Those laughing are givers

It was An Zhizhi.

She said, "Let me help you."

Shen Yunzhi had thought their meal together a few days ago had forged some revolutionary camaraderie.

She had only just begun to feel touched.

The next second, An Zhizhi said, "I've got six suitcases over there. Help me out in a bit. The director won't let the crew carry our things for us."

Shen Yunzhi: "..."

One in exchange for six.

That was a bit much.

Shen Yunzhi was just about to refuse.

Then An Zhizhi said, "I remember you like buying luxury goods? I have a gold card for XX brand with a hundred thousand in credit. You can have it for your trouble."

A hundred thousand!

Who could earn a hundred thousand just by doing some manual labor!

Shen Yunzhi didn't hesitate.

"Please sit down, Princess. Let this old servant do the carrying."

Though An Zhizhi wasn't great with emotional intelligence and spoke bluntly and directly.

The little princess really did have money.

Soon.

The driver arrived.

He was a veteran driver who often drove cliffside mountain roads, and he called for the guests to squeeze into the van.

The van only seated nine to begin with.

Now it was packed with a dozen or so suitcases, six guests, a director, an assistant director, and a livestream cameraman.

Jiang Yunli was wedged in the middle, unable to move, and asked worriedly:

"Sir, aren't we overloaded?"

The driver squeezed in another crew member who had nowhere to sit, hitched up his waistband, and climbed into the driver's seat. "It's fine. Everyone fits."

Jiang Yunli said, "I'm just worried you'll get points deducted if the traffic police catch us."

The driver stepped on the gas, and the van shot forward with a roar.

Amid the creaking and rattling of the ancient vehicle came the driver's particularly jaunty reply:

"Haha, points? You need a license for them to deduct those."

Everyone: "???"

The director grabbed his seat belt in fright, his eyes widening. "You don't have a license, and you still dare take driving jobs?"

The driver said, "It's fine! Booze gives a coward courage!"

Everyone: "..."

This time, it was the director's turn to lose his mind.

Once they reached the mountain road, the driver confidently spun the wheel.

He drifted around the bend.

The tires smoked.

His skills didn't look bad.

The director trembled. "Sir, why don't you get a license?"

The driver said, "My prescription's over minus ten."

Everyone: "..."

The driver said, "My right leg's a prosthetic, too."

Everyone: "..."

Chi Zong was so scared he was on the verge of tears.

"Sir, stop! Let me out! I'll walk there myself!"

The driver stepped on the gas. "That'd probably take a whole day. Lots of wild beasts in these mountains."

The gravel road jolted the van so hard that the windows rattled.

Ji Nanxian had never ridden in a vehicle like this in his life. He was already leaning out the window, retching.

"Stop... urgh... stop the van..."

The driver said, "Really can't stop. The brakes are a little broken."

"..."

"..."

Sitting in the back, Shen Yunzhi had already closed her eyes serenely.

An Zhizhi clutched Shen Yunzhi's arm, trembling.

"Shen... Shen Yunzhi, aren't you scared?"

Shen Yunzhi raised a hand and made the sign of the cross.

Then she took out her ID and held it between her teeth.

"What else can I do? All I can do is avoid making trouble for the nice police officers."

"..."

"..."

Xiao Yao was silent for a long time before finally asking a question.

"Sir, this van isn't stolen, is it?"

The driver immediately bristled. "I spent several hundred buying this from a scrapyard and modified it myself!"

[...]

[The driver has an answer for everything, and every answer is lethal.]

[The guests: folks, type 1 if you think we'll survive.]

[Please identify anything legal the driver has done.]

[At least he gave everyone some answers before they died.]

Several hours on the mountain road.

They finally reached their destination.

One of the mountain villages in Caoli County.

The original owner's painful hometown.

The driver cheerfully helped everyone unload their things.

When he got to Shen Yunzhi's suitcase, she said politely:

"Thank you, sir."

"No problem, no problem."

The driver had just finished speaking when he caught a glimpse of Shen Yunzhi's face.

