He had been busy since Huang Zili left that afternoon, and it wasn't until 9:30 PM that Wu Jun finally closed up shop, ending the day's business.
He took stock of his income: a total of 31,000 in revenue for the day, with 2,000 in expenses.
Thanks to the popular rice, sales of other goods in the supermarket were more than three times higher than usual.
Many items were already sold out, leaving the shelves looking sparse and empty.
Although selling rice was his main source of income now, he couldn't neglect the other goods.
If the supermarket was missing this and that, it would inevitably affect customer traffic.
'I should contact my suppliers about restocking tomorrow.' After his shower, Wu Jun walked out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel in one hand as he pushed open the door to his bedroom.
He picked up the phone he'd left on his bedside table and checked the time. It was just a little past ten; still early.
Wu Jun put his phone down, walked over to his desk, and turned on his computer.
The recently released Chinese animated film, Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child, had been met with rave reviews.
Even though Wu Jun was such a homebody that he didn't even know where the nearest movie theater was, let alone which way its doors faced, it didn't stop him from hearing about the film.
He had seen plenty of news notifications about the movie on his phone.
He opened the Penguin Video app on his computer.
He saw the movie had been added to the Penguin Video library. Conveniently, Wu Jun already had a membership.
He got up, left his room to go into the small supermarket, and grabbed a bag of sunflower seeds from a shelf.
With that, Wu Jun sat back down in his computer chair, clicked the mouse, and started the movie.
CRASH!
Suddenly, a loud bang came from the outer door.
Wu Jun didn't even have time to hit pause. He shot up from his chair and bolted out of the bedroom!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The door was being smashed repeatedly.
"Wu! I'm gonna fucking kill you tonight!"
"Brother-in-law, get out of the way! Let me do it!"
CRASH! Another deafening smash!
Hearing the exchange outside, Wu Jun instantly recognized the voice as Wang Hongliang's.
'So he's gotten desperate and brought guys here for revenge?'
He'd considered this possibility, which was why he'd had Huang Zili install the cameras so discreetly. And now, it was about to pay off.
'If the cameras were obvious, wouldn't Wang Hongliang have been scared off?'
'Trying to outnumber me? Wang, you're still just an amateur.' Wu Jun's lips twitched into a smirk as he turned back into his bedroom.
He brought his computer chair out from the bedroom and placed it in the aisle between the shelves, directly facing the front door. He sat down and crossed his legs.
In his hand, he was already using the phone linked to the [Resource Tycoon] app.
[Summon Farmer!]
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Four columns of green light flashed in succession, and four tall, burly Farmers from the game materialized inside the supermarket.
"City Lord, what are your orders?" one of the four asked as they all bowed deeply to Wu Jun.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The sound of the door being battered rang out again. Without any command from Wu Jun, the four Farmers' gazes snapped to the door, their expressions wary.
Wu Jun said, "Spread out and hide on both sides of the shelves. Protect me."
"Yes, sir!" The four Farmers were completely loyal to Wu Jun. Upon hearing his command, they moved to conceal themselves among the shelves in front of him.
The men were all over two meters tall, while the shelves were only two meters high. Their concealment was mediocre, but one wouldn't notice anything amiss without looking closely.
With four Farmers backing him up, Wu Jun wasn't the least bit intimidated, even if Wang Hongliang had brought eight or ten men.
BOOM! Another massive bang.
The door was kicked open.
"Wu, your time is up!" With a furious snort, three men stormed in from outside.
The first one through the door was none other than Wu Jun's old acquaintance, Wang Hongliang.
The two young men flanking Wang Hongliang were dressed identically and looked as if they'd been cast from the same mold. They were twins.
All three of them were carrying weapons: baseball bats as thick as a child's arm.
"Well, well! Surnamed Wu, you didn't run? Waiting for your Grandpa Wang, were you?" Wang Hongliang sneered, a cigarette dangling from his lips as he tapped his baseball bat against his palm.
"You little shit, how dare you hit my brother-in-law! You're asking to die!"
"Some mutt from Pingshan dares to act so brazen in Shimen? Guess there's no room for you in Shimen's territory, huh!"
The twin brothers beside Wang Hongliang pointed at Wu Jun, cursing loudly.
"You two don't look that old. I'm not going to stoop to a child's level. If you leave now, I'll pretend you were never here," Wu Jun said calmly, not even bothering to stand up.
"Who do you think you're fooling? You're a dead man walking!"
"You're the fucking kid! Your whole family are kids!"
The twins were unmoved by Wu Jun's warning and just shot back with more trash talk.
"Hiss—" Wang Hongliang tried to let out a sneer, but the movement tugged at the injuries on his face. He failed to laugh, but he almost made Wu Jun laugh instead.
Wang Hongliang rubbed his face and grunted angrily, "Surnamed Wu, it's time we settled our score. Get on your knees right now, kowtow a few times, and call me 'Grandpa.' Then, sign your supermarket over to me, no fuss. If you do that, I can be the bigger man and let you go like a fart in the wind. Otherwise, some of your parts are getting decommissioned today!"
Wu Jun smiled. "Sign the supermarket over to you? Are you sleepwalking? Keep dreaming."
"You bastard Wu! You're really asking for it! Still putting on an act when death is at your door! Today, I'm going to teach you that men from Shimen are not to be trifled with!" Wang Hongliang snarled, turning to one of the young men. "Xiao Qiang, lock the door from the inside. Time to beat the dog!"
