Chapter 45

“You two are just the worst!” The assistant director, who had worked with Li Lei for nearly ten years, complained as he mercilessly assigned He Yani to team up with the most sharp-tongued old granny in the village.

“You’re no better yourself!” Li Lei snorted, then secretly exchanged intel with his wife—

“I heard that Granny Cuimei is the most infamous mother-in-law in Huangjiapu. She has two sons. The eldest daughter-in-law couldn’t stand her and ran away with her child, disappearing for years.”

“Because of this, her younger son couldn’t find a wife locally. He later went to the city for work and tricked a woman from the factory into marrying him. But I bet it’s only a matter of time before she runs away too…”

Unexpectedly, after hearing Granny Cuimei’s “long list of misdeeds,” He Yani actually brightened up. “I had someone look into that Ding family. Turns out his parents aren’t any better. Normally, girls are reluctant to marry out because life is never as good at the in-laws’ as it is at home.”

“But oddly enough, all three daughters from the Ding family barely return home after marriage, except for New Year’s. They were skinny as sticks when they were at home, but after getting married, they all became plump and rosy-cheeked. Tsk tsk~”

If they were so harsh on their own daughters, how would they treat their daughters-in-law?

At first, He Yayun had planned to show her younger sister the information she had found, in case she couldn’t persuade her.

But now that she thought about it, what could be more effective than firsthand experience of such a “memorable” lesson?

On a misty morning, the first scene of Mountain Path after the script revision officially began filming!

This was also newcomer Wei Sheng’s first time taking the lead as the male protagonist for the second half of the drama.

What shocked the entire crew was that after a major revision, Li Lei had the screenwriter, Le Ling, shift the main role from Huang Xiujuan to Wei Sheng.

Originally a female-led drama, though not officially announced, it was now clearly a dual-lead story.

Despite losing screen time, Shen Yi showed no signs of being upset.

Her response moved Li Lei and the others deeply.

Shen Yi said, “I think if Teacher Huang Xiujuan were still watching over us, she would also hope that after her, Huangjiapu would have an even better successor!”

This was the shared hope of all poverty alleviation officers working on the front lines.

Only if each generation surpasses the last can the foundations they painstakingly built not be ruined by incompetence.

And only then can the road to rural revitalization in our country become wider and smoother!

Thus, the latter half of Mountain Path officially became Wei Sheng’s “main stage.”

“No way! I’m still a bit nervous! Let me take a moment…”

Looking at the crowd below the stage, even the usually outgoing Wei Sheng felt his legs go weak.

“What are you panicking for? Just treat them like investors. Imagine that you have no money and no workforce, but you have to somehow convince them to work for free and build this mountain road!” Shen Yi encouraged him.

“Don’t see them as ordinary villagers—think of them as your financial backers! Go for it!”

Wei Sheng put down the script he had memorized inside out, took a deep breath, and followed the Huangjiapu village officials, who were acting as supporting characters, up the cement steps.

The first major scene after the reshoot was completed in less than a morning.

Although he fumbled his lines a few times due to excitement, Wei Sheng’s performance still earned a thumbs-up from Director Li Lei. “Not bad! Wei is improving fast! That 20,000-yuan-per-session acting class from President Zhou wasn’t wasted!”

Mentioning the class fees instantly hit a sore spot for the frugal Wei Sheng.

“What do you mean President Zhou paid for it? I paid for it, okay? President Zhou said he booked five sessions for me, and this 100,000 yuan in private lessons is coming straight out of my paycheck!”

Hearing this, Le Ling immediately felt sorry for him and quickly reassured him, “It’s just 100,000 yuan, no big deal! With all the extra scenes you’ve been given, you’re practically the second male lead now. Your pay definitely won’t be calculated based on a cameo role anymore. For this drama, you should be making at least this much!”

She discreetly held up two fingers, and Wei Sheng immediately stopped worrying about his 100,000-yuan acting fees.

With so many extra scenes, memorizing lines alone had him questioning his life choices. Though Zhou Mingxing and Li Lei hadn’t mentioned anything yet, Wei Sheng figured his pay for this drama had to be renegotiated.

Sure enough, a week later, the revised script was finalized! The production team then drafted a new contract for him based on his actual screen time and role expansion.

“Take a look. With the changes, you’ll now be in 22 episodes. The first few are just minor appearances, but your role grows significantly later on. You know the nature of this drama—it’s a poverty alleviation show, not a high-budget production. The main point is to give you some prestige by working with Director Li. Your total pay, including promotional activities like livestreams and interviews after the show airs, is set at 2 million yuan.”

To make sure Wei Sheng understood how they arrived at this number, Zhou Mingxing explained it in detail.

At this price, hiring a decent actor for the second male lead in the entertainment industry was impossible—they charge hundreds of thousands per episode!

But since Wei Sheng was a newcomer, that was just the reality.

