As the harvest time of medicinal materials was approaching, I was busy looking for sales channels, but was tricked back by a relative’s phone call to face an “interrogation”.
“The purchase price for a catty of fresh Dendrobium officinale is 350 yuan. Li Shuang offered us 300 yuan and still wanted to take a profit of 10 yuan. Isn’t he taking advantage of us? And he’s our relative!”
“Yes. He offered us a low price here and then sold it at a high price elsewhere. What a clever scheme! What lousy relatives!”
“I really didn’t expect that this brat had such a dark heart. He lived off us and cheated our money yet still wanted us to be grateful to him!”
“No wonder his family leased out their land. So he was treating us as suckers to fleece. That’s all our hard-earned money!”
…
Looking at the accusations from a group of relatives, I was almost speechless. Without me, where would they be today?
Fine. I won’t care about this mess anymore from now on. Whoever’s stuff, they can sell it by themselves!
1
Once October arrived, it entered the busiest period of my year.
I contacted friends, wooed clients, treated them to meals, and drank until I threw up.
All this was just to find sales channels for the medicinal materials planted by several relatives.
Actually, I didn’t want to do this job either, but I had no choice as I had the connections in this regard.
Of course, I wasn’t helping for free. After all, medicinal materials were not that easy to sell.
A commission of 10 yuan per catty. Judging from the current market situation, this proportion wasn’t high.
For a professional medicinal material agent, the commission would be at least 10% to 15%.
Early in the morning, my cell phone kept buzzing, which made me extremely annoyed.
“Li Shuang, come back to the village quickly. There’s something going on!”
I answered the phone impatiently. Before I could say anything, I heard Third Uncle’s urgent voice.
“What’s the matter, Third Uncle? It’s so early in the morning.”
I yawned and asked, still feeling groggy.
Last night, I just drank with a purchaser until midnight and finally negotiated the price and purchase quantity.
I was just waiting for the relatives to prepare the medicinal materials and arrange trucks to pick up the goods: “Oh, come back quickly. I can’t explain clearly on the phone. Everyone is waiting for you in the village. Hurry up!”
Third Uncle urged and then hung up the phone.
I was worried that there might be something serious, so I could only drive back.
It was a journey of over two hundred kilometers. When I got back to the village, it was almost eleven o’clock.
As soon as I entered Third Uncle’s courtyard, good heavens, there were dozens of people, like a sea of people. All my relatives had come.
Seeing this scene, I couldn’t help but feel a bit puzzled. Could something really serious have happened?
“Li Shuang, come here. There’s something I need to ask you.”
Seeing me enter the courtyard, Third Uncle, who was smoking under the eaves, waved at me.
Ask me?
Were all these people here for me?
“What’s the matter, Third Uncle?”
Walking up to Third Uncle, seeing him sitting there like a master without moving an inch, I frowned and asked.
His behavior was very abnormal.
Although Third Uncle was my elder, in the past, whenever he saw me, he would offer me cigarettes, pour me water, and nod and bow like a grandson.
Why was he so tough today?
“Li Shuang, to be honest, have you done anything wrong?”
Third Uncle raised his head and looked at me half-dead.
“What?”
I was stunned. After a moment of daze, I looked back at the other relatives, feeling a bit confused.
“Third Uncle, what do you mean?”
After a while, I asked angrily.
This old guy, what was he being so sarcastic for?
“Haha, are you pretending to be stupid? I was thinking of giving you a chance to confess and be lenient. Since you don’t want it, then I’ll make it clear.”
“Li Shuang, have you embezzled our money?”
Third Uncle sneered twice and suddenly stood up from the chair, staring at me and said.
2
Embezzled money?
I almost laughed out of anger. Confess and be lenient? What was wrong with this old guy?
I had my own business. The only business interaction with these relatives was helping them sell medicinal materials.
However, the commission was agreed upon in advance and written down clearly.
Besides, even if I wanted to embezzle money, it wouldn’t be theirs.
“Third Uncle, you should have evidence when you speak. Why do you say that I embezzled money? Whose money did I embezzle?”
I took out my own cigarettes, lit one and took a puff, then asked angrily.
Although I didn’t know why Third Uncle said that, but being wrongly accused out of nowhere, I was very unhappy.
“Hu Lai, come and tell Li Shuang what’s going on, so that he won’t still look like he’s been wronged.”
Third Uncle waved his hand.
Hu Lai was Third Uncle’s nephew from the same clan. In the past, he was just a hooligan in the village.
In recent years, as everyone was busy making money, nobody paid attention to him, so he had restrained himself a bit.
I really looked down on this guy from the bottom of my heart.
Since Third Uncle asked Hu Lai to explain, I realized that this matter was not simple.
“Alright, then I’ll listen to what’s going on and see what can make you two, uncle and nephew, one come forward and the other testify.”
I stopped being polite and pulled Third Uncle’s chair over and sat down.
“Li Shuang, stop pretending to be a gentleman. Don’t think that you’ve done everything perfectly over the years. Let me tell you, I know all the dirty things you’ve done.”
Hu Lai stood out and shouted arrogantly.
“Watch your mouth. If you dare to use foul language again, I’ll knock your teeth out!”
I directly stood up, picked up the chair, and glared at Hu Lai and said.
This scoundrel thought he was something and dared to speak disrespectfully to me.
“Everyone saw it. Li Shuang threatened me. He… He’s furious!”
Hu Lai thought I was really going to hit him. He was startled and jumped several meters away and shouted.
“If you have something to say, just say it. Don’t talk nonsense.”
I sat down again, wanting to see what this guy could come up with.
“I’ll expose Li Shuang’s ugly face in front of everyone today.”
“Yesterday, I went to the city to meet some friends and talk about something. Guess what?”
Seeing that I sat down, Hu Lai summoned up his courage and took two steps forward. He exchanged a glance with Third Uncle and then said loudly.
Hearing this, I couldn’t help but want to laugh.
For a guy like Hu Lai, the people he dealt with were either thieves or scoundrels.
Talk about something? He was probably just fooling around.
Hearing Hu Lai’s words, the other relatives immediately became curious and gathered around him.
