Reborn at 80: From Village Scoundrel to Billionaire

"No! No, no, no! Brother Zhang Hu, I really won't tell anyone! You have to believe me!"

Zhao Liuzhi raised his right hand: "I, Zhao Liuzhi, swear to heaven, if I utter a single word of this, may I be struck by lightning! May I be struck by five thunderbolts! May I be trampled to death by a cow when I go out! If the cow doesn't trample me to death, may a dog bite me to death! If a dog doesn't bite me to death, may I choke to death while eating!"

"Fuck you! On such a beautiful night, you fucking utter so many words of death all at once, isn't that bad luck?"

Zhang Hu looked displeased and gave a wink to the two burly men beside him.

The two burly men went up and one of them pressed Zhao Liuzhi's shoulder down while the other pressed his left hand firmly onto a rock.

Then he neatly removed the five fingers from Zhao Liuzhi's right hand.

"No! Brother Zhang Hu! Please! I won't tell! I really won't tell! Please spare me..." Zhao Liuzhi begged desperately, struggling.

however--

"Hmph! Empty words are no proof!"

Zhang Hu pulled out a wood-chopping knife from his waist and chopped it down.

"Click~"

Suddenly, one of Zhao Liu's little fingers flew out.

"Ah~"

In an instant, the entire lakeshore echoed with Zhao Liuzhi's screams.

After being called three times, his eyes rolled back and he fainted.

"..."

She fainted already?

That's too weak.

The people of Zhangjia Village were speechless.

Fan Ha'er shouted with joy at the sight:

"Haha...Serves you right! Serves you right for being a traitor! Now you have five fingers instead of six, hahaha..."

"Cough cough~"

Liu Bei coughed a few times and glanced at Zhang Hu.

At this moment, Zhang Hu threw the severed finger toward the bamboo raft.

After drawing an arc in the air, his finger landed with a "thud" on the muddy ground by the shore.

Zhang Hu shouldered his wood-chopping knife, staring at Liu Bei. "Your finger's already been chopped off. Shouldn't you hand over the mermaid now?"

Liu Bei smiled slightly and said:

"Since ancient times, business has always been about cash on delivery. You can have the mermaid, but you have to release my brother first."

After a pause, Liu Bei emphasized:

"Listen carefully, you need to submit them at the same time."

"Um?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Hu's expression darkened, and he stared coldly at Liu Bei:

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"You think I'm messing with you?" Liu Bei raised his foot, the toe of his shoe resting on the rim of the wooden bucket. "Zhang Hu, you don't have to agree. I'll just kick this bucket over right now and send the mermaid back to the lake. Then you'll get nothing."

"..."

Upon hearing this, over forty pairs of eyes immediately turned to stare at Liu Bei's foot.

"Damn it!!1"

The scar on Zhang Hu's face twitched, and he frowned, pondering for three seconds:

"Okay. We'll do it your way and pay at the same time." As he spoke, a villager next to Zhang Huchong gave him a wink.

The villager nodded and pulled Fan Ha'er toward the lake.

Liu Bei then pulled his foot back, picked up the wooden bucket with one hand, and stepped onto the shore with the bamboo pole in the other.

The two sides approached each other step by step in the firelight.

Fan Ha'er was pushed forward.

Liu Bei was also walking forward, carrying a wooden bucket.

The distance was reduced from ten steps to five steps, and then from five steps to three steps.

Soon, the two sides met.

Liu Beichong and Fan Ha'er winked at each other, then he put the wooden bucket on the ground.

Just as the villager from Zhangjia Village let go to look at the wooden bucket,

"run!"

Upon hearing Liu Bei's reminder, Fan Ha'er quickly broke free from the villagers and ran away.

In the blink of an eye, Liu Bei jumped onto the bamboo raft, followed closely by Fan Ha'er. Then, Liu Bei immediately used a bamboo pole to push off, and the raft began to paddle towards Fanjia Village on the opposite side.

Meanwhile, the villager in charge of the transaction was holding a torch and looking into the wooden barrel.

It contains bass, crucian carp, eel, and frogs, but no mermaids.

He immediately realized he had been tricked.

He immediately looked up and found that Fan Ha'er had already escaped, and Liu Bei had also disappeared.

He immediately turned around and shouted at Zhang Hu:

"Tiger! We've been tricked! It's full of fish! There are no mermaids!"

"What?"

Everything happened too suddenly and in too short a time. Only then did Zhang Hu and the others realize what had happened, and their faces turned completely black.

"Damn it! They've tricked me again! Chase them! Chase them all! We can't let them get away!"

