VHBF -Chapter 110 Village Bully Daddy (Extra)

After the Spring Festival, count forward two more months and it was time for spring planting.

The production team of Dahuai Village was bustling with activity. Back when the villagers had received relief grain the previous year, everyone had sworn in their hearts that this year they would work hard no matter what—tend the crops properly, live days of full bellies after the autumn harvest, and not owe the state a single grain of food.

But sometimes, fate plays tricks on people, and everyone’s wishes fell through.

They did work hard—truly hard—but the heavens simply didn’t cooperate. This year’s weather was even worse than last year’s. Last year, at least, it had been somewhat warm, with summer stretching on longer than usual.

This year was even more extreme. After sowing, there was some rain at first, but as summer approached, the rain stopped altogether. The weather turned scorching and dry.

Normally, after spring planting, the villagers could rest a little, catch their breath, and then get busy again at harvest time.

But this year was different. The crops in the fields needed to be watered every single day. The villagers had to carry water from the river to irrigate them, or else the newly grown seedlings would be scorched and ruined by the sun.

Carrying water was exhausting work. The Dahuai production team had vast fields, and some plots were far from the river—so far that people could be worked to death hauling water.

Every household sent out at least one strong laborer, dedicated solely to this water-carrying task.

The well in the Qin family’s courtyard was visibly getting deeper by the day. In the past, the bucket only needed to be lowered one or two meters to draw water; now it had to be let down much farther before reaching water.

Old Man Qin started smoking his pipe more often. After dinner, when there was nothing to do, he would sit in the courtyard watching the children play. From time to time, he’d glance at the old well and sigh.

Qin Yuli was something else now. In Dahuai Village, anyone who mentioned him had to give a thumbs-up and praise him as someone who’d really made something of himself.

In past years, the Qin family’s youngest son had been someone the whole village found annoying. When everyone else was working, what was he doing?

He was figuring out how to slack off—leading a gang of troublemakers around, fooling about everywhere, never doing any real work. Crooked ideas he had plenty of.

And the worst part was, you couldn’t do anything about him. Whatever he did, he always had excuses prepared, logical and well-argued, so it was hard to catch him red-handed.

He was infuriating. If he were just sly, that’d be one thing—but when it came to fighting, there wasn’t a match for him within ten miles. He’d been well-built since childhood, taller and sturdier than others, and when he fought, that vicious edge of his was unmatched. Unless it was a matter of life and death, no one wanted to provoke him.

Now here’s the thing—ever since Third Qin, Qin Yuli, went on a trucking run before the New Year, he officially announced after the New Year that he’d been hired by the county food factory as a full-time worker!

He’d been a temporary worker before. Just from running one trip, he’d become permanent!

The food factory was a major enterprise. In the county, aside from the steel plant and machinery factory, it was one of the largest units around. And Qin Yuli had landed a spot in the transport team—the one responsible for delivering goods for the food factory.

This was a cushy job. Traveling between provinces, seeing the world, meeting all kinds of people. Most importantly, in these times when materials were scarce everywhere, if you went to that many places—especially big cities—what couldn’t you buy?

If you quietly helped people bring back a bit of goods, you could even make some extra money from the price difference and commissions. Of course, this was an unspoken secret among drivers—outsiders had no idea.

Even so, the villagers were green with envy.

They went to the Qin house asking how Qin Yuli had been selected. Was there no exam? No educational requirement?

“Isn’t it said that jobs in the city are tight? Even city kids don’t find it easy to get work, let alone us villagers?”

Qin Yuli just smiled, holding his chubby daughter while drinking malted milk powder. “I don’t know about others, but I can drive. I know the roads, and I can fix vehicles. If they don’t pick me, who would they pick?”

So confident—so smug—that the people asking were left speechless.

And he had every right to be smug. What else was there to say? He’d landed a job with state-supplied grain, driving across provinces, no longer having to toil in the fields. He’d become the first person in the village to truly go to the city. If he didn’t show off, who would?

If it had been an ordinary job, the villagers wouldn’t have been this envious. But being a driver—that was a good job. Among city occupations, driver ranked near the top: good money, lots of freedom. And in those days, people who could drive were rare. It was a stable position, not easily replaced.

If you could fix vehicles, knew the roads, and could also hold your own in a fight, leaders loved that kind of driver. They felt at ease sending him out—no fear of losing the goods!