“I passed by a traditional Chinese medicine store. Our families all grow medicinal materials, right? So I went in and asked about the market price.”
“Well, I didn’t know until I asked. We’ve been tricked by Li Shuang all these years.”
“The price for a catty of dried Dendrobium officinale is 1,000 yuan. I was a bit cautious and tried to get some information from the store owner.”
“I even gave him a pack of cigarettes, and then he told me that the purchase price for fresh Dendrobium officinale is 350 to 380 yuan.”
“Our families have always sold fresh ones. How much did Li Shuang tell us in the past? 230 yuan the year before last, 260 yuan last year, and 300 yuan this year.”
“Even if it’s 350 yuan, how much price difference did Li Shuang make per catty? And he still wanted to take a commission of 10 yuan per catty.
“He makes money from the selling price and also from the commission. He earns two portions of money from one catty of medicinal materials. Isn’t this embezzling our money?”
Probably feeling that there were more people around him, Hu Lai became more confident and said loudly with his hands on his hips.
“What? Li Shuang, aren’t you cheating us?”
Hu Lai’s mother, Third Uncle’s sister-in-law, suddenly shouted.
3
“He offered us a low price and then sold it at a high price. What a clever scheme!”
“I really didn’t expect that this kid had such a dark heart. He lived off us and cheated our money yet still wanted us to be grateful to him.”
“I didn’t expect that there would be such a person in our family. If it weren’t for Hu Lai, we wouldn’t have known that we were being cheated by him until who knows when.”
“This is all our hard-earned money. How could he have the heart to do this? Once a person is obsessed with money, there’s no more affection.”
…
With Hu Lai’s mother taking the lead, the other relatives couldn’t hold back anymore and started to accuse me overwhelmingly.
I looked at these people who were about to drown me with their spittle in shock.
They all had angry expressions, looking like they were about to rush up and devour me alive.
There was no trace of the polite looks they used to have when they saw me.
To be honest, at this moment, they had already regarded me as an enemy.
To be honest, I was quite heartbroken.
First, Third Uncle was sarcastic, then Hu Lai stirred up trouble, and then Hu Lai’s mother came to condemn me.
These three people jumped out one after another, which made it hard for me not to think something.
Dendrobium officinale can’t be directly used as medicine. It needs to go through procedures such as slicing, drying, and sunning to be made into dried strips.
There will be losses in this process. Almost three catties of fresh ones are needed to produce one catty of dried ones.
There’s no such equipment in the countryside, so what’s sold is all fresh ones.
Nowadays, the selling price of dried Dendrobium officinale on the market is indeed around 1,000 yuan, and the purchase price for fresh ones is 350 to 380 yuan.
Hu Lai was right about this price.
But there was one thing he didn’t mention.
This price is just the price for this year.
The price of medicinal materials has never been fixed. It fluctuates according to the market situation every year.
For example, in previous years, the market was not good.
At the lowest point, the purchase price for fresh ones was only 160 yuan!
It has only improved in recent years, rising from 230 yuan to 300 yuan per catty last year, and this year it has even exceeded 350 yuan.
The price I negotiated last night was 370 yuan per catty. I hadn’t had time to tell them about it yet, but Hu Lai had already found out.
However, he compared this year’s price with previous years’ prices. Isn’t this changing the concept secretly?
Now the price of gold is 700 yuan per gram, but it was only 550 yuan last year. Can you buy gold at last year’s price now?
Originally, I wanted to explain to the relatives. Such a simple and easy-to-understand truth, as long as one wasn’t stupid, could understand it.
But after Hu Lai’s mother jumped out and didn’t even give me a chance to speak, all these relatives, as long as they weren’t mute, were condemning me.
At that moment, I suddenly realized that these so-called relatives were all fake.
When it came to their own interests, no matter how good the friendship was, it was useless.
I had no doubt that if they weren’t afraid of getting into legal trouble, these people would even want to beat me up.
They didn’t even think about who they relied on to live the worry-free life they have now.
I didn’t expect them to be grateful, but they had already forgotten their loyalty.
For such a group of ungrateful people, what was the point of me explaining?
They all thought that they were at a disadvantage and that I took advantage of them, right?
Fine. From now on, I won’t bother with their mess anymore.
4
I coldly watched these relatives who were getting more and more excited and smoked one cigarette after another.
I tightly held a shovel in my hand. If any blind guy dared to touch me, I would definitely fight back.
However, they were just all talk. Although they were scolding vigorously, none of them really dared to make a move.
They all stayed more than one meter away from me, venting their dissatisfaction with words.
After smoking five cigarettes in a row, they finally stopped.
They all coughed dryly, obviously tired and out of breath.
“Have you scolded enough? Had your fill? Can you listen to me for a while?”
I threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out, then stood up and said.
The people standing in the front subconsciously took a step back.
They were still a bit afraid of me.
My eyes swept across their faces, and I sneered disdainfully.
It wasn’t that I looked down on them. Any one of them, if singled out, wouldn’t dare to cause trouble in front of me.
Today, they were just emboldened by the large number of people. That was all they had.
“Are you all so tough today? Dare to point at me and scold me?”
“You say that I reported false prices, took commissions, made money from both ends, and cheated you with black-hearted money, right?”
“I’m too lazy to explain this to you. Go back and use your pig brains to think about it carefully.”
“You believe whatever others say? You eat the food provided by others and then curse them right after putting down the bowl. I really look down on people like you!”
“Since that’s the case, I won’t argue with you anymore. From now on, I won’t care about your medicinal materials anymore.”
“Whoever planted the medicine, figure out a way to sell it by yourself. From now on, whoever comes to me again is a son of a bitch!”
I didn’t want to waste my breath on these people anymore and just cut off all ties.
Anyway, we were just relatives in name and didn’t really have any deep feelings.
After seeing their true colors, I wouldn’t have any more dealings with them in the future, so I wasn’t afraid of offending them.
Hearing this, the relatives hesitated.
The only thing they could do was plant the medicinal materials in the soil.
As for how to turn them into money, they still had to rely on me.
If I didn’t help sell them, they wouldn’t be able to sell a single catty.
