PCJ – Chapter 246 Fighting

Although Zhang Wenrong was not well-liked by the villagers in the Meizi’ao Village, he was still quite well-known in Meizi’ao. Of course, his reputation was more infamous than anything else.

As soon as Zhang Wenrong arrived at the tea fields managed by the Chen family from Duimen Mountain, someone greeted him.

“Zhang Wenrong, I heard you’re getting more and more successful—becoming a lackey for some brat, huh?” Chen Hongming, a young man from the Chen family of Duimen Mountain, teased Zhang Wenrong.

“Chen Hongming, you’d better watch your mouth. I’m busy today, so I won’t stoop to your level. But you’d better not cause trouble here, or you’ll regret it,” Zhang Wenrong said as he walked directly toward the area where tea was being weighed.

“Zhang Wenrong, don’t think that just because you’re a lackey for that Zhang brat, I’ll be scared of you. You got locked up in the horticultural farm by some kid for a month, didn’t dare to say a word, and then willingly became a lackey. That’s all you’re good for,” Chen Hongming said disdainfully.

“Hongming, that’s enough,” Chen Yuanshan called out to stop him, but Chen Hongming continued to taunt Zhang Wenrong, who was glaring at him.

Zhang Wenrong clenched his fists tightly but held back. He didn’t want to cause trouble at the horticultural farm. “Chen Hongming, you’d better not stir up trouble. Otherwise, you’ll regret it.”

“Bring it on. Who’s afraid of who?” Chen Hongming felt even more smug when he saw Zhang Wenrong back down.

Zhang Wenrong gave him a hard look, then walked straight to the tea weighing area. As soon as he got there, he said, “Hey, stop, stop! This tea can’t be weighed. Quickly dump it out onto the bamboo tray and sort out the unqualified leaves. Otherwise, all the tea from your group will be disqualified.”

“Who are you? What makes you say my tea is unqualified?” Coincidentally, this basket of tea belonged to Liu Fengying, Chen Hongming’s mother. Liu Fengying was a tough woman, and when she heard that her tea was unqualified, she couldn’t hold back. Her tea indeed didn’t meet the standards because she was still following the old habit of picking all the leaves, regardless of age. This allowed her to pick tea much faster than others, so she was already there to weigh her tea.

“I’m the one responsible for inspecting the tea here. I told you clearly when you arrived that we’re paying double the usual rate, but there are also higher standards. You can only pick new leaves, and only two leaves at a time. Look at how you’ve picked this—these old leaves mixed in here are completely unsuitable for processing into quality tea. Our tea has won a gold medal at the provincial level. How do you expect to make award-winning tea with leaves like these? And look at these tender leaves—they weren’t even picked according to the rules. We require that you use your fingertips to pluck just the tips of two leaves, but you’ve scraped them off with your hand, and now they’re damaged. This tea is entirely unqualified. You’re not only disqualified from selling it, but you’ve also ruined so much tea. People like you shouldn’t even be allowed to pick tea here. Chen Leader, if your group continues picking tea like this, your qualification to harvest here will be revoked,” Zhang Wenrong said as he dumped Liu Fengying’s basket of tea onto a bamboo tray and pointed out each flaw to the people from Duimen Mountain.

“Fengying, I told you to pick the tea according to their requirements, but you wouldn’t listen. Now look at the trouble you’ve caused. Everyone’s going to be affected because of you,” said Chen Shunchang, the leader of the Duimen Mountain group, looking a bit embarrassed.

Liu Fengying wouldn’t accept this. “I’ve been picking tea for decades—don’t tell me I don’t know how to do it? This is clearly the Zhang family from Meizi’ao Village deliberately making things difficult for us. They want to keep the tea-picking jobs all to themselves and exclude our group. And you men from Duimen Mountain are just letting them walk all over you. Do you even have any guts?”

Upon hearing Liu Fengying’s outburst, Chen Hongming immediately stepped forward, grabbed Zhang Wenrong by the collar without hesitation, and said, “Well, Zhang Wenrong, you dare to take personal revenge. Just because I called you a lackey, now you’re picking on my mom. I’m telling you now, you’ll either accept the tea my mom picked, or none of the tea from this horticultural farm will be processed. Listen up, Duimen Mountain Chen family—we’re shareholders in this horticultural farm too. So why does the Meizi’ao Village Zhang family get to call the shots? We’ve all picked tea before. Since when do we have to listen to the Zhang family about how to pick it? We’ll keep picking tea the old way, and what’s wrong with that?”

Chen Hongming’s incitement caused the Chen family from Duimen Mountain to join in the commotion, whether they were in the right or not. After all, picking tea the old way was much faster, though it harmed both the tea trees and the harvested tea. The tea from Meizi’ao Horticultural Farm was of top quality, but with their methods, it quickly degraded. Although Chen Shunlin saw the problem, he was powerless to stop it.

“Starting now, we won’t accept a single leaf of tea picked by the Duimen Mountain group. And you won’t be picking tea here anymore,” Zhang Wenrong declared loudly.

“You’re asking for it!” Chen Hongming threw a punch at Zhang Wenrong.

But Zhang Wenrong caught the punch and flipped Chen Hongming to the ground. Chen Hongming was no match for him.

However, this scuffle between Zhang Wenrong and Chen Hongming quickly escalated into a full-blown conflict between the Chen family of Duimen Mountain and the Zhang family of Meizi’ao Village. Clashes between these two clans were common, often sparked by disputes over resources like water, land, and mountains. Fights had broken out many times over the years.

The Chen family from Duimen Mountain immediately swarmed in, preparing to gang up on Zhang Wenrong. But Zhang Wenrong wasn’t foolish—seeing the situation turn against him, he quickly ran away. Zhang Wenrong was nimble, and the Chen family couldn’t catch him. He headed straight for the Zhang family’s territory in Meizi’ao Village. When the Zhang family saw what was happening, they didn’t care about any past grievances; in that moment, he was one of them, and attacking him was an attack on the Zhang family as a whole. The two clans from Duimen Mountain and Meizi’ao Village quickly faced off in the horticultural farm.

Zhang Dechun hurriedly stepped between the two groups. “What do you think you’re doing?”

With Zhang Dechun’s arrival, the Chen family from Duimen Mountain knew the fight wouldn’t happen, but they were determined to argue their case.

Liu Fengying immediately stepped forward, distorting the truth. “Zhang Wenrong deliberately picked on our Chen family. He nitpicked everything about the tea we picked, and when we couldn’t take it anymore and tried to reason with him, he hit my son and injured him!'”