TWWMABMTBH Chapter 3

“…” The proprietress was momentarily silent.

After all, this small restaurant was located in the village, and she often bought vegetables and eggs from the villagers. However, this was the first time someone had brought salted duck eggs.

The proprietress didn’t say anything, and after thinking for a moment, she readily agreed.

Mainly, she figured that Rong Ziyan was now the veterinarian at the village’s animal husbandry station, and her own family also raised two pigs, one cow, and many chickens. Therefore, maintaining a good relationship with Rong Ziyan was very important.

However, the price still needed to be discussed carefully. The village was not like the city. Their village was used to raising ducks, and although salted duck eggs were a little more expensive than chicken eggs, they were not a rare food. Her small shop was tiny, and she didn’t know how long it would take to sell Rong Ziyan’s basket of salted duck eggs.

After thinking it over, she said a price, “Dr. Xiao Rong, how about we start with one yuan per egg? I won’t take advantage of you. I’ll sell them for one yuan each in my shop. If they sell well later, we can raise the price.”

This was a common practice for small eateries. If someone brought in cooked food to sell, they would start with a low price and then adjust the price based on customer feedback.

The proprietress and her family were honest people, and they had a good reputation in the village. Rong Ziyan knew this very well and agreed straightforwardly.

“Thank you.” Rong Ziyan thanked her, put the thirty yuan in his pocket, and turned back to the animal husbandry station.

The village chief had indeed taken people to Xiaowang Village to demand an explanation, but Rong Ziyan’s work was not yet finished. After lunch, he still had to separate and cultivate the blood drawn from the sick ducks in order to do the final testing.

Rong Ziyan was really calm. After entering the animal husbandry station, he changed his clothes and went to wash his hands to eat lunch. However, the system couldn’t help but wail.

This was a draw from the Heavenly Path! But after thirty draws, he had only earned thirty yuan. This inexplicable feeling of cheapness made the system even more desperate. It even suspected that it was not some Golden Finger provided to Rong Ziyan by the Heavenly Path, but just something there for comedic effect.

System: I might be useless.

Rong Ziyan comforted it: Don’t be sad, thirty yuan is still money! We can pay off some debt.

As he spoke, Rong Ziyan casually transferred thirty yuan to the high-interest loan’s Alipay account, with the note: Repayment.

Half a minute later, Rong Ziyan received a notification: [High-interest loan anger value +1000].

Rong Ziyan: So young, such a temper.

The system was speechless, thinking that Rong Ziyan might receive an angry verbal abuse from the loan shark soon.

However, to its surprise, the loan shark, who usually sent threatening messages to Rong Ziyan, did not react for a long time this time. It was obvious that he was so angry that he was too weak to even think of what to say.

After all, he had been in the business for so many years, and he had never seen a weirdo like Rong Ziyan. He owed two hundred thousand yuan, and he made his first repayment with 30 yuan. Even beggars would get more than that!

As for not calling to yell, it was because Rong Ziyan had always been cautious. The loan shark didn’t dare to talk to him directly, fearing that Rong Ziyan would record it and leave some evidence. That was also why he could only threaten him with messages that would be deleted after being read.

Therefore, after thinking about this, the loan shark soon provided Rong Ziyan with another 500+ anger points.

The system was also confused by Rong Ziyan’s bizarre operation. But Rong Ziyan himself was quite comfortable. He used the thousand gold coins provided by the loan shark and did another single draw. A salted duck egg appeared in his right hand on cue. Rong Ziyan opened his lunchbox, which contained a bowl of fried rice.

Rong Ziyan cracked open the salted duck egg, poked the egg white with his chopsticks, and the red oil with the unique aroma of salted egg yolk immediately flowed out. Rong Ziyan dug out the salted egg yolk, spread it on the fried rice, and took a bite. The mellow and savory taste was a perfect companion for the rice.

Accompanied by the loan shark’s sporadic anger points, Rong Ziyan ate even more happily. He felt that the system lottery was actually quite good.

The loan shark harassed him every day. Before the truth came out, he would give him a hard time as a form of interest.

That’s right, Rong Ziyan did it on purpose.

At this time, the small restaurant was also welcoming its first wave of customers for lunch.

Villagers always chatted while eating. Today, they were naturally talking about the duck sickness incident in Xiaowang Village.

“Hey, the village chief and the others haven’t returned yet. I really had something to do this morning, otherwise, I would have gone to see the excitement.”

“Who hasn’t? We’re all neighbors who rely on the land for food. It’s really inhumane to deliberately bring the disease to our village!”

Those who hadn’t gone with the village chief to Xiaowang Village were all gathered together, guessing what might be happening there.

As they talked about the duck sickness, someone’s gaze fell on the basket of salted duck eggs placed on the side table.

“I say, proprietress, our ducks are sick, is it okay for you to sell duck eggs!”

“Don’t worry! These were sent by Dr. Xiao Rong.” The proprietress smiled and vouched for Rong Ziyan. She had not doubted the safety of Rong Ziyan’s basket of salted duck eggs for a moment, since Rong Ziyan himself was the first to notice that the ducks were sick.

How could the salted duck eggs sent by the doctor be sick!

Clearly, the villagers were simple and thought the same as the proprietress.

The person who had just asked the question casually picked up a salted duck egg and returned to his seat, saying, “I’ll take one! Today is my lucky day. I have to taste it properly. The salted duck eggs from a top student must be different.”

