Chương 3: Life of Money-picking
Biên tập viên: Dragon Boat Translation
Five kilometres of road was nothing to Chen Chen, who was born in a village. After about only an hour, he had made it into the county town of Shichuan County.
Shichuan County wasn't a big one; it didn't even have city walls. At night, apart from some entertainment premises, the rest of the place was immersed in darkness.
"Is there anything valuable around here?"
Chen Chen showed up in entertainment premises with large streams of people, continuously utilizing the tracking system.
He wasn't planning to go to places like the beggars' refuges. He probably wouldn't even find a fat flea in those places.
"Nothing within ten meters."
"Is there anything valuable around here?"
"Five meters ahead, there's a lost jade pendant at the turn."
Gained a lost jade pendant +1.
"Is there anything valuable around here?"
...
"Three meters ahead, at the seam of the road, there's a copper coin."
...
"Two meters ahead, beside the wall, there are some lost pieces of silver."
...
"Five meters ahead, there's a dropped pearl hairpin."
...
"In the bushes ahead, there's some heteromorphous grass."
...
That night, Chen Chen bustled about for several hours. Before dawn, he was carrying another bag on him. It was filled with all sorts of things, with a total value of perhaps more than a hundred taels!
Among them were more than twenty fragments of silver! In comparison to the twenty-over taels, the copper coins were almost negligible.
In Shichuan County, one tael was equivalent to a thousand pennies. In other words, the amount of silver that he had picked up that night was enough to pay the farm rent of about twenty families.
'The county town is wealthy indeed. The things they simply drop are enough to pay for a great deal of stuff for the villagers,' Chen Chen thought to himself. At the same time, he felt glad that he was not in the world that used QR code-scanning for payments. Otherwise, he wouldn't ever come across money.
'But money-picking is also a one-time transaction, I'm afraid these lost things were only accumulated over many years in Shichuan County.'
As he shook his head, Chen Chen walked toward the Stone Village.
At that moment, he really was afraid of being robbed.
...
However, Chen Chen was just overthinking. Although he was carrying lots of valuable items, the way he was dressed did not bear the slightest bit of resemblance to the rich.
Therefore, even though he had crossed paths with many people along his way to Stone Village, barely anyone took a second glance at him.
This made him think of the piece of dung that was buried.
'Bah! What the heck am I thinking about! I have nothing to do with dung!' Chen Chen inwardly cursed himself. Upon returning home, it turned out that his parents weren't home at the moment.
Usually, they would have gone farming by this point in time. However, the farmlands had been flooded at the moment, so what did they go out for?
Without many second thoughts, Chen Chen hid the items such as the jade pendant and the hairpin, and took out the cash, keeping them in a pouch.
When he was done with that, he walked out of the house and went to Auntie Lee's doorstep.
"Erya! Is Auntie Lee home? Where are my parents!"
"Brother Chen, they have been summoned to the village chief's house for some discussions," Erya's timid voice replied from inside of the house.
Upon hearing that, Chen Chen went back home and waited in silence. He even took the chance to feed Lao Hei.
Lao Hei snuffed his hand like it usually did and made some small noises.
Chen Chen smiled as he saw this, then said, "This pig is getting better and better at understanding humans, but it's a pity that you're only a pig. You can't follow me to go for immortality cultivation. After all, I can't be riding a pig to a fight when my opponents are riding dragons, can I? That won't look good at all. What do you say?"
"Oink! Oink!"
Lao Hei squealed with dissatisfaction as it ate the pig food. Chen Chen wasn't sure what it was trying to express.
Right at that time, a big group of people arrived at the entrance of the village, as if they were a flood wave.
Chen Chen spotted his parents at first glance, but their faces didn't look good.
Only when the group of people got closer did Chen Chen notice a young man in expensive clothes behind them. The young man had a black mole on his cheek and was wearing a look of arrogance, just one step away from having the word "villain" written all over his face. Standing behind him were about seven or eight sidekicks.
All the sidekicks had long sticks in their hands, the looks on their faces extremely fierce.
"There are still three days left till rent payment, so why is he here today?" Chen Chen mumbled.
He knew the young man. He was the oldest son of one of the three great families in the county town, known as Wang Feng. The farmland where the villagers of Stone Village farmed was a property of the Wang family.
In this world, there were countless dynasties. The dynasty where Chen Chen was in was named the Great Jin, with 36 states under its jurisdiction. Every state had 12 more cities, and Shichuan County was a county under the jurisdiction of Feiyun City of Ji State.
To be one of the great families of a county wasn't a big deal in the dynasty, but they were a prestigious family in this county, something that peasants like them could not compare with.
Even if the three great families murdered a few people in the midst of their rage, they would just have to pay some fines at most.
"Young Lord Wang, we will certainly pay the farm rent on time three days from now. You didn't have to come here in person..."
The elderly village chief followed behind Wang Feng, wearing a look of subservience on his face, pleading with him like a dog.
Wang Feng wasn't bothered. Laughing, he said, "Haha! What are you barbarians going to pay the farm rent with? Nothing more than selling this and that. Since you're going to sell your stuff anyway, I'll just look around and see if there's anything I need. That should be fine, right?"
"It is… It is fine," the old village chief nodded awkwardly, continuing to follow on his heels.
"Who owns these chickens? Take some home and cook my mom chicken soup." As he walked, Wang Feng suddenly pointed at someone's hen coop.
Upon hearing his command, a sidekick behind him immediately walked up to it and carried the entire coop on his back.
"Lord Wang, how much can these chickens pay off?" the village chief asked gingerly.
"Just the interest. How much can a few da*n chickens cost? Why? Do you disagree?"
Wang Feng shot a glance at the village chief, the thugs behind him brandishing the sticks in their hands.
"No… No, I don't." The village chief wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead.
How dare he disagree at this point? If he did, the stick would find a way to his face. He was just a bag of old bones now. How would he be able to withstand it?
As for the owner of the chickens, they kept quiet despite their anger.
Chen Chen did not speak as he saw this occurring, but he had a feeling that Wang Feng was deliberately looking for something.
Could he be looking for pretty women?
But what pretty women would this da*n village have? As far as Chen Chen could see, Auntie Lee and his parents were worrying over nothing.
With Erya's looks… Ahem, no one would want her.
Right at that moment, Wang Feng's eyes lit up, and he made a gesture to one of his sidekicks with his mouth.
The sidekick understood it right away. He dashed straight into a house, and not long after, he dragged out a little girl with braids, who looked to be around ten years old.
"What are you people doing? Little Duo is only nine!"
A middle-aged man with a crippled leg emerged from the crowd and hurried forward to stop them, attempting to take back the little girl, but soon collapsed to the ground as a thug behind Wang Feng hit him with his stick.
"It's her blessing that our lord picks her. What the heck are you yelling for?" The thug cursed ferociously, making the faces of all the villagers turn pale.
Even Chen Chen's eyes were filled with disgust. He never expected Wang Feng to have this kind of hobby.
What a pervert!
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