A Rare Gourd (Confused)

Grateful to the waitress, Feng Jun flashed her a toothy grin. "Thank you, thank you so much."

After the words "thank you," one had to add "you" to show sincerity.

The waitress blushed slightly. After hesitating, she spoke softly, "You can leave your ChatChat ID... Um, I can help you appraise it."

Feng Jun froze for a moment. Was his current image—his temperament—really that good? A beauty was actually hitting on him?

In the service industry, especially in places selling high-end goods, there were rarely any unattractive employees. The waitress was around five foot three, slim, and at least an eighty out of a hundred in looks. She was definitely prettier than Little Li.

Seeing her blush slightly, Feng Jun was afraid she would feel embarrassed, so he immediately took out his newly bought Maolin mobile phone, opened his ChatChat QR code, and let her scan it.

Good thing he had bought a new phone! In front of a beauty, if he were still using that old man's phone, never mind whether taking it out would be embarrassing—its sluggish startup speed alone would have made him want to crawl into a hole.

In truth, Feng Jun liked the girl too. He had been single for so long. Maybe... he should find a girlfriend and have some fun?

But the next moment, his thoughts were drawn back to his strange encounter. After she finished scanning the code, he smiled at her. "Thank you so much... Ye Qingyi?"

"It's my real name." The waitress smiled, her expression returning to normal. "Li Dafu will serve you wholeheartedly."

Feng Jun smiled as well and casually sent her a red packet. "Hope you're in a good mood."

The domestic service industry did not encourage tipping, so the waitress shook her head. "Thank you, but I can't accept it."

Feng Jun smiled faintly and raised his phone. "We're already friends, aren't we?"

The waitress hesitated, then opened the red packet. There were 6.66 yuan inside.

She looked up, about to say something, only to find that he had already turned and headed for the door.

Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she said nothing. She merely raised her phone and sent him a smiling emoji.

Ten minutes later, Feng Jun walked out of the antique shop next door in disappointment, carrying a small gourd-shaped pendant in his hand.

Web novels really couldn't be trusted!

Most types of jade could be found in this shop, and there were plenty of antiques too, yet he still could not find the feeling he wanted.

Black Dragon Jade was not cheap. Even the pendants with the worst translucency cost several hundred yuan each, and the owner kept enthusiastically recommending them.

Feng Jun really could not stand it any longer, so he opened Ye Qingyi's ChatChat account. "Little Ye from next door introduced me."

The shop owner was a skinny middle-aged man in his early forties. Hearing that, his face immediately broke into a smile. "Ah, why didn't you say so earlier? Black Dragon Jade really isn't much fun, but I can't cut the price by too much either. This stuff... well, it's still going up."

After a pause, he pulled this Jade Gourd from the drawer behind him. "This thing... barely counts as jade. Outsiders don't understand it, so they can't tell whether it's good or bad. Take it for a hundred yuan."

Feng Jun sincerely did not want to spend that hundred yuan. He was poor, after all.

But both Ye Qingyi and the shop owner had given him a good impression, so... a hundred yuan it was.

He was not even interested in asking Little Ye to appraise it. He only thought that once he made some money and met her again, he would have something to talk about—I did go to that shop, and I even bought something.

Having found nothing at the jewelry store, Feng Jun was already in a bad mood. When he returned to the factory entrance and saw the place shrouded in darkness, without even a streetlight at the gate, his mood worsened. "That stingy old bastard!"

The old gatekeeper really was stingy. Seeing the college students generate their own power, he simply refused to turn the main breaker back on. From last night... until now, more than twenty hours had passed.

Strictly speaking, though, it was not really about money. The old man wanted to maintain his authority.

The factory's electricity bill did not come out of his pocket, and keeping the breaker off was uncomfortable for him too.

But he had to make everyone understand how this power line was to be used. He had the final say, and whether the breaker was turned on depended on his mood.

As for the innocent college student tenants, or the high cost of diesel generators, none of that was within his consideration.

—Think generating power is expensive? Then don't generate any. I'm this old, and haven't I lived just fine without electricity?

Feng Jun had already spoken with the old man that morning and understood this unreasonable logic. Seeing the situation, he turned around. Fine, he would find somewhere to eat dinner.

Restaurants could charge phones for free too, but then he would definitely need a private room to avoid drawing attention. Restaurants with private rooms were never cheap, though, and besides, how much charge could he get over the course of one meal?

After thinking it over, Feng Jun decided to fill his stomach at a cheap little eatery instead. Nothing had gone right for him today, so he ordered a bottle of Yang City Baijiu.

Yang City Baijiu was forty-two proof. Even though he could hold his liquor fairly well, after drinking a whole bottle, he felt a little lightheaded.

By the time he checked the time, it was already past nine at night. After paying the bill, he staggered back, intending to grab a change of clothes and find a bathhouse to sleep in for the night.

There was no electricity anyway. He could feel his body getting sticky again, and if he could find an outlet at the bathhouse, he could charge his phone while sleeping—so long as he kept it discreet.

