Returning to the mountain village, starting with mushroom picking to get rich

"Big Four Happiness and Thirteen Orphans, I've won!"

"Damn it, we lost again."

In a remote corner of Hongyan Town, through a narrow alley next to a barbecue stall, in a seemingly inconspicuous house, Liu Budu, who was losing money again and again, habitually slapped the mahjong table and complained.

Just as some industries will never disappear, the unhealthy trend of gambling is equally difficult to eradicate.

Especially in many mountainous and rural areas, the gambling trend is even more difficult to curb.

This seemingly ordinary house is one of several underground gambling dens in Hongyan Town.

There are many similar dens, and they are all very well hidden.

The barbecue stall at the entrance of the alley was one of the informants for the gambling den.

In addition to their regular daily operations, they would also stand guard on the main road outside the gambling den whenever it opened, acting as lookouts.

If anything seems amiss, the people at the barbecue stand will immediately notify the gambling den.

This allows the gambling den to prepare in advance and withdraw the gambling funds.

They transformed their gambling into casual games like mahjong or gatherings with friends.

Liu Budu was a regular at this gambling den.

The people inside, who were lending money and managing the premises, were all his acquaintances.

Whether it's mahjong, poker, or dominoes and dice, he can play a few games.

My favorite activity is playing mahjong.

He never expected his luck to be so bad today. After only four rounds, he lost all the money he had managed to win back in the past few days.

"I'm not playing anymore!"

In a fit of anger, Liu Budu pushed all the mahjong tiles in front of him over, got up, walked to the window, and lit a cigarette.

"Brother Liu, come over here and play Texas Hold'em to change your luck."

Acquaintances at the casino kept urging Liu not to gamble, enticing him to join the gambling games.

After holding his breath and smoking half a cigarette, Liu finally couldn't resist the temptation and went to the table next door where they were playing dice, still smoking.

The game of dice is relatively simple. The dealer throws the dice and covers them with a bowl.

Gamblers can guess whether it's big or small, or the number of points; if they guess correctly, they win.

Liu gambled repeatedly, placing bets on the same items multiple times.

When you gamble, the outcome is naturally a mix of wins and losses, a constant cycle of wins and losses...

As he kept losing, Liu gambled away all the money he had.

When he tried to place another bet, he discovered he was penniless, without even five cents to try and win back his losses.

"Place your bet now, place your bet now..."

"Old Liu, are you still going to play or not? If you are, place your bet. If not, move aside. Stop dawdling and blocking other people's way."

"Alpaca!"

"I'm not playing anymore!"

Liu Budu touched his empty purse, let out a frustrated roar, slammed his palms heavily on the gambling table, went back to the window, and picked up a cigarette butt from the ground.

"Oh my, when did my brother Liu fall so low that he's started picking up cigarette butts?"

"Ha ha ha ha……"

The gamblers in the room quickly started making a ruckus, each laughing and joking amongst themselves.

"Brother Liu, keep going! Fortune changes, maybe you'll break even next time," one gambler tempted.

"I'm broke, don't bother me," Liu Budu said impatiently.

"No way, no way, my brother Liu comes from Qingshan Village, how could he be broke?" The gamblers, never ones to miss out on a good show, chimed in.

"Everyone knows that Qingshan Village sells hundreds of thousands of mushrooms a day. My brother Liu comes from Qingshan Village, how could he not have money?"

"Get lost, stop spouting nonsense and talking to me like that. It's not like it's my mushroom."

"These aren't your mushrooms. I saw you selling mushrooms last week."

"What's it to you where I got my mushrooms? You got an itch for a beating, didn't you?"

Liu Budu suddenly became angry, quickly left the house, and came to the entrance of the gambling den in the middle of the alley.

Before long, several gamblers who were on good terms with Liu Budu also came out of the gambling den and met Liu Budu at the corner of the alley.

Do you have a cigarette? Give me one.

"No, they're all gone."

"Who has the money to buy a pack?"

"I have two dollars left, I have three dollars left... I have five dollars on my phone."

The group took out their wallets and phones, pooled their money, and finally managed to scrape together enough for a pack of cigarettes.

After buying a pack of cigarettes from a convenience store, the group arrived at the barbecue stall, and their mouths started watering uncontrollably again.

"Brother Liu, we brothers have lost terribly today, we have no money left to gamble."

"How about we go to the forest farm again tonight and pick some mushrooms to sell?" After blaming each other for the gambling den, the group looked at each other and couldn't help but say.

It turns out that they were in cahoots with Liu Budu.

Although Yanglin's 800-mile forest farm is only connected by a road at the entrance, it is easy to enter the forest farm from other parts of the mountains and forests.

Liu Budu relied on his familiarity with the terrain of Qingshan Village to lead a group of people to sneak into the forest every now and then.

Then he would sell the stolen mushrooms to others at a low price, using the proceeds to continue his carefree life.

"I'm afraid it won't be easy," Liu Budu said, lighting a cigarette and frowning.

"That bastard Yang Lin raised a bunch of mad dogs in the forest farm. Those dogs are like his mother has become a spirit. They chase after you as soon as you get close to the forest farm."

His home is in Qingshan Village, which is very close to Yang Lin's forest farm.

So whenever he was short of money, he would sneak into the forest at night when no one could see and get some mushrooms to sell.

But in the last few days, the forest farm has started keeping dogs.

He didn't pay much attention at first, thinking that the forest farm was so big, he could just choose a place far away from the doghouse and sneak in quietly.

However, I don't know what happened.

No matter which route he took or which direction he approached the forest farm,

The pack of mad dogs in the forest farm always spotted him immediately and barked at him incessantly.

Upon hearing this, the group scoffed, "They're just a few dogs. Do you think Brother Liu is afraid of dogs?"

"No, you don't know, those dogs are really weird."

"What's there to be afraid of!" someone suddenly said. "Tonight, a few of us brothers will go together. Are we afraid we won't be able to scare away a few dogs?"

Liu remained silent.

Thinking about the gamblers' mockery of him, and how Yang Lin made a fortune every day from the village's forest farm while he himself was chased by dogs when he went to the forest farm, he became angrier and angrier.

He was unconvinced.

Why is it that everyone is from the same village, yet only Yang Lin can make big money?

It's one thing for Yang Lin to make money, but he just has to go and make things difficult for him, deliberately trying to cut off his source of income.

He kindly offered to work at the forest farm, but they were ungrateful and refused to hire him.

If you pick a few mushrooms from him, you'll get bitten by dogs.

There are so many shiitake mushrooms grown in the forest farm, what's wrong with him picking a little bit?

They had to go to such extremes.

Now he has no money to buy cigarettes, no money to eat barbecue, and no money to even make a comeback.

This is simply outrageous!

"Damn it! Let's do it!"

"Brothers, let's go to the forest farm and pull off a heist tonight."

Liu Budu and the others walked back to the corner of the alley. Suddenly, his eyes hardened, and he clenched his fists tightly.

"Don't worry, Brother Liu, tonight the brothers will catch at least a thousand or two thousand catties of mushrooms," several men said, rubbing their hands together in anticipation.

"Look at you, so pathetic! Stealing mushrooms is only worth a few coins."

Liu Budu's disdainful gaze slowly swept over the people around him.

"If we're going to do it, let's do something big!"