Chapter 9: Wang Jian's Conspiracy

  Wang Jian's words completely destroyed the subtle atmosphere that had just formed between the two, and Xiao Ping involuntarily furrowed his brow. If Zhou Jun, who was very familiar with Xiao Ping, were present now, he would be able to tell that Xiao Ping was already angry.

  Xiao Ping slowly turned around and stared at Wang Jian in a low voice: "You have the guts to say it again!"

  Although Wang Jian had always looked down on Xiao Ping, at this moment he was stared at and suddenly felt a chill from the bottom of his heart. But Wang Jian also knew in his heart that this was the best opportunity to destroy Xiao Ping's image, so he still summoned up the courage to say: "Say it ten more times and I dare you. You gave Lian Qing the water for washing vegetables to drink, I saw it with my own eyes..."

  "Wang Jian, don't say that again!" Li Wanqing, usually gentle, rarely showed her tough side. She coldly interrupted Wang Jian: "I believe Xiao Ping, please don't speak ill of him in front of me from now on!"

  He never thought that his "good intentions" would lead to such a result, and Wang Jian was stunned for a moment. After a while, he came back to his senses, pointing at Xiao Ping and Li Wanqing with a trembling voice: "Good... you two remember this!"

  After throwing out this sentence, Wang Jian slunk back to his own room with a sullen face, and no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn't understand why Li Wanqing would believe Xiao Ping. He had clearly seen Xiao Ping scoop up the water used for washing vegetables for her to drink!

  Actually, Wang Jian was also clever but misled by his own cleverness. If he didn't always think about giving Xiao Ping the heaviest blow and had come forward to stop Li Wanqing from drinking water earlier, perhaps Li Wanqing would have believed him. But now that Li Wanqing clearly feels much better, her spirit even better than before overtime, Wang Jian jumping out again to say Xiao Ping is a swindler, of course, has no persuasive power at all.

  When Wang Jian closed the door, Li Wanqing smiled at Xiao Ping and said: "Thank you, if it wasn't for your help, I would have been in trouble today."

  Xiao Ping did not take credit, and smiled lightly: "It's nothing, we're all neighbors, we should help each other."

  Such an attitude also made Li Wanqing have a few more good impressions of Xiao Ping, she was about to say something, but unintentionally saw the blood on Xiao Ping's sleeve, and couldn't help but exclaim: "Are you injured?!"

  Xiao Ping smiled indifferently and said, "It's nothing, I just accidentally hurt it while working a little while ago, it's okay."

  Xiao Ping said it lightly, but Li Wanqing's heart couldn't calm down. Thinking of Xiao Ping ignoring his own injuries to protect her, she was also very moved and hastily asked with concern: "Does it hurt? Why don't we go to the hospital to take a look?"

  "It's really nothing, the bleeding has stopped, it'll be fine in a few days." Xiao Ping didn't want to waste that money and refused to go to the hospital.

  "Alright then, but be careful not to touch water or it will get inflamed." Seeing Xiao Ping's determined attitude, Li Wanqing didn't force him anymore and only reminded him to be careful.

  After drinking Xiao Ping's spiritual medicine, Li Wanqing felt extremely good. She glanced at her watch and found that it was still early, so she decided to rush back to the company to continue overtime. Everyone has their own work to complete, and Li Wanqing didn't want to drag down the entire team because of herself. Before leaving, she suddenly stopped in her tracks, turned around, and said to Xiao Ping: "Thank you so much, I'll treat you to dinner after this busy period is over."

  "Alright, it's settled," Xiao Ping also didn't hesitate and agreed straightforwardly.

  Li Wanqing smiled at Xiao Ping, then turned and left. Her lovely smile made Xiao Ping's heart beat faster, standing in the house for a while before remembering there were still things to do, and hurriedly went to work in the vegetable garden.

  Wang Jian hid behind the window and watched Xiao Ping, who was busy in the vegetable garden, gritting his teeth and whispering: "Xiao Ping, don't blame me for not being polite this time!"

  Three days later, Xiao Ping began his second harvest. He neatly stacked the vegetables in plastic baskets and then loaded them onto a three-wheeled cart. A full basket of vegetables weighed over 100 pounds, but Xiao Ping lifted it with ease, as if the baskets were empty. Before long, all the vegetables from the field had been loaded onto the three-wheeled cart, piled high like a small mountain.

