Reborn as a female internet celebrity in a county town

Chapter 23 Cricket Culture
It was past four in the afternoon, and the sun was still very strong.

Yan Li sat on the back of the electric scooter, clutching Lin Lang's clothes. After passing a traffic light, she said, "If your girlfriend ever asks you if any other girls have sat in the back, just go to the traffic police station and get the CCTV footage from that intersection to prove your innocence. I promise I only clutched his clothes..."

"No, why is my girlfriend so demanding?"

"Who can say for sure? By the way, who else is in your family?"

"It's just my parents, there's no one else."

"Angang... why aren't you in Shanghai?"

“It’s comfortable back home. No one fines us for not wearing helmets. Otherwise, if it were just the two of us like this, we would definitely be fined sixty yuan.”

"anything else?"

"So many beautiful women! They desperately need a handsome guy like me to save them!"

"Indeed, quite a few girls pursued you in college..."

"Huh? I haven't heard of that."

"You need to take the initiative. If you don't take the initiative, how can there be any story?"

"No, no, I'm afraid they're shills you hired... My roommate gets 3,000 yuan a month for living expenses, and she spends 1,000 yuan of it on milk tea... I only have 2,500 yuan, I can't afford to waste that much."

……

Lin Lang rode his electric scooter, chatting casually with Yan Li.

He knew Yan Li's personality all too well; back in college, she had easily won over countless sycophants.

I have a roommate who, for some reason, talked to Yan Li a few times, and then suddenly started to think that Yan Li liked him, and he's been swooning over her for years.

Every day, they would try all sorts of ways to send Yan Li gifts, such as flowers and expensive fruits on holidays.

Of course, Yan Li definitely confiscated it.

Then that bastard thought that Yan Li was genuinely looking out for him and didn't want him to waste money.

Yan Li continued the previous topic, saying, "I didn't hire anyone... Also, after I found out, I specially treated him to a meal."

Lin Lang: "..."

Is that a dinner invitation? Or is it a chain?

Anyway, after that meal, one of my roommates, who was a total simp, thought that buying more milk tea would allow him to have dinner with his goddess, so he drank four cups of milk tea every day, rain or shine.

They almost got rid of a few guys in their dorm.

Even now, Lin Lang has lost interest in any kind of milk tea; he got sick of it during college.

"If you treat people like this, you're likely to get back at them."

Hearing this, Yan Li smiled slightly, "I've never accepted a gift from anyone, even if it was forced upon me. I'll find a way to return it. If someone with average means still tries to give me a gift, I'll immediately give them cash, even if I think the gift is tacky and I'd never appreciate it. Besides, people can be contradictory. Maybe someone like me is loyal in relationships, while someone as honest as you might become a jerk?"

"You rock!"

"Of course, that's because my name is Yan Zhiyouli."

Lin Lang rode his electric scooter into a small alley, then turned into an old residential compound, pulled over to the side of the road, and arrived at his destination.

Yan Li glanced at the various clothes hanging in the yard, the different kinds of vehicles parked there, as well as brooms, trash cans, and so on...

He said, "This place has a really homey feel to it..."

"Is this how you city people use adjectives?"

"Isn't it?"

"That's not wrong. This is a very good school district. The best junior high and high school in the county are both within 500 meters. Even if you don't want to live here anymore, a 60-square-meter apartment can be divided into six rooms and rented out for 12,000 yuan a year. Based on bank interest rates, you would need to deposit more than 300,000 yuan to earn that kind of interest. Banks might even lower interest rates, and the rent here has been like this for ten years, and it will probably still be like this ten years from now..."

"Wow, that's impressive, you calculated it so quickly."

"I'm a college student, not a college animal..."

"Hmm? Is there a difference?"

"The 'livestock' in 'livestock'... Hurry up and come upstairs with me, the yard will be lively soon."

Lin Lang walked towards the stairwell.

This old apartment building clearly doesn't have an elevator.

Yan Li was clearly curious and asked, "What's all the fuss about?"

"After the sun goes down a bit, it will cool down in the yard, and the older women in the neighborhood will sit there chatting. I always keep my distance from them."

As they spoke, the two had already climbed to the third floor. At the corner of the stairs, Lin Lang took out his key and opened a door.

His house is only 60 square meters. Over the years, all sorts of things he couldn't bear to throw away, old furniture, etc., have filled the room. Only the living room, which is about 20 square meters, is still passable.

