Poverty Alleviation C19

Chapter 19

As someone in the industry, Zhou Mingxing had been studying the popular variety shows in domestic entertainment for the past few years, especially the rural slow-life genre.

Ever since this type of show became a hit, its popularity had been steadily declining. At the time, a film critic from a rural background had pointed out the core issue: it was too detached from reality!

A bunch of city dwellers who had never lived in the countryside would arrive with a sense of novelty, dragging their suitcases filled with sheet masks costing hundreds of yuan each, cameras worth tens of thousands, limited-edition sneakers, and high-fashion brand hats. They would stroll around the village, symbolically help with some farm work to create an image of diligence and hard work, and then sit in an aesthetically pleasing pergola* at night, sipping handcrafted coffee and marveling at the beauty of rural life…

Excuse me, dear production team, do you have even the slightest idea of what real rural life is like?

But Wei Sheng’s show was different.

Perhaps because they were genuinely broke, aside from the wealthy Chen Mengjie dressing a bit more fashionably, everyone else looked quite ordinary.

Even Zhang Zexuan, the son of a government official, had dressed modestly to keep a low profile and avoid causing trouble for his family. He wore an off-season discounted pair of sneakers from a well-known domestic brand, costing only 99 yuan.

As soon as they arrived in the village, Wei Sheng assigned tasks, and everyone got to work.

Chen Mengjie immediately made a call and directly roped in a design team from her brother’s company.

With the heiress herself overseeing things, how could the company’s designers dare slack off?

That very night, they worked overtime until 3 a.m., even pulling resources from the nearest branch office. By morning, they had set up a bamboo-themed livestream studio for Wei Sheng.

Cost: zero yuan!

Zhang Zexuan also secretly called home, setting up a backup plan. If Wei Sheng’s livestream sales didn’t go well, his “Plan B” was ready to step in.

Meanwhile, Director Ouyang was remotely coordinating with his team, sending two staff members from the TV station’s new media department to help build an online sales platform for Houzhai Village—completely free of charge.

“666! Now this is what I call real support for rural communities!”

“I’ve been wanting to say this for a while: a group of people who’ve never done farm work coming to the countryside to ‘help’ farmers grow crops—isn’t that just making a mess? This production team actually understands rural life!”

“Our village wants to do e-commerce too, but the hardest part is setting up a platform. Hiring a team costs money, and we can’t afford to buy traffic. I hope other rural-themed shows learn from this and help solve real problems for the locals.”

Many viewers watching the show had never been to the countryside, but that didn’t stop them from being fascinated by the reality of rural entrepreneurship.

The first three guests’ actions were understandable, as they were connected to modern urban life. But when it came to Wei Sheng—forget about the city folks—even viewers from rural backgrounds were exclaiming “666!” in amazement.

Unlike other rural-themed variety shows where guests cluelessly threw out random prices for local specialties, Wei Sheng had somehow obtained a proper price list and set up a temporary procurement station at their lodging.

Large free-range eggs: 0.8 yuan each

Small free-range eggs: 0.5 yuan each

Home-raised chickens: 10 yuan per jin for roosters, 12 yuan per jin for hens

Local specialty ducks: 8 yuan per jin for young ducks, 10 yuan per jin for older ducks

Specialty dried goods:

Dried bamboo shoots: 15 yuan per jin

Small dried bamboo shoots: 20 yuan per jin

Dried green beans: 7 yuan per jin

Dried flat beans: 5 yuan per jin

Various bamboo crafts, priced from a few yuan to several dozen yuan based on size, appearance, and intricacy

Wei Sheng even spent his own money to buy old village artifacts from locals—wooden cradles, kerosene lamps, straw raincoats, and more.

Playfully, he told the camera that if they didn’t sell in the livestream, he’d take them home for his personal collection, ensuring the show wouldn’t have to bear the financial loss.

The director was speechless.

Did their TV station really care about losing just a few thousand yuan?

Wei Sheng, do you dare tell the truth to the audience? Are you really collecting these items, or are you planning to flip them for a profit?

For the sake of the show’s effect, after spending the 20,000 yuan “startup fund” provided by the production team, the temporary procurement station was put on hold.

The villagers who arrived later were visibly disappointed.

Wei Sheng’s prices were even better than those in town, and most importantly, they didn’t have to spend money on transportation—they could sell their goods right in the village. How convenient!

Seeing the disappointment on the villagers’ weathered faces, the audience felt a pang of sympathy.

The comment section exploded.

Countless viewers urged the production team to buy the villagers’ goods and sell them through the livestream, promising they would definitely purchase them.

“Even with packaging and shipping costs added, these prices are still a great deal!”

“I once bought dried bamboo shoots from another livestream, and half of them were too tough to eat. These look fresher and cheaper—even if they mark up the price by 20 yuan per jin, they’d still sell out!”

“Production team, stop pretending to be dead and buy these local products! I’m pre-ordering 200 free-range eggs!”

“Can we pre-order? I want two hens, two ducks, and 200 eggs—half for my in-laws, half for my parents! No favoritism, haha~”

“Me, me, me! I want 10 jin of cured meat! Also, 20 jin of that homemade sweet potato vermicelli from earlier!”

What was supposed to be a variety show had somehow been completely derailed by the barrage of bullet comments, turning it into a rural product ordering event!

Unfortunately, this program wasn’t live but pre-recorded. No matter how much the audience screamed in the comments, they couldn’t time travel back a few days to grab the director by the neck and force the production team to buy up all the villagers’ goods.

