TWWMABMTBH Chapter 67

【Depression Value 1000】

The system accurately provided the old man’s emotional value.

The system was a bit surprised: It’s only 1000!

Rong Ziyan: The old man is old, after all, he’s seen big scenes.

What do you mean?

The system thought for a while before it realized, what the hell big scenes, isn’t this a roundabout way of saying the old man is thick-skinned?

Rong Ziyan’s dog is really hopeless. The system could hardly recall the little Dr. Rong, who looked extraordinarily calm, intelligent, and appreciative of his blessings when they first met.

Rong Ziyan sighed: Life is not easy, people always have to grow.

System: …

Once again shut down to the point of being introverted, the system decided to break off communication with the dog Rong for three minutes.

As for this elementary school-level fighting “revenge” method, Rong Ziyan was already used to it and did not want to coax it.

And the village chief’s son, under his father’s beating, finally braved the night to pick two good-looking melons from the field.

Rong Ziyan took the melons, and then followed the village chief to the only guesthouse in the village.

Besides the factory that regularly buys ducks, there were rarely any outsiders staying in the small village.

Therefore, the standard of the village guesthouse was very simple, even the mosquito coils and quilts were carried over by the village chief from his own home.

“Conditions are limited, don’t mind it.” Having seen Rong Ziyan’s abilities, the village chief didn’t dare to underestimate this young man who was not even as old as his own son, and his tone was also more respectful.

Rong Ziyan, however, shook the Erguotou liquor he didn’t know where he got from, and said in the village chief’s local accent, “Old man, wanna have a drink together?”

The village chief was stunned for a moment, and then couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

“Today I’ll have a drink with you, young man. Don’t have wobbly legs and can’t get up tomorrow!”

【Joy Value 2000】

System: Huh? The old man’s emotions are also very high.

Rong Ziyan: Yes, he asked me to drink, and I’m also very high-spirited.

System: …

Putting aside the banter, after ending the mental conversation, Rong Ziyan and the village chief indeed sat down and had a good drink together.

Friendship between people is that simple, no matter how awkward the initial meeting was, as long as you have a drink at the same table, you can immediately build a relationship.

Although Rong Ziyan is young and his words sometimes left people speechless, because he was very upright and straightforward, he unexpectedly easily clicked with people.

The village chief was in a state of pain and happiness at the moment.

However, the two were not only talking about useless things, but mainly about the ducks in the village.

On the surface, the epidemic was under control, but the recovery period after the epidemic was long and difficult.

“Hey, little Rong, you can call me uncle, and I won’t try to trick you. You don’t know those bastards, they always nitpicked when they were buying ducks. Now that they see the ducks are all shaky, I’m afraid they are going to haggle fiercely.”

“The harvest in the fields isn’t good this year either, I don’t know how everyone will get through the winter!” After a glass of wine, every word the village chief said was full of bitterness.

By the time Rong Ziyan saw the village chief off, the old man was leaning on his son, staggering, with his eyes a little red.

“Go back slowly, take care of your father.”

“Okay, Dr. Rong, don’t worry.” The village chief’s son thought for a moment and added, “My dad is old, he doesn’t think before he speaks. Don’t take it to heart. The ducks could be cured, our whole village is very grateful to you.”

“This is what I should do.” Rong Ziyan shook his head, and after sending the two of them away with a lamp, he did not immediately go back to the room.

Although it was summer, it was quite cool at night.

Old Wu quickly gave Rong Ziyan his coat, and he stood beside Rong Ziyan.

“Don’t worry, rural areas are like this. There are good harvests and bad harvests, the epidemic is so serious, the country will also provide some compensation. There will definitely be a way.”

Rong Ziyan sighed, “It’s not very optimistic. A large-scale epidemic has occurred on a farm. Even if it’s cured, it will still have that reputation. Even if the duck disease is cured immediately now, they are selling meat ducks, and this quarter’s profit is destined to be in vain.”

Rong Ziyan spoke too clearly, and Old Wu didn’t know what to say for a while.

Rong Ziyan turned to look at him, “Brother Wu, you are from the city, right?”

“Ah, yes.” Old Wu nodded.

He came from a working-class family, and later, against his nature, insisted on joining the army. His family couldn’t persuade him, and they thought the status of a soldier was quite good. After he was demobilized, he was assigned to a security company. After being taken by Ji Shu, he had been helping Ji Shu openly and secretly.

If it weren’t for coming to protect Rong Ziyan, he really wouldn’t have been to the countryside.

Rong Ziyan smiled, “I am a native of the village.”

“However, the village where I grew up mainly relied on crops. One year, there was very little rain, and the whole family, even my four-year-old cousin, had to carry small buckets to compete for water with the rest of the village.”

“The country paid a lot of attention and arranged artificial rain and a series of measures. But natural disasters are natural disasters. That winter was particularly difficult.”

“What happened later?”

“Later…” Rong Ziyan paused, “It’s a new era, not an old society, every family has savings, and there is no such thing as starving people to death. At most, they will just have a harder time.”

“But this disaster took three full years to completely ease, and the following years of good weather were also a mercy from God.”

“Sir, are you worried about the livelihoods of the villagers?” Old Wu used honorifics subconsciously.

Rong Ziyan shook his head, “It’s late, go back to sleep. Tomorrow I’ll have to go to that farther farm to take a look.”

After saying that, he went back to his room.

But lying in bed, Rong Ziyan couldn’t fall asleep.

The system wanted to comfort him, but couldn’t find the words.

Just now, during Rong Ziyan and Old Wu’s conversation, the system unintentionally glimpsed a special childhood memory from a crack in Rong Ziyan’s defenses.

It was dark and extremely oppressive.

