Chapter 284: Chapter 277 Harassment Tactics Chapter 284: Chapter 277 Harassment Tactics Zheng Tan always felt that there were two major humiliations in life: being stepped on when trying to show off, and being outshone when flaunting wealth. Not long ago, he looked down on Yang Bo at “Triumph,” and now, there was someone even more deserving of contempt than Yang Bo.

After dinner, Little Youzi’s mom and Jiao Ma went out for a walk and a chat in the courtyard, and Zheng Tan followed closely to gather “intelligence.”

Little Youzi’s mom mostly talked about her hard-earned achievements abroad in recent years, having become a department manager and considerably wealthier. She spoke with a hint of boasting and even urged Jiao Ma to hurry up and buy a bigger house, complaining that the houses on this side of the courtyard were both old and small, and comparing them to her newly purchased house overseas. Jiao Ma clearly knew what her sister was like and didn’t have the energy to get angry.

They hadn’t walked far before they encountered an old lady taking Big Fatty out for a stroll. The old lady was stepping on the courtyard’s fitness equipment while Big Fatty squatted beside her on a horizontal bar, which was only about five or six centimeters in diameter. It was a mystery how Big Fatty, the fat cat, managed to jump up and squat there—looking altogether uncoordinated, but strangely stable. Zheng Tan could only admire that, no wonder it was a cat with military training; as steady as instant noodles.

“Yo, Heitan, out for a walk, Mr. Gu?” the old lady greeted Zheng Tan and Jiao Ma with a smile.

Jiao Ma introduced her sister to the old lady, and after a brief chat, they parted ways.

After walking a bit further, Little Youzi’s mom scoffed at Big Fatty, saying such a fat cat would surely get XXX kind of disease. When she found out the old lady lived alone, she added, “Just the old lady by herself, without even a caregiver?”

“Don’t talk nonsense; Big Fatty’s in good health. He’s sent to the Pet Center for regular check-ups, and the old lady treasures him. As for the old lady, her son did want to hire a caregiver, even suggested taking her over to his place, but she has always refused. She’s used to the environment and atmosphere here, and with all the neighbors in the courtyard being old friends of several decades, she doesn’t feel lonely. She says she’ll consider these things when she can no longer move around easily,” Jiao Ma retorted.

“Being old just makes some people stubborn and obstinate, like her son…” disagreed Little Youzi’s mom.

Worried her sister might say something inappropriate, Jiao Ma quickly cut her off. Big Fatty’s status as a “Cat Dad” was a bit sensitive, and Big Fatty’s house’s old lady never showed off, so Jiao Ma whispered the identity of Big Fatty’s Cat Dad to her sister, and afterwards, Little Youzi’s mom fell silent. She stopped talking about Big Fatty and the old lady; if they truly wished to hire caregivers, they could afford to hire ten or eight without a problem.

Not two minutes later, they encountered Sahara, that silly dog, having a blast rolling around on the grass, tongue lolling and wagging about, utterly without dignity. But then again, in the courtyard, it had long since lost any sense of decorum.

“This dog is too wild, looks like it’s a mongrel, right? If I were to keep a dog in the future, I’d choose a purebred with a gentler temperament,” said Little Youzi’s mom.

Jiao Ma looked over and smiled, “Oh, you mean Sahara? I heard it’s a mix of three breeds. It belongs to Academician Ruan’s house. No matter how wild it gets, it’s never hurt any of the children in the courtyard; Academician Ruan is quite fond of it.”

A jab right at the bullseye.

And again, Little Youzi’s mom had nothing to say.

After running around in the marketplace so much, many times one also tends to consider things more from a profit perspective, boosting some while trampling on others is commonplace. As the saying goes, you have to look at the owner before you beat a dog, similarly, when scolding a dog, you should consider the dog owner’s status and temper—knowing what to say and what not to say is essential. It’s said that outstanding people have outstanding tempers, and Youzi’s mom always believed that the more eminent a person, the harder their temper was to grasp, so every word and action had to be cautious. Facing such people, even if you want to badmouth someone behind their back, you need to find a secluded spot; you never know when your words may leak out in public places. Although she didn’t know Academician Ruan personally, the mere title of “Academician” was enough to hold back a bellyful of words inside her.

Zheng Tan found it amusing inside. This person thought that the courtyard was full of “poor commoners” before this afternoon, and now realized the discrepancy.

As he passed the bench area, Zheng Tan saw that a few old men from the courtyard had gathered together again, chatting away.

When evening came, the old men in the courtyard would gather and start boasting, criticizing certain leaders of a certain school, giving their opinions on newly introduced policies, denouncing some social figures who had a bad influence but whom the public dared not speak ill of casually. Some well-known experts and professors from TV would be discussed like they were talking about dolls, with no reservations or fear of being overheard, as if they would continue even if those very people stood in front of them.

When Zheng Tan looked over, Old Man Lan was bragging to others about the orchid that was sold today.

After listening for a while, Youzi’s mom wasn’t convinced—was an orchid worth making such a fuss over?

“How much can an orchid sell for?”

Jiao Ma thought for a while and said, “I’m not clear about the one Professor Lan mentioned today, but last year, Professor Lan sold two orchids for over 600,000 yuan, and there were many people looking for Professor Lan. This year, the orchid speculation is even hotter, and more people are looking for Professor Lan, with buyers even blocking people in the courtyard just to buy one of Professor Lan’s orchids. By that calculation, today’s price must surely be higher than last year’s.”

Disbelief was written all over Youzi’s mom’s face.

