A young man from another world returned to his hometown.

Chapter 61 Passing on the Family Lineage and Glorifying Ancestors

Zhou Derong moved closer.

"The town is developing so well now, but they ignore us remote mountain villages and even a cripple like me. Since the legitimate path won't include us, we'll just do our own shady things!"

Uncle Liu's heart tightened.

"What kind of shady business?"

"Use old tires to extract oil."

Zhou Derong said mysteriously.

"They haul them from other places to the back of Niushi Ridge, cut them into firewood to fuel the furnace, and use the tires to refine oil. They extract the scrap steel wire, carbon black, and oil from them and sell it. The profit is huge!"

Uncle Liu's expression changed.

Burning tires to refine oil causes pollution that affects the surrounding land and water. Villagers will be poisoned by the water they drink and the vegetables they grow.

"This thing will make you infertile."

"Nonsense, our godforsaken place, Niushi Ridge, has long been extinct."

Zhou Derong shrugged his bad leg outwards, his voice tinged with indifference.

"I don't care if others eat cleanly or not, what matters is whether I'm full. Anyway, we're deep in the mountains, who can see us? Besides, if we don't make this money, others will."

Uncle Liu hesitated.

He knew this was wrong, but when he thought about his family's situation, the financial pressure of his two children starting school in the next few years, his son who played video games every day, and the huge financial hole that would eventually be incurred to carry on the family line and bring honor to the ancestors...

"Brother-in-law, about this..."

Uncle Liu even changed how he addressed him.

"Old Liu."

Zhou Derong patted him on the shoulder.

"Have you prepared the money for your son's future wedding?"

These words were like a thorn, piercing Uncle Liu's heart. He remained silent for a long, long time. Finally, he picked up his wine glass and drank it all in one gulp.

"Brother-in-law, when...when does this start?"

Zhou Derong grinned.

"Tomorrow, I'll take you to the back mountain to take a look. First, we'll find a good road for vehicles to transport the steel plates up there, and then we'll weld the boiler together."

……

At dawn, on Niushi Ridge, two old 125cc motorcycles bumped and crawled along the mountain road.

One vehicle had steel plates strapped to its back, while the other carried chainsaws and welding tools.

Uncle Liu frowned.

"Old Zhou, this place of yours... is really good?"

All around were desolate mountains and wilderness; the only sounds were birdsong and the babbling of streams.

Zhou Derong grinned.

"Don't worry, Lao Liu."

He limped off the motorcycle and patted it.

"It's a godforsaken place up there, who would have found it? This is it."

Zhou Derong pointed to a patch of woodland that had long been cleared, indicating that he had been planning this for a long time.

The area next to it was piled high with used tires transported from other places, a huge, dark mass.

"This...so many?"

Uncle Liu swallowed.

"More what? The more the better, let's get started."

Zhou Derong sneered, his eyes flashing with an almost insane stubbornness.

The two rolled up their sleeves and began cutting down trees, partly to expand the open space and partly to prepare firewood. The roar of the chainsaws echoed through the silent forest, and one large tree after another fell to the ground with a thud.

The once lush and verdant mountain valley soon became increasingly grotesque.

Zhou Derong's supplier also drove over, wearing masks and bringing more materials. One of them was in charge of welding.

The next day, the furnace was welded and stood two meters tall. Several winding condenser pipes were attached to the side, along with a condensation pool made from discarded oil drums. The other end of the pipes was connected to several oil drums.

The equipment was extremely basic, but it was sufficient.

They began moving the mountain of discarded tires, and the pungent smell of burnt rubber made Uncle Liu feel nauseous.

"Cough... Old Zhou, this smell..."

"When it catches fire, it'll be even more intense than this."

Zhou Derong grinned.

"Just bear with it, all you'll smell is money."

"ignition!"

Zhou Derong shouted, and Uncle Liu, his hand trembling, struck a match and threw it into the pile of wood that had been doused with gasoline.

The discarded tires melted under high temperatures, emitting a pungent stench.

Uncle Liu was so choked by the fumes that he couldn't open his eyes and coughed violently.

"Cough cough cough! Cough cough! This...this thing..."

Zhou Derong was in no better shape; he held a wet towel over his mouth and nose and limped back and forth.

"Just stand a little further away!"

A few hours later.

The condenser coil has started dripping a dark liquid.

Finally, the dark, substandard fuel began to flow into the oil drum.

"It's getting oily! Old Liu! It's getting oily!"

Zhou Derong was so excited that he forgot to cough. He threw away the wet towel, leaned close to the oil drum, and his hands trembled.

Uncle Liu also came over, watching the dark, oily liquid flowing out continuously.

Every penny he earned in his life was earned from the soil and from his sweat.

But this thing... just burns it and money comes out?

He stretched out his hand blankly, and it got a little oil on it—black and sticky.

"Old Zhou..."

Uncle Liu's throat was a little dry.

"How much can I sell a whole barrel of firewood for?"

"A bucket costs several hundred yuan, and conservatively speaking, we can produce more than a dozen buckets a day."

Uncle Liu gasped. "He can make about 10,000 yuan a day?"

He couldn't save that much even if he toiled in the fields for a year!

They continued working until all the oil drums were full.

One late night, on the mountain road of Niushi Ridge, car lights came on, and a small truck without license plates quietly drove in under the cover of darkness.

Zhou Derong's supplier was carrying a leather bag.

"Old Zhou."

He greeted Zhou Derong, his gaze sweeping over the rows of oil drums.

"How's the goods?"

"Same as always, you can check first."

The oil dealer took a thin metal rod out of his pocket, dipped it into the oil drum, scooped up a little oil, lit it with a lighter, looked at the color of the burning oil, and then smelled it.

"OK."

He nodded and opened his purse.

I pulled out a hundred-yuan bill; under the moonlight, the ink gleamed with a mesmerizing sheen.

Uncle Liu's breathing quickened; he had lived most of his life and had never seen so much cash at once.

He even felt that the smell of burning chemicals here had turned into the unique aroma of banknotes, a mixture of ink and paper.

"Old Liu, what are you standing there for? Count the money."

Zhou Derong chuckled strangely in his ear, and Uncle Liu's hand trembled as he reached out.

He clumsily picked up a stack of banknotes, his hands trembling more and more as he counted them.

The anger that had been building up because his daughter had run away from home, the lingering fear because of the environmental damage, and the last trace of guilt he felt were all flattened by the thick wad of banknotes.

His eyes reddened. If he worked for just a few months, he could buy a house in the county town! A mere dowry of a few hundred thousand?

"Bullshit! I'll just buy a house and a car!"

The ancestral graves of the Liu family are about to emit auspicious smoke!

"Ha...haha...hahahaha!"

The oil shop owner closed his briefcase and put on his baseball cap.

"Old Zhou, when will you have more stock next?"

"In a few days! I'll contact you in advance."