Chapter 293: 289. The Desperate Tianjia Mountain Village

That same evening, Miao Lao had Xiaoyuan and the others drive the trucks out of the village, so that the people inside the village wouldn't know the goods had been rejected by Yaotian Pharmaceutical.

Early the next morning, Miao Lao began contacting people; after all, having been in this line of work for so many years, he still had some connections.

This time, Miao Lao was prepared to sell at a lower price; as long as he could sell them, he would have a much easier time explaining things to the village.

But as one phone call after another was made, Miao Lao's heart grew increasingly cold.

Without exception, everyone refused their herbs; some even saw his call and rejected it directly, not even bothering to pretend their phone wasn't nearby.

"I'm sorry, we've received notice not to accept herbs from your village anymore; you should go find someone else."

"Boss Lin, you know the quality of our herbs; the price is negotiable." Miao Lao still held onto a final shred of hope.

But this Boss Lin was quite blunt: "I don't know if your herb quality is good or not, but I do know that if I accept your goods, I won't be able to stay in this circle anymore."

After saying this, Boss Lin couldn't help but ask curiously: "You guys are really something, to actually make so many leading enterprises issue orders together to refuse your goods. To be honest, I'm really curious how you managed to do that?"

Miao Lao's face darkened, and he immediately hung up the phone, ignoring Boss Lin's curiosity.

At this moment, his heart trembled involuntarily; in just a short day, Zhang Ran had actually achieved this step, which was nothing short of a catastrophe for their village.

Now he could also be certain that the matter with Hope Primary School was definitely Zhang Ran's handiwork as well.

Suddenly, he thought of the name of Hope Primary School: Yuanran? Ran?

He suddenly realized that he had truly made a mistake!

At this moment, a wave of regret rose sharply in his heart; had he known Zhang Ran possessed such great power, he absolutely would not have done such things.

But very quickly, this regret vanished; if Zhang Ran were the great philanthropist he had previously imagined, he could beg for mercy now—he didn't care much about face anymore.

However, judging by these actions of Zhang Ran, it was clear that Zhang Ran was not the great philanthropist he had imagined.

Especially when he heard that Yaotian Pharmaceutical had always belonged to Zhang Ran, he thought of Tian Yaohui; although he didn't know Tian Yaohui, having cooperated for so many years, he was very clear about Tian Yaohui.

Now that Tian Yaohui had not only lost all his equity but had also been locked up, this fully revealed some of Zhang Ran's character.

Then there was the attitude of Xia Zhangqing, which was clearly that he didn't want to help them, or rather, couldn't help them anymore.

At this moment, Miao Lao had staked all his hope on Mr. Xiao Mu, hoping he could help their village walk out of this desperate situation. Yes, in Miao Lao's view, they had already fallen into a desperate situation.

By the afternoon, there were already some rumors in Tianjia Mountain Village, and some people even came specifically to ask Miao Lao.

But Miao Lao said nothing, only telling them to prepare to receive Mr. Xiao Mu.

Miao Lao's attitude caused some people's hearts to begin to panic.

Zhang Ran did not know the current state of mind of Miao Lao and the others; he was simply taking back the kindness he had shown all those years ago.

And now, Zhang Ran had also thought it through; he did not regret doing that back then.

Everything he did back then was for the people of that time, not for the people of today.

Therefore, he was taking back everything he had given.

To Zhang Ran, the matter was that simple; he had no other complex thoughts, and it was not even comparable to the amount of thinking he did to deal with people like Tian Yaohui.

Moreover, Zhang Ran was in a very good mood now; not just him, but almost everyone who came this time was very happy.

Ever since they learned that Huo Zhiyuan was preparing to re-select the location for Hope Primary School and would prioritize considering them, the entire Ligou Village had become jubilant.

Not only that, but the impartial teaching from the teachers of Fuyuan Primary School made these people even more grateful.

Therefore, this group of people from Ligou Village became increasingly enthusiastic.

If at first they treated Zhang Ran and his group like customers, now there was a hint of gratitude mixed in.

Furthermore, they were truly too enthusiastic; last night, a child mentioned wanting to eat a chicken leg, and the family responsible for their room and board immediately killed their own mountain chicken, stewed it, and sent it over late at night.

This left the child's family both speechless and moved.

However, the money that should be paid still had to be paid; even though the family pushed back and refused the money, they still firmly pressed it into their hands. They didn't care about this bit of money, but they couldn't leave any bad impressions around the child.

And it had to be said, this mountain chicken was truly delicious, and the price was also too cheap in the eyes of these people!

Zhang Ran liked this atmosphere very much; whenever he was free these past few days, he liked to walk around the village with Huo Zhiyuan and sit down to chat whenever they ran into people from the village.

"Ms. Huo, this is for you." Just after Zhang Ran and Huo Zhiyuan sat down and chatted with an old man for a while, the old man's wife brought out two boxes of milk from the house.

Zhang Ran and Huo Zhiyuan instinctively stood up to take them, "Thank you."

Then, just as Zhang Ran was about to drink it, he was poked in the waist by Huo Zhiyuan. Zhang Ran looked at Huo Zhiyuan with some confusion, only to see Huo Zhiyuan quietly pointing her thumb at the production date; these two boxes of milk had already expired.

This kind of thing was very common in some relatively poor areas; young people would buy things like milk to honor the elderly, but the elderly couldn't bear to eat or drink them, only taking them out when guests came to the house.

As a result, many things like milk would expire while still having plenty left.

Zhang Ran also understood this situation, so he didn't mind, smiled, and continued chatting with the old man.

"Ms. Huo, would you like to stay for a meal tonight? Our family's mountain chicken is the most delicious; you'll know once you taste it," the old man asked with an expectant look.

Huo Zhiyuan smiled and said, "I'm really sorry, we've already promised someone else for this evening; thank you for your kindness."

The old man was a bit disappointed, but quickly wanted to invite them for tomorrow or the day after; however, as luck would have it, Zhang Ran's phone rang.

"Mr. Zhang, that Zhang Xiaotao cut his finger; would you like to come over and take a look?" Taotao's homeroom teacher called to say.

Zhang Ran heard her tone was very normal, without any sense of tension or urgency, and smiled as he said, "Sorry to trouble you, teacher; how did he cut it?"

"It's no trouble, he was just pinched by a lobster claw while catching lobsters; it's already bandaged now. Would you like him to go back and rest for a bit?" the teacher said.

Zhang Ran laughed: "No need, if he doesn't want to come back, then he doesn't have to. You send me the address, and I'll go over to take a look."

It was just a finger being pinched by a lobster; it wasn't a big deal.

After getting the address, Zhang Ran bid farewell to the old man and soon arrived at a small creek with Huo Zhiyuan.