The Three-Day Deadline

"I..."

Even though Yin Yunze's price was already extremely generous, the woman's face flushed red as she said, "I can't come up with that much gold..."

"Then find others to join you." Looking at the woman, Yin Yunze suggested, "I doubt yours is the only household going hungry in this village. You can use my name to contact everyone and pool enough..."

"But..." The woman stole a glance at Yin Yunze and lowered her head. "Even the others have offered all their spare money to the Fox Immortal... We really, truly..."

"When did I ever..."

The question slipped out before Yin Yunze caught himself. It had to be that damned Spirit Medium Wang's doing again!

Sun Qin had mentioned before that although Spirit Medium Wang and her son had taken a beating from him, they still hadn't left Clear Creek Village.

Instead, after Yin Yunze had actually manifested his divine power, they had gone around swindling people in his name.

Sun Qin had spoken out to stop them, but as far as everyone else was concerned, Spirit Medium Wang was Yin Yunze's spokesperson. Besides, Spirit Medium Wang was as crafty as they came, and whenever she saw Sun Qin, she stayed well out of her way.

Yin Yunze had only just established himself, so it wouldn't have been easy for him to denounce Spirit Medium Wang with a great fanfare.

He had finally managed to stabilize things in Clear Creek Village, and he really didn't want an old woman stirring up more trouble.

The Fox Immortal falling out with Spirit Medium Wang would have been a fairly big deal in this little village.

So now Yin Yunze felt as disgusted as if a toad had crawled onto his foot.

I'll remember this grudge!

Unable to keep from grinding his teeth in secret, Yin Yunze reluctantly brought out his ultimate weapon. "Very well. You may have it on credit for now..."

Who wanted to sell on credit when they could be paid on the spot?

"Really? Lord Fox Immortal, you truly..."

The woman was overjoyed.

Before she could finish celebrating, Yin Yunze said, "However, you must bring those in the village who are short of grain here before sunset, along with the village chief."

"...No problem!"

Although she didn't know what Yin Yunze had in mind, the words "on credit" had already filled her heart.

After the woman skipped happily out of the Fox Immortal Temple, Yin Yunze withdrew from that world.

Looking at the work in front of him, Yin Yunze couldn't help sighing before working through his afternoon shift.

As quitting time approached, Yin Yunze went to see Supervisor Song again.

"Supervisor Song, something's come up tonight, so I won't be working overtime."

"What? What's wrong with you?" Supervisor Song's expression soured when he heard Yin Yunze's request not to work overtime. "You took two days off before, which already delayed everyone's schedule, and now you won't work overtime either?!"

"Something came up out of the blue!" Yin Yunze sighed inwardly and said softly, "Supervisor, can't you make an exception?"

"If I make an exception for you, who's going to make one for me?" Supervisor Song rolled his eyes and snapped, "If everyone acted like you..."

Seeing Supervisor Song like that, Yin Yunze felt his temper flare.

It wasn't that being a Fox Immortal in another world had given Yin Yunze a bad temper. It was simply that Supervisor Song liked to wave a chicken feather around as if it were an imperial command.

Compared with the company's work schedule, what Yin Yunze had planned in that world tonight was obviously far more important.

After all, Yin Yunze really had brought two taels of gold back from that world before.

Although its purity had been low enough that he'd only gotten around fifty thousand yuan for it, that was still more than half a year's salary for Yin Yunze.

And if tonight's deal went through, he'd have another twenty thousand yuan coming in!

With that thought, Yin Yunze immediately felt more confident, and he almost blurted out that he was done with this lousy job.

But payday was only a couple of days away, so after thinking it over, Yin Yunze decided not to make an enemy of his own money.

"Anyway, I've told you. I'm not coming in tonight."

With that, Yin Yunze couldn't even be bothered to wait for Supervisor Song's response. He headed straight for the time clock.

"Yin Yunze! What kind of attitude is that?!"

Hearing Supervisor Song's furious voice, Yin Yunze replied without looking back, "If you don't like me, then fire me!"

To be honest, as things gradually improved in Clear Creek Village, Yin Yunze increasingly felt that he didn't have enough time.

If he really did get fired, Yin Yunze could instead put his mind at ease and focus on managing Clear Creek Village.

After leaving the company and eating dinner, Yin Yunze borrowed a three-wheeler and went to the grain and oil shop where he'd stocked up last time.

He managed to load all twenty fifty-jin bags of rice onto the borrowed electric three-wheeler. With the vehicle making sounds of strain under the weight, Yin Yunze rode back to a deserted spot by the lake.

