Chapter 40

Before boarding the plane, Zhou Mingxing ignored Wei Sheng’s protests and forcibly sent the recording to Shen Yi, who was filming on set.

“Don’t worry. Your senior sister knows how to handle things, and she’s the leading actress this time. She has a say in the production.” Zhou Mingxing reassured him.

Wei Sheng shot him a sullen look, clearly not comforted in the slightest.

He hadn’t even joined the crew yet, and he was already suggesting script changes. Would his senior sister think he was trying to act like a diva?

While Wei Sheng was feeling anxious, at the same time, Shen Yi listened to the recording and, after a moment of thought, pulled Director Li Lei aside to let him hear it.

At first, Li Lei was annoyed that some newbie was questioning whether their script was realistic enough. But as he listened, he found himself inexplicably drawn in—damn it, was it just him, or did this person’s proposed changes to Yang Fan’s story actually make more sense in real life?

After all, in the original script, Yang Fan had been in a four-year college relationship with his girlfriend and then returned to their hometown together after graduation. With such a deep bond, would they really break up over a misunderstanding without even trying to talk things through?

And what that person said in the recording—it stung, but when he really thought about it, if he were Yang Fan’s mother, having raised her son with great hardship, only to have him ignore her while she was hospitalized just to run off to the countryside… wouldn’t that be heartbreaking? If that were his son, he might as well have raised a dog instead!

The more he considered it, the more Li Lei felt that if Yang Fan brought his mother along to the village, like that rural teacher who carried his mother on his back to school, he would be seen as a successor with both filial piety and a love for his country. It would make his character more well-rounded and touching.

And if the girlfriend was moved by Yang Fan’s dedication and chose to stay in the village with him, that would be another fulfilling resolution.

Plus, Wei Sheng’s words were practically infectious!

Even over the phone, Li Lei felt like he was being brainwashed.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized—if Yang Fan truly abandoned his girlfriend of five years just to fulfill Huang Xiujuan’s dream, then he would either come off as a cold-hearted, selfish scumbag or someone who had secretly fallen for Huang Xiujuan…

Oh, hell no! If they followed the original script and the audience picked up on this, wouldn’t people think they were trying to smear the reputation of poverty alleviation officials?

A cold sweat broke out on Director Li Lei’s forehead.

Meanwhile, Shen Yi put away her phone and looked seriously at Li Lei, who was now clearly excited—so much so that he seemed ready to storm off and threaten the screenwriter into making changes.

“Director Li, just remember—this idea came from my junior brother.”

“Don’t go stealing his concept and then casting someone else as Yang Fan.”

Li Lei shot her a glare. “Do I look like that kind of person? Don’t worry—as long as your junior brother’s acting isn’t absolutely terrible, the role of Yang Fan is his!”

Come on, did people really think a director known for filming realistic dramas never watched the national news channel?

He even paid for a premium membership on the CCTV app just to watch high-definition broadcasts!

If he had known earlier that the TV station employee who helped Houzhai Village overcome poverty had signed with an agency, he wouldn’t have even needed Shen Yi to recommend him—he would have reached out himself.

While Yang Fan’s character wasn’t difficult to cast within the industry, who would choose an actor with no experience in rural work—one who needed hands-on coaching—when they could have someone with actual credibility and public recognition from appearing on national television?

Li Lei immediately took the recording from Shen Yi and dashed off to the screenwriter, eager to revise Yang Fan’s character.

—

By the time Wei Sheng and Zhou Mingxing arrived at Huangjiabao, the sky was painted in hues of sunset.

Huangjiabao was a classic “dustpan-shaped” basin terrain, surrounded by mountains on three sides. Aerial footage would show a long, narrow, gently sloping basin nestled between three peaks, with the southwest side higher and the northeast lower, dotted with scattered villages.

Legend had it that in ancient times, the area was plagued by bandits. They built fortresses here to resist government forces. Later, a highly persuasive scholar surnamed Huang managed to convince them to surrender. Since their leader was a die-hard fan of this scholar, he voluntarily pledged loyalty and became his follower—hence, the place was renamed Huangjiabao.

In modern times, due to poor transportation and barren mountain terrain, Huangjiabao became a well-known impoverished village. To put it in perspective, out of over a hundred households, more than sixty were officially registered as impoverished.

How poor was it?

Wei Sheng had looked up some old local news reports. Ten years ago, the main road only extended to the riverbank at the foot of the mountains. To enter the village, people had to take a vehicle to the river, but since the mountainous terrain was steep and there were no bridges, locals had to use zip lines to cross.

And that was just the start of their journey home—

On the other side of the river, they faced a nearly 30-meter-tall, almost vertical bamboo ladder clinging to a steep cliffside!

The old bamboo ladder, long overdue for repairs, swayed precariously as if it might fall apart at any moment.

But there was no choice—the villagers had to climb it step by step to reach the mountain path leading to their homes.

And if you thought climbing the ladder meant you were almost there—think again.

Huangjiabao was a long, narrow valley. Before there were roads, farmers couldn’t afford motorcycles, so they relied on walking. Sometimes, leaving home at dawn, they wouldn’t arrive at their destination until nightfall.

