tkworld Chapter 385 Malicious Speculation Backfires: Jiang Jianye Suffers from 3 Days of Gastroenteritis
Chapter 385 Malicious Speculation Backfires: Jiang Jianye Suffers from 3 Days of Gastroenteritis
The night was dark and the wind was high.
Carrying two empty bottles of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor), Jiang Jianye slipped along the wall to the creaking, dilapidated wooden door of Jiang Mancang's house.
He glanced around to make sure no one was watching before gently knocking on the door.
"Brother Mancang, are you asleep yet?"
There was a rustling sound coming from inside the house, and after a while, the door opened a crack.
Jiang Mancang, wearing an old cotton-padded coat, cautiously peeked out.
"Jianye? In the middle of the night..."
"Hey bro, I need to talk to you about something!"
With a broad smile, Jiang Jianye squeezed through the door and casually shoved the two bottles of wine into Jiang Mancang's arms.
"It's Mid-Autumn Festival, so I came to see you."
Jiang Jianye didn't stand on ceremony and plopped down on the stool, his eyes constantly glancing at the bulging net bags in the corner.
Inside the net, several large, bluish-green hairy crabs were rustling and moving about; they were bigger than a washbasin.
Jiang Jianye stared wide-eyed, his throat bobbing involuntarily.
"Brother Mancang, Brother Chen is so good to you, sending you such a big crab."
Jiang Mancang scratched his head, looking somewhat uneasy.
"It's...it's because Brother Chen thinks highly of me and gave me a little extra."
"That's right! You're a model worker in our village!"
Jiang Jianye leaned closer and lowered his voice.
"Brother, look, you can't eat this much by yourself, can you? This stuff won't be fresh if it's left out for too long."
He pulled two crumpled hundred-yuan bills from his pocket and forced them into Jiang Mancang's hand.
"Here's what we'll do: give me a few, and I'll use my connections in the county town to negotiate the price!"
Jiang Mancang recoiled as if he had been burned.
"No, no! This was given to me by Chen-ge'er, I can't sell it!"
"Oh dear, why are you so stubborn!"
Jiang Jianye became anxious, and his voice rose a little.
"What Chen-ge gave you is yours! You have the right to do with it!"
"Besides, if you keep this, you'll just cook it and eat it at most, what a waste!"
"Give it to me, and I can exchange it for real money! Your son is going to college next year; doesn't that cost money?"
These words struck a nerve with Jiang Mancang.
He was indeed short of money. His son had good grades and was a sure thing to get into university, but the tuition fees were still unresolved.
Seeing Jiang Mancang hesitate, Jiang Jianye quickly increased his bet.
"Okay, I won't take yours for nothing! These crabs only cost a few dozen yuan per pound on the market, but I'll give you... I'll give you a hundred yuan each! How about that?"
Jiang Mancang looked at the several large, menacing crabs, his mind in turmoil.
He knew these crabs were definitely more expensive than that; anything Chen-ge brought out was never cheap.
But Jiang Jianye was telling the truth; he needed money.
"Well... I can only give you a few."
Jiang Mancang gritted his teeth, squatted down, and carefully picked out seven or eight smaller ones from the net bag.
"Hey! That's enough! Thank you, Brother Mancang!"
Jiang Jianye was overjoyed and hurriedly put the crabs into another net bag he had brought.
Before leaving, he didn't forget to stuff the two hundred yuan into Jiang Mancang's pocket.
"Take the money! Even between brothers, accounts should be kept clear!"
After saying that, he picked up the net bag and slipped out the door like a thief.
Jiang Mancang stood at the door, clutching the two banknotes, feeling uneasy.
He glanced back at the remaining crabs, sighed, and closed the door.
Jiang Jianye carried the net bag and hurried home.
He was making his own calculations.
Such a big crab could easily sell for three or four hundred yuan at a high-end restaurant in the county town!
Seven or eight would cost two or three thousand!
After deducting the two hundred yuan given to Jiang Mancang, we made a net profit of over two thousand!
He was thinking to himself with a smug grin, his mouth practically stretching to his ears.
I had just walked to the outside of my own courtyard wall and was about to push open the door.
[Warning! Jiang Jianye has been detected engaging in malicious speculation, severely undermining the fairness of the system's welfare distribution!]
[Automatic penalty mechanism triggered: Unlucky Aura (Basic) is now in effect!]
[Effect: Over the next 72 hours, the target will experience a series of minor misfortunes, accompanied by physical discomfort.]
