Chapter 56

Just off the night shift, Wang Yong hurried up the mountain without even having breakfast. This caused the head of the village to complain incessantly, “You’re going to starve the birds to death!” But Wang Yong paid no attention to him. Yesterday, he had already notified some villagers to come and help pick apples and hawthorns. Fortunately, the young people in the village had returned; otherwise, the remaining elderly and children would not have been able to finish the work in one day.

Upon reaching the mountain, many diligent people who had risen early had already arrived. Some were happily munching on apples they had picked, while others were busy harvesting, with piles of fruit already gathered under the trees. Seeing the main man, Wang Yong, everyone greeted him warmly.

“Brother Er, this is really not like you. You asked us for help, but you only show up now!” Wang Wei, the son of the village’s Wang Lao Da, who was two years younger than Wang Yong, called him Brother Er because Wang Qiang was the eldest in their generation, and Wang Yong was the second. So, the younger generation of the Wang family called Wang Qiang Brother Da and Wang Yong Brother Er. They had been following Wang Yong and Da Wei around since they could walk, so there was no formality in their conversation, even though they hadn’t seen each other for a long time.

“Would you die if you didn’t speak? How can you still be so tactless? I wonder how you’ve managed to survive all these years outside?” Wang Yong retorted without hesitation to his childhood friend.

“I’m living pretty well, drinking a little wine and eating some small dishes every day. My job isn’t tiring, and I earn a decent amount. Many people envy me,” Wang Wei said, looking smug and cocky.

“Don’t brag, you’re just a gatekeeper, right?” Someone in the crowd chimed in, which immediately irritated Wang Wei.

“Hey! Who said that? I’m a security guard, not a gatekeeper! Don’t speak if you don’t understand. Why are you hiding like a thief? Come out and let me see you, come on!” The stubborn side of Wang Wei’s personality came out.

The crowd parted, revealing a man around twenty-four or twenty-five years old, about 1.73 meters tall, and well-built, exuding a tough aura. Wang Yong immediately recognized him as Wang Biao from the south of the village, a cousin of Wang Wei. His nickname was Biaozi, and he was two months younger than Wang Wei. He had been bullied by Wang Wei a lot when they were young. It was said that he served in the Marine Corps, but no one knew why he had returned, perhaps he had been discharged.

“It was me who said it. What are you going to do about it? Are you not convinced?” Wang Biao challenged.

“Ah! It’s Biao Ge! When did you come back? You should have told us, and we would have come to pick you up!” Wang Wei’s face changed instantly, and he approached Biaozi with a servile look.

Wang Wei, grinning slyly, moved to Biaozi and suddenly wrapped his arm around Biaozi’s neck, trying to pull him down. Biaozi stood there, unmoving, letting Wang Wei struggle. Wang Wei was sweating profusely, but after a while, when he couldn’t budge Biaozi, Biaozi simply grabbed Wang Wei’s arm, and with little effort, threw him to the ground with a backflip.

“Alright, alright! Stop fooling around. Biaozi, why did you come back? Did you retire or are you on leave?” Wang Yong quickly intervened, stopping Wang Wei, who was still不服气 (unwilling to admit defeat) and eager to save face. “You’re just a security guard, what are you trying to compete with a Marine Corps elite for?”

Biaozi smiled shyly, scratching his head, and said, “Brother Er, I’m on leave.”

This guy was still so shy, a stark contrast to his thick-skinned cousin, Wang Wei. It truly showed that different people can grow up in the same environment and turn out very differently.

“Oh, how’s it going in the military?” Wang Yong was curious about this once-weak and often-bullied kid who had joined the prestigious Marine Corps. Calculating his age, he must have served for about five or six years.

“It’s going well,” Biaozi replied.

“Going well? What does that mean? What rank are you?” Wang Yong asked curiously.

Biaozi, looking embarrassed, said, “Lieutenant.”