The next moment, seven or eight men quickly gave chase.

But by then the bamboo raft had already traveled twenty or thirty meters, drifting further and further away under the moonlight.

"You son of a bitch, chasing your mother!" Fan Ha'er stood on the bamboo raft and shouted at the shore, "Zhang Hu, you big idiot! I'm an idiot, but you're even more of an idiot than me! You shouldn't be called Zhang Hu, you should be called... Zhang Silly Tiger, hahaha..."

"Bastards!!!" Zhang Hu was so angry that veins bulged on his forehead. Watching the bamboo raft disappear into the distance, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked loudly. "Don't let me see you two in Zhangjia Village again. Otherwise, I'll chop off your thighs!!!"

Just then, Fan Ha'er's mocking laughter rang out again:

"And that Zhao Liuzhi with the broken finger! He's a complete waste! Zhang Shahu, of all people to follow, you had to hang out with a piece of trash. No wonder you're a waste, hahaha..."

"..."

"Fuck you..." Zhang Hu said angrily, kicking the wooden barrel over.

The crucian carp, perch, and eel inside all rolled out.

A few fish bounced a few times and jumped into the lake, while a few frogs took the opportunity to hop into the grass and leave.

Seeing this, Zhang Hu grew increasingly furious. He grabbed the unconscious Zhao Liuzhi and roared, "Wake him up with some water! Now!!!"

"Pfft~"

The next moment, a bucket of lake water was splashed onto Zhao Liuzhi's forehead.

Soon, Zhao Liuzhi woke up, but before he could even cry out in pain, he was slapped across the face.

Zhang Hu roared hysterically, "Beat them! Beat them to death!"

"Ah~"

……

on the lake,

Fan Ha'er watched Zhao Liuzhi being beaten in the firelight in the distance and cursed, "Serves him right! He betrayed even his own villager, he deserved to be beaten to death!"

After cursing, he suddenly sighed, looking at another empty wooden bucket, "What a waste of that bucket of fish. All that work for nothing."

"As long as everyone's alright," Liu Bei said, poling the bamboo pole. "Fish can be caught again. But if you lose your life, you lose everything."

"That's true." Fan Ha'er scratched his head, then suddenly perked up. "Brother Bei, are we just going to let this score go tonight?"

"Of course not!"

Liu Bei's gaze fell on the increasingly smaller firelight on the opposite bank.

"Sooner or later, I will personally go to Zhang Hu's door and settle this score with him."

"Brother Bei, you absolutely have to take me with you!" Fan Ha'er patted his chest. "You deal with Zhang Hu, and I'll go to his house and take care of his wife..."

"Shut up."

"oh."

……

It was already 11 p.m. when we got back to Fanjiacun.

Instead of going home first, Liu Bei took Fan Ha'er straight to the home of village secretary Fan Sanyuan.

"Knock knock knock~"

Liu Bei knocked three times before Fan Sanyuan yawned and opened the door.

"Liu Bei? Fan Ha'er? It's so late, why aren't you asleep? What do you want from me?"

"Secretary, there's something I need to tell you."

Soon, Liu Bei recounted in detail how Zhao Liuzhi had led the people of Zhangjia Village to ambush them.

It also emphasized how Zhao Liuzhi voluntarily betrayed his fellow villagers.

Fan Sanyuan's expression grew increasingly grim as he listened.

"This Zhao Liuzhi... alright. Leave this to me. You've all been frightened, go back and rest."

"Then I'll have to trouble you, Party Secretary!"

After leaving two bass, Liu Bei led Fan Ha'er back.

There are too many fish left, and it's hot in the summer; they'll easily die if left overnight.

Liu Bei asked Fan Ha'er to dig a shallow pit outside the yard, fill it with water, and then dump all the fish in.

By the time everything was finally settled, it was already 2 a.m.

At this moment, Fan Ha'er was yawning incessantly, his eyelids almost sticking together.

"Alright, go back to sleep." Liu Bei patted his shoulder. "Come find me at dawn tomorrow, and we'll take the fish to town to sell together."

"Alright. Brother Bei, I'm going back to sleep!"

Fan Ha'er staggered away.

Liu Bei then pushed open the courtyard gate and went inside.

He had just closed the door latch when a soft object suddenly pressed against his back.

Two arms wrapped around his back, tightly encircling his waist.

Zhao Chunyan's voice rang in my ears.

"Liu Bei, if you don't come back tonight... I'll go to town tomorrow and get your coffin ready."

"..."

"Thank goodness you're back, no need to order a coffin. But you, well..."