“Everyone, don’t listen to him. Without Li Shuang, we can still sell the pigs with hair! From now on, I’ll sell our medicinal materials!”
Third Uncle coughed and Hu Lai immediately jumped out and said.
I didn’t even bother to expose the little tricks of these two uncles and nephews.
“Then you can all go to them in the future.”
I curled my lips and was about to leave.
“Wait a minute. Did I say you could leave?”
Third Uncle’s sarcastic voice came again.
“Hu Cripple, do you think you can stop me if I want to leave?”
I sneered and looked at him and asked.
Third Uncle had one leg shorter than the other and walked with a limp, so he got the nickname “Hu Cripple”.
However, few people called him that to his face.
“The matter hasn’t been made clear. You can’t leave!”
Third Uncle shouted with his hoarse voice, obviously irritated by the name “Hu Cripple”.
If his leg hadn’t been a problem, he would have jumped up.
“What? Do you still want to order me around? Let me tell you, Hu Cripple, if I respect you, I’ll call you Third Uncle. If I don’t, you’re nothing!”
I didn’t hide my contempt for Third Uncle at all. In my eyes, he really was nothing, especially after what happened today.
I even suspected that he was the one who planned this whole thing.
“You took advantage of everyone, and now you just say you won’t care and it’s over? You’re thinking too beautifully.”
“If you want to leave, you must agree to two conditions.”
“First, spit out the money you embezzled over the years. Second, hand over the sales channels!”
Third Uncle’s face turned black, but he knew that he was no match for me in a fight, so he gritted his teeth and put forward the conditions.
5
If I had doubts before, now all my questions had answers.
Given the IQs of Hu Lai and his mother, the one who came up with the plan behind the scenes could only be Third Uncle.
Today, Third Uncle set a trap for me, called me back to the village by lying, deliberately stirred up the emotions of the relatives, and that’s how this condemnation against me came about.
Didn’t Hu Lai say that he would help sell the medicinal materials in the village in the future?
What he wanted was the sales channels in my hands.
The purpose was simple, for money.
How much Dendrobium officinale do these relatives produce in a year?
As long as he grasped the channels, the commission of 10 yuan per catty would be his.
Even the amount of commission he could take in the future would be up to him.
For Third Uncle, who had been poor for most of his life, this was no less than a gold mine.
I even suspected now whether the traditional Chinese medicine store Hu Lai mentioned was real or not.
Maybe Third Uncle got the price from somewhere and deliberately made up that story to make it sound reasonable.
But it didn’t matter. I didn’t care.
Anyway, I would never agree to these two conditions.
“Hahaha!”
Looking at Third Uncle deliberately putting on a serious look, I couldn’t help laughing.
He was already half in the grave, yet he just thought of being greedy for money. What had he been doing in the first half of his life?
And these relatives were also greedy and stupid, being easily manipulated by a few words and used as guns.
“What are you laughing at?”
Seeing me laughing, Third Uncle became restless and asked with a gloomy face.
“Of course I’m laughing at who between us is being too naive. Hu Cripple, you’re already old. Do you have your head on your butt?”
“You want me to pay up and hand over the channels. Go and take a piss and look at yourself first. Do you deserve to make conditions with me?”
I leaned on the shovel and cursed with a laugh.
I didn’t allow Hu Lai to use foul language when talking to me, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t curse.
In my opinion, Third Uncle had been living a comfortable life in recent years and had become a bit too full of himself.
“You… “
Third Uncle was so angry at my scolding that he opened his mouth and wanted to curse back.
“Louder!”
I picked up the chair again.
I could curse him, but he couldn’t curse me.
That’s how double-standard and overbearing I was!
“You cheated everyone’s money. Is it wrong to ask you to pay it back?”
“The medicinal materials were planted by us. It’s reasonable to ask you to hand over the channels.”
“Let me tell you, Li Shuang. If you want to play rough with us, don’t you see how many people there are here!”
“Even if I let you go, the relatives won’t agree!”
Third Uncle swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue and started to win over the relatives to put pressure on me again.
I have to say that his move was quite effective.
At least it was effective on these brainless ungrateful people.
“Don’t agree. Don’t let him leave!”
“If he doesn’t spit out the money he cheated us, this won’t be over!”
“Yes, if he doesn’t give us the money, no one can leave!”
…
One after another, people started shouting.
At first, it was just one or two people, and then more and more people joined in, just like shouting slogans.
Looking at their eyes, they all started to turn red, as if they really had a deadly feud with me.
“Li Shuang, you’re so brave. Try to leave if you can!”
Third Uncle had an expression of a successful plot on his face.
6
“Shut up, all of you!”
I raised the chair and slammed it hard on the ground. The wooden chair fell apart immediately.
With this, the people who were shouting the loudest immediately shut their mouths.
“You say I cheated money. Show me the evidence. Whoever can show the evidence, I’ll return the money to him.”
“As for the commission money, don’t even think about it. It’s clearly written down. 10 yuan per catty. No matter what, I’m in the right.”
“The sales channels were found by me myself. It has nothing to do with you. Go and find them yourself if you have the ability!”
“I helped you out of pity at the beginning, running around to find you a way to make a living. Now that you’re full, you all think you’re so capable, right?”
“Truly, the poor are hateful sometimes. If I had known you were like this, I shouldn’t have bothered with your mess in the first place.”
“Now you’re even shouting at me. What? Do you think you can scare me just because there are more of you? You’re relatives? Even feeding a dog would be better than dealing with you.”
“I’ve been out in the world for so many years and have seen all kinds of dangerous situations. Do you think you can stop me with just you guys?”
“I’d like to see who dares to stop me!”
I lifted my leg and walked straight forward.
Some people have a certain aura.
For example, at this moment, as I took one step forward, the relatives blocking the way took one step back.
They envy those who are better off and laugh at those who are worse off. Aren’t these relatives just jealous that I’m living a better life than them?
They work hard in the fields all year round but can only stay in the village.
I live in a big house in the city, drive a nice car, and enjoy good food. Which of these doesn’t make them envy, jealous, and hate?
“Stop him. Don’t let him leave!”
