Chapter 62

A single night market livestream turned what was supposed to be a proper poverty alleviation program into a legal drama again!

Netizens who were following the show commented: “You can skip other programs, but with Retracing the Road to Poverty Alleviation, you can’t even miss the teaser livestream!”

Who knows what shocking twist will drop during the stream next?

Last time it was catching a thief. This time, a domestic abuser popped up!

Good grief! Just how many hidden subplots does this program have that we don’t know about?

Liang Haibo was taken away by the patrol officers. Since Cao Dong was directly involved, he had to go to the police station to give a statement. After some discussion, the production team decided to temporarily pause the livestream. Ouyang Xia, Wei Sheng, and the others all accompanied Cao Dong to the station.

When they arrived, the officer asked a few questions and found out that Cao Dong was already sixteen years old. He couldn’t help but let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Before the others could react, Wei Sheng was already grinning: “That’s great! According to the Civil Code, minors who are at least sixteen years old, as long as they’re not relying on parental support and are making a living through their own labor, are considered to have full civil capacity!”

In other words, Cao Dong now had full civil capacity and no longer needed a legal guardian…

He could legally cut ties with Liang Haibo—the abusive scumbag he had for a father!

“Impossible! He’s my blood! He’s got my blood in his veins! He can forget about denying me as his father in this lifetime!” Liang Haibo glared at Cao Dong furiously.

Cao Dong’s eyes reddened with rage. He looked like he was ready to tear the man to pieces.

Wei Sheng calmly patted Cao Dong’s thin back and turned to Liang Haibo with a mocking smile. Each word that followed was sharper than the last:

“Xiao Dong’s a filial kid. He never said he was cutting you off.”

“But he’s still just a child. You don’t look like you’re dying anytime soon, so I guess he doesn’t need to provide for you yet, right?”

“But don’t worry—when the day comes that you’re bedridden and paralyzed, if no one’s willing to sign the DNR form, as your biological son, Xiao Dong will be more than happy to help. He’ll sign off and declare that further treatment should be stopped… assuming you even dare have someone notify him at that point.”

You killed Xiao Dong’s mother with your own hands and still dream about him caring for you in your old age?

Sure, he’ll take care of you. One day is still technically “taking care.”

Wei Sheng believed that when the time came, Cao Dong would be very willing to send this beast off on his final journey.

After all, trying to save someone like that would just be a waste of the country’s medical resources. Better that he die early and be reborn into the Animal Realm. Spend a few lifetimes as cattle or a horse, paying off the karmic debt he’s racked up in this life.

“Pfft—your mouth is vicious. Have you been hanging out with those rascals too much?” Chen Mengjie nearly burst out laughing at Wei Sheng.

Seeing Liang Haibo was like seeing the man who killed his mother. Cao Dong had originally been boiling with rage, even wanting to die together with the bastard. But after hearing Wei Sheng’s words, even he couldn’t help but chuckle.

He had absolutely no desire to be Liang Haibo’s son!

But when he thought about how being his son gave him the legal right to sign off on treatment refusal in the future… he almost wanted to fast-forward straight to that day.

Don’t worry. He would definitely send him off properly—with a smile on his face.

Wei Sheng’s words were like poison. Liang Haibo, who had just been swaggering with the confidence of being “the real father,” suddenly looked like he’d been slapped in the face.

Right. He was in his prime now, relying on brute strength to beat his son however he liked.

But he’d get old eventually. His new wife had only given him a daughter and flatly refused to have more. He only had Dongdong. If things didn’t go well in the future, he might actually have to rely on Dongdong to care for him.

But he’d gone too far. He killed Dongdong’s mother, treated the kid like dirt…

Wei Sheng’s words might not be a joke. One day, when he was lying on his deathbed and the doctors called Dongdong over to ask whether to resuscitate…

No doubt about it! The kid would sign the waiver! He might even pull the oxygen tube himself—just like in those TV dramas.

Wait—what if this brat hated him so much he wouldn’t even buy a burial plot? What if he just had his remains cremated and the ashes scattered?

Wouldn’t that mean dying without a proper grave?

The more he imagined, the more horrified Liang Haibo became.