Qin Yuli really thrived in the driver profession. Every time he came back from a trip, he’d bring back bags and bundles of things—clothes for his daughter, picture books, food, drinks—spoiling her into the most envied little girl in all of Dahuai Village.

The group of people who used to run around with Qin Yuli often muttered about how he’d eaten his own words. Back when the baby had just been picked up by Auntie, how dismissive Qin Yuli had been, always thinking about where to dump her. How did dumping her over and over turn him into such a doting daughter slave now?

A pair of chubby little hands reached over and tugged at his smug, handsome face. “Daddy, drink.”

Qin Yuli smiled, took a sip of the malted milk powder his daughter had offered him, sweet and milky. It really was quite tasty—no wonder all the babies loved it, and even pregnant women and young mothers were fond of it.

Qin Yuli had privately taken on several orders already, all asking him to help buy that kind of malted milk powder sold at the Shanghai department store counters. Every time he went, he could bring back a whole crate. He was clever too—buying in bulk, he negotiated a discount with the department store staff, saving one or two yuan per bottle, and that money went straight into his pocket.

But that’s getting off track.

This time, Qin Yuli came back intending to take his daughter and his parents to live in the city. He had a single-person dorm at his unit. At first, he could only live there alone. With more people, it wouldn’t work, and besides, if he had to go on long-distance trips for work, he wouldn’t be able to take care of a child. That was why he’d never suggested bringing his daughter to the city before.

Now, after working for more than half a year and saving some money, Qin Yuli spent nearly two hundred yuan to buy a small courtyard house in the city. It was an ordinary one-story house with a yard—three rooms inside, plus a storage room, and a separate kitchen. The toilet was specially built on the other side of the yard. Though it wasn’t large, it had everything needed. For a family of three or four, it was just right—comfortable beyond words.

The previous owners had planted flowers and greenery in the yard. Qin Yuli thought that once he brought his parents over, they could help take care of the child, and the yard could be put to good use too—plant some vegetables or fruit, and if they felt like it, maybe raise a couple of chickens for eggs. That wouldn’t be bad at all.

Seeing how well he had planned out his life and arranged everything so clearly for them, Chen Qiuhua couldn’t help laughing. She bragged to the old man, “Back then you all said I was biased toward our third son for no reason. Now look—do you still think I had no reason?”

“Our third boy’s been smart since he was little. He’s not lazy and he’s not bad. Work like farming the fields should be left to people with wooden brains. He’s no good at brute labor—smart people should do smart things!”

“Oh, and it’s still our Yinyin who’s blessed. Ever since she came into our family, the third boy’s been completely different after becoming a father. He knows how to strive now. Before, he was smart, sure, but he just wanted to muddle along. Now he knows he has to work hard, and that’s great. In the future he’ll take our Yinyin to the city to enjoy a good life, and she’ll be a city girl.”

Yinyin had just started first grade at the commune primary school this year. She was the youngest child in the entire school—only four years old. Chubby and round, she toddled along with her little short legs pattering pa-da pa-da, swaying like a little duck. The female teachers at the commune school found her unbearably adorable, their maternal instincts overflowing. They wouldn’t even let her leave after class and liked to keep her around to play whenever they had time.

Officially, they said they were giving special tutoring to the youngest student. In reality… under her classmates’ sympathetic gazes, Yinyin was kept behind and taken to the teachers’ office, where she sat on a small chair, swinging her short legs, and was surrounded daily by female teachers fussing over her—plus pinching her cheeks and teasing her.

You couldn’t find a child this well raised in the surrounding ten miles. Plump and healthy, her features were delicate and adorable. Her eyes were big and lively, black and bright, glistening with moisture. When she looked at people obediently, it melted hearts the most.

Yinyin’s dad was capable and willing to spend money on her. The schoolbag she carried was the kind bought in big cities, printed with cartoon patterns. The clothes she wore were also the bright, fashionable, carefully designed styles most popular among city kids.

And then there were the little cowhide shoes on her feet, making pa-da sounds when she walked. The entire rural school—students who hadn’t seen much of the world—couldn’t help staring at her shoes every time. If not for her being so young and the shoes being so tiny, barely half a palm in size, those students really would have shamelessly asked little Qin Yinyin to borrow them just to try on. Just once would do—so they could know what it felt like to wear cowhide shoes, then go brag about it later, saying they too had worn cowhide shoes before.