“Li Shuang has tricked us all. We can’t let him take advantage of us for nothing. Even if he’s swallowed it, he has to spit it out!”
Third Uncle was anxious and shouted angrily while dragging his lame leg.
If I really left, his little plan would fall through.
Stirred up by Third Uncle, the relatives immediately became restless. A few bold ones blocked my way.
“Chen Zhuzi, are you going to stop me?”
I stared at my cousin Chen Zhuzi who was standing in the front.
“Li Shuang, you cheated the relatives’ money and you should return it to everyone. We’re all relatives. Don’t make things too ugly!”
Chen Zhuzi looked at me and said bravely.
“Did you stuff your ears with donkey hair? I just said that if you say I cheated everyone’s money, show me the evidence.”
“Also, I treated you as relatives, but what do you take me for? Who’s making things ugly here?”
I spat and cursed.
“Anyway, you can’t leave!”
Chen Zhuzi looked around and saw that there were people on both sides, so he felt more confident.
“Haha!”
“Chen Zhuzi, you’ve got some guts. You’re better than those turtles who only hide behind and stir up trouble.”
“I advise you to get out of the way. Once I lose my temper, you guys won’t be able to stop me.”
I smiled, bent down to pick up a chair leg and pointed it at Chen Zhuzi.
“Don’t be afraid, everyone. Does Li Shuang dare to kill people? We’ll keep him here today. If he doesn’t pay up and hand over the sales channels for the medicinal materials, he won’t be able to leave!”
Third Uncle started to stir up trouble again from behind.
7
“Fuck you, Hu Cripple. Was your father a eunuch? How could he give birth to such a sarcastic thing like you?”
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning. Come on, have the guts to come and stop me if you can.”
“It’s no skill to trick others into being fools. It’s not you who’s being tricked, right?”
I turned around and cursed Third Uncle a few times.
“How dare you curse my uncle? I’ll kill you!”
Hu Lai found a half-broken tree branch from somewhere and barked arrogantly like a dog.
“Damn it!”
I swung the chair leg in my hand.
Of course, I had a sense of propriety and wouldn’t really hit anyone, but I had to put on a fierce posture.
I knew very well that people’s emotions build up gradually.
These relatives had just been stirred up by Third Uncle and were only angry in their hearts. Their courage hadn’t caught up yet.
But if it dragged on and one of them got hot-headed and took the lead, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Even an ant can kill an elephant if there are enough of them. I didn’t want to exchange my life with these ungrateful people, so I had to leave quickly.
Hu Lai thought I was really going to hit him and ran away with a scream.
“Hu Cripple, if you want to scheme against someone and find helpers, you should at least find some decent ones. What’s the use of a guy like your nephew?”
After scaring Hu Lai away, I didn’t forget to mock Third Uncle.
“Chen Zhuzi, don’t you want your wife to become a widow and your son to lose his father?”
I raised the chair leg again and pointed it at Chen Zhuzi.
Chen Zhuzi’s lips trembled. Realizing that I wasn’t joking, he quickly moved aside.
With him taking the lead, the other few people also hurriedly hid aside, afraid that I would hit them too.
“All of you listen carefully. From now on, I don’t have you as my relatives anymore!”
When I walked to the entrance of the courtyard, I shouted at these people, threw away the chair leg and left in big strides.
After driving onto the road, I saw those relatives chasing after me from the rearview mirror. They were running and throwing stones at my car.
I sighed and stepped on the accelerator to speed up.
These people were really hopeless!
“Mr. Li, I have two friends who do the medicinal material business. They also want to buy Dendrobium officinale, and the price will still be the same as we agreed before.”
On my way home, Mr. Sun, who had negotiated with me about buying Dendrobium officinale last night, called.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Sun. Something happened on my side, and I can’t supply you with Dendrobium officinale anymore.”
I thought for a moment and said.
“Mr. Li, business shouldn’t be done like this. We negotiated it all yesterday. If you think the price is too low, we can negotiate again.”
Mr. Sun thought I wanted to raise the price and was a bit unhappy.
“Mr. Sun, you’ve misunderstood. You know I’m just helping with the introduction. Whether the price is high or low, I only earn a commission.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to sell. It’s just that… “
“We’ve done business before. How could I sell it to you under such circumstances?”
“Well, I’ll treat you to a meal tomorrow night and apologize to you in person, brother.”
I explained the reason to Mr. Sun on the phone.
I wouldn’t tell him that it was because I had a falling out with my relatives.
I just said that the Dendrobium officinale produced this year had quality problems.
I didn’t sell it to him out of friendship and conscience.
“Mr. Li, you’re really nice. Forget about the meal. I have to hurry to find other sellers these days. I’ll treat you to a drink another day, brother.”
Mr. Sun declined my invitation and said a lot of thank-you words.
After hanging up the phone, I couldn’t help laughing.
Mr. Sun was quite famous in the medicinal material circle. I believe it wouldn’t take long for the news that there were quality problems with the Dendrobium officinale in our village to spread.
Although I decided not to help my relatives sell medicinal materials anymore, I couldn’t guarantee that those relatives wouldn’t try to find sales channels by themselves.
Once this news spread, I guessed that those medicinal material merchants would give up the idea of purchasing as soon as they heard the name of our village.
Was this way of stabbing them in the back mean?
I didn’t think so. It was just an eye for an eye.
How did I help them all these years? And how did they treat me today?
If I didn’t do something, how could I be worthy of the kindness I had shown in the past few years?
I’m not a saint. Treat me with respect and I’ll respect you. If you harm me, I’ll pay you back!
Especially for these so-called relatives who were just in name.
8
When I got home, I briefly told my parents about what happened in the village and told them not to have any more dealings with those relatives in the future.
My parents were also very angry and cursed them as ungrateful people at home.
My father even regretted a bit, saying that if it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in this mess.
My father was given away when he was a child and had been living in the city.
It was said that he had several sisters and brothers in his rural hometown, but he had never met them.
Without contact, where could there be any feelings?
Our family had never taken those relatives seriously.
After graduating from university, I worked for several years.
I was smart and daring, and I had the courage to take risks.
After working hard for several years and saving some money, I took a gamble and invested it all in a project.