Zheng Tan, however, knew that just a few days ago Old Man Lan had been cornered in the small flower bed area, and someone had offered one million yuan for three orchids called something-rabbit, but Old Man Lan didn’t budge. Old Man Lan wasn’t short of money; at this age, all he cared about was face, occasionally bragging to some old friends about the new orchids he’d cultivated or newly discovered, and as for those tens of thousands of yuan, he really didn’t care much. At their level, with both fame and fortune, they were now pursuing their hobbies, though they couldn’t exactly say “money is just a number,” the difference wasn’t much. Agreeing to sell was merely because Old Man Lan was annoyed by those people constantly bothering him, and he had kept seeds anyway, so even after selling, he would still have one or two seedlings on hand.

Old Man Lan was telling people that the current market speculation on orchids was too excessive. While it seemed very lucrative now, and many people were rushing into it, further heated by someone’s statement about “going out with an orchid in the morning, coming back with a BMW in the afternoon,” he estimated that the craze would last about a year or so before cooling down, and those who were blindly enthusiastic might end up badly hurt in the rush.

Zheng Tan was aware of such things. A friend of his had spent over 500,000 yuan on an orchid during the height of its price, yet five years later, it was hard to find anyone willing to pay even 100 yuan for it.

When Old Man Lan saw Zheng Tan, he chuckled; he was in a good mood today and took the opportunity to tease Zheng Tan, pointing in his direction and cajoling his old buddies, “That little guy sneaked into my flower bed last time and gnawed on an orchid bloom, ah, it really pained my heart!”

What a load of crap! That was clearly the sheriff who bit it! Zheng Tan was fuming, Old Man Lan had deliberately pinned the blame on him, and besides, that orchid was just a relatively common suxin orchid; the more precious ones were well protected, so there was no chance for the sheriff to even try biting them.

Seeing the old professors all smiling benignly, with some even giving Zheng Tan a thumbs-up saying “well done,” Jiao Ma knew they were just joking and not really angry. She smiled and greeted the old men before leaving.

Having walked a bit further, where there were no people within about twenty meters, Jiao Ma finally said in a low voice to the person beside her, “Don’t think that these seemingly inconspicuous elders are unremarkable. Many of them may not seem special, but many big company bosses and some government insiders come to seek advice from them. Some of these elders can influence certain policies.”

After a moment of silence, Little Youzi’s mother laughed, “It’s great that Youzi is growing up in such an environment.” Just yesterday, she had seen Little Youzi greeting some of the elders with great familiarity.

Zheng Tan inwardly sneered, how quickly people changed.

Having witnessed a few previous instances, when she later encountered Ah Huang who was dumb enough to tumble down the stairs just by walking, Little Youzi’s mother didn’t utter a sarcastic word. She feared that mentioning anything more might involve some impressive personage which would only add to the embarrassment.

On the day Little Youzi’s mother left to fly back across the ocean, it wasn’t the weekend. She didn’t ask Mr. Jiao and Jiao Ma to see her off, leaving instead with some people from her company. Just before boarding the plane, she made a phone call saying, “I’m leaving Youzi in your care.”

Mr. Jiao replied, “I’ve always considered her like my own daughter.”

Since Little Youzi’s mother had flown out of the country and Youzi was still there, Zheng Tan felt much more at ease, walking with a spring in his step.

Rushing back to the edge of the neighborhood woods to turn on his phone, ready to refresh his game record while in high spirits, but as soon as the phone powered on, he found dozens of texts and nearly a hundred missed call notifications. The phone kept flashing, and the animation of incoming messages lasted so long that Zheng Tan was dumbstruck.

What the hell!

Is this some kind of virus?!

But after it stopped and he took a closer look, it turned out not to be the case.

Dozens of messages came from the same phone number, and most of the missed call notifications mentioned the same number.

Damn it, Liu Ba that idiot was pulling such a despicable act, was this supposed to overload the phone?

It must be said, Liu Ba was really stubborn about this number.

Since reasoning and self-promotion failed, and he was very curious about the identity of the mystery person behind the number, Liu Ba pondered for two days before deciding to switch tactics—to a harassment strategy: shameless, brazen, and annoying.

Liu Ba didn’t know if the person behind the number was male or female, young or old, but everyone had their limits of endurance, and Liu Ba was now bent on testing the other party’s limits. Even if the other party’s phone was turned off more often than not, Liu Ba had plenty of time. Most of his tasks from Jing Gui were almost completed, freeing up a lot of his schedule, so he turned down some uninteresting jobs to focus on pestering this number. The moment this phone was turned on, a call would immediately go through.

“Esteemed person, I sincerely want to make your acquaintance, let’s meet…”

“You can’t even spare a single message for me?”

“Fine, let’s not use messages, let’s switch to another method. How about we talk?”

“Just a few words will do. One sentence. Just one sentence is enough. Speak to me just once and I will no longer trouble you…”

…

Zheng Tan was scrolling through the messages, deleting them one by one, when another call came in. He declined the call, and in less than two seconds, the phone rang again. He hung up, it rang again, hung up again, and on and on…

Zheng Tan, wanting to check the settings for a blacklist feature, found it impossible to do so with the incessant calls and messages bombarding him.

Finally, Zheng Tan answered the call.

This time Liu Ba remained silent, listening to the noises on the other end, waiting for the cursing to begin.

After a series of light rustling noises from the phone, there came the tapping sound of keys.

Liu Ba frowned and pushed Jing Gui away, who was trying to eavesdrop. He took a pen and paper from the desk and, following the sounds on the call, wrote down several letters.

Jing Gui leaned over to see what was written on the white paper in black ink—
“F-U-C-K Y-O-U!”(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your vote of recommendation, monthly ticket, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep