The proprietress fell silent.
After all, it was a small restaurant in a village, and while they often bought vegetables and eggs from villagers, this was the first time they’d received salted duck eggs.
The proprietress didn’t say anything, but after a moment’s thought, she readily agreed.
She mainly considered that Rong Ziyin was now the village’s veterinarian at the livestock station, and her own family raised two pigs, a cow, and quite a few chickens. Therefore, maintaining a good relationship with Rong Ziyin was very important.
However, the price still needed to be negotiated. The village wasn’t like the city, and their village was used to raising ducks. Although salted duck eggs were more expensive than chicken eggs, they weren’t exactly rare delicacies. Her small shop was limited, and she didn’t know how long it would take Rong Ziyin to buy this basket of salted duck eggs.
After thinking it over, she suggested a price, “Dr. Rong, how about we set it at one yuan each first? I won’t take advantage of you; my shop will also sell them for one yuan each initially. If they sell well later, we’ll raise the price.”
This was standard practice at the snack bar; if someone brought cooked food to sell, they would start at a low price, and then adjust the price according to the taste after the villagers had tried it.
The proprietress and her family were honest people and well-liked in the village. Rong Ziyin understood this perfectly and readily agreed.
“Thank you,” Rong Ziyin said, putting the thirty yuan in his pocket before turning back to the livestock station.
The village chief had indeed gone to Xiaowang Village with his men to demand an explanation, but Rong Ziyin’s work wasn’t finished yet. After lunch, he still needed to separate and culture the blood drawn from the recently sick ducks for final testing.
Rong Ziyin remained remarkably calm. After entering the livestock station, he changed his clothes and went to wash his hands before having lunch. However, the system couldn’t help but groan.
This was a lottery by the Heavenly Dao! After thirty draws, it only got thirty yuan. This inexplicable feeling of cheapness made the system even more desperate. It even doubted whether it was some kind of golden finger provided by the Heavenly Dao to Rong Ziyin, but just a joke.
System: I might be a piece of trash.
Rong Ziyin comforted it: Don’t be sad, thirty yuan is still money! We can pay off our debts now.
As he spoke, Rong Ziyin casually transferred thirty yuan to the loan shark’s Alipay account, with the note: Repayment.
Half a minute later, Rong Ziyin received a notification: [Loan shark’s anger value +1000].
Rong Ziyin: So young, yet so temperamental.
The system was speechless, thinking that Rong Ziyin might soon be subjected to the loan shark’s furious abuse.
However, to its surprise, this loan shark, who usually sent threatening text messages to Rong Ziyin, didn’t react for a long time this time. Obviously, it was so angry that it was powerless to move and had no words to curse.
After all, in all his years in the business, he had never seen such a bizarre lunatic as Rong Ziyin. He owed 200,000 yuan, and his first repayment was only 30 yuan. Even a beggar wouldn’t get that much!
As for why he hadn’t called to hurl insults, it was because Rong Ziyin was always cautious, and the loan shark didn’t dare to easily use voice communication with him, fearing Rong Ziyin would record it and leave behind some careless evidence. That’s why he could only threaten him with this ephemeral text message method.
Thinking of this, the loan shark quickly provided Rong Ziyin with over 500 more anger points.
The system was also bewildered by Rong Ziyin’s bizarre actions. Rong Ziyin himself seemed quite at ease, casually using the 1,000 gold coins provided by the loan shark, and then immediately doing a single draw. A salted duck egg appeared precisely in his right hand. Rong Ziyin opened his insulated lunchbox, which contained a bowl of fried rice with egg.
Rong Ziyin cracked open the salted duck egg, gently poking the egg white with his chopsticks. The red oil, carrying the unique aroma of the salted egg yolk, immediately flowed out. Rong Ziyin scooped out the yolk and spread it on top of the fried rice. One bite, and the rich, savory flavor was a perfect accompaniment to the rice. With the occasional bursts of anger from the loan shark, Rong Ziyin ate with even greater enjoyment. He thought the system’s lottery system was actually quite good.
The loan shark harassed him daily; until the truth was revealed, adding to his troubles was like interest.
Yes, Rong Ziyin did it on purpose.
Meanwhile, the snack bar welcomed its first wave of lunchtime customers.
Villagers like to chat during meals, and today’s topic was naturally the sick ducks in Xiao Wang Village.
“Hey, the village chief and the others haven’t come back yet. I really had something to do this morning, otherwise I would have gone with them to see what was going on.”
“Who isn’t! We’re all from the same village, making a living off the land. It would be a real beast to deliberately bring disease to our village!” Those
who missed going to Xiaowang Village with the village chief were now all gathered together speculating about what might have happened there.
As they talked about the sick ducks, someone’s gaze fell on a basket of salted duck eggs on the nearby pickled vegetable table.
“Hey, ma’am, your ducks are sick, are you sure it’s okay to still have eggs?”
“Don’t worry! These were brought by Doctor Rong.” The proprietress smiled and assured Rong Ziyin. She had no doubt about the safety of Rong Ziyin’s basket of salted duck eggs; after all, Rong Ziyin himself was the first to notice the ducks were sick.
How could salted duck eggs brought by a doctor be sick!
Clearly, the villagers were simple and honest, and their thoughts were similar to the proprietress’s.
The man who had just asked the question casually picked up a salted duck egg and returned to his seat, saying, “I got one! Today’s my turn, I have to taste it properly, this top student’s salted duck egg is definitely different.”
