Chapter 292

Zheng Tan always felt that life's two biggest setbacks were nothing more than pretending to be impressive only to be stepped on, and showing off wealth only to be out-shown. Not long ago he had looked down on Yang Bo at Triumph, never expecting that today there would be someone even more worthy of contempt than Yang Bo.

After dinner, Youzi's mom and Jiao Ma came out to stroll and chat in the compound, and Zheng Tan followed closely to gather intel on the "enemy situation".

Youzi's mom mostly talked about the results of her hard work abroad over the past few years; now she had become a department manager, her finances were much more comfortable, and when she spoke she carried a hint of showing off, also urging Jiao Ma to quickly buy a bigger house, complaining that the houses in the compound were old and small, and comparing them to her newly bought house abroad. Jiao Ma obviously knew what her sister was like, and didn't have the energy to get angry.

Not long after walking, they ran into an elderly lady out walking with Da Pang. The old lady was stepping on the fitness equipment in the compound, while Da Pang squatted on the nearby horizontal bar—its diameter only about five to six centimeters. It was unclear how this fat cat managed to jump up and squat there; at a glance, that round lump looked utterly awkward, yet the guy squatted rock-solid. Zheng Tan could only marvel that, as a cat who had undergone military training, he was as steady as squatting over instant noodles.

"Yo, Hei Tan, out for a walk, Teacher Gu?" the old lady said, smiling as she greeted Zheng Tan and Jiao Ma.

Jiao Ma briefly introduced her sister to the old lady, chatted a few sentences, then left.

After walking a short distance, Youzi's mom scoffed at Da Pang, saying such a fat cat would surely come down with something like xxx disease, and knowing the old lady lived alone, she added: "Just the old lady by herself, no hired help or anything?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Da Pang's health is fine; he's regularly sent to the pet center for checkups, and the old lady treats him like a treasure. As for the old lady, her son does want to hire a caregiver, even suggested bringing her to live with him, but the old lady has always refused, saying she's grown accustomed to this environment and atmosphere, the folks in the compound are all longtime neighbors of several decades, not lonely, and future arrangements can be considered when her legs get worse."

"When people get old, they become stubborn. Obstinate. Her son is the same..." Youzi's mom said disagreeably.

Jiao Ma feared her sister might say something inappropriate, so she quickly stopped her. Da Pang's father's identity is sensitive, and the old lady of Da Pang's family had no intention of showing off, so Jiao Ma merely whispered a brief explanation of Da Pang's father's identity into her sister's ear. Then. Youzi's mom fell silent. She no longer spoke of Da Pang or the old lady, for those people would truly consider hiring a helper—they'd spare no expense for ten or eight of them.

Not even two minutes later they ran into Sahala, that goofball, rolling around in the grass, rubbing everywhere, tongue lolling, completely lacking any image—of course, in the compound he'd long had no image to speak of.

"This dog is way too crazy; looks like a mixed breed. Should we keep a dog or get a purebred with a gentler temperament?"

Jiao Ma looked over, chuckled, and said, "Oh, you mean Sahala? I heard he's a three-breed dog belonging to Professor Ruan; though he's usually quite unrestrained, he's never hurt any of the kids in the compound, and Professor Ruan treasures him."

One shot, bullseye.

Youzi's mom fell silent again.

In the marketplace, running around a lot, she often ended up considering interests more, and flattering the high while stepping on the low was common practice. As the saying goes, when beating a dog you look at its owner; likewise, when scolding a dog you must consider the owner's identity and temperament. You know in your heart what to say and what not to say; people talk about powerful folks having tempers to match, and Youzi's mom had always felt that the more arrogant someone is, the harder their temperament is to gauge, so every word and deed must be cautious—when dealing with such big shots, even if badmouthing them behind their back, you need to find a place with no one around, because speaking in public you never know when it might leak out. Although she didn't know that Professor Ruan, just hearing the title "academician" made her swallow all her words.

Zheng Tan chuckled inwardly; before this afternoon this person had still thought the compound was full of "poor and suffering masses," but now he realized things were not as they seemed.

As he passed the bench area, Zheng Tan saw those few old men gathered together again, shooting the breeze.

As soon as evening came, several old men in the compound would gather and start blowing hot air—criticizing some school leader, evaluating some newly issued policy, denouncing certain individuals whose social impact was bad but whom the public dared not speak about, and famous experts and professors who appear frequently on TV, in their mouths become as trivial as discussing dolls, with no taboo at all, nor fear of being overheard; even if those people stood before them, they'd still say the same.

When Zheng Tan looked over, Old Man Lan was bragging to someone about a pot of orchids that had just been sold.

After hearing a couple of sentences, Youzi's mom was unimpressed—was a single pot of orchids really worth such bragging?

"How much can an orchid sell for?"

Jiao Ma thought for a moment, then said: "Today Professor Lan's that pot is unclear, but last year Professor Lan sold two pots of orchids for over six hundred thousand, and many people sought Professor Lan. This year the orchid hype is hot, even more people seek Professor Lan, buyers block the courtyard just to buy one pot of Professor Lan's orchid. Calculating like this, I estimate today's price will definitely be higher than last year's."

Xiao Youzi's mother wore an expression of utter disbelief.

