Chapter 046: The Woman with the Overwhelming Presence (Please Keep Reading and Vote for Recommendations!)

As Bai Wen had just grabbed the top of the snakeskin bag, he stumbled, and the heavy sack crashed onto the ground. "Good heavens, it's so heavy!" he exclaimed.

He truly hadn't expected the snakeskin bag before him to weigh so much.

"Old classmate, you've been a boss for so long, not used to manual labor. That's why it's tough for you," Chen Anquan teased, then grabbed the snakeskin bag with one hand, walked to the back of the car, and stowed it in the trunk.

Soon after, he settled into the SUV's passenger seat and glanced at the ruined rearview mirror. "How much will it cost? I'll pay you back."

Bai Wen, hands on the steering wheel, wore a proud smile. "This was mostly my fault—I left in such a hurry. Don't worry, you needn't pay. I know someone who can fix it for almost nothing."

Seeing Bai Wen had no intention of taking his money, nor did he show any distress, Chen Anquan nodded. "Just drop me at the market entrance later."

"No problem," Bai Wen replied cheerfully. He glanced at Chen Anquan out of the corner of his eye. "Old classmate, there aren’t many classmates still developing their careers here at home these days. I had no choice, what with the family paper mill. But you’re still young—why not go out and see what the world has to offer?"

"The outside world? Nothing appealing to me. I prefer our little county," Chen Anquan shrugged, smiling.

Bai Wen nodded, considering how Chen Anquan didn’t seem to be doing particularly well. "Old classmate, if anyone bullies you here, just call me. There are plenty of things in this county I can sort out."

"Oh, really?" Chen Anquan thought of Chen Long, the village bully, but didn’t yet know what Chen Long intended to do to him. He smiled. "If I really need your help, you won’t turn me away, will you?"

"Of course not. Think of how close we were as kids!"

...

The two chatted for quite some time, until finally Chen Anquan got out and Bai Wen drove away.

There was a designated area for stalls in the town. On market days, those selling herbal medicine and those buying it gathered there, forming an informal traditional medicine market.

Chen Anquan arrived a bit late; the roadside spaces had long since been occupied, leaving no place for him to set up his stall.

Just then, a man in his forties or fifties sitting at a roadside stall noticed Chen Anquan approaching, carrying a bulging snakeskin bag on his back. The man quickly realized Chen Anquan was also here to sell medicine.

"Kid, all the stalls here are fixed. Even if you come early, you won’t get a spot. Take my advice—go home. Don’t try to do business here," he called out.

As the saying goes, fellow tradesmen are rivals. This man clearly didn’t want another competitor.

Chen Anquan stood before the man's stall, eyes searching for He Shi’s booth.

He didn’t sell many kinds of herbal medicine, so he had no need for a sprawling stall like the man's—three meters long, one and a half meters wide, displaying fifty or sixty varieties.

Just then, Chen Anquan noticed a patch of empty space, about half a meter wide, beside the man's stall. He walked over and placed his snakeskin bag down.

"Kid!" The man barked at him, "This is a walkway. Don’t even think about setting up your stall here!"

There were five or six herbal medicine stalls in the area; the rest of the space had already been claimed. Only this so-called walkway remained, suitable for a stall.

"This is a public space. Why not set up here?" Chen Anquan replied calmly, placing the snakeskin bag on the ground and untying the rope.

The man’s face darkened, stymied by Chen Anquan’s words.

He sat on a little red plastic stool, a cigarette dangling from his lips, legs crossed, eyes fixed on Chen Anquan. "Kid, when people pass by, you'd better move aside!"

Just then, some pedestrians wanted to get through. The man shouted at Chen Anquan, "See that? Move aside!"

Chen Anquan shifted his position, leaving just enough space for people to pass.

The man, satisfied that Chen Anquan had yielded, smiled contentedly and went back to smoking and fiddling with his smartphone.

After the pedestrians moved on, Chen Anquan took out a red cloth, folded it into a rectangle, and laid it on the ground.

He took out a dozen red plastic bags from the snakeskin sack, arranged them on the cloth, opened their seals, then half-squatted, settling into a horse stance.

He still had plenty of herbs in the snakeskin bag. For each type, only a portion needed to be displayed.

"Only selling a little bit of herbal medicine, and you dare show up here? Kid, you won’t sell anything this way," the man beside him jeered.

Driving Chen Anquan away meant one less competitor, better business for himself.

Chen Anquan ignored the meddlesome man and pulled out his phone to browse short videos.

As soon as he opened the app, a young man practicing Tai Chi under the night sky appeared on the screen.

Chen Anquan’s lips twitched—it was himself!

Over 180,000 likes, 100,000 saves, over 10,000 comments...

"So many people have seen my video!"

He had never expected to become a local internet celebrity in others’ eyes...

But could this celebrity status be monetized?

He’d never tried such things, so he didn’t know if it could make money.

It didn’t matter. Once he got home, he could record his workout videos and post them online. Whether he could become an internet star depended on fate.

"Damn, our town has such a legend!" he heard the uncle beside him laugh.

Chen Anquan hadn’t wanted to pay much attention to the annoying man, but his hearty laughter was already disrupting Chen Anquan’s browsing.

He turned to see the man watching his video the whole time.

It seemed that ever since he had started working out on the basketball court, the village uncles and aunties had recorded countless short videos of him and posted them online.

"But... the special effects in this are so realistic. If I didn’t have sharp eyes, I’d have been fooled by this kid..." the man muttered.

Chen Anquan frowned. Did he need special effects for his workouts? They were all real!

Just as Chen Anquan was about to ask the man to lower his voice, a woman in a wool coat walked over.

Both Chen Anquan and the man looked at her simultaneously.

She wore her hair in a bun, her head slightly small, her skin startlingly pale and clean, free from the slightest blemish.

Most memorable of all were her heavy, melon-sized breasts, which gave off an intense sense of pressure.

"Miss, is there anything you’re looking for?" the uncle asked with a grin, quickly pocketing his phone and rubbing his temples with his rough hands, as if to wake up his not-so-clear mind.

Finally, the woman stopped at the uncle’s stall. She squatted down, craned her neck, and used her slender, pale fingers to rummage through a red plastic bag.