Jiang Jianye suddenly stopped in his tracks, looking around in surprise and uncertainty.
"Who? Who's speaking?"
The courtyard was quiet, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind.
He shook his head, thinking he was hallucinating because he had been drinking.
"Damn, that scared the hell out of me..."
He muttered something, pushed open the courtyard gate, and went inside.
Inside the room, Zhang Guifang was still awake, leaning against the headboard scrolling through short videos.
Seeing Jiang Jianye come in carrying a bag of things, she asked him lazily.
"Where have you been in the middle of the night?"
"Hehe, that's good news!"
Jiang Jianye placed the net on the ground and said it as if presenting a treasure.
"Look what this is!"
Zhang Guifang peeked out and her eyes lit up immediately.
"Wow! Such a big crab! Where did it come from?"
"Bought it from that idiot Jiang Mancang! Cheap!"
Jiang Jianye proudly recounted the process.
After hearing this, Zhang Guifang laughed so hard she almost fell over.
"You're so clever! That fool deserves to be poor his whole life!"
She jumped up and shuffled off in her slippers to the kitchen.
"Don't wait until tomorrow, steam a few and try them first! It's such good stuff, it'd be a shame to let it go bad!"
Jiang Jianye also felt a craving and swallowed hard.
"Okay! Steam the three biggest ones!"
Zhang Guifang worked quickly and efficiently, cleaning the three hairy crabs and putting them in the steamer.
In less than half an hour, a rich and delicious aroma wafted from the pot, making one's mouth water.
The crabs were taken out of the pot, their bluish-green shells turning bright red, steaming hot.
The couple didn't care that it was hot and just started breaking it apart with their hands.
Once the crab shell is opened, it is filled with golden crab roe, rich in oil and with a fragrant aroma.
"Mmm...Delicious! It's fucking delicious!"
Jiang Jianye ate with grease dripping from his mouth, praising the food in a muffled voice.
Zhang Guifang didn't even have time to talk, she just buried herself in her work.
Three crabs the size of washbasins were devoured by the two of them in less than twenty minutes.
They even sucked every last bit of meat from the crab legs.
Jiang Jianye let out a satisfied burp, patting his round belly.
"This money was well spent! Absolutely worth it!"
The voice just fell.
"Gurgle..."
His stomach suddenly let out a loud rumbling.
Immediately afterwards, a sharp, stabbing pain shot through my lower abdomen!
"Ouch! My...my stomach!"
Jiang Jianye's face turned deathly pale instantly, and he squatted down, clutching his stomach.
Just as Zhang Guifang was about to laugh at him, her own stomach suddenly cramped.
"Hiss... I... I can't take it anymore!"
As if receiving some kind of instruction, the couple simultaneously clutched their stomachs and rushed to the outhouse behind the house.
That speed was even faster than when they were fighting over crabs.
Once inside, he never came out again.
Throughout the rest of the night, screams and crackling noises echoed continuously from Jiang Jianye's simple outhouse.
Jiang Jianye squatted until his legs felt weak, his vision blurred, and he felt completely drained.
Zhang Guifang fared even worse; she was so badly pulled down that she collapsed to the ground, too weak to even pull up her pants.
Foods nourished by spiritual springs have a strong ability to repel and purify harmful impurities in the body.
Jiang Jianye and his wife ate junk food for many years, accumulating a lot of toxins in their bodies.
Encountering this ingredient, which contains immense life energy, is like a raging fire meeting damp wood; a vigorous "detoxification" reaction begins.
As dawn broke, the neighbors were awakened by the commotion. When they came over to see what was happening, they were terrified.
They quickly called the barefoot doctor from the village clinic.
When the doctor examined the patient, he diagnosed acute gastroenteritis and severe dehydration.
They quickly put an IV drip on him.
Jiang Jianye lay on the bed, his face sallow, his lips chapped, and he was weak and listless.
Zhang Guifang lay on the other side, too exhausted to even groan.
The doctor ordered all seven or eight crabs that hadn't been sold yet to be thrown away, saying they were definitely spoiled.
Jiang Jianye was filled with regret!
I bought crabs for 200 yuan, but I didn't sell a single one. Instead, I got gastroenteritis for three days and spent several hundred yuan on medical expenses.
They made a fool of themselves and became the laughingstock of the whole village.
He lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, vowing never to engage in speculation or profiteering again in his life.
The things that Brother Chen gave were truly beyond the reach of ordinary people.