Chapter 1

The weather service warned of a blizzard within three days, so I drove back to the village with cash to buy up the vegetables.

Once the picking was done, the villagers told me to hold off on loading the trucks.

"This year's price has to be renegotiated."

I smiled and pointed at the fleet of trucks I'd hired.

"Fine, we can talk price. But let them load first. Time's valuable right now."

The villagers closed in around me, refusing flat out.

"Fifty percent above the old price. Agree to that, sign, and you can haul it away."

"And if you won't agree, that's fine too. We've already reached out to other vegetable buyers, and they're offering even more than that."

I frowned at them.

"Do you people even know there's a blizzard coming in three days?"

Every one of them shouted louder than the last.

"You think we're stupid because we've got no schooling. A blizzard? That just means we can sell for more."

1

It was still bitterly cold that early spring when the weather service issued its warning.

【A rare blizzard will hit within the next three days. Everyone should prepare for the cold and freezing conditions……】

My father called, his voice rushed.

"The greenhouse vegetables are ready. When are you coming back to buy them?"

I looked at the report my assistant had just handed me and frowned slightly.

"Why don't you let them sell to someone else? At this price I'm honestly not making anything."

"You little brat, think you're too big for us now?"

My father flared up instantly, cursing at me at the top of his lungs into the phone.

"Back when you were in school, a hundred and twenty-three households, which one of them didn't chip in for your tuition?"

"Without all of them, would you have made it into college? Would you be where you are today?"

What was I supposed to say to that?

"Then would you please pass the word along. I'll bring the trucks back tonight."

My father grunted and hung up.

My assistant, Antonia Lambert, stood nearby, a little curious.

"Mr. Joyce, isn't the purchase price you're offering a bit too high? It's already forty percent over the going market rate."

Price, honestly, was never the thing I cared about most.

If I weren't afraid of turning them lazy and idle, I'd have no problem handing that money over for nothing every year.

More than ten years ago, Greenhill Village was nothing but hills, and more hills.

I was the first person from the village to get into college, and I became the hope of everyone in it.

The whole village paid for my tuition and my meals, because my own family couldn't scrape it together.

My father, the village head at the time, told me this.

"In this life you can forget anything you like, even me, your own father, but you must never forget the kindness these folks showed you."

I've never forgotten those words.

Every time they come to mind, my eyes still sting with tears.

"There's nothing more to say about the price. No need for any of that."

"Go get in touch with the fleet. Have them prepare for the cold and snow and set out as soon as possible."

That thing with my father earlier was just something I'd said off the cuff.

The point was to get him to step down as village head. He's getting on in years, after all.

Antonia answered and went off, smiling, to see to it.

At three in the afternoon, Antonia and I drove out and reached Greenhill Village ahead of schedule.

As we passed the village hall at the entrance, I glanced inside and had her stop the car.

"You take the car on to my place first. I'm going in to have a word with my father."

The old man was still sitting there in the courtyard of the village hall, as if he'd been waiting just for me.

"Mr. Joyce, maybe consider a softer approach. Try not to push too hard."

Antonia had been with me since the company was founded, and she knew all about the friction between my father and me.

I waved her off, walked into the hall, went up to my father, and crouched down in front of him.

"Is the heat inside too warm for you again? Or is this weather just not cold enough for your liking?"

My father let out a laugh at that, half in exasperation.

"You little brat, three days without picking a fight with your old man and you're crawling out of your skin, aren't you?"

"Go take a look at the greenhouse fields first. Everyone's waiting on you."