Rebirth: Slice-of-life Cultivation

Chapter 1835 - 1008

River dam, bungalow.

Xue Chuchu stood where she was, looking a little at a loss. She’d just come to have the worker uncle change her battery; who knew that as soon as they finished talking, the guy would be surrounded.

"You’re still out here collecting used batteries? Did you pass the environmental inspection? What if something happens?" the domineering man barked.

Another one said, "Daring to haul used batteries without full qualifications? You’ve got some nerve, huh?"

These people had the full "just doing official business" look about them.

Facing several burly men, the battery guy bent slightly at the waist, forcing a fawning smile. "Big brother, big brother! I’m just the guy who swaps batteries!"

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and offered them around.

The domineering man waved his hand, slapping the cigarettes to the ground, not giving him a shred of face.

The battery guy’s face immediately turned ugly.

"Brother An, how we handling this?" one of the lackeys asked.

The buzz-cut man glanced at the battery trike. "We’ll take this batch of batteries off you for one hundred."

The battery guy forced himself to speak up. "Where’s it that cheap? You’re bullying people too much."

He already understood what these people were—this was clearly daylight robbery!

No wonder when he got into this line, someone warned him that business in Yu Zhou City was hard to do; so there were these risks too.

An Yue smiled kindly, reached out to pat the battery guy’s cheek, and drawled, "Don’t want to, huh? No problem. Then we’ll just report you to Environmental Protection. At worst you pay a fine and have a case opened."

The little brother beside him said, "You’re in this business yourself. You know whether you’re compliant or not, and you know how strict the state is, right?"

The buzz-cut man’s face showed impatience, and he cracked his knuckles. "This old guy doesn’t know what’s good for him. Let’s help him wake up a bit!"

Seeing how arrogant this group was, the battery guy had no choice but to agree to sell all the batteries on his trike at a low price.

While An Yue ordered his lackeys to move the batteries, he said, "Bro, go find another job. Don’t come to Yuzhou again."

When the buzz-cut man was moving the batteries, he saw the used one that had been taken off beside the black e-bike. He went over, reaching out to grab it.

Having just been an onlooker, Xue Chuchu couldn’t help saying, "You haven’t paid for my battery yet."

The buzz-cut man stopped, his eyes fixed on Xue Chuchu for a good while. He’d already noticed how pretty the girl was.

Following An Yue in this line of work, the buzz-cut guy was usually a total punk, but the girl in front of him was so pretty he didn’t even dare tease her.

The buzz-cut man yelled, "Little sis, your old battery got collected by him, and he sold the batteries to us. So doesn’t that make this battery ours?"

Logically there wasn’t a big issue... Xue Yuantong said righteously, "He didn’t pay. You’re not allowed to touch that battery!"

The buzz-cut man had roamed around acting tough for years and had never seen such an audacious kid. His face changed. "I’ll move it anyway. What about it?"

Xue Yuantong said, "You’ll get what’s coming to you."

As soon as she said that, everyone who was carrying batteries burst out laughing.

Retribution was the last thing they were afraid of!

An Yue was smoking nearby. Hearing the commotion, he walked over and asked, "What’s going on?"

The buzz-cut man said, "The little girl won’t let us move the old battery."

An Yue said, "Mm, give her eighty."

Someone immediately pulled out his wallet, counted out eighty yuan, and handed it to Xue Yuantong.

Xue Yuantong was displeased. Did they think she didn’t know the market?

"Uncle offered one hundred and fifty. How come you’re only giving eighty?"

An Yue was stunned for a moment, then gave a half-smile. "Kid, that old battery of yours is only worth eighty. They’re illegally overpaying for it."

Xue Yuantong didn’t care about legal or illegal. "Whoever pays more, I sell the battery to them."

"So you’re saying you’re not selling, right?" An Yue didn’t get angry. He answered his own question, "Fine. Like I said, in Yuzhou no one will dare buy your used batteries. Keep it as a family heirloom."

With that, An Yue went back to smoking.

Too arrogant. Tongtong was annoyed. She glared at the puffing thug on the doorstep and deliberately reminded him, "No smoking in front of the bungalow. Be careful, there’s a vicious dog that bites."

As soon as the words fell, An Yue and his crew burst out laughing. Was she trying to mess with them?

The buzz-cut man lit a cigarette and said word by word, "What vicious dog? I’ll smoke if I want to!"

Xue Yuantong was furious.

Jiang Ning said, "Xiao Ben."

