He Jiong hung up the phone.
Yun Mu could not help falling into deep thought.
Ever since he left his hometown, the property and everything back there had been transferred to the village head grandfather who had raised and cared for him since childhood.
However, he had been physically and mentally exhausted lately. Now that he thought about it, living back in his hometown actually sounded pretty nice.
His mortgage and car loan were like two massive mountains pressing heavily down upon him, making it hard to breathe.
He wondered what the point of living like this really was.
The money he worked himself to death to earn all ended up in the bank's hands.
After paying off the loans every month, he had only a little over 500 yuan left in his hands. Even with various side hustles, he was left with just over 2,000 yuan.
In a megalopolis like the Magic City, what could he possibly do? What was that even enough for?
To put it bluntly, if he actually got a girlfriend, his heart would flutter with anxiety just going out on a date.
In another world, he had toiled away as an ox and a horse until death.
Now that the heavens had given him a second chance at life, was he really going to repeat the ending of that other world?
Amidst his thoughts, his gaze fell upon the phone screen where the call had just ended.
His gaze gradually grew resolute: in this lifetime, he wanted to live for himself for once!
Thinking of this, he picked up his phone, found an unsaved phone number, and dialed it out.
"Hello, Baijia Real Estate."
"Hello, this is... You called me before asking if I wanted to sell my house."
The agent's voice on the other end of the line instantly grew much more enthusiastic.
"Ah, it's Mr. Yun! Do you want to sell your house now?"
"Yes, and I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. Just give me your highest offer directly. I'll only give you one chance to make an offer. If I'm satisfied, we'll make the deal; if not, forget it, and I won't have any further contact with you agency folks."
Hearing this, the other end of the line fell silent.
The faint sound of calculator buttons being pressed could be heard.
"Since you've put it that way, I'll be direct as well. If you can accept this price, we'll sign the contract; if you can't, then let's forget it."
In the end, the house was successfully sold. Because housing prices in the Magic City had still been rising over the past few years, after paying off the mortgage, he was left with 200,000 yuan.
Afterward, Yun Mu sold his car as well.
He had bought it used in the first place, so he didn't lose much money on it.
Once everything here was settled, Yun Mu decisively bought a ticket for the earliest train back to his hometown.
The moment he boarded the bullet train, Yun Mu felt entirely relaxed!
A sense of ease he had never felt before!
During this period, he had also tried to activate the so-called system, but he had tried every method he could possibly think of, yet it had not worked at all.
Gradually, he stopped dwelling on the system anyway. Since he was going back to his hometown to live a plain and simple life, having a system or not didn't really matter.
Hangzhou, Yuhang District, Jingshan Town.
This was Yun Mu's hometown.
And his home was located near Changle Forest Farm.
Because he had communicated with the village head in advance, when Yun Mu arrived, the village head was already waiting for him at the entrance of the village.
"Oh my, Xiaomu is back! Come, come, come, let's go up to Grandpa's place, I have something to tell you."
Yun Mu put down his suitcase and gave the village head an affectionate hug.
His parents had passed away in an accident when he was very young.
His family were not local residents, but outsiders with no relatives here.
It was the village head who had raised him, so he felt very close to the old man.
"Come, come, come, let's go home with Grandpa. Grandpa has something major to tell you."
Looking utterly bewildered, Yun Mu followed the village head to his house.
The village head took a document envelope out of the cabinet and carefully extracted the contents.
A document and a bank card.
"A while ago, a huge group of people came to our village. They said they were some kind of production crew for Back to Field, here to shoot some variety show."
"Aiyah, I don't understand what they were talking about."
"However, they took a fancy to your house."
"Grandpa doesn't live in that house anyway."
"I figured you were making a career for yourself in a metropolis like the Magic City and bought a place there."
"A place like the Magic City is worth every inch of land, so living there must be very tiring for you."
"So Grandpa just sold the house and gave the money from the sale to you, so it could make things a bit easier for you at least."
"Besides, our place is so remote that very few people come here to buy houses. Plus, the price they offered wasn't low, so I went ahead and sold your house. It sold for 350,000 yuan."
The village head pushed the contract and the bank card in front of Yun Mu.
"I had someone who understands these things look over the contract, there are no issues. The money is all in this bank card, you can check and see for yourself."
"I'm getting old, and I don't quite understand how transfers and all that work, so I called you back."
Hearing that the village head had sold his house, Yun Mu was instantly dumbfounded.
Even though he had already transferred the ownership of the house to the village head, the truth was that this time when he came back, he had planned to clean the place up and live in it!
"Grandpa, actually, this time when I came back, I wasn't planning on leaving anymore. I sold my house and car in the Magic City."
Hearing this, the village head was dumbfounded as well.
"Ah?!"
"What on earth should we do then? I'll go find them and see if we can call off the sale."
With that, ignoring Yun Mu's dissuasion, the little old man set off to find the production crew.
However, once the contract was signed, how could it possibly be rescinded?
Sure enough, not long after, the village head returned crestfallen.
"Xiaomu, this was Grandpa's failure to think things through. I didn't expect you would ever come back—young people nowadays all run off to the cities, I never figured anyone would come back! Why don't you just stay at Grandpa's place!"
Yun Mu furrowed his brow and thought for a moment.
"Grandpa, is there anyone else in our village selling their house?"
The village head frowned and pondered. Anyone who could leave the village had already moved away long ago; how could anyone still be selling a house?
However, a moment later, as if thinking of something, he hurriedly said to Yun Mu,
"I have a bamboo house in the woods that was built for patrol convenience back in the day. It's not far from your house."
At the village head's words, memories concerning this bamboo house instantly surfaced in Yun Mu's mind.
He certainly knew about this bamboo house; it was located just a bit further into the woods past his own home.
He had run over there to play countless times when he was a child.
Besides, that bamboo house wasn't much smaller than his own home.
"It's just that no one has lived there for a long time, so it needs to be fixed up again."
"Alright, let's go with that one. How much is it? I'll buy it."
Hearing Yun Mu say this, the village head's face instantly went cold.
"What money? It's just a dilapidated house where nobody lives. Left vacant, it would rot away in the mountains sooner or later anyway."
"It's yours, it's yours! I'm going to call people in the village right now to come help fix it up nicely for you—just in time to test whether those fellows' craftsmanship has gotten rusty or not."
"Only, you'll have to pay for the materials needed for the repairs out of your own pocket."
Yun Mu smiled slightly.
"Alright, then thank you, Grandpa."
With the village head calling out, the village quickly became bustling and lively.
Mushroom House.
He Jiong watched a large group of villagers heading into the mountains and asked curiously,
"Teacher Huang, look over there. Is there some kind of event going on? Why are so many people heading into the mountains?"
Hearing this, Huang Lei put down his teacup, walked over to the edge of the small courtyard, and curiously watched the crowd heading into the mountain.
"I have no idea. Judging by the tools they're carrying, it looks like they're going to repair a house."
"Around our area, aren't we the only Mushroom House?"
Hearing He Jiong's words, director Wang Zhengyu said from off-camera, "There is another bamboo house further up."
"We originally had our eyes on that bamboo house, but because it fell into disrepair, moving in would basically require a complete renovation."
"That's why we chose this place instead."
"Judging by their direction, they must be heading to repair that bamboo house."
Hearing this, He Jiong immediately wore a curious expression and said excitedly to Huang Lei, "Teacher Huang, once they finish fixing it up, shall we go pay a visit to our neighbors?"
Huang Lei smiled and nodded.
"Of course we can. Anyway, the two of us are just lonely old men, what can't we do?"