Zheng Tan actually knows: a few days ago Old Lan was blocked at the small flower bed by people wanting to buy three stalks of some rabbit orchid for one million, but Old Lan wouldn't budge. Old Lan isn't short of money; at his age he cares about face, occasionally showing off to old friends the orchids he cultivated or newly discovered varieties. As for those several hundred thousand, to Old Lan it really doesn't matter much. At their level, having both fame and profit, they now pursue what they like; although one can't say "money is just a number" pretentiously, it's not far off. He agrees to sell to people just because Old Lan gets annoyed by those people constantly bothering him, and he also keeps seeds, so even after selling, he still has one or two seedlings.

Old Lan was telling someone that the orchid hype in the market is overblown; although it looks profitable now, many people are rushing in, and on top of that, some unknown person's saying "take out a pot of orchid in the morning, come back in the afternoon driving a BMW" has made it even hotter, but the hype will probably last only about a year, then it will cool down; if people get overheated and act rashly, they might end up hurting themselves.

Zheng Tan is aware of such things; a friend of his once spent over five hundred thousand on a single orchid when orchid prices were hot. Five years later, not many people would buy it even for a hundred.

Seeing Zheng Tan, Old Lan gave a hehe smile, in a good mood he teased Zheng Tan, pointing at him and calling out to his old buddies: "That little rascal ran into my flower bed last time and nibbled on an orchid, oh it hurts my heart!"

Bullshit! It was clearly Jingzhang who bit it! Zheng Tan is angry, Old Lan deliberately pinned this blame on him, and moreover that pot of orchid is just a relatively ordinary plain-heart orchid. Those more precious orchids are well protected. How could Jingzhang get a chance to bite it?

Jiao Ma saw that the several old professors there all wore kind smiles, some even gave Zheng Tan a thumbs-up saying "Well done", and she knew they were just joking, not really angry. So she smiled, greeted the few old people, then left.

After walking a bit farther, there was no one within twenty-odd meters. Jiao Ma then lowered her voice to the person beside her and said: "Don't think these are just unremarkable old folks; although they seem ordinary, many bosses of big companies and some people from the establishment come to consult them. Some of these people can influence certain policies."

After a moment of silence, Xiao Youzi's mother smiled and said: "Xiao Youzi is growing up well in this environment." She had indeed seen Xiao Youzi greeting some old people the day before, very familiar with them.

Zheng Tan curled his lip in his heart, this person changes really fast.

Because of the previous examples, after encountering the even more ridiculous A Huang who could tumble down the stairs just by walking, Xiao Youzi's mother also didn't make any sarcastic remarks; she feared that speaking up might involve some impressive figure, making things even more awkward.

The day Xiao Youzi's mother left to fly back overseas, it wasn't a weekend; she didn't ask Jiao Ba and Jiao Ma to see her off, she left together with some people from her company, merely making a phone call before boarding the plane, saying "Please take care of Xiao Youzi."

Jiao Ba replied: "I've always raised her as my daughter."

Since Xiao Youzi's mother flew abroad, Xiao Youzi stayed behind, Zheng Tan felt much more relieved, and when walking he would sway.

Running back to the edge of the community's woods, he opened his phone, intending to check his game records while in a good mood; but as soon as he turned it on, he found dozens of text messages and a near-three-digit call alert, the phone kept flashing, the screen of incoming texts lingered for a long time, leaving Zheng Tan dazed.

Holy shit!

Am I poisoned?!

But after stopping and looking again, he found it wasn't.

Dozens of texts came from the same phone number, and the missed-call notifications also mostly said the same number.

Fucking hell, Liuba that idiot actually pulled this kind of low-down move—is he trying to blow up the phone?

Have to say, Liuba really matched up with this number.

Since reasoning didn't work, self-recommendation didn't work, and he was still very interested in the identity behind the mysterious number, Liuba, after thinking for two days, decided to switch tactics—harassment tactics, enough to be shameless, enough to be disgraceful, enough to be unreasonable troublemaking.

Liuba doesn't know whether the person behind that number is male or female, old or young, but everyone has a tolerance limit, and Liuba is now trying to test that limit—even if the other party's off-time is far longer than their on-time, Liuba has plenty of time. The orders from Golden Turtle are mostly settled, now he has plenty of free time, he's even turned down uninteresting jobs, dedicating himself to harassing that number; as soon as the phone lights up, he'll call immediately.

"This master, I really want to befriend you, let's get to know each other……"

"You won't even spare a text message?"

"Alright, let's not use texts, try another way—how about we talk?"

"Just saying a couple lines is fine—one sentence, one sentence is enough; master, you say one sentence and I won't bother you……"

……

Zheng Tan was scrolling through texts, deleting them one by one, when immediately another call came in; he hit reject, and within two seconds another call came, he hung up, again and again, over and over……

Even if Zheng Tan wanted to check the settings for a blacklist feature, it wouldn't be convenient; calls and texts kept bombarding him nonstop.

Finally, Zheng Tan pressed answer.

This time Liuba didn't speak, just listened to the noise on the other end, waiting for them to start yelling.

After a faint rustling sound came from the other end of the phone, then came a pattering sound.

Liuba furrowed his brow, pushed away Golden Turtle who wanted to come over to eavesdrop, took the paper and pen from the table, and wrote down a few letters based on the sound.

Golden Turtle leaned over to look, and on the white paper, the black signature pen clearly wrote a few letters——

"f-u-c-k-y-o-u!" (To be continued…)