The next second, a black shadow shot out from Butcher Zhang’s house, snarling as it lunged at An Yue.

An Yue and the buzz-cut man both jumped out of their skins. The fuck—whose big black dog was this!

They were so scared they spat out their cigarettes and scrambled to dodge back.

Xiao Ben pounced like a vicious dog on prey, then braked sharply, its hind legs twisting as they touched down, performing a graceful 180-degree dog ballet.

Xiao Ben bared its teeth and looked back, showing a faintly human-like sneer.

Even someone as sinister and full of confidence as An Yue was completely pissed off by this black dog.

After that brief moment of panic, the buzz-cut man strode forward, ready to show off his legendary dog-catching skills.

An Yue reminded him, "There’s something off about this dog. Be careful."

The buzz-cut guy didn’t really take it to heart. They made a living off brute force. Normal people might be scared of a big dog, but he wasn’t. As long as you knew dog-catching techniques, even empty-handed it only took one or two moves.

He’d done this plenty of times before.

"Son of a bitch, you dare scare me!" the buzz-cut man said. "This dog took the initiative to bite. Once I catch it, we’ll stew it. I bet the owner won’t dare say a word!"

The buzz-cut man went straight toward the Black Back Wolf Dog.

When Xiao Ben saw someone actually dare face it head-on, it was briefly confused. Were its teeth not sharp enough?

"Bro, just do it. I’ll record it for Kuaishou!" the lackeys cheered him on.

The buzz-cut man shouted, "Come on, bite me!"

Xiao Ben suddenly kicked off the ground, launching itself like a bullet. This was exactly what the buzz-cut man had expected; his hands flashed out, aiming to grab the dog’s neck and clamp its jaws shut!

But he was way too slow. His hands were only halfway out when Xiao Ben’s muscular body slammed into his chest. The buzz-cut man felt like he’d been hit by a motorcycle; his footing went out from under him and he was knocked flat on his back.

Xiao Ben let out a thunderous roar, its mouthful of teeth and the rank, beastly drool inches from his eyes.

The buzz-cut man’s face was filled with terror.

Xiao Ben kicked off with all four legs and sprang back, turning to Jiang Ning with a fawning doggy grin.

Jiang Ning said mildly, "Not bad."

He casually peeled open a piece of beef jerky and tossed it on the ground. Xiao Ben was overjoyed.

An Yue and the crew who collect batteries all had extremely ugly expressions; they’d just been slapped in the face right there on the spot!

An Yue couldn’t hold it in and ordered, "Catch that dog for me!"

In an instant, the lackeys stopped collecting batteries and all went after Xiao Ben.

Xiao Ben kicked its four legs and moved through the crowd with ease; seizing an opening, it leapt and pounced, knocking An Yue flat on his back.

After that, Xiao Ben swaggered back into the yard, tail wagging.

Xue Yuantong said regretfully, "I told you, you shouldn’t smoke, right."

An Yue and his people were furious but helpless; they could only take the old batteries, get on their e-bikes, and leave the river dam.

...

"Uncle, are you still buying batteries?" Xue Yuantong asked.

The battery guy shook his head, expression gloomy. "Forget it, this business can’t be done."

He rode off on his tricycle, helplessly leaving the river dam.

The front of the bungalow quieted down again. Xue Yuantong said, "Chuchu, your e-bike will never get its battery changed again; it’s gonna be our battle pet for life."

Xue Chuchu said, "There’s definitely a way."

If it really didn’t work, she could still spend money to buy a new one; it was just a pity about this e-bike that had been with her for so many years.

Xue Yuantong said, "Things are already like this, let’s go buy something to eat at the river dam!"

...

An Yue drove the van away from the bungalow. His face kept shifting, and his brothers were all silent too.

The key thing was this whole mess was just too damn ridiculous—several fierce-as-hell enforcers got humiliated by a dog!

It was so damn suffocating; no one would believe it if they said it out loud.

The buzz-cut guy said, "Fuck it, drug it, poison that damn dog to death!"

One of the lackeys suggested, "Just call the cops, say the dog bit someone. Anyway, we know people at the station."

After hearing that, an idea formed in An Yue’s mind.

Suddenly, he caught sight of a familiar face by the roadside. An Yue pulled over and shouted out the window, "Chanchan."

An Chan was setting up a stall with her good friend Ni Ni. After coming back to her hometown small city, she didn’t have many friends, and Ni Ni counted as a pretty close one.