As he spoke, he cracked open the salted duck egg. As soon as the red oil oozed out, he quickly put his mouth to it and took a sip, his taste buds instantly captivated by the explosive freshness on his tongue. The man was stunned for a moment, a strange feeling welling up in his heart.
Rong Ziyin’s salted duck egg, although delicious, was different from the savory kind in restaurants. Instead, it had a homely taste, instantly reminding him of his grandmother.
His generation had experienced the three years of famine and the reform and opening up. They lived in a village and were all free-range when they were young.
Life wasn’t very wealthy back then, and being able to eat meat was a holiday. Getting a salted duck egg was usually a rare treat, only when he did well on an exam, and his grandmother would be happy and take one out of the jar for him.
Cool sorghum rice water chilled by well water, paired with a salted duck egg oozing with red oil. Every bite was pure bliss, a testament to the elders’ unconditional love for their juniors.
It was a pity, however, that he hadn’t tasted such a flavor in so long.
Thinking this, the man’s eyes reddened slightly. He silently finished his rice, then immediately turned to the proprietress and said he planned to buy ten more salted duck eggs to take home.
Salted duck eggs weren’t anything new; every household pickled a couple every few days, so it wasn’t necessary to keep taking more.
This man’s attitude attracted the attention of many people in the shop.
Seeing half the salted duck eggs in his basket disappear in a flash, some curious individuals quickly bought one, and were immediately amazed by the taste.
“Dr. Rong’s skills are amazing!”
“Even my grandma’s salted duck eggs don’t taste as authentic as his!”
“Putting everything else aside, it’s so hot now, salted duck eggs are perfect with rice. After eating them, I feel completely at ease, not restless at all.”
Rong Ziyin only took out thirty in total, and these villagers bought them all.
Finally, seeing that the setup was too exaggerated, the proprietress quickly and decisively kept the last one.
Just as they were eating, the village chief returned with his entourage. The proprietress’s husband entered and couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw his wife clutching the salted duck egg.
“What kind of treasure is this? You’re holding it so tightly,” he teased.
The proprietress quickly pushed him away, “Don’t be silly, Dr. Rong just brought it. Everyone went crazy for it at lunchtime; everyone who tasted it wanted to take some home.”
“Really?” The husband found it quite unbelievable.
He was also hungry after following the village chief around, so he went to the kitchen, got some food, and shared the salted duck egg with his wife.
It was indeed delicious. Most importantly, it felt incredibly comforting, as if all his worries had vanished.
In the sweltering summer heat, eating one was more comforting than eating an ice cream in an air-conditioned room.
“Honey, what if we sold these salted duck eggs at our breakfast stall in town? Do you think business would…”
“It would definitely improve!” The stall owner’s eyes lit up; she thought her husband’s suggestion was very plausible. The key point was that if they sold them in town, they could make at least two yuan from just one salted duck egg!
Town is different from the village; there are more people working regular jobs there, so more people come out for breakfast. The couple usually got up early in the morning to push their cart to town to sell breakfast. However, recently, some of their regular customers had been drawn away by other stalls.
So, after tasting Rong Ziyin’s salted duck eggs, the couple decided to discuss a collaboration with Rong Ziyin.
That evening, they went to see Rong Ziyin.
Rong Ziyin had just come out of the lab.
“What’s up?” they asked, explaining their purpose.
Rong Ziyin immediately fell silent. It wasn’t that business was impossible; the main problem was that these salted duck eggs weren’t something you could just have anytime.
“Dr. Rong, you don’t just have that one basket of salted duck eggs, do you?” The couple immediately became anxious.
“It’s not that I don’t have any.” However, the system’s lottery required gold coins, and Rong Ziyin was considering a stable supply.
“!!!” The couple’s urgency level immediately reached 1000. Rong Ziyin casually pulled out another duck egg from his pocket.
Rong Ziyin subconsciously handed the duck egg to them, “I only have one left now.”
The wife took the salted duck egg with a blank face, and the scene became very awkward.
Just then, another notification flashed in the system information: [Loan shark anger value +17].
It was unexpected that this person was so sentimental; half a day had passed, and they were still angry.
Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but chuckle.
The couple looked at each other and laughed as well, “Dr. Rong really loves to joke.”
The three of them finally discussed it and decided that Rong Ziyin could deliver the salted duck eggs to them directly once they were ready. This time, they decided to buy them for 2 yuan each.
The boss was quite a character; before leaving, he gave Rong Ziyin thirty yuan, meaning to make up for this.
Most sensitive people would have thought the boss was insulting them. Rong Ziyin, however, accepted it gracefully.
System: Host, shouldn’t a long-term supplier relationship normally end with a friendly refusal?
Rong Ziyin calmly replied: I thought buying and selling was just a cold, monetary transaction.
That makes perfect sense, unassailable. The system fell silent again, watching Rong Ziyin open his Alipay app, turn around and enter the loan shark’s Alipay account, transferring another 30 yuan.
[Loan shark’s anger level 2000]
Hmm, Rong Ziyin was now certain that this loan shark was indeed driven mad by him.
So, feeling much better, Rong Ziyin put his lab coat back on, intending to go back to the lab to work overtime and continue observing the isolated virus.
Meanwhile, the loan shark was about to explode.
In a barbecue restaurant in Yanjing, the loan shark, after receiving an Alipay notification, jumped to his feet, beer bottle in hand.
“I’ll fucking kill that little bastard! Don’t stop me, I’m going to kill him!”