"What exactly is going on here? Spill the beans, or I swear I’ll send you to meet the gods right now!"

Wang Hao knew that once these people believed in superstition, it was very difficult to reason with them.

Only the bell-ringer can untie the bell. If the truth came from the mouths of those they worshiped, they might wake up from their delusion.

"This is the power of the natural gods!"

The man continued to lead them astray.

"Really? Then why don’t we see if these gods of nature can heal your crippled legs and feet?"

Wang Hao certainly didn’t believe in these ghostly tales, but he had no mercy for the instigator of this deception and raised his foot, ready to kick the man.

But he didn’t actually kick the man. Instead, he hit the chair next to him, instantly smashing it to pieces.

This served as a warning to the man—if he didn’t come clean, the chair’s fate would be his own.

"I... I’ll talk, I’ll tell the truth!"

The man had already taken a few punches from Wang Hao and knew the power of his fists all too well. The sight of the chair shattered by a single kick almost brought him to tears.

After talking for a while, Wang Hao still couldn’t bring himself to be ruthless. If that kick had really hit the man, he probably would have spent the rest of his life in bed.

"Actually, all of this was to deceive everyone. What gods are there in this world? The claims of increased crop yields are just psychological effects. In reality, the weight hasn’t increased at all; we’ve tampered with the scales."

"Every time they weigh the crops outside, an increase of about one percent is hardly noticeable."

After hearing the man’s confession, the farmers who had been kept in the dark looked on in shock. They had never imagined their unwavering belief in the gods was nothing but an utter scam.

If someone else had said these things, perhaps no one would have believed it, but these words came from the leader of their area.

"You bastard, we believed so earnestly, how could you deceive us like this?"

"Return the membership fees you scammed from us right now, or you won’t be leaving here today!"

A few angry farmers started to close in. They worked hard all year to earn just a little, and this bastard had swindled it all away, wouldn’t that make anyone furious?

Suddenly, the police station was filled with the voices of these farmers denouncing the man.

But the ones who were the most enraged were the village women. They had defended this man unconditionally, even "debating" with the police to stand by his words!

Moreover, they had sung his praises in the village, urging their family and friends to believe in the gods, only to now hear from him directly that it had all been a lie.

How were they supposed to face their relatives and friends after this?

If the police hadn’t been there to intervene, the man might have been beaten to death by these farmers on the spot.

"Lock this man up separately, I’ll report to the higher-ups immediately and have them send someone down for a proper investigation!"

Aunt Dong’s face was also rather pale. To think that such superstitious activities were spreading on her watch; she felt responsible as well.

Thankfully, Wang Hao was there and had revealed the truth to the farmers, preventing the situation from getting worse.

"I can’t thank you enough for this, Wang Hao!"

After locking up the man, Aunt Dong came over to Wang Hao and patted his shoulder in thanks.

"Aunt Dong, don’t be so formal with me. After all, we’re practically family now!"

Wang Hao scratched his head sheepishly, looking rather honest and simple.

Aunt Dong was a sensible person and immediately grasped the implication of "family" in Wang Hao’s words, so she couldn’t help but glance at Zhou Yingying.

Zhou Yingying glared at Wang Hao, but when she noticed Aunt Dong looking at her, she couldn’t help but blush and quickly lowered her head.

It wasn’t just Aunt Dong, all the police officers in the station understood the relationship between Wang Hao and Zhou Yingying.

But at the moment, the expressions of the farmers inside the police station were very grim, some were almost crying.

"That was the tuition for my children, you heartless scumbag, you deserve to be shot!"

"Our family now relies on those two acres of herbal medicine to eat, and now look, the fields are overrun with weeds, the seedlings inside are so thin they barely resemble themselves anymore, who is going to buy our herbal medicine now?"

...

Everyone was indeed a bona fide farmer, earning some money nowadays was not easy, and most families had both elderly and young ones to support, being defrauded of so much money was truly a disaster for families like theirs.

"Everyone, please don’t be too heartbroken, our police will definitely do our utmost to recover your hard-earned money!"

Aunt Dong really had no other choice but to try and say some comforting words to put everyone at ease.

At this moment, Wang Hao also stood up.

"Please be assured, I understand you all cultivated herbal medicines to improve your family’s lives, and you must be more vigilant against such scams in the future; you cannot be deceived again."

Wang Hao sighed and said.

"How about this, I’m a herbal medicine merchant, and if no one wants your herbal medicine, you can take it to Chen Village to find a doctor named Su Zhenping."

"I’ll let him know, and he will definitely buy your herbal medicine at the current market prices."

All the farmers afflicted by the herbal medicine scam turned their eyes to Wang Hao in unison.

Having someone willing to buy their herbal medicines now was indeed good fortune, but they were skeptical of Wang Hao’s words because the young man appeared to be just in his early twenties.

Looking like a genuine farmer himself, how could he be so wealthy?

Wait a minute!

"Wang Hao, are you the one who contracted thousands of acres of greenhouses in Chen Village?"

Suddenly, someone remembered, as there had been many rumors circulating in Niwotan about Wang Hao’s large-scale contracting ventures.

"Haha, yes, that’s me, Wang Hao from Chen Village!"

Wang Hao said with a smile.

"Yeah, he really is amazing, leading the entire village of Chen Village to prosperity together; his abilities are indeed substantial!"

"And that’s not all, look how young he is, barely in his early twenties, and he’s achieved so much, what more will he be capable of in the future? I believe his words, he definitely won’t deceive us!"

"Right, our herbal medicine is saved now, at least we can recoup a bit of our investment, this year hasn’t been wasted."

Everyone was singing his praises, one after another.

Meanwhile, Wang Hao could only smile wryly inside, as his current intention was solely to try to minimize the losses for these small-time herbal medicine farmers.

Just think, their fields were already full of weeds; the nutrients that should have gone to the medicinal herbs had long been absorbed by the weeds, so what was the difference between the herbal medicine and wild grass now?

He felt that these farmers had it tough, and now that he was capable, he should do his part to help.

After calming down the herbal medicine farmers, Wang Hao had a brief chat with Aunt Dong and then headed straight back to Chen Village.