The Fantastic Little Farmer

Chapter 67: Chapter 67: Stealing My Car?

In the end, he didn’t split the one million into forty separate deposits. After he had deposited four hundred thousand, the rest of the branch staff started their afternoon shift. A man who looked like a manager inquired about the situation, sincerely apologized to Zhang Yun, and criticized the staff member’s poor attitude. Zhang Yun didn’t insist on making a fuss and deposited the remaining six hundred thousand all at once.

However, this incident prompted the people queuing up for their transactions to record short videos and post them to their Friends Circle and WeChat groups.

”In the past, I thought the online stories about people bringing piles of coins and depositing them one by one to block the counter were just jokes! But today, I saw it with my own eyes. What a badass—taking his time depositing tens of thousands at a time just to spite the bank clerk!”

”A female bank clerk looked down on a plainly dressed customer and got a slap in the face from dozens of consecutive deposits!”

”I’m so jealous! I wish I could be like this guy one day, carrying a sack of cash and slowly depositing it just for fun.”

These short videos were immediately forwarded everywhere, flooding screens and spreading throughout the entire county. Everyone was engaged in heated discussions.

”First someone used a leather suitcase to carry cash, and now someone is using a woven sack. Is this how the nouveau riche show off their wealth nowadays?”

”So tacky! You think having money makes you great? Why not donate some to impoverished mountainous areas? Flexing wealth like this is super low!”

”Now here’s the real question: does anyone know which town or village these two rich guys are from? I’m still looking for a husband, and I’m not picky. Either one will do.”

”You guys are overthinking it. There’s no wealth-flaunting competition! This is obviously the same person. He received a suitcase full of cash and then put it into a woven sack to deposit at the bank!”

”That bank branch looks a bit familiar. I think it’s in our town.”

”My cousin took the video on the spot, and it is indeed in our town. I know who that rich guy is. He’s young, handsome, and educated. Any unmarried girls can send me a red envelope, and I’ll tell you!”

Zhang Yun had no idea that he had provided the whole county with two trending topics. After depositing the money, he grabbed a bite to eat in town. He still had a field of rice to harvest in the afternoon.

He finally had a moment to check his phone and saw numerous missed calls from relatives, classmates, and fellow villagers. After adding Dong Junwu earlier, he had casually put his phone on mute, so none of the calls had disturbed him. People rarely made phone calls these days. With so many calls coming in all at once, Zhang Yun could easily guess the reason.

He didn’t reply to their messages and checked WeChat instead. As expected, there was a massive amount of unread messages. It was a good thing he had turned on mute! From the village group chat to the classmate group and small circles of acquaintances, people were tagging him. There were also private messages, video calls, voice calls, congratulatory comments, and voice blessings.

Zhang Yun merely glanced over them without looking closely or replying. As expected of the saying, ”The poor are ignored even in the busy city, while the rich are visited by distant relatives even in the deep mountains.” The moment he exposed his one million, everyone immediately became enthusiastic and chummy.

Aside from those messages, there were a few that Zhang Yun had to read carefully. One of them was a voice message from his dad. He tapped to play it and held it to his ear, hearing his dad speak in a hushed voice.

”People are already coming over to borrow money. Don’t come home just yet. We won’t be harvesting the rice this afternoon. Come back a little later.”

Hearing the voice message his dad had squeezed in time to send, Zhang Yun could imagine that the family was currently exhausted from dealing with the visitors. His first reaction was to go back and share the pressure with his dad.

But on second thought, if he wasn’t home, his dad could push the blame onto him. If he went back, his dad would be even more concerned about saving face, just like when his second uncle had come to demand payment before. In that case, Zhang Yun wasn’t in a hurry. He would go back a bit later in the afternoon; as long as he didn’t forget to feed the fish, it would be fine.

There was another message from Xiuxun: ”We sold the ginseng and got over three thousand for it. Thank you.”

