CHAPTER 1921: CHAPTER 907: TRIVIAL MATTERS

In the quaint rural courtyard, Old Meng was holding a chess piece, deep in thought.

After maintaining the same posture for quite a while, the elderly man opposite him finally couldn’t hold back and urged, "Are you going to make your move or not? If not, just admit defeat already!"

"Don’t rush me, I need to think some more." Old Meng furrowed his brow. "Don’t disrupt my train of thought!"

"Does struggling on the brink of defeat do you any good?" the elderly man opposite him sneered.

...

Struggling on the brink of defeat is useless, but dragging it out is quite beneficial.

Before Old Meng could place the chess piece, there was a faint commotion outside, and soon a middle-aged man appeared at the door. Seeing the scene in the courtyard, the middle-aged man was afraid of disturbing their chess game, so he walked softly, worried about disrupting them.

"Hmm, what do you have there?" Old Meng’s eyes darted around, ready to retract his move, when he saw the middle-aged man holding something. Seizing the moment, he asked.

"Testing..."

"Let me have a look!" Before the middle-aged man could finish, Old Meng had already reached out, took the documents, and began to read.

The old man opposite him was too lazy to disdain him, picked up the tea cup beside him, and began to hum a tune while sitting cross-legged.

...

"Old Xin, you’re here at the right time today. I’ve got a good medicine to recommend, are you interested?" Old Meng flipped through the documents casually and said with a smile.

The Old Xin across from him rolled his eyes and nodded towards the chessboard with his chin, "Checkmate!"

"It’s really good medicine." Old Meng had a look that said you’d be missing out if you didn’t believe him. "It’s absolutely top-notch for longevity, way better than that previous medicinal wine. Supplies are limited, first come, first served. If you don’t want it, I’ll give it to someone else!"

"Give me a break!" Old Xin wasn’t buying it. "I’m tired of living this long anyway, a little drink is all I need, nothing else. Besides, I don’t trust a swindler who would retract his moves in a chess game, ha!"

"You really don’t want it?" Old Meng stared at him.

"Don’t want it!" Old Xin unceremoniously stared back.

The two old men stared each other down like fighting roosters for a while, then Old Meng suddenly deflated, slapped his thigh, and said, "Oh no, this deal’s going to be a loss!"

Old Xin sneered, "You, make a losing deal?"

"Really a loss!" Old Meng sighed.

"Only a fool would believe that!" Old Xin gave him another sneer.

"I’m really going to lose money!" Old Meng stood up as he spoke, went into the house, and brought out a bottle of medicine. "I’ll just give it to you for free!"

Seeing Old Xin unfazed, Old Meng sighed, "It’s really a good thing. The test report just came out, and I’ve been taking it myself for a few days, absolutely no problem. It’s just that the people I want to sell it to might not want it, and if they do, they might not afford it. Some who can afford it, I might not want to sell it to. I’ll probably have to give away most of it..."

"Is it really good stuff?" Old Xin, seeing him talk like he was doing a tongue twister, finally took the medicine seriously.

However, he soon laughed, "Is it really expensive? If it is, just keep it, my health is still pretty good, I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon."

"It’s a bit pricey, but since I’ve already taken it out, just take it!" Old Meng sighed again, "I’ve really dug a hole for myself this time!"

He only considered the medicine’s value, forgetting to consider some people’s character—the people who need this medicine are many. But people are not saints, even if they want to be, they still need the capability of one. You can’t just give it to whomever needs it. Old Meng also had his considerations, but seeing Old Xin’s reaction, he realized that those he intended to sell to might be more like Old Xin.

Once spirited on the battlefield, now the nation is peaceful and prosperous, what’s the difference of living a few more years?

But there are those who want to live a few more years just to gaze a few more times at the beautiful scenery. Yet, whether those people have enough money to buy the medicine, and whether they would spend that much, remains unknown.

As for those who have become senile in their old age, Old Meng felt that selling such good medicine to them would be a loss no matter how much it cost.

Thinking this, giving Yan Fei the idea to sell the medicine at such a high price seemed like shooting himself in the foot.

In other families, it’s the children and grandchildren who are wasteful, but this time he might be the wasteful old man himself...

Thinking of this, he didn’t want to say much more, directly placed down the chess piece, and said, "Come on, let’s see if you can really checkmate me!"

...

Tanghe County has a leadership change!

Secretary Jiao left in style. When he first arrived, he made a foolish move that not only failed to benefit the area but also almost got cursed out for years. He was truly remorseful and had trouble sleeping back then. Luckily later, Boss Yan unexpectedly rose to prominence, giving him inspiration. While strongly supporting Boss Yan, he also carried out some projects in other towns. All in all, by the end of his term, the lives of the county’s people had improved.

Although he didn’t contribute much himself, he still did something.

At least when he left, compared to the assets he had when he came, he didn’t have any more when he left. More people said good things about him than criticized him.

Quite a few people were reluctant to let him go. As for what Secretary Jiao himself thought, no one knew, but to most people, he was considered a good leader compared to the past, and they weren’t happy about his departure.

But this wasn’t something the people in the county had a say in. All departments busily prepared to welcome the new leader—whether genuine or not, the attitude had to be shown.

...

Officer Xu from Sancha River Township drove Secretary Fu to the county, and the two of them waited in the financial office for most of the day!