As he spoke, he cracked open the salted duck egg. The red oil oozed out, and he quickly brought his mouth up to take a sip. His taste buds were instantly captured by the savory flavor that exploded on his tongue. The man was stunned for a moment, a strange feeling rising in his heart.

Rong Ziyan’s salted duck egg, although delicious, was different from the exquisite taste of restaurants. It was more like a homemade dish, which reminded him of his grandmother.

They, this generation, had experienced the three years of famine and the reform and opening up. They had grown up in the village and were all free-range kids.

At that time, life wasn’t too wealthy. Being able to eat meat was only during festivals. Getting a salted duck egg usually meant he had done well on an exam. His grandmother would be happy and would pull one out of the jar for him.

The cold sorghum rice congee, chilled by well water, paired with a salted duck egg with red oil. Every bite was the ultimate happiness and was the purest affection from the elders for the younger generation.

It was a pity that he hadn’t tasted such a flavor for a long time.

Thinking this, the man’s eyes turned a little red. He silently finished the rice in his bowl and immediately went back to the proprietress, saying that he wanted to buy ten more salted duck eggs to take home.

Salted duck eggs were not anything new. Every family would pickle two every now and then. It was not necessary to buy so many just to eat.

This man’s attitude drew the attention of many people in the shop.

Seeing that half of the salted duck eggs in the basket had been sold, curious people quickly followed suit and bought one. They were also immediately amazed by the taste.

“Dr. Xiao Rong’s skills are too good!”

“Even my grandmother doesn’t pickle them with such a pure flavor!”

“Putting aside everything else, it’s so hot now, and salted duck eggs are great with rice. After eating, I feel comfortable all over, not restless at all.”

Rong Ziyan had only drawn thirty in total, and these few villagers had bought them all.

In the end, the proprietress saw that the situation was getting too exaggerated, so she quickly grabbed the last one.

While they were eating, the village chief had returned with his people. The proprietress’s husband came in and couldn’t help but laugh when he saw his wife holding a duck egg.

“Is this some treasure? You’re holding it so tightly.” The proprietress’s husband teased his wife.

The proprietress quickly pushed him, “Stop it. Dr. Xiao Rong just sent these over. They were all crazy for them at noon today. Everyone who tasted them wanted to take more.”

“Really?” The husband also thought it was amazing after hearing this.

Coincidentally, he was hungry after following the village chief all around. So he went to the kitchen to get some food and shared the salted duck egg with his wife.

Sure enough, it was delicious. The most important thing was that it was really comfortable after eating, as if all the worries had been suppressed.

Summer was the hottest time. Eating one was more comfortable than eating ice pops in an air-conditioned room.

“I say, wife, if we sold this kind of salted duck egg at our breakfast stand in the county, do you think the business would…”

“It would definitely improve!” The proprietress’s eyes lit up, and she thought that her husband’s suggestion was very reliable. The most important thing was, if they sold it in the county, they could sell one salted duck egg for at least two yuan!

The county was different from the village. There were more people who had fixed jobs in the county, so there were more people who came out for breakfast. The two of them usually got up early to push their cart to the county to sell breakfast. But recently, some of their regular customers had been pulled away by other stalls.

Therefore, after tasting Rong Ziyan’s salted duck eggs, the couple had an idea of discussing cooperation with Rong Ziyan.

So, in the evening, they went to find Rong Ziyan.

Rong Ziyan had just come out of the lab.

“Is there something?”

The two explained their intentions.

Rong Ziyan was momentarily silent. It wasn’t that he couldn’t do business, but the main thing was that these salted duck eggs weren’t something that he could just have anytime.

“Dr. Xiao Rong, you wouldn’t just have that one basket of salted duck eggs, would you!” The couple immediately became a little anxious.

“It’s not that there are none.” It’s just that the system draws depended on gold coins. Rong Ziyan thought about how to provide a stable supply of goods.

“!!!” The couple’s eagerness value directly topped 1000. Rong Ziyan casually reached into his pocket, and another duck egg appeared.

Rong Ziyan subconsciously handed the duck egg to them, “I mainly only have one left now.”

“…” The wife took the salted duck egg with a wooden face. The scene was extremely awkward.

At this time, another notification flashed in the system message, [High-interest loan anger value +17].

It couldn’t be seen, but this guy was quite sentimental. Half a day had passed, and he was still angry.

Rong Ziyan couldn’t help but laugh.

The couple looked at each other and laughed, too. “Dr. Xiao Rong is really a jokester.”

The three of them discussed it, and Rong Ziyan could send the pickled duck eggs to them directly. This time, they decided to buy them at two yuan each.

The boss was also an interesting person. Before leaving, he gave Rong Ziyan thirty yuan, which meant he was making up for this time.

If it was someone sensitive, they would probably feel like the boss was cursing them. Rong Ziyan accepted it openly.

System: Host, shouldn’t normal long-term supply relationships involve refusing payment out of friendship?

Rong Ziyan replied calmly: I thought that trade was just a cold monetary transaction.

So reasonable, no rebuttal possible. The system went silent again, watching Rong Ziyan open his Alipay account and transfer another 30 yuan to the loan shark’s account.

[High-interest loan anger value 2000]

Okay, Rong Ziyan was now sure that the loan shark had indeed been driven crazy by him.

Thus, Rong Ziyan, in a good mood, put on his lab coat again, intending to return to the lab to work overtime and continue observing the separated virus.

At this time, the loan shark was about to explode.

In a barbecue restaurant in Beijing, the loan shark stood up with a beer bottle in hand after receiving the Alipay notification.

“I’ll kill that bastard, don’t stop me, I’ll kill him!”