And all of this slowly began to change after Huang Xiujuan arrived.

In the broader national push for rural revitalization, Huang Xiujuan actively sought various support policies for Huangjiabao.

Through connections at the county commerce bureau, she reached out to multiple county enterprises and finally secured a few charitable donations, replacing the dangerous zip line with a concrete bridge that could accommodate vehicles.

Next, the infamous mountain ladder that had once shocked the entire internet was also permanently retired. Huang Xiujuan and her team hired a construction crew to blast through the mountains and build a concrete road straight to the village entrance!

With the road in place, Huang Xiujuan began thinking about how to help the villagers develop specialty crops to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.

Through contacts at the county agricultural bureau, she invited professors from the provincial agricultural university, who discovered that the mountainous terrain of Huangjiabao was particularly suitable for growing yellow peaches and kiwifruit.

Thus, Huang Xiujuan tirelessly traveled around and managed to secure a batch of high-quality kiwifruit and yellow peach saplings for Huangjiabao.

She also invited kiwifruit cultivation experts from the provincial agricultural university to personally teach the villagers how to grow fruit trees.

In the blink of an eye, three years passed, and the mountains were covered with kiwifruit that began bearing fruit in abundance, finally bringing a bountiful harvest.

To help the villagers sell their kiwifruit, Huang Xiujuan exhausted herself running to local wholesale markets, handing out business cards, and promoting Huangjiabao’s kiwifruit to every fruit vendor and wholesaler she could find.

She also approached the county commerce bureau and cultural department, organizing bulk-purchase events for county enterprises and institutions.

In the first year of large-scale kiwifruit production, Huangjiabao’s villagers finally saw their first significant income.

But Huang Xiujuan, on her way back to the village for a meeting after delivering the last batch of kiwifruit, was caught in a storm and perished on this very land…

After her passing, the villagers wept bitterly. On the day of her farewell, the entire Huangjiabao, regardless of age or gender, came to see her off. A few villagers who had previously quarreled with her over kiwifruit farming stood at a distance, watching her funeral procession with tear-streaked faces, overcome with remorse, even slapping themselves in regret!

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, five years had passed since their beloved Secretary Huang left them. Every year, the kiwifruit-covered mountains of Huangjiabao produced high yields, and whenever the villagers spoke of it, they couldn’t help but tell the buyers that Secretary Huang must be watching over them from above.

When they first received this assignment, the entire creative team—from the director to the scriptwriters—was stationed in Huangjiabao for half a month to conduct field research. They visited every household that Huang Xiujuan had helped, listening to the deep longing the villagers still had for Secretary Huang.

Looking back now, Li Lei felt that they had perhaps been too focused on highlighting the self-sacrificing and fearless spirit of the poverty alleviation workers. The portrayal of the female lead, Huang Xiujuan, was fine since her storyline was mostly adapted from real-life events, maintaining authenticity.

However, some of the supporting characters—such as Yang Fan, the new poverty alleviation officer sent to replace Huang Xiujuan—ended up with characterizations that felt rushed and exaggerated.

Simply put, his character setting didn’t align with normal workplace logic.

But neither Li Lei nor screenwriter Le Ling had expected that this oversight would be spotted by a rookie actor who had just debuted—someone who, by all accounts, hadn’t even attended an acting training course!

“Congratulations, Director Li, you’ve discovered a truly gifted newcomer!” Le Ling beamed as she congratulated him.

Screenwriters hate having their scripts revised—unless they genuinely believe their script has issues.

And now, after having the fatal flaw in her script pointed out by Wei Sheng, Le Ling wasn’t upset at all. In fact, she wanted to send him a massive red envelope on the spot!

After all, Mountain Path wasn’t just any ordinary rural drama.

It had been personally selected by the national television network for prime-time airing on their flagship channel!

To be honest, when Le Ling first received this assignment, she felt like gold had fallen from the sky, not just a mere windfall.

If she could write this drama well, her reputation and asking price as a screenwriter would soar beyond her peers.

If she nailed it, she could achieve instant fame in her field!

At this moment, Le Ling was even more eager than Director Li Lei to meet Wei Sheng in person!

Her intuition told her that this young man named Wei Sheng might bring her even more surprises…

Wei Sheng had watched a few entertainment-industry-themed dramas out of boredom before. The plots were so formulaic and brainwashing that they had given him a slightly unfavorable impression of directors and screenwriters.

In TV dramas, directors were either lecherous old men scheming to exploit the female lead or cunning manipulators trying to get her into the bed of a wealthy investor to secure funding.

Screenwriters were even scarier—offend one, and they could just write the main character to death with a stroke of their pen!

So, upon entering the production team, seeing Director Li Lei and screenwriter Le Ling, Wei Sheng immediately switched into ultra-cautious mode, treating them with an almost exaggerated level of respect.

He had never been this reverent before—not even when paying respects to his ancestors at the Wei family’s tomb during Lunar New Year.