“No problem! Let’s sign it!” Wei Sheng agreed readily.

Being able to participate in filming this special poverty alleviation drama—letting more people know Huang Xiujuan’s story and the story of Huangjiabao—even if it didn’t make money, Wei Sheng was still willing.

But who told Zhou Mingxing to be so good at spending money? He actually hired an acting coach for him at 20,000 yuan per session?!

That price—was he teaching some kind of ascension technique?

Although after five sessions, he still hadn’t ascended, looking at the contract’s paycheck, Wei Sheng suddenly felt that the 100,000 yuan wasn’t a total loss…

Good people get good rewards, and fools get their due. While Wei Sheng unexpectedly landed a labor contract worth two million, Director Li’s troublesome sister-in-law also ended up with a “stand-in mother-in-law.”

No one knew how much money He Yaru secretly slipped to Granny Cuimei, but the old lady seemed determined to use every single one of the eighteen tricks up a rural mother-in-law’s sleeve to torment He Yani!

Before leaving, He Yaru looked at her most pampered little sister with a mocking smile and said coldly:

“Didn’t you say that as long as you could be with Ding Chengcai, you’d be willing to eat coarse grain and wild greens?”

“Alright then! Your brother-in-law still has two months left of filming this poverty alleviation drama. From today onward, you’ll eat and live with the mothers-in-law of Huangjiabao! Treat it as a preview of your future married life in the Ding family!”

“Don’t worry. I always keep my word. As long as you can endure two months here and still want to marry into the Ding family when you come back, I’ll personally convince Mom and Dad to give you a grand wedding!”

“Fine! You said it!” He Yani tossed her thick, seaweed-like chestnut-colored hair and confidently strode over to Granny Cuimei.

“Aiya! Girl, your hair won’t do. We mountain folk work hard—who walks around with their hair all loose like that? Here, wear this!”

With that, Granny Cuimei pulled out a headscarf patched together from floral fabric scraps and an elastic band, and within seconds, she had wrapped the fashionable, glamorous rich girl into a village peasant named Cuihua…

“I…” He Yani didn’t even need a mirror to know how ridiculous she looked!

She absolutely didn’t want to wear such an ugly headscarf, let alone one made from scraps of different-colored fabric—it looked like something a beggar would wear!

But her eldest sister was watching. No matter what, she had to prove herself!

Besides, no one here knew her. As long as she wore a mask, who would recognize her besides her sister and brother-in-law?

What was a measly headscarf?

Soon enough, Granny Cuimei made He Yani realize a harsh truth—rural mothers-in-law were far better at tormenting daughters-in-law than any rich city mother-in-law!

Zhang Cuimei’s two sons originally worked outside the village, but this year, many construction sites shut down, and their boss said he couldn’t afford so many workers. Since the local factory was hiring, Zhang Cuimei called her sons back to find work.

The eldest son refused to return.

No surprise there—his perfectly good family had been torn apart by his own mother, his wife had taken their child and disappeared, and he was still holding a grudge. He refused to come back, and Zhang Cuimei couldn’t do anything about it.

Luckily, she still had her younger daughter-in-law firmly under her control. Her younger son wanted a warm home with a wife and child, so he had no choice but to carry his luggage back.

Once they returned, Granny Cuimei arranged everything neatly—her younger son, Huang Xinfan, went to the bamboo processing factory to cut bamboo, earning six to seven thousand yuan a month. Her younger daughter-in-law worked odd jobs in the village while also taking on piecework from the factory, making three to four hundred yuan a day.

Even with this income, Granny Cuimei was still stingy. Going into the mountains to pick wild vegetables was hard work, yet she only allowed her younger daughter-in-law to boil six potatoes in the morning.

What? You say two potatoes per person isn’t enough?

Didn’t the film crew say they’d be cooking with earthen stoves and making wild vegetable porridge? Since the women were the ones doing the cooking, they could just sneak a few extra bowls of wild vegetable porridge to fill up, right?

Poor He Yani.

She had assumed that Granny Cuimei’s so-called “wild vegetable porridge” was something like the vegetable porridge she used to have at home—made with a rich chicken broth base, with dried scallops, sea cucumber, and shredded chicken cooked until the rice was soft and creamy, finished with a sprinkle of chopped green onions and vegetables.

Back when she was staging hunger strikes at home just to be with Ding Chengcai, the family’s housekeeper often made chicken porridge for her, worried that she would hurt her stomach.

Thinking that she’d get to have some nourishing vegetable porridge, He Yani didn’t care about the two potatoes at all.

She had never eaten a whole boiled potato before—was that even edible?

“Alright, ladies, today’s going to be tough! To highlight the difficult living conditions in Huangjiabao, we’ve found a steep hillside for you to gather wild vegetables. Please be careful!”

The assistant director announced their filming plans with a loudspeaker.