  Xiao Ping found a business card and dialed Sun Lin's phone number, asking tentatively: "Hello Chef Sun. I'm Xiao from last time who sold you vegetables. We have another batch of green vegetables on the market now, do you want them?"

  Sun Lin was initially a bit unhappy about receiving a strange phone call, but after hearing Xiao Ping introduce himself, he was overjoyed and hurriedly replied with a smile: "Want to? Of course! How many dishes this time?"

  "Over six hundred catties."

  "Over 600 catties might be a bit too much, you also know that vegetables can't be stored for too long." Sun Lin on the other end of the phone seemed to be somewhat embarrassed, but quickly continued: "But it's okay. You bring all the vegetables over and I'll introduce you to some colleagues, we can divide them up among us and they'll be gone in no time."

  Xiao Ping happily said: "That's really thank you so much, Chef Sun."

  "Alright alright," Sun Lin said with a smile. "Just remember to notify me first if you have any good ingredients in the future."

  Sun Lin's special treatment of Xiao Ping is certainly for a reason. Last time, the gourmet who came to the Huayuan Hotel specially praised that ordinary stir-fried green vegetable dish. Now, the stir-fried green vegetables have become the signature dish of the Huayuan Hotel, and Sun Lin's reputation in the culinary world has also increased significantly.

  Sun Lin knew that the dish was so popular, thanks to Xiao Ping's good cooking skills. He had already thought of making friends with this young man. Since the secret of the dish had already been spread, Sun Lin decided to take advantage of it and introduce some acquaintances in the industry to Xiao Ping. As long as Xiao Ping felt indebted to him, he would sell him the best ingredients first in the future.

  Xiao Ping didn't care what Sun Lin had planned, as long as he could open up the sales channel, that was a good thing. So he said happily: "Don't worry, I'll leave now and call you again when I arrive at the hotel. See you!"

  Xiao Ping hung up the phone and rode his bike out the door, calculating how much income these over 600 catties of vegetables could bring him, feeling quite good.

  Not long after Xiao Ping left, Wang Jian came out of the room with a gloomy face and hastily arrived at Zhao Yong's house to knock on the door.

  "What the...! Who's making so much noise at this hour?" The room quickly responded with a string of curses, and then the door was flung open with a loud "bang", and Zhao Yong stormed out with an angry face.

  Seeing the village's tyrant, Wang Jian felt his legs trembling and hastily accompanied with a smile: "Good, Brother Yong."

  Zhao Yong glanced at Wang Jian and said: "Aren't you a tenant of Liu Jian's house? What brings you to me?"

  Wang Jian didn't want others to see him and Zhao Yong together, so he tentatively asked: "Brother Yong, can I go in and talk?"

  Zhao Yong looked at Wang Jian with suspicion, but eventually let him in. Zhao Yong soon discovered that it wasn't a waste to let Wang Jian in and asked him incredulously: "Can that guy really make that much money?"

  "I heard it with my own ears, it's absolutely right!" Wang Jian said confidently: "He went to sell vegetables again today, and when he comes back, there will definitely be a few thousand more in his pocket!"

  Zhao Yong has recently become addicted to gambling, and it's at a time when he's short of money. He can't help but stroke his chin and think to himself: "I didn't expect this kid to be making so much money now, maybe I can borrow some from him to spend..."

  What Zhao Yong called "borrowing" was actually robbery. He had been bullying in the village for a long time and did not feel any pressure doing such things. After all, Xiao Ping was just an outsider, so what if he took some money from him? Even if Xiao Ping reported to the police station, Zhao Yong was not afraid, at most he would write an IOU, saying that he had borrowed it from him, and that's it.

  Zhao Yong also had an idea, and with a wry smile, he said to Wang Jian: "It's his business if Xiao Ping can make money, what does it have to do with me? You come tell me what this means?"

  Wang Jian could tell from Zhao Yong's expression that he was moved, so he didn't say anything else and just smiled: "I'm just casually saying it, no special meaning. It's almost time to go to work, I'll leave first, see you later, Brother Yong."

  "Get out!" Zhao Yong waved his hand coldly, and as soon as Wang Jian left, he immediately called one of his subordinates: "Xiao Shan, get the others to wait at the village entrance right away. As soon as Xiao Ping that kid comes back, follow him! What's going on? This kid is now a fat sheep, let's borrow a few thousand yuan from him first and have some fun! Don't talk nonsense! I can still cheat you guys, bring more people and move faster!"