"Brother Yue, you’re out too?" An Chan said in surprise.

An Yue was her cousin, working with her dad in business. Thanks to her dad, he’d bought two apartments in An City over the past few years.

"Got some things to take care of," An Yue said.

Thinking of the company’s business, he reminded her, "Uncle said you should come home early tonight."

When An Chan heard that, she thought of the reason she had returned to Yuzhou, and her face dimmed a little. "I know."

After An Yue left, Ni Ni thought back to the fierce-looking men in the van and suddenly said, "Your cousin looks like one of those street guys."

An Chan forced a smile. "He’s always been like that."

Ni Ni didn’t dwell on it. She sat at the sushi stall, watching the foot traffic go by while hardly anyone wanted to buy her sushi.

She started sighing again. "I’m more and more regretting not agreeing to that uncle who offered to keep me for fifty thousand a month back in college. Sigh, I didn’t want to go down the crooked path before, and now I find the crooked path is packed with people."

An Chan had heard her mention that uncle several times. Maybe she was in a bad mood today, so her words were a bit blunt:

"Ni Ni, fifty thousand a month is fake. At our Shen City art schools, lots of pretty girls only get ten or twenty thousand a month. Most of it is a scam, or it’s just short-term."

"Besides, could you really accept a greasy man twenty years older than you?"

Ni Ni stared at her in surprise for a couple of seconds, then answered seriously, "Of course I know."

Now it was An Chan’s turn to be confused. "You know, and you still keep talking about it?"

Ni Ni smiled. "Hey, people have to give themselves some excuses, right? Otherwise wouldn’t it make it look like I’m doing really badly now?"

An Chan was left speechless.

So what she’d always thought, wasn’t what she thought it was.

"But you, Chanchan, you’ve got something on your mind, huh?" Ni Ni said with a squinty smile.

"You really are..." An Chan was helpless. There were no customers at her stall at the moment, so she said, "My dad knows Director Zhang; some business stuff. Mm, it was all fine before, but I heard recently Director Zhang is about to retire. My dad told me the other day that this Zhang guy wants to fix me up with..."

An Chan started venting. She’d originally wanted to remind Ni Ni not to tell anyone, but she held back, because Ni Ni was known for keeping her mouth shut.

"Is Mr. Zhang good-looking?" Ni Ni asked.

"Not even one meter seventy, one hundred and sixty jin, single eyelids." An Chan complained.

"That really is pretty bad," Ni Ni said sympathetically.

"If I don’t agree, my dad’s business might tank immediately. If I do agree..."

"Then even after Director Zhang steps down, he’d still be willing to use his influence to help my dad make connections... I don’t know exactly how much he can earn, but I heard it’s several million a year..." An Chan said, feeling lost.

When Ni Ni heard the number "several million," her eyelids twitched. "I could, I don’t mind."

She might be a primary school Chinese teacher, but with a paralyzed mother and a younger brother, she was basically at the bottom of the blind-date market.

An Chan said, "Alright, stop joking."

She thought of Mr. Zhang’s photo and compared it with the promising young man she’d met today, Shang Zhengyu. The gap was just too big.

Sadly, she didn’t even have the right to choose.

Even though An Chan was beautiful, had a public post, and drove a BMW, she still felt her life was pretty bitter.

Ni Ni was actually pretty good at comforting people. She told An Chan about her own even more miserable daily life, and An Chan’s mood improved a little.

Listening to her girlfriend’s comforting words while eating the sushi her girlfriend had made by hand, without realizing it, An Chan had eaten seven or eight pieces.

Ni Ni’s heart ached, so she used the chance to divert her attention. "You still have to go when you have to go. Director Zhang really knows how to pick restaurants. I heard the dishes at that rural tourism place are especially good. You have to save your stomach for tomorrow!"

An Chan said, "Huh, how do you know?"

Ni Ni said, "Heard it from our corrupt vice principal."

As the two of them chatted, Jiang Ning was wandering around the river dam with Tongtong and Chuchu. When they walked up to the sushi stall—fair’s fair, Ni Ni’s sushi really did look good.

An Chan gave them a small nod.

Tongtong was already picking out sushi. "Jiang Ning, I want this cheese mango one, and the teriyaki one, and I want the pork floss seaweed too."

Seeing them, Ni Ni asked curiously, "You guys aren’t setting up your stall today?"

Jiang Ning said, "Taking a few days off. Tongtong’s too short; if we set up every day, people will think I’m exploiting child labor."