Chapter 200

The village head did not break his promise. After breakfast, he went out and asked Xu Ran and Liu Tong not to run around. If they really had nothing to do, they could cut some grass for their horse.

Xu Ran had wanted to go with the village head and look for fruit trees himself, but the village head rejected them mercilessly.

Then he could only watch the village head go out, and get some grass with Liu Tong for Big Black.

Xu Ran asked unwillingly, “Isn’t the village head afraid that we will steal from him since he has left two outsiders at his home?”

Liu Tong answered suddenly, “Ran, shall we steal the oil lamp?”

Xu Ran, “…” Liu Tong’s answer was really good!

Among all visible items in the village head’s house, the oil lamp might be the only thing that was easy to carry and of value.

Xu Ran lowered his head helplessly.

The village head didn’t come back until noon. Xu Ran even started to wonder if he had been pushed into the river.

As a result, just as they were about to cook themselves, the village head came back with a lot of people following behind. Well, there weren’t that many, about a dozen, all from the village.

The village head pointed at the people behind him and said, “All of them have fruit trees in their homes and they are willing to sell them. After lunch, go and take a look. Buy anyones you need, and you may set the price yourself. If you want someone to help you carry the fruit trees back, they are here.”

After that, Xu Ran saw the dozen people looking at him with expectation. He couldn’t rub his nose in front of so many people, so Xu Ran nodded and gave thanks to the the village head.

After that, the village head asked these people to go back first, showing no intention of inviting them to stay for lunch at all.

The village head said, “Didn’t you see that I’m poor? They would consume my one month’s food supply within one meal. If they stayed for lunch, I would starve to death.”

Since there were fewer people, Xu Ran rubbed his nose and said, “Village head, I heard that you own ten mu of field and ten mu of land. Even if you collect money from tenants, your earnings would be enough to cover your daily expenses. Why are you leading such a miserable life?”

Xu Ran was confused, but the village head didn’t answer the curious child’s question kindly. Instead, he went to the kitchen to cook.

Xu Ran, “…” Why had he always been ignored recently? Xu Ran was really puzzled.

However, since the village head was unwilling to answer his question, Xu Ran couldn’t force him. But that was not the point. The point was that it was useless for Xu Ran to force him, because he couldn’t really do anything to him.

It was unknown whether it was the village head showing mercy to them or anything else, they had meat at lunch. Although it was cured meat, there was a lot of fat in it. However, it was still great since they hadn’t had any meat for the last few days.

After lunch, the village head took the two of them to the village to pick the fruit trees. The village head also took them to visit the dozen people’s homes.

There were many fruit trees, but Xu Ran didn’t pick many. It was mainly because these trees were too big, and they couldn’t move them back even though they wanted them.

Xu Ran bought all those that could be carried, which were less than 200 trees. Xu Ran was a little disappointed because it was still far from what he needed after all.

Liu Tong said to Xu Ran, “Ran, why don’t we go to their mountain too? There should be fruit trees on their mountain that we have on our mountain. Let’s go ask the village head if we can do it?”

Xu Ran thought about it. Since they had come and experienced so many twists and turns, it was better to bring more fruit trees back. Therefore, he nodded and agreed, “Okay, then I’ll go ask.”

The village head was talking to someone. Xu Ran walked over and waited. After they finished speaking, he said to the village head, “Village head, I want to go to the mountain. There are many wild fruit trees there, and they are small. May I carry some back?”

“Mountain? Do you know how dangerous it is on the mountain, yet you still want to go to the mountain?” The village head had “You must want to die so badly” written all over his face.

Xu Ran said to himself. There was no dreadful monsters on the mountain, so why couldn’t he go?

However, he felt that if he said it, the village head would definitely get mad, so it was wise to not say it.

Xu Ran said, “Don’t worry, village head. We won’t go deep into the woods, and we’ll just look for them at the edge of the woods. We’ll take whatever we could get. If there’s none, it’s fine.”

Seeing how sincere Xu Ran was, the village head thought for a moment and nodded, “Alright, I’ll go with you then, but you can’t go deep. You’d better listen to me. Otherwise, I’ll tell Second Young Master his real identity.”

So that was a threat! Xu Ran pouted and found it childish. Of course, he had to admit that this threat was effective.

Xu Ran nodded, “Village head, you’re the boss. We will follow your arrangement. We will have the ones in the village dug up tomorrow. After that, we would carry them to Xu Village with an ox cart. We’ll have to trouble you then.”