The more he looked, the more familiar she seemed.

Squinting through his severe nearsightedness, he studied Shen Yunzhi.

Then he spoke with some uncertainty.

"Are you Shen Yonggui's girl, the one whose birth family took her back to S City?"

Shen Yunzhi said, "Yep, yep."

The driver was quite intrigued. "Only realized you looked familiar when I got close just now. It's been five years, after all. Do you remember me? I'm the neighbor of the classmate of the eldest maternal uncle of the husband of the younger sister of the wife of Shen Yonggui's biological father's brother. I live in the next village. I even held you when you were little!"

Shen Yunzhi looked utterly blank.

Who could remember that?

But seeing how friendly the driver was, she warmly clapped him on the shoulder, too.

"Oh, it's you! I remember, I remember! Back then, you played at your house, and I played at mine. We've never known each other since we were kids!"

The driver said, "Yes, yes, yes! You young people have such good memories...? Wait, no."

[I laughed so hard this little lady sprouted roots and turned into a little gentleman.]

[I laughed so hard this humble scholar shat the bed. Lost control, lost control.]

[Those laughing are givers.]

[Those not laughing are takers.]

[I'm not much, but I both give and take.]

[?]

[??]

[May I ask this little lady-gentleman's gender?]

The driver was chatty, too. Having met someone he knew, he couldn't wait to start talking.

"Everyone in the village missed you after you went back. But a fine young lady like you deserves a good life."

Shen Yunzhi merely smiled. "Life in S City isn't good, either. I'd have been better off in the village."

In S City, at least only her adoptive parents' family had exploited the original owner.

The neighbors and villagers had all treated Shen Yunzhi quite well.

And she'd had freedom.

But once she returned to S City, the happy, carefree way she'd lived in the village was branded crude and ill-mannered.

Her birth parents found fault with her every day and forced her to take all kinds of posture and deportment classes.

Jiang Yunli battled wits with her every day.

A crowd of supposedly elegant, refined young heiresses and heirs treated her as their after-dinner entertainment.

The driver didn't quite believe Shen Yunzhi and clicked his tongue. "What troubles could you possibly have when you've got money?"

Shen Yunzhi said, "Far too many."

The driver said, "Do your birth parents treat you badly? Or is that girl who got adopted by mistake making trouble for you?"

The driver had merely said it offhandedly.

But it sent a chill straight through Jiang Yunli.

She stared wide-eyed at the driver, pondering how to interrupt their conversation.

Ji Nanxian turned and saw Jiang Yunli looking like that, and thought the driver's baseless speculation had upset her to the point of tears.

Ji Nanxian immediately felt sorry for her again and turned his anger straight on Shen Yunzhi.

"Shen Yunzhi! Can you stop constantly twisting things to slander Yunli?"

Shen Yunzhi: "?"

For fuck's sake.

What had she said this time to set this idiot's imagination off?

The driver might have been an outlaw, but he wasn't stupid.

The moment he heard Ji Nanxian's words, he knew who this "Yunli" was.

Villagers had their own way of raising hell. Rolling up his sleeves, the driver sprayed spit straight into Ji Nanxian's face:

"Who did Yunzhi slander? She didn't even answer just now! Everyone in the village knows how that couple mistreated her! I only said that because everyone for miles around knows Yunzhi's a famously good girl. If Yunzhi says she's had a bad life, then she's had a bad life. Would she lie?"

The onlookers watched the drama unfold in stunned fascination.

Everyone was quietly enjoying the spectacle.

Only An Zhizhi, who didn't understand social niceties very well, interjected blankly:

"Shen Yunzhi's adoptive parents treated her badly?"

But the rumors had always said that Shen Yunzhi's adoptive parents treated her very well, yet she had severed all ties with them the moment she returned to the Jiang Family.

Even the gossip An Zhizhi had heard was all people saying Shen Yunzhi despised the poor and favored the rich, and had stopped acknowledging the adoptive parents who'd raised her for over a decade as soon as she returned to S City.