Chapter 65: Am I Really That Petty?

Chapter 65: Chapter 65: Am I Really That Petty?

Zhang Yun was teasing her on purpose. Seeing her yield gave him a thrill; he didn’t feel awkward at all.

"Didn’t you just experience it? Be a good girl and listen to your big brother, and I’ll gladly help you out!"

"Cut the crap!" Gu Ming’er puffed her cheeks in anger. "I already called you that. Now figure something out!"

"Called me what?" Zhang Yun asked quickly.

"Big brother..." Gu Ming’er glared at him.

Zhang Yun laughed. "See? Say it a few more times and it rolls right off the tongue."

He walked straight over and, before Gu Ming’er could even react, pushed the car right back onto the road!

"How... how did you do that?" Gu Ming’er was absolutely dumbfounded.

A small sedan weighed over a ton at least, yet he had simply pushed it!

Zhang Yun clapped the dust off his hands. "I’m strong, but I’m not Superman. I didn’t push the whole car, just shifted the front by a couple of feet. If I hadn’t been worried about damaging your bumper, I could have just lifted it over."

It sounded easy, but no normal person could do it. Zhang Yun had just used the opportunity to test the limits of his current strength.

"A-Are you even human?"

Gu Ming’er stammered a little. Pushing a car sideways like that involved not just the vehicle’s weight, but also the friction of the tires. It was infinitely harder than pushing it forward along the wheels!

Zhang Yun stared at her with a half-smile. "So, don’t offend me, otherwise..."

Before Gu Ming’er could react, he grabbed her by the waist and, amidst her yelp of surprise, effortlessly hoisted her into the air.

"Y-You..." Gu Ming’er glared at him, furious and humiliated. Thank goodness no one else was around to see this.

"Haha, I got dust on my hands from pushing the car just now, but they’re perfectly clean now."

Laughing, Zhang Yun hopped onto his motorcycle.

"???"

Gu Ming’er was completely thrown off!

Zhang Yun, could you be any more outrageous?! He hadn’t grabbed her just to take advantage of her; he had actually wiped the dirt from his hands onto her clothes!

Furious, Gu Ming’er pointed at him. "Don’t you dare run if you have the guts! Come over here and see if I don’t beat you!"

"Drive safely now, don’t fall into a ditch again." Zhang Yun’s motorcycle zoomed past her, and he made a show of reaching out to pinch her cheek.

Startled, Gu Ming’er quickly ducked. By the time she looked back, he was already far down the road.

By the time she huffed angrily, got back into her car, and gave chase, Zhang Yun had disappeared down some unknown dirt path. She had no choice but to let it go.

"Zhang Yun! You’ve struck it rich!"

"Where did you dig up that ginseng? Take your uncle along next time!"

"Zhang Yun, I have a niece about your age..."

As he rode down the farm tracks, familiar faces from the village greeted him with fervent enthusiasm. Zhang Yun could only laugh and give vague, polite replies.

"What’s going on? How did everyone find out?" Zhang Fu immediately lowered his voice and asked when he saw his son. He firmly believed that wealth shouldn’t be flaunted. Unless one was a government official or a prominent businessman, it was best to keep a low profile.

Zhang Yun briefly explained the situation. "Who would have thought they’d bring an entire suitcase full of cash? Even Dean Zhang was completely stunned by them."

Zhang Fu looked a little worried. "Now that word is out, I’m afraid a lot of people will come to borrow money..."

"Now that word is out, won’t there also be more people wanting to introduce me to potential wives?" Zhang Yun joked in a hushed tone. "When the time comes, I’ll just say I need the money to get married, and to find myself a stepmother."

"Get out of here! Have you no respect for your elders?" Zhang Fu slapped him on the arm.

Zhang Yun turned serious. "You’re not good at saying no, so just push it all onto me. Just tell them that the money I earned is with me, and they have to ask me if they want to borrow any."

Zhang Fu nodded, then urged him, "You have to stand your ground, too! Don’t be soft-hearted and give in the moment someone asks."

"Don’t worry!"