Today, little Qin Yinyin was once again kept behind and thoroughly “cherished” by the teachers. With her cheeks pinched red, she wobbled her way out of the school gate.

Calling it a school gate was generous—it was just two low earthen walls with a pair of old, paint-flaking doors standing open in the middle.

The Old Qin family was used to the third son’s daughter getting out of school later than the other kids, so they usually went to pick her up a bit later. Today, however, Qin Yuli rushed to do it himself.

He had just returned from a delivery run and immediately couldn’t wait to head to his daughter’s school.

Seeing that dirt-poor, embarrassingly small school gate, he once again firmed up his resolve to take his kid to the city.

Then he saw that little figure in a pink jacket, carrying a small yellow schoolbag, walking out from inside.

She was pretty like the newest display doll in a department store—one of those supposedly imported foreign dolls.

She turned her little head, didn’t see the person coming to pick her up, and didn’t run around either. She pursed her lips and obediently sat down on the stone slab by the gate. Qin Yuli deliberately stayed hidden, watching his daughter wait for a while. She looked left and right and, finding no one coming, pulled her little schoolbag around to the front, took out a milk candy, tore open the wrapper, and popped it into her mouth. She squinted her eyes, her cheeks puffing in and out.

His daughter was more patient than him, not flustered at all. Qin Yuli couldn’t hold back anymore. He quietly circled around from behind and snatched her little schoolbag. Hearing her let out a sharp little cry in her baby voice, Qin Yuli instantly felt satisfied—the feeling was like coming home after being away for a long time.

In a good mood, he swung the schoolbag in a circle. “Kiddo, it’s me—your dad!”

On the way home, Qin Yuli brought trouble on himself. His daughter walked ahead with her head down—how could those little short legs move so fast?

Once they entered the courtyard, Yinyin rushed straight to Grandma, who was drying clothes, and pointed at her dad as she complained, “Grandma, Daddy teased me again.”

Chen Qiuhua’s eyebrows shot up. She briskly grabbed a broom from the side and was about to swing it over. Qin Yuli dodged with a grin, that shamelessly playful look making it hard to watch. Was this really the Brother Qin who usually strode around outside?

If the guys from the transport team saw him like this, they definitely wouldn’t believe it.

“You brat, you’re already a father, yet you’re still always bullying Yinyin. Why are you so childish?”

“What are you laughing at? I didn’t make any food for you tonight. Want to eat? Go beg your daughter and see if Yinyin’s willing to give you her rations.”

Qin Yuli: “……”

That evening, Qin Yuli and his daughter each held a small bowl, with one big bowl set on the table. The two of them scooped spoonful after spoonful into their bowls.

Qin Yuli felt that not having his own meal wasn’t so bad—being treated by his kid was incredibly fulfilling!

As she ate, Yinyin lectured him, “Daddy, you’re already a mature daddy. You need to learn to eat by yourself. Don’t let Yinyin coax you.”

Qin Yuli silently closed the mouth he had opened, hoping to be fed.

The Old Qin family: “……”

After dinner, Yinyin took two test papers out of her little schoolbag—one for Chinese and one for math.

Both were covered in red check marks, with a huge red “100” written on them.

Her cheeks were flushed. Shy but unable to resist showing off, she held the papers up to her dad. Her eyes sparkled brightly, her face wearing the exact same smug expression as her father’s—no amount of shyness could hide it.

“Daddy, look.”

“The test was too easy. Yinyin didn’t even have to try.”

Qin Yuli curled his lips, about to say something, when the test papers—still warm in his hands—were snatched away by Chen Qiuhua. She couldn’t read most of the other characters, but she recognized that big red “100.” Beaming, she clapped her hands and said, “Our Yinyin really is amazing. When your dad was in school, he brought home duck eggs every single day.”

“Grandma, do teachers still give out duck eggs at school? Yinyin got full marks, but the teacher didn’t give her any duck eggs.”

Holding back her laughter, Chen Qiuhua glanced at her third son’s constipated-looking face and said, “Only people who do badly get duck eggs. People who do well don’t get that.”

Yinyin thought for a moment, then said through the pain, “Then… how about Yinyin scores a little worse next time? I can bring home a zero—duck eggs—for Grandpa and Grandma and Dad to eat.”

Qin Yuli: “……”

Your dad was just too smart—he couldn’t be bothered to do the questions!!!

Before the autumn harvest even arrived, Qin Yuli had already moved with his daughter and his parents.

