Ch 157: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Ever since Shen Zhiwei was drowned to death, Miao Qiuduo’s family had fled Shiqu Village like dogs being chased away.

“You tell me, isn’t this Qing Ge’er something else? How can he be so bold? He even dared to hit his own father and forced his own uncle to death!” Huang Wulang patted his chest, still feeling lingering fear. In these times, clan values and filial piety were deeply ingrained, and Shen Qing’s actions completely overturned their understanding. Now that a life had been lost, he seemed even more ruthless.

“And you said your sister was easy to talk to? I don’t think she even takes you seriously!”

Miao Qiuduo was grinding her teeth in anger. “I never thought my brothers and sisters would be so quick to flatter the high and step on the low, without any regard for family ties!” And her mother! Every word was in favor of her elder sister and Qing Ge’er. Just because they were now successful and their household was thriving!

Yet she conveniently ignored the fact that she had not maintained contact with her maternal family for the past ten years. If anything, she was the truly selfish one, always siding with whoever was better off.

Huang Jinbao snorted twice on the side. “Cousin isn’t that bad… His uncle was the one who got Cousin Zhang killed—Zhang was his own younger brother! And he also caused Aunt to miscarry and become infertile. Cousin taking revenge on him was only right… As for his father, they cut ties long ago. He wasn’t a good person either…”

Even though Shen Qing had already rejected him and hadn’t shown him the slightest kindness, Huang Jinbao still couldn’t help but think about him. He was unwilling to hear his parents badmouth Shen Qing, and instinctively wanted to defend him.

“Shut up! He doesn’t even like you, and yet you’re still siding with him?” Miao Qiuduo, furious at his uselessness, kicked Huang Jinbao. “You’re really something! You’ve actually fallen for that ugly ger!”

Huang Jinbao wanted to protest that his cousin wasn’t ugly, but after rubbing his sore leg and seeing the fierce look in his mother’s eyes, he swallowed his words in grievance.

Miao Qiuduo knew full well that Shen Zhiwei had gotten what he deserved. But she wasn’t the only one—many in Lantang Village felt the same way. They believed that while Shen Zhiwei might deserve to die, he shouldn’t have been forced to death by Qing Ge’er!

If it had been Miao Xing and Miao Wang standing up for the Miao family and making Shen Zhiwei pay with his life, that would have been completely justified. But since it was Shen Qing, suddenly it became a case of forcing someone to their death, a grave transgression.

Because if Qing Ge’er could drive Shen Zhiwei to his death, then he could just as easily show no mercy to his aunt. And if he could do that, what was stopping others from following suit, showing disrespect to their elders, and disregarding so-called family ties? Shen Zhiwei’s actions became less important—what mattered was that these people stood on the same side as him. No one was without faults, and who could guarantee that they hadn’t done something wrong in the past? If even a small mistake could justify such treatment from the younger generation, how could they accept that?

Their perspectives were shaped by their self-interest, so naturally, they couldn’t approve of Shen Qing’s actions.

And wasn’t that exactly what was happening now? Shen Qing had shown no leniency toward his own father and uncle, so why would he make exceptions for his aunt? Miao Qiuduo was, of course, furious.

This time, they had returned believing their plans were foolproof. The grocery shop in the prefectural city had been shut down, and now they had to leave, unwillingly. Even though they had been living as they always had, in their minds, they had already counted Shen Qing’s wealth as their own, imagining how they would spend it. Now that they had to go back empty-handed, it felt like a tremendous loss. The fact that Shen Qing refused to let them take advantage of him felt, instead, like he owed them something, leaving them seething with resentment.

Adding to their frustration, while staying at Huang Sanlang’s house, he had initially hoped his sister-in-law would speak on his behalf, persuading the Lantang Village workshop to offer him a discount on starch sausages. Yet, instead, she had managed to offend everyone, shattering his hopes. As a result, the Huang family’s tone toward them had also grown increasingly unpleasant.

Life was going completely against her! Miao Qiuduo blamed everything on Shen Qing, and as her resentment built up, she hated him to the core.

While her family was still torn about whether to return to the prefectural city, they unexpectedly met the manager of a pawnshop. Anping County wasn’t big, and there weren’t that many businesspeople—most of them knew each other, and even if they hadn’t met in person, they had at least heard of one another. Huang Sanlang’s family had been running a grocery shop in the county for over twenty years and had some ties with this manager.

