Ch 22: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

I Beg You To Be a Decent Person!

System: What the heck! Host, is this guy trying to flirt with you?

Rong Ziyin didn’t respond, but instead, he started to carefully consider the name that had popped up in the system notification. The more he thought about it, the more cautious he became.

If this person really was the Ji Shu he had heard about, Rong Ziyin knew he should keep his distance. Compared to the spoiled rich young master in his dorm who wasn’t much of a threat, this guy was a real troublemaker—the kind of person Rong Ziyin absolutely couldn’t afford to provoke right now.

There was no way around it; the name Ji Shu was too well-known in Beijing. Even someone as ordinary as Rong Ziyin had heard a thing or two.

Ji Shu, the notorious eldest son of the Ji family, frequently appeared in tabloid headlines. By his early twenties, he had taken down a whole line of elders in his family to rise to power, now controlling the Ji family’s vast empire—even his own father couldn’t rein him in.

He might seem like the epitome of a powerful and stylish CEO, but his romantic history was undeniably complicated.

Wild and uninhibited, Ji Shu was never without companions—ranging from sultry starlets to innocent university students. Rumor had it that Ji Shu’s bed never went empty, 365 days a year.

So why had someone like that returned to the village? Rong Ziyin was a bit curious, but that didn’t change the fact that he wanted nothing to do with Ji Shu.

Especially with the system’s alert about Ji Shu’s desire level, Rong Ziyin became even more wary. Ji Shu was practically a walking hookup machine, and Rong Ziyin, being relatively traditional, couldn’t accept the playboy lifestyle.

But clearly, Ji Shu hadn’t realized that Rong Ziyin had seen right through him. Instead, he leisurely walked toward Rong Ziyin with his goose in tow.

It had to be said—Ji Shu’s ability to win the hearts of so many lovers wasn’t just due to his wealth and power; his striking good looks played a significant role as well.

As Ji Shu got closer, his features became even more defined, especially those flirtatious almond-shaped eyes, which locked onto Rong Ziyin with a gaze that was both playful and intensely alluring.

Even though Rong Ziyin was straight, he couldn’t help but think, What a beautiful man.

Taking a deep breath, Rong Ziyin tried to steady his mind and took a step back.

But Ji Shu suddenly reached out and started talking to him, “Hello, my name is Ji Shu. It must be fate that we’ve met—how about we become friends, handsome?”

He spoke with a smile, his tone carrying the smooth charm typical of rich kids on the prowl. But Ji Shu’s voice was particularly clear, and his gaze was genuinely sincere. Instead of coming off as sleazy, it actually made him seem quite playful.

Normally, out of politeness, Rong Ziyin would have responded. But it was obvious that Ji Shu’s gaze was too intense, too bold.

Desire Level: 9999

System: Ugh! Did this guy take some kind of aphrodisiac?

Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but laugh at the system’s sarcastic comment, but his gaze involuntarily drifted down to Ji Shu’s lower body.

Long and straight, wrapped in jeans, the lines were near perfect. However, despite Ji Shu’s desire level jumping to 9999 twice, his body didn’t seem to show any changes.

Rong Ziyin decided to activate a skill to see if Ji Shu might have some hidden health issue.

To his surprise, he did notice two black spots on Ji Shu’s body—one on his head and another on his heart. The spots were very dark, but there were no labels indicating what they were, likely because Rong Ziyin’s system level wasn’t high enough yet. It would require another upgrade to see the details.

Even without knowing the exact diagnosis, it was clear that Ji Shu did have some health issues!

Considering the rumors about Ji Shu’s wild lifestyle, with constant partying, Rong Ziyin couldn’t help but feel a bit sympathetic. Perhaps Ji Shu’s young age and reckless behavior had already taken a toll on his health…

Feeling a bit sorry for him, Rong Ziyin stood in silence for a moment before pulling out the chives he had bought earlier in town and handing them to Ji Shu. “Let’s skip the whole ‘being friends’ thing.”

“And also, take good care of yourself; after all, you’re still young.”

Chives are traditionally known to boost vitality. After saying that, Rong Ziyin turned and walked away.

