Bored Chen Juanjuan

The interview lasted for twenty minutes before it finally came to an end.

Afterwards, Chen Anquan turned his attention to where Sister Hua had been standing, only to find that she had already disappeared.

“Don’t bother looking,” said Chen Juanjuan with a smile, her sunglasses perched on her nose. “The beautiful woman you were supposed to meet for matchmaking has already boarded the crew vehicle. She probably felt embarrassed—her standards were a bit high, after all.”

She was right; Sister Hua had indeed left in the work vehicle, likely feeling a bit awkward.

Chen Juanjuan was the victim in this situation. As a television journalist, Sister Hua had looked into her family background ahead of time. Compared to herself, what did she have to be embarrassed about?

As Chen Anquan was about to leave, Zhao Xuan nudged him gently with her elbow and whispered, “Chen Anquan, is Chen Juanjuan really your girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Oh, that’s good.” Zhao Xuan let out a soft sigh of relief, the bitterness on her lips fading away.

“By the way, Zhao Xuan, didn’t you say you needed that specially prepared rehmannia root?”

“Yes. Have you made it?”

“Not yet. A few more days.”

“Perfect. However much you can make, I’ll take it all. The price is negotiable.”

“Alright. I’m preparing a hundred jin of it.” Chen Anquan made an “OK” gesture. “I’ll deliver it to your house when it’s ready.”

“Only a hundred jin?”

“That’s not enough?”

“It’s plenty. I’ll just come pick it up from your place. No need for you to go out of your way to deliver it.” Zhao Xuan seemed reluctant to have Chen Anquan come to her house.

“No problem.”

With that, the two went their separate ways.

Chen Anquan headed in the direction of Chen Juanjuan.

Zhao Xuan walked toward the crew vehicle.

Soon after, the vehicle started up, heading out of the village.

Chen Juanjuan took off her sunglasses and watched the crew vehicle gradually drive away, then turned to Chen Anquan. “Chen Anquan! What were you and Zhao Xuan whispering about just now?”

“What do you mean, ‘whispering’?” Chen Anquan replied irritably. “Someone in Zhao Xuan’s family might be ill. She wants to buy some herbal medicine from me. We were just discussing that.”

“Hmph!” Clearly, Chen Juanjuan didn’t believe him. She glanced at the departing crew vehicle. “Zhao Xuan is nice enough, but that woman, Sister Hua—she thinks so highly of herself, but women like her are the least valuable!”

“Heh.” Chen Anquan had no intention of discussing this further. His family didn’t even have a plane—so why talk about runways? “Let’s head up the mountain.”

“Alright.” Only then did Chen Juanjuan open the front passenger door, a pink hiking backpack slung over her shoulder. “Do you know why I want to sit in the front seat?”

“So you can keep an eye on us?”

“Tch!” Chen Juanjuan snorted in disdain. “I left the driver’s seat for you so that Sister Hua would see you driving my car. That way, she’d know we’re quite close.”

“I didn’t expect you to be so scheming!”

“Hmph! How could you say that about me?” Chen Juanjuan pouted. “I just wanted to annoy Sister Hua—serves her right for being so blind!”

Chen Anquan laughed, looking at her with satisfaction. “Come on, let’s not talk about someone we’ll never see again.”

“Doggie! Let’s go!”

At this, she called out to the pit bull, who had been sitting obediently nearby.

The dog whined, then got up and followed obediently behind her.

“Here, you carry this!” She took off her backpack and handed it to Chen Anquan. “Why should a girl like me do all the work?”

“That won’t do!” Chen Anquan pointed to the three large bamboo baskets by his door.

The baskets were custom-made by his second uncle, each capable of holding three hundred jin. One could be strapped to the back, the others carried by hand.

“My goodness, they’re huge!” Chen Juanjuan was stunned; she’d never imagined he’d take such enormous baskets to gather herbs.

Each basket stood one and a half meters tall and a meter wide—enough to fit two adults.

