Chapter 192

Stimulated by the house, Zhang Yanping chewed on a blade of grass and squatted in the chestnut orchard, watching the tiny flower stalks budding among the lush green leaves, unable to help but let out a sigh.

"Sigh..."

This sigh made Brother Mud Loach, who was weeding diligently, very unhappy.

"What, I'm working so hard, and you're still not satisfied?"

To say Brother Mud Loach was working here willingly would certainly not be true. But he considered himself a real man, and a man honors his bets!

Therefore, he didn't even bother to slack off today; honestly, people like this are hard to find nowadays.

A free laborer, who wouldn't be satisfied?

Zhang Yanping smiled exceptionally kindly:

"Look at what you're saying, this isn't a game, there are rewards and punishments, it's just for fun!"

Brother Mud Loach pulled off his work gloves without ceremony, revealing his red palms:

"What fun? My hands are almost rubbed raw."

Ah, this.

Zhang Yanping was speechless.

Thinking that this brother had contributed ten thousand yuan yesterday, he quickly changed the subject: "I was mainly sighing for myself, brother, what do you think I should do in the future?"

He hadn't thought much about it before, just living like a salted fish, one day at a time.

But he had grown accustomed to this rural life, and living at his aunt's house all the time didn't seem right.

But to ask him to do farm work, that was something he absolutely couldn't do.

If he didn't do farm work, what else was worth doing in this village?

Of course, when he first came, he was full of confidence, thinking he could help Tan Tan expand her sales channels—after all, he had wide connections.

In any case, bringing goods to market should be easier than for a girl who had always worked honestly before.

But having stayed for a while, he really couldn't bring himself to say such things anymore.

With the things his cousin grew, what wouldn't be a hit wherever they were sold?

Begging people to buy them would only lower their value.

But if he couldn't do sales and couldn't do farm work, was he really going to rely on family ties and shamelessly live at home?

If this continued, there wouldn't even be an employee room for him in Tan Tan's new house!

He was the first to come to the countryside to support her career; he couldn't be the one who arrived early only to miss the harvest.

Brother Mud Loach didn't know he had so many worries, but he couldn't help but fantasize:

"Don't say, this place of yours is beautiful, even the grass grows more vigorously than elsewhere."

"If I were you, I'd expand the pond, put in thousands of fish, build a corridor pavilion, and open a farmhouse restaurant on the side—then invite people to fish, and help them clean the fish after they catch them..."

As he spoke, he remembered that among the pile of fried snacks he ate last night, there really were the three bitterlings he had contributed.

And did he succeed in becoming a boss?

No.

He came to help the boss weed.

Thinking that he had been reduced to a laborer because he couldn't catch fish, he felt humiliated.

Thinking again that his brothers were continuing to fish while he was working...

That feeling, how should he put it?

It's like everyone is a poor student, but the other poor students took advantage of the time he was sleeping to finish their summer homework!

The discomfort in his heart was like a hundred claws scratching.

He grunted: "I'll see who's in last place today."

Zhang Yanping looked at him, finally witnessing the obsession of an old fisherman.

He hesitated at this moment:

"You haven't gone home yesterday or today, you should go back tonight, right?"

Brother Mud Loach hesitated for a moment: "I'm weeding here, which includes three meals, right? Then I'll drive back after dinner. Tomorrow morning, save me a spot at the fish pond."

Fine!

Zhang Yanping looked at the other registrations on his phone and couldn't help but mutter: "Why do I feel like the pond has really become your place to clock in for work?"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.

"The Fishing Bar hasn't been very active lately, the posts I made haven't had any movement, I can't even get ten people together."

Because one is always working.

Brother Mud Loach's body paused, then he continued to pull the weeds even harder.

Zhang Yanping saw it and was deeply shocked—

This is too serious.

He couldn't think of a career plan for the time being, but fortunately, he wasn't idle now, so he kept this matter in his heart.

At this moment, he strolled deeper, and the rows of silver ear and black ear logs already showed the signs of a future bumper harvest.

Especially the silver ear; even though the first batch had been harvested just two days ago, looking at it today, the logs were already densely covered with tiny, fingernail-sized silver ears.

Thinking of the silver ear soup he drank yesterday, that taste!

How should he put it?

Before yesterday, Zhang Yanping thought silver ear was like bird's nest, its nourishing effects only existing in legends.

He did know a scientific concept: an enzyme secreted when silver ear is boiled can lubricate the intestines, and drinking silver ear soup helps with bowel movements.

That was his only concept of silver ear.

And this stuff is slimy and sweet (he didn't know there was a type of silver ear that was crunchy), he couldn't understand why so many people liked it.

But everything ended with the ignorant yesterday.

That bowl of silver ear soup, he had purely eaten it because he was too full and intended to use it to settle his stomach.

But he didn't expect that with one sip, it was clear, sweet, and delicious, with an indescribable taste and texture bursting in his mouth, making him understand in that instant why high-quality silver ear is sold by the gram nowadays.

In short, looking at this patch of silver ear now, he was full of anticipation and joy.

Brother Mud Loach, however, was weeding halfway when he looked up at the wild chestnut tree, which was three stories high and located in the very center of the chestnut orchard, feeling shocked and regretful:

"Oh my, don't look at these little chestnuts, they're only the size of a finger, but they taste so fragrant! Why did this tree grow so tall? There's no way to knock the chestnut burrs down."

Look at this tree again, how sturdy it is.

No wonder they say the soil in the countryside is good... it is good!

Otherwise, how could it raise such a good tree?

He didn't know that all the chestnut trees on the mountain had absorbed spiritual energy, and the wild chestnut tree in front of him had received a wisp of it alone. Standing in front of it now, its sturdiness was even more apparent.

Brother Mud Loach circled it twice, his thoughts turning, finally finding an excuse for his failure to catch fish yesterday:

"In such a geomantic treasure land, it's normal for the fish to be smarter; I can't be blamed for not catching any. It must be that the bait was poorly chosen."

Zhang Yanping didn't know much about fishing, but he knew that whether fish could be caught had nothing to do with the bait—

Because he had seen Song Tan casually scrape something from the kitchen waste and throw it into the net.

He asked subconsciously:

"If the fish are smart, why are there so many in the fish trap?"

Brother Mud Loach remembered the full fish trap that he couldn't even press down with his butt, and now, with a dark face, he couldn't say a word.

For a long while, he could only continue to bury his head and pull weeds vigorously.