Chapter 217

Zhuo Yun comforted Xu Ran with a few words. After all, it was a private matter between him and Du Xin. Besides, he was not familiar with Du Xin, so he was in no position to say something, which could only be thought through by Xu Ran himself.

And Zhuo Yun now understood why Xu Ran wasn’t fond of Du Xin at the beginning. It was only when he helped them find a place to sell the fruit trees did he change his attitude. It turned out that this guy had a bad history. No wonder Xu Ran was like this.

In the end, this incident turned out to be a scheme. It was not surprising that Xu Ran got angry.

Of course, Zhuo Yun guessed that Du Xin probably had some designs on Xu Ran’s twins. After all, the twins were pretty and smart. More importantly, there were two of them, and Du Xin himself had no children. So in Zhuo Yun’s opinion, this possibility was the largest.

As to Liu Tong, he never thought about him. It was not because he looked down on Liu Tong’s appearance, but he thought that Du Xin, a rich playboy, would not like Liu Tong’s type.

The two talked while eating. Xu Ran was still unhappy, so he drank some wine, but Zhuo Yun didn’t let him drink much. No matter whether they succeeded, they still had to go back tomorrow. It would be bad if they got up late because of a hangover.

However, Xu Ran had a good night’s sleep because he had drunk a few glasses of wine.

The next day, he got up quite early and looked energetic.

The two packed up their things and had breakfast in the inn. Then they asked the waiter to prepare some solid food for them before heading to the Li Village.

Xu Ran followed Lu Qi’s words because Lu Qi’s words were obviously much more reliable than that of Du Xin. No matter what, they had to go to take a look at Li Village.

……

When they arrived at Li Village, they saw a long row of oxcarts lined up. The oxcarts in front had already been loaded with fruit trees, and the ones behind them were packing. It wouldn’t take long in that speed.

Seeing this scene, Xu Ran and Zhuo Yun were overjoyed. At least for the time being, Du Xin hadn’t got chance to say that they wouldn’t let the people from Li Village sell the fruit trees to them. As long as they transport all the fruit trees away before Du Xin came, it would be fine.

Xu Ran and Zhuo Yun looked at each other. Both of them understood each other’s meaning. They were to quickly finish their work and leave, so they started to press the villagers.

As they had never urged them before, everyone thought they were eager to go home, which they could understand. Then they sped up their work. After all, they would be able to get the money after they finished working.

Xu Ran and Zhuo Yun were also helping. After all, the more helpers, the faster.

Fortunately, Du Xin and his guys did not show up after all the fruit trees were loaded onto the oxcarts.

Xu Ran asked Zhuo Yun to check whether there were any problems with the fruit trees, and then he went to the village station to settle the accounts.

The money was given to the village chief, who had recorded how many trees each household had sold. Then the village chief distribute the money to them, which would save Xu Ran a lot of trouble.

After Zhuo Yun’s inspection, Xu Ran paid the large sum of money, and then let Zhuo Yun follow them to the official road. He went to the inn to check out and drive the carriage to catch up with them, since the speed of the carriage was faster than the oxcarts. Thus, the arrangement was very efficient.

On the other hand, Du Xin didn’t make it to Li Village because he was bitten by mosquitoes last night. He didn’t sleep well for the whole night and barely fell asleep until dawn. Then, he woke up late naturally.

So he and Xu Ran missed each other just like that…

Xu Ran returned to the town to check out and loaded the solid food and water prepared by the waiter onto the carriage. Then he drove the carriage to catch up with the big troops which were carrying the fruit trees.

As for Du Xin, Xu Ran had tried his best to avoid him, how could he bade farewell with him?

No one stopping them along the way, they left Half Moon Town smoothly.

The first thing Du Xin did after he got up was to go to the inn to find Xu Ran and the others. It turned out that they had checked out this morning. Du Xin felt that the things were going wrong, and he might be late, so he hurriedly rushed to the Li Village.

When they arrived at Li Village, he saw that the village chief was distributing money to the villagers. Du Xin stomped his feet. He was really late.

Du Xin was so annoyed that he wanted to cry, but he didn’t know on whom it was to blame. He went home dejected and ran out to play after staying at home for a long time. Though he gathered a pack of cronies, he still didn’t get interested. Mm, more importantly Lu Qi didn’t come out to comfort him, which was strange.

Because they had already explored the way when they came, they still remembered the route when they went back, which saved them more than a day.

