Chapter 93

The lotus roots from Lotus Pond Village are absolutely delicious!

At 1 PM, a long-overdue lunch sent the hungry young cadets from the police academy into a frenzy after a full morning of hard work.

Due to limited time, each table only had eight dishes: lotus root stewed with pork ribs, braised pork with tofu knots, braised chicken with potatoes, tofu with fish chunks, pickled cabbage with pork blood, vinegar-sautéed lotus root slices, fried lotus root fritters, and stir-fried lotus root with wood ear mushrooms and shredded pork.

There weren’t many dishes, but each was served in generous portions. The meat dishes, in particular, came in large stainless steel bowls, piled high like little mountains.

Seeing the cautious yet heartfelt gazes of the village women, the young men felt their noses tingle and eyes redden.

Earlier, the village secretary, He Ruizhen, had explained to the school leadership that although it’s customary to use full dinnerware sets when hosting guests, Lotus Pond Village hadn’t held a banquet in years due to estrangement from surrounding communities. Some women had divorced against family wishes and severed ties with their natal families. As a result, the village couldn’t even put together a complete set of tableware…

That explanation had made the school leaders furious—not at Lotus Pond Village, but at the surrounding villagers who had long ostracized them.

Don’t assume that only idle thugs in the countryside harm women living alone.

Sometimes, it’s the silent exclusion and isolation by others that truly pushes someone into despair.

If it weren’t for the strong and fearless He Ruizhen, the school leaders couldn’t even imagine how many of these women might have taken their own lives in hopelessness.

After lunch, the school leaders gathered and approached He Ruizhen.

“Secretary He, our academy hopes to establish a long-term partnership with Lotus Pond Village. Every year, our graduates need fieldwork opportunities. We’ve heard public security here is a concern. Once partnered, we’ll regularly send cadets to assist with patrols, safety inspections, and conflict mediation…”

Wei Sheng nearly burst out laughing listening to this.

A candle in advance for the local thugs and bullies within a few dozen miles.

He was very familiar with this kind of “police-community partnership.” Translation:

Patrols = round up all the local scoundrels sneaking into Lotus Pond Village to steal or harass the vulnerable, and send them in.

Safety inspections = track down the bitter, divorced drunkards and domestic abusers looking for revenge, and give them a “heart-to-heart talk,” persuading them to let go and move on. Pfft~

As for conflict mediation? That was even better—specialized in tackling small-town bureaucratic corruption.

Let’s be honest. Most rural disputes wouldn’t escalate into deadly feuds if local authorities intervened fairly and in time.

Why have there been so many “family annihilation tragedies” in the countryside these years? Because local governments either meddled unjustly or took bribes and sided with the powerful.

When honest people are cornered with no way out, what choice do they have but to go down with their enemies?

The local township really owed thanks to He Ruizhen.

Without her shelter and support, who knows how many women here would’ve been bullied by their in-laws into hopelessness and taken the most extreme route.

The academy’s proposed partnership wasn’t just to deter local troublemakers using the police academy’s name. More importantly, it gave them legitimate authority to represent Lotus Pond Village when dealing with the township police or even the county-level public security. That meant future disputes could be handled fairly and justly.

Not swept under the rug, not biased, not handled in ways that crushed people’s hope and pushed them toward vengeance.

Of course He Ruizhen understood all this.

The moment the academy expressed interest in a partnership, she agreed without hesitation.

She’d have to be out of her mind to refuse something this beneficial.

With this “police academy partnership” title, who would dare bully them again? Next time she called the cops, let’s see who’d dare take sides or play peacemaker.

Anyone tried anything again, she’d take it straight to the academy leadership!

This was the J Province Police Academy we’re talking about. No exaggeration, half the grassroots police in the province had graduated from there.

Not to mention countless mid- to high-level officials who’d climbed the ranks from the bottom.

In short, this was a golden, thick leg to cling to. Only a fool wouldn’t grab on.

As the village struck its partnership with the police academy, over in the livestream room, the production crew had already sold out all 20,000 pounds of freshly dug lotus roots.

If the village had tried selling those lotus roots themselves, even assuming they found a produce dealer willing to come out, given the poor relationship with neighboring villages, it was questionable whether the truck could even leave the area.

Forget anything else—those local bullies who hated Lotus Pond Village could just block the road with some benches. No “toll,” no passage!

And produce dealers come to the countryside to make a profit. If a truckload of lotus roots didn’t even cover the “fees,” who would bother?

But the production crew was different.

They cut out the middlemen and sold directly to consumers. That meant slightly higher prices than wholesale and more profit for the village. Plus, with express delivery, would those thugs really dare block a courier truck?

The morning’s harvest had sold out, but the afternoon’s had yet to be listed for sale.

Why? Because Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation had become J Province’s flagship variety show, with more social influence than even local news.

Countless compassionate businesses, after watching the livestream and hearing that descendants of war heroes now lived in hardship, relying on lotus farming, directly called the TV station. Their company canteens would purchase bulk orders.

When the station tallied the orders, it turned out Wei Sheng and the others wouldn’t need to livestream much longer. Just the orders from local enterprises alone would cover the next full lotus season.