Then, they were led to the base of a mountain.

The mountain wasn’t very high, but it was extremely steep!

Even more surprising was that despite the steep slopes, there were terraced fields carved into the mountainside.

At this time of year, the rice, corn, and potatoes had already been harvested, leaving the terraces empty. However, along the ridges and within the fields, plenty of local wild vegetables were still growing—and that was their task for the day.

He Yani had imagined that gathering wild vegetables meant carrying a small basket and lightly digging at the soil with a tiny hoe.

In reality, to find edible wild vegetables, they had to climb up the steep hillside using both their hands and feet.

At the base of the mountain, there were brambles, thorny bushes, and vines with sharp spikes. Wild rose branches lurked beneath their feet, and He Yani, not paying attention, tripped over a cluster of wild roses and nearly tumbled down the slope!

Luckily, she grabbed onto a few small tree branches just in time.

By the time she was pulled up, still shaken, she realized that her stylish sportswear had a hole in the knee, and her delicate palm was covered in scratches from the tiny thorns on the branches!

“It hurts! It hurts so much, wuwuwu~” Clutching her injured, bleeding hand, He Yani’s tears fell in big drops.

“What are you crying for? When I was your age, I was eight months pregnant with my eldest child and still chopping firewood in the mountains. Young daughters-in-law all go through this. Work for a few more days, and you’ll get used to it.” Granny Cuimei pulled out a handful of plant ash from somewhere and slapped it onto He Yani’s bleeding palm, pressing down hard. Sure enough, the bleeding stopped within moments.

He Yani choked out a thank you.

But seeing her now blackened palm, she felt like crying again.

“Hey, you! Hurry up and keep up with the group! We’re about to start filming!” The assistant director hollered through a megaphone from behind.

The director had specifically said that they had to use this shoot to make his sister-in-law truly experience what it was like to marry into a poor rural area!

It wasn’t that they looked down on poor mountain villages—it was just that everyone wanted a better life. Didn’t they see how so many young women from the countryside would rather spend their whole lives working in factories than return to the mountains?

People were fighting to escape, and yet here she was, a rich young lady willingly throwing herself into hardship?

This level of love-struck foolishness would make even Wang Baochuan* speechless!

(*Wang Baochuan: A legendary Chinese figure who waited 18 years in poverty for her husband, Xue Pinggui, who later became a king.)

At least Wang Baochuan had foresight—she saw that Xue Pinggui had the makings of a great man. Sure enough, he later became the King of Xiliang, and she became queen, even if it was only for eighteen days.

But what did that Ding guy have? He came from a poor family yet had sky-high ambitions. Others who got into university worked hard to earn money and support their families, but he? Even after graduating, he wasn’t satisfied—he still wanted his family to support him while he took the civil service exam!

What, if he never passed the exam, was he just going to let his family support him forever?

Marrying a man like this, who had high expectations but no ability to endure hardship, meant that while other women were enjoying life, He Yani would be stuck eating coarse grains and struggling alongside the Ding family.

With this in mind, the assistant director signaled the cameraman to set up a dedicated shot to track He Yani.

If the footage made it into the final cut, it would be an emotional scene—a city girl who married into the village, enduring pain and hardship to help build roads for the community.

If it didn’t make the final cut, they could still edit a rough version to show the director’s wife. Who knows? Maybe He Yaru would even reward them with a big red envelope!

After all, stopping a love-struck fool from ruining her life was a truly noble deed!

“Yani, come on! I’ll teach you how to recognize the local wild greens!” Granny Cuimei called from up ahead.

This time, He Yani didn’t dare slack off. She mimicked the other village women, bending her waist like an old ox plowing a field, gripping the clumps of grass on the slope as she slowly climbed up.

She finally reached Granny Cuimei, only to hear her muttering, “Took her half a day just to climb this little slope. City girls really are useless!”

“Good thing she’s not my daughter-in-law. If she were, I’d have her climbing three mountains a day until she could run up them with ease!”

He Yani’s vision went dark, and she nearly tumbled down the slope again!

At that moment, for the first time, she thought back to the occasional things Ding Chengcai had mentioned about his family.

Apparently, his parents were lifelong farmers, toiling under the sun, raising potatoes, corn, and pigs to provide for their four children. Their lives were hard, and they still lived in a house made of mud bricks.

Back then, He Yani had felt so sorry for them and even promised that once they got married, they would buy a big house and bring his parents to the city to enjoy a better life.

She still remembered how angry Ding Chengcai had been when she said that, insisting that although his family was poor, they would never spend his wife’s family’s money.

Later, she changed her approach, saying that once they were married, she would find a job, and together, they would save up to build a big house for his parents in their hometown. Only then did Ding Chengcai finally look pleased.

Now that she thought about it—what did she even like about Ding Chengcai?

(End of Chapter)