”That’s the plan! The second he cures us, we beat the bastard!”

”Leave that cute little sister to me. I’ll be the one to teach her all about the exciting things in the adult world!”

Scarface and his crew immediately sprang into action, asking around for information on Zhao Yuan’s family.

「The night passed quickly.」

The next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, Zhao Yuan and his family got into their pickup truck and headed home.

On the way, Zhao Yuan asked with a smile, ”Mom, Dad, Sis, did you all sleep well last night?”

Zhao Shiquan smiled. ”Just fine.”

Shen Lijun rolled her eyes and said curtly, ”Your father’s lying. He barely slept a wink last night.”

Called out by his wife, Zhao Shiquan grew indignant. ”You’ve got some nerve saying that about me! Weren’t you the same? You were tossing and turning all night.”

It was only when Zhao Yuan asked that he learned the reason his parents hadn’t slept well was because the hotel room had been too nice, and the bed too soft...

Zhao Shiquan and Shen Lijun had toiled for half their lives. Suddenly being made to enjoy such luxuries was something they found hard to get used to.

It wasn’t just the two of them, either. Zhao Ling was the same; he didn’t even need to ask to see the dark circles under her eyes.

A pang of sorrow hit Zhao Yuan. He secretly vowed, ’From now on, I’ll make sure my parents and sister live a good life!’

Clearing his throat, he changed the subject. ”Mom, Dad, there’s something I wanted to discuss with you now that I’m back.”

”What is it?” Zhao Shiquan and Shen Lijun stopped their bickering and asked curiously.

Zhao Yuan said, ”I’d like to move all of you—you, Mom, and Sis—to Rongcheng City to live with me. What do you think?”

”Rongcheng City?” Zhao Shiquan and Shen Lijun exchanged a look before saying in unison, ”Son, we’re very touched by the thought, but we don’t want to go to Rongcheng City right now.”

”Why not?” Zhao Yuan asked. ”The living conditions in the city are a thousand times better than in the village.”

Zhao Shiquan shook his head. ”The city is nice, it’s true. But we’ve spent half our lives in a mountain village. We’re afraid we’d have a hard time adjusting if we suddenly moved to the city.”

Shen Lijun added, ”Your father is right. We’re used to life in the mountain village. We have great relationships with our neighbors, and it’s easy to drop by for a chat. The standard of living in the city is much higher, true, but I hear neighbors barely interact with each other. Your father and I couldn’t stand a life like that. Besides, in the city, we wouldn’t know how to do anything. Here in the village, we can grow vegetables, raise pigs, and go hunting. There’s always work to be done.”

Zhao Shiquan chimed in, ”That’s right. Your mother and I were born to work hard. We’re used to having things to do. If we were idle, we’d probably get sick! Just knowing you want to care for us is more than enough.”

Zhao Yuan tried to persuade them for a long time, but his parents refused to go to Rongcheng City. He had no choice but to give up on the idea. ”Alright,” he said, changing tactics. ”If you don’t want to go to Rongcheng City, you can stay in the village. As it happens, I’m planning to lease a mountain in our village to start an herbal medicine cultivation base. You two can be in charge of it for me.”

Zhao Shiquan frowned. ”Yuan, you need to think this through. Our village has good soil and water, but the roads are rough and hard to travel. If you start an herbal medicine cultivation base, transportation is going to be a huge problem!”

Shen Lijun agreed. ”Your father’s right. I remember last year, a big boss from out of town wanted to lease a mountainside to grow fruit trees. But he gave up the idea after coming to inspect the area in person. The reason was that the mountain roads were too hard to navigate. Building a new road would cost a fortune.”

Zhao Yuan smiled. ”Mom, Dad, don’t worry. For the kind of herbs I plan to cultivate, transportation won’t be an issue at all.”

He was very confident. ’As long as this cultivation base can produce a batch of precious wild herbs comparable to hundred-year-old specimens,’ he thought, ’other people will be lining up to worry about the road for me!’