Chapter 2562: 2469 Nobel Laureate Zheng Ren (Middle)

Dahungya picked his teeth, lounging on the sofa.

"Why haven't you brought any money back lately?" Dahungya's wife asked. "All you do is lie around at home—are you just sponging off us?"

"You old woman, you don't know shit!" Dahungya said contemptuously.

Although his wife's physique could destroy him twice over, his tone of speech remained the same.

"Before, you used to bring home some money every now and then, but now look—you only get that measly salary each month."

"What kind of world is this? You don't even look—long hair, short sight."

"A man without external wealth isn't rich; a horse without night grass doesn't grow fat. You say this little bit of dead money is enough? Where has your cleverness gone?"

"Last time I went to Di Du to see a doctor, Zheng Lao Ban said that if I don't know my limits, I'll eventually die."

"It's as if you'd live to a hundred without doing anything." The woman lifted her foot and kicked Dahungya's leg, "Get up, you old woman!"

"You have time to nag me? You'd be better off tidying the table. You're such a sloppy woman—last time I had bugs flying in my mouth, that was your doing!"

"You still have the nerve to blame me? Even after you use the toilet you don't wipe—no matter how clean I tidy up, it's useless!"

Dahungya dodged the next kick, sat on the sofa, and said: "Know your place—stop giving that useless brother of yours extra money, and you'll have everything. That brother of yours is a bottomless pit; I put my head on my belt to earn money, and he still sucks it all into his pants."

"Just admit you have no talent."

"No talent? Back when we roamed this part of Sheng Cheng, I led my brothers in righteous deeds wherever we went—whoever met us had to give us a thumbs-up."

"Get lost, you bastard! With your scamming and deceit, you still talk about righteousness—righteousness my ass!"

"Money's hard to earn these days—tell me, how many times have I gone to Di Du in the past half year? Every time it scared me half to death. Zheng Lao Ban said..."

"He's your father, after all—you listen to whatever he says."

"What do you women know at all? In South Side they almost set up Zheng Lao Ban as a deity. Geomancer, you know what that is, right? Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. Let me put it this way: if you go to a geomancer for fortune-telling, how much do you think it costs?"

"One thousand?"

Dahungya showed a look of contempt.

"For a fortune reading, one thousand is the most you'd ever pay..."

"That's because your life isn't worth much— in South Side, rich people pay hundreds just to have a geomancer look at their feng shui once."

"Ten thousand?" The woman's eyes widened like eggs.

"What do you think!" Dahungya was pleased with his wife's expression, then said: "Several senior geomancers' illnesses were cured by Zheng Lao Ban; he can even treat heavenly punishment. You say that as long as I don't want to die, I still have to obey him faithfully."

"What did Zheng Lao Ban say to you?" the woman asked.

Dahungya stared blankly at the phone, his eyes glazed over.

"I'm asking you a question—are you seventy or eighty? You can't even understand a simple remark." the woman scolded.

"Cut the chatter, Zheng Lao Ban's on TV!" Dahungya stared at the screen showing Zheng Ren in an isolation gown standing at the operating room door, his eyes glued to the TV. "What channel is this?"

"The news channel, huh? That's Zheng Lao Ban? He's pretty handsome."

"What are you looking at? That's Yun Ge'er, Zheng Lao Ban's assistant." Dahungya sat up straight. "He's even on Hua Shi TV—I'm telling you, you should listen to what Zheng Lao Ban says. Stop jabbering at me, and don't let your brother go throwing money at widows' houses, or I won't be polite!"

Xiao Liu wasn't in Hai Cheng, nor in Sheng Cheng.

Recently the crackdown on blackmail and evil has grown increasingly severe; because it involved violent collection of small loans, as soon as he heard a whisper of it, he fled to a mountain ravine on the border.

But at least here it's safe; Xiao Liu feels each day drags like a year. Although it's just autumn, a cold snap sends the Siberian wind straight onto his face, like a tiny knife.

He even thought of turning himself in, but anyway he has no blood on his hands—those matters are just rumors, they may or may not be true.

Moreover, there's no signal here at all; used to playing with his phone all day in the city, suddenly being in this place is truly unbearable.

Xiao Liu kept laughing at himself—how had he fallen to such a state? Compared to a few years ago, when he was glamorous, driving a Range Rover around town with countless lackeys and everyone fawning over him, it feels like another world.

After less than half a month in the mountain ravine, Xiao Liu decided to sneak out to see what was happening outside.

He held onto the hope that if nothing happened, at least his suffering here wouldn't be in vain.

Just walking out took two days; on a dark, windy night, Xiao Liu reached the forest ranger's hut.

When he saw the light, Xiao Liu's eyes almost welled up with tears.

He'd rather go back to jail than stay in the mountain ravine. He used to think he feared nothing, but even before the deepest snow blocked the mountains, he couldn't take it anymore.

He politely called out to open the door.

The forest ranger also knew what sort of person he was, but in this deep mountain ravine he'd seen all kinds. He just came in to get out of the wind and cold, ask for a drink, but there wasn't much else.

Xiao Liu entered with a friendly face, saw the ranger's rifle beside him, and smiled.

"Brother, how much farther to the nearest town?"

"As the saying goes, 'watch the mountain, run the horse to death'—you delicate lad would need three days." The forest ranger looked at Xiao Liu's appearance and said with a laugh.

"So what do you usually do around here?"

"Besides a few broken stands, there's nothing to see." The forest ranger said, "And damn, there's no signal—wait while I go down."

Saying that, he slung his rifle and went out.

Xiao Liu's heart pounded—how could it be that having no one around would be better? He claimed to be a gangster, but this forest ranger looked even more like a gang boss than he did.

"Hey kid, can you see the shadow!" the forest ranger shouted from the roof of the wooden hut.

On the TV screen covered in snow, a few shadows flickered faintly.

"Not bad, keep moving!" Seeing that he was indeed turning the big pot that receives the signal, Xiao Liu steadied his mind.

He guessed the outside had shaken a few more times; changing direction, the signal gradually grew clear.

But this so-called clarity was still far worse than the HD TV signal you get in the city.

Xiao Liu gazed a little greedily at the TV screen, able to see the TV signal… it felt as if he had just survived an apocalypse.

He had to go back—even if there was nothing good to eat there, it was still better than hiding here.

Thinking that, Xiao Liu stared at the TV, gradually becoming dazed.

No sound, but I could barely make out some images. The people in the images looked somewhat familiar, as if…… Zheng Lao Ban?

He moved close to the screen, carefully examining the words beneath it.

【912 Dr. Zheng Ren today won the Nobel Prize in Biology and the Nobel Prize in Medicine.】

Upon seeing this line of text, even Xiao Liu, shocked and remorseful, grabbed his greasy hair and let out a hoarse sound from his throat.