At first, Miao Qiuduo used Shen Qing’s name to elevate her own status, afraid that the manager would look down on her. But she was too bitter, and within a few sentences, she had turned Shen Qing into gossip, her jealousy practically oozing from her words. “This time, we were just too sentimental, thinking that since we were real family, he’d surely help us out. Who would have thought he wouldn’t see it that way? And now we’ve ended up with nothing.”

As she spoke, Huang Sanlang looked a little uncomfortable, and his wife rolled her eyes impatiently.

Family? There was no one in their household as heartless as the fifth branch of their family, and yet she had the gall to talk about others?

“My nephew only has eyes for money now—he doesn’t see his own family at all. I won’t say much, but who even knows where that money of his came from? I wouldn’t touch it even if you paid me. And every day in the county, he struts around pretending to be a man, cozying up with this one and that one… Tsk.”

Miao Qiuduo originally just wanted to spread some nasty rumors about Shen Qing to vent her anger. But she never expected that one of the pawnshop clerks would recognize who she was talking about. He had seen Shen Qing before at the stuffed sausage shop and had found him familiar but couldn’t recall where from. Now, hearing Miao Qiuduo’s words, a realization hit him like a bolt of lightning, and he blurted out, “Ah, it’s him! That Young Master Shen who runs the blooming sausage shop?”

Miao Qiuduo curled her lips. “Who else? What ‘Young Master Shen’? He’s just my sister’s little ger. Put him in some fancy clothes and cover his ger mark, and he dares to pretend to be a man! Pah! A ger is a ger—even if he wore the emperor’s robes, he’d never be a crown prince!”

Belittling Shen Qing like this made her feel immensely satisfied, as if by dragging him down, she had elevated herself above him, filling her with a false sense of superiority.

With that kind of attitude, who would still see her as Shen Qing’s relative? She was more like his enemy. The pawnshop manager and his clerk exchanged glances, then pulled Miao Qiuduo aside to ask about Shen Qing’s background. Once their information was compared, the mystery surrounding him only deepened. According to Old Lady Miao and Miao Qiuduo, Shen Qing’s current success was due to catching the attention of a powerful benefactor from out of town. That benefactor had recently arrived in Anping County and needed capable people, and Shen Qing had seized the opportunity.

But the people at the pawnshop had been in the county for years—where was this so-called out-of-town benefactor? Wasn’t it just Shen Qing himself?

Was he pretending to be his own benefactor? If this benefactor didn’t exist, then where had this ger’s money come from?

The pawnshop manager suddenly recalled the exquisite jewelry Shen Qing had once pawned.

“His family would prepare a dowry for him? He’s bluffing!” Miao Qiuduo immediately exposed Shen Qing’s previous excuse. “My sister’s mother-in-law is stingy beyond belief and has always despised gers. Forget about preparing a dowry—she’d rather sell him off and send him bare-handed to a husband’s home!”

She did know Shen Qing’s mother well.

“Then his money definitely didn’t come from a proper source.” The pawnshop manager’s eyes gleamed—he had been thinking about this matter for a long time, and now he was finally seeing a lead. Other gers might have made money through flesh trade before starting a small business and working their way up. But Shen Qing? With that face? That was impossible. Those pieces of jewelry must have had another origin.

Had he unearthed an ancient tomb in the mountains? Or some hidden treasure? That seemed like the most likely explanation. But whatever the truth was, Shen Qing’s wealth had become a tempting target. The pawnshop manager and Miao Qiuduo quickly came to an agreement: they would expose Shen Qing’s identity in public, making it impossible for him to stay in the county, and then force him to reveal the source of his money, splitting it fifty-fifty.

And after that, Miao Qiuduo could use this leverage to force her sister to marry Qing Ge’er off to Jinbao, locking him up in the inner residence. Once that happened, Shen Qing’s rural workshops would all become their property.

To be fair, this plan wasn’t exactly legal, but such schemes had succeeded plenty of times before. For example, if a powerful family took a liking to someone’s inherited craftsmanship, they would frame the husband, either killing him or throwing him in prison, then forcibly taking the wife as a concubine to obtain their family’s secret recipe.

In this era, becoming a concubine wasn’t just about marriage—it was a way to legally turn a woman or a ger into someone’s property.

Of course, there were many illegal aspects to this. For instance, why would the wife willingly become a concubine? But once she was forcibly taken into the household, or if her reputation was ruined, she would have no choice. And once the man of the family was gone, who cared about the wishes of the women and gers left behind? In the face of power, there was always room for manipulation. In fact, the backer behind this pawnshop had succeeded in such schemes more times than one could count.

Bullying the weak had become second nature to them, and now they simply saw Shen Qing as another easy target—a countryside ger using deception to put on airs. What was there to be afraid of?

So, on this very day, Miao Qiuduo took the lead in publicly exposing Shen Qing’s identity.

What they didn’t know was that ever since Miao Qiuduo had threatened to reveal his identity back at the Miao household, Shen Qing had already been considering the matter.

But he wasn’t thinking about how troublesome it would be to be exposed. Instead, he was starting to wonder—should he reveal his identity himself?

Originally, he had disguised himself as a man because he was weak. If he went somewhere, he would be threatened and intimidated. If he tried to buy something, he would be looked down on. Because in this world, men were valued while gers were despised. No one respected gers. At the time, Shen Qing had no way to earn respect or be treated fairly as a ger, so he could only borrow the identity of a man to protect himself.

But a borrowed identity was still borrowed.

Did people respect him as Shen Qing, or only because of the male persona he had put on?

It wasn’t until Miao Qiuduo’s threats that Shen Qing suddenly realized—at this point, was he really still afraid of being exposed?

There had been times in the past when Shen Qing not only pretended to be a man but had even wished he truly was one, especially after Shen Zhang had just died.

If he were a man, then he and the Miao family wouldn’t have suffered so much injustice in the Shen household. He could have protected his mother and stood up for the Miao family. If he were a man, he wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble just to establish himself.

If he were a man, back when they were kids, Wang Liuzi and the others wouldn’t have dared to bully him.

But that was the Shen Qing of a long time ago. As time passed, looking back now, he realized that what he had wished for was not to truly become a man, but rather to have the same rights and treatment as one. It was his first awareness of injustice, an initial awakening to the concept of fairness.

With no one to guide him or teach him what fairness truly was, the only path he could see back then to achieving it was to become a man.

But now, he understood—if gers and women could inherently receive the same rights and treatment, who would care whether they were a ger or a woman? Who would care whether they had the so-called ability to “continue the family line”?

The women he had encountered in the post-apocalyptic world—Qu Weiwei, Ge Bingbing, Chen Jiaxi—none of them had ever felt inferior because they were women. Not a single one had considered themselves lesser than men, nor had any of them resented their identity as women. They were women, yet they were in no way inferior to men.

Even Yu Le, who had once suffered misfortune.

From them, Shen Qing had learned a great deal. He learned to face his gender head-on, to stop blaming himself for the faults of society and his environment, to no longer desire to be a man. Because now, as a ger, he had already surpassed most men by a thousandfold.

He wanted to shed this false identity of a man. After all, as long as he wore this disguise, his success and excellence would always be overshadowed by societal perceptions. He did not want that shadow. He wanted to prove that even as a ger, he could still be just as successful and just as worthy of respect.

The respected—perhaps even feared—owner of the stuffed sausage shop didn’t have to be some “Young Master Shen” from out of town. He could stand openly and righteously as who he truly was—Shen Qing, a ger.

Shen Qing had thought about this for some time, only hesitating because he hadn’t found the right moment to reveal himself. After all, it wasn’t just about changing his public identity; he had also spun a web of lies around himself. And those lies… were what troubled him the most. He didn’t know how to unravel them.

But today, Miao Qiuduo and the pawnshop clerk had conveniently given him the perfect push.

So he dropped his disguise and stood before them, unshaken, and asked outright, “I am a ger—so what?”

Miao Qiuduo and the pawnshop clerk were stunned. Shen Qing’s reaction was completely outside their expectations. Why wasn’t he panicking? Why wasn’t he flustered?

Shouldn’t he be breaking down in shame, covering his face with his sleeve, or desperately denying that he was a ger? Then they could have pounced on him, seized him, exposed his identity completely, and made sure he could never show his face in Anping County again…

Why did he seem not ashamed at all, but rather proud?

The pawnshop clerk hesitated, momentarily intimidated by Shen Qing’s presence. He stammered, “Y-You’re just some countryside ger! How dare you pretend to be Young Master Shen and deceive so many people? How could a country ger possibly have enough money to open a shop? Your money must have come from some shady source! You’d better confess—”

Before he could finish, Shen Qing stepped forward.

The clerk: !!! Why is he coming toward me instead of being scared?!

A second later, a sharp slap landed across his face, sending a ringing noise through his ears.

He looked at Shen Qing in disbelief.

“That’s twice now,” Shen Qing said coldly. He then turned and delivered another slap to the pawnshop’s counter clerk.

The counter clerk: ?? I haven’t even said anything yet!!

Shen Qing kindly clarified for him. “Last time I went to your pawnshop to pawn something, you accused me of having stolen goods. And now you dare bring that up again? It seems you haven’t learned your lesson, have you?”

Miao Qiuduo was dumbfounded. It took her a moment to shriek, “How dare you hit people?! Do you have no respect for the law?!”

“The law?” Shen Qing sneered. “Aunt, don’t you find it laughable for those words to come from your mouth? They can slander me however they please, but I can’t teach them a lesson in return? And looking at your stance, you’re not just here to yell at me, are you? But have you all forgotten—whose territory is this? Whose building is this?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the back door of the shop was kicked open. Ruyi stormed in with six or seven young men, along with four strong, broad-shouldered gers, all wielding clubs and wooden sticks. They surrounded Miao Qiuduo and the others in an instant.

Miao Qiuduo was petrified. This was not how things were supposed to go! She had never seen such a display before. Those young men and burly gers looked menacing, their eyes glaring like they were ready to devour people. Terrified, she let out a piercing scream and buried herself in Huang Wulang’s arms, not daring to lift her head.

Huang Wulang quickly glanced at the pawnshop clerks, only to find them just as horrified, completely at a loss. The men they had brought along were even worse—soft as noodles, defeated in mere moments by Shen Qing’s people.

Utterly crushed. Huang Wulang regretted everything. He should have known better—what kind of person would dare to drive his own uncle to his death? Only a fool would think the pawnshop manager’s connections in the county could stand up to this. “Young Master Shen” was no ordinary commoner!

“Qing Ge’er, Qing Ge’er, this is all a misunderstanding! We’re real family… Your aunt was only worried that life in the county was too hard for a ger like you… We—we were deceived into this!” Huang Wulang babbled, tightly clutching Miao Qiuduo as they cowered in the corner.

“Don’t get too full of yourself! You still dared to hit me!” the counter clerk snarled, clutching his face, but his tone was more bark than bite. Shen Qing’s slap had left his teeth loose and his mouth filled with the taste of blood. “I’m going to the magistrate’s office to report you!”

Shen Qing let out a cold laugh and stepped closer. The clerk, who had just been putting up a tough front, immediately shrank back in fear. But Shen Qing grabbed his collar, yanked him forward, and threw him to the ground, stomping his foot onto the man’s face.

“Go report me, then,” Shen Qing said icily. “Which official in the county are you cozy with? Which registrar or clerk do you think will make a fuss over this slap? Let’s see how much trouble you can stir up. And if you don’t go, I might just take the trouble to do it myself.”

His voice dropped to a chilling whisper. “Did you think I didn’t know about the dirty dealings your pawnshop was involved in back then? Do you think I still don’t know now? Go ahead, run to the authorities. Let’s see which crime is taken more seriously—me slapping you, or your pawnshop colluding with corrupt clerks and secretly fencing stolen goods.”

The counter clerk lay there, his mouth gaping open. “You—you—” He stammered, but no words came out.

Shen Qing glanced toward the door. “Brother Jin.”

Gold-Tooth, who had been standing frozen in shock, had even dropped his stuffed sausage on the ground. But hearing Shen Qing call him, he only hesitated for a moment before quickly recovering and stepping forward respectfully. “Young Master Shen.”

“The shop space I rented to them—can I terminate the lease?”

Gold-Tooth was the one who had arranged the rental agreement back then, but Shen Qing had no intention of letting these people stay any longer. He wasn’t about to keep them around just to irritate himself.

“Y-Yes, of course!” Gold-Tooth forced himself to shake off his daze and focus. “It was a one-year lease. If Young Master Shen returns their deposit and compensates one month’s rent, you can terminate the contract!”

Shen Qing nodded. “Then cancel it for me. Just the thought of renting this place to them disgusts me.” He pulled out a silver ingot from his pocket and handed it to Gold-Tooth. “The extra is for you. Take care of it for me.”

Then he turned to his own people. “Throw everything in this shop out. Throw them out too.”

His men immediately got to work. Tieshan joined in, furious. Saying they were throwing things out was putting it lightly—this was practically wrecking the shop. They grabbed whatever they could and tossed it out the door.

The onlookers outside had been hesitant to step forward at first, wary of the commotion. But soon, a few bold ones darted in, snatching up whatever landed on the ground and running off.

The owner of the Cuihua Shop clutched his chest as if he were in deep pain. “I never said I wanted to terminate the lease! How can you just cancel it on your own? Is there no law in this place?!” He deeply regretted getting involved with the pawnshop’s clerk. Though they shared the same backer, this shop was part of his business performance. The pawnshop wouldn’t compensate him for such a huge loss!

