Urban Soldier Young Master

Chapter 854 - 853: No Reward Without Effort

Seeing Mu Xiaoting so angry that she couldn't speak, Er Hong became even more smug, placing her left hand on her hip and pointing a short, stubby finger at Chu Ge and Mu Xiaoting with her right."You two, take off my brother's and my clothes right now. To think you'd dare wear our clothes and leave, you must be shameless."

Sure enough, Er Hong's demand was exactly what Mu Xiaoting had anticipated.

"You..."

"What about you? Do you think our clothes came for free, like the wind blew them here? If you two wear them away, where am I supposed to find you to get them back? I haven't even asked you to throw up the buns you ate at our house, you shameless lot."

"Bang!" Just as Er Hong finished speaking, the old man suddenly slapped the table and stood up with a start, "Er Hong! How can you talk like that! These two kids already have it hard enough! Do you really want to send them out naked?"

The old man's angry shout made Er Hong shiver a little, the harshness on her face relaxed slightly, and her small eyes darted around for a few seconds before she grudgingly muttered.

"Dad, those clothes are expensive, the clothes and pants are some brand, and the shoes are that uh, Adas one, together it's worth hundreds, it's not easy for me to earn money outside..."

Mu Xiaoting sneered inwardly, Adas? It's Semir, right? Adas? Bullshit! The shoes clearly have a check mark logo, and it's even backward, they're obviously fake Nikes, right?

Not to mention this set of shabby stalls isn't worth a few hundred bucks, even if it was, she wouldn't normally be interested in wearing it!

Mu Xiaoting felt an intense urge to take off these oversized clothes and throw them angrily onto Er Hong's vulgar and coarse face, which disgusted her.

But as she placed her hand on the zipper, she hesitated; if she took off these clothes, would she really go out wearing just her underwear?

Er Hong muttered something else but didn't speak again, the old man looked hesitantly, and the old lady shook her head and sighed, the atmosphere became tense again, the echo of the old man's table slap seemed to still buzz in the air.

Just then, in the quiet room, there was suddenly a very faint clanging sound.

Everyone's eyes simultaneously turned towards the source of the sound, and they saw Chu Ge picking up a sickle that was leaning against the wall by the door and walking towards Er Hong.

Seeing this, Er Hong reacted as if a cat had stepped on her tail, her pupils contracted abruptly, she quickly took a step back, grabbed a water cup from the table with her short, stubby right hand, yelling as she splashed the water towards Chu Ge's face.

"What, what do you think you're doing? Do you want to fight? Don't you come over here!"

As Er Hong's voice became shrill, a full cup of water splashed entirely onto Chu Ge's face, and the white porcelain cup hit Chu Ge's head with a dull "thud."

Under the nervous gaze of the others, water droplets trickled down Chu Ge's face, but he didn't even wipe them off, instead, he picked up the porcelain cup from the ground, gently placed it back on the table, and smiled at the family of three.

"Sir, don't be angry. Your daughter isn't wrong; it was thoughtless of us. As the saying goes, you shouldn't receive something for nothing. Since we've benefited from your family, let me help you out with some work."

As soon as Chu Ge said that, everyone in the room was stunned. Especially Er Hong, who was about to shout for help, her voice abruptly stopped, as if someone had suddenly choked her.

"Sir, you probably have rice to harvest, right?"

The old man instinctively nodded, "Uh... yes."

Chu Ge turned to Er Hong, "Miss, how about this: we'll help you harvest the rice, and in return, you just save some pants for me and keep the clothes on my friend as a reward, how about it?"

Er Hong hesitated for a few seconds, then finally nodded, "Well... fine."

Chu Ge smiled again, "Thank you very much, miss. Could you also lend my friend a sickle and lead us to the field?"

The old man and old woman exchanged glances, their expressions were quite complex. The old man persuaded Chu Ge a few more times, saying they didn't need to do the work, but seeing Chu Ge's firm insistence, they let him be.

Though the old man was just an ordinary farmer, he could tell that the young man before him was honorable, and letting him do some work would put his heart at ease.

Chu Ge and Mu Xiaoting walked out the door with the family of three, and soon they reached a golden, almost seven or eight-acre field of rice.

In the past, when traveling by train or plane, Mu Xiaoting had seen such fields, and she thought the scenery was beautiful. But right now, seeing it so up close, she only felt dizzy.

