Childhood friend

Sure enough, the next day, Ye Huan's father had only just delivered the goods when Manager Du heard from her staff that Ye Huan had sent a basket of peaches for free. She came over, tasted one, and understood.

She called Ye Huan straightaway. "Same arrangement as the vegetables-a six-month contract. Name your price."

"There really aren't many of these. I only have a dozen or so peach trees at the moment, producing around a hundred peaches a day. How about this: we'll see how many I can bring you each day. I've checked, and the peaches are all about the same size. Fifty yuan each," Ye Huan said with a smile.

"I planted the watermelons and strawberries late, but they should be about ready next month."

Manager Du looked at the peaches in the basket. They were indeed all roughly the same size, each weighing a little over half a jin. Fifty yuan apiece wasn't unacceptable to her.

There were plenty of expensive fruits on the market these days, and they had seen some outrageous prices. Looking again at the peach she had taken bites from, she felt that fifty yuan each was practically a conscientious price.

"All right. Bring the watermelons over as soon as they're ready for market. They'll work even better than these for fruit platters." Manager Du nodded.

"Sure. We'll discuss the price when they're ready. I don't even know how these watermelons will turn out yet." All he knew was that some of the watermelons in the field already weighed fifteen to twenty jin, and they weren't even ripe yet.

After hanging up, Ye Huan smiled. Another source of income. A hundred or so peaches a day meant several thousand yuan. Together with the vegetables, his daily income topped ten thousand. What more could he ask for-a bicycle?

"I smiled smugly, then smiled smugly again~~" Ye Huan sang as he walked. Saihu looked at his young owner in confusion. What's going on??

"Saihu, when's your wife having her pups?"

"Woof~" How would I know? I don't even know when she got pregnant, Saihu thought!

"Holy shit, they're not someone else's, are they?" Ye Huan said with a laugh.

"Woof, woof~~" Try being a decent human being, I'm begging you. Saihu scorned his owner.

"Haha, I'm only joking. Look at you getting all worked up."

"Woof~" I can't be bothered with you. Saihu led the way, and the man, dog, and wolf reached a river in the village where the mountain springs converged.

Several older children around ten were playing in the water below. Ye Huan told them to be careful, then found a shady spot and sat down. He had come to fish for fun today. This was the proper way to enjoy life back in the village.

He set up his fishing rod, filmed a clip, then edited and uploaded it. His follower count had actually passed fifty thousand, something he hadn't expected. All he did each day was film some mountain scenery.

He looked through his earlier video of going into the mountains-the one where he had rescued the little white wolf. It had over two hundred thousand likes and more than fifty thousand comments, so he tapped into the comments to have a look.

"Beautiful mountain village scenery~"

"Those woods go deep, just like back home. I'm from Shennongjia."

"Holy shit, was that a wolf just now? Is the uploader dead?"

"That's freaking awesome. The gray wolf came to get him to save its kid?"

"The little white wolf is so cute..."

Ye Huan smiled faintly. As long as it was getting results.

The little white wolf and its father had received the most comments.

He picked up Xiaobai and settled into his seat. Saihu lay down beside him too, watching Ye Huan fish. Fishing was boring, and often, after sitting there all day, you still ended up skunked.

That was something Ye Huan couldn't accept, especially after sitting for over half an hour without catching a single fish. Growing impatient, he made a little pool of Spirit Spring Water appear in his hand and waved it around at the river's edge.

Before long, he saw plenty of fish, big and small, willingly swimming into his trap. "Haha~ I can cheat, yet I sat there like an idiot all that time. What's wrong with me?"

He scooped up a few of the biggest fish with his landing net. Once the Spirit Spring Water disappeared, the other fish vanished again too.

Because the river was fed by mountain spring water, its fish weren't as big as one might imagine. Ye Huan reckoned the largest weighed a little over three jin. It was a snakehead. There were also two crucian carp weighing around a jin each, which counted as fairly large among this school.

As for the last fish, a silver carp, he thought it over and tossed it back into the river. A silver carp weighing a little over a jin wasn't a big fish. Besides, three fish were enough to eat today.

He filmed a quick video, captioned it, "No more getting skunked-it starts with me!" and uploaded it...

"Saihu, Xiaobai, let's go home!" Carrying his little folding stool and fishing rod, he headed leisurely home.

"Mom, let's have fish with pickled mustard greens tonight!" He put the fish in a basin and went to watch the construction crew work.

"Thanks for the hard work~" He gave each man a pack of ten-yuan cigarettes. Ye Huan didn't mind these little favors. As long as they did the work properly, he didn't care.

"Thanks, young boss~" The workers beamed. This family was really generous. Ye Huan's father also came over from time to time to hand out cigarettes...

They had just finished lunch, and Ye Huan was bored and about to take a nap when Da Hu arrived at his house.

Looking at his childhood friend, who stood 190 centimeters tall and was a whole size bulkier than him, Ye Huan punched him in the chest. "You're built~~"

"Brother Huan~~" Da Hu was shy around Ye Huan.

"Come on, let's take a walk." Ye Huan gave up on his nap, threw on a jacket, and went out with Da Hu.

Seeing the SUV on the open ground outside, he asked, "You drove back? Doing pretty well for yourself these days?"

"It's my boss's car. When he heard I was coming back to see Grandpa, he specifically told me to drive it home. Said making transfers and all that would be too much trouble," Da Hu said~

"Drove all night?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Slept for two hours at a service area before dawn~" Da Hu nodded.

"I never asked what you did for work. Yesterday, your grandpa asked me to talk you into coming home. I wanted to ask what you think." Ye Huan wasn't about to say something as pointless as, "Quit your job and come work with me."

Da Hu rubbed his nearly shaved head. "Brother Huan, my boss is a small-time property developer. I'm his bodyguard and driver. It's not like what Grandpa said."

"In this business, there are lots of favors, lots of debts, and a few more enemies. I can handle all that. Besides~~"

Da Hu paused there. Ye Huan nodded, motioning for him to continue.

"Besides, when I first met my boss, I didn't have a penny to my name. I hadn't eaten for two days and still couldn't find work. My boss took me in and fed me. Also, the year before last, when Grandpa had heart trouble, my boss gave me the three hundred thousand that saved his life. He didn't hesitate. How am I supposed to repay that?"

Ye Huan really hadn't known there was all this behind it. In that case, leaving really would be difficult. What kind of person would he be if he just walked away?? Never mind Da Hu himself-even Ye Huan couldn't accept that.

"You know how poor we used to be, Brother. If it weren't for my boss, never mind me-Grandpa definitely would've died that time. Tell me, what do kids like us from the mountains have that anyone would want, apart from our lives?" Da Hu took the cigarette Ye Huan offered, lit Brother Huan's for him, then lit his own.

He took a deep drag and squatted there with Ye Huan, looking toward his own house in the distance. "Over these past few years, I've sent Grandpa some money bit by bit, telling him to renovate the house. But look at it now. It's still just how it was ten years ago."

"Since that's how things stand, I won't say anything more. Just stay safe. Don't get carried away and start seeing red. Whether you hurt someone else or get hurt yourself, neither is something your grandpa wants to see." Ye Huan nodded and took a drag.

He didn't smoke often and wasn't addicted. An occasional cigarette was no big deal.