"You got it, brother-in-law!" The boy called Xiao Qiang bolted the door from the inside with a CLICK.
Wu Jun remained seated in his computer chair, watching them quietly. He didn't move a muscle, and his face showed no sign of panic, which left Wang Hongliang feeling puzzled.
'This Wu guy is pretty tough. It's come to this, and he's not even a little bit scared?'
'Who does he think he's fooling with this empty fort bluff?'
'Is he scared stiff? Yeah, that must be it.'
"Get him!" Wang Hongliang steeled his resolve and waved his hand.
The twins lifted their baseball bats off the floor and strode purposefully toward Wu Jun.
They didn't look old, but their young faces were twisted with vicious expressions.
"I'll teach you to put on an act!" The boy Wang Hongliang had called Hu Qiang stopped just over a meter from Wu Jun and swung the baseball bat right at him!
WHAP!
Suddenly, a massive hand, as large as a palm-leaf fan, shot out from the shelves beside Wu Jun and clamped down hard on the incoming baseball bat!
Wu Jun appeared outwardly calm, but he'd trembled on the inside. The bat had come less than twenty centimeters from hitting him. 'Saying I wasn't scared would be a lie.'
The twins were too stunned by this sudden development to react, freezing on the spot.
Wang Hongliang's eyes went wide. He was terrified!
'A giant hand just shot out of the shelves without any warning! That was fucking terrifying!'
SWOOSH!
The four Farmers burst out from between the shelves. In a flurry of motion, they subdued Wang Hongliang and his two cronies in an instant!
Against the four impossibly tall and strong Farmers, Wang Hongliang and his men had no chance to resist, even with weapons in hand!
"Holy shit! Brother-in-law, it's an ambush! We walked right into an ambush!" Hu Qiang screamed at Wang Hongliang, his face a mask of terror as he was pinned to the floor.
A Farmer escorted Wang Hongliang forward like a prisoner, forcing him to his knees before Wu Jun.
The tables had turned so fast that Wang Hongliang was completely dumbfounded.
The sheer size of the Farmers was a visual shock!
In a small place like Shimen City, it was rare enough to see one giant over two meters tall, let alone four of them appearing at once!
They were outnumbered, and one of the giants hadn't even had to lift a finger.
Wang Hongliang and his crew were stunned by the lineup Wu Jun had just revealed.
Seeing that the situation was decided, Wu Jun got up from his chair. He found a pack of electrical zip ties on a shelf and, with the Farmers' help, proceeded to elaborately truss up the three intruders.
Their hands and feet were bound so tightly they couldn't move an inch.
Looking at his handiwork, Wu Jun was rather satisfied with his artistry in bondage.
"Brother Wu, I get it, I get it! I admit defeat! Please, I apologize," Wang Hongliang pleaded, having snapped out of his shock and now thoroughly cowed.
"Weren't you going to lock the door and beat the dog?" Wu Jun asked with a smile. "So tell me now, who's the dog? And who's the grandpa, and who's the grandson?"
Wang Hongliang recalled his earlier boasts and wished he could just give himself a hard slap across the face.
This was a classic case of lifting a rock only to smash his own foot!
After he finished speaking, Wu Jun ignored the three on the floor. He opened the door, stepped outside the small supermarket, and, once out of their sight, recalled the four summoned Farmers back into the game before returning inside.
"Brother Wu, we were wrong! Please, be merciful!"
"Brother Wu, we were just messing around!"
"Brother Wu..."
When Wu Jun returned, the three men immediately started begging for mercy again. Wu Jun ignored them and walked straight into his bedroom.
He went to his computer, closed the Nezha movie that was still playing, and pulled up the surveillance footage.
'Old classmates, huh.' He'd said he wouldn't charge, but the surveillance equipment Huang Zili installed was no joke—high-definition with night vision!
The footage clearly captured Wang Hongliang and the twins frantically smashing the door from outside the supermarket.
Wu Jun copied the surveillance footage onto a tiny USB drive before returning to the main part of the store.
"Brother Wu, what exactly do you want? Can't we talk about this?"
Wang Hongliang quickly spoke up the moment Wu Jun emerged.
"You'll find out soon enough." Wu Jun sat back down in his computer chair, crossed his legs, pulled out his phone, and dialed the emergency number.
"Officer, I'd like to report a crime. Three armed thugs broke into my home to assault me. That's right, three of them. I'm fine. I've already subdued them. Could you send someone over right away?"
"The address? It's the ground-floor supermarket in Building 27 of Tianyuan Community. Okay, right. I'll be waiting."
Wu Jun finished his report and hung up the phone.
"Big brother, please, I'm begging you, let us go! My brother and I just finished our college entrance exams! If this goes on our record, our chances of getting into university are ruined!"
"Big brother, please let us go! We weren't thinking straight! We'll never do it again, we're just kids!"
"Oh, so *now* you're kids?" Wu Jun said, a look of amusement on his face. "A minute ago, who was it saying my whole family were kids? Was that you? I can't tell you two apart."
Wu Jun's single sentence left the twins speechless.
"Brother Wu... Master Wu! Be the bigger man! If you're angry, take it out on me. Don't lower yourself to the level of a couple of kids. They really just got their university acceptance letters! You're about to ruin two college students!" Wang Hongliang was filled with regret. At this moment, he was overcome with remorse for dragging his two young brothers-in-law into this mess.
But it was too late.
Wu Jun had given them a chance. They were the ones who hadn't taken it.
Adults have to take responsibility for their actions.