Chapter 58

After the New Year, the entire production team got busy. Wei Sheng and the others decided to take a weekend trip to Hanzi Village, the filming location for the new season, to scout the area before the show officially started.

This was at the strong insistence of the wealthy lady, Chen Mengjie.

The incident with Wei Sheng using a scrap of floral cloth meant for tying chicken feet as a hairband for her had finally come to light.

During the New Year, some relatives from her hometown gifted her family two baskets of genuine free-range chickens.

That day, Chen Mengjie happened to pass by the backyard when she heard chickens clucking. Curious, she went to take a look.

The more she observed, the more familiar the fabric strips tied around the chickens’ feet seemed. She rushed back to her room and dug out the “souvenir” she had brought back from Houzhai Village.

Good heavens!

It wasn’t just similar—it was identical!

It was literally cut from the kind of old floral jackets worn out in the countryside!

Her vision darkened for a moment. She almost exercised the classic rich lady privilege from novels—sending a few burly men to storm into Grandpa Hu’s house, drag Wei Sheng out, and beat him to a pulp!

She had genuinely thought those floral cloth strips were specially prepared hairbands for her by the kind village aunties.

Give her back her tears, you scoundrel!!!

Then she heard from people at the station that this season’s filming location was even farther than Houzhai Village! And much poorer! Apparently, two teams of poverty alleviation officials had already given up in frustration and left…

The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. But as a young lady with a strong sense of pride, she didn’t want anyone to see her being scared. So, she persuaded the others to take a trip first to check things out.

Thus, on an ordinary weekend, the three of them—excluding Ouyang Xia—met at the airport. Director Ouyang had to receive an inspection delegation and couldn’t join the scouting trip.

From J City, it only took an hour to fly to the nearest airport to Hanzi Village. However, the drive afterward took half a day.

After landing, Zhang Zexuan borrowed an off-road vehicle. Just as they were about to get in, his old classmate stopped them.

“Did you bring small change?”

Huh?

The three of them looked at him, puzzled.

The classmate chuckled at their clueless faces.

“Do you think Hanzi Village is called ‘Hanzi’ for nothing? Every household there used to be professional beggars!”

“That can’t be right,” Wei Sheng frowned. “I looked up information online. The village did struggle in the past due to poor land quality, and many villagers did go begging in groups. But wasn’t there a poverty alleviation effort that helped them out of that situation? How could they still be—”

His voice trailed off.

Because he suddenly remembered what he had told Elder Zhao before.

Clearly, the poverty alleviation data here was also heavily exaggerated.

“They were lifted out of poverty, but then what? The funding stopped. The local government can’t keep supporting them year after year. And as far as I know, even the county itself is struggling financially—civil servants there often don’t get paid on time. When they can’t even feed themselves, where would they find extra resources to help the poorest households?”

Zhang Zexuan’s classmate sighed, opened the trunk, and pulled out a plastic bag filled with coins—at least ten pounds’ worth.

“Split these among yourselves. Hide them in multiple places. And don’t give them all away at once.”

“When you get there, you’ll see beggars blocking the road with bowls, asking for food. Some are real, some are fake. Even we locals can’t tell the difference. Just give them two or three coins at most per person.”

“If you give too much… you might not be able to leave.”

That bad?!

Wei Sheng frowned and immediately decided to leave Chen Mengjie behind in the county.

“I-I’d rather go with you guys,” Chen Mengjie hesitated.

“No way! Haven’t you heard? That whole village is full of beggars! My grandma told me that for centuries, kidnappers and human traffickers have always worked alongside professional beggars! You’re a young woman, and you’re way too pretty—even if you disguise yourself, it’s still risky.” Wei Sheng looked at her seriously.

“Exactly! Mengjie, you staying in the county will actually be a safety measure for us, too. Let’s do this: from now on, we’ll check in every day at mealtime. If Wei Sheng and I suddenly lose contact, you must get people to rescue us!” Zhang Zexuan instructed.