Cao Dong let out a cold laugh, completely ignoring him. Once he finished his statement, he left the station with Wei Sheng and the others.

“Don’t worry. We’ve got your back. Wherever you go from now on, just keep your livestream on. With that many viewers watching, he won’t dare try anything,” Ouyang Xia comforted him.

“I’ll find two bodyguards to go with you when you’re running your night market stall!” rich-girl Chen Mengjie added.

“This is infuriating! Isn’t there some better way to deal with someone like that? What if he grabs Xiao Dong and drags him off when we’re not paying attention?” Zhang Zexuan frowned.

Everyone turned to look at Wei Sheng.

That kid had eight hundred tricks up his sleeve. He must have a plan, right?

Wei Sheng’s eyes lit up. He decided: in for a penny, in for a pound.

“Xiao Dong, that Grandpa Jin in your village… isn’t he from the underworld?” Wei Sheng suddenly recalled that fierce-looking “Uncle Jin.”

“Yeah, Grandpa Jin used to be the head of the local beggar gang. I heard that back in the day, no one in the area could beg without his permission. You even had to pay him a protection fee every month. Then came the crackdown on organized crime, and, well…”

“Even though he’s been to prison, he’s righteous and has a lot of clout in our village. Everyone’s afraid of him.”

“Perfect! Then we’ll do what that girl who got cheated on did. We’ll pay Grandpa Jin to find a couple of tough guys who don’t need to do anything—just follow your dad around. The moment he comes within ten meters of you, they’ll beat the crap out of him!”

“As long as they don’t cause serious injuries, after a few beatings, your dad will get the message. Once he knows you’ve got a big shot backing you, I doubt he’ll dare mess with Grandpa Jin…”

This move, Wei Sheng had learned from an auntie in his apartment complex.

This old aunt was Grandma Hu’s long-time best friend. The aunt’s daughter had bad luck in life—she married a man who was also fond of domestic violence. Fortunately, the girl had a reliable family to fall back on.

When the aunt found out her son-in-law dared to hit her daughter, she was furious!

Ordinary old ladies might gather a group and storm over to scratch the son-in-law bloody—but what’s the point of scratching? Would that really vent the anger? Besides, if they scratched him now and left, what if the bastard took his rage out on her daughter later?

This old lady was no pushover. She simply brought her daughter home, then paid—God knows where she found the money—two burly men who didn’t need to do anything else but keep an eye on that abusive bastard and beat him down whenever the chance arose!

“You like to use your fists, huh? Fine—let’s see how much fun you have when it’s used on you!”

What’s that? Got beaten up twice and now you’re too scared to go home? Well, you still have to go to work, don’t you? If not, you’ll need to find a place to stay, right?

The two men she hired did nothing but stalk the abuser. If he tried to sneak out somewhere, they’d drag him out and give him another thrashing.

In the end, they beat the guy until he was terrified out of his wits. He got down on his knees, begged for mercy, and swore he’d never lay a finger on the aunt’s daughter again.

Rumor has it, the man ended up with stress-induced incontinence—he’d wet his pants just from seeing his wife.

The aunt’s daughter, once trapped in the nightmare of that marriage and unable to pull herself out, saw her husband piss himself and instantly felt so disgusted that she no longer had any sorrow left. Within days, she initiated a divorce.

“Damn! Who knew those square-dancing aunties were so badass? Looks like I should go make friends with a few more of them,” Chen Mengjie muttered.

Wei Sheng laughed out loud. “Definitely go befriend some square-dancing aunties! I’m telling you, these aunties are unstoppable—they can take down toxic mothers-in-law and crush cheating, abusive men. There’s no monster they can’t handle!”

Beside them, Zhang Zexuan was breaking into a cold sweat. He silently vowed: in the future, when I look for a girlfriend, I’ll make damn sure her mom doesn’t dance in the square. Absolutely not. That’s a clan of terrors!

Poor Liang Haibo, after getting thoroughly intimidated by Wei Sheng, still had some vain hope of patching up the father-son relationship. But before he could even get close, he was snatched up like a chicken by two hulking men and dragged into an alley for a savage beating!

Afterward, they made sure to mock and threaten him viciously—

“Look at this coward. You really think you’re worthy of being Xiao Dong’s biological father?”

