Chapter 125

Huang Kang only found out that his mother had moved to the Shuangxi Village group in Dongxiang Town after seeing a video online. What shocked him even more was that the village and the production crew had practically covered all the relocation expenses for the households!

In other words, the 100,000 yuan Resettlement Allowance from the city government—his mother probably hadn’t spent a single cent of it…

Now that the weather was heating up, Huang Kang was on the run from his creditors, so broke he couldn’t even afford the cheapest basement hostel. Sleeping under a bridge was fine in the spring, but lately, he’d been getting eaten alive by mosquitoes at night. A few days ago, he happened to come across a trending local video about the mass relocation of Huangbai Village. Curious, he clicked on it—and to his surprise, Langshan wasn’t anything like the poverty-stricken place people had made it out to be!

His mother, along with a few distant relatives from the village, had been assigned to several vacant houses in Shuangxi Village. Nestled in a quiet mountain valley, the village was named “Shuangxi” because two small streams flowed down from opposite hillsides and merged into the village’s river.

Seeing his mom living alone in a spacious three-room brick-and-tile house, with a clear stream in front and a vegetable garden out back—and most importantly, rent-free, with even the surrounding farmland offered for free—Huang Kang’s eyes lit up. He immediately decided to head to Dongxiang Town and move in with her!

His mom had always doted on him since he was a kid—she wouldn’t turn him away. And Langshan was so remote that as long as he stayed hidden during filming, no one would recognize him. His creditors wouldn’t even think to look for him there.

Once he was settled, he’d get his mom to hand over the 100,000 yuan Resettlement Allowance so he could start a small business in the countryside. Wouldn’t that be way better than wandering around homeless?

So, following clues from the video, Huang Kang tracked down his mother’s new home and, without asking, tried to move in.

He hadn’t lifted a finger when she moved to the mountains alone, but now that she was finally living a good life, he showed up demanding the money she’d saved for her old age and medical expenses to fund his business?

How many times over the years had Huang Kang used the excuse of starting a business to scam money out of her?

Aunt Huang was shaking with rage. She stood up, ready to grab her son and give him a beating. But before she could take a step, her vision went black—and she collapsed to the ground.

The neighbors nearby were startled and rushed over, lifting Aunt Huang and carrying her inside in a flurry of hands and feet.

Just then, Lang Dongyang, who had just returned from patrolling the mountains with a basket of wild mushrooms for his godmother, saw the commotion from afar. When he realized someone had made his godmother faint from anger, he was furious.

He dropped the basket, rolled up his sleeves, stormed over, and grabbed Huang Kang by the collar—then gave him a brutal beating!

Huang Kang might’ve been a whole head taller than Lang Dongyang, but when it came to strength and stamina, even three of him tied together couldn’t match a seasoned forest ranger like Lang Dongyang.

“You dare hit me? Fine! Just you wait, I’m going to the police! You’re going to jail, you bastard!” Huang Kang shouted, clutching his swollen face.

“Great! Go ahead and call the cops! I’ll go too. Coming to our village to extort money? Let’s see who ends up behind bars longer!” Lang Dongyang was so angry he laughed.

Others might fear the police station, but forest rangers like them? Not a chance.

They were in the mountains all year round, dealing with poachers, people tossing cigarette butts, or lighting campfires. If a warning didn’t work, getting physical wasn’t exactly rare.

Just then, a woman burst out of the house with a broom in hand.

Before Huang Kang could react, his mother was already beating him over the head with the broom, sending him running for cover.

“You want to call the cops? Go ahead! Let them arrest you! I’ll even call your creditors to come find you!”

“And you dare bully Dongyang? He’s your brother!”

What the hell?

Huang Kang stared at Lang Dongyang in shock and confusion, his whole world spinning.

Wasn’t he an only child? Where the hell did this “brother” come from? Could it be that his mother had…

After all the chaos he caused in the village, Huang Kang didn’t get a single cent. Instead, he was chased out by Lang Dongyang and a group of villagers.

What he didn’t know was that if he had just sincerely apologized to Aunt Huang and promised to settle down in the village and farm, she had actually planned to use that Resettlement Allowance to help him pay off his debts.

But sadly, the first thing he asked about wasn’t her health, nor did he care whether she was struggling alone in a strange new place. He just opened his mouth and demanded all the money. In that moment, Aunt Huang’s heart turned cold.

