Chapter 72: Discussing the Hush Money Again

Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Discussing the Hush Money Again

Leaving Yang Xiaoyun’s house, Zhang Yun rode his bike straight back to the village. Instead of going home, he headed over to the fish pond in the mountain hollow, planning to rest in the wooden cabin for a while and head home after feeding the fish in the evening.

Lying in the cabin, Zhang Yun scrolled through his phone, checking the chat logs in the village’s WeChat group. Since he had last checked it while eating in town, hundreds of new messages had popped up.

Zhang Yun wasn’t interested in most of the content and quickly skimmed past it, but many people had posted pictures. Looking at the photos and the accompanying conversations, he was left speechless.

They were all photos of people going up the mountain to dig for ginseng!

As the news of Zhang Yun digging up a centennial ginseng and selling it for the astronomical price of a million yuan spread, a group of people had already rushed into the mountains. Others were trying to pry the exact location out of him.

Once Auntie Pang posted pictures proving that her group had also dug up ginseng, everyone lost their restraint. Even at high noon, they started heading into the mountains to try their luck. Some also noticed that it wasn’t just people from Tianxin Village; quite a few from Wa Village had heard the news and gone into the mountains, and there were even people from villages further away.

The news had originally spread from Tianxin Village, growing increasingly exaggerated as it was passed along. The involvement of outsiders made the people of Tianxin Village feel like there was free money up for grabs. Since others were coming to snatch it, wouldn’t they be losing out if they didn’t go?

By the afternoon, many people had even stopped harvesting their rice. They put all their farm work on hold and rushed into Bijia Mountain to dig for ginseng.

With so many people, the competition grew fierce, and all sorts of mentalities emerged. Some even had completely opposing ideas:

"The area near the mountain hollow’s fish pond must have been completely scoured by Zhang Yun. We have to go further!"

"The most dangerous place is the safest! Everyone assumes the mountain hollow is already stripped bare, but what if that’s exactly where Zhang Yun found it?"

The hillsides around the fish pond had already been carefully searched by quite a few people.

Zhang Yun didn’t care that this had turned into such a farce, as it wouldn’t affect him anyway. However, a few photos made him furious!

In the past, ginseng diggers only went after those with medicinal value that could be sold for money. The bigger the better; the older, the more valuable. They never dug up the seedlings. Now that everyone was swarming up the mountain, some who couldn’t find mature ginseng weren’t even sparing the seedlings!

This was destroying the ecosystem.

Zhang Yun’s first reaction was to tear into them, but he immediately realized it wasn’t his place to do so. If he popped up in the chat, all the attention would instantly shift to him. He would be bombarded with tags and questions, and it might even backfire: "If you’re telling us not to dig up seedlings, then tell us where the mature ones are! Otherwise, we have no choice but to dig up more seedlings..."

Soon, Zhang Yun calmed down. Had it really been that civilized in the past? Not necessarily! People used to dig for ginseng just as crazily back then, nearly wiping out all the wild ginseng. Surely, there had been people who dug up the seedlings too!

But as long as nature was given time to recover, it would naturally balance the ecosystem, and the plants would slowly grow back. A wildfire couldn’t burn it all away; the spring breeze would blow and bring it back to life!

Zhang Yun couldn’t be bothered to intervene. Let them scour the forests—even a few hundred or a thousand people couldn’t trample the mountain flat.

Seeing that he still had time, Zhang Yun closed his eyes to sleep.

The cabin had wide gaps in its walls, but it blocked out the sun, and with the mountain breeze blowing, it wasn’t hot. Still, Zhang Yun couldn’t fall asleep, his mind constantly replaying certain scenes.

This made him hesitate over whether he should "relieve" himself a bit; entering "sage mode" would clear his mind of all distracting thoughts.

Just then, he heard the sound of brisk footsteps approaching!

Good grief! There was usually barely a soul around here, and he had completely forgotten about his surroundings. If someone barged in while he was halfway through, before he could reach that "sage mode," wouldn’t he die of social embarrassment?

Zhang Yun immediately sat up.

