Chapter 459: True Affection in Hardship

Amina had been frugal, pinching pennies wherever she could. Plus, she hadn’t touched any of the jewelry Zeke Walton had given her in the past. So when she gathered everything together, she surprisingly had around a hundred thousand in savings.

Zeke Walton was stunned, and at the same time, deeply moved.

‘No wonder people always say you should marry a frugal and diligent woman,’ he thought. ‘They really come through in a crisis.’

A used car wouldn’t cost that much. Zeke Walton took two of the gold bracelets he had bought for Amina and headed out.

He went to Veridia’s largest wholesale fruit market to find the distribution manager. The man had been his subordinate just a few days ago, so finding him was easy.

Zeke Walton didn’t beat around the bush. He said bluntly that he had fallen on hard times, didn’t have any work, and wanted to join the manager’s fleet to do some small-time fruit reselling. He asked him to make things convenient.

The distribution manager was surprised but agreed without hesitation.

He was surprised that this wealthy young master, already in his mid-twenties, was still playing at running away from home.

He had agreed so readily because he knew Zeke Walton was the sole son of the Walton Family. Not to mention how wildly popular the website Zeke himself had founded was, his parents’ business empire in Veridia was also quite substantial.

A young man having a spat with his family and running off for a few days would have to go back sooner or later. He would always be Young Mr. Walton; that was an indisputable fact.

‘If I help him out while he’s down on his luck, I’ll definitely be rewarded when he gets his status back.’

Zeke Walton knew the distribution manager was a smart man. He clapped him on the shoulder, said thanks, and then added.

“But I don’t have a car or much money. Do you have any decent used cars here? Recommend one to me, I want to buy one.”

The distribution manager quickly replied, “President Walton, you’re treating me like a stranger. What’s our relationship? Do you really need to buy one? I’ve got plenty of cars. See which one you like and just take it. Talking about buying one… isn’t that just a slap in my face?”

Zeke Walton knew the distribution manager was clever and knew what he was plotting. He smiled and said.

“I’d better buy one. What if I scratch or dent it?”

“It’s just a beat-up used car. So what if it gets totaled? If you keep being so polite, you’re looking down on me.”

Zeke Walton thought it over and figured it was fine. He didn’t even know if he could make a go of this business yet, and spending tens of thousands right off the bat was risky. At worst, he’d just owe the manager a favor.

After he picked a car, the distribution manager enthusiastically had him shadow a delivery run for half a day, explaining all the rules. That very night at 1:00 AM, Zeke Walton got up, started the car, and joined the fruit-hauling crew.

This wholesale fruit market had partnerships with seasonal fruit growers all over the country. The freshly picked fruit was transported by drivers to various parts of the nation.

The distribution manager looked out for Zeke Walton. He didn’t assign him the job of hauling and delivering fruit. Instead, he had him haul fruit back at wholesale prices and then sell it at market price to a few of Veridia’s smaller wholesale fruit markets or to markets in the subordinate counties and cities.

Since Zeke Walton only had one vehicle, the manager made things very convenient for him. He couldn’t handle that much work anyway, and he didn’t want to take too much business from others, so he took over the routes for three small, local wholesale fruit markets in Veridia.

From driving to the destination and lining up to load the truck, to hauling it back, unloading at each market, and settling accounts—he left at 1:00 AM and didn’t get home until after 8:00 PM.

He sweated through his clothes again and again until they were sour with the stench. Zeke Walton was so exhausted his arms and legs felt like they were filled with lead, but he was happy.

When he got home, Amina smelled him—he reeked as if he had just been pulled out of a dumpster—and her heart ached for him.

As she brought a towel to wipe him down, Zeke Walton, in high spirits, went over the day’s earnings with her.

He explained how many tons of fruit were in the truckload, the purchase and sale price for each type, and how, after deducting all expenses, he had earned over two thousand from this single run.

‘Over two thousand? If he can earn this much every day, won’t they make tens of thousands a month? That’s hundreds of thousands a year!’

Although it couldn’t compare to Zeke Walton’s previous business ventures, for Amina, and for them in their current situation, it was a pleasant surprise and a very good path forward.

“This is great, Zeke! You’re amazing! You’re really so amazing!”

Zeke Walton basked in Amina’s adoration, his mind buzzing with plans for the future.

“This is just the beginning. I was thinking the whole way back. I’ll offer the distribution manager a bigger cut—we can’t just freeload off him—and ask him for a few more markets. I’ll hire a few drivers, add a few more trucks, and even if I only clear a few hundred per day from them, our income will multiply. Or, after a while, I could sign contracts directly with the orchard owners…”

In short, as long as you don’t give up, life is full of opportunities.

And so, Zeke Walton began his busy routine of leaving early and returning late, and a week flew by.

Within that week, everyone in the fleet had heard about the existence of this incredible young master.

“Fuck, is he a damn lunatic? His family’s so rich, he’s got a fortune of hundreds of billions to inherit, but he runs over here to fight with us for scraps. Did he get his head slammed in a door?”

“What do you know? The guy’s a crown prince slumming it. He says he fought with his old man and ran away, but who knows what he’s really plotting. Don’t forget, we used to supply their website. In a roundabout way, you could say he was our boss before. Better to just keep your mouth shut.”

“Boss? What boss! You said it yourself, that was in the past! Look at him now, does he look like he’s undercover? I think he really had a falling out with his family. A family like that, they say publicly they only have one son, but how is that possible? It’s true the first wife only had one, but who knows how many others were born in secret. He dared to defy his father? They could dethrone him in a minute and name a new heir. I’d say there’s an eighty percent chance he’s not going back. The manager is taking such good care of him, probably dreaming of living the high life once this guy makes a comeback. It’s ridiculous!”

“The manager has his own plans. In short, as long as it doesn’t stop us from making money, why do you care so much?”

While Zeke Walton wasn’t preventing them from making money, he enjoyed VIP treatment every day.

Priority loading, priority departure, and the wholesale markets he was assigned to were all in better locations. His job was the easiest, and he was the first one to get off work.

Regardless of what he did before, now they were all drivers. Seeing him get better treatment than everyone else, it was inevitable that people would feel resentful.

Most of them had heard about his background, so even though they were unhappy with him, they chose to endure it. But you couldn’t stop the bolder ones; unhappy was unhappy.

They didn’t give a damn, grumbling about it both openly and behind his back.

Zeke Walton could feel their hostility, but he didn’t care.

The men in this line of work were, to a one, rough, old, stinky, and uncultured. They weren’t his kind of people anyway; he didn’t need them to like him.

On the day Zeke Walton completed his first week on the job, it happened to be the fleet’s six-month anniversary as well as the distribution manager’s birthday.

It was a double celebration. The manager had promised long ago to treat the entire fleet to a meal. Zeke Walton wanted to decline, but the manager was insistent.

‘I owe him a favor,’ Zeke Walton thought, ‘so I should probably show up.’ So, he went.