Chapter 153

The undercover incident in Huazi Village caused such a massive stir online that, even during the height of the New Year celebrations, the “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” New Year Special managed to beat out several star-studded Spring Festival variety shows from local stations, dominating the trending charts almost every single day.

The overwhelming popularity had an immediate effect: the Jiangdong Town Mine Mountain Theme Park special episode premiered to sky-high ratings, instantly becoming the top-rated program of the night by a landslide.

Given how the previous Huazi Village special had left many viewers in tears, this time, the audience came prepared. Those prone to crying reportedly brought entire boxes of tissues. But no one expected that, in the end, the tissues wouldn’t be used to wipe away tears—they were all used to wipe drool.

Audience: “???”

Wasn’t this supposed to be a tearjerker? Why does the heartwarming emotion seem to be leaking from our mouths?

Everyone thought the first phase of the Jiangdong Town Mining Theme Park would be the most popular among young people. After all, it featured several immersive escape room experiences with themes like “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio” and “Republic Era Mysteries,” all set inside safely reconstructed sections of the abandoned mines.

But no one expected that the young visitors drawn in by these attractions would end up fighting with elderly folks for space in the second phase of the park.

Even the production team was speechless at this unexpected turn of events.

The original script had already been written, planning to turn the entire Jiangdong Town Mining Theme Park into a large-scale mine-themed amusement park suitable for all ages.

But who would’ve thought that after the young people had their fun, they’d dive headfirst into the second phase—the “Nostalgia Theme Park.”

Many first-time visitors didn’t know the rules and hadn’t brought any vintage-style clothing, but that wasn’t a problem. Right at the entrance, there was a costume rental booth. For just twenty yuan, you could rent a full outfit and wear it all day.

To everyone’s relief, the rental clothes were clean and sealed in transparent bags, not like the ones some extras had complained about—clothes that hadn’t been washed in months.

While clothes could be rented, shoes were another matter. If you wanted to fully blend into the setting, you had to buy your own.

At first, visitors assumed the prices would be sky-high, as is typical in tourist spots. But when they saw the price list—good grief! A pair of Jiefang Shoes for just ten yuan? What was there to hesitate about? Buy them! You could even wear them at home afterward.

Amusingly, many elderly visitors, seeing the good quality of the Jiefang Shoes and remembering how much they loved them in their youth, ended up buying several pairs to take home.

Dressed in vintage-style outfits from head to toe, walking down the restored main street of the Jiangdong Coal Mine, hearing the cries of vendors selling traditional sugar candy and bartering with chicken feathers, visitors felt as if they had truly stepped back in time to the Jiangdong Coal Mine of the last century.

On both sides of the street, aside from the post office and the Supply and Marketing Cooperative storefront, there were barbershops plastered with old posters, state-owned restaurants, photo studios, and even more street vendors pushing carts or carrying coal stoves, selling snacks by the roadside.

One stall sold steaming bowls of chicken wonton noodles made fresh on the spot.

Another offered a completely different spread—jianbing, roujiamo, donkey meat sandwiches, fried dough sticks, glutinous rice cakes…

Visitors who had seen the show couldn’t help but smile knowingly. Of course they understood why this little street was packed with snacks from all corners of the country.

Back in the day, the Jiangdong Coal Mine was thriving. The miners had good benefits, and many brought their families over once they were settled.

Those who had connections found jobs. Those who didn’t had to find other ways to make a living, often by setting up small food stalls. As a result, snack vendors from all over the country sprang up like mushrooms after the rain.

So this New Year Special somehow turned into the “Jiangdong Town National Snack Festival,” with Wei Sheng and the other guests openly indulging in food and drink on the show’s dime—

They’d order a few grilled lamb buns from one stall, then carry them over to another for a bowl of chicken soup tofu pudding. While still chewing, they’d spot a glutinous rice ball from a neighboring auntie’s stall and immediately grab one of those too.

These Chinese-style rice balls were nothing like the Japanese kind. They were made with piping hot glutinous rice steamed in wooden barrels. Two scoops were scooped out and filled with toppings according to the customer’s preferences—pickled long beans, preserved mustard greens, stir-fried shredded pork, shredded potatoes, stir-fried bean sprouts, fried peanuts, crushed fried dough sticks, pork tenderloin, fried eggs… There were over twenty different ingredients to choose from.

Since it was a rare visit, Wei Sheng didn’t care if he overate. He asked the vendor to make him a “Grand Slam”—a bit of every topping. The resulting rice ball was enormous!

He had no choice but to ask the vendor to cut it into four pieces, one for each of them. They nearly burst after finishing it.

Looking at the forty or so snack stalls they hadn’t even gotten to yet, the guests couldn’t help but shed bitter tears.

They didn’t want to film anymore. All they wanted was to be like the other tourists—book a room and stay for half a month. That way, with three meals a day plus a midnight snack, hitting four stalls a day, they could just about try everything in two weeks.

If the guests felt that way, how could the tourists—who came just to have fun—not feel the same?

While sitting at a sweet soup stall, Wei Sheng overheard that many visitors were already on their Nth trip to Jiangdong Town. Especially those around his age—initially, they had come for the escape rooms and immersive murder mystery experiences in phase one, but ended up completely enchanted by this nostalgic food street.

