The Fantastic Little Farmer

Chapter 233: Chapter 233: Kneeling to You

”Did that brat look for you? I should’ve taught him a lesson!” Zhang Youcai fumed the moment he heard about it.

Zhang Yun was a bit surprised. ”He looked for you?”

”He did. He said selling it for ten thousand was a loss and he wanted a bit more. He said if you made up the difference so it was ten thousand per piece, he would sell it to you again. I gave him a piece of my mind for being so greedy! Young people these days just idle about without any drive, wanting to reap without sowing. You already gave him ten thousand...”

Zhang Yun interrupted his rant. ”Give me his phone number.”

”Don’t worry! I already scolded him when you weren’t home. If he dares to bother you again, I’ll get someone to warn him!”

Zhang Yun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. From the sound of it, Uncle Cai actually thought the man had been harassing him.

”Would I need someone else to warn him? I could do it myself on the spot. I just want to contact him now to see if he really has another Divine Master Card. Just give me his number!”

Zhang Youcai was stunned. ”You still want to buy more? It’s not worth any money! The two you bought are already dead weight in your hands. There were a lot of people around at the time, and we couldn’t ruin our reputation, so we took a loss to earn some goodwill. There’s no need to give him any more money now; it’s not like he can threaten us with anything.”

Zhang Yun said earnestly, ”I really think that thing is quite unique, and I want to collect a whole set.”

Zhang Youcai was a bit speechless, but he could understand. After all, Zhang Yun had gotten into this on a whim to begin with, so Zhang Youcai figured the young man was also just being greedy and hoping to reap a windfall without effort.

Young people looked down on petty profits; all they could think about was stumbling upon some hidden treasure. Even if the Divine Master Card was a bit ominous, its rarity was enough to give him hope. Since Zhang Yun wasn’t his son or nephew and they merely had a business partnership, Zhang Youcai didn’t have much room to object to the young man spending his own money. After all, it was hard to put a price on something someone truly desired.

”Wait a moment. I didn’t save it, so I’ll find it and send it to you.”

Zhang Yun hung up the phone and hurried out of bed. He hadn’t removed the ladder downstairs yet. But when he went downstairs, he found that the ladder had already been moved. His dad had woken up before him.

”I slept too heavily last night. Did you hear anything? This ladder was propped right up here! Good thing it’s been hot, so we closed the windows to run the AC, or else a thief might have gotten in!” Zhang Fu complained in a hushed voice when he saw his son coming down. He didn’t dare shout about it. Now that their family had a bit of wealth, there might be people coveting it. If word got out, it could inspire copycats, so they had to be careful.

”That ladder...”

”I told you before that we should install burglar bars, but you said it would feel like living in a prison. I’m going to get someone to install them on all the windows soon!”

Zhang Yun hurriedly explained, ”Dad, it was me. I dropped something under the windowsill last night, so I brought a ladder over. It was too late, so I just didn’t move it back.”

Zhang Fu looked at him suspiciously.

”It was really me. The ladder is usually kept in the storage shed over there. I even had to look for it; how could a thief know exactly where it is?”

”Really?”

”Absolutely true.”

Zhang Fu nodded, feeling thankful that he hadn’t loudly complained about it to others; otherwise, it might have provoked copycats even if there hadn’t been an actual thief.

”That Medicinal Wine of yours is so potent. I’ve felt so warm after drinking it these past couple of days, and I’ve been sleeping like a log.”

”But you look quite energetic now, and your condition seems okay. Does your head still hurt?” Zhang Yun focused on the main point.

Then he suddenly remembered that he hadn’t harvested the Fufeng Grass in the middle of the night. He worried that leaving it in the soil until now might have made its medicinal effects too overpowering. When it came to ginseng, twenty years was naturally better than ten, but Fufeng Grass was an annual plant. Zhang Lifeng might not have even seen a ten-year-old one before, so Zhang Yun wondered if bringing him a twenty-year-old stalk would make it impossible for the doctor to gauge its medicinal potency.

”It’s fine. It’s just an old ailment that flares up occasionally, giving me a headache now and then. I’m fine now.”

”We still shouldn’t be careless. I’ll go find Dean Zhang later and ask him to get you some medicine to cure it from the root.”