“Stay away from him! He’s under Master Jin’s protection now!”

“What are you staring at? You come near him again, we’ll put out your eyes. You hear me?!”

These guys under Master Jin weren’t your average thugs. They were the real deal. Compared to Liang Haibo, who only beat on women and children, they were in a whole different league. They didn’t even need a second time—just once was enough to scare him half to death!

He’d rather go back and knock up his new wife now, hoping to squeeze out another son before he ends up bedridden. No way he’d rely on Cao Dong anymore.

That son hated him to the bone. And now he was mixed up with actual gangsters? He’d get himself killed eventually—completely unreliable… Liang Haibo convinced himself of this and, out of fear that Cao Dong might come after him, even changed jobs and fled to another city to work.

Maybe it was karma, or maybe Heaven had had enough of his evil. Half a month later, while browsing short videos, Cao Dong suddenly came across a news clip about a construction site accident.

A migrant worker got into a fight with the contractor over unpaid wages and, during the scuffle, accidentally shoved a bystander into a foundation pit over ten meters deep. The man died instantly.

That bystander was none other than Liang Haibo—the same man who had strutted around the night market not long ago, threatening to kill Cao Dong.

Later, Cao Dong heard from Master Jin’s men that Liang Haibo’s new wife took the death benefit and quickly remarried—only to end up with a gambling addict who spent all her money and forced her at knifepoint to sell her body for more gambling funds…

Cao Dong didn’t know if that counted as retribution. But he would always remember how his mother had once lain bloodied and motionless on the ground after being beaten by that man.

He thought, if Mom’s spirit were watching from above and saw that man still hurting him, she would’ve dragged him away to protect him, even from the grave.

A few days after leaving the police station, Wang Qun’s side really did manage to get a specialist appointment for Cao Dong at the provincial people’s hospital.

Cao Dong brought the old blind man to see the specialist for a full check-up, and the results came back quickly.

The good news: the old man’s rheumatism wasn’t too serious.

The bad news: the real issue was that after years of living rough, the old man’s health had deteriorated far too much. He probably didn’t have many years left…

Old Cao knew his days were numbered. Nobody knew what he said to Master Jin, but in the end, he had Cao Dong and a few of the kids acknowledge Master Jin as their godfather.

What no one expected was that Master Jin, after accepting these godchildren, actually put aside his past for good and earnestly started doing legitimate business!

A few local thugs from the Beggars’ Village had originally planned to mooch off the poverty-alleviation team working in the area. But when they saw that even Master Jin was siding with the program, they immediately backed off. They just wanted some easy money—not to get on the bad side of someone like Master Jin, who was famous for holding grudges.

He might’ve washed his hands clean of the underworld, but his fists still worked. Beating a few punks was child’s play to him.

With Master Jin holding down the fort and a poverty relief officer now stationed in the village to develop an e-commerce industry, the business was booming. Master Jin even took his crew and contracted a local delivery station and over a hundred acres of land.

Who would’ve thought? A roughneck like him ended up cultivating delicate, vibrant rose bushes.

Two years later, the former Huazi Village had once again transformed into the flower-filled “Hundred Flowers Village.” Jin-ge led a group of brothers to grow roses, lilies, chrysanthemums, gerberas… While the young folks from the village set up flower stalls in the city, they stayed behind to cultivate the blooms and supply them.

Xiao Dong had a new father again, but this time, he was genuinely satisfied. Seeing that Jin-ge was so busy back home he barely had time to eat, Xiao Dong discussed it with his younger siblings. They gave up their city stalls and all returned to Huazi Village to help Jin-ge grow flowers.

Old Cao’s rheumatism wasn’t cured completely, but with money now, the family built a big house. Xiao Dong even copied the Northeasterners and built a heated brick bed on the ground floor for Old Cao. Come winter, Old Cao would lie on the toasty kang, listening to the radio, completely content.

The ones who worked the hardest were probably Jin-ge and Xiao Dong.

Jin-ge had originally just wanted to retire from the underworld and do some small business to make ends meet. Who would’ve thought that he’d end up turning Huazi Village’s flower industry into a multi-hundred-million-yuan business?

