Chapter 24

【Recite the Sito website three times, do you remember? If you don't remember, I'll ask again in the next chapter. It's best to share it on Facebook.】

Zhao Shiming and his group caused trouble in the village for a few days, but because of Xu Ning's will and the village officials' disdain for Zhao Shiming, their plan to have the village reclaim the courtyard failed.

However, they did not give up. They scattered nails and threw wine bottles near the restaurant, causing many customers to have their tires punctured by accident.

In the end, whenever there were many customers, they would cause trouble near the restaurant. After several incidents, the customers became anxious, and the number of customers decreased significantly.

Because of these incidents, Zhao Xinyu was also very helpless. He had no good way to deal with scoundrels like Zhao Shiming. He wanted to give him some money to stop the trouble, but he knew that Zhao Shiming was insatiable. If he gave him once, it wouldn't be enough, and he would think of other ways to keep getting money from him, like the water fees were a good example.

For this matter, Han Tianliang and others also went to see Zhao Shiming many times, but it had no effect. Zhao Shiming even threatened to reclaim the courtyard and drive Zhao Xinyu out of Xihan Ridge.

Days passed slowly amidst the constant harassment by Zhao Shiming and his group. Although the harassment reduced the number of customers, people could not resist the temptation of the vegetables. Many people came up with a method: they asked the villagers to buy the vegetables and paid them a few yuan as a reward.

As a result, a large portion of those entering and leaving the vegetable garden were villagers helping to buy vegetables. Many villagers earned more through this than they did working outside.

After learning about this, some villagers who were not doing well outside returned to the village. In the end, a new profession emerged in Xihan Ridge: people who specialized in delivering vegetables.

As the number of people in this industry increased, various food delivery companies also began to offer the service of buying vegetables. Thus, food delivery riders, who previously only appeared during meal times, could now be seen busy on the streets every day.

With this business, the vegetable garden's sales gradually became prosperous again, and every day, the vegetables and soybeans were taken away by the food delivery riders.

As the vegetable garden's business boomed, the vegetables planted in many villagers' yards also matured. However, to their disappointment, although their vegetables tasted better than those from greenhouses, they were far inferior to the vegetables grown in Zhao Xinyu's courtyard.

"Xinyu, Zhao Shiming and his group are causing trouble again," one morning, Han Li rushed over from outside.

"What happened?" Zhao Xinyu frowned, now he felt a headache every time he heard Zhao Shiming's name.

"Many villagers have planted vegetables in their yards, but the taste is far inferior to ours. Zhao Shiming has been buying their vegetables at a low price and selling them at a high price outside, pretending they are ours. Now, many villagers are doing the same, and several customers have brought vegetables to us to complain."

Zhao Xinyu shook his head, "Why are they coming to us instead of them?"

"Many villagers have been threatened by Zhao Shiming and his group. When delivering vegetables, they have been switching our vegetables with the ones grown by the villagers."

Zhao Xinyu sighed deeply and shook his head, "Refund them. Go back and find a few trustworthy people, put their photos up in the vegetable garden, and only allow these people to deliver our vegetables. If anyone causes trouble, immediately stop them from delivering and never allow them to deliver again."

"Damn it," Zhao Shiming's face twisted as he slammed his wine glass to the ground. In the past few days, he had made a lot of money by buying vegetables from the villagers at a low price, switching them with the vegetables from the vegetable garden, and selling the vegetables grown by Zhao Xinyu at a high price.

In a few days, he had made a lot of money, and he used that money to buy even more vegetables, hoping to make a big profit. However, he did not expect Zhao Xinyu to directly name a few people to deliver the vegetables, and all those who had been switching the vegetables were dismissed. All his plans fell through.

A young man looked at the pile of vegetables in the yard, "Brother Zhao, there are still two trucks outside waiting for the final payment."

"Let them take it back."

"But the money we paid for half of it...?"

"Go out and buy more vegetables."

"The customers know about it, they only recognize the people now, our vegetables might...?"

"Go to other neighborhoods, quickly, or we'll lose all our money."

While Zhao Shiming and his group were busy selling the vegetables at a low price, Zhao Xinyu received a call from his hometown. The villagers only told him to come back as soon as possible.

After hanging up the phone, Zhao Xinyu's mood suddenly became heavy. He knew very well that something must have happened to his grandfather.

He called Han Li and the others, then filled several large buckets with water from his spatial ring, "Han Li, I have to go back to my hometown tonight. Water the plants every three days, and mix the water from the large buckets, using half a bucket each time."

Seeing Zhao Xinyu's serious expression, "Xinyu, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just suddenly want to go back and see my grandfather."

He then started to make ointment. This time, he made a lot, and after putting the ointment in a container, he called Du Mengnan to come and get it, then left the courtyard.

In a dark room with no household appliances, Zhao Xinyu looked at his grandfather, who was covered in bruises and barely breathing, and tears streamed down his face, "Grandfather."

The old man seemed to have a slight reaction, but only moved slightly, "Call an ambulance," Zhao Xinyu said, placing his finger on the old man's wrist.

A moment later, his face turned ashen. He could feel his grandfather's life force rapidly fading, reaching the point of being on his last breath.

"Xinyu, the doctors from the county have already come. Your grandfather was still conscious at that time, but he refused to go to the hospital and said he wanted to wait for you to come back."

"What happened to my grandfather?"

"Your younger brother came back a few days ago and stayed for a few days. After he left, your grandfather became like this. He said he fell off the bed."

Zhao Xinyu's heart tightened. He took a box of silver needles from the bed and, after a moment, a painful cry came from the old man as he slowly opened his eyes, but his gaze was already scattered.

Turning his head, he looked at an old man standing on the ground, "Wang Ru, I have something to say to Xinyu." The old man sighed and turned to leave the yard.

"Grandfather...?"

"Xinyu, I know what you want to ask. I don't have much time left. Listen to me. Do you remember the place I often took you when you were little? There are things I left for you there, including a piece of jewelry you wore as a child. You are grown up now, perhaps you can find your biological parents. Don't blame your grandfather," the old man's breath began to scatter as he spoke.

"Grandfather...?"

A newly erected tomb, a pile of still smoldering paper money, Zhao Xinyu's eyes were red and swollen, his expression extremely desolate, and his smooth chin now had a layer of stubble.

Picking up the last piece of paper money and throwing it into the pile, Zhao Xinyu's eyes welled up with tears again. He regretted not coming back after he recovered, and it was because he didn't come back that he was now separated from his beloved grandfather by the boundary of life and death.

Kneeling in front of the tomb, he bowed three times, then picked up his backpack and looked at the village in the distance, sighing softly. When he was handling his grandfather's funeral, he heard from the villagers that during the years he was away at school, his younger brother Zhao Xin Xing would come back every time and force his grandfather to give him money. For five years, his grandfather did not even drink a sip of medicinal wine, and anything in the house that could be sold, Zhao Xin Xing took and sold.

With his grandfather gone, there was no one left in the village he cared about, and he did not want to return to the courtyard where he grew up, fearing he could not bear it.

Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the mountains not far away and stepped toward them, as there were things left for him by his grandfather in the mountains.

When he reached the foot of the mountain, he turned to look at the village in the distance, his eyes filled with a thick mist. Suddenly, he let out a long, mournful cry to the sky.

【Do you remember the three times I asked you to recite at the beginning of the chapter? Sharing on Facebook might bring a surprise.】