Chapter 202

In the first quarter of the new year, Guagua Video played a trump card that left other video platforms completely stunned.

What on earth were they doing? The Way of Shennong? Was this some kind of talent search for a mythological fantasy television series?

The competitors clicked on the program’s audition details page and were instantly infuriated by a name displayed prominently at the top.

Wei Sheng? Why was it this annoying guy again?

Seeing that name was heart-wrenching enough, but when they scrolled down and saw the full set of competition rules, they nearly fainted from rage.

This… such a brilliant creative concept for a program, why hadn’t they thought of it themselves?

Popularizing knowledge about traditional Chinese medicinal herbs sounded boring at first glance, but the premise was incredibly positive.

Moreover, with the rise of the “Guochao” national trend in recent years, the younger generation was particularly supportive of traditional culture. This program was promoting traditional Chinese medicine culture; even if they hired a “water army” of internet trolls to smear it, netizens wouldn’t believe them. If anything, the public might turn around and curse them for being “walking fifty-cent army” foreign agents.

Looking further at the program’s flow and design, it wasn’t boring at all.

As the saying goes, the layman looks at the spectacle while the expert looks at the craft. Once the various video websites dissected the show, they were immediately filled with envy and hatred.

The creativity and competition flow of this program were truly both substantive and innovative.

Could you say that by modeling the contestants’ progression after an Immortal Cultivation Level-up Style, they were promoting feudal superstition? Sorry, they were just doing a parody. If parodying was a crime, then other domestic variety shows might as well stop altogether. There were plenty of shows far more irreverent than this one, including those that parodied past emperors. If one really wanted to pursue it, a charge of “distorting history” would certainly stick to those other shows!

Everyone was doing parodies; why should you be allowed to do it while we can’t?

But what if you attacked them for promoting cultivation web novels and providing bad guidance to the youth?

Please! Watch the show before you start hating. This was a Rural Revitalization theme program wrapped in the skin of an Immortal Cultivation Level-up power fantasy! Just look at the skills the contestants were learning in the show.

Traditional medicinal herb cultivation, electrical work, masonry, carpentry, wild mushroom cultivation, and beekeeping. They weren’t refining pills or building their Foundation; they were clearly teaching super practical vocational skills. How could that possibly be bad guidance for teenagers?

Looking at it this way, this Wei Sheng was truly insidious and cunning. He had anticipated his rivals’ smearing tactics and patched all these loopholes in advance.

A person like this shouldn’t be allowed in the entertainment industry! Otherwise, wouldn’t the methods they usually used to strike down competitors be useless in the future?

Guagua Video’s rivals were dying of anger, yet because the program’s setting was so flawless, they couldn’t find any loopholes to file a complaint.

In the end, they never expected that what they wanted to do but couldn’t would be achieved by a group of city kids.

Someone posted a complaint about The Way of Shennong online, claiming they were inciting urban-rural conflict and discriminating against teenagers and children born in the city.

This was because, according to the program’s eligibility criteria of a “maximum annual household income not exceeding fifty thousand yuan,” the vast majority of urban youth had no way to sign up for the show.

Why? If my parents can earn money, that’s their business. Why should a good family background prevent us from pursuing our dreams?

What? You say there are low-income families in the city too? Even then, they wouldn’t fail to earn fifty thousand a year, right? Even if both parents worked as security guards in a residential complex, their combined monthly salary would be five thousand yuan. How could they possibly earn less than fifty thousand in a year?

Wasn’t this just excluding urban youth from the registration requirements? Where was the fairness?

Good heavens! You could even smear the show from this angle? They had learned something new!

A few complaint posts that originally had low engagement were hyped up by hired trolls and quickly climbed the trending searches.

Guagua Video was caught between laughter and tears.

The show hadn’t even aired yet and it already had such high heat and attention, and they hadn’t even spent money to buy it. The platform had earned a massive wave of traffic for free, so naturally, they were happy.

However, getting on the trending list because of negative public opinion before the broadcast was a problem. The public squares were filled with overwhelming abuse, and the worst part was that the critics actually had a bit of a point. It made them unsure of how to explain or counter-argue.

Indeed, all children are the “flowers of the motherland^[1].” Why could children from low-income rural families sign up for the program while children from high-income urban families could not? If this wasn’t discrimination, what was it?

“This is indeed not discrimination, but protection.”

After encountering the negative public sentiment, the investors and the creative team quickly held a meeting to discuss the next steps. At the meeting, Wei Sheng firmly opposed compromising with this public outcry.

“If you absolutely must explain, perhaps we can film a pilot episode. Let those who are protesting and opposing see exactly why we set such a low-income threshold.”

On Guagua Video’s side, whether they wanted to take the opportunity to hype the show further or were truly convinced by Wei Sheng, they actually decided to film a pilot. They didn’t even need to choose a location; Nine Streams County would do just fine.

Although Nine Streams County had produced a place like Yuan Stream Township, where the lives of the people had greatly improved through medicinal herb cultivation, there were still many townships in the county struggling between the poverty line and the poverty alleviation threshold.

Just as Wei Sheng had told Yao Chunming before, the “golden phoenixes” who could truly rely on studying to pass the university entrance exam and leave the mountains were far too few!

The vast majority of rural children dropped out of school at a young age because of poor foundations or a lack of talent for studying. They did this to avoid wasting the family’s money or to save limited savings for younger siblings who might be more gifted in school.