“It won’t be that bad. I’ve heard of child traffickers, but I’ve never heard of them kidnapping grown men,” Zhang Zexuan’s classmate tried to reassure him.

Zhang Zexuan gave him a deadpan look.

“What if they’re connected to those gangs in Northern Myanmar and plan to smuggle us out to harvest our kidneys?”

The classmate: “…”

Okay, okay, I give up! Who knew my old friend had full-blown paranoia?

In the end, Chen Mengjie was forcibly left behind at the county hotel—along with the flashy off-road vehicle Zhang Zexuan had borrowed.

The two of them went to Zhang Zexuan’s classmate’s house and borrowed some old, worn-out clothes.

Wei Sheng had experience going to the countryside to buy local goods, so they also borrowed a nondescript Wuling mini truck. Disguising themselves as vendors collecting specialty products, they followed the GPS for over an hour until they spotted a stone bridge in the distance.

“My classmate said that once we cross this bridge, if we see beggars on the roadside, then we’ve arrived at Hanzi Village,” Zhang Zexuan said grimly.

People with perfectly functional limbs choosing to beg instead of working—it was a despised behavior, whether in ancient times or modern society.

That was why the locals had an unspoken rule:

The stone bridge at the village entrance and the ridge behind the village were the boundaries. Villagers were only allowed to beg within their own village. If they left, they had to go to the county or a big city—begging in nearby townships was strictly forbidden.

After all, the other townships didn’t want their reputations tarnished. If outsiders thought all the beggars came from their area, who would dare marry their daughters into those towns? That would be a bloodline disaster!

Sure enough, as soon as they crossed the bridge, two beggars—each holding a child—blocked their path.

“Please, kind sirs, spare some change so the children can buy a couple of steamed buns. They haven’t eaten in two days…”

The child was so small that their face wasn’t even as big as the head of Wei Sheng’s family cat. Their cheeks had an unhealthy bluish-gray hue, making them look sickly. It was hard to believe that in this day and age, there were still beggars who couldn’t even get enough to eat!

Zhang Zexuan felt sorry for the child and, without counting, grabbed a large handful of coins from his change pouch and dumped them into the woman’s tattered begging bowl, filling it halfway.

The beggar couple was stunned for a moment, then their eyes lit up with wild joy.

The woman, holding the child, suddenly knelt down with a thud and pleaded repeatedly, “Kind man! We’ve met a kind man! Please, kind sir, give us a little more! Our child is sick, and we have no money for treatment or medicine. We can’t just watch him die!”

“If the child is sick, go seek help from the civil affairs department. Looking at your situation, you probably qualify for low-income assistance. Apply there, and at least you’ll have enough to eat every month. That way, you can stay home to take care of the child while your husband goes to work.”

Wei Sheng quickly pulled Zhang Zexuan away and ran.

They had been too naive—falling for the tricks of local professional beggars right from the start.

Wei Sheng had been paying attention. The family’s clothes, though dirty, weren’t torn. There was no wear and tear on the cuffs or sleeves, clearly “distressed” on purpose to look old. Ugh! The “props team” wasn’t even trying!

After finally getting away from the family, they hadn’t gone far before their car was stopped by a blind man with a cane.

At first glance, this one actually looked like a real blind person. His eyes seemed to have severe cataracts, and his ill-fitting shoes, likely scavenged, had holes so big that both big toes were exposed.

Reckless or simply desperate, as soon as he heard their car approaching, he stepped right into the middle of the road, holding up a broken bowl and calling out, “Please have mercy! Spare some change!”

What else could Wei Sheng do?

He grabbed another handful of money—not dropping it into the bowl but carefully tucking it into the blind man’s coat pocket—before helping him sit by the roadside.

“Uncle, your eyes are in such bad shape, and your family still sends you out to beg? Why haven’t they taken you for treatment? I remember disabled individuals from impoverished households receive monthly subsidies.”