The troop of oxcarts marching on the road naturally attracted the attention of many people in the village.

Everyone in the village knew that Xu Ran had bought a tract of hill and intended to plant fruit trees in it. Many people also went there to have a look. At that time, it was so bare that even the grass didn’t grow well. Everyone said that Xu Ran was prodigal.

However, no one ever imagined that in a few months, half of the hill had been planted with well grown fruit trees. At this, the people in the village were getting jealous.

Especially this time, Xu Ran came back with so many fruit trees. Many people in the village who were close to Xu Ran hoped that they could get one slice of pie. They thought that the trees would not cost much money, but if the fruit trees bore fruits, it would definitely make a lot of money.

Xu Ran did not reject these people. He claimed straightly that a tree would cost one tael of silver, and as long as one gave the money, he would deliver him the tree.

Such an obvious price gouging, only he could say it.

Everyone knew that the fruit trees couldn’t be sold at this price. Xu Ran just said so to keep them out of it.

But to think from the perspective of Xu Ran, why did the things he had made such great efforts on had to be shared with others? Did he lack these pence? Did they consider him to be a fool?

Xu Ran didn’t want to cause a ruckus. He wanted to raise the price to send them away.

These people would never be satisfied. He thought that he had treated the people in his village nicely, Except for the household affairs and house-repairing matters, he hired villagers to deal with all other things.  As a result, these people still wanted to take a bite off him, that would be impossible.

Xu Ran felt that this might have something to do with his kindness since the incident of Xu Cheng. More importantly, although these people in the village knew his identity as a Scholar, he never used this identity to suppress others, so no one cared.

But today, Xu Ran decided to try it.

The moment they reached the door, the oxcarts were blocked. He couldn’t even make it into his house. Not only would the outsiders laugh at him, he himself felt very uncomfortable.

Luckily, this spectacle was too eye-catching, and the village chief was brought over.

Xu Ran was not afraid of offending these people. After all, apart from several Families, there weren’t many other people. If he wanted to hire someone to work, he would as well find people from the other villages, who didn’t have to be from his own village.

Since these people wanted to mess with him for this matter today, Xu Ran felt that he didn’t have to show any mercy.

The village chief managed to suppress the ruckus, and Xu Ran told the village chief directly, “Village chief, from today onwards, the job of my family, no matter if it’s in the fields or anything else, I will never hire people of our village again. Since I have to pay anyway, how can I not find someone who pleases me?”

Xu Ran’s words made the village chief quite uncomfortable. However when he looked at all these people, coveting to take a slice of the pie, he knew that Xu Ran was angry.

The village chief said, “Xu Ran! I know you’re not feeling well. Don’t be angry. Listen to what they have to say.”

Xu Ran waved his hand. “Village chief, there are some words that I don’t want to hear for a second time. You just need to tell them what I said. If they still want the fuss continue, then I have no intention of being polite. If village chief can’t solve it, the Yamen can. Please tell them to move aside. I’m still waiting to unload the oxcarts.”

Xu Ran didn’t even save the village chief’s face when he said this. He was really angry.

The village chief also knew that Xu Ran couldn’t listen to anything now, so he wanted the villagers to say less and apologize to Xu Ran. Thus Xu Ran might not mind so much.

But he seems to have underestimated the greed of these people. Hardly had he said a few words to persuade people from doing so, when the unanimous objection arose from the people below.

The village chief couldn’t help but get angry at this scene. He was furious and shouted, “If you continue to cause trouble today, the Xu Ran family will have nothing to do with you in the future. As you please. It’s your own business!”

As the village chief said this, the people who had ever worked for Xu Ran’s family calmed down. They knew about the treatment given by Xu Ran, which was a lot better than that in the town. If Xu Ran was offended, he would never hire them to work in the future. At this, these people were quite afraid. After all, they were still counting on making more money.

Of course, these were just a part of people. Others who hadn’t worked for the Xu Ran’s family, or had wanted to but was rejected by Xu Ran, naturally refused to let go. They kicked up a row. Among them, the two families of Xu Ran’s uncle and third uncle were especially unbridled.

Xu Ran looked at the group of people coldly, then turned and said to Zhuo Yun, “Anyway, they have made a spectacle here. Let them unload the fruit trees first. Besides, make sure that they won’t come over and cause trouble, in case they might damage the fruit tress. Since these people are so shameless, I have no need to talk to them properly.”

Zhuo Yun looked at Xu Ran with concern, “Ran, what will you do?”