Chapter 529: The Nervous Driver

The atmosphere inside the car was very strange.

The taxi driver kept glancing at the rearview mirror.

Because the moment that dark-faced, burly man got into the car, he was no longer the smiling person he had been while haggling; instead, he looked quite fierce.

Moreover, all four passengers in the car were big, grown men.

First, they pretended not to know each other, then they all turned out to be from the same place, haggled so seriously after getting in, and were heading to such a remote village that they had to use navigation...

The driver suddenly met Zhang Yanping's gaze and instantly dared not look at the rearview mirror again; instead, he cleared his throat.

"Ahem—well, it's convenient to go out these days, everything is done by scanning codes for transfers... I haven't received any cash all day, just fifty yuan in change in my pocket..."

Isn't that stating the obvious? Even thieves are going out of business these days.

However, perhaps the driver was just a chatterbox.

Zhang Yanping thoughtfully expressed his understanding: "Yes, mobile transfers are too convenient. In the past, carrying cash made one feel anxious, but now you don't even need to withdraw money for tens of thousands; just a flick of the finger is enough."

The driver's heart skipped a beat.

He quickly said: "Oh my, there are downsides too. Transfer records can be checked as soon as you look them up! Big data is networked, everything can be tracked..."

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What on earth does this driver want to talk about? Zhang Yanping couldn't keep up. Didn't they just talk about online payments? How did it get to big data already?

Xin Jun listened silently from the side. Seeing the driver sweating all over his head despite the air conditioning, he realized what was happening belatedly and almost laughed out loud!

He quickly spoke up to rescue the vigilant driver: "Qiaoqiao, we'll be home soon. Are you hungry?"

Qiaoqiao rubbed his stomach: "Hungry. But Teacher Xin, are you sure my Ultraman is at home?"

"Let me check." Xin Jun opened his phone. Seeing the driver's shoulders instantly slump and him pulling out a tissue to wipe the sweat from his head, he thought to himself that Zhang Yanping's current appearance was quite interesting to take out!

With his mind racing and his eyes fixed on his phone, he quickly answered Qiaoqiao: "One has already been signed for! And another one is on the way."

"Yay, yay! Teacher Xin, which Ultraman is it? I saw Taro recently..."

As the two went back and forth with questions and answers, the atmosphere in the car visibly relaxed.

Zhang Yanping also rubbed his stomach: "I'm really hungry..."

At this moment, the young man sitting next to him silently opened his backpack, revealing a pocketful of chicken feet, pickled plums, small bread, and Oreos:

"Want some?"

Seeing this, Zhang Yanping felt even more aggrieved: everyone else knows to bring a backpack full of food when they go out, why didn't he bring a whole box!

He could only wave his hand listlessly: "Thanks, brother, I'm craving the food at home—by the way, are you also from Yunqiao Village? How come I haven't seen you before? Which family are you from?"

The young man thought to himself, I haven't seen you either!

Qiaoqiao in the front looked a bit familiar, but the other person didn't look like the silly person in his memory...

He retracted his gaze: "I live at the corner by the village clinic. My dad's surname is Zhou, Zhou Maozhu—which family are you from?"

"Oh! Oh!"

Zhang Yanping was instantly surprised: "You're Uncle Maozhu's son! What was your name again? Why didn't you say so earlier? I'm a relative of the old Song family. Uncle Maozhu helped our family stir-fry quite a bit of tea this year!"

"Supposedly you grew up in the village too, right? Qiaoqiao, do you know Uncle Maozhu's family?"

Qiaoqiao then turned his head to look, looked again, and looked a third time, then furrowed his brows: "Brother Tianyu? Why have you grown ugly? You're so thin your face is like that."

He sucked in his cheeks, vividly demonstrating how Brother Tianyu had become "ugly."

Zhang Yanping saw this and was instantly amused!

—Qiaoqiao is quite good at capturing the essence!

The Zhou Tianyu before them had a square face, but his cheeks were sunken, and his whole person didn't look very spirited, looking like a squeezed corporate slave...

Little did he know, Zhou Tianyu was even more surprised than Qiaoqiao:

"Qiaoqiao, you... you've changed!"

He used to be so countrified, his eyes very clear but also silly, but the Qiaoqiao before him looked really... really...

He thought for a long time and finally remembered the feeling of "youthfulness" and "clean purity" that star-chasers on the internet talked about.

However, as a fellow villager who had lived at school since middle school and had an age gap with Qiaoqiao, Zhou Tianyu's memory was truly blurry after thinking about it, so he could only give up. Instead, he asked happily: "So the tea my dad sent over was from your family? I wanted to buy a few more jin to give as gifts when I came back this time!"

He sighed while speaking: "I asked my dad to send me some, but he wouldn't... it made me unable to give any gifts for the Dragon Boat Festival."

The driver had been listening the whole way and finally found a topic to join in!

He quickly took over: "Yunqiao Village... isn't that our local tea? It's not famous. If you tell people, they'll just think it's wild tea from the mountains—young man, your dad was right not to send it! You have to have a brand to give gifts."

"Besides, if it were that kind of wild tea from deep in the mountains, the kind that costs thousands per jin, it would be fine to give to someone who understands. But our tea, at most, is only a few hundred yuan per jin; it's really not interesting..."

He chattered on, opening the floodgates.

Zhou Tianyu disagreed: "Master, then you don't know. When I gave it out, everyone chased me every day asking where it came from, saying they wanted a few more jin no matter what!"

"Whoa!" The driver was also surprised: "Young man, where do you work? What do you do? It seems you gave it to people who understand tea..."

Zhou Tianyu smiled politely: "I work in Beicheng."

"Whoa! Coastal, first-tier city—that's amazing! Are house prices there super expensive?"

The two chatted back and forth, leaving Zhang Yanping feeling increasingly bewildered.

What kind of business is he doing that he's sending out several jin just for the Dragon Boat Festival! Wouldn't that double when the New Year comes? Everyone is young, how come everyone else is developing so brilliantly!

He asked with a hint of nostalgia: "Then you... brother, what business are you in? Who are you planning to give gifts to? Sigh, why didn't my Uncle Zhou say anything? We don't have much in stock now, but we can still spare a few jin."

Speaking of this, Zhou Tianyu also had a headache:

"I'm just a wage earner—you know about adult education, right? At first, I did middle and high school training. Later, after the policy came down, the company transformed to do early childhood education, children's logical thinking training, talent... Later there was another policy, so we did adult college entrance exams."

"It's the kind where you improve your academic qualifications, where middle and high school graduates get a university degree... Brother, do you know anyone who needs this? Our company is still very reliable."

He probably had good performance, so he spoke with full confidence, and at this moment, he turned the topic back:

"And the tea. I gave the tea to a few managers in my department. Later, the gifts were well-received, and they liked them too, and even asked me where I bought them... As a result, my dad couldn't bear the cost of the gift and insisted it was ten thousand per jin... I know him! He just couldn't bear the money!"

"He doesn't even think about it. I have a salary of over ten thousand a month. Sending a few jin of local tea out costs at most a few hundred yuan. If I get two more orders assigned to me in return, wouldn't that pay for itself?" ===== CHAPTER 530 =====