If the blind man’s family was deliberately mistreating him—forcing a disabled person to beg for their income—Wei Sheng had to step in! At the very least, he needed to report this to the local civil affairs department to find the man a safe place to stay.

The blind man seemed surprised by the question, hesitated for a moment, then nodded and licked his chapped lips. “My family won’t give me food or water. Kind sir, could you spare some water?”

Wei Sheng was still holding him up, so he called out to Zhang Zexuan to grab a sealed bottle of mineral water from the car.

Zhang Zexuan retrieved a bottle of water and two unopened fresh milk cakes from the back seat. The two of them watched as the blind beggar wolfed down the food, gulped half the bottle of water, and then refused any assistance in applying for aid.

Feeling uneasy, they returned to their car.

About a hundred meters down the road, Wei Sheng reached for the back seat to grab some water and suddenly shouted, “Crap! My bag’s gone!”

Zhang Zexuan slammed on the brakes. Turning around, he saw that both their backpacks had vanished! Only half a case of bottled water and a bag of snacks remained.

Even the bag of spare change Zhang Zexuan had prepared was gone!

Wei Sheng was quick-witted. It didn’t take him long to put the pieces together.

Damn! It was a diversion!

The pitiful old blind man had been there to stall them, while his accomplices took advantage of the distraction to open the car doors and steal their belongings!

Most drivers, when stepping out for a quick errand, don’t bother locking their doors. Some even leave their keys in the ignition with the doors wide open… Who could have guessed that in just a few moments, their car would be cleaned out?

Not even a single cent was left behind!

Wei Sheng’s face darkened. He quickly patted his coat pockets.

Luckily, his phone was still there! A bit of spare cash in his inner pocket had also gone untouched.

Zhang Zexuan, however, wasn’t so fortunate. He had left his phone in the car as a GPS, and now even the charging cable had been stolen!

“Damn it! It has to be that blind guy!” Zhang Zexuan finally put two and two together.

“Forget it. Let’s call the police first.”

Wei Sheng pulled out his phone and dialed 110.

Before long, the local police station called back.

After confirming the exact location of the theft, the officers on the other end simply sighed.

Of course. It was the infamous “Beggar Village.” Nothing surprising there.

The police advised Wei Sheng and Zhang Zexuan to wait in a safe spot outside the village. Their resigned tone suggested they were all too familiar with these cases.

While waiting for the officers, Wei Sheng had Zhang Zexuan drive into the village for a quick look.

He was blunt about it. As soon as a beggar approached, he shouted, “No money left! Your village folks stole everything!”

Well then! The moment the beggars realized he was a victim of one of their own, they scattered like cockroaches. Their practiced reaction spoke volumes.

They must have known all too well how their own people operated—when they struck, they left nothing behind.

The only reason they didn’t steal the vehicle was that a small truck would be too conspicuous and easy to track. Besides, their “trade” had its own hierarchy. Car thieves were considered “big-time criminals” and wouldn’t stick around in a place like this—they’d be in the city pulling off “major heists.”

“This really is a professional beggar village…” Zhang Zexuan muttered with a bitter laugh.

“And a seriously impoverished one, too. Just look at their houses.” Wei Sheng sighed, pointing outside.

It was hard to believe that in this day and age, such dilapidated mud houses still existed!

They had no idea how old these adobe homes were, but the straw roofs had been weathered down to a thin layer, with some parts completely exposing the wooden beams beneath!

The old house, covered with a layer of tiles, wasn’t in much better shape. Most of the tiles had rotted away, and the gaps between them were overgrown with “tile moss”—a common type of succulent in rural areas—that had spread across the roof and even hung down from the eaves, creating a kind of desolate, chaotic beauty.

Along the roadside, the village had about a dozen red brick houses, likely the so-called “poverty alleviation results” from previous years.

Wei Sheng recalled that the station’s archives had reports on this kind of project, stating that local governments funded the reconstruction of dilapidated rural homes for impoverished households. In some places, if the contractors had a conscience, they built decent houses.

