The Cold and Ruthless Supporting Male Lead

Lin Xiaomu returned to her place with a face full of disappointment.

Zhang Daniu saw her coming back and quickly rushed over. He pressed his hands on her shoulders and gave her a bit of comfort before pretending to casually ask, “Xiaomu, did you meet with the boss just now?”

“Mm.” Her heart was completely immersed in the emotions of being rejected, and Lin Xiaomu felt a bit disheartened.

Clearly, she was the one who had rejected the boss at first, but seeing the boss’s attitude towards her, Lin Xiaomu still felt incredibly upset inside.

It had only been a day or 2, yet the boss had already given up on her just like that.

After zoning out for a moment, Lin Xiaomu finally snapped back to reality. “But the boss’s attitude towards me is so cold, I feel like he really has given up on me. We should just work hard on our own from now on.”

At least she had already won the Prince’s favor, which brought her a bit of comfort.

The hand that had been pressing on her shoulder stopped abruptly. Zhang Daniu’s mouth twitched downwards, and there was a hint of impatience in his eyes.

“Xiaomu, this is such a large farm. No matter how hard we work, we’ll never get it.” He sighed, looking utterly dejected. He stopped massaging her and plopped down beside her. “This is our only shortcut. Don’t you want us to have a good life in the future?”

Hearing Zhang Daniu’s words, Lin Xiaomu felt a bit confused.

Noticing that she hadn’t responded immediately, Zhang Daniu didn’t press further.

There was no point in feeding her too much information all at once.

But the fact that something that had seemed like a sure thing had now failed still left Zhang Daniu feeling a bit restless.

After seeing that Lin Xiaomu hadn’t spoken for a while, Zhang Daniu patted her shoulder. “It’s fine, take your time to think it over. I’m going to work now.”

As Zhang Daniu’s figure disappeared from her sight, Lin Xiaomu felt a sense of guilt rising in her heart.

The Prince had always been a child of destiny, someone who stood above others, yet now he was here with her managing a farm.

Working together with the person she liked, rising with the sun and resting with the sunset, had been Lin Xiaomu’s dream in the past.

But now, she couldn’t bear to have the Prince suffer alongside her.

She sat there in a daze for a long while before finally making up her mind and deciding on an important course of action.

***

It had been anticipated that the female lead would make some bold moves, but when she hadn’t done so yet, Hai Ku didn’t pay it much mind.

Compared to Lin Xiaomu, who had clearly been overwhelmed by love, Hai Ku was more concerned about the male lead.

He still felt that the male lead seemed too weak, lacking any of the usual qualities of a leading man. Because of that, Hai Ku felt that this person could only be a male lead due to connections.

Leisurely sipping his tea, Hai Ku watched as Zhang Daniu told Lin Xiaomu that he was going out to work before slipping away to Liu Yi’s house next door to tend to the orchard.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” Hai Ku couldn’t help but click his tongue. He couldn’t understand how this man could act this way with anyone.

What shocked him even more was that after leaving Liu Yi’s house, Liu Yi came over to see him.

Although Liu Yi was over 40, Hai Ku could still vaguely tell she had been beautiful in her youth. She must have been a stunning beauty back then, but the years had taken their toll on her.

“Boss, I… I want to discuss something with you.” Liu Yi’s face had a faint blush, and her words came out hesitantly.

Hai Ku, with a serious expression, looked at the tractor repair manual in his hands. “Oh… Liu Yi, go ahead.”

“I’ve been working here for 5 or 6 years, and I’ve managed this orchard well. The new employees you hired have all been trained by me. Leaving that aside, considering the time I’ve spent here, I should be considered a senior employee, right?”

“Liu Yi, just say what you want to say directly,” Hai Ku smiled.

In the original text, this character didn’t have much presence. Her role was that of a manager for a small orchard. Her education wasn’t very high, but she had considerable skill in fruit tree cultivation.

In the original plot, she was also one of Wang Haiku’s capable employees.

Now, it seemed the male lead thought Lin Xiaomu wasn’t very useful, so he was trying to approach Hai Ku’s important staff.

“Hehe,” Liu Yi, following Zhang Daniu’s instructions, hesitated a bit, but unexpectedly, it worked. “I’ve been working in this orchard for a long time, and I’d like to go out and see the world. Could you let me meet with the buyers? You know, I can’t manage the orchard forever, right? Maybe if I get in touch with the buyers, I can develop some business sense.”

“Liu Yi, you make a good point,” Hai Ku nodded, almost applauding. “But our buyers are fixed. We just need to deliver the goods to them regularly, so it’s not easy to make contact with them. But if you want to do business, how about trying to sell the fruit yourself? I can sell you the fruit from our farm at a low price.”

Liu Yi felt a bit awkward. That wasn’t what she had expected.