She silently took her backpack back and put it on again. “I’ll keep carrying mine. I didn’t realize you were so strong!”

Was she kidding? Chen Anquan was the kind of man who could carry a six-hundred-jin boulder all night long!

“That’s right. I could carry five girls like you at once.”

“Excuse me?” She choked on his words. “So you want to carry five pretty girls at once? Aren’t you ambitious? Could you even handle that?”

“Don’t get the wrong idea, Juanjuan. I meant I can carry six hundred jin of weight.”

She glared at him, cheeks puffed, “So you’re saying I weigh a hundred and twenty jin? Am I really that heavy?”

The two chatted and joked as they walked up the mountain at a snail’s pace, taking over half an hour just to reach the foot of Ao Bei Mountain.

Sweat beaded on Chen Juanjuan’s forehead. She looked up at the daunting slope, almost forty-five degrees steep, and swallowed hard. “This mountain is so tall! No wonder no one in the village wants to bury their elders here. Even the woodcutters avoid climbing it.”

“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Chen Anquan said, meeting her gaze. “I’ll give you a chance to pick another peak.”

“No way. I’ll stick with this one.” With that, she dashed towards the mountain and began to climb.

Soon, her figure vanished into the dense forest.

“Juanjuan, be careful not to get lost!” Chen Anquan called out, exasperated. With three huge baskets, he couldn’t move quickly.

Worried for her safety, he quickly entered the woods, but when he glanced around, she was nowhere to be seen.

“Juanjuan? Don’t wander off! There really are wild boars here, and they can be dangerous!”

But only his own voice echoed back. There was no other sound.

A wave of anxiety washed over him.

If something happened to her, how would he explain it to Chen Long and Wang Lixia?

He began to climb along the familiar trail, calling her name as he went.

After several minutes without any sign of her, a sense of dread crept in. He quickly pulled out his phone to call her.

No signal?

Damn it! This was bad.

Just then, a shadow darted toward him from behind.

“Looking for trouble?” Chen Anquan set down the baskets and spun around, kicking out with force.

To his shock, it was Chen Juanjuan.

His kick was already flying through the air.

She had seen his kicks before—enough to knock people out cold!

“Ah!” Juanjuan cried out, freezing as she saw his foot about to meet her forehead.

Chen Anquan had no choice but to retract his kick in a hurry.

But his momentum couldn’t be stopped, and he tumbled forward, landing squarely on top of her.

“What are you doing!” she huffed, but the ground was covered in bushes, so even falling on her back didn’t hurt.

“You startled me!”

“That’s no reason to bully me!”

“I thought you were a wild boar—there really are wild boars here, and they’re dangerous.”

“Then get up already! You’re squishing me…” She turned her head aside, puffing out her cheeks, her face flushed as if warmed by a heating pad.

Chen Anquan remained motionless—he rather liked the feeling. Soft and comfortable.

But Juanjuan was mortified. She flailed her arms, slapping at his shoulders. “Get off me!”

“That’s what you get for being so mischievous.” He shot her a look and slowly got to his feet. “Come on, don’t run off like that again—it’s really dangerous!”

“Alright!” Far from being angry, Juanjuan actually grinned and cheerfully agreed, following close behind him.

Her pit bull trailed after her like a shadow.

Chen Anquan suspected that after they separated, Juanjuan must have used the dog to find him.

But it was a dangerous move. Ao Bei Mountain did have wild boars—ferocious ones that would attack without provocation. Her pit bull wouldn’t stand a chance.

He remembered the last time he’d encountered one: it looked no different from an ordinary wild boar, but it had sneaked up behind him to steal his rehmannia roots—clearly much smarter than the average boar.

Could it be that the wild boars here were more intelligent than those elsewhere?

It sounded far-fetched, but he couldn’t help but consider the possibility.

A wild boar that could sneak up behind him and steal his herbs—wasn’t that strange enough?