The sun in September was still quite harsh. Although she hadn't started working yet, and it was only around nine o'clock in the morning, just walking this distance had already exhausted her.

Generally, harvesting rice is done at dawn when it's cooler, and it takes less energy, so the surrounding fields were mostly empty at this time.

Standing at the edge of the rice field, Mu Xiaoting looked at the sickle in her hand, then at Chu Ge, with an indescribable struggle on her face. Even now, it was hard for her to accept the fact that she had to go down to the field and do farm work.

Chu Ge didn't pay any attention to Mu Xiaoting's conflicted and troubled look. After exchanging a few words with the old man and confirming which fields belonged to him, he grabbed a sickle and walked in.

Mu Xiaoting hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and could only follow in Chu Ge's footsteps.

"Chu Ge, how do you use this thing? Are we really going to work for them?"

Once they had put a bit of distance between themselves and Er Hong's family, Mu Xiaoting asked, her tone full of grievance.

"Honestly, I don't really know how to do it either. I just asked the old man. He said to grab a handful of rice, cut about fifteen centimeters from the root, and lay the cut rice neatly to one side. Enough talking, let's get to work."

"But..."

"No buts, this part is yours, I'll go a bit further."

Mu Xiaoting wanted to say something more, but Chu Ge left her there, grabbed his sickle, and walked over to another part of the field to start working.

At the edge of the field, Er Hong sat cross-legged on the ground, looking distantly at Chu Ge and Mu Xiaoting in the field, curling her lips in disdain.

"Hmph, they really just got lucky. Just pretending to do a little work and they get a free meal and two sets of clothes. That guy is craftier than a monkey! I really shouldn't have agreed to this. Why am I so soft-hearted?"

The old man wasn't pleased either, furrowing his brow, "Er Hong, what are you saying? Even though we're poor, we can at least afford a couple of steamed buns and some clothes, right? What's wrong with helping those two kids?"

The old lady sighed, nodding in agreement, "Yeah, Er Hong, why are you so mean?"

Er Hong shook her head, "Dad, Mom, you don't know. Urban folks these days are so cunning. Do you really believe they got robbed? I'm telling you, that's definitely not what happened!"

The old lady was taken aback, "Then what do you think happened?"

Er Hong snorted, "Who knows, maybe they were caught cheating? Anyway, they're making a great deal out of this. Look at their delicate skins, expecting them to do real work is nonsense, right?"

"Okay, enough, no matter why they fell on hard times, at least they're willing to work for us. Stop complaining. I say, just let them put in a token effort, what do you think, old lady?"

The old man said impatiently, turning to look at the old lady, only to find she wasn't listening, her gaze fixed on the field, as if she'd seen a ghost.

The old man had never realized, even with his wife's sagging eyelids, her eyes could still widen that much.

"What's wrong? What are you looking at? You look possessed."

"Mom?"

The old man and Er Hong froze for a moment, then asked nervously, seeing the old lady lift her hand and point towards Chu Ge, who was working in the field.

Looking over, the old man and Er Hong immediately followed the old lady's lead, their eyes widening and mouths agape, as if they could swallow an egg.

In the golden rice field, Chu Ge wasn't holding the rice stalks like a farmer, bending over to cut and neatly placing them to the side. Instead, he was striding forward with the sickle in his right hand.

Wherever he passed, the rice seemed to fall in bunches, and even the direction of the fallen stalks was uniformly aligned.

It was as if he was wielding a divine weapon. They couldn't even see his wrist move; he just walked forward, and with a slight touch of the sickle blade, the rice was harvested.

Er Hong stared blankly for a few seconds, swallowed hard, and turned her gaze to the even more dumbfounded old couple, "Dad, Mom, am I...am I seeing things?"

The old man's mouth twitched, "I...I think I might be seeing things too."

The two looked at the old lady in unison, who rubbed her eyes, "I think so too."

The three exchanged glances, then looked back at Chu Ge for a long time before finally accepting that they weren't seeing things.

But a new question arose, could that sickle in Chu Ge's hand be a legendary weapon that cuts through anything?

This...this can't be right? They've used that sickle for years; it's just a normal sickle. How did it become so unbelievably powerful in that young man's hands?

What the hell...could it be, they really have seen a ghost?

Just then, the old man's phone suddenly rang in his pocket.