Luckily, I won the bet.
Since then, my business had been getting smoother and bigger, and I became a wealthy person.
Because my father had worked too hard in the factory when he was young and got sick, and his illness would flare up every season change.
To treat his illness, I managed to get wind of a folk prescription, but it needed two very rare medicinal materials.
To find these two medicinal materials, I went through a lot of trouble.
Finally, through friends of friends and several layers of connections, I got to know a boss who was in the medicinal material business and bought those two medicinal materials.
My father’s illness improved a lot. Although it wasn’t completely cured, he didn’t suffer as much when the illness flared up.
Because of these two medicinal materials, I made friends with that medicinal material merchant.
Six years ago, one day when I got home, I was unexpectedly stopped by someone at the entrance of our community.
He introduced himself as my Third Uncle.
I didn’t know where he got the address of my home.
When I first saw him, he looked really shabby.
He was wearing a camouflage uniform full of stains, paired with blue trousers and a pair of yellow liberation shoes with the glue coming off.
Nowadays, you couldn’t even see such an outfit on a construction site.
After all, he was a relative from my hometown, and a guest when he came. I couldn’t be rude to him.
So I quickly invited him into the house, made tea and offered him cigarettes.
Third Uncle was as nervous as a child, standing still in the over 100-square-meter living room and didn’t dare to move.
It was only when my father pulled him that he limped to the sofa with his lame leg and sat down.
Because my father wasn’t feeling well those days, I simply asked a hotel to prepare a table of dishes and deliver them to our home to entertain Third Uncle.
9
Facing all those delicacies, Third Uncle was stunned and trembled with fear when he saw the crab I put on his plate.
After a few drinks, Third Uncle finally got the courage to tell me his purpose.
His wife, my Third Aunt, needed to have her gallbladder removed, but they didn’t have any money at home and wanted to borrow some from my father.
It was just a minor operation and didn’t cost much, just a few thousand yuan.
I gave him the money right at the dinner table and clearly told him that he didn’t need to pay it back.
Third Uncle was so grateful that he almost knelt down and kowtowed to me.
Seeing this, I also felt a bit sad.
After all, he was a relative. Although we hadn’t met before, it was quite pitiful that he was so poor that he couldn’t even afford the surgery fee of a few thousand yuan.
Then Third Uncle started talking about the situation in our hometown.
In the countryside, people made a living by farming. However, the terrain in our hometown village was not good, and farming there depended on the weather.
My Second Uncle, Third Aunt, Fourth Uncle, and Old Aunt and other relatives were all planting medicinal materials, all kinds of them.
They planted, harvested, dried the medicinal materials and then sold them to the peddlers who collected medicinal materials in the county town.
After working hard for most of the year, the harvest was just enough for the family to not go hungry.
As for getting rich, they didn’t even dare to think about it.
Third Uncle also said that the prices of grain, oil, rice, and flour were getting higher and higher, but the price of medicinal materials had never gone up.
They worked hard to plant medicinal materials for a year, but the money they got from selling them was hardly enough for them to afford food.
Many young people in the village went to work in other places. But they had neither skills nor education, so they could only do the hardest and most tiring jobs.
Even so, families with people working outside were considered wealthy in the village.
“Li Shuang, you’re a capable person, the most promising one in our family.”
“You’re doing well now. Look at your house. When I first came in, I thought I had come to a palace.”
“If it’s convenient for you, please help our relatives.”
…
After finishing the meal, Third Uncle was a bit excited and kept talking while holding my hand.
He flattered me and tried to get close to me, saying a lot of nice things, hoping that I could give them a hand.
To be honest, I didn’t have much affection for these so-called relatives.
Except for Third Uncle, I hadn’t met any of the people he mentioned.
Even my father was the same.
It was okay to give them ten thousand or eight thousand yuan.
But if they wanted me to help them get out of poverty and become rich, I really didn’t have a good solution.
Could I support these relatives I had never met? No matter how good my business was, I didn’t have that ability.
“Son, they’re planting medicinal materials, right?”
Just when I was hesitating about how to answer, my father suddenly interrupted.
I was startled and didn’t understand what he meant.
“You know that friend who is in the medicinal material business. Can you ask him if he can pay a higher price to buy the medicinal materials they plant?”
Seeing that I didn’t understand, my father explained again.
“If the price can really be higher, our life will be much easier.”
Third Uncle got excited immediately when he heard this.
“Alright, I’ll give it a try!”
Seeing my father’s expectant eyes, I had to nod and agree.
I understood my father’s thoughts.
As he got older, he still had a bit of homesickness after all.
Even though he hadn’t met these relatives before, now that he was living a good life, he naturally hoped that they could also live better.
After that, it was the usual story of the relatives’ medicinal materials being successfully sold for money and them thanking me in all kinds of cheesy ways.
11
After that, Third Uncle took the initiative to bring up the matter of the purchase of medicinal materials for the next year.
Looking at the expectant eyes of the relatives, I softened my heart and agreed.
I took out my mobile phone on the spot and called that friend who was in the medicinal material business, asking him if he would still buy medicinal materials the next year.
He readily agreed, but said that he only wanted Dendrobium officinale and also said that if I could ensure a stable supply, he could contact other friends who were in the medicinal material business to buy together.
After hanging up the phone, I relayed his meaning to the relatives present.
Then everyone made a decision.
Starting from the next year, they would all plant Dendrobium officinale.
That meal was really enjoyable, and everyone was beaming with smiles.
After I went back, I thought about this matter carefully and felt that I had been a bit hasty.
I didn’t mind helping the relatives, but now that I was playing the role of an intermediary, I unconsciously took on an extra burden.
If the purchaser found any problems with the purchased medicinal materials, he wouldn’t go to these relatives but would come to me.
Similarly, if the relatives found any problems during the transaction, they wouldn’t go to the purchaser but would also come to me.
So I was taking risks in this matter.
After doing business for so many years, I knew very well that free help wasn’t valued and people wouldn’t remember your kindness.
After careful consideration, I took time to go back to the village and talked with Third Uncle and the relatives.
I could help them sell medicinal materials, but I would charge a commission.