She knew then—this son of hers was a lost cause.

That afternoon, Aunt Huang asked Lang Dongyang to take her on his motorcycle to the town’s credit union. She split the 100,000-plus yuan she had saved for Huang Kang’s debts into fixed-term deposits of 10,000 yuan each and locked it all away.

“Godma, you should’ve done this ages ago. We don’t spend much in the mountains. With the interest from these deposits, you’ll have more than enough for your daily needs,” Lang Dongyang said, genuinely happy for her.

For some reason, holding that thick stack of deposit slips, Aunt Huang felt more secure than she ever had with her own son.

She smiled at Lang Dongyang and said, “Yes! That’s what I was thinking too. I’ll use the interest for daily expenses, raise a couple of pigs and a dozen chickens—no need to buy meat anymore. Honestly, living in the mountains isn’t bad at all.”

In truth, Aunt Huang had another plan. She was thinking of raising two or three pigs every year. She’d keep one for making cured meat for herself and sell the rest. When Lang Dongyang got married in a few years, as his godmother, she wanted to give him a generous red envelope.

Especially after hearing that Lang Dongyang’s mother was hoping he’d marry into a wealthy family, Aunt Huang grew even more worried.

Every time she saw her godson grinning like a carefree fool, she couldn’t help but worry he’d get bullied if he married into someone else’s family. After all, being a live-in son-in-law was pretty much like marrying off a daughter. You needed to have some money in your pocket to have a say in your new home.

Aunt Huang decided she’d give Lang Dongyang at least 10,000 yuan as a wedding gift—so that if his future in-laws ever treated him too harshly, he’d have the confidence to walk away. Ahem.

After this short-lived drama, Episode 3 kicked off with Aunt Huang’s awakening and offered a panoramic view of Huangbai Village’s brand-new life after settling in Langshan.

Just like the promotional videos had promised, the mountains here were lush, the water was clear, and the air was incredibly fresh!

The villagers of Huangbai had been drinking pesticide-contaminated groundwater for decades. The first time they tasted the mountain spring water in Langshan, many were moved to tears.

The spring water here was unbelievably pure—especially the kind that flowed from cracks in the rocks. Crystal clear and naturally sweet, the locals never even bothered to bring water when working in the mountains. They just scooped it up and drank it straight.

The air was free from the acrid stench of pesticides. Every morning, standing at their doorsteps, breathing in the fresh air laced with the scent of grass and trees and rich in negative ions, people felt like their lungs and airways—once sticky and clogged—had suddenly cleared up.

With the environment improved, so were their moods. Now, all the villagers of Huangbai could think about was how to make money.

Wei Sheng had his company’s project incubation team come out for a visit. After interviews, they temporarily selected four people to take shifts filming the daily lives of villagers living with chronic illnesses.

In recent years, the number of chronic disease patients in China had been on the rise. Many people were curious about this group—though that curiosity often stemmed from personal concern. With so many “high-tech foods” and environmental issues, it was almost inevitable that people would deal with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes as they aged.

Rather than worry about fighting these illnesses alone in the future, why not see how others were already living with them?

Surprisingly, this uniquely positioned account, boosted by the production team and Wei Sheng’s network, quickly gained over 100,000 followers.

Huang Weijun and his wife Ding Chunxia were both chronic illness patients. They had once had a son who worked at a pesticide factory. One day, he mysteriously fell ill—his hair and nails fell out, his joints deformed—and within a year, he died.

After his death, the couple hadn’t had time to have another child. Their daughter-in-law soon remarried and moved away. Back then, they had no idea about pesticide contamination. By the time they found out, they too had become victims.

Aside from high blood pressure and diabetes, the couple also suffered from inexplicable, excruciating joint pain. Huang Weijun’s knuckles had already begun to deform, and he’d lost all his hair, leaving him with no choice but to shave his head completely bald. His wife, Ding Chunxia, had a breast tumor, but because they couldn’t afford surgery, she had been relying on conservative treatment.

After moving to Dongxiang Town, they suddenly received a resettlement allowance of 100,000 yuan. Huang Weijun immediately scheduled surgery for his wife to have the tumor removed. Luckily, the operation was a complete success, and now Ding Chunxia had already been discharged from the hospital.

