Volume 1, Chapter 31: Keep the Change!

"It is truly a blessing from our ancestors that our Lin family has produced someone like you who practices medicine," Lin Guohua said, his eyes filled with gratitude. If not for young Xu, he might never have been able to return to being a normal person for the rest of his life.

"Young Xu, you are simply amazing! From now on, you are the greatest benefactor of our family!" Lin Manru crossed her hands over her chest, her beautiful eyes sparkling like stars as she gazed at Lin Xiaoxu.

Chen Xiuhong’s eyes darted around, and she immediately ran out of the room. When she returned, she was clutching two large roosters with their legs tied together by rice stalks. "Young Xu, our family is poor and we have nothing else to repay you with. Please, just accept these two roosters."

Lin Xiaoxu now had a million in his bank account, had reached an agreement with Song Qingxin to sell his guavas for fifty yuan a jin, and owned twenty percent of Qingxin Fruits. Having long since turned his life around, what use did he have for the Lin family's two roosters? He tried to decline repeatedly, but the three of them insisted he take them.

"Alright, then." Lin Xiaoxu needed to get home quickly to eat, sleep, and cultivate. If he stayed at Lin Guohua’s house any longer, he feared he might collapse from exhaustion.

*Beep-beep—*

Just as Lin Xiaoxu took the roosters from Chen Xiuhong, the sound of a car horn drifted in from outside. Lin Manru’s expression darkened; she could guess that the visitor was that scumbag, Cao Wanjin.

"Oh, so this wild man is here too!" Cao Wanjin walked in without invitation. Upon seeing Lin Xiaoxu, his eyes flashed with malice before quickly shifting to contempt. Lin Xiaoxu caught the shift in his gaze instantly.

"Cao Wanjin, keep your mouth clean! Xiaoxu and I have always been perfectly innocent!" Lin Manru snapped.

Recalling his daughter’s tearful confession after she returned that night, Lin Guohua felt a surge of rage, wishing he could tackle this two-timing cheat, hang him from the rafters, and beat him with a thorny vine.

"Manru, go get the two bags of tea worth thirty yuan and the two jars of bargain-bin SOD facial cream that Cao gave us. Calculate their value and pay him back in cash. From now on, our family owes him nothing, and we are not to let such outsiders into our home again!"

Lin Manru nodded and immediately pulled two twenty-yuan bills from her wallet and threw them at Cao Wanjin.

"I’m not a stingy person; you don't need to give me the change!"

Chen Xiuhong’s face fell. She had hoped to use this opportunity to clear up the misunderstanding and get Manru back as Cao’s official girlfriend so she could return to her job as a head waitress at the Xilaifu Restaurant. Jobs were hard to come by these days, and she didn't want to lose that connection. Seeing Manru throw money at him felt like dousing her only spark of hope with a bucket of ice-cold well water.

"How dare you!" Cao Wanjin brushed himself off. He was wearing a complete Seven Wolves outfit that cost several thousand yuan. "Lin Manru, you slut! You’ve been cheating on me with this country bumpkin, making a cuckold out of me. This isn't over! You owe me ten thousand yuan in emotional damages, or I’ll stop buying your family's produce!"

Lin Manru was incensed; she had never seen anyone as shameless as Cao Wanjin.

"However," Cao continued, "if you agree to come to the county seat and entertain a wealthy young master for me, I’ll waive the ten thousand yuan, and I’ll even let you go back to the restaurant."

"Really?" The question didn't come from Lin Manru, but from Chen Xiuhong.

"Of course!" This was the true purpose of Cao’s visit. Young Master Xu Houze had returned from the city and was planning to host a three-night party at the Imperial Club, which naturally required beautiful women to liven things up. He knew Xu had a weakness for pure-looking beauties, which is why he thought of Lin Manru. If he could please Xu, he could open up new connections. Of course, he planned to bring the seductive Chen Zhizhi along as well; no man would complain about having too many beauties.

Entertain a wealthy young master? Wasn't that just prostitution? Lin Manru wanted to tear Cao Wanjin’s mouth apart for trying to push her into such a place.

"Chen Xiuhong, you are as stupid as a pig!" Lin Guohua glared at his wife. "This Cao fellow wants to hand your daughter over to those rich playboys, and you're still asking if it's true!"

Chen Xiuhong’s face went pale. She had thought Cao was asking her daughter to attend a normal social engagement, not such a dirty scheme. "Cao Wanjin, let me tell you, even if we starve to death, we would never pimp out our own daughter!"

She finally saw his ugly nature clearly. She recalled her daughter crying about how he had openly been with a new waitress in the restaurant lounge, and she felt foolish for ever having defended him.

"Stop acting so righteous! Your daughter has already been messed around by this country bumpkin; she’s no virgin! At least with a rich young master, she could make money, but with this bumpkin, she’s getting nothing!"

*Slap!*

Just as Lin Guohua and Lin Manru were trembling with rage, Chen Xiuhong grabbed a flyswatter and slammed it against Cao Wanjin’s face.

"You foul-mouthed bastard!"

"Agh! It hurts! Help!" A square, web-patterned red welt appeared on Cao’s face. Crying out in pain, he turned and ran. Chen Xiuhong snatched the two twenty-yuan bills from the floor and gave chase. She caught up to him at the doorway, tackled him, and sent him sprawling face-first into the dirt. She straddled his back, pinning him down.

"You piece of trash! You cheated my daughter and wasted two years of her youth! And you have the nerve to ask for ten thousand yuan in damages? See if I don't beat you half-dead today!"

*Thump! Thump! Thump!*

Chen Xiuhong rained blow after blow on his back, the sounds echoing like muffled thunder. As a woman who had worked the fields for years, her strength far exceeded that of this pampered city boy.