Chapter 31: Charlatan

"Pah!"

Li Tianran dug with a hoe, and then he used lime to draw conspicuous lines along the edge of the fishpond he was preparing.

After marking the area and location, Li Tianran nodded.

Digging a fishpond was a daunting task, and the current situation on the farm wasn't suitable for hiring someone else to do the job.

After some thought, Li Tianran decided to go out himself and rent an excavator.

Although such large equipment was available for sale in the store, Li Tianran didn't want to spend his points on it for now. Given the current situation, money would surely depreciate rapidly, but points would not. So, he preferred not to spend points on things that could be bought with money.

...

After a while, he drove to a large courtyard in town.

Getting out of the car, Li Tianran walked straight to the gate and knocked loudly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The intense knocking echoed inside the courtyard, and then a coarse and somewhat impatient voice came, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Li Tianran! Open up! Urgent business!"

Li Tianran shouted.

Li Tianran's farm was in the outskirts not far from town, and having been in operation for two generations, he was considered an old resident. People in town were familiar with him.

After hearing his words, the gate was quickly opened.

A middle-aged, sturdy man, about 1.9 meters tall, stood at the gate, holding a half-meter-long steel pipe, with a stubble-covered face that looked a bit weary.

His name was Yang Baolin, a small contractor with several large pieces of machinery, including the excavator Li Tianran wanted.

Seeing Li Tianran, Yang Baolin frowned and asked, "It's you... What's the matter?"

"Old Yang, I want to rent your excavator for a few days. How about 800 yuan a day?" Li Tianran smiled.

Before the Cataclysm, this price was certainly not high, but after the Cataclysm, with most people struggling to even have a meal, who had the time to hire Yang for work?

He had been idle at home for a week without any income.

In this situation, Li Tianran thought it was normal to press down on the price a bit.

Not that he was cunning, but in the end-of-days, everyone had to think of themselves first!

Hearing this, Yang raised his eyebrows. He had indeed been short of money to buy food lately, but...

"Wanna rent the excavator, sure, but I won't take your money." Yang waved his hand and said, "I want food!"

Yang wasn't stupid. In this situation, it was challenging to buy food even with money.

Although the authorities were trying their best to distribute food, the global food shortage made it ineffective.

A while ago, Yang had bought a batch of dried noodles in the supermarket, but it would only last a month. He had to plan ahead.

"You run a farm; you must have a lot of food stored, right..." Yang looked at Li Tianran, eyes shining, "How about this, you rent it for a day, give me ten kilograms of rice?"

Li Tianran couldn't help but laugh.

Indeed, everyone was a trader.

Now, with the soaring prices of food, just last night, the price of rice had risen to 180 yuan per kilogram, and it was limited to one purchase per household per day.

"Old Yang, you're really asking for a lot!" Li Tianran laughed. Although he wasn't short of food, he couldn't let others know that he wasn't.

Yang blushed a bit. He knew he had set a high price, but there was no way. For survival, you had to be a bit thick-skinned!

"Even if I have rice, I can't give you so much." Li Tianran said firmly, "I have a bit of frozen meat and some flour at home. I'll rent it for a day, and I'll give you three pounds of flour and half a pound of frozen meat!"

"I want ten kilograms; you cut too much..." Yang complained a bit unwillingly.

Li Tianran looked at Yang Baolin's expression and immediately understood that he should be a bit more assertive at this point: "Old Yang, understand the times. The excavator at home is just rusting away; besides, the price I'm offering isn't low. You should know how hard it is to get food now!"

Yang Baolin's expression changed, looking back and forth at Li Tianran several times.

"I won't raise this price. If you don't agree... then I'll turn around and leave! I can go to the city and there are others with excavators. I'm sure I can find someone willing to accept this price."

Li Tianran dropped a tough word.

"Wait, wait, wait! We're all folks from the same town. Why speak such harsh words..." As expected, after Li Tianran said this, Yang's attitude softened. He quickly grabbed Li Tianran and said, "Deal, I'll get the excavator for you. By the way, I'll take today's rent."

Yang parked the large flatbed truck at the gate and placed the excavator on it.

Li Tianran handed his truck's keys to Yang, saying, "Leave this truck here. When I bring the excavator back, I'll take it back."

"Sure," Yang Baolin agreed readily. "I'll bring the machine to your place and collect today's rent."

Yang parked Li Tianran's truck in his own courtyard, locked the gate, and stepped into the driver's seat.

Li Tianran sat in the passenger seat. As he was about to close the car door, a hand suddenly reached out from the side and grabbed the door!

Li Tianran was startled and then looked over.

Beside the car door, two or three middle-aged women around fifty, wearing identical black outfits with a peculiar emblem embroidered in colorful threads on their chests, like a lotus, appeared at some point.

Now, the leader of the women, with both hands clasped together, looked at Li Tianran.

"Auntie, do you... have any business?" Li Tianran felt that these three people had a fanatic religious feel, as if they were followers of some cult. So, he asked cautiously.

"We are from the Salvation Society." The leading woman, clasping her hands together, said to Li Tianran.

"What... what is this Salvation Society for?" Li Tianran was a bit puzzled.

"Young man, do you know the truth about this disaster that has befallen us?" Instead of answering Li Tianran's question, the leading woman approached him, asking mysteriously.

Li Tianran certainly knew.

But he didn't say it out loud. Instead, he asked, "Do you know?"

"I certainly do! This calamity is the result of too much human wickedness, angering the gods. Therefore, the gods sent down this disaster to punish mankind. The calamity will only stop when all humans are extinct. To survive, you can only join our Salvation Society, sincerely repent to the gods, and then there's a chance of salvation." The woman said with an extremely devout expression.

Li Tianran felt a bit interested and asked, "So, are there any conditions for joining your Self-Salvation Society?"

"Our society has a membership hierarchy!" The woman looked like a charlatan as she said, "We use animal names to classify members. Paying 30,000, you can become a pure lamb! Paying 80,000, you can become a loyal pig! Paying 150,000, you can become a devout dog! Paying 300,000, you can become a pure eagle! The higher the level, the closer you are to the God, and the greater the chance of salvation!"

"Choose what you want to be." The woman said.

Li Tianran suddenly laughed, flicking a steel coin into the woman's palm.

"If I can, I just want to be... a rice cooker! Carefree!"

The woman was stunned, her face turning ugly. "How dare you show disrespect to the gods?"

"Auntie, take some time to learn brainwashing and deception before coming out to fool people. With your skills, you can't even deceive a donkey in a production team!" Li Tianran shook his head and closed the door directly.

  Tianran stepped on the gas, and the flatbed truck roared away, leaving the three women staring at each other.

"Those who do not believe in God will fall into hell forever." The woman who had just talked to Li Tianran, watching the flatbed truck disappear into the distance, muttered with resentment, "You, the lowest of the low... maggot!"