When he reached the factory entrance, he stopped short. Why were seven or eight people gathered there, arguing?

After listening for a while, he learned the reason: those seven or eight people had come to make the old man turn the breaker back on.

Normally, whether he turned the breaker on or not was the old man's business, and these people had no reason to interfere. But they had found an issue to complain about: without the power on, this stretch of road was pitch-black and impossible to see clearly.

This was a leftover problem from the past. There were originally supposed to be streetlights outside the factory gate, but the wiring had never been installed. The higher-ups had hinted that since the factory was profitable, it should run a line out and put up a few streetlights at the entrance.

After all, factory workers also worked night shifts. Better lighting was good for everyone.

Over time, it became customary. The streetlights along this road were managed by the Streetlight Administration, except for this stretch of just over a hundred meters, which used the factory's streetlights. Even the electricity bill was paid by the factory.

A hundred-plus meters was neither especially far nor especially close. Yang City was a major city, and it was never lacking in lights. The scattered glow from elsewhere could faintly illuminate this stretch too.

Standing behind the iron-bar gate, the old man bluntly refused them. "Quit talking nonsense. It didn't rain today, and the road hasn't been dug up. You could walk through this section with your eyes closed... You people are up to no good!"

Of course they were up to no good. They were waving the banner of public interest, but what they really wanted was free electricity.

Someone pulled the old man aside to discuss things, probably offering him some benefits, but the old man shook his head mercilessly—he really was stubborn.

After pestering him for a while and seeing that he had made up his mind, the group gradually dispersed. Only two middle-aged women remained, cursing loudly.

Feng Jun turned on his phone's flashlight, walked to the iron gate, and knocked twice. "Sir, open the gate. I'm back."

The old man opened the small side door and let him in, then quickly locked it again. "You're not going back out at this hour, are you?"

The alcohol had gone to Feng Jun's head a little. He glanced at him and asked directly, "Still no electricity tonight?"

"No electricity," the old man answered bluntly. "The main breaker's broken. It'll cost over two thousand to fix, and there's no money. We're applying to the district for it."

He was blatantly lying. All he needed to do was replace a fuse and turn the breaker back on. He was taking advantage of these neighbors not being well-informed, hiding behind a grand excuse.

Didn't they want to wait? Fine. Then fork over more than two thousand yuan, and he would fix it for them!

Feng Jun could not even be bothered to argue with him. He asked again, "What about tomorrow? Can it be fixed?"

The old man had originally wanted to say, What the hell does that have to do with you? But smelling the alcohol on Feng Jun's breath, he patiently explained, "We're asking the district for money. Who can say how long that'll take? If it's quick, one or two days. If it's slow, maybe three to five months."

Feng Jun looked at him calmly. "Sir, when I rented the room, you said water and electricity were free. You didn't say there would be no water and no electricity."

The old man became unhappy, his face darkening. "Young man, the breaker's broken. There's nothing I can do. Or are you going to pay the two-thousand-plus repair fee?"

He did not actually want Feng Jun to pay. He merely wanted to use that to scare off this brat who did not know his place.

"Sir, you're not being very honest." Feng Jun lowered his voice and leaned close to the old man's ear. "I can fix it myself... Want me to give it a try?"

"Ahem, ahem." The old man coughed twice and lowered his voice as well. "All right, it's enough that you know. Don't go around saying nonsense."

He had not expected to fool this college student, so he readily admitted defeat. "The breaker definitely can't be turned on today. We need to teach those bastards a good lesson. They're addicted to taking advantage of public property? Don't worry, I figure it can be turned back on tomorrow."

Feng Jun looked at him with a dark expression. "I have to stress this again: diesel-generated power is expensive... How are you going to compensate me for my losses?"

"You can use my electricity." The old man reached out and switched on a lamp.

His methods were truly something else. He had actually gotten an electric scooter, run two wires from its battery, connected them to a light bulb, and even installed a pull-cord switch in between.

Feng Jun shook his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "That's forty-eight-volt direct current. What I need is two-hundred-and-twenty-volt alternating current."

The old man looked at him in confusion. "But my light bulb turns on."

Ignorance was terrifying. Feng Jun was speechless again. He shook his head. "That's an incandescent bulb. It lights up as long as there's electricity... No, wait, yours is a forty-eight-volt bulb."

"Then that's not my problem." The old man spread his hands and shamelessly acted unreasonable. "Why can't you charge with forty-eight volts?"

"I really am a scholar arguing with a soldier—there's no reasoning with you." Feng Jun gave a bitter smile. "Fine, you're right. You're the boss. I'll go spend the night at a bathhouse, all right?"

Hearing that, the old man felt a little embarrassed too. "Why bother? Will you die if you don't work one night? Why waste that money?"

Just then, a roar came from the distance, rapidly drawing closer.

The next moment, several dazzling headlights shone toward the iron-bar gate.