Chapter 11: Daddy, I Was Wrong, Daddy
System: Hahahaha! Host, I think this gacha pool used to be a wet market.
Facing this mockery, Rong Ziyin—the Battle-Unlucky One—remained utterly calm, his inner sea completely still.
He carefully reread the description of the frozen hairtail. He grasped the gist—it seemed to be a weapon—though its actual effects remained unknown.
Taking advantage of the empty surroundings, Rong Ziyin retrieved the frozen mackerel from the system’s storage slot.
Instantly, a faint fishy odor permeated the air. The palm gripping the frozen mackerel instantly felt a bone-chilling cold, as if his entire arm would freeze solid any moment—perfectly matching the item description.
Alright, time to test its actual effect. Overcoming the relentless chill radiating from his palm, Rong Ziyin raised the frozen fish and made a sweeping motion toward the duck. The once-arrogant bird instantly shut its beak and fell silent.
Duck: Daddy, I’m sorry.
Instant results? Pretty impressive. Too bad it’s a case of killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own. Now, our little Rong Daddy—no, Doctor Rong—had his left hand frozen bright red.
Rong Ziyin: Looks like it’s best to keep this secret weapon tucked away for now.
System: …Hmm. I can confirm once more that the Heavenly Way must have been on some fake medicine.
Regardless, the latter half of the journey finally settled into quiet. At least that was one silver lining.
But back in the county seat, chaos had erupted.
The village chief had forced people to the Women’s Federation not for another interrogation, but to seek help!
Don’t be fooled by his simple, seasoned veteran demeanor. He commanded the village’s respect for years—a man with real skill.
The moment that good-for-nothing Li Tiezhu claimed the ducks came from a neighboring village, the village chief’s mind began to race. He reasoned that on the surface, this was a petty dispute between two veterinarians, but in reality, he knew exactly where Rong Ziyin came from.
Where did such windfalls come from? Why would a high-achiever like Rong Ziyin settle for a small village? Though the village chief wasn’t part of the veterinary system, he could roughly guess that Rong Ziyin had likely been pushed out by others.
Yet after observing him for so long, Rong Ziyin truly was exceptional. Skilled in medicine, upright in character, and genuinely devoted to the villagers—he had begun to feel a desire to protect him.
It wasn’t that he was opportunistic, valuing Rong Ziyin’s knowledge above all else. Rather, it stemmed purely from concern for the entire village.
After all, any replacement veterinarian might not possess Rong Ziyin’s expertise, nor his steadfast dedication. For these two reasons alone, the village chief was determined to lend Rong Ziyin a hand.
And this latest incident, where Li Tiezhu had framed him, struck at the very core of the village chief’s patience.
The villagers scraped by on the land. Year-round, they depended on crops from their fields and livestock in their yards for survival. That’s why he couldn’t care less about the power struggles above—no one could touch the things vital to the villagers’ lives.
Cross that line, and you’d get beaten! No outsider could overpower the local powerhouse.
This time, the village chief was determined to help Rong Ziyin establish his authority throughout the surrounding villages. He needed to make it clear to everyone: as long as Rong Ziyin remained at the village livestock station, no one would dare harbor ill intentions toward the village.
So, after leaving the livestock station, the village chief immediately called on the Women’s Federation to go to the county seat and make a scene.
Logically, he should have handled this himself, but when it came to playing the victim, no matter how pitifully a grown man cried, the effect would be limited. Better to bring along the women from the Women’s Federation.
After all, the ladies were quite skilled at making heartfelt pleas.
Now the county secretary’s office was packed with villagers seeking redress.
Two women from the Women’s Federation, both with reddened eyes, looked at the young county secretary with hurt expressions.
Though their tears were pitiful, their tongues were sharp indeed. In a few words, they laid out the whole affair.
“Comrade Leader, our Doctor Xiao Rong is young and innocent, devoted solely to research. He knows nothing of these devious schemes. Even after being bullied like this, he still wanted to treat that duck to prevent it from harming the village!”
