Experiencing Life

"Hmm? Sir, where did you grow this rice?"

The worker in charge of processing picked up a stalk of rice and examined it carefully.

The more he looked, the more shocked he became. The rice looked exceptionally good.

An expert saw the details, while an outsider only saw the spectacle.

The processing worker had worked in the factory for many years. He had processed a great deal of rice and seen plenty of excellent finished products, but he had never seen rice grains this plump.

The rice panicles were golden yellow, with the grains arranged neatly one after another. They even gave off a faint rice fragrance before processing, which struck the worker as rather strange.

Zhang Han merely shook his head slightly and did not answer.

"Is this Daohua Xiang No. 2 Rice?" the worker asked in surprise.

"Mm." Zhang Han nodded.

"Ah, this is the first time I've seen rice with such an excellent appearance. It grew wonderfully." The processing worker sighed in admiration and began operating the machinery.

However, once the processing was complete and the round, glistening white grains emerged, the faint, intoxicating rice fragrance shocked the worker even more.

"How can it be this fragrant? How fragrant will it be once cooked? This rice is incredible!" The worker praised it endlessly as he looked at the individual grains.

The processed rice filled two bags, each weighing around sixty jin.

"What are those two bags?" Zhang Han pointed at the two bags of powder beside them.

"That's the rice bran produced during processing. It can be used as livestock feed." The processing worker smiled faintly.

"I don't want the rice bran. You can handle it yourself. How much is the processing fee?" Zhang Han asked casually.

"Since you gave me two bags of rice bran, forget the processing fee." The processing worker smiled and waved his hand.

There had been so little rice to process that it had hardly cost anything.

"Mm." Zhang Han nodded slightly, carried the rice, and walked out.

Back at the restaurant, Zhang Han placed the rice in the storage cabinet. It was not yet four o'clock, so it was naturally not time to eat. He sat for a while, then suddenly remembered that he had planned to take Mengmeng out to see the harsh realities of society.

He had almost forgotten about it!

After pondering for a while, Zhang Han came up with an idea. He remembered seeing online news a few days earlier about how some sales clerks in high-end clothing stores looked down on people who appeared poor, mocking and ridiculing them until the poster had been furious.

Then he would dress a little shabbily and take Mengmeng to look around some high-end clothing stores.

Once he made up his mind, Zhang Han dashed upstairs, took out a white casual outfit, then brought out a light-blue denim outfit for Mengmeng. Finally, he took a pair of scissors from the drawer!

"Snip, snip, snip..."

After a few cuts, both outfits were in tatters. The sleeves and pant legs were riddled with all kinds of holes. However, since the clothes were brand new, the holes made them look as if they were deliberately styled in some unconventional fashion.

"A little dirtier, and they'll look right!"

Zhang Han carried the two outfits downstairs.

"Mengmeng, come on. Daddy's taking you out to play." Zhang Han chuckled.

"Okay! We're going out to play. Daddy, where are we going?" Mengmeng asked happily.

"New Moon Mountain first." Zhang Han picked Mengmeng up.

"Yay!" Mengmeng happily waved her little arms.

After a ten-minute drive, they arrived at New Moon Mountain. Mengmeng gleefully went off to play with the dogs, while Zhang Han came to the pond. He rubbed both outfits back and forth in the mud, fiddled with them for a while, and finally revealed a satisfied smile.

Now they really looked tattered—dirty and torn. Excellent!

After finishing with the clothes, Zhang Han went beneath the Thunder Sun Tree. The Heavenly Fragrance Wood growing beside it had developed quite well. It was about as thick as a thigh and nearly one and a half meters tall.

He used a sickle to cut off a ten-centimeter section of Heavenly Fragrance Wood, then carried Mengmeng back to the car at the foot of the mountain.

"Daddy, we just got here. Mengmeng hasn't had enough fun yet." Mengmeng pouted unhappily.

"Shall we come back and play tomorrow? Let's change clothes. Daddy's taking you to experience people's true colors." Zhang Han changed his own clothes, then went to the back seat and changed Mengmeng into the dirty outfit.

"Aw, Daddy, the clothes are so dirty! Mengmeng doesn't want to wear them." Mengmeng loved cleanliness, even though she was always getting her clothes dirty.

"We can only go play something fun if you put them on." Zhang Han coaxed her.

"Huh? What fun thing?" Mengmeng blinked her clear eyes and asked Zhang Han curiously.

"You'll find out soon. Daddy's taking you to experience life. After that, we'll return to the restaurant, and Daddy will make you something delicious." Zhang Han smiled.

"Then... okay. But Mengmeng doesn't want to wear them. They're too dirty." Mengmeng pouted and spoke softly.

"You have to wear them to experience life. Come on, Daddy will help you change." With a beaming smile, Zhang Han changed the reluctant Little Princess into the dirty clothes.

If Ziyan had been there, she definitely would have given Zhang Han, this shameless old rascal, a thorough scolding. Other people had troublesome children, but he seemed to have become a troublesome father.