I didn’t care about this amount of money, but it had to be done this way.
Before I went there, I specifically inquired about it. Nowadays, professional medicinal material intermediaries on the market charged a commission ranging from 10% to 30%.
That is to say, for Dendrobium officinale dried strips priced at 200 yuan per catty, the intermediary would charge a commission of 20 to 60 yuan for each catty sold.
But I didn’t want to be too harsh on the relatives, so I set it at 10 yuan per catty.
This price could be said to be a very reasonable and almost symbolic price.
The relatives were a bit dissatisfied and even had some complaints.
But after all, they had to rely on me to sell the medicinal materials. After muttering a few complaints, they still signed the commission agreement with me.
The next year, these relatives really planted Dendrobium officinale all over their fields. Besides the fields, they even planted them in their own yards.
Dendrobium officinale, as long as it was cultivated properly, it was no problem to have an output of about 300 catties per mu.
After cleaning the Dendrobium officinale dug out from the fields, slicing, drying, and taking into account the losses, 100 catties of fresh strips could be obtained.
Third Uncle’s family, which had the largest harvest, got 1000 catties from 10 mu of land.
What does that mean?
Third Uncle’s family could get 200,000 yuan just by selling Dendrobium officinale.
200,000 yuan! He had never seen so much money in his life.
Of course, my share of the commission couldn’t be less.
Although Third Uncle’s expression was as if he was having his flesh cut, he counted the money five times, for fear of counting one more bill, but he still gave it to me.
This year, all these relatives of mine made the most money in their lives.
Everyone saw the hope of getting rich.
Over the next two years, with the rising market for medicinal materials, they made even more money.
Every family started building new houses and got out of poverty and became rich.
They also began to rent other people’s wasteland to plant Dendrobium officinale.
12
With more land, the output increased.
Once the output increased, the original sales channels were not enough.
After all, the purchase quantities of those previous medicinal material merchants were limited, and it was impossible for them to buy as much as was produced.
There was no way. I could only explore more channels, make friends, and build connections, and got to know more and more purchasers of medicinal materials.
Once October came every year, I was as busy as a spinning top.
Basically, I was on the wine table every day, dealing with all kinds of bosses in the medicinal material business.
Out of ten people, I would be satisfied if I could reach a cooperation with just one of them.
To be honest, for the sake of the relatives’ medicinal materials, I paid even more attention than to my own business and had developed a habit.
This year, the market price of Dendrobium officinale rose again. I guessed that this was one of the reasons why Third Uncle chose to make trouble for me this year.
Of course, the most important reason was that he was jealous of the money I had earned.
Over the past few years, he had inquired a lot about how much my several houses in the city were worth and how much my cars cost.
People with less knowledge have greater limitations in their perception.
Third Uncle, who had lived in the mountain valley for most of his life, was like this.
He didn’t understand how I got all the things I have now. He just thought that I earned all this money from the commission of selling medicinal materials.
He wanted to get this commission into his own hands.
So he wanted to kick me out and get the sales channels from me.
For this purpose, he even didn’t hesitate to join forces with his nephew Hu Lai and his sister-in-law to stage a farce of framing and slandering.
He knew that he couldn’t achieve this by himself, so he wanted to unite all the relatives to be hostile to me.
And that I had embezzled everyone’s money and harmed everyone’s interests was undoubtedly a good excuse.
Those relatives also showed their true nature as ungrateful people as expected and all attacked me.
It’s a pity that they underestimated the situation.
Channels are intangible things. They’re not something that can be taken out of a pocket.
They were obtained through my drinking glass by glass at the wine table and through the connections and reputation I had accumulated in business over the years.
Even if I told Third Uncle the contact information of those medicinal material merchants, they might not necessarily cooperate with him.
When it came to being a person, building connections, having courage, and having intelligence, they were all inferior to me.
They were inferior to me in every aspect but still wanted to cross the river and tear down the bridge to fight against me. Their ending was already doomed.
Ungrateful people will never have a good end, right?
13
Before I knew it, New Year’s Day had passed, and I entered the most relaxing time of the year.
I met business partners, strengthened our relationships, drank tea and accompanied my parents, just waiting for the Spring Festival.
One day when I was having dinner with friends, I met an acquaintance.
He was Lin Bingkun, my cousin Chen Zhuzi’s brother-in-law.
Lin Bingkun went out to work after graduating from primary school.
There were also young people from relatives’ families who went out to work, but Lin Bingkun was different from them.
He wasn’t willing to spend his whole life exchanging labor for wages. He learned car repair skills from a master for several years and opened his own auto repair shop in the city.
Among all my relatives, I had the closest contact with him.
Over the past few years, as the business of selling medicinal materials was booming, the young people from those relatives’ families all returned to the village to enjoy life.
However, Lin Bingkun was still running his auto repair shop and didn’t think about going back to the village to plant medicinal materials.
Chen Zhuzi had a cerebral hemorrhage after drinking too much not long ago. His family emptied their savings to save his life, but half of his body was paralyzed and he could only sit in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
During our chat, Lin Bingkun told me a piece of news.
The relatives had fallen out with each other.
After Third Uncle’s plot failed, selling Dendrobium officinale became an urgent matter.
I had washed my hands of it, so the task of selling the medicinal materials fell on Hu Lai.
Who told him to vow that he would sell the medicinal materials in the village in the future?
But what kind of person was Hu Lai?
He was good at drinking, playing cards and fooling around, but if you asked him to do something serious, it would be more reliable to believe that sows could climb trees.
At first, Hu Lai ran to the city every day, saying that he was looking for purchasers.
He did find a few medicinal material peddlers, but as soon as they heard the name of our village, they lost interest in further negotiation.
Mr. Sun had already spread the news that there were quality problems with the Dendrobium officinale in our village.
After hitting several snags, Third Uncle realized that without me, the medicinal materials in their hands might really not be sold.
So he changed his strategy and the uncle and nephew used my name to go to the medicinal material merchants to negotiate purchases.
I did know about this. A few medicinal material merchants who had cooperated with me before called me some time ago, asking me why I didn’t show up in person this year.
My answer was simple: those medicinal materials had nothing to do with me anymore, and they should be careful not to be cheated.