“That’s right! For the villagers, Doctor Xiao Rong would go out in the middle of the night at three or four a.m. to treat sows in labor when called upon.”
“Ah, it’s our own fault for being too honest and simple. When trouble comes, we don’t dare handle it ourselves. Now we’ve brought him here, waiting for the state and the organization to stand up for us!”
One after another, they piled on the praise, and before the county magistrate’s secretary could even question the accused Li Tiezhu and Wang Dazhuang, his sympathies had already swung toward Rong Ziyin and his group.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that it was Wang Dazhuang from Xiaowang Village—stupid and wicked—who had framed Rong Ziyin and even tried to poison the village’s chickens, ducks, and geese.
“No, no, that’s not it!” Li Tiezhu and Wang Dazhu desperately tried to explain.
“Even if it was duck plague, there should be evidence! At the very least, test results! You can’t convict someone based on a single phone call!”
“What? You still deny it? Our Little Doctor Rong is a top scholar! He was the top scorer in the college entrance exam—how could he possibly make things up!?” The two aunts unleashed their full fighting power, not giving them a chance to speak.
The county magistrate’s secretary grew curious too. “Top scorer?”
“Ah! Little Doctor Rong was the top scorer in the Yanjing City college entrance exam that year.”
“Impressive!” The county chief’s secretary nodded, his regard for Rong Ziyin rising another notch.
But what was going on here? Did being a top student grant someone free rein? Wang Dazhuang felt like crying. He and Li Tiezhu could only dig in their heels, refusing to admit anything.
This only made the situation worse.
Just as the county magistrate’s secretary was at his wits’ end, the office door burst open. A young man stepped inside.
He was undeniably handsome, striking at first glance. His attire, however, was… well, it was hard to describe. In his left hand, he carried a half-dead duck. In his right? It looked like a long, gleaming silver whip?
The village chief’s heart leapt with joy. “Doctor Rong, you’re here! We were just talking about you!”
Rong Ziyin smiled, but before he could speak, the frozen hairtail in his right hand subtly revealed a small, gleaming tail fin toward Wang Dazhuang and the others.
【Frozen Mackerel Love Education Activated】 The system emitted an embarrassingly cheesy notification sound. Simultaneously, Wang Dazhuang and the ne’er-do-well both fell to their knees with a thud, kowtowing to Rong Ziyin.
Ne’er-do-well & Wang Dazhuang: Father! Father, I was wrong, Father!
The village chief, standing right beside them, jumped in surprise. What the hell is wrong with these two? He hadn’t even tortured them.
Then he glanced at the duck in Rong Ziyin’s hands and understood. These two wouldn’t see the light until they hit rock bottom. Faced with the evidence, this was the only way.
Fortunately, the others shared the village chief’s view and didn’t press the matter further. Rong Ziyin breathed a sigh of relief.
This scene reaffirmed the frozen pike’s effectiveness. Truly, it lived up to its R-rated status. Though its appearance was comical, its results were undeniably miraculous. It would be useful going forward.
The matter of that rich kid framing Rong Ziyin hadn’t been exposed yet. If no other breakthrough could be found, perhaps this frozen belt fish could be used to test the waters.
As Rong Ziyin pondered this, he discreetly stowed the frozen belt fish away. Simultaneously, he set the duck down and handed the report to the county magistrate’s secretary.
—————
Heavenly Path items never exaggerate or deceive. Li Tiezhu and Wang Dazhuang ultimately confessed without reservation.
They also revealed a minor detail: Wang Dazhuang had been incited at a drinking table to target Rong Ziyin.
“What do you mean?” The village chief’s eyes lit up at this. He had suspected something was amiss all along, and now it was confirmed. Only, it differed slightly from his earlier guesses. It wasn’t one of Rong Ziyin’s enemies, but rather his own relative.
“Ah!” Wang Dazhuang regretted it so much!