Wang Yong turned around to see Wang Wei, who had just fallen to the ground, trying to regain his composure. It seemed that Wang Wei now realized the gap between them was too great.

“Not bad, Biaozi, you’re an officer now.”

“I haven’t heard about this. When did Biaozi become an officer?”

“Yeah, last year, wasn’t he just a non-commissioned officer?”

“Alright, alright. Stop the chatter! Get back to work, all of you just want to slack off,” Wang Yong said, noticing Biaozi’s eyes turning red, his face turning pale, and his fists clenching tightly. There was clearly a story behind this.

Wang Yong patted Biaozi’s broad shoulder and said nothing more. He turned and led a group to start picking apples and hawthorns. The trees didn’t bear much fruit, but there were many trees, so it didn’t take long to fill the baskets Wang Yong had prepared. Each basket weighed about a hundred pounds, and they had already picked over a thousand pounds. Fortunately, more villagers kept coming with baskets and baskets to help.

Wang Yong instructed Biaozi, who had recovered, to take a few young men to carry the full baskets down the mountain. Then, he asked the older women to sort the fruit by size and shape, as Zhang Chunhui had specifically instructed. The apples and hawthorns were to be divided into three grades and packed accordingly.

Basket after basket of apples and hawthorns were carried down the mountain. Wang Yong’s family had three varieties of apples: Guoguang, Fuji, and Shengli. Guoguang, being sour, was no longer popular in the market and was cheap. Shengli, while sweet, lacked sufficient water content and was also not very popular. Few nearby farmers still grew these varieties. However, Wang Yong’s trees had been sprayed with genetic modification fluid and watered with spiritual spring water, making them far superior to ordinary apples. The apples were much larger, with most weighing over eight ounces.

The hawthorns were the most attractive, red and round like little lanterns. They were also larger than ordinary hawthorns, with the largest being as big as a large walnut, astonishing many villagers. They were also more palatable, not as sour as ordinary hawthorns, and the flesh was not as hard, making them very delicious. Wang Yong ate seven or eight in a row, and the village children filled their pockets and kept eating, causing their parents to scold them, as eating too many hawthorns could cause tooth decay.

After lunch, everyone returned to their homes to eat and then came back to continue working. By around two in the afternoon, all the fruit on the mountain had been picked. The drying ground in front of Wang Yong’s house was piled high with fruit, a scene of bountiful harvest. Before the buyers arrived, the uncles and aunts kept filling baskets with apples and hawthorns. The uncle was also responsible for counting the money, giving each person a hundred yuan.

Just after three in the afternoon, Zhang Chunhui finally arrived with a large truck.

“Sorry, I kept you waiting. There was a traffic accident on the highway today, and the road was closed for a while,” Zhang Chunhui apologized as soon as he got out of the car.

“No problem, we just finished picking. Take a look, and if everything is fine, let’s load the truck. It gets dark early, so we need to hurry, or we’ll have to set up lights,” the uncle said.

“Alright, no problem.” As soon as Zhang Chunhui finished speaking, two technicians from the truck walked over to the pile of apples and started inspecting them. After a short while, one of the technicians nodded at Zhang Chunhui. Seeing this, Zhang Chunhui knew the fruit was fine and immediately instructed his men to unload the boxes from the truck.

Seeing this, several young men from the village quickly came to help. The drying ground became bustling with activity, with most of the villagers helping to load the boxes, weigh the fruit, and load the truck. With so many people working together, all the apples and hawthorns were weighed and loaded onto the truck by the time it started to get dark. Under the watchful eyes of the villagers, Wang Yong and Zhang Chunhui began to calculate the total.

“First-grade fruit: 5,860 pounds of apples, 3,128 pounds of hawthorns. Second-grade fruit: 4,367 pounds of apples, 1,956 pounds of hawthorns. Third-grade fruit: 2,212 pounds of apples, 850 pounds of hawthorns.” Zhang Chunhui looked at the uncle, who was in charge of weighing.