The message was sent earlier while he was at the bank. It was followed by another one: ”Auntie Pang said we should spread the word about this. That way, everyone will believe that it’s still possible to stumble upon ginseng in the mountains, and they won’t keep pestering you with questions.”

Xiuxun usually never spoke in the village group chat; this was Auntie Pang’s idea.

Zhang Yun checked the village’s WeChat group again. Sure enough, Auntie Pang had excitedly announced a moment ago that she and Xiuxun had dug up several roots of old mountain ginseng and sold them for over three thousand. She had even taken photos and sent them to the group.

Their ginseng roots were obviously much smaller, and the three thousand was far from comparable to Zhang Yun’s one million. However, to the villagers, this seemed much more realistic and credible!

Everyone pressed her for details on where she had dug them up. Auntie Pang explained that they went into the mountains for most of the day every day, digging up any medicinal herbs they could sell. Today, they happened upon a spot with many ginseng roots and dug them all up.

If this information had been shared in the past, it would inevitably have aroused suspicion. But with Zhang Yun’s million-dollar century-old ginseng serving as a precedent, their discovery was nothing unusual. If one person could dig one up, and two or three others could also find some—whether they were roots of century-old ginseng or ones around a decade old—it proved that there was still ginseng on Bijia Mountain! Perhaps after a few years of ecological recovery, they had grown significantly again?

As everyone engaged in heated discussions, some proactive individuals, afraid of being beaten to the punch, ignored the midday heat and headed straight into the mountains!

It was still early after lunch, and Zhang Yun didn’t know where to go to kill time. He rode his motorcycle around the streets for a few laps, hoping to run into Ms. Yang Xiaoyun, but had no luck. The town only had a few streets, and there wasn’t much to wander around.

He thought, ”To the internet cafe!”

Zhang Yun thought of a good place. There was a large internet cafe near the town middle school, which the school utterly detested. Many boarding students or those with strict parents would go there to browse the internet. Its customers were mainly students from the town middle school; as one batch graduated, another would arrive, ensuring a steady stream of business.

Now that Zhang Yun was grown up and his dad no longer managed his affairs, he didn’t need to sneak out to internet cafes and rarely went anymore.

He drove his motorcycle over. Before he even reached the middle school, he saw the familiar ”Storm Internet Cafe” sign.

”Ten yuan for five hours, or twenty for the combo,” the administrator said without looking up.

Zhang Yun took a look and realized that the so-called combo just included two cans of Red Bull.

”Twenty,” Zhang Yun said, scanning the QR code himself.

The administrator immediately activated a computer card for him. Zhang Yun glanced around. The internet cafe was less than a third full. Half of the patrons were youngsters—either students or dropouts—while there were also some in their thirties.

The environment and atmosphere were very familiar, but for some reason, Zhang Yun no longer felt the same excitement he used to have when going to an internet cafe.

After playing a few rounds of games, he decided to find a movie to kill time. He checked the folders and found that they were all locally downloaded high-definition movies, though he didn’t find any of those specific types of ”action movies.”

”Hey!”

A teenager suddenly appeared beside him and impolitely cracked open his unopened can of Red Bull to take a swig.

”Are you looking for me?” Zhang Yun took off his headphones and looked at the boy, who seemed like a middle school dropout.

”Is that new motorcycle parked over there yours?”

”Yes,” Zhang Yun nodded. ”What’s wrong?”

”Your bike was stolen! I think I saw you come in earlier, so I came to tell you. Drinking a can of your Red Bull isn’t too much to ask, right?”

Zhang Yun could no longer sit still. He got up and hurriedly walked out of the internet cafe.

He cursed inwardly, ”I haven’t even ridden it a few times, and it’s already been stolen? Stealing a bike on the main street in broad daylight?”

There were electric bikes, bicycles, and motorcycles in the parking area outside the Storm Internet Cafe, but with a single sweep of his eyes, Zhang Yun didn’t see his new motorcycle.

The boy followed him out, leisurely drinking the Red Bull.

Zhang Yun looked at him. ”You know who stole my bike. You’re here to pass on a message for them!”