Director Li Lei looked a bit older than his official age listed online, with an unkempt beard that suggested he was in some sort of creative slump. Ahem… Looks like making it in showbiz isn’t as easy as the rumors say.

Screenwriter Le Ling, on the other hand, was a stunning woman with a cascade of thick, wavy hair—so voluminous that it completely defied the stereotype of stressed-out writers pulling their hair out over deadlines!

After chatting for a while, Wei Sheng’s fair-skinned face had already turned slightly red.

He had completely misunderstood Director Li Lei. The man wasn’t after his body—he was after his mind! Ahem…

And Sister Le Ling didn’t just kill off a character without saying a word—she was actually very warm and even shared some imported chocolate her boyfriend had sent her.

It was just that the way she looked at him made his skin crawl.

And what was even weirder was—wasn’t he here for an audition?

Why, after meeting him, did they not have him perform a scene to test his acting skills? Not even read a few lines? Instead, they kept asking him what he thought about the character Yang Fan.

What else could he think?

Sitting right in front of the screenwriter, he couldn’t exactly complain that the character was totally unrealistic, could he?

“Oh, come on! Xiao Wei, just speak your mind! Let me tell you, when I was writing Yang Fan, I also felt like something was off. It just didn’t flow well, like I was stuck somewhere. I think you’re right—maybe the character’s setting is just too far removed from reality.”

“How about this—tell me, if you were the poverty alleviation officer, what would you do?”

“Me? Uh, Sister Lingling, I’m here to audition as an actor, and I’ve already signed a contract with an agency. I’m not planning to switch to screenwriting for now.” Wei Sheng politely declined.

“Pfft~ I’m not asking you to switch to screenwriting! How about this, Wei Sheng—we’ll change the audition process today. If you can convince Lingling and get her to approve of your vision for Yang Fan’s character, then we’ll consider your audition a success. How’s that?”

Huh? There’s such a great deal?

With zero acting experience, Wei Sheng was instantly tempted.

This was his area of expertise! Before coming here, when a provincial newspaper journalist interviewed him, they had talked about this very topic for quite a while.

Seeing Wei Sheng suddenly switch into full-on “social butterfly” mode, Zhou Mingxing couldn’t hold back his laughter, coughed once, and slipped outside for a smoke.

“Director Li, Sister Lingling, I’m guessing neither of you has ever worked in the system before, right?”

Both big shots blinked in confusion and shook their heads.

The system? Earning just those few measly bucks a year—what’s the point?

Forget about Director Li Lei, whose net worth was in the billions. Even Le Ling, still young, had made her name early as an online novelist with multiple bestsellers. She had been making millions a year since a young age—why would she ever settle for a government salary?

Wei Sheng smiled shyly. “Well, that’s exactly the core issue here.”

Li Lei and Le Ling both looked intrigued, signaling him to go on.

Wei Sheng didn’t keep them in suspense and quickly broke down the situation for them.

Simply put, to outsiders, Huang Jiabao only became well-known because of Huang Xiujuan. But in the eyes of the local government, the village carried far greater significance!

After Huang Xiujuan’s sacrifice, her story was widely promoted across government institutions nationwide. As the place where she had dedicated her life, Huang Jiabao had practically become a “sacred site” in a certain sense.

To put it bluntly, ever since state media covered Huang Xiujuan’s story, a nationwide movement to learn from her example had begun. Now, every year, about 80% of the visitors coming to Huang Jiabao for study tours were from party and government agencies or corporate party branches.

In other words, as a national model for poverty alleviation, Huang Jiabao had to host a continuous stream of government leaders and officials every year. So, from the village secretary to the mayor, and especially the poverty alleviation officer replacing Huang Xiujuan, there was no way they would assign the role to some hot-headed rookie who was all passion but no capability!

“Let me give you a slightly inappropriate analogy—imagine Emperor Qianlong touring Jiangnan. Would the high-ranking officials there let some reckless, irrational scholar handle the emperor’s reception?”

If the original script’s portrayal of Yang Fan stood, someone who couldn’t even take care of his sick mother or manage his long-term relationship, how could he possibly take on the responsibility of revitalizing an entire village?

Expecting such a person to replace Huang Xiujuan and host high-ranking officials from all over the country? What if he messed up?

Would the county leaders just keep cleaning up after him every time?

So, to avoid a disappointing and illogical finale, the best solution was to respect reality—following standard protocol, after Huang Xiujuan’s passing, a poverty alleviation officer with competence and political acumen, at least equal to or exceeding hers, would be assigned to Huang Jiabao.

Because this show wasn’t some typical entertainment industry “boss lady protagonist” drama.

What it aimed to honor was the countless torchbearers in our country’s battle against poverty and efforts toward rural revitalization!

Only if each succeeding poverty alleviation officer was stronger than the last could we ensure that, after each “Huang Xiujuan” sacrificed themselves, rural development would not be left at a standstill due to a lack of successors.

As Wei Sheng eloquently laid out his argument,

Li Lei and Le Ling sat there, dumbfounded.

It was as if a door to a whole new world was slowly opening before them…

(End of Chapter)

——————

From now on

Mountain Pact->Mountain Path