Chen Fang clutched her phone tightly, still lost in her son's call.
"Sister Chen? Are you listening to the villagers?" the man at the front asked.
Just then, a woman around 40, with a headscarf wrapped around her, squeezed through the crowd. After a little fidgeting, she sneered,
"Don't even mention her son. He's probably washing dishes and mopping floors at some small restaurant in the big city, right?"
"Exactly. He's twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and he always comes back empty-handed. I'm afraid city girls won't look favorably on him, and all the eligible girls in our village are already married off."
The woman speaking wriggled her plump legs and pulled out her 18-year-old daughter, showing her off. Then, she boastfully declared, "In this day and age, it's better to have a daughter when you have children; she won't have trouble getting married."
As they were talking, Ren Yuanhao's father, Ren Tiande, with a cigarette dangling from his lips and a gloomy expression, pushed into the crowd and whispered into Chen Fang's ear, "Hey, Mom, what did Yuanhao say on the phone?"
Chen Fang, tears mingling with her smile, hadn't paid any mind to the women's words. She replied, "My son has achieved something. He said he's going to send back a sum of money and told us not to overwork ourselves. He'll be back to see us before long."
Her voice wasn't loud, but the ears of these villagers were famously sharp. If a man cheated on his wife or a cat went astray, they'd know about it immediately.
Now, hearing that the seemingly useless Ren Yuanhao was going to send money back, the woman in the headscarf started to laugh heartily.
"Probably bragging again, who doesn't know that guy's situation? His salary isn't enough to cover his expenses, and he's playing with usury. It would be more practical to pray for a lottery win than wait for him to send money back."
"Exactly. He even has the nerve to come back. I bet he's just hiding from loan sharks!"
Before the words were out, Chen Fang's phone beeped with an incoming message notification.
Chen Fang assumed it was a bill notification or something similar. But when she took out her phone and looked at the message, she was stunned, her voice trembling.
"Honey, Yuanhao seems to have sent money back, but I'm not sure how much it is, there are so many zeros..."
Upon hearing this, everyone gathered around. Ren Tiande rubbed his eyes and began to count: "Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, hundred thousands!"
"Two hundred thousand!" Ren Tiande's hands trembled slightly. He counted again without realizing it, and only then confirmed that the sum was indeed two hundred thousand!
Chen Fang wasn't particularly happy; instead, she became a little worried. Just as she was about to call her son, the phone rang first.
"Hello, son, where did you get so much money?"
"I did a project, Mom and Dad. Don't be frugal anymore. Your son can make money now, it's time to be filial. Oh, and don't forget to handle the road repair thing. And my cousin's second child is almost a month old, right? Could you please put a little extra in the gift money for me, and ask him to save some loach and lobster for me to eat when I get back, haha!"
Chen Fang and Ren Tiande beamed upon hearing this. Ren Tiande said, "Good boy, you only care about talking to your mother, you don't care about your father at all!"
"How could that be, Dad? I got you some good wine. I'll accompany you for a good drink when I get back!"
"Great, and it would be even better if you brought a girlfriend back, then we'd be truly content."
The old phone's speaker was already loud, and now, the villagers naturally fell silent, slinking away dejectedly. However, the plump-legged old woman became exceptionally solicitous.
"Sister Chen, I spoke rudely just now, please don't take offense. My daughter is very interested in your Yuanhao. How about, you see..."
Chen Fang knew her opportunistic nature all too well. She simply said something that wouldn't offend the other party, and then returned indoors with Ren Tiande.
...
Ren Yuanhao mumbled as he put on his clothes and went out.
"Meeting location: Eros City, Champs Elysees Avenue, Dongtang Combat Club."
"Another violent woman?"
Ren Yuanhao sighed repeatedly and immediately got into a taxi. He felt the lights on both sides of the avenue whiz by, and in a moment, he arrived at Dongtang Combat Club.
Before even entering, he saw two or three people lurking suspiciously in the alley next to the club, occasionally letting out cold laughs.
"Hey, little sister, this isn't a place for you."
"Even if you come, you should bring a boyfriend as strong as us. How about it, are you interested in finding a place to have some fun first?"
Ren Yuanhao sprinted over without much thought, but what he saw immediately stunned him.
The girl surrounded by the three men had taken less than 5 seconds to beat all three of them down!
The three men were curled up like dead snakes, writhing and groaning. The woman, dressed in black with a graceful figure, saw Ren Yuanhao standing at the entrance and said coldly, "Do you also want to end up like this?"
Ren Yuanhao shook his head. Just as he was about to reply, he heard a series of system notifications pop up.
"Employer: Cheng Li
Age: 25
Occupation: Unknown
Relationship history: 1
Special warning: This employer's identity and occupation are unclear. Be extremely careful."
Ren Yuanhao swallowed, but his face remained impassive. He then performed a very绅士 polite bow and said, "I am Ren Yuanhao, a DiDi dating service representative, your customized boyfriend."
"Ren Yuanhao? Can you type out your name for me to see?"
Cheng Li handed him her phone. Ren Yuanhao, though slightly surprised, complied.
She took back her phone and then looked at it quite seriously. A barely perceptible cold glint flashed in her eyes.
The person in front of her was precisely the assassination target she had accepted on a bounty hunting website last night!