The village head waved his hand impatiently, “Alright, alright, I’ll arrange that.”

After the village head agreed, Xu Ran went back to Liu Tong happily and shared the news with him.

After they finished negotiating with the people in the village about the fruit trees, the village head took them to the mountain. They had stayed at the edge of the woods till dark. Although there wasn’t much, at least they didn’t get nothing. They got about 200 fruit trees from the mountain in total.

The price of fruit trees wasn’t low. The trees on the mountain were free, but Xu Ran paid some good money for the ones he got from the villagers.

Plus the transportation fee, the cost was quite high. Xu Ran thought to himself. Thanks to the money Lin Hua had given him, otherwise! They would have nothing to live on when they bought these trees.

Xu Ran and Liu Tong set off on March 23rd. There was a large group of people going home with them. The fruit trees were all carried by an ox cart, and five people were with them.

The speed of the ox cart was quite slow. It took about three days for them to arrive at Xu Village.

At his own home, Xu Ran was not so vigilant against these people as he had been on the road. After all, Gao Quan was at home.

Xu Ran asked Shao Yu to tidy up the bamboo house and let these people stay for the night. Then they went back home with the money the next day. Xu Ran was generous to them.

Tangtang and Guoguo were the happiest ones when Xu Ran and Liu Tong arrived home. They even wanted to go to bed with Xu Ran and Liu Tong, which had not happened before.

Of course, Baozi was also happy. He also remembered Xu Ran and Liu Tong, but he was too young.

While eating, Xu Ran told everything that had happened these days. After that, he exclaimed that he was so naive that he believed anyone.

While Tangtang and Guoguo, as well as Shao Yu, were very sad that Mr. Hu had died.

Xu Ran remembered how he had felt back then. From the sadness at the beginning to the shock then, to the undescribable feeling, he had not expected any of them. He had not expected that Mr. Hu would pass away like this, and in such a miserable way.

And then, since he had been involved, he hadn’t even got the time to think about Mr. Hu.

When they had left, he and Liu Tong had gone to see Mr. Hu, in front of a little mound without a tombstone.

If he had known that it was a farewell back then, Xu Ran wouldn’t have had Mr. Hu leave, no matter what, but the die was cast.

Xu Ran comforted Tangtang and Guoguo. He told them a few jokes and failed to make the two children happy. Was it a good thing for one to have too much empathy? Xu Ran started to worry again.

However, Mr. Hu was an elder after all, so it was acceptable.

Xu Ran could only comfort himself like this.

The next day, Xu Ran got up early and watched Tangtang and Guoguo practicing martial arts together with Gao Quan. The medicated bath was almost done, and their bodily channels were almost clear. The two children looked very energetic and even better when they were practicing martial arts.

Xu Ran had nothing to do and practiced with them. He also did some jogging with them on the mountain.

After breakfast, Xu Ran had to start planting fruit trees. He took a look at the ones he had planted before. Some of them had died, but not that many, so it went well.

The burs he had planted were growing very well. After the flowers had withered, some of them had already born fruit.

Xu Ran thanked Gao Quan, saying that he had taken good care of the fruit trees.

As a result, Gao Quan replied coldly, “It was Tangtang and Guoguo who have been taking care of them. They said that they wanted Baozi to have the fruit in autumn.”

Xu Ran rubbed his nose, feeling that his sense of presence withered a little. Why had his sons always thought of their younger brother, not their dad?

It was very necessary for him to look into the problem.

Thinking so, Xu Ran kept working. It took the four of them three whole days to plant all 200 fruit trees. Now the field on the mountain he had bought looked quite decent, but the other half was still empty. It seemed that Xu Ran had to make another trip to Ban Yue Town.

But not for now. Zhuo Yun was about to come back too. Xu Ran thought that they might as well go together after Zhuo Yun came back. He wouldn’t take Liu Tong with him. After all, it was not safe. Du Xin was still there.

Besides, Xu Ran couldn’t just leave right after he had come back. He had to visit the deli. And also, Xu Ran needed to send some new food materials to Mr. Chen. After all, Mr. Chen had paid him before.

April was approaching. Xu Ran had to grow corns too, so he had a lot of business to attend to.

Xu Ran went to town the next day after he had finished planting the fruit trees. Now it was getting warmer, and there were more people buying fruits.

Xu Ran went alone. When he got there, he saw that there were people in front of both shops, and many of them went shopping in both shops. Xu Ran smiled. Qin Shuwu was really good at running business.

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