“It was that duck tuberculosis incident last time. I got chewed out by our village chief and had to work overtime for days. Later, when I accompanied my wife back to her parents’ place, at the banquet table, my brother-in-law and the others stirred things up. I got hotheaded and… took action.”
With things having come to this, he had nothing left to hide and decided to spill everything.
The village chief was confused. “Why did your brother-in-law provoke you?”
Wang Dazhuang glanced at Rong Ziyin. “My brother-in-law is his cousin.”
“I see.” Hearing the word “cousin,” Rong Ziyin understood everything. He proactively explained to the village chief, “My apologies. This is purely a personal grudge. I’ve caused trouble for the villagers.”
The brother-in-law Wang Dazhuang referred to—Rong Ziyin’s cousin—was the one who’d seized the house when Rong Ziyin was young and his parents had passed away early. He’d kicked him out on New Year’s Eve.
Rong Ziyin’s parents had died young, and at the time, the Rong family hadn’t yet divided their property. His grandparents were senile and utterly neglectful of their grandson, leaving his two uncles and their wives free to scheme.
Rong Ziyin wasn’t one to back down, and the situation escalated into a major scandal. It culminated on New Year’s Eve at the village committee, where the family was forcibly divided. Though they claimed he took his share of the estate, it amounted to nothing more than being driven out with nothing.
Rong Ziyin wasn’t one to back down either, and the situation escalated badly. By New Year’s Eve, it had reached the village committee, leading to an immediate family split. Though they said he took his share of the family assets, it was practically the same as being sent away with nothing.
Rong Ziyin was only twelve at the time. The first couple of years were incredibly tough, but things improved somewhat after he passed the entrance exam for the county middle school.
“My two uncles called me stupid, saying my education left me stuck between a rock and a hard place. They wanted me to drop out and help farm. They claimed my two cousins were the promising ones. I refused, insisting on continuing my studies. The family said they couldn’t afford to support three children pursuing education, so in the end, I split off on my own.”
“But then I got into university, while my cousins didn’t even make it through high school. The villagers started comparing us. My uncles lost face, and those cousins probably resented me. Not surprising.”
All that fuss, and it turned out to be just a family matter. The village chief sighed in relief while feeling deeply sympathetic toward Rong Ziyin. As for the women from the Women’s Federation who had come along, they practically wanted to give him a hug.
Little Doctor Rong from their village’s animal husbandry station was such a fine young man—handsome, polite, and a top student. Just the other day, he’d saved the entire village’s ducks.
What a blind family the Rong clan must be to bully him so relentlessly.
Poor thing. Orphaned at twelve, he had to work odd jobs to pay for school while supporting himself. Who knows how much hardship he endured along the way.
After listening to Rong Ziyin’s story, the System felt genuinely upset: “Host, if you’re feeling down, just tell me. My strong arms are here for you to lean on!”
Rong Ziyin fell silent for a long moment: “So… Do system like you actually have physical forms?”
System: “No. Shut up. Rong Ziyin, you clueless straight guy. I’m cutting you off for five minutes.”
Rong Ziyin chuckled, making no attempt to placate it. Unlike most, he genuinely didn’t perceive his own hardships as particularly bitter.
True, his parents had passed away early, leaving no inheritance or pension. But at least they hadn’t left debts behind. His relatives were a bunch of jerks, yet Rong Ziyin had left home early and avoided much of their torment. As for the hardship of growing up alone and supporting himself, Rong Ziyin saw it differently. To him, having the chance to struggle was itself a form of luck. After all, how many people couldn’t even survive long enough to earn that chance?
And even if we take a step back, over these past twenty years, Rong Ziyin had experienced family harmony and loving parents when he had a home. When he didn’t have a home, he hadn’t ended up on the streets, starving and ragged.
Though he faced misfortune, he remained physically sound, free from major illness or pain, and grew up well. Now he even possessed the System. While he couldn’t compare to those born with silver spoons, compared to the vast majority of people, Rong Ziyin was fortunate.
He never viewed hardship as something worthy of pity. In his eyes, only the inability to live properly was truly pitiable.