“That’s correct, those are the numbers,” the uncle said, holding the ledger.

“Since we’re not separating apples and hawthorns this time, let’s price first-grade fruit at 180 yuan per pound, second-grade at 150 yuan, and third-grade at 100 yuan. Is that okay?” Zhang Chunhui asked.

This statement caused a stir in the crowd. Who would have thought these ordinary fruits were so valuable? They were just a bit larger and tastier. Many people quickly calculated how much the basket of apples and hawthorns they had taken home was worth. This calculation shocked many. The basket of first-grade fruit they had taken home weighed about 40 to 50 pounds, which was worth several thousand yuan! Everyone, especially the young people who had just returned from working outside, began to think that the village company had a bright future.

At this moment, Wang Yong was calculating the total with Zhang Chunhui. Zhang Chunhui was busy on his calculator and writing notes. Finally, he handed the notebook to Wang Yong for confirmation.

Wang Yong looked at it and saw: First-grade fruit: 8,988 pounds, 1,617,840 yuan; Second-grade fruit: 6,362 pounds, 948,450 yuan; Third-grade fruit: 3,062 pounds, 306,200 yuan, totaling 2,872,490 yuan.

“Transfer the money, don’t tell me you brought cash?” Wang Yong asked, noticing Zhang Chunhui’s slightly unnatural expression. Seeing him nod, Wang Yong was speechless.

“I thought you preferred cash, so I specially withdrew over three million yuan in new bills!” Zhang Chunhui emphasized, then laughed and said, “No problem, I’ll take it back and deposit it. Give me your account number, and I’ll transfer the money.”

Wang Yong noticed the villagers looking at them and had an idea.

“No, since you’ve brought it, I’ll take the cash.” He winked at Zhang Chunhui, gesturing to the surrounding villagers.

Zhang Chunhui, who had traveled far and wide and was a shrewd businessman, immediately understood. This was Wang Yong’s way of reassuring the villagers. Seeing the stacks of cash would be the most convincing way to show the villagers that following Wang Yong was a good choice. With this in mind, Zhang Chunhui took action.

He opened the trunk of his car and took out two large black garbage bags. Whether intentionally or accidentally, one of the bags slipped from his hand and fell to the ground, spilling out stacks of red hundred-yuan bills. Seeing this, many of the onlookers began to breathe heavily. Each stack was worth ten thousand yuan! How much could be in such a large bag?

Although many villagers were envious, no one stepped forward. They stood quietly, staring at the bag of cash on the ground. Wang Yong secretly gave Zhang Chunhui a thumbs up, thinking this was a brilliant move. This would surely reassure the young people who had just returned from working outside.

Indeed, many of the young people in the village were reluctant to return. They were still attached to city life, and many had adapted to it and earned decent incomes. If not for the pressure from their elderly family members, they would never have come back. For example, Wang Wei, who worked as a security captain at a foreign company, earned about four to five thousand yuan a month, plus bonuses and benefits, making him as well-off as some college graduates. Giving up such a good job to return to the village and become a farmer seemed like a bad decision. However, Wang Yong believed that this scene would make many decide to stay. As for those who were determined to leave, there was nothing he could do. If it rains, it rains; if the mother wants to remarry, let her.

That night, almost everyone in the village talked about the stacks of cash that had spilled out of the bag. The young people, in particular, were openly envious, especially when they heard about Wang Yong’s previous sales of jujubes and vegetables, which had also brought in large sums of money. Although the amounts from the vegetable sales were not as high as these, most people would never earn such sums in their lifetimes, as they were in the hundreds of thousands.

Wang Yong, however, was in a bind! By the time they finished, it was already dark, and the bank was closed. With such a large sum of money at home, his second wife kept saying he was incompetent and insisted on staying to watch the two bags of money. In the end, the uncle and aunt, who were also nervous, were ordered by the grandfather to stay up all night with Wang Yong, guarding the two large black bags of money.

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