They stayed home to farm, raise pigs, and look after their younger siblings. When they got a bit older, they would follow others from the village to the city to work. Some went into factories to turn screws or operate sewing machines, while others went to construction sites to carry bricks and lay walls. Then they earned money to marry, have children, and support their own children’s schooling, hoping their daughters and sons could study their way out of the mountains…

Such a life seemed hopeless to many. But this was reality. There weren’t that many poor boys who changed their fate against all odds, nor were there many Cinderellas who found their princes. The pilot episode Wei Sheng wanted to make was intended to uncover this cruel and realistic truth.

“Do you think it’s discrimination that this program doesn’t allow children from wealthy families to participate? Do you feel it’s depriving you of an opportunity to showcase yourselves?”

“But do you realize that for you, losing this is just losing one chance for self-expression and recognition? For those mountain children who have almost no other path in life besides studying, participating in this program and striving to be chosen by a mentor might be the only chance they ever get to change their destiny.”

After Wei Sheng finished speaking, the entire conference room fell silent.

This even included the top executive of Guagua Video, who had rushed in halfway through the meeting. Their generation had lived through social upheaval and historical shifts. Even those born in the city had spent time living in the countryside. They understood what Wei Sheng meant better than anyone.

In truth, the executive didn’t know how things had ended up like this. When they were young, their dream was “to study for the rise of China^[2].” Yet, once they became the controllers of social resources, it seemed to have become a habit for them and their descendants to naturally monopolize even more resources.

I might not even want this resource, but if you don’t give it to me, then you’re in the wrong—you’re discriminating against us rich people!

How ridiculous! Their children and grandchildren didn’t lack such a small resource. In fact, if a child truly liked something, the family could afford to fund an entire program just for them. Yet, because The Way of Shennong didn’t allow teenagers with an annual household income of over fifty thousand yuan to register, it was labeled as inciting conflict between urban and rural areas! It was called unfair!

After realizing this, the big shots in the conference room felt as if they had been collectively slapped twice, their old faces turning bright red.

After a moment, the CEO was the first to speak.

“I agree with what young Wei said. We don’t need to explain, and we certainly don’t need to apologize! Apologize for what? Do they really lack this opportunity? With their comfortable backgrounds, attending the best schools since childhood and enrolling in the most expensive tutoring classes… go ask those protesters, if they were actually given the choice, would they truly be willing to choose agriculture or forestry as their major?”

The CEO grew angrier as he spoke, his back hunched as he slammed his broad palms against the table twice.

He looked like a furious Prime Minister Turtle^[3].

“The Chairman is right! I also agree that we shouldn’t apologize. Release the pilot episode immediately! Use the facts to shut the mouths of those trolls! Fairness? When they rely on their family backgrounds to snatch resources from poor children, why aren’t they clamoring for fairness then?”

Because this was Guagua Video’s first direct collaboration with Wei Sheng, they didn’t fully understand his character yet. On the contrary, his old acquaintance Yang Pingzhou wasn’t worried at all when he saw people complaining about the show online; he even felt a bit like laughing.

No way, right? Did someone really think that hiring a few internet water armies to hurl insults would create any actual public opinion pressure for Wei Sheng? Hilarious! Back when this kid was breaking his contract with his former agency and was being blacklisted by the entire internet to the point of nearly losing his career, he didn’t bow his head then. You think this little skirmish matters? You probably don’t know what Wei Sheng’s father does for a living, do you?

The man runs a law firm and is a famous lawyer in China. Their family’s “local specialty” is literally lawyer letters.

Sure enough, as soon as he returned to the country and heard his son was being attacked by anti-fans again, Liang Yi dropped his luggage and picked up the phone to direct his lawyers to sue the trolls.

Although Hu Qianqian was abroad, she had been keeping a close eye on her son’s every move. Knowing that her son was recently collaborating with Guagua Video to create a professional competition program specifically for children from low-income rural families, she gave it some thought and called him.

During this international tour, Hu Qianqian’s Guochao Hanfu^[4] brand had won several major awards in one go and received many orders from abroad. She had originally planned to expand production upon her return.

Inspired by her son, Hu Qianqian suddenly realized that her garment factory and design team could also take on apprentices. Especially for those girls from rural families who had no chance to study or struggled with academics—if they didn’t want to get married off early, why couldn’t they learn a craft to support themselves?

Once they had a skill to earn a living and a stable job, their families wouldn’t be able to just marry them off recklessly for a Bride Price of tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan.

When Hu Qianqian explained her idea to her son, Wei Sheng was stunned.

Not bad. After one trip abroad, Ms. Hu’s social awareness and vision had reached new heights.

When the people at Guagua Video heard that Hu Qianqian’s garment factory and her Guochao Hanfu design studios wanted to participate in the program, they were ecstatic!

That brand was incredibly famous now! A group of middle-aged mothers and aunts who bravely stepped out of their homes to fight for their dreams—more importantly, the fashions they designed had won major awards at international exhibitions!

“Boss Wei! Is your mother really willing to appear on a variety show?”

“With her current status in the industry, being a guest mentor is honestly beneath her. How about this: Guagua Video will produce a separate variety show just for her. We’ll have her and her designers take on apprentices on-air. We can even hold a grand designer selection competition to promote our Guochao Hanfu culture!”

Wei Sheng: “…”

You guys are really planning to catch one sheep and shear it for all it’s worth^[5], aren’t you?

(End of Chapter)