Who really wants to die, if they can live well? Now that they’d seen a glimmer of hope, Huang Weijun and his wife weren’t thinking about anything else—they were focused solely on saving for their retirement.

Huang Weijun had once learned carpentry. When he heard that Langshan Village had started a beekeeping cooperative and was looking for people to make beehives, he took on the job—cutting and assembling wooden boards into hives, earning over ten yuan for each one. Ding Chunxia also asked someone to help her buy over thirty chicks to raise at home.

They heard that every household in the village raised pigs. Local pork was cheap, but lamb sold for a good price. So Ding Chunxia discussed with her husband: once she recovered, they’d buy a few sheep to raise.

In the mountains, there was no shortage of forage all year round. Other than medical expenses, the couple had no major costs. If they raised about a dozen sheep and sold a batch each year, it would be enough to cover their daily living expenses…

But what they didn’t expect was that before their sheep-raising venture even got off the ground, their livestream sales business had already taken off with a bang.

Wei Sheng had them start this account not to play the pity card and beg for donations. Heaven helps those who help themselves. A donation or two might help in an emergency, but if you want to escape poverty, forget about relying on charity!

So once the account gained a decent following, Wei Sheng once again worked his magic, using his legendary “big talk” skills to connect with sponsors who already had online sales channels. He secured the first batch of goods for the villagers of Huangbai Village.

And just like that, this account focused on the daily self-reliance of chronic illness patients began posting one to two videos a day, and also featured villagers participating in the “Self-Rescue Plan” doing livestream sales.

At first, everyone was a bit stiff and awkward on camera. But surprisingly, this plain, technique-free livestream room started tugging at the heartstrings of fans who had followed them from the documentary series.

They had thought that elderly people in rural areas—no pensions, still working the fields at their age just to make ends meet—were already living tragic lives. But they hadn’t imagined there were people even worse off.

The elderly folks in this livestream had been forced to leave their hometowns due to pesticide contamination. Some had lost their children early and had no one to rely on. Some were even raising their young grandchildren, pinching every penny, unwilling to buy even the cheapest painkillers, just to save money for the kids.

The most shocking part? Almost every one of them suffered from at least two chronic illnesses!

To most people, the word “tumor” is terrifying. But for these villagers, it was nothing compared to the slow, inescapable poison of pesticide residues that had built up in their bodies over the years.

And yet, they hadn’t given up hope.

Farming, raising pigs and chickens, doing handicrafts, livestreaming to sell products… Even with one foot already in the grave, they still clung to the hope of staying alive.

Just like Ding Chunxia said during a livestream: did they not know that cheap painkillers had serious side effects?

But those expensive painkillers—once you opened the huge box, there were only a few pills inside. Were they better for the body? They didn’t know. What they did know was, if they kept taking those high-priced pills, they’d probably go broke before they ever died of illness.

Their simple words and fierce will to live turned this livestream—without any pretty influencers, just a group of elderly folks with chronic illnesses—into a steadily growing success from day one.

One month later.

“Uncle Huang, Auntie Ding, your salary and performance bonuses for this month are ready! Take a look, and if everything looks good, we’ll transfer the money to your bank cards tomorrow.”

Huang Weijun took the payslip for himself and his wife, pulled a pair of reading glasses from his shirt pocket, and began examining it carefully.

He never thought that after a lifetime of being a farmer, he’d actually be earning a salary in his old age.

But the more he looked down the payslip, the more he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Base salary, two thousand yuan. That’s correct.”

“Last month’s livestream overtime totaled 47 hours, so the overtime pay is 940 yuan. That’s right too.”

“Sales commission… 25,790 yuan?! Datou, are you sure you didn’t miscalculate?”

When he saw the sales commission line, Huang Weijun could no longer stay calm.

And there was more—an 800 yuan attendance bonus, and 8,500 yuan for placing in the top three for monthly sales. Just this month alone, the couple had earned over 30,000 yuan?!

“Heh heh~ That’s nothing! Once our account gets more followers, and Xiaoman-ge starts supplying us with local specialty products next year, the real good days are still ahead,” said the accountant nicknamed Datou, urging Huang Weijun to sign quickly—there were other streamers waiting to check their payslips too.

The next morning, Huang Weijun received a bank notification on his phone confirming the deposit.

“Chunxia, we’re saved! We’re really saved!”

Beside the fence covered in gourd vines, the elderly couple held each other and wept.

(End of chapter)