The house wasn't exactly dirty, but it was far from clean either. "Why don't you sit on the sofa and wait a bit? I'll prepare the fish. Also, do you have any dietary restrictions?"

Yan Li said, "I'm here to freeload, not to order food. I'll eat whatever you have."

As she spoke, she sat down on the sofa.

"Row!"

Lin Lang rushed into the kitchen and started cleaning the fish.

About ten minutes later, after a quick clean-up, it was placed aside.

We'll definitely have to wait for Ms. Xu to come back and cook. Ms. Xu's cooking is superb, whether it's pickled fish or stewed fish soup.

Then, Lin Lang went downstairs to buy some other groceries at a supermarket near the community.

We can't just get one fish. Even if he's shameless and doesn't care, Ms. Xu probably won't agree when she gets back, and then we'll definitely be scrambling to figure things out.

Yan Li saw Lin Lang's figure downstairs through the window next to the living room.

Before Lin Lang could even step out the door, an older woman called out to him, "Lin Lang, did you go out to catch fish? Did you catch any?"

"No, I went fishing with some other people and didn't catch anything."

“Tell your aunt that there’s a fishpond at her house, and you can go fishing whenever you want.”

"Uh……"

"By the way, how's work? Your mom said the family introduced you to a nice girl? Is she a teacher?"

Lin Lang: "..."

"Aunt Liu, I have to go out for a bit. Let's chat again another time..."

Yan Li, who was upstairs, couldn't help but chuckle as she watched Lin Lang flee in a disheveled state.

Lin Lang is usually very talkative, but when he's around these middle-aged women, he instantly becomes like a shy young boy.

As for the reason... she can understand.

We've been neighbors for over ten or twenty years, and they're elders; we can't just lose our temper easily.

They're just a bit gossipy; they occasionally find someone's sore spot and start making snide remarks.

But if you have such a neighbor, they will actually help you when you need something, even if it's just to make you grateful or to show off their superiority in front of you.

For example, Shen An'an's grandfather was a tractor driver more than 30 years ago. He was involved in a traffic accident and killed someone. The other party had to pay him 20,000 yuan in compensation.

Thirty years ago, Shen An'an's family certainly couldn't come up with 20,000 yuan, so they started asking their neighbors to contribute, with one family contributing 10 or 20 yuan, and another 10 or 20 yuan.

Although Shen An'an's father made a fortune more than ten years later and had long since paid back his principal and interest, he still felt it wasn't enough. Over the years, he arranged many jobs for the villagers and would prepare a lot of New Year's goods in advance to send to the elderly in the village every year.

Even though some families were unwilling at the time, they eventually gave it to them.

This is a way of life. Neighbors are a community. If someone suffers a major disaster, people will help each other if they can. If you have the ability but don't help, you'll easily be criticized behind your back.

This way of survival cleverly utilizes human nature, forcibly combining a group of unrelated people into a collective, creating a special system, and increasing the chances of survival.

After all, ordinary people at that time had no ability to withstand risks. With this way of life, their ability to withstand risks was greatly increased.

Under such a system, it is necessary to foster a culture that enjoys criticizing others; otherwise, what happens when someone takes advantage of others without wanting to give anything in return?
In a society governed by the rule of law, you can't just hit someone, can you?

Crickets are the best choice. First, raise crickets in your own village, then go to the town to raise them. If you do it on a larger scale and behave badly, the whole county will know about it.

Those who try to take advantage without paying anything in return will find themselves unable to hold their heads high anywhere. After weighing the costs of moving, they will generally compromise and choose to integrate.

However, with the wave of migrant workers and the arrival of the era of large-scale relocation, neighbors have gradually become strangers, leaving only some old communities or elderly people who still hold this view.

The cricket stalker behind the scenes—that's an old trick!

At this time, more and more middle-aged women came into the courtyard.

Yan Li overheard the older woman mutter, "What are we going to do with Lin Lang, this college student... He went to a good university, but instead of looking for a job, he just stays at home messing around..."

"If they can't even catch a fish, Xiuyun and the others are going to suffer a lot in the future!"

"Being fair-skinned is useless; where will a lazy man find a wife?"

Yan Li smiled slightly, brushed her hair aside, and then walked downstairs.

Her outfit was destined to attract attention.

As I passed by a group of middle-aged women, one of them whispered, "Whose daughter is this?"

If it were someone else, they would just pretend they didn't hear it and walk away.

Yan Li immediately stopped and turned around to ask, "Auntie, are you asking me?"

(End of this chapter)