Everyone knows that people Wei Sheng’s age are usually just entering the workforce. Even if they have annual leave, it’s the minimum five days. Some out-of-town visitors, after subtracting two days for travel, only had three days to actually enjoy themselves—not even as long as the filming schedule. Three days! How could they possibly eat their way through all these stalls?

What made it worse was that this food street in Jiangdong Town wasn’t like those so-called “Global Food Festivals” that just sold the same old stinky tofu, spicy noodles, and lamb skewers. Every stall here was run by people who had followed the miners from all over the country to Jiangdong Town. Unable to find formal employment, they had no choice but to sell their hometown snacks to make ends meet.

People are pushed by necessity. When survival depends on a skill, they’ll throw themselves into mastering it. Many of today’s stall owners had never even cooked back in their hometowns. But to make their little businesses work, they went back home to learn from masters, bringing back specialty ingredients and seasonings from their native regions.

To put it plainly, if you wanted to survive on Jiangdong Town’s “Gourmet Street,” you had to have real skills.

Didn’t you see the uncle selling grilled buns next door? He even had his lamb shipped in from his hometown. Sure, it cost more, but just look at the line in front of his stall every day. He was making good money—otherwise, how could he afford to ship in lamb from home?

After a satisfying meal, Wei Sheng and the others followed the scripted route and headed to a nearby “inn” to check in.

Calling it an “inn” was a bit of a stretch—it was really just a homestay. But since this was the Nostalgia Theme Park, the names had to match the era. Back in those days, who had ever heard of a homestay?

Fortunately, the production team had booked the rooms in advance. While they were checking in, a few young people came in one after another asking if there were any rooms left. When they heard everything was fully booked, they had no choice but to leave disappointed.

Still, not being able to stay in Phase Two of the Nostalgia Theme Park wasn’t a big deal. As one of the planners involved in the Jiangdong Town Mining Theme Park project, Wei Sheng had participated in the entire design process. He knew the layout like the back of his hand, didn’t even need a map. In fact, Phase One and Phase Two weren’t far apart—just a ten-minute walk.

The only difference was, if you were staying in Phase One and wanted to visit the night market in Phase Two, you either had to pay ten yuan for the scenic park’s electric shuttle or brave a dimly lit path on foot… cough!

Thankfully, Auntie Zhang, who sold ginger syrup, had also set up a stall at the night market. Rumor had it that drinking a bowl of Auntie Zhang’s hand-brewed ginger syrup before leaving had become a must-do for visitors to the Jiangdong Town mining-themed night market. Some even came just for that. But even after drinking the syrup, people still ended up screaming their heads off on the dark path.

They had no idea—it was all Wei Sheng’s fault!

That wicked guy! Back when he was working on the design, in order to give visitors a “fully immersive abandoned mine experience,” he had the designers carve out a narrow pass between the two mines!

It was fine during the day. With more visitors around, the pass helped with ventilation, and the air quality in the park improved significantly.

But at night, a constant cold wind would sweep through the entire park via that pass. It wasn’t just chilly—it came with eerie sound effects. No matter how much of Auntie Zhang’s ginger syrup you drank, it wouldn’t help!

Still, that creepy atmosphere wasn’t entirely useless. On their second visit, nearly every single returning guest ended up buying shuttle tickets. Ahem.

What left Wei Sheng speechless was that, due to broadcast regulations banning any mention of ghosts, the show couldn’t include the “Mine Ghost Market” segment in the main episode. But Wang Qun seemed to have gone rogue under his influence. Can’t mention ghosts in the main show? Fine, I’ll shoot an extended bonus reel and post it on the show’s video channel!

So, in the dead of night, the four guests were dragged to the infamous “Jiangdong Town Mine Ghost Market” under the director’s “threats”…

Good grief! It really was a parade of a hundred ghosts—lively beyond belief!

According to the original park plan, the “ghosts” in the Mine Ghost Market were all paid NPC actors. But at some point, a bunch of cosplay enthusiasts started sneaking in with their own costumes and blending in with the NPCs.

Originally, the park only had “era ghosts,” but gradually, ghosts from the Republic era, the Qing dynasty, the Ming dynasty, the Tang and Song dynasties, even the Han dynasty started showing up… and there were even wildly styled “primitive ghosts”!

“Huh? With so many ghosts, how come no one’s dressed up as a Taoist priest?”

Just as Chen Mengjie finished speaking, they spotted two visitors in Taoist priest costumes from afar.

“Hahahaha~”

No wonder the Jiangdong Town Mine Ghost Market had gone viral online. When it came to playing around, no one did it better than netizens!

(End of Chapter)

———

In China, annual leave means legally required paid vacation days, based on total years of work:

1–10 years → 5 days

10–20 years → 10 days

20+ years → 15 days

It’s separate from public holidays, and if not given, the employer must pay extra wages.

——

China restricts ghost mentions in media because they’re seen as superstition, conflicting with the state’s push for science, “positive energy,” and social stability. Ghosts can only appear if explained in a non-supernatural way.