But those without a conscience—or worse, those colluding with local poverty alleviation officials to embezzle funds—would end up doing things like this: a planned two-story house becoming a single-story red brick house instead. After all, the villagers didn’t know construction standards, and they were getting a free house—how could they dare to complain?

Of course, in some places, the government provided direct subsidies to the households. However, building a house in rural areas wasn’t cheap. Even with subsidies of tens of thousands per household, it was often only enough for two rooms like these red brick houses. If villagers wanted to tear down an old house and build something better, they had to invest a significant amount of their own money.

As a result, places like Huazi Village emerged—villagers built whatever the government funding allowed. If there wasn’t enough money for a proper house, they settled for a couple of red brick rooms. As long as it kept the wind and rain out, wasn’t it still livable?

“Wait a minute! When we start filming in a few days, Director Wang wouldn’t actually make us stay in one of these red brick houses, would he?” Zhang Zexuan was growing increasingly uneasy, his face darkening.

Wei Sheng rolled his eyes. “If we actually get to stay in a red brick house, that wouldn’t be too bad. I’m afraid for the sake of ‘good TV,’ we’ll be made to stay in one of those old houses we just saw…”

Zhang Zexuan sucked in a sharp breath.

He suddenly felt the urge to borrow an RV.

If it really came to that, the four of them could squeeze into an RV for the night—it would be tight, but at least manageable.

“We might really need to borrow an RV. The three of us men can manage, but it’s too unsafe for Sister Chen to stay in one of those old houses at night…” Wei Sheng made a mental note of this.

The car made a loop through the village, but Zhang Zexuan didn’t dare to stop. He was afraid that if he parked, the villagers might even strip his car of its tires!

After driving out of the village and taking a wide detour, they stopped at a fork in the road near the base of a hill.

From here, they could see the vast farmland outside the village.

At this time of year, the wheat fields should have been lush and green, but it was clear that the villagers of Huazi Village had no interest in farming. Most of the fields lay abandoned, last year’s rice stalks still visible in the soil.

The few wheat fields that remained were sparse and poorly tended—obviously unfertilized and overgrown with weeds taller than the wheat itself.

“How much money can you even make growing wheat? If I were a beggar, I wouldn’t bother farming either. I’d just lie by the roadside and wait. A hundred cars pass by every day—if each driver gave me two yuan, I’d make 200 yuan a day, that’s 6,000 yuan a month. That’s more than what our station pays temporary workers,” Zhang Zexuan scoffed.

He wanted a cigarette, but his pack was in his backpack—which had also been stolen. The thought of it made his nicotine craving worse, and he rolled his eyes in frustration.

Wei Sheng glanced at him in amusement, then got out of the car. After a moment, he returned with a handful of cogongrass roots, washed them in a clear roadside stream, and the two of them locked the car before squatting by the roadside, chewing on the roots while waiting for the local police.

Just then, Chen Mengjie called.

“Wei Sheng? How are you guys? I just called Brother Zhang’s phone, and a little kid answered. He was speaking in dialect, so I didn’t understand him. I asked a couple of questions, and then they suddenly hung up…” Chen Mengjie’s clear voice came through the receiver.

“Don’t even bring it up! Brother Zhang’s phone was stolen!”

“What?”

“Not just his phone—our luggage, wallets, your camera, and even the pocket change his friend gave him. All gone…” The more Wei Sheng spoke, the more unlucky he felt. He had traveled to rural areas so many times, but this was the worst loss he’d ever suffered!

On the other end, Chen Mengjie was speechless for a long moment before finally asking if they needed someone to bring them money.

“No need. Just stay put in the county. We already called the police, and they said they’ll be here soon.”

As he spoke, they could already hear the sound of police sirens in the distance.

When the local police learned that they were journalists from J Province TV Station, they immediately took the case seriously.