Zhang Daniu had told her that after saying something like that to the boss, the boss wouldn’t let her leave.

But the boss’s words just now clearly seemed like he was trying to get rid of her. Her only real skill was managing the orchard, and after becoming the manager, she didn’t have to do much work. She could just give orders.

Now, suddenly being asked to sell fruit, Liu Yi felt uncertain. “How much can selling fruit make in a month?”

“That’s hard to say. Some people can make several thousand a month. If you scale up, you could make even more,” Hai Ku wasn’t trying to make things difficult for her. “You know our farm’s fruit is in demand. Every year, the buyers can’t get enough. I thought about it, and maybe I wasn’t considerate enough. Liu Yi, you’ve been with me for so long, so if you want to start your own business, just say so. If there’s anything I can do to help, I will. If you want to grow fruit yourself, I can give you the supplier’s number, but you’ll have to contact them yourself.”

“Really…?” Liu Yi gave him a disbelieving look, unsure of Hai Ku’s intentions.

Hai Ku closed his eyes, continuing to flatter her excessively. “Of course, Liu Yi, your skills in fruit tree cultivation are no joke. Would I lie to you?”

After managing to send her off, Hai Ku began to wonder why Zhang Daniu wanted Liu Yi to get in touch with the buyers.

Though he had taken over the farm, he hadn’t fully digested the management knowledge. He was still able to relax like this because of Wang Haiku’s previous efficient management.

If the buyers were really focused, they could easily be found. It wasn’t a hidden secret. Did the other party want to take over the contacts themselves?

Or did they want to control all the external connections?

The more he thought about it, the more unlikely it seemed. In the past, such monopolies might have been possible, but now, in an age of transportation convenience and advanced communication, who would still hold such outdated views?

***

Unable to figure it out, Hai Ku decided not to dwell on it. He spent a few more days relaxing, and when he ran into Lin Xiaomu again, it was only after 5 or 6 days had passed.

But in just that short time, Hai Ku noticed she had become much more haggard. Her once slightly plump cheeks had sunken, and he couldn’t understand what had happened to the girl. He was at a loss.

I had only been goofing off while absorbing the methods of managing the farm, so how did this person end up like this?

“Boss…” Lin Xiaomu’s eyes were a little red, and her voice was choked with emotion. “The vegetables in that greenhouse are growing well. Would you like to go see them?”

It was clear that her smile was forced, and Hai Ku was even more confused. Logically, since she was now with her beloved Prince, shouldn’t she be happy all the time?

But Hai Ku was also curious to see what the vegetables Lin Xiaomu had taken care of would look like. He nodded and followed her.

He had only been at the farm for a short time, and the area under the female manager’s supervision was just a single greenhouse, where vegetables not in season were grown.

Hai Ku had expected more, but upon entering, he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

The description had been that the vegetables cared for by the female lead not only looked fresh and vibrant, but they also seemed to radiate an almost ethereal aura, growing better than ordinary vegetables. More importantly, eating them had health benefits.

It was precisely this effect that allowed the female lead’s farm to grow larger in scale and even monopolize some parts of the vegetable supply market.

But now, the vegetables in this greenhouse weren’t bad, but they weren’t anything special either. They were just average, neither remarkable nor impressive.

After taking a quick tour, Hai Ku thought it was necessary to find out what had happened between the male and female leads during the days he had been slacking off.

After a few casual compliments, Hai Ku left, not paying much attention to Lin Xiaomu’s expression.

He hurried back to his room and began using his screen recording rewind function.

To complete his mission, he needed to keep an eye on the movements of the male and female leads, though Hai Ku wasn’t particularly interested in constantly watching what they were doing. He decided to spend some experience points to have the system record it for him.

Before watching the video, Hai Ku recalled something he had forgotten for a while.

Watching the video at 2.5x speed, Hai Ku couldn’t help but ask, “What’s the female lead’s golden finger in this world? Why did the vegetables I saw her grow today seem no different from normal?”

[The female lead’s golden finger in this world is that she gets top-tier crops whenever she handles any vegetables or fruits. Her space contains a mystical spring that not only heals ailments but can also store inanimate objects.]

“But the vegetables I saw her grow today didn’t seem any different.” This was puzzling to Hai Ku, who furrowed his brows, feeling like he had missed something important.

[Ahem, well, there was a tiny mistake when the story was passed down, so right now, the female lead has only transmigrated, she hasn’t been reborn yet, dear~ ≡ ( ˙-˙ )/]

Hai Ku: “… I don’t understand this transmigration mechanism!”

Just as he was about to say something, Hai Ku’s sharp eyes caught sight of the female lead slapping the male lead on his 2.5x speed video.

He quickly rewound it, staring at the screen, afraid of missing any important details.