And that wasn’t all. After the first episode aired, when viewers saw elderly war survivors with no one to rely on, and a village full of women and children, they were furious and heartbroken—these were heroes’ families!

They were victims of that war—why treat them like this?

The show’s hotline was immediately flooded. Couldn’t get through? Viewers called the main station. That didn’t work? They started calling other programs.

One message was clear: Heroes and their families must not bleed and weep.

Your local authorities won’t step up? Fine—we will! Can’t find people to dig lotus roots? It’s not skilled labor! Men can dig; women can help carry!

Not only did city residents rush to sign up, even youth league committees and party branches of many local companies organized teams to help harvest lotus roots in Lotus Pond Village.

“That’s enough, really. We only have a little over a hundred acres of lotus. We don’t need that many people. Thank you all so much!” He Ruizhen was already sobbing on the phone.

And even more surprises were coming.

While businesses outside showed their love, the show’s sponsors weren’t going to miss the chance to boost their brand’s public image.

Soon, the sponsor of the show’s guest vehicles—a domestic off-road vehicle brand—announced a donation of one million yuan to help widen the village roads for easier truck access.

The clothing sponsor donated goods worth 800,000 yuan—clothes and shoes—so every orphan and widow in the village now had brand new outfits.

Li’s Seasonings also donated 800,000 yuan in charity funds and made a special request: the money must be earmarked specifically for the living expenses of the surviving veterans and descendants of wartime heroes in the village.

“If it’s not enough, we’ll donate more. In any case, we absolutely cannot let the families of our heroes grow old without support or the young go without care.” Mr. Li, still uneasy, personally called Wei Sheng, knowing this guy would surely find a way to keep an eye on it.

The show’s title sponsor, He Holdings, was even more generous—while others donated money, they donated an entire project!

Upon learning that many village houses in Lotus Pond Village were sitting vacant, He Yaru immediately dispatched an investment team to explore the possibility of developing a rural tourism resort hotel centered around the village’s 100+ acres of lotus ponds.

Lotus Pond Village had truly exploded in popularity! Word was that many wealthy people were donating money and goods to the village, and nearby villages were so envious their eyes turned red. But there was nothing they could do—back then, they might’ve relied on family ties to freeload, but now? Didn’t they see that even the police academy had established a support outpost in the village?

Some kind-hearted villagers privately sighed in relief, feeling that at long last, He Ruizhen and those helpless women had finally made it through the hard times. In the countryside, a woman without support from either her in-laws or birth family could barely survive, let alone start a business.

If she failed, no one cared whether she lived or died.

If she succeeded, the outcome might be even worse—relatives she’d never even heard of would show up asking for money, demanding benefits. If she refused, they’d make such a scene it would ruin her business. And then there were the local thugs extorting protection money…

One had to admit, Wei Sheng’s stroke of genius—bringing in the police academy as backing for Lotus Pond Village—had silently resolved a lot of potential trouble for He Ruizhen and the women on their entrepreneurial journey.

From now on, it was unlikely anyone would dare bully the elderly, weak, women, and children of Lotus Pond Village again. Because after the first episode aired and highlighted the elderly war survivors in the village, the show once again trended into the spotlight!

Even locals in J Province hadn’t realized that just nearby lived a group of survivors from wartime.

What enraged people most was that these pitiful women had escaped brutal war and invaders, only to fall victim to prejudice and abuse by their own people…

Public opinion erupted.

Any hoodlum who’d been plotting to make a quick buck off the village after the show and the police academy left now wouldn’t dare make a move.

Even the gossiping women in neighboring villages, who used to mock Lotus Pond Village’s women during idle chats at the village entrance, didn’t dare speak ill anymore. If they did, their own kids would speak up against them before they could even start.

Of course, there were still some who didn’t believe in karma. Seeing Lotus Pond Village on the verge of thriving, and having failed to find a wife after divorce, some men tried to reconcile with their ex-wives, swearing they’d drink less and never hit them again if only they would agree to remarry.

Some divorced mothers in the village were indeed tempted—until He Ruizhen made things clear: if they remarried, they’d have to leave Lotus Pond Village, give up their house, return to their husband’s village, and lose access to the village’s dividends. Their children would also no longer qualify for sponsorship from the show’s donors.

He Ruizhen was crystal clear—the sponsorship brought in by the show was specifically intended for divorced women without support. If they had a husband earning income, they no longer met the requirements.

How could that be acceptable?

They knew all too well what their ex-husbands were like.

Count on them to support the family and raise the kids? Yeah, right.

The women who’d briefly been tempted quickly did the math in their heads—and dropped the idea of remarrying.

What a joke! Staying in Lotus Pond Village meant no need to serve a husband or deal with in-laws and their countless relatives. All they had to do was work hard with He Ruizhen, and they’d get a steady year-end dividend. Plus, now even their children’s education was being covered by generous donors.

Remarry?

Just thinking about those days of trembling every month while asking their husband for 500 yuan for living expenses, only to get cursed by their mother-in-law… the women shuddered. They immediately realized that the idea of remarrying must’ve come from a moment of brain fog—probably when they were squatting in the outhouse and their brain fell into the pit.

(End of chapter)