What they didn’t expect, though, was that just when they thought the guests would follow the script and refuse to buy anything, Wei Sheng actually agreed!

However, he didn’t have cash on him, and many of the elderly villagers didn’t use mobile payments. So, under everyone’s watchful eyes, Wei Sheng skillfully pulled out a stack of receipts and a large red seal from his backpack.

“If you trust us, you can sell your local specialties to me first.”

“I’ll write you a receipt, and after the recording is done, I’ll have someone bring the money over.”

“Our TV station is based in the provincial capital anyway—it’s not like we can run away!”

“Here’s my work ID. I can even leave it here as collateral. Even if a monk can flee, the temple stays put. With a station as big as ours, do you really think we’d disappear over a few thousand?”

Director & Producer: “……”

Why did this suddenly feel like they’d been forcibly signed up for a loan guarantee?

At this point, the bullet comments had already exploded into laughter.

Some viewers even started frantically tagging the TV station, urging them to hurry up and send money to the village to redeem their employee’s work ID.

A provincial-level TV station, yet they couldn’t even take out a few thousand yuan while filming a show? If their industry peers found out, they’d die of laughter!

But what was truly touching was that the elderly villagers, upon hearing they were from a TV station, immediately stuffed Wei Sheng’s work ID back into his pocket.

They only took the receipt with his official stamp on it.

Some of the elderly villagers, perhaps because the village had been too quiet for too long, even held onto Wei Sheng and the others, asking when they would return next time.

“It’s all the village chief’s fault! He didn’t make it clear! If we had known Little Wei and the others were here to buy mountain goods, how could we have let them rent a place and cook for themselves?”

“Exactly, exactly! Little Wei, next time you come, call Granny a day in advance—I’ll kill a chicken for you!”

“What’s so special about chicken? There are so many of them. One or two chickens won’t be enough! I say we should all chip in and slaughter a lamb instead!”

The elderly villagers chimed in one after another, as if they were already certain the show’s crew would return to Houzhai Village.

But everyone knew that according to the usual practice of the production team, their next stop wouldn’t be Houzhai Village.

For a rare moment, the bullet comments fell silent.

A dozen seconds later, a golden bullet comment from a premium VIP member floated across the screen—

“This show is already flopping anyway, so why bother changing locations?”

“How about we just go back to Houzhai Village next episode?”

Director Wang Qun: “……”

Since when did premium VIPs get this audacious?

Unexpectedly, this one comment instantly ignited the creativity of the netizens, and the bullet comments flooded in like crazy—

“I second that! Next episode, back to Houzhai Village!”

“I second that! Stop messing around! Just Houzhai Village—I love it here!”

“I second that, I second that! Let’s stay in Houzhai Village! I haven’t even seen the bamboo weaving crafts go viral yet, and the villagers haven’t gotten rich!”

“Wait a minute! Are netizens into online poverty alleviation now?”

“What’s wrong with online poverty alleviation? If it’s sold in Little Wei’s livestream, I’d buy even a feather duster!”

“Right! Little Wei, hurry up! Tell the Houzhai Village bamboo weaving factory to start producing bamboo whips specifically for disciplining kids—I’ll buy a ton!”

“What the heck is a bamboo whip? Don’t people usually use belts to spank kids?”

“I’ve already broken three rulers at home. While I’m here, can anyone tell me if bamboo whips are any good?”

“Are you guys devils?! Please be kind to the children, okay?!”

Very quickly, the bullet comments completely veered off-topic, turning into a parent group chat about disciplining kids.

Taking advantage of the bullet comments under the Bros variety show, netizens enthusiastically exchanged notes on their favorite “disciplinary tools.”

A few particularly ruthless melon-eating bystanders even started tagging Wei Sheng in the comments, begging him to pass on a message to Houzhai Village’s bamboo weaving factory—

Forget those intricate and time-consuming traditional bamboo crafts.

It’s time to think outside the box for business!

They could go full throttle on developing specialized disciplinary tools!

Like bamboo washboards for punishing husbands, bamboo rulers, bamboo nail boards—you name it. And, of course, bamboo whips and paddles for disciplining kids.

These would be essential daily consumables for hundreds of millions of ordinary families across China!

They wouldn’t even need to focus too much on quality. After all, once used, these things might get thrown away or hidden by the victims.

Wouldn’t that mean people would have to keep buying replacements?

Might as well make them a bit flimsier! Lower the price!

And sell them for just 9.9 yuan with free shipping!

At that price, even if people had to buy a few every month, they wouldn’t feel the pinch!

Wei Sheng, who had just accidentally glimpsed at the bullet comments: “……”

Wait a minute!

Although this train of thought was definitely not kind, and maybe even a little immoral…

But thinking about it carefully—mass-producing household disciplinary tools actually sounded like a pretty solid business idea?

Unbeknownst to him, at this very moment, Wei Sheng’s thought process had already been completely derailed by the wicked netizens…

(End of Chapter)

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—A free-range egg comes from hens that are allowed to roam freely outdoors, rather than being confined to cages. These hens have access to natural environments, which can lead to healthier and higher-quality eggs compared to those from caged systems.

—A pergola is an outdoor structure with vertical posts or pillars supporting an open roof of beams and rafters, often covered with climbing plants. It provides partial shade and is commonly used in gardens, patios, or walkways for decoration and relaxation.

—Jin (斤) is a Chinese weight unit; 1 jin = 500g (mainland China) or 600g (Taiwan/Hong Kong).