But "if" was merely an imagined possibility. Ziyan could not possibly be there.

Zhang Han brought Mengmeng to the shopping center at New Moon Mountain.

"Mengmeng, in this society, people without money or power get looked down on. If we go buy clothes dressed like this, the sales clerks might not even let us touch anything. You need to understand that in this world, apart from your parents, who sincerely care about you, everyone else might be pretending."

Before entering the shopping center, Zhang Han said this to Mengmeng.

"Mm..." It was unclear whether Mengmeng understood him, but she obediently nodded her little head.

This was an international specialty shopping center filled with high-end clothing brands, so it did not have as many visitors as an ordinary mall.

Even so, Zhang Han and Mengmeng's "strange" appearances attracted countless looks—some surprised, some puzzled, and some barely holding back laughter.

Zhang Han paid no attention to those gazes.

How could an anteater care about the gazes of ants? Zhang Han was essentially that anteater.

Mengmeng, on the other hand, did not understand any of this. She blinked her clear eyes and looked around, her adorable appearance drawing even more attention.

After entering the shopping center, they went straight into a nearby Gucci store.

"Hello, sir. Welcome to Gucci. What kind of clothes would you like to look at?" A female sales clerk in her mid-twenties came over. She froze when she saw Zhang Han and Mengmeng, but the smile on her face remained unchanged as she asked warmly.

"Just looking." Zhang Han replied indifferently, carrying Mengmeng and looking around on his own.

"This one looks pretty good." Zhang Han glanced at the price—19,800 yuan—then immediately picked up the garment and praised it. As he spoke, he watched the sales clerk's expression.

Unexpectedly, she did not react at all. Her face was like a zombie's, maintaining the same sweet smile as she enthusiastically introduced it. "This outfit is indeed very suitable for you, sir. But you have an excellent build, so I think most clothes would fit you well."

"How much?" Zhang Han deliberately held the garment near his dirty clothes and gestured with it in the air. He stared at the sales clerk, waiting for her to grow impatient or show disdain.

"This outfit is 19,800 yuan." The sales clerk answered with a smile.

"Daddy looks good in anything. Daddy's so handsome." Mengmeng praised him.

"That's too expensive. How about 980 yuan?" Zhang Han haggled with an expression that said he was an old hand of the streets.

"980 yuan?" The sales clerk froze for a moment, then hurriedly put her smile back on and explained calmly, "Sir, I'm terribly sorry, but our store has fixed prices. We don't bargain. How about I introduce you to a couple of less expensive options?"

"No need!"

Looking at the sales clerk's ever-smiling zombie face, Zhang Han lost interest. He admitted defeat, turned around with Mengmeng in his arms, and left.

The sales clerk smiled and shook her head before putting the garment back.

"Daddy, why didn't you buy it? Uh... weren't we here to buy, buy, buy?" Mengmeng asked in confusion.

"Mengmeng, we aren't here to buy, buy, buy today. We're here to experience life." Zhang Han grinned.

"Experience what?" Mengmeng asked curiously, unsure what game her daddy wanted to play.

"Uh, you'll find out soon."

After saying that, Zhang Han quickened his pace and went to the Dior store across the way.

Less than five minutes later, Zhang Han came out with an utterly helpless expression.

The sales clerks inside had been just like the ones at Gucci, their zombie smiles never changing. Zhang Han had left as soon as he realized there was no hope.

He walked a few steps farther and prepared for the next round. This store was a trendy fashion brand.

He came out even faster after entering. In less than three minutes, Zhang Han sighed and walked out.

The next store took three minutes. Zhang Han came out with a stiff expression, while Mengmeng's face had become somewhat dazed.

"Next!" Zhang Han inhaled deeply. He refused to believe it. Were all the sales clerks really this professional?

"Next!"

"Let's try one more!"

"..."

Finally, at the fifteenth store, a sales clerk at last showed a somewhat "normal" reaction.

"Sir, sir, your hands seem a little dirty. How about I take you to wash them first, and then you can touch the clothes? Would that be all right?" The sales clerk's expression was rather unpleasant. She frowned slightly and spoke with some urgency.

Zhang Han's hands were indeed a little dirty, and he was about to touch a white, furry garment.

"What did you say?"

Zhang Han immediately perked up. He stared at the sales clerk with anticipation and said, "You said my hands are dirty. What will happen if I dirty your clothes by touching them? Will you force me to buy them or demand compensation?"

Zhang Han had been planning to wait for the beauty to say something like, "Of course you'll have to take responsibility if you dirty them!" Then he would argue with her properly and teach Mengmeng a lesson.

However, before the frowning woman could answer, a steady voice came from the side:

"Touching them is fine. Of course you won't have to compensate us. These are only display garments, after all."

Zhang Han turned around and saw a capable-looking woman around thirty walking over with a smile. She spoke warmly:

"Hello, sir. This is a women's garment. I assume you're buying it for your wife? Your child is so adorable and beautiful, so her mother must be beautiful too. I think this style would suit her very well. Please feel free to pick it up and take a look."