"Zhang Yun!"

"Zhang Yun, are you in the shed? We saw your motorcycle!"

The arrivals had already reached the slope outside, and there was more than one person. Zhang Yun opened the cabin door and saw the same guys who had gone to Old Tomb Ridge with him last night.

"Oh, it’s you guys."

Zhang Long, Bao Sheng, Guang, and Jin Lu didn’t stand on ceremony; they just ducked right in.

"Heh heh! We knew you’d be here. We came to have a drink with you."

They had brought beer, packaged chicken feet, peanuts, and other snacks.

Zhang Yun unceremoniously cracked open a can of beer. "Let me make this clear first. It’s no use coming to me. I only dug up that old ginseng by sheer luck. If I actually knew where there was more, I wouldn’t tell you anyway, right?"

"We knew you’d be annoyed by that!" Zhang Long laughed.

"Heh heh, we’re not here to ask you about that." They all sat down on the floor.

Jin Lu sneered. "Those people are idiots! If Zhang Yun had discovered a hidden patch of ginseng, would he have waited until today? He would’ve struck it rich ages ago! Leaving them out there is just asking for trouble; anyone would’ve dug them all up immediately."

Bao Sheng nodded. "Exactly! If it were me, I wouldn’t tell anyone either. That’d be the same as giving away free money."

They drank their beers and ate their snacks, complaining about the villagers who had gone crazy over ginseng.

"You guys are thinking clearly, but I don’t believe you came all the way out here just to drink and chat with me." Zhang Yun smiled, looking at each of them.

The other three immediately signaled for Zhang Long to speak, as he was more of the leader.

"Two things. First is about last night."

Everyone quieted down and became serious, glancing outside to make sure no one was around.

"Zhang Youcai really messed with the ancestral tombs. Are we really just going to keep quiet about it?" Zhang Long looked at Zhang Yun.

Zhang Yun smiled. "You guys must have already discussed this. You just want to hear my thoughts now?"

"Yeah. You’re a bit more educated, so you might have considered things more thoroughly."

"We haven’t decided on anything. We’re just chatting about it."

Zhang Yun didn’t mince words. "I looked into it afterward. The reason the ancestral tombs are so nice now is because Zhang Youcai took the lead in renovating them back when he made his money..."

"So he can destroy them just because he paid to fix them up?"

Zhang Yun shook his head. "I just mean that the ancestral tombs don’t really have any impact on our village. Everyone’s lives have improved over the years not because the tombs were renovated, but because of the country’s economic development, rural policies, and so on.

"Zhang Youcai didn’t get rich by renovating the ancestral tombs either. He helped renovate them out of a desire to return home in glory after he’d already made his fortune. So, his messing with the tombs now has no impact on us, and it might not even have any impact on him."

Zhang Yun’s words silenced the group, though they were still a bit unconvinced.

"To put it bluntly, when our parents pay their respects to the ancestors, they definitely pray for us to get into top universities and strike it rich. But what’s the result? I dug up an old ginseng now—you don’t think it’s because the ancestral tombs blessed me, do you?"

Everyone was somewhat convinced, except for Jin Lu.

"But we can’t just let him off the hook like this, right? That’d be letting him off way too easy!"

Zhang Yun could tell that Jin Lu wanted to extort another sum from Zhang Youcai. He had warned Zhang Long about this very thing that morning.

"What I just said was about the ancestral tombs not affecting our village. As for us and Zhang Youcai, he did transfer money to all of us last night..."

Jin Lu interrupted him. "It was only ten thousand! He’s so rich; that’s pocket change to him!"

The other three also looked at Zhang Yun. Thanks to Jin Lu playing hardball last night, they had all reaped the benefits.

"Last night, we caught him red-handed, but we also agreed to a condition. If we ask for more benefits now, it’s a completely different story."

"How is it different?"

Zhang Yun sighed. "We don’t have physical evidence! But his transfer records are physical evidence. He could turn around and sue us for extortion!"

"We have five eyewitnesses!" Jin Lu argued unyieldingly.