Chapter 173

The box office and word-of-mouth performance of New Song of Sending Off the Lover were both a complete flop, and Wei Sheng’s rivals were practically over the moon with joy.

But just as they were popping champagne in celebration, riding on the wave of negative buzz from the film, Wei Sheng Studio officially announced some unexpected good news: Jiashangou Poverty Alleviation Record was about to premiere simultaneously on a major streaming platform and a provincial TV station.

Well, well! It was even getting a satellite TV broadcast?

But wait a minute—hadn’t Chen Shu been tight with J Province TV Station before? Why wasn’t the new drama airing there? Why did Y Province TV Station end up buying it instead?

Curious onlookers quickly dug up the old drama between the show’s investors and J Province TV Station.

Come on! Zhou Mingxing had basically taken half of J Province TV Station’s entertainment division and “defected.” With that kind of bad blood, even if they weren’t enemies for life, there was no way J Province TV Station would buy a show invested in by Zhou Mingxing and Wei Sheng.

But Y Province TV Station? Wasn’t that the notorious bottom-feeder among provincial broadcasters? Tsk. Looks like the film’s flop really did hurt Wei Sheng’s career. None of the top-tier provincial stations were willing to pick up his drama. Selling it to Y Province TV Station probably didn’t fetch much of a price either—maybe they just wanted to slap on the “satellite TV drama” label for marketing.

Y Province TV Station wasn’t exactly living the high life either. They wanted to buy big-budget productions with A-list stars too, but the problem was, they simply didn’t have the budget. The only reason they ended up acquiring Jiashangou Poverty Alleviation Record was because it was dirt cheap, and the other side even agreed to a revenue-sharing model. That meant the station only had to pay a small upfront fee to secure the rights.

As for the revenue share down the line? What a joke! Y Province TV Station’s annual ad revenue was pitiful. In recent years, they couldn’t afford to buy popular dramas, so they’d been airing dusty old shows from the 90s. What kind of revenue could Wei Sheng and his team possibly expect from them?

With a “get something for nothing” mindset, Y Province TV Station happily agreed to the deal.

Friday night, 8:10 PM—Jiashangou Poverty Alleviation Record officially premiered!

And credit where it’s due, Teacher Wang Wu really had a knack for writing feel-good dramas. The first episode was packed with high-energy scenes, with laugh-out-loud or jaw-dropping moments popping up every few minutes.

The first character to appear was the female lead Jiang Hanyue’s father—a burly butcher who had just come back from slaughtering pigs. He looked every bit the stereotypical rural domestic abuser. Especially when Jiang Hanyue’s mother appeared—delicate, demure, soft-spoken—the audience couldn’t help but feel a pang of worry for her.

She looked so small and frail, probably couldn’t even take one punch from that butcher. Was the female lead raised in a household plagued by domestic violence?

But the next second, Jiang Hanyue’s mother opened her mouth—and completely PUA’d¹ her husband in just a few lines.

By all appearances, this couple should’ve been the classic case of the man drinking and slacking off while the woman toiled and suffered. But instead, Jiang Hanyue’s mother sighed dramatically at the pig’s head her husband had brought home.

“Honey, look, its eyes are still open. I’m scared…”

The butcher, face full of scars and a cigarette dangling from his lips, let out a long sigh and gave her a helpless look that said, “What am I going to do with you?” He took the cleaver from her hands and resignedly started cleaning the pig’s head.

Immediately, Jiang Hanyue’s mother beamed with admiration, fanning him, offering tea, and showering him with praise like it was going out of style.

“You’re amazing, honey!” “What would I do without you?” “No wonder my mom said I’d live a life of luxury if I married you!”

The flattery flowed freely, and the butcher practically melted under her words, grinning from ear to ear, thinking his mother-in-law had truly been a woman of vision.

Tomorrow, when he slaughtered pigs again, he’d be sure to save some liver and an extra stomach to send over to the mother-in-law for nourishment…

Well, well! So the mom was actually a master of marital PUA? What a convincing act!

Then came the female lead’s entrance. One moment, she was practicing her “gentle and demure” expressions in front of the mirror. The next, she grabbed the family’s heirloom mountain-splitting axe, rounded up the village’s young hooligans, and issued a “friendly reminder”—

“The man I’ve got my eye on is coming to the village tomorrow for work. You lot better behave. If you’re supposed to be in the fields, get to the fields. If you’re supposed to be chopping wood, chop wood. If I catch anyone loitering at the village entrance causing trouble and making us look bad, we’re gonna have a problem!”

Then she took a bag of roasted sunflower seeds and headed to the village’s central square, earnestly instructing the local aunties and gossips: when they saw Shangen, they shouldn’t just praise her directly. Instead, they should be warm and welcoming, so that Shangen would genuinely feel the whole village was full of good people.

The logic was simple: “When buying a pig, you check the pen².” Ahem. If everyone in the village was easy to get along with, then a girl raised in such an environment couldn’t possibly be bad. She must be kind and gentle!

The audience: “…”

At first, it sounded like nonsense. But the more you thought about it, the more it kind of made sense. No wonder she was the daughter of a seasoned marital PUA queen—she really had the game down pat!

Cut to a new scene: amidst lush green mountains and clear streams, the male lead Shangen walked through bamboo groves and across creeks. The picturesque scenery looked like a traditional Chinese painting. Shangen, tall and handsome, was on his way to his new poverty alleviation assignment: Jiashangou Village in Qingshan Town—the hometown of the girl he secretly liked.

But as he walked, he suddenly spotted a man lying on a field ridge, sunbathing and watching videos on his phone.

Shangen frowned and walked over, crouching down to patiently and kindly strike up a conversation. The man looked annoyed at first, but the moment he heard that Shangen was the new poverty alleviation cadre sent by the town, he jumped up like he’d been electrocuted, grabbed his hoe, and dashed off to start digging.

Shangen: “…”

So the villagers of Jiashangou weren’t as lazy as the rumors said.

It must’ve been the previous officials who lacked patience. See? With his gentle persuasion, the man immediately turned over a new leaf.

Pleased, Shangen continued on his way.

Behind him, the young man furiously digging the field waited until Shangen’s figure disappeared around a bend in the mountain path. Then he frantically grabbed his phone and pinged everyone in the group chat called “The Four Pests of Jiashangou”—

Level One Alert! Target will arrive at the village entrance in five minutes!

The once-tranquil Jiashangou Village erupted in chaos.

Even the big yellow dog that usually barked at everyone got locked up in the woodshed by its owner.

If it accidentally bit Jiang Hanyue’s crush, that dog would be in serious trouble tonight. Dog meat hotpot alert!

The audience: “…”

This isn’t the kind of poverty alleviation drama we were expecting!

But damn it, why can’t we stop watching?

Also, Guagua Video, is this how you treat your precious premium subscribers? Only two episodes a night? Are you kidding me? The previews for episodes three through five are already out—just drop the full episodes already!

At the same time, over at Y Province TV Station, the execs were grinning from ear to ear as they looked at the freshly released viewership data.

“Excellent! Fantastic! No wonder they call it a ratings lucky charm! Quick—get the news channel to ramp up promotion. Pull all those useless free ads and replace them with trailers for this drama!”

After giving out the new promo orders, the station head was practically glowing. Thank you, J Province TV Station! If you hadn’t been blind to this hidden gem, we would’ve never had the chance to scoop it up!

Meanwhile, major brands were also keeping a close eye on the show’s ratings. Sure, Wei Sheng’s last mainstream propaganda film had flopped, but let’s be honest—main-theme productions had been bombing left and right these past few years. Maybe Wei Sheng’s mystical luck just didn’t work in the film world anymore?

But now, they were watching in real time as this quirky, offbeat rural poverty alleviation drama shot up from nowhere to third place on Guagua Video’s monthly drama rankings!

What was even more shocking was that this lighthearted and humorous drama, unlike the usual heavy and emotional poverty alleviation series, had actually propelled Y Province TV Station from a third-tier provincial network into the ranks of top-tier national broadcasters.

It even knocked a major fantasy romance drama from a leading TV station’s New Year lineup right off the charts!

Even the big-budget historical IP that J Province TV Station—Chen Qingyao’s former home base—had “lavishly invested in” this year was kicked aside by Jiashangou Poverty Alleviation Record.

A low-budget poverty alleviation drama with such a corny name and a goofy, slapstick tone had somehow outperformed fantasy epics with billion-yuan investments. The top satellite channels were so furious they nearly coughed up blood.

And someone else who was fuming was Chen Qingyao, the female lead of the film version of New Song of Sending Off the Lover.

Who would’ve thought Chen Shu had been telling the truth all along? The revised script for the drama version really did outshine the film version in terms of character development. If she’d known the new female lead was going to be this likable, forget waiting two months—she would’ve waited two years if she had to!

The more she thought about it, the more she blamed Chen Shu and Wei Sheng.

They must have planned this drama version from the start! But they deliberately kept it from her, causing her to miss out on such a golden opportunity. If the film had used this version of the script, how could it have possibly flopped at the box office and with critics?

The more she dwelled on it, the angrier she got. Especially now, as the drama progressed, the actress playing the female lead Jiang Hanyue—Yang Junyao, a newcomer who had previously only appeared in low-budget dramas, usually in supporting roles—had suddenly skyrocketed to fame thanks to her standout character. At best, she was once considered a rising starlet; at worst, just another background extra. But now, she had become a top-tier trending celebrity overnight.

Rumor had it that several directors specializing in Main-theme productions were already scheduling meetings with Yang Junyao’s agent, hoping she’d consider their scripts. Commercial endorsements were flooding in too.

If… if she had agreed to Chen Shu back then, would all of this be hers now?

With that thought, Chen Qingyao cast a disappointed glance at her agent, Liang Aiai.

Aiai-jie had always treated her well and protected her, but in the end… her vision was just too limited.

Noticing the mix of disappointment and frustration in Chen Qingyao’s eyes, Liang Aiai felt a surge of anger. Of course she knew her poor judgment had cost Chen Qingyao dearly—but so what?

If Chen Qingyao hadn’t said yes herself, how could she, as an agent, have made such a major decision on her behalf?

In the past, Liang Aiai might have tried to soothe her, to keep her golden goose happy. But ever since the last movie bombed both critically and commercially, Chen Qingyao’s market value had plummeted. Scripts had all but dried up. Liang Aiai had shamelessly reached out to a few production companies, but they either brushed her off or tossed her some token roles—playing mothers or aunts, that sort of thing.

Thinking about Chen Qingyao’s age, Liang Aiai couldn’t help but start weighing her options…

(End of Chapter)

Translator’s Notes