Chapter 17: To be a good person, one must repay kindness with resentment

The sky was just beginning to lighten.

Wu An looked at the full water buckets and shouted, "A Qing, that's enough, take a break."

"The days are still long."

"Don't hurt yourself working."

A Qing looked at the clams already piled up to a point in the bucket, nodded and stopped, saying, "Brother, last night while I was sleeping, I noticed Mom crying."

Wu An blinked: "Why did Mom cry?"

A Qing said, "You must be happy seeing me make money."

"So I want to earn more money."

"Once I earn enough, she'll cry a lot, get used to it, and then she won't cry anymore."

"..." Wu An gave a thumbs up, "Look, what a filial child," and said, "I was wondering why you're working so hard today."

"First, have a drink of water."

A whole large kettle of water was down to just the bottom; A Qing gulped it all in one go, turned around, and said, "It seems there's no hole left."

"And it's not easy to dig anymore."

"That's right."

This beach upland had almost been plowed over by the two brothers, and with the Luck Value cleared, lacking any system boost, a dig with the sand shovel would send the clams fleeing.

Wu An said, "The sky is about to dawn."

"We can't carry all this."

"You need to go back and pull the cart; it's still early, move quietly so Mom can sleep a bit longer, and don't drag her along."

A Qing nodded and took off running.

Wu An walked to the water's edge, washed the mud off his body with seawater; the seawater was cool and refreshing, so he simply found a reef stone to sit on and dipped his feet directly in the sea.

With the seawater washing back and forth, it felt quite nice.

Just a moment ago, while working, he didn't feel anything, but as soon as he stopped, he suddenly felt sore waist and back, especially his arms and wrists, which were uncomfortably aching.

"Oh my, this money is really hard to earn."

He shouted toward the sea.

He pondered how to make money easily; having been reborn, there are actually many ways to make money, but he doesn't understand them.

In his previous life he was just an ordinary person; he didn't understand stocks, but he did know a few that would surely surge, though he needed spare cash to buy them.

He had never bought a lottery ticket; even if he remembered the winning numbers from his past life, he might not win this time.

If you had to say what he expected most, it would be the food and delivery business.

"Once we have money, we could set up some farm stays or guesthouses."

"Ele. me and Meituan already exist, but they're still in the early stages; if we had money, could we get a stake?"

Wu An wandered in thought; many of his memories were already fuzzy, but he recalled that the mobile internet wave rose in 2011, and the future 'giants' of the internet world had already entered the scene.

In the tide of the times, he was merely a small krill.

But who can say for sure what the future holds? Perhaps this small fishing village fisherman might also get a chance to stand on the tide of the times and become a 'trailblazer'.

Not long after.

A Qing's voice came: "Brother, I'm here."

"Have an ice pop."

"I'll handle the carrying."

Wu An took the ice pop and said, "No rush, eat the ice pop first, then work."

A Qing shook his head: "I ate it on the way."

The Snake Skin Bag held green crabs, Orchid Crabs, and ghost shrimp, while the water buckets were actually heavier, filled with clams, blood clams, sea snails, and the like.

A Qing pulled in front, Wu An pushed from behind.

They passed Rocky Beach.

Lin Hu happened to be tidying his fishing gear; seeing the two pulling a cart past, he was stunned and asked, "How much cargo, do you still need to pull the cart?"

He jumped down from the reef and walked over quickly.

Wu An casually replied, "Not much."

Speaking, he pushed the cart hard and tried to go.

Lin Hu saw the razor clams in the two buckets and was stunned: "Holy shit, such big razor clams!"

"You actually dug up so many razor clams!"

"Did you dig them over on the tidal flats?"

Wu An nodded.

Lin Hu looked at the Snake Skin Bag and curiously asked, "What's in here?"

Speaking, he also reached out and pinched it.

Wu An slapped his hand away and snapped, "Don't touch randomly, just some Shuttle Crabs and such; the tidal flats only have that little seafood, you know that."

"As for you, you fished all night; your haul must be decent."

Lin Hu immediately gave an embarrassed laugh and said, "Yeah... yeah."

"The catch is all right."

"Oh, never mind, don't delay you guys going to sell the seafood."

Having said that, he ran off toward the reef.

Wu An smiled.

Lin Hu returned to the reef, looked at the two fish in his tackle box, feeling utterly depressed—only two yellow-foot croakers caught all night, and they weren't big, so they wouldn't fetch much money.

Originally, he thought it was nothing; besides, the air force guys were also used to it.

Seeing Wu An and them hauling seafood on a cart really got him excited.

"If I'd known, I might as well have shamelessly followed Wu An to go clamming."

"What are we supposed to do?"

"Just bringing home two yellow-foot clams will definitely get me talked about by family."

The reason he went out to fish in the middle of the night was that he couldn't stand his family complaining that he was idle all day, that fishing didn't earn money, and he planned to catch more fish at night to prove that fishing wasn't idleness.

The result.

He successfully proved that he indeed couldn't make money.

……

Wu An and A Qing passed by Yellow Sand Beach; the villagers who were clamming had already left, only some older kids were playing around; Wu An saw them and scolded a few words, telling them to be careful.

Several older kids saw it was him, still made faces at him, even called A Qing to come play, telling A Qing to stay away from him, saying he was a good-for-nothing.

Wu An was furious.

Damn it.

How dare a little brat bully me?

A Qing saw his expression wasn't good and quickly said, "Brother, don't worry, I won't go play with them."

Wu An laughed despite his anger.

He couldn't hold back his emotions.

Never mind, never mind; since the Old Heaven let him be reborn, just treat it as repaying a debt.

Arrived at the dock.

The shop fronts at the dock were basically all open—purchase stalls, breakfast shops, general merchandise stores—people coming and going, quite lively.

Someone saw the two of them pulling a cart, came over curiously; Mao Wang saw the clams in the bucket, his eyes lit up: "A An, you went clamming at night, huh, and dug up so many clams."

"That's really impressive."

"At noon I have guests to entertain at my place; Shen Fang is also coming, she loves eating clams the most."

"Give me some, not too much, just enough to stir-fry a plate."

Wu An curiously looked over, wanting to see who was so shameless to say that; seeing it was Mao Wang, face full of pimples, looking like a toad, he instantly understood.

This guy is just a sycophant, sucking up to whatever extent... Well, not long after he started school, Shen Fang came to him for help, and it turned out the money was borrowed from Mao Wang.

Upon hearing him use Shen Fang as an excuse to ask for clams, he darkened his face, waved his hand, and said, "Go play aside."

"Move aside."

"If Shen Fang wants to eat, let her come ask me herself."

Mao Wang couldn't keep his composure, muttering, "If I ask you for it, I'm giving you face; it's just luck, what's there to show off about?" Wu An paused, then said, "Mao Wang, if you want to show off, you can go dig over at the beach flats; I believe if Shen Fang knew, she'd definitely be moved."

Mao Wang was stunned, his eyes lit up: "Really?"

Wu An said, "Back when I was with her, actually... you understand."

Mao Wang grinned, "Thanks."

Then he ran off excitedly.

A Qing asked, puzzled: "Brother, he's shamelessly asking for our clams, why are you still giving him advice?"

"I want to be a good person; this is returning kindness for resentment." Wu An shrugged, looked at A Qing seeming thoughtful, then added, "You haven't reached that level yet; no need to learn."

These days, warm-hearted guys seem quite trendy.

That internet meme, "A sycophant ends up with nothing, while a warm-hearted guy still ranks below a dog," will likely take a long time before the general public knows it.