Chen Qiuhua and Old Man Qin planned to go back to the village around harvest time to stay for a while and help with the rush to bring in the crops.

But that autumn, many of the rice grains that formed on the stalks were hollow!

No rice could be threshed out. You could grab a whole bundle of stalks and shake it—light as a feather, no sense of grain weight at all.

The whole village panicked. The commune members were so anxious they cried nonstop. Some of the elders even wondered whether, after the harvest, they should find a place to die—at least then they could leave some rations to the children at home and not become a burden.

An air of anxiety hung over every production team in the entire Lin County. The commune secretary was running around every day—attending meetings, discussing what to do.

This year’s grain—forget turning in public grain—even keeping enough to eat was impossible.

They thought this was already a dead end. Only in the following two years did the people experience a deeper despair.

Lin County’s secretary was a good leader. That year, he withstood the pressure from above and didn’t collect public grain, leaving all of it for the farmers to eat. Instantly, the pressure on the cities increased.

They scraped by that year half-starved, barely three-tenths full. The second year was when things truly became hell on earth. By then, many places across the country had been hit by drought—no rain from the sky, cracked earth below, crops utterly lost. Some places were so desperate they even ate the seed grain they had been saving as their lifeline.

Changshan Province was hit hard as well, one of the worst-affected regions. Elsewhere the drought only began that year, but Changshan had already shown signs two years earlier—each year worse than the last—until now, when it could no longer hold on.

The Dahuai Production Team struggled on. Team leader Qin Guoshu was run ragged, barely touching the ground with his feet. He lost a shocking amount of weight, running around every day trying to find solutions, tanned dark and gaunt, like a famine refugee.

By now, the countryside had begun eating grass roots and tree bark; some people, driven mad by hunger, even mixed Guanyin clay into water and drank it.

Dahuai Village hadn’t gone that far yet. Qin Guoshu wouldn’t allow it—he insisted everyone hold on a little longer.

Qin Yuli protected Yinyin very well and didn’t let her see these brutal scenes—until she noticed that Dad hardly ate anymore. Dad always said he’d already eaten outside. Uncle System said Dad was lying.

Only then did Yinyin realize that the world she saw was just a tiny part of the whole—like the frog at the bottom of the well her teacher talked about.

Her father’s job could no longer issue rationed grain. Each month he could only receive a little coarse grain. But Yinyin had rice every day, and could even eat egg whites and wheat flour dumplings.

Qin Yuli was prepared. He’d sensed something was off with the climate long ago. After moving to the city and no longer relying on farming, he always felt uneasy. Back then he had already started collecting grain bit by bit, slowly saving it, storing it in the big vats in the utility room—two huge vats filled to the brim.

Qin Yuli didn’t eat much because he couldn’t be sure when the famine would end. He was afraid that if he ate too much now, the grain wouldn’t last.

He had to support his parents and his little daughter.

One advantage of Qin Yuli’s job was that it made it easy to travel out of province. Some places weren’t affected by the disaster, so he could take goods and exchange them for grain. But that kind of thing—trading ten or twenty jin wasn’t a big deal. Trade too much, though, and carrying back that much grain every time made you a huge target—it would get you reported.

Qin Yuli didn’t do risky things. He pondered it for a long time, wrote a proposal, and went to squat outside the county committee courtyard waiting for Secretary Chen.

No one knew what they talked about, but soon the county approved Qin Yuli’s entry into a transport company, granting him special authority to pull people together and form a convoy.

Qin Yuli brought over all the old toughs who used to run with him, hired them as temporary workers, taught them how to drive, and called in a few trustworthy friends who were good drivers to jointly form the convoy.

At first, this convoy was called the Lin County Convoy. It later became the predecessor of the country’s first major automobile brand, and an internationally renowned brand—Tengfei.

The Lin County Convoy demonstrated extraordinary mobility in the county’s disaster relief.

They traveled all over the country, exchanging goods for grain with places unaffected by the disaster, often hauling back several truckloads at a time, giving Lin County a chance to catch its breath.

The Dahuai Production Team finally received grain from the county. They heard it was Old Qin’s third son who led the convoy to bring it back. The entire village was grateful to him. With red eyes, they carried home a small sack of grain—not much, but mixed with water, it could keep them going a little longer.

Qin Yuli was so busy he was dizzy. When he got home after midnight, Yinyin was asleep on a small chair in the living room. Hearing movement, she woke up.