Ji Shu was left utterly stunned, so much so that he didn’t even react when Rong Ziyin walked past him.

It wasn’t until the goose beside him started nibbling on the chive leaves in his hand that he snapped out of it. Gently grabbing the goose by the neck, Ji Shu shook it lightly, “Goosey, wasn’t that little brother really good-looking?”

The goose tilted its head and rubbed against Ji Shu: Dad~ Wasn’t that veggie for me to eat?

Ji Shu narrowed his eyes, licking his lips as he stared at Rong Ziyin’s retreating figure. “You think he’s especially good-looking too, right? What should we do, Goosey? I don’t feel like being a decent person anymore.”

The goose’s beady eyes stared at Ji Shu: So, can I eat the veggies or not?

Ji Shu and the goose were having a conversation that didn’t quite match up, but that didn’t stop him from plotting ways to get closer to Rong Ziyin.

Even though they had only met briefly, Ji Shu had already developed many thoughts about Rong Ziyin—thoughts he couldn’t easily express.

Rong Ziyin was simply too pure. Especially when he gently smiled while pinching the goose’s tuft of hair, it had sent a shiver down Ji Shu’s spine.

At that time, they were still far apart, and Rong Ziyin had his head slightly lowered, so Ji Shu couldn’t see his full face. This only made Ji Shu more intrigued. When Ji Shu got closer and finally saw Rong Ziyin’s face up close, he felt like he had discovered a hidden treasure.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Rong Ziyin wasn’t interested in him. But that was okay—persistence pays off!

With a face that charmed both the young and old, Ji Shu quickly found out Rong Ziyin’s name and occupation.

To his surprise, Rong Ziyin was the veterinarian at the village livestock station, and he was also a top student from Beijing.

Not only was Rong Ziyin exceptionally accomplished, but he also seemed to be a person of great integrity.

Ji Shu pinched the goose’s beak gently and whispered, “Ah, after finding out about your dad, I really don’t want to be a decent person anymore!”

Goose: ???

Ji Shu glanced at the livestock station not far away, already hatching a plan.

“Since we need to buy some land anyway, and I’m on vacation, why don’t we stay in the village for a few more days?”

Goose: ???

“Looks like you agree too!” Ji Shu nodded with satisfaction, feeling that he and the goose had reached a perfect understanding. Then, he headed to the village chief’s house with the goose in tow.

He needed to find a place to stay in the village, preferably somewhere close to Rong Ziyin.

Meanwhile, Rong Ziyin had already forgotten all about Ji Shu after their brief encounter on the field ridge. Once inside the livestock station, he was entirely focused on his work.

His first task was to incubate the goose egg he had obtained from the lottery, so he busied himself with the incubator.

The livestock station had a specialized incubator. Although Rong Ziyin wasn’t a professional farmer, as a veterinary student, he had studied relevant materials. However, this incubator at the livestock station was different from the ones he had seen at school, with different brand and button placements.

Still, incubators all work similarly, so after simulating the process a few times, Rong Ziyin got the hang of it.

Typically, you can’t start incubating eggs right away with a machine. The fertilized eggs need to adapt to the incubator’s environment first.

Rong Ziyin set the temperature to 24 degrees Celsius and placed the eggs inside the incubation chamber, planning to let them rest there for about 12 hours.

After that, he would be able to set the optimal environment for hatching the goslings.

System: “How long does it usually take to hatch?”

Rong Ziyin: “Around twenty-eight days.”

System: “That’s a bit long, isn’t it?”

Talking about this reminded the system of another question. “By the way, Host, what exactly is ‘desire level’?”

Ji Shu’s emotions towards Rong Ziyin were something the system had never encountered before. Initially, it assumed that Ji Shu wanted to flirt with Rong Ziyin because of the floating text above his head. But the concept of “desire level” wasn’t part of its programming.

Rong Ziyin thought for a moment and then provided a straightforward, scientific explanation. “From a biological perspective, desire refers to the urge to mate.”

System: “Ah, I see.”

Having learned something new, the system felt a sense of enlightenment.

But after a while, it suddenly realized something.

