Ch 20: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

A True Master of Logic

System: What the heck is this?!

Rong Ziyin glanced at the explanation.

Greetings from the People of Zu’an: Skill type. Maximum-level taunt. When dealing with plants or animals that are lazy and unwilling to grow properly, the host can provide some “encouragement with love,” making them immediately spring to life and shed their slacker ways.

When facing an exceptional opponent, the skill can be activated at any time to lower their intelligence through taunts, making it easy to defeat them. Note: There are specific conditions and timings for use that need to be figured out.

System: Host, why do I feel like I don’t really understand this skill’s explanation? What does “lowering intelligence through taunts” mean?

Rong Ziyin pondered for a moment. “I think it’s something like what Zhuge Liang did in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t he insult Wang Situ to death face-to-face?”

System: Whoa! Is it really that brutal?

Rong Ziyin: Hmm… how about I try taunting that rich young master?

System: Master, wake up! You don’t even need this skill to insult that little rich lamb to death.

After a lengthy discussion between Rong Ziyin and the system, he finally grasped the basic concept of the skill. He then checked the exchange system, only to find it empty, with only two items available.

One was the recipe for salted duck eggs, and the other was for salted fish. The price was marked at 200,000 yuan.

System: That’s so expensive! Has Heaven gone mad?

But Rong Ziyin was more concerned about something else: Didn’t you say earlier that all items in the N-tier card pool could be exchanged?

System: Ah! Right, let me check why they’re not available.

Half a minute later, after receiving the answer, the system began doubting its own existence.

“You can only exchange for items you’ve drawn before, so right now, there’s only the recipe for salted duck eggs and salted fish. After all, these are the only things you’ve drawn so far.”

Damn! How is anyone supposed to live like this?

Rong Ziyin comforted it, “Don’t worry, we’ll make our fortune selling salted duck eggs.”

The system became even more withdrawn.

But Rong Ziyin wasn’t just making idle talk; he genuinely had a plan in mind.

In fact, when he encountered that con artist in the village earlier, Rong Ziyin had already started to form an idea.

Since arriving in the village, Rong Ziyin had noticed that while duck farming wasn’t done on a large scale, quite a few people were involved. However, the surrounding counties and towns couldn’t consume all the duck eggs and meat ducks produced. As a result, villagers were left competing against each other, and when you crunch the numbers, some families barely made enough money to cover the costs of raising the ducks.

So, Rong Ziyin had this vague idea: what if he could collect the duck eggs from the villagers, turn them into salted duck eggs that could be preserved, and then sell them elsewhere?

But previously, Rong Ziyin didn’t have a recipe or the opportunity to experiment. He didn’t know if the salted duck eggs made from the village’s duck eggs would taste the same as those provided by the Heavenly Dao system.

And now, the perfect opportunity had arrived.

Rong Ziyin planned to buy a basket of duck eggs as soon as he returned to the village and try pickling them himself. If it worked, he could then consider the next steps.

With this plan in mind, Rong Ziyin went to the office that afternoon to say goodbye to his mentor, and then he quickly headed back to the village.

Rong Ziyin came and went swiftly.

Meanwhile, in the afternoon, the Veterinary Department posted the list of people whose papers had passed the school’s preliminary review and were being submitted to core journals on the campus network.

As it happened, there were only two people from the Veterinary Department who made the cut, and they were from the same class and even the same dormitory.

One was naturally Rong Ziyin, and the other was that rich young master!

The group chat for Rong Ziyin’s class immediately exploded.

“Whoa, whoa! This is what they call a battle of the gods!”

“Hahaha, the only two who passed are from our class. That’s such an honor!”

“Screenshot taken! Now I can brag that I had a classmate in college who published in a core journal as an undergrad!”

The class group chat was buzzing with excitement, everyone thrilled about the news. Even the usual little conflicts between classmates were set aside, and everyone was tagging Rong Ziyin and the rich young master to congratulate them.

The rich young master was at home at the time.

After storming out of the cafeteria at noon, he went straight back to his upscale apartment near the school.

Sitting on the sofa, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. And with his increasingly sparse hair that looked thinner the more he stared at it, his anger surged, almost making his heart and lungs explode. He wished he could find someone to throw a sack over Rong Ziyin and get rid of him for good.

Then his family called.

“What do you want? I’m already annoyed!” The call was from the rich young master’s older brother, who chuckled coldly at his impatience.

“Do you think I wanted to call you? The old man said that since you’re out now, you better be careful. If you want to pursue academics, the family will support you. But if you cause any more embarrassment, you can pack your bags and head overseas because the family won’t tolerate any more shame!”

With that, his older brother hung up, leaving the rich young master so angry that he smashed his phone again.

“Damn hypocrite!”

In the rich young master’s view, the only reason his family was treating him differently was because he had shown some success. After all, for businessmen, the academic world represents not just sacred knowledge but also a constant flow of profits.

His family had initially made their fortune in food processing, which had a lot to do with farming, and they were looking to use him as a stepping stone!

Ha, the coldness of human nature! His dear brother’s current attitude was simply because he wasn’t valued enough by the family.

One day, he would make everyone who looked down on him regret it!

The rich young master was getting more frustrated. Just then, something in the class group chat caught his attention.

He opened it to find that the news about his and Rong Ziyin’s papers passing had been announced. The group was buzzing with admiration.

Seeing the praise in the group, the rich young master felt an unusual sense of satisfaction from the attention.