Now no one called him Jin-ge anymore—they all called him President Jin. As for his dream of a quiet retirement, that was a lost cause. He was exhausted like a dog every single day!

As the eldest young master of the family and one of the main heads of the village’s e-commerce operations, Xiao Dong was also constantly on the move, barely touching the ground.

It was only then that he finally understood what Old Cao meant when he often muttered, “No education means you’ll suffer losses.” Doing e-commerce really did require learning new things every single day!

Luckily, he had met Wei Sheng.

Thanks to Wei Sheng’s connections, Xiao Dong managed to recruit two professionals in the e-commerce field. By day he worked, and at night he studied alongside his employees. Though it was a rocky path, he eventually established his authority as the “young master of the house.”

“Hell yeah!” After watching the retracing of Huazi Village’s poverty alleviation journey, viewers were all fired up.

Think about it—even a professional beggars’ village could forge a new future on the road to poverty alleviation. So how could diligent, hardworking people not do even better?

Calls flooded into J Province TV Station from people wanting to sign up for the next season.

At first, it was just local governments applying on behalf of poor villages under their jurisdiction. But now, even people who had once come from these villages were calling their hometowns to register on their own initiative.

And all this happened when only a few episodes of Retracing the Road to Poverty Alleviation had aired!

After returning from Huazi Village, Wei Sheng barely had time to rest before he was summoned to Wang Yang’s office.

“Come, Xiao Wei, have some tea! This is this year’s first-batch premium-grade Taiping Houkui! You can’t even buy it out there. I saved a box just for you…” Wang Yang had a face full of flattery.

“Stop right there! Director Wang, I’ve already told you, I really don’t know how to write program proposals! Never mind Taiping Houkui, even if you served me the Queen Mother’s peaches of immortality, I still couldn’t write one.” Wei Sheng eyed the steaming cup of Houkui as though it were a bowl of deadly poison.

Great tea, pity he couldn’t drink it.

“You brat! Can’t you just let me finish a sentence for once? I didn’t say you had to write it yourself! Look, I’ve already found someone to do the writing. You just need to provide a tiny bit of inspiration.” Without waiting for a reply, Wang Yang picked up the phone. Moments later, a round-faced young woman with black-rimmed glasses came in, hugging a notebook bearing the TV station’s logo.

From the looks of it, if Wei Sheng didn’t give up some creative juice today, he wasn’t leaving that room.

Wang Yang had tricked and trapped him in there because of something Wei Sheng casually mentioned during a livestream—the idea for a job-hunting variety show.

That’s right, the more Wang Yang thought about it, the more he believed Wei Sheng’s random idea was perfect for a variety program!

Right now, the entire country was focused on employment issues: college grads struggling to find work, people over 35 having trouble re-entering the workforce, stay-at-home moms needing to return after childbirth… The employment crisis was a hot-button issue online, hotter than any variety show on air!

The show hadn’t even been planned yet, and Wang Yang was already convinced it would be the hit of the year.

So as the source of this creative gem, how could Wei Sheng possibly escape?

Just in case he resisted, Wang Yang started sweet-talking him too—

“Don’t worry, Xiao Wei. If this show gets greenlit, I’ll personally make sure you get a permanent guest spot!”

“And we’ll get someone to write a charming on-screen persona for you. I guarantee your fans will be head over heels, totally obsessed!”

Wei Sheng gave him a look: “Maybe Director Wang should talk to my agent about rates first?”

What, you thought I was some cheap variety show extra who’d work for 20K an episode?

Why don’t you go ask Zhou Mingxing what he’s quoting me these days?

Wang Yang instantly panicked.

Right! Forget the proposal for now—lock in Wei Sheng’s schedule first!

Ever since this episode of Retracing the Road to Poverty Alleviation aired, the program’s guests—especially Wei Sheng—had seen their follower counts skyrocket. His Weibo fans were now pushing five million, and with Mountain Path about to air on the state channel’s prime-time slot, his value was only going to climb.

That money-grubber Zhou Mingxing wasn’t about to let go of a cash cow like Wei Sheng!

Now that he thought about it, back at the start of the year when Zhou Mingxing set KPIs for his artists, wasn’t he already aiming for Wei Sheng to have a breakout year?

Why else would he lock down all of Wei Sheng’s in-house gigs so tightly?