It took many trips to haul all the harvested paddy rice back home. They still had one more plot to harvest, so they left the threshing machine out in the field.

While Zhang Fu busied himself with making lunch, Zhang Yun took advantage of the bright sun to dry the grains.

In the past, when the village’s living conditions were poorer, there used to be a designated communal plot of land specifically for drying grains. Everyone would carry their harvest to the threshing floor, spread it out in a thin layer, and turn it over with bamboo rakes. Because everyone dried their grains so close together, they had to make marks to prevent their crops from getting mixed up.

Paddy rice couldn’t be fully dried in a single day. By evening, they would have to gather it back into piles and cover it with plastic sheets to prevent the dew from soaking it. Whenever there was a sudden shower and dark clouds rolled in, everyone had to drop whatever they were doing, sprint to the threshing floor, and quickly gather and cover their grains so they wouldn’t get drenched.

Later on, when people built new houses, they all included courtyards with smooth, flat concrete floors so they could dry their grains right at their own front doors.

Zhang Yun had just poured the grains out of the woven sacks when a crowd of people suddenly rushed over to help!

They were all neighbors from the village who had come to fish for information about the ginseng. Seeing Zhang Yun drying his grains, they conveniently offered to help so they could start asking questions.

"Actually, there is still ginseng around Bijia Mountain, but it’s just very hard to find. I was over there farming fish, and since I was bored, I just wandered around.

"Of course, it still depends on luck. Sometimes you might stumble upon them back-to-back, and other times you might not find a single one for months."

The information Zhang Yun revealed left everyone deeply disappointed.

That was essentially saying nothing at all! Forget about several months—no one had the time to waste even a few weeks blindly searching. They just wanted to know a general location so they could all go dig.

"Yun, you’ve found a spot with a patch of ginseng, haven’t you? It must be somewhere no one has ever been before."

"You aren’t keeping it all to yourself, are you? You’ve already made millions; the least you could do is let us ride your coattails and make a few hundred."

Hearing their sour words, Zhang Yun laughed. "I told you there’s gold dust out there, and that if you pan for it slowly, you’ll eventually have a chance to find gold. But you don’t believe me; you just want me to give you the exact coordinates."

"We’re all from the same village here. Since you’ve already found the spot, are you really going to make us stumble around blindly?"

"Why not just tell us directly? You’re afraid we’ll dig it all up, aren’t you?"

"You can’t be that stingy, right?"

"That’s right! I am exactly that stingy!" Zhang Yun responded cheerfully. "Anyone is welcome to go panning for gold! But if I already know where the ready-made gold is, why on earth would I tell anyone else?"

His bluntness instantly made things awkward. They immediately stopped helping him dry his grains and walked away, murmuring among themselves.

"How can anyone act like that? Hmph, hogging everything to himself!"

"He’s already made millions—maybe tens of millions—all by himself, and he’s still refusing to share. He’s going to get struck by lightning for being so greedy..."

"Forget it! I said from the start that he wouldn’t tell us. We were just too naive."

If it were Zhang Fu, he probably wouldn’t have been able to bear the shame of hearing such words. Zhang Yun, on the other hand, didn’t care in the slightest. He thoroughly enjoyed their envy, jealousy, and resentment!

He didn’t mind treating them to a meal, but they wanted century-old ginseng? Who did they think they were? What favors had they ever done for him? Besides, Zhang Yun’s ginseng came from the Peach Blossom Spring Space; he couldn’t point out a spot for them even if he wanted to.

Zhang Fu had pricked up his ears in the kitchen and heard everything. Over lunch, he couldn’t help but fret, "You’ve offended them all. They’ll be gossiping about you behind your back now."

Zhang Yun chuckled softly. "I can still dig up century-old ginseng. Between people gossiping about me and handing out free money to them, which would you choose?"

Zhang Fu said decisively, "Son! Be brave! Who isn’t gossiped about? Who doesn’t gossip? Only a mediocrity doesn’t attract envy!"

"Now that’s the spirit..." Zhang Yun was interrupted before he could finish.

"Stop eating! Hurry up and leave!"

"Huh?"