Shen Qing simply watched their wailing with cold indifference. “If you try to scheme against others, you should be prepared to hit an iron wall. Did you really think people would just let you manipulate them as you please? Even now, you still see me as that naive village ger you could easily bully and control? You’re far more foolish than I thought.”

He withdrew his foot and kicked the counter clerk away. The pawnshop workers were still defiant, and the one who had been stepped on stared at Shen Qing with venomous hatred, seething over the humiliation.

However, Gold-Tooth leaned in and whispered a few words into their ears. Their resistance instantly deflated.

The county registrar and Clerk Yang were not people they could afford to offend. Even if they wanted to sue, they had no real chance of winning. Besides, just thinking about it rationally—going to the county office over something as trivial as getting slapped? The magistrate would only see it as a joke. If they were lucky, they wouldn’t be thrown out with a flogging!

They had spent their whole lives bullying others, and now, for the first time, they were the ones being bullied. They were suffocated with frustration and unwillingness, yet there was nothing they could do!

Lin Ning glanced around, then tugged at Shen Qing’s sleeve and whispered, “If they do report you, I’ll testify for you. They were the ones who surrounded you first, and you only fought back. My father will believe me.”

Shen Qing was briefly taken aback—he had almost forgotten that Lin Ning and Lin Zao were still there. Lin Zao was staring in shock, while Lin Ning’s eyes were shining with excitement. “You were really impressive just now! That was amazing!”

So… the little mirror hadn’t been given for nothing?

At first, Shen Qing hadn’t even considered using Lin Ning’s influence. He had been careful not to go too far—he had only slapped the two who had slandered him, and the others were merely surrounded to intimidate them. If the pawnshop people liked to scare others, why couldn’t he turn the tables on them?

Throwing out their belongings was just part of terminating the contract. It wasn’t like he refused to compensate them—he could just pay extra and buy himself some peace of mind. Even if things went to court, there wouldn’t be any real consequences. At most, he would have to send some generous gifts to the county registrar and Clerk Yang.

But now that Lin Ning had spoken up, Shen Qing started thinking—if he could rely on the registrar and the clerks, then why not establish a connection with the magistrate as well?

As he turned to smile at Lin Ning, he saw the young ger’s face flush slightly. Lin Ning lowered his head, looking a bit embarrassed as he mumbled, “I didn’t know before… You’re a ger too… I’m a ger as well. S-So… can we be friends?”

Shen Qing: ? Something about this feels off.

But… friends?

Shen Qing hesitated. He… had never really had friends.

Especially in the past. He could never get along with the gers and girls in the village, spending his days running up and down the mountains instead. Unlike others, he never had the luxury of free time to make friends or maintain relationships—his every moment was spent trying to fill his stomach.

Later… did Lian Rong count? No, Lian Rong had always felt more like a little sister. And Ou Ge’er? They were never really close, only connected through Second Aunt Lian.

And in the post-apocalyptic world… Maybe, at first, he had considered Song Kaiji a friend. But they had quickly ended up together. As for Qu Weiwei, Tang Wenjie, and Chen Jiaxi, there was camaraderie, but their roles as subordinates were far more distinct.

Or rather, they were Song Kaiji’s friends, and Shen Qing had only developed bonds with them through his connection to Song Kaiji.

Only now did Shen Qing realize—his life had always lacked friendship. He had been too focused on survival, always weighing whether a person was useful to him before deciding how much time, emotion, and effort to invest in them. Even with Song Kaiji and Qu Weiwei, his initial approach had been calculated.

He had never opened his heart to anyone without reason, nor had he ever thought it necessary.

Shen Qing looked at Lin Ning, who was staring at him with bright, sincere eyes. In that moment, Lin Ning no longer seemed like the county magistrate’s son. His expression was pure, and his invitation didn’t feel like just a simple offer of friendship—it felt like an opportunity. An opportunity for Shen Qing to complete himself, to take another step forward in his life.

Shen Qing scratched his head, the sharp and decisive figure from moments ago now looking a little dazed. Awkwardly, he admitted, “I… I’ve never really had a friend before. I might not be very good at it. But if you don’t mind, I’d like to try.”

Under the cover of his sleeve, Lin Ning pinched his thigh hard to keep himself from grinning too foolishly. He wanted his smile to look normal, but his eyes curved with warmth as he replied solemnly, “Alright.”

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