By the time he finished all that, it was still quite light on this side, but when Yin Yunze switched back to the other world, it was already dark there.

A dozen or so people, led by Song Zhao and the woman, had been waiting in the dilapidated temple for who knew how long.

Sun Qin had also brought Zhao Wan, and they were standing to one side.

"Are you all here seeking rice?" As usual, Yin Yunze dispensed with the pleasantries and went straight to the point.

"Lord Fox Immortal, your mercy is boundless!" After opening with a flattering remark, Song Zhao's old face crinkled into a chrysanthemum-like smile. "The Zhang family's girl said you were planning to let us have grain on credit?"

"That's right." Looking at Song Zhao, Yin Yunze said softly, "I have a thousand jin of polished rice here..."

"Thank you, Lord Fox Immortal!"

"Lord Fox Immortal truly delivers us from suffering..."

Before Yin Yunze could finish, the villagers burst into cheers.

"Shut up!" Yin Yunze snapped, cutting off their cheers. Still in a bad mood because of the earlier trouble over his time off, he couldn't be bothered to keep up his persona. He said coldly, "A thousand jin of polished rice for one tael of gold. I can let you owe me the gold for now, but only for three days!"

"Three days?!"

"Lord Fox Immortal! Isn't three days..."

"Our village has been emptied out. How could we possibly scrape it together in three days..."

Listening to their claims of poverty, true or not, Yin Yunze said calmly, "A thousand jin of polished rice would fetch at least four taels of gold at the market price."

At those words, everyone exchanged looks. What, was the Fox Immortal going to raise the price?

"Lord Fox Immortal! You mean...!"

Song Zhao was quickest to react and understood Yin Yunze at once.

Seeing that the others still looked completely lost, Yin Yunze sighed inwardly and reluctantly explained, "Three days is the time you have to take this thousand jin of polished rice to the county town, exchange it for gold, and deliver the gold to me! I care not how much you get for the rice. I will take only my one tael of gold!"

"So that's how it is..."

"Lord Fox Immortal truly is..."

Once they understood Yin Yunze's meaning, everyone showered him with another round of rainbow farts.

After all, it was hard to speak ill of someone whose food you'd eaten, and this was on credit!

But to Yin Yunze's ears, their words were so cringeworthy they made his toes curl.

Yin Yunze even regretted having the Zhang family's woman call so many people over.

Yin Yunze had asked the Zhang family's woman to bring others because the rice had to be taken to the county town and exchanged for money. Without enough people to transport it, the thousand jin of rice could very well be stolen by others.

He had asked for Song Zhao because, as Clear Creek Village's chief, Song Zhao was quite likely to have some connections in the county town. If they wanted to sell the thousand jin of rice safely and get a good price for it, Song Zhao would be important.

In the eyes of many modern people, a village chief might not even count as an official.

But in ancient times, a village chief wielded considerable real power.

Someone who could keep a firm hold on a village would have some connections with the county yamen.

If nothing else, when the county yamen sent people to collect taxes, didn't Song Zhao have to mediate as village chief?

Having Song Zhao take the lead was better than relying on an ordinary villager.

Of course, if Yin Yunze had really misjudged him and Song Zhao couldn't even handle this thousand jin of rice, then he would have to count it as the price of a lesson.

Yin Yunze would have to put his plans to make money in this world on hold again.

As for why he had set a three-day limit, Yin Yunze knew that a round trip from Clear Creek Village to the county town took less than a day.

Even with a thousand jin of rice slowing them down, two days would be more than enough for the round trip if they didn't dawdle.

Though that appeared to leave only one extra day, making the deadline somewhat tight.

But with credit, the more time you gave someone, the more likely they were to lose any desire to pay you back.

As the saying went, if you didn't take it seriously yourself, how could you expect the other party to?

For the same matter, only by setting conditions would you make people keep it in mind. If you acted as though it were no big deal, you couldn't expect them to remember your kindness.

You might have helped someone, only for them to speak ill of you behind your back.

Yin Yunze really had seen people who were the ones refusing to repay a debt.

Yet they believed they were in the right, insisting that the person who had lent them the money was so rich that the loan was nothing more than pocket change to them. Why should they have to pay it back? The lender should have simply given it to them. In the end, they even cursed the lender as a cheapskate.

Bestowing favors could indeed strengthen believers' faith, but if all he did was bestow favors, people would take him for a sucker they could demand anything from.

So, to give himself some added assurance, Yin Yunze said with a hint of threat, "If you take the rice away and fail to deliver the gold to me within three days, then I will cut off the water supply to the entire village."