With this, plus the rumor about the quality problems, no one dared to buy the medicinal materials anymore.
Before long, it was the end of the year. In previous years, the medicinal materials would have been sold out long ago at this time, but this year, not a single catty had been sold.
Medicinal materials would suffer more losses if they were stored for one more day, and the ones who would suffer losses were still those relatives themselves.
Seeing that the medicinal materials couldn’t be sold, the relatives were anxious.
Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it.
Why were those relatives willing to listen to Third Uncle’s instigation and target me?
They weren’t supporting Third Uncle, nor did they have deep affection for him.
They just felt that their own interests had been infringed upon by me.
Now that it was Third Uncle and his nephew who were infringing on their interests, they naturally wouldn’t just sit around.
So they went to Third Uncle’s house every day, urging them to sell the medicinal materials quickly, or else they would live off Third Uncle’s family.
What kinship and face? They didn’t matter at all. In these people’s eyes, their own interests were above everything else.
The scheme that Third Uncle used to plot against me finally backfired on himself.
14
Third Uncle panicked. He knew what kind of people these relatives were. If they couldn’t get the money, they wouldn’t be reasonable at all.
However, Third Uncle’s ability was just so-so. He couldn’t find a buyer on his own, so he could only urge Hu Lai.
Hu Lai was forced to the point where he had no choice but to hide outside and didn’t dare to return to the village.
Somehow, he got to know a “big boss”.
The other party claimed to own a medicinal material processing factory in another place and had a large demand for raw materials. He asked Hu Lai to sell all the Dendrobium officinale to him.
Moreover, he offered a high price, 400 yuan per catty, and even took the initiative to give Hu Lai 3,000 yuan as a deposit.
Hu Lai was overjoyed and rushed back to the village to tell everyone that he had found a purchaser, and that he would offer 350 yuan per catty, but he would take a commission of 20 yuan per catty.
Although the commission he asked for was twice as much as mine, the relatives were eager to sell, so they all agreed.
Two days later, the “big boss” that Hu Lai knew brought several trucks and took away all the Dendrobium officinale planted by the relatives, but didn’t settle the payment.
The reason given by the other party was that they needed to take the medicinal materials back to test the quality. If the quality was good, they could even increase the price.
To make the relatives feel at ease, the other party also said that Hu Lai could go with them, and they would give the payment directly to Hu Lai when the time came.
Hearing that they could sell at a higher price and with Hu Lai as a guarantee, the relatives, blinded by greed, agreed without thinking.
One week later, Hu Lai came back, but without the payment.
Hu Lai said that after inspection, those Dendrobium officinale were top-quality products, worth more than 1,000 yuan per catty on the market.
The “big boss” needed to send them to a more advanced institution for identification, and he would transfer the payment directly after getting the identification results.
However, there was a condition.
In order to prevent the relatives from raising the price randomly or reselling the medicinal materials to others, each family needed to pay a deposit of 100,000 yuan.
15
Although the relatives felt a bit strange that they were supposed to get money from selling the medicinal materials, but now they had to pay out money instead.
However, thinking that they could sell each catty for more than 1,000 yuan, their rationality was still clouded by greed.
So each family paid the deposit to Hu Lai.
Hu Lai disappeared after getting 800,000 yuan in deposits. His phone couldn’t be reached, and he was nowhere to be seen.
Finally, someone realized that they might have been cheated and called the police.
The police quickly caught Hu Lai who was squandering the money. After interrogation, it was confirmed that they had indeed been cheated.
The “big boss” took Hu Lai onto the highway and then threw him at a service area when Hu Lai went to the toilet.
Hu Lai thought the other party had just been careless. When he couldn’t get through on the phone, he sent text messages to notify the other party that he had been left behind.
He foolishly waited at the service area for two days without receiving a reply, and then he realized that he had been cheated.
The “big boss” was a swindler who used 3,000 yuan in deposits to cheat away 5,000 catties of Dendrobium officinale planted by the relatives.
Hu Lai knew that he couldn’t escape the relatives’ wrath if he couldn’t get the payment back, so after thinking hard for a few days, he came up with a devious plan.
Since the “big boss” had cheated him, he would cheat the relatives.
So there was the matter of the deposit.
Hu Lai squandered the money he had cheated and enjoyed himself. By the time he was caught, there was hardly any money left.
As for that batch of medicinal materials, no one knew how many hands they had passed through or where they had been sold. It was almost impossible to get them back.
Losing the medicinal materials and also losing money, the angry relatives directly flattened Hu Lai’s house and forced Hu Lai’s mother to pay back the money for her son.
Third Uncle didn’t escape either. The relatives forced him to compensate for the cheated medicinal materials, or else they would break his good leg.
There was no way. Third Uncle could only empty his savings to compensate, but it was far from enough.
He never dreamed that a momentary greed would bring such serious consequences to himself.
16
“I advised my brother-in-law to stay away from Hu Cripple, but he didn’t listen. Now, not only did he fail to make money, but he’s also ruined himself!”
“To be honest, those people have no skills at all, but when it comes to greed, they’re even greedier than anyone else. They had a good life but insisted on making trouble!”
“You’ve helped them for so many years. Hu Cripple just tricked them with a few words, and they turned around and bit you. They deserve to be cheated!”
“I’ve long seen what kind of people they are, so I didn’t want to go back to the village to deal with them in recent years.”
Lin Bingkun said with a sigh after drinking a few glasses of wine.
He was really a sensible person.
Regarding the relatives’ misfortunes, I couldn’t say I was happy, but I definitely didn’t sympathize with them.
Just as Lin Bingkun said, they brought it all upon themselves.
I thought this matter had come to an end, but Third Uncle came again.
He didn’t come alone. He brought other relatives with him and begged me to give them a helping hand.
Because they were asking for my help, Third Uncle put on a very low profile. Instead of coming to my home, he set up a banquet at a restaurant and even specially invited Lin Bingkun.
I didn’t want to go at first, but Third Uncle harassed my father with over a dozen phone calls, so I decided to go and settle this matter once and for all.