Normally, he wouldn’t have cared, but after the embarrassment he suffered today, he welcomed it!

As luck would have it, someone who was close to the mentors commented, “I heard Rong Ziyin’s paper is really impressive. I was in the office today and overheard several professors praising it.”

Staring at the name “Rong Ziyin,” the rich young master began to feel uneasy again.

Feeling mischievous, he sent an image to the group and then immediately retracted it.

When messages are retracted in the group chat, everyone gets a notification. Human curiosity is boundless, so people quickly started asking the rich young master, “What was that, young master? What did you send?”

The rich young master pretended to be humble: “Ah! Sorry, I sent it to the wrong chat because the class group kept flashing.”

The more he said that, the more curious everyone became. Especially since the retracted image looked like a page from a paper.

After being urged for a while, the rich young master finally revealed, “It was a screenshot of my recommendation from a professor. I sent it to the wrong place.”

“Huh? Isn’t that from our school’s professors?”

“No, it’s from another professor. I’ve applied to the Agricultural Academy’s research institute, and a professor there, who gets along well with me, asked me to help out in his lab.”

The rich young master spoke humbly, but his words were full of boasting. Especially since this new mentor was unexpectedly a big shot in the academic world.

Of course, everyone knew that the rich young master got in because his family had a technical partnership with the professor, so he was taken on as a graduate student.

But even so, that was still impressive. Everyone in the group congratulated him.

In a good mood, the rich young master sent a big red envelope.

“Let’s all get rich together, for good luck.” The rich young master felt elated by all the praise.

As his classmates claimed the red envelopes, a new wave of admiration followed.

“Whoa, whoa! The young master is giving out money!”

“Thanks, boss.”

Rong Ziyin, who was on his way back, happened to see this in the group chat.

The rich young master was clearly being deliberate, sending a red envelope with enough money for everyone in the class, including Rong Ziyin.

The system was seething with rage: That bastard is doing this on purpose to show off in front of you!

Rong Ziyin: Isn’t this great? Unexpected windfall.

Rong Ziyin happily claimed one of the red envelopes. 0.1 yuan.

Rong Ziyin: …

Class Group Chat: …

Rong Ziyin immediately received a whopping 6000 in “Complex Emotions Points.”

The rich young master had sent out a red envelope totaling 5000 yuan, so even if someone had bad luck, they should’ve received around 100 yuan. But Rong Ziyin got only one cent?!

Just how unlucky could his hands possibly be?

The whole class was shocked by Rong Ziyin’s incredible bad luck.

“Damn, he totally deserved it.” The rich young master, sitting on the edge of his bed, couldn’t help but burst into laughter after seeing this. He opened the chat window, ready to taunt Rong Ziyin.

But just then, a phone call interrupted him.

He glanced at the caller ID—it was the loan shark.

“What’s up?” The rich young master’s tone was cheerful.

But the loan shark on the other end was almost in tears. “Young master, could you please talk to your classmate? He’s getting more and more outrageous—this time, he only paid back one cent!”

One cent? Why did that number sound so familiar?

The rich young master felt something was off, so he logged into the loan shark’s Alipay account to check the transfer records.

Scrolling from bottom to top, he saw an exhausting string of three yuan, three yuan, three yuan…

And at the very top, there it was, clear as day—a one-cent transfer from Rong Ziyin.

Checking the time, wasn’t that exactly when Rong Ziyin claimed the red envelope?

So, he used the money he got from the red envelope to pay back his debt? Rong Ziyin was truly a master of twisted logic.

The rich young master’s fury skyrocketed, and he was about to explode in the group chat.

But when he opened the chat, he saw that Rong Ziyin was explaining to their classmates the differences between their respective papers.

“I took a look at the young master’s project in the office. Although it’s completely different from mine, it’s indeed impressive.”

Completely different? No, their topics should be the same! The rich young master’s heart skipped a beat.

Clearly, others in the group were also curious and asked Rong Ziyin about it, remembering that both the rich young master and Rong Ziyin were working on topics related to avian infectious diseases.

Rong Ziyin carefully explained to them, “There’s a big difference. Virus research and feed prevention are two separate fields.”

“To be honest, I’m really grateful to him. It’s a good thing we didn’t overlap, or it would have been quite troublesome. After all, I’m just a novice in this field.”

Everyone: …

Rich Young Master: !!!

He was genuinely about to explode. He had spent a fortune to ensure that his paper would block Rong Ziyin’s return to school through academic achievements.

But who could have guessed that even though both topics were about avian infectious diseases, they were in entirely different directions? So, all his efforts were for nothing?

The rich young master’s vision went dark, and he struggled to catch his breath, feeling a tightness in his chest.

Meanwhile, on Rong Ziyin’s side, he happily received 100,000 gold coins, marveling that the rich young master truly was his most valuable lamb.

He had just spent 600,000, and now he’d already recouped 100,000. The system eagerly urged Rong Ziyin to splurge a bit.

“Don’t worry, Master. With the upgrade, there’s a guaranteed rare item with every ten draws.”

Rong Ziyin, curious about the final changes after the system upgrade, decisively said, “Draw!”

The wheel spun rapidly, and it seemed that Rong Ziyin’s luck might have finally turned.

From the moment the wheel started spinning, a blue light kept flashing. When it stopped, ten identical items appeared neatly before Rong Ziyin, all rare items, though their shape looked eerily familiar.

Smooth, white skin, and a rounded shape.

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