”Don’t! Favors wear thin the more you use them. Don’t bother him for every little thing; save those connections for when it’s crucial,” Zhang Fu quickly stopped him. His son had only gotten to know Dean Zhang by selling him ginseng, but how often could one dig up old mountain ginseng? The man was a leader at the county hospital and a renowned doctor. Zhang Fu reasoned that if they cashed in a favor for such a minor issue, they would be ignored if they ever needed him for a major problem in the future.

”I know the limits. You make breakfast, and I’ll go feed the fish!”

Zhang Yun hurried over to the fish pond in the mountain hollow, chopped up some fruits and vegetables, and fed the fish. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, he dug up the Fufeng Grass from the Peach Blossom Spring Space. He hadn’t planted much of it, so he simply harvested it all.

When he transplanted it yesterday, he had specifically taken a photo. Now, comparing the two, he found something a bit strange. The difference between a regular one-year-old stalk and this one, which should technically be over a decade old, was minimal—it was just a bit larger. The transformation wasn’t nearly as dramatic as it was with the ginseng.

He wondered if the time-acceleration effect of one hour equaling a year of growth only applied to ginseng, or if different plant species simply underwent different transformations. He zoomed in on the photo to carefully compare the stems and leaves, and then he spotted the difference. The regular tender green stems from yesterday had faintly turned purplish-red.

Seeing this change put his mind at ease. He figured that perhaps once Fufeng Grass reached a certain age, it stopped growing taller and larger indefinitely, and instead began to undergo a qualitative change. However, he would still need to have the old traditional Chinese medicine doctor verify the specifics.

On his way back, Zhang Yun dialed the number Zhang Youcai had sent him, but no one answered.

”Zhang Yun!”

Just as he came out of the mountain hollow, someone called out to stop him. Zhang Yun looked over and saw that it was Li Cuicui’s father, Li Jin.

”Tsk, tsk, blocking my way at the fish pond again? Like father, like daughter,” Zhang Yun couldn’t help but mock. ”What’s the plan this time?”

Li Jin’s old face flushed with embarrassment. ”I’m here to... apologize to you.”

”Apologize?” Zhang Yun looked him up and down.

Li Jin looked uneasy. ”When I went back yesterday, I pressed Cuicui for the truth. She was in the wrong... You didn’t take advantage of her.”

”And so?” Zhang Yun understood now. Gu Ming’er’s lawyer’s warning had done the trick.

Country folks didn’t really understand the law, nor did they fear it, but they were terrified of a bad reputation! Li Jin definitely didn’t believe that his daughter could actually be sued into going to jail or paying compensation, but if she really received a court summons and had to go through a few hearings, she would instantly become the laughingstock of the entire neighborhood!

”Cuicui actually... does like you. Of course, she’s also attracted to your family’s good financial situation, but who doesn’t want to marry into a better life? With this whole thing... Cuicui just believed that while a man chasing a woman is like scaling a mountain, a woman chasing a man is like piercing a veil. So, she took it upon herself to fight for her own happiness.”

Zhang Yun sighed. ”Even so, it would’ve been better if you just sent a matchmaker to my house. Coming over to camp out at my place and claiming I took advantage of her—isn’t that just slandering my innocence?”

Li Jin’s eyes lit up. ”Are you saying we should find a matchmaker...”

”Don’t! I was just making an analogy!” Zhang Yun was terrified of him.

”In any case, our family was in the wrong. Considering Cuicui is a pure unmarried maiden, could you hold off on getting lawyers involved for real? If you do, everyone’s reputation will suffer...”

Zhang Yun chuckled. ”Now you want to talk to me about reputation? Why didn’t you think about ruined reputations when you were busy dragging my name through the mud yesterday?”

”I... I’ll get on my knees for you, alright?” In a panic, Li Jin rushed forward, grabbing onto Zhang Yun and trying to kneel.

Zhang Yun really wanted to kick him away, thinking that Li Jin kneeling wouldn’t do him any damn good. But he ultimately held back. After all, he was now an Eighth Grade, or even Ninth Grade, expert; beating up a rural old man would be far too beneath him. Furthermore, he hated trouble more than anything, and he feared that Li Jin might run over to his house and decide to camp out there next.

”Enough.” Zhang Yun pulled him up. ”Let’s leave the matter at this. Just go.”

Li Jin breathed a sigh of relief. ”Alright! Thank you so much... Oh, right. If you don’t fancy Cuicui, how about I introduce you to her cousin? She’s young, pretty, and educated. If you two hit it off, we could still end up as relatives...”

What a weirdo! Zhang Yun simply bolted away, thinking that absolutely no one would want to be relatives with this man.