“Li Shuang, it’s Uncle’s fault. Uncle was blinded by greed. Uncle is here to apologize to you!”
As soon as we sat down, Third Uncle didn’t say anything else and first drank three cups as a self-punishment.
He drank three two-ounce cups of wine in one breath without taking a break.
17
I didn’t say a word and just looked at him.
“Li Shuang, Uncle begs you. Please help everyone. I’m almost driven to death by them!”
Seeing that I didn’t show any attitude, Third Uncle dragged his lame leg and knelt down in front of me with a “plop”.
Immediately, I realized what was going on.
Third Uncle’s main intention in asking me to help was to make me cover for him.
This matter was originally caused by their uncle and nephew. Now that Hu Lai had been arrested, the relatives could only force Third Uncle to compensate.
He had already emptied his family’s savings. If he didn’t give the relatives an explanation, not only would his good leg be in danger, but his family’s newly built two-story building last year might also be flattened.
“Does your life or death have anything to do with me?”
“When you tricked me back to the village and dozens of people surrounded me, did you ever think whether I could survive?”
I lit a cigarette, took two puffs, and said slowly.
“Li Shuang, after all, we’re relatives. We can’t…”
Third Uncle’s face changed, and after hesitating for a moment, he said again.
“Stop trying to play on our kinship. It’s my bad luck to be related to you.”
“When your wife didn’t have money for the operation, who gave you the money? You were so poor that you couldn’t even afford a pair of pants. Who took you to make money?”
“You’ve made a little money and now you’re so full of yourself that you start plotting against me. What kind of person are you?”
I interrupted Third Uncle and cursed him vehemently.
Third Uncle hung his head and knelt there, unable to say a word.
“Li Shuang, it’s Hu Cripple’s own fault that you hate him. But now that we’re in trouble, you can’t just ignore us!”
“We were deceived by villains before. Nobody is perfect. You can settle your score with Hu Cripple privately. The most urgent thing now is to solve our problems first.”
“Yes, Li Shuang. Solve our problems first. We’re really desperate now. As for Hu Cripple, we won’t care whether you want to beat him or kill him in the future.”
Seeing that Third Uncle didn’t work, the relatives who came with him spoke up one after another.
“Solve it? How do you want me to solve it?”
I looked at them coldly.
18
“Well…”
Second Uncle Sun Erniu, who took the lead, hesitated for a moment, and then what he said shocked me.
Their idea was that starting from next year, they still wanted me to help sell the medicinal materials they planted, and the commission would be the same as before.
But there was a prerequisite, that is, I had to make up for the losses they suffered this year.
In other words, they wanted me to pay for the batch of medicinal materials that were cheated away.
I never expected that at this point, these relatives still hadn’t forgotten to scheme against me!
5,000 catties of Dendrobium officinale, calculated at the market price, would cost more than 1 million yuan. They really had the nerve to ask for it!
I realized that from the moment I decided to help them sell medicinal materials, my subsequent encounters had been doomed.
These relatives were all heartless.
Even without Third Uncle and his nephew, others would have jumped out sooner or later.
“How shameless!”
Before I could say anything, Lin Bingkun, who was forced to come by Third Uncle, couldn’t help but curse.
“Lin Bingkun, what do you mean?”
Sun Erniu looked at Lin Bingkun unhappily and asked.
“Don’t you understand? I said you’re shameless! You people are better off dead. You’re just causing trouble for others while alive.”
“If it weren’t for Li Shuang trying to find a way to sell the medicinal materials for you, you probably wouldn’t even be able to afford food now.”
“After making money with Li Shuang’s help, you don’t even know who you are anymore. When you said that Li Shuang cheated you and took advantage of you, weren’t you all so cocky?”
“Where’s your backbone? If you have the guts, don’t come to Li Shuang. Now that the medicinal materials are lost and the money is cheated, you remember Li Shuang’s kindness? Does he owe you anything?”
“You’re asking for help but still putting on airs and making demands, asking Li Shuang to make up for your losses. There’s a bank just around the corner. Why don’t you go rob it?”
“I really look down on people like you. You rely on others to live but still think you’re superior. You’re just dogs but think you’re humans. You bunch of hypocritical bastards!”
“Calling you shameless is being polite. People like you who don’t know how to be grateful deserve to live a hard life forever, always having to worry about where the next meal is coming from!”
“You still have the nerve to call yourselves relatives. I, an outsider who has nothing to do with you, can’t even stand it!”
“It’s really bad luck to sit at the same table with you!”
Lin Bingkun wasn’t afraid of these people at all. He pointed at them and started scolding.
“Lin Bingkun, don’t be too arrogant. Don’t forget that your family is still in the village!”
Sun Erniu was so angry at being scolded that he had nothing to say in reply. After a long while, he shouted angrily.
19
“What? Are you threatening my family?”
“Let me tell you, Sun. And you guys too. I, Lin Bingkun, am not someone to be trifled with either.”
“If any of my family members loses a single hair, I’ll go to each of your homes and fight you to the death. Just try it!”
Lin Bingkun said, picked up the half bottle of wine left on the table, slammed it hard at Sun Erniu’s feet, and then left without looking back.
The broken glass shards splashed up and hit Third Uncle’s face. He covered his face and howled in pain.
“Some people are really spineless!”
I sighed and was also about to leave.
“Li Shuang, what about our matter…”
Sun Erniu trotted a few steps and blocked my way, still wanting me to agree to his request.
“What? Do you want to stop me again?”
“I’m not as nice as Lin Bingkun. Get out of my way!”
I grabbed Sun Erniu’s collar, pulled it hard and then pushed it, and he fell directly onto the ground.
I walked away without looking back.
I didn’t care at all about what would happen to the relatives in the future, how they would make money, or what would become of Third Uncle.
They were all ungrateful relatives and not worth my concern or help.
20
Later, my business grew bigger and bigger and gradually became a leading figure in the local area.
However, those relatives of mine were still living a precarious life just like before.
During that period, some people asked them if they regretted it. They just sneered and didn’t answer, saying that they were just having a run of bad luck and would get rich someday.
But I knew that they would never get rich.
They treated their benefactor like this. Their lives and futures were already set in stone.
(The End)