Rong Ziyan was a post-90s, and at that time in China, even in cities, computers were not completely popular. A 386 and a Nokia blue screen were enough to flaunt the family’s wealth.

But for Lujia Village at that time, the yield of food in the fields represented their quality of life for the coming year.

Therefore, that year’s drought brought real hardship and poverty to Rong Ziyan’s family.

Endless arguments at the dinner table were all about which of the three children could continue to go to school after the spring.

Nine years of compulsory education, Lujia Village was not that poor. But even so, the tuition fee of two or three hundred yuan a year and the textbook fee of dozens of yuan still made this big family struggle.

Later that winter, after the field work ended, Rong Ziyan’s father carried heavy luggage into the city to work on a construction site.

He didn’t even come back for New Year’s Eve, just to ensure that his children could complete their studies smoothly.

The system always knew that Rong Ziyan had a terrifying obsession with learning. It even had the illusion sometimes that the Heavenly Path finally chose Rong Ziyan, perhaps not because Rong Ziyan was unlucky, but because Rong Ziyan could go to any length for scientific research, including his life.

But in the memory images, the cold dinner table with only his mother on New Year’s Eve and the sarcasm of his grandparents made him understand that Rong Ziyan was not a true academic madman, he was just carrying too much.

And Rong Ziyan, as the top scorer in the college entrance examination, finally chose an agricultural university. Perhaps, putting aside all the attempts at concealment, the root cause was just the unforgettable fear brought to him by that natural disaster.

Such as the dispersal of family members, such as the panic-stricken hearts.

The villagers work with their backs to the loess and rely entirely on the generosity of nature for their livelihood. Rong Ziyan never hoped for the luck of a pie falling from the sky. He only wished that he could alleviate their crises. At the very least, once natural disasters strike, these villagers would still have food to eat and be able to survive until the prosperous harvest of good weather.

And this, perhaps, was the best explanation Rong Ziyan, as a son, could give to his deceased parents.

The system suddenly felt so uncomfortable, but Rong Ziyan suddenly said a sentence to him, “Don’t cry.”

System: …

Rong Ziyan: My father once told me a sentence, he said, everything will pass.

System: What does that mean?

Rong Ziyan: It probably means that no matter how difficult it is now, once you get through it, it will get better.

When Rong Ziyan was a child, he especially liked a wild flower in the yard.

He watched over it for a long time, but it was dug out by his uncle and thrown on the ground. Rong Ziyan cried for a long time at that time.

Later, when his father came back from the fields and saw it, he picked up a broken bowl that others didn’t want and used it as a flower pot, planted the flower in it, and placed it at Rong Ziyan’s bedside.

After about three or four days, the flower’s leaves were refreshed and new buds appeared.

Rong Ziyan still remembered that his father said to himself at the time, “People are also like these wild flowers and weeds. They look sickly and crooked, but they can actually endure!”

“It doesn’t matter if they fall for a while, take it slowly, life can always go on, and it will always get better and better.”

Rong Ziyan just remembered his father’s words, and he slowly struggled out of the sadness of his parents’ death, steadily moving forward step by step, making himself taller and refining his heart to be stronger.

But tonight, in this similar small mountain village, Rong Ziyan suddenly felt a little homesick.

But he, in fact, had no home long ago.

He couldn’t… think any further. Rong Ziyan forcibly closed his eyes, emptied his mind, and let himself fall asleep. There were things to do tomorrow, and he had no time to indulge himself.

Perhaps it was because of some thoughts at night that Rong Ziyan didn’t sleep well all night.

When he got up early the next morning, he was a bit listless. But after washing his face, he quickly entered work mode.

As expected, just as Rong Ziyan had guessed, the situation was even worse at the farther farm. To make matters worse, they ran into the person in charge of the factory that bought the meat ducks. It was not the one who usually came, but said to be the younger brother of the factory owner. With a potbelly, two thick gold chains around his neck, and a pair of gaudy sunglasses on the back of his head, he acted as if the world could not contain him.

At this moment, he was pointing at the ducks in a pompous manner, “We understand about the natural disasters. But our factory is also responsible to the diners.”

“No matter if you can cure them or not, we definitely won’t want the sick ducks.” These words were very reasonable, and even the villagers had nothing to say.

But this person was aggressive, nitpicking about the problems with the ducks on one hand. Even after the city veterinarian had ensured that they could be cured and fully recovered, he was still rambling on and on.

Until the end, when the person in the village responsible for negotiations was also confused, he finally revealed his true purpose.

“We can take these sick ducks, but we can only buy them at the price of ducklings.”

“Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t sell them to us. It will be considered a breach of contract. Your village needs to compensate our factory for the losses.”

The price of ducklings? That was no different from giving them away for free. Rong Ziyan felt that this was wrong when he heard this, and turned to ask the village chief, “Did they pay in advance?”

The village chief nodded.

Rong Ziyan was surprised, “Did you not mark on the contract how to handle it if you encounter a major epidemic?”

The village chief also had a sad face, “Who would have thought, our village is doing this for the first time.”

So to put it bluntly, they were mostly deceived by this factory.

Even Luo Xia frowned now.

At this time, the one who bought the ducks picked up a breeder duck with a look of disdain, “These animals, once they get sick, they are worthless.”

When he said this, his eyes fell very impolitely on the villagers around him, as if he was saying, “People are the same, they are no different from ducks.”

The atmosphere suddenly became embarrassing.

Just then, Rong Ziyan suddenly laughed, “Then be careful not to get diarrhea, otherwise, your big gold chains will also be devalued.”

The man immediately turned to look at Rong Ziyan and said sharply, “What are you doing? What do you mean by that?”

“A veterinarian from Beijing.” Rong Ziyan pointed to the duck in his hand and said innocently, “Ducks are so delicious, why do you look down on ducks?”