That night, Qin Yuli felt something wasn’t quite right. He felt his way in the dark to the utility room and opened the rice vat—good heavens, the one that had been emptied some time ago was full again?

From that day on, the Old Qin family’s rice vat seemed to have gained a spirit. Eat a little, and it would replenish itself a little—no one knew where the grain came from.

Qin Yuli asked the kid. Yinyin blinked, looking innocent. “I—I just made a wish…”

“What did you wish for?”

“I hoped Daddy wouldn’t go hungry anymore—that Daddy could eat his fill.”

“……”

Later, one day, Lin County’s situation inexplicably improved. Qin Yuli remembered the day he took his daughter back to the village. The little girl, already five and a half, had red eyes, clutching her hands together and muttering,

“Let everyone eat their fill. Let everyone eat their fill.”

Qin Yuli: “……” Had his daughter become a spirit?

The System laughed so hard it rolled around in system space. This was the most clueless villain it had ever seen—and also the happiest.

Under the butterfly effect of the little cub, the male and female leads who were supposed to be enemies with him never crossed paths with the villain at all, just missing each other entirely.

In the original world, the female lead was a young girl from the city. During the famine years, she met Qin Yuli, who had been driven to desperation and had to carry goods around to resell.

At first, Qin Yuli only thought she was foolish, rich, and easy to scam. But after dealing with her for a while, he somehow got tricked by her repeatedly, and without knowing how, fell for her.

If the female lead had obediently married the villain, that would’ve been fine. The problem was, on one hand she shyly interacted with the villain and showed affection; on the other, she already had a respectable fiancé—a cadre working within the system.

Later, the fiancé discovered that his fiancée was always taking things out to trade. He followed her, saw the villain trading with her, saw her shy expression—and through his filters, the male lead firmly believed the villain had seduced her and was an immoral character.

The male and female leads then went through several rounds of abusive romance. The villain, meanwhile, had it rough—reported for speculation and profiteering, thrown into prison, and even “specially taken care of” by the male lead, serving an extra year. Life inside wasn’t easy; without his own ruthless grit, he probably wouldn’t have survived to get out.

When he finally got out, his parents had starved to death during those two years. Of the several children at home, only two were left. His eldest and second brothers were still alive, but from the looks of them, they wouldn’t last much longer either.

And the female lead? She was in the news—the youngest mayor’s wife!

Qin Yuli hardened his heart. After surviving that period and with life gradually improving, he began walking underground paths, moving through gray zones, with contacts on both sides of black and white. He became heartless, willing to do anything for money and power.

Later, he brought down the male lead’s family and sent the female lead along with them, single-handedly carving out a BE ending.

As for himself? Alone his entire life. He was listed by higher authorities as one of the most dangerous individuals. Spies came and went around him, monitoring him constantly. The authorities believed he had committed crimes—they just couldn’t find evidence. That surveillance lasted his whole life. Qin Yuli didn’t care; he lived like a lone, unbound man.

Later, seeing how happy the villain was, the System decided to give him a bit of “fun” and projected images of his past life into his dreams.

Qin Yuli watched it like a movie, seeing the life of a man who looked exactly like him from start to finish.

Then he snorted. “This narration is terrible. That wasn’t falling in love—she was just foolish and rich, an easy mark, a fat lamb waiting to be slaughtered! If you want to scam someone, don’t you have to be nicer about it?”

System · Narrator: “……”

Still, that footage gave Qin Yuli a lot of inspiration. He saw some developments from the future. Later, after the famine passed and his convoy gradually lost its purpose, Qin Yuli decisively began researching automobiles.

In the future, cars were so expensive—and all imported. Why couldn’t Qin Yuli make them too?

A casual prank by the System ended up accelerating the villain’s career development, turning him into the Father of Automobiles of that era in Huaguo.

Another weekend, Qin Yuli asked his assistant, “What time does Yinyin get out of school?”

The assistant replied, “Miss gets out at five. She’ll be home by five-thirty.”

Qin Yuli grabbed his coat and headed out, driving the new long sedan his company had developed that year.

Qin Yuli had never told anyone that ever since having that dream, he often wondered—could this also be a dream?

He was certain that both dreams, inside and out, were him. There was only one difference: one had a child; the other didn’t.

That autumn long ago, what his mother picked up wasn’t trouble—it was another kind of hope. It was salvation. It was the miracle of Lin County turning green overnight.