Chapter 123: Trouble Stirring

“The thing is really good, but it’s almost two months away from the autumn harvest. We can only test it then,” said Grandpa Wang, sounding a bit disappointed.

“Grandpa, two months will pass quickly. There’s no need to rush. There will always be a time when we can use it. If the results are good, I plan to invite the county magistrate to come and see. Finally, I’ll give him these blueprints. Today, we took Luo Shi to report to the officials. We feel that the county magistrate is very good. Su Yu also thinks he’s quite reliable,” Wang Jinhe explained.

Grandpa Wang paused for a moment and then nodded with a smile, “You are doing the right thing. If this thing works well, take it to the court. It can be popularized, and the autumn harvest will be much faster by then.”

This way, they wouldn’t have to worry about autumn rains affecting the harvest.

“I’ve also considered that.”

In the evening, when Yuan Bao returned, his face looked a bit grim. Wang Jinhe looked at Yuan Bao in confusion. Since he met Yuan Bao, she always thought he was a very easy-going person. This was the first time she had seen him so angry.

“What happened, Yuan Bao? Why do you look so angry?” Wang Jinhe asked, puzzled.

“Yeah, what’s going on in Hululu Village?” Su Yu frowned.

They didn’t go to Hululu Village today when they took Luo Shi to the county office. Yuan Bao went there alone. Considering how grateful the people of Hululu Village were to Yuan Bao, they shouldn’t have done something to make him so angry. But Yuan Bao’s emotions didn’t seem right.  

Taking a deep breath, Yuan Bao furrowed his brows and said, “It’s not about Hululu Village; it’s the neighboring village. They heard that the fruits from Hululu Village are all sold out, so they came over asking me to take a look. I made it very clear to them that we’ll consider buying their fruits once Hululu’s fruits are sold out. But those people from the neighboring village were unrelenting and wasted a lot of our time.”  

Thinking about the people from that village, Yuan Bao felt a strong sense of disgust.

Meeting Su Yu’s gaze, Wang Jinhe thought for a moment before saying, “We don’t need to reveal all the details. Tomorrow, we’ll go with you, and if they persist, we’ll put them directly on the blacklist.”

They were selective when it came to purchasing fruits, and people with the mentality of coercion and forced sales didn’t deserve their business.

“Yes, Young Madam, it’s best not to bring Young Master along tomorrow,” Yuan Bao considered and said seriously.

If there was a conflict and Young Master got hurt, it would undoubtedly drive him crazy.

Wang Jinhe nodded, “You’re right. Tomorrow, we shouldn’t bring Xiao Bao with us.”

Hearing this, Xiao Bao pouted unhappily, “But I wanted to go fruit picking!”

“You can pick fruits anytime, there’s no rush for just one day. Tomorrow, there will definitely be things to do, and little ones can’t come along,” Wang Jinhe reached out and tousled Xiao Bao’s hair.

Xiao Bao wasn’t the type to throw a tantrum. Although he was still a bit unhappy, he said, “Okay, I’ll wait until you and Daddy sort things out, and then I’ll go.”

After all, there were still plenty of fruits left to pick. He could go whenever he wanted.

The next day, when Wang Jinhe and Su Yu arrived, there was a standoff between the villagers of Hululu and the neighboring village. The people from the neighboring village even blocked them, not allowing them to pick fruits.

Seeing this scene, Su Yu frowned and asked Hu Lin, “Village Chief, what’s going on?”

Hu Lin replied self-deprecatingly, “These are people from Lin Village. Their village, like ours, grows fruits. In recent years, fruit profits haven’t been great, so they haven’t taken care of their orchards much. Now that they’ve heard our village is selling fruits at high prices, they want a share of the profits, so they’ve come here.”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Hu Lin! When did we neglect our orchards?” countered the opposing village chief.

Hu Lin sneered and sarcastically remarked, “You claim you’ve been taking good care of your orchards? Really?”

“Of course,” the opposing village chief retorted confidently.

Hu Lin chuckled softly, “If you’ve truly been taking good care of your orchards, why did you mix your fruits with ours to sell? Do you think Master Su and the others are gullible?”

“They can’t sell their fruits and now they want to ruin our business. These people are really malicious,” Su Yu and Wang Jinhe understood the situation after listening for a while. It turned out that the people from Lin Village had inferior fruits, and seeing that Hululu’s fruits were in demand and sold at a high price, they wanted to take advantage of the situation.

Yuan Bao frowned, his face cold, and said bluntly, “There’s no need for us to buy fruits from these people, Master.”

Wang Jinhe nodded in agreement, “Yuan Bao, I think you’re absolutely right. There’s no need for us to buy from these people.”

Upon hearing this, the people from Lin Village became discontented. “On what grounds do you refuse to buy from us?”

“Is the quality of your village’s fruits as good as those from Hululu? Considering your village’s tendency to cause trouble, we don’t want to have any association with you people. After all, individuals like you, once involved, are hard to shake off. We buy fruits to make money. As long as the fruits are good, we have no problem paying a high price. But if your fruits are not up to par, and you still expect us to buy, are we the foolish ones, or are you just too naive? We are businessmen aiming to earn a profit, not here for charity,” Wang Jinhe stated firmly. She didn’t mind helping Hululu Village, but it had its limits. Even if a village’s fruits were slightly inferior, they might consider purchasing, but the price would naturally be lower.

The people from Lin Village were left speechless.

They couldn’t boast that their fruits were better than those from Hululu.

They hadn’t properly managed their orchards for two or three years, unlike Hululu, which had taken good care of their fruit trees year after year.

The village chief of Lin Village had been making fun of Hu Lin during these years, questioning why he bothered supervising the villagers when the fruit couldn’t be sold. But to his chagrin, Hululu had turned the tables this year. People were coming to buy their fruit, and the prices were not low. Regret filled his heart.

The villagers of Lin Village glared at their village chief with resentment. If he had set a good example like Hu Lin, they might not be in this situation. Restart next year? Many of their fruit trees had deteriorated beyond recovery. How could they restart?

The village chief of Lin Village was puzzled by the hostile looks he received from his own villagers. “What’s with that expression?” he asked with a furrowed brow.

“Why can’t you be like the village chief of Hululu village and urge us to tend our fruit trees properly? He scolds his villagers to keep cultivating, but what about you? You set a bad example by not doing it yourself!” some angry villagers of Lin Village shouted.

Hearing their accusatory words, the village chief of Lin Village gritted his teeth and retorted, “You people weren’t willing to tend to them yourselves. Even if I had encouraged you, would you have done it properly?”

The villagers of Lin Village fell silent; they truly wouldn’t have.