Obviously to free up his schedule so he could go earn big bucks elsewhere.

Realizing this, Wang Yang couldn’t sit still any longer…

By the time Wei Sheng left Wang Yang’s office, it was already evening. He checked the time, picked up a beef hot pot set, four braised bones, and a few meaty dishes that weren’t often made at home from the TV station cafeteria, then caught a cab back.

When he walked into the house, the brand-new TV in the living room was already turned on.

Tonight was the premiere of Mountain Path on CCTV-1.

This was the grandson’s first time acting in a television drama, and he had already made it onto national TV. His grandparents were absolutely thrilled. Aside from not being allowed to set off fireworks, the house was as lively as it was during New Year’s. In the afternoon, Grandma had gone to the market and bought a fresh cut of lamb, and tonight the whole family was having dumplings filled with lamb!

At eight in the evening, after dinner, they cut up a big platter of fruit. Grandpa Hu brewed a pot of fine tea gifted by his grandson. The whole family gathered in front of the television and, even during the commercials, no one would dare change the channel.

At 8:06 p.m., a clear and melodious flute began to play through a lush bamboo forest. With a transition of scenes from the mountains to the city, the young Huang Xiujuan sat quietly in a bright university library. Her deep gaze seemed to pierce through time and space, seeing her impoverished and underdeveloped hometown…

“Xiaosheng! Xiaosheng is on screen!” The opening sequence sped forward, and Wei Sheng appeared on camera wearing a red vest. Though it was only a few seconds of footage, it was enough to send the whole family into a frenzy.

Watching himself in a TV drama on screen—it felt a bit novel, a bit embarrassing. But very soon, Wei Sheng was drawn in along with his family, completely immersed in the plot.

Before they knew it, over forty minutes had passed. Director Li Lei truly had a gift for capturing the audience’s heart. In the very first episode, Huang Xiujuan’s sacrifice had everyone in tears.

“That girl is such a good kid! She shouldn’t have died so young. Heaven must be blind!” Grandma Hu wiped away her tears.

“You see, son? Even a young girl can give up her comfortable life in the city to go back and help with poverty alleviation. You should spend less time on your phone at night! Read more books, aim to pass the civil service exam early, and do more for our country in the future too!” Hu Qianqian seized the opportunity to lecture her son.

“Your mother’s right! What’s a boy doing becoming a celebrity? What can a celebrity contribute to the country? Better to take the civil service exam!” Grandpa Hu nodded in agreement, then pointed to Huang Xiujuan on screen. “You need to learn from Secretary Huang!”

Wei Sheng nodded with a laugh that was half amused, half helpless.

The first two episodes didn’t have much of his storyline—just a couple of scattered scenes. That was the director’s foreshadowing. Right now, Yang Fan was only a staffer at the county’s publicity department. He had work interactions with Huang Xiujuan, and precisely because of his admiration and respect for her, after her sacrifice, Yang Fan would later volunteer to go to the village and take over her role as the second poverty alleviation cadre of Huangjiabao…

Even so, by the next morning, Wei Sheng’s name had already become the hottest gossip topic at the community’s morning exercise plaza. Everyone was talking about the national broadcast of Mountain Path the night before. The entire neighborhood now knew that their community had produced a “big star” whose drama had aired on national TV!

While the show was still airing, Wei Sheng couldn’t wait and set off on his business trip. If he didn’t leave now, he’d basically become the neighborhood’s lucky photo mascot—everyone who saw him wanted to take a picture with him!

At the airport, Zhou Mingxing and the assistant he had arranged for Wei Sheng were already waiting. As soon as they met, Zhou Mingxing tossed him a script without saying a word.

“Go over the script quickly. The roles are already locked in. Once we get there, we start filming right away!”

“So fast? I thought this was some major New Year’s blockbuster—what the hell? What kind of fantasy mess is this? Is it a money-laundering scheme?” After skimming just the first page, Wei Sheng already felt so embarrassed his toes were curling into the floor.

Help! Did the screenwriter buy this off a ghostwriter for a hundred bucks online?

With a plot this cringe-worthy, just how big a favor does the director owe the production company to end up suffering like this in this lifetime?

(End of this chapter)