For regular theft cases, if the amount was small, victims were usually just given some comforting words and told to accept their loss. If the amount was larger, the police would open a case and follow standard procedures—investigating and returning stolen property if they managed to recover it.

But this time, the victims were journalists, and their stolen belongings included a camera worth over 20,000 yuan. That was a big deal! If the media reported this, even though Huazi Village already had a terrible reputation, what if the report ended up mentioning the county as well?

If county officials lost face, the township police station would be in for trouble too.

The officers immediately offered to take them back to the village to find the old blind man from earlier. Since the theft had happened recently, there was a chance the stolen items hadn’t been sold off yet. They had to act fast to recover as much as possible.

The local police were clearly familiar with the situation in Huazi Village. They went straight to the so-called “boss” of the village beggars—a middle-aged man with a fierce look.

Upon hearing that the victims were provincial TV journalists, the man glanced at Wei Sheng and Zhang Zexuan, making their hearts race.

Wei Sheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief—thankfully, he had chosen to call the police first instead of rushing back to the village on his own. Otherwise, they might not have just lost their belongings, but their safety as well.

The middle-aged man, after listening to Wei Sheng’s description of the theft, nodded and left to find the culprits.

About twenty minutes later, the man—known as “Grandpa Jin”—returned with their backpacks.

The bags had been rummaged through, and all the cash was gone. However, their wallets, ID cards, TV station access cards, work badges, Zhang Zexuan’s phone, and Chen Mengjie’s camera had all been recovered.

“Old Jin, where’s the money?” The police officer’s expression darkened.

“Forget it, forget it. There wasn’t much cash anyway. Let it go, we don’t need it,” Wei Sheng quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

“They said they didn’t see the money. These two didn’t mark their cash, so I can’t find it. If you want to find it, I’ll have to raid their homes,” Grandpa Jin muttered.

Wei Sheng broke into a sweat—raid their homes? Was he acting in a period drama?

The investigating police officer was about to say something, but Zhang Zexuan stopped him.

“Comrade police, it’s fine. There wasn’t much money to begin with. Let’s just consider it as buying some food for the village’s poor. As long as we can get our phones and IDs back, we’re good.”

The two of them had arrived in high spirits for the rural trip, but less than a day later, they were back in the county in disgrace.

To their surprise, big-mouth Chen Mengjie had already blabbed about their being completely robbed in Huazi Village, and the news had spread through the program’s group chat.

Aside from the director and the producer, who expressed some concern and asked if they were okay, the rest of the group was just laughing.

Wei Sheng was speechless for a moment, then mischievously tagged everyone in the group—

“In a few days, we’ll be recording the program in the village. I’ve heard that in Huazi, they steal everything. Losing our own stuff is one thing, but if they lose our station’s equipment… hehe!”

As soon as the message was sent, the group chat quickly changed from “hahaha” to “ahhhhh,” as the office workers began to panic, begging the director to arrange for someone to guard against theft. The station’s equipment was too expensive—if it was lost, they’d probably have to work for the station their entire lives to pay it off.

Seeing everyone else as anxious and troubled as they were, Wei Sheng finally felt satisfied.

“Do you think Director Wang and Boss Wang are thinking? There are so many poor villages in the country, why pick this kind of Huazi Village? I think these people are lazy and good-for-nothing. They probably live more comfortably than we do, they definitely don’t need poverty alleviation!” Zhang Zexuan ranted while driving.

“Maybe it’s because even the poverty alleviation officials have given up on this village, so they called the program team for help?” Wei Sheng also felt that the second season had started with a hellish mode.

He had been paying attention earlier, and this village was nothing like Houzhai Village and Huangjiabao, the other two they had helped.

Other poor villages had a genuine desire to escape poverty, but the people couldn’t find a direction to work toward. Or the local products that farmers worked hard to grow had no market to sell in. These were challenges that could be overcome with some effort.

But Huazi Village’s only “local specialty” was a group of professional beggars. How were they supposed to help them?

(End of Chapter)