This was the lesson instilled in him from childhood by his parents, who had passed away early. A principle he had upheld ever since.
Even so, Rong Ziyin had no intention of letting those troublemakers off the hook. He believed in the code: If they don’t provoke me, I won’t provoke them. But if they came looking for trouble, there was no need to spare their pride. However, matters had their priorities. Compared to this, Rong Ziyin had more pressing matters to attend to first.
Rong Ziyin’s tests confirmed that the duck had avian influenza.
Avian influenza spreads rapidly and is highly contagious, making it one of the most serious diseases currently threatening the waterfowl farming industry.
Crucially, this infectious disease affects ducks of all breeds and ages—especially hybrid breeds.
Wang Dazhuang didn’t raise poultry himself. He’d borrowed the duck from Rong Ziyin’s cousin’s farm, where it had been confined with sick birds for days before contracting duck tuberculosis.
With a 3-5 day incubation period, the source of the outbreak must lie in Rong Ziyin’s original village.
Thus, upon returning to his village, Rong Ziyin’s first action was contacting Xiaowang Village’s chief to report the duck plague. He simultaneously called the local animal husbandry station to notify them of the outbreak.
Thank you, thank you! The veteran veterinarian at the animal husbandry station, who himself came from a farming background, understood exactly what this infectious disease entailed.
Though Rong Ziyin had merely offered a routine reminder, the veterinarian was deeply grateful and immediately gathered the villagers to address the situation.
The villagers of Lu Village didn’t understand why at first, assuming it was just some new epidemic prevention directive from above, so they cooperated readily. But upon investigation, it turned out that more than half the ducks in the entire village were infected.
Duck plague—this could be deadly! Fortunately, it was caught early. If it had spread throughout the entire flock… the consequences would have been unimaginable.
Wiping sweat from his brow, the old vet immediately granted Rong Ziyin 3,000 gratitude points.
And it wasn’t just the old vet who contributed gratitude points to Rong Ziyin—the major duck farmers of Lujia Village did too.
Rong Ziyin’s early warning prevented massive subsequent losses. To put it bluntly, if the disease had fully broken out, it would have wiped out their entire fortunes—they’d have been desperate enough to make the whole family drink pesticide.
After hearing it was Rong Ziyin who discovered it, many in Lujia Village found the name familiar. Especially those who’d played with Rong Ziyin as kids—once they recalled, they suddenly realized, Holy crap! “Isn’t that the village’s top student back in the day? The one who got into the county high school with the highest score?”
“He’s one of us through and through!”
Over at Rong Ziyin’s livestock station, the system was completely baffled. Rong Ziyin had simply made a phone call to Lujia Village’s livestock station, and before long, it had actually started collecting gold coins?! In just half a day, it had already collected over thirty thousand gold coins.
The kicker? A significant portion came from [Affection Points]. Once Affection Points reached a certain level, they’d transform into Admiration Points, then into Love Points. Typically, this was all about developing relationships with girls to build a harem. But in Rong Ziyin’s case, it included [Grandpa Wang of Lujia Village], [Aunt Li of Lujia Village], [Village Heartthrob Mu Tiezhu], and even [Sick Duck of Lujia Village]—cross-species content.
So where did all this come from?! The system was utterly overwhelmed, feeling completely beyond its comprehension.
Yet Rong Ziyin understood perfectly. He was originally from Lu Village himself. Though he’d left for the county town at a young age, he’d still been raised under the watchful eyes of the villagers. For any ordinary veterinarian, this would indeed be a source of gratitude alone. But for him, it added an extra layer of intimacy.
Villages are places where connections easily form. They were treating him as one of their own!
Just then, two unusual system notifications caught Rong Ziyin’s attention.
[Rong Cun’s Frustration Level +1000], [Rong Cun’s Anxiety Level +1000]
The names felt all too familiar.
System: !!! Host, isn’t that the bastard cousin who tried to screw you over?
Rong Ziyin: Yep! So what do you say—should I go comfort him now that he’s scared out of his wits?