“What the heck! Wait a minute! Isn’t Ji Shu a guy? Why does he want to mate with you?” The system was completely thrown off.

Rong Ziyin’s next words made it feel even more defeated. “Ah, don’t worry. He’s probably suffering from kidney deficiency.”

Yet another strange piece of knowledge was added to the system’s database.

The system was completely disoriented. It carefully recalled the emotions of the people around Rong Ziyin and was surprised to discover that none of the emotional values Rong Ziyin had received since his arrival were particularly normal.

Not only were the sources of intimacy points bizarre, like the village heartthrobs or sick ducks in Lujia Village, but now, the one person who seemed genuinely interested in Rong Ziyin turned out to be a man.

System: Host, don’t you think you should seriously consider why this is happening?

Rong Ziyin: Because they’re sick, and I can cure them?

The system shut down again, refusing to process any more of Rong Ziyin’s responses.

Rong Ziyin didn’t try to persuade it further and instead returned to the tasks at hand.

His paper had already been submitted, so all that was left was to wait for the follow-up review. For some reason, the class group chat was unusually lively. Curious, Rong Ziyin opened it to find that the rich young master had finally recovered from Rong Ziyin’s critical blow and, for reasons unknown, had posted the last page of his paper in the group.

He claimed to have sent it by mistake, but it was clear that he just wanted to show off his paper’s mentor—a true big shot in the academic world.

“Ahhh! The legendary master personally revised it. My God, the young master is so lucky!”

“Now this is what it means to be a winner in life. We mere mortals can only dream.”

“I just want to know, how many points does it take to get into a master’s program under such a big shot?”

The group chat was filled with envy for the rich young master.

But Rong Ziyin stared at that page of the paper, deep in thought.

Rong Ziyin found the writing style and the topic of the paper very familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he couldn’t pinpoint where at the moment.

Was it in a journal or a research bulletin?

Rong Ziyin quickly sorted through his memories and came up with a rough idea.

It wasn’t from recent journals; it was likely from an article he had read in a school bulletin some time ago. Moreover, from the way this paper concluded, Rong Ziyin suspected that it was more of a resume booster than a genuinely in-depth piece of research.

In other words, it seemed impressive on the surface but lacked substantial content. However, for a university student, it was already quite impressive.

Given this, the person who ghostwrote the paper for the rich young master might have done it for money but wasn’t willing to hand over genuine research results. So, they might have just given him something superficial.

Yet the rich young master remained oblivious and was still smug about it.

So, who could this ghostwriter be? Rong Ziyin was certain he had read an article by this person before, but he couldn’t remember where.

Since there was no rush, Rong Ziyin decided to let it go for now and focus on what he could do in the present.

He opened the system and looked at the recipes for salted duck eggs and salted fish in the exchange section.

Each recipe cost 200,000 gold coins to redeem, which was indeed a steep price. Even so, Rong Ziyin was tempted to try making them himself.

One recipe was 200,000, so both would be 400,000. Clearly, he needed a way to quickly earn more gold coins.

Once again, Rong Ziyin’s thoughts turned to Zhihu. After all, the people there were truly full of emotions!

It had been several days since his last post. Although people were still trickling in, it was no longer generating a large amount of emotional value.

Still, the method was effective, and Rong Ziyin thought it was worth using long-term.

So, Rong Ziyin opened Zhihu and wrote three posts related to his recent research.

The titles were, “How to Identify Your Goose,” and “I Have a Special Method to Make Goose Feathers More Beautiful”…

System: But isn’t no one going to read this?

Rong Ziyin: Actually, they will.

Rong Ziyin had carefully analyzed the emotional value he gained from Zhihu. While those posts about pig farming techniques didn’t perform as well as the sensational post about the wealthy, they still provided a steady stream of emotional value.

After all, some people genuinely came to Zhihu seeking answers to related questions. Rong Ziyin’s straightforward and informative content kept attracting viewers.

System: But aren’t you trying to earn money quickly?

Rong Ziyin: Exactly! That’s why I have a third post.

The system watched helplessly as Rong Ziyin wrote the title for his third article: “After My Disgrace and Return to the Village, All the Geese Have Stuck by My Side”.

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