Chapter 102

Wei Sheng was busy preparing for the special episode of “The Wage Earners” at Haitangyuan when unexpected great news came from the “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” team!

Now with the top leaders involved, the revisit originally planned for next year in Jiangdong Town would almost certainly be moved up.

Sure enough, less than ten minutes after Zhou Mingxing’s call, Wang Qun called Wei Sheng’s phone, full of excitement.

“Teacher Wei, what are you up to? Why couldn’t I get through to you just now?”

Hearing the mix of respect and flattery in Director Wang’s voice on the other end of the line, Teacher Wei felt goosebumps all over.

Having heard from Zhou Mingxing about the good news, Wang Qun secretly cursed and quickly seized the opportunity to persuade: “This is a major livelihood issue that the whole nation cares about! All other entertainment programs have to take a back seat! Wei Sheng, when’s the soonest you can wrap up? I’ll send a car to pick you up right away!”

Wrap up? We haven’t even started yet!

“How about… you go coordinate the schedule with Sister Jin?” Wei Sheng suggested.

You guys fight it out—whoever wins gets me!

Wang Qun: “…”

Probably only he and Jin Yannan were this humble as directors across the entire internet.

Though Wang Qun could never out-argue Jin Yannan, this time he had the “imperial edict” on his side!

A “Resource-Depleted City Industrial Transformation Demonstration Zone”… the name alone screamed official authority. No matter how arrogant Jin Yannan was, she knew that even the most popular variety show had to make way for national matters.

Thus, Wang Qun successfully snatched the “hot commodity” Wei Sheng.

Luckily, the two programs had different formats, and for the special episode of “The Wage Earners” at Haitangyuan Street, the segment about Shao Ping and Qin Fang didn’t require all the guests to be present at once. Wei Sheng could easily handle Jiangdong Town’s matters first and return later to shoot his parts.

“Alright, go handle your big business. Leave the company matters to us.”

Shen Yi was understanding. After all, she had spent several years in the system before her debut and had far greater awareness about such matters compared to others.

Carrying the hopes of his teammates, Wei Sheng rushed off to a new battlefield. Meanwhile, at Haitangyuan Street, to accommodate the show’s filming, Shao Ping and Qin Fang ultimately decided to hold their wedding at the Street Cultural Center’s grand hall.

This was also part of the “Promoting New Social Customs” campaign advocated by local governments in recent years. With government funding, each township and street had built multifunctional grand halls, encouraging people to reject extravagant banquets, simplify weddings and funerals, and reduce household burdens.

Booking the hall in advance meant free venue use, with banquet standards adjustable to fit one’s budget. For those with money, abalone, sea cucumber, and lobsters were all fair game. For those on a tight budget, a countryside chef could cater for less than a thousand yuan per table and still deliver a decent meal.

Compared to hotel banquets costing thousands per table, this did save a lot.

But Shao Ping and Qin Fang weren’t doing it to save money—they wanted to give the Street Office face.

Hearing that the program crew would livestream their wedding and later edit it into the show, the Street Office was eager to sponsor their wedding just to ride the program’s publicity wave and showcase how great their Cultural Hall was.

Ironically, though they already had two kids, this was actually Qin Fang’s first time planning her own wedding… Back then, she had been young and tricked by the cunning Jin Haiyang, ending up pregnant before marriage and moving into the Jin family while visibly pregnant.

Jin’s mother had made sweet promises, saying they’d hold a wedding right after the baby was born. But when the first child turned out to be a girl, the whole family’s attitude changed. Qin Fang, ashamed, knew her in-laws were hoping for a boy and didn’t dare ask for a wedding.

Forget the wedding—Jin Haiyang even bluntly said that only after she gave birth to a son could they get a marriage certificate…

Thinking back now, she was lucky they never got one.

So, in legal terms, both she and Shao Ping were still in their first marriages.

Jin Yannan personally led more than thirty program guests and staff to act as Qin Fang’s maiden family. Early on the wedding day, they delivered two full truckloads of dowry.

Local wedding traditions required showcasing the dowry. Before the bride entered, the maiden family had to deliver the dowry to the groom’s house and lay it out in the bridal room for relatives to admire—a subtle way of saying:

“Our daughter brought a hefty dowry; she’s not here to be financially dependent. So after marriage, don’t go around acting like you’re singlehandedly supporting her…”

Initially, Shao Ping’s relatives had dropped their snacks in shock upon hearing he was marrying a divorced rural woman with kids. Some thought the whole Shao family had lost their minds. Others speculated that this rural second-marriage woman must be incredibly beautiful—how else could she land someone like Shao Ping despite having two kids?

But before even seeing the bride, they were already blinded by Qin Fang’s dowry.

Leading the parade was a seven-seater hybrid SUV worth over 200,000 yuan, sponsored by the program’s partner domestic auto brand in festive Chinese red.

Next came various dowry items unloaded from the trucks: a full wedding bedding set from a famous home textile brand, a traditional Chinese bridal outfit sponsored by a well-known jewelry brand, and a complete set of home appliances—air conditioner, TV, washing machine, fridge, rice cooker, oven, dishwasher—all from a top domestic appliance brand.

The show’s main sponsor, He Group, also provided a seven-day honeymoon package and a 10,000-yuan wedding photography set.

In addition, the program team had purchased wedding quilts, outfits, all kinds of kitchenware and household items, and even shoes and socks that the bride had prepared for her in-laws…

What really stunned the Shao family relatives was that even the “bottom-of-the-chest” cash dowry totaled 288,800 yuan—though originally, Wei Sheng’s team hadn’t planned for this. The money was secretly provided by Shao Ping himself, under the guise of the maiden family, to support his new wife’s image.

To be blunt, this dowry would’ve been considered highly respectable even in a provincial capital.

Some relatives were still unconvinced. Seeing that this divorced woman Shao Ping was marrying had brought such a lavish dowry, they secretly assumed the Shao family must have funded it. Someone slyly asked Mother Shao how much bride price they had given the bride.

How could Mother Shao let these petty people gloat?

With a restrained yet slightly boastful tone, she declared, “You bunch of old fossils, don’t you watch variety shows? My daughter-in-law is now an internet celebrity, with hundreds of thousands of followers on her video account. Even if she weren’t getting married, she’d still be earning hundreds of thousands to over a million a year on her own, alright?”

“And these dowries? They weren’t bought by her family showing off or borrowing money—these were all sponsored gifts from various brands for my daughter-in-law!”

“You know what sponsors are, right? Tsk~ you bumpkins! If you don’t know, just shut up already!”

Some of the relatives still felt unconvinced, but when Shao Ping finally brought the bride home and they saw Qin Fang with her delicate makeup and graceful figure, they had no choice but to accept reality.

Never mind the generous dowry—just Qin Fang’s face alone was enough for the Shao family to proudly show her off.

But the real shocker was yet to come.

During the traditional wedding room teasing session, when the relatives saw how cute and pretty Qin Fang’s bridesmaids were, a few young men from the Shao side immediately got excited and rushed up to “playfully interact” with the bridesmaids. But before they could even lay a finger on them, the bridesmaids quickly pinned them to the ground and gave them a thorough wrestling.

“Ah~ it hurts, it hurts!”

“Brother Shao Ping, save me!”

The wedding room echoed with wails.

Shao Ping just shrugged, looking completely innocent: “Today, the bride is the boss. Even I, the groom, got tormented by the bridesmaids earlier. I can’t even protect myself—better save yourselves!”

Hadn’t they noticed how every single groomsman he brought was now on their best behavior?

Why so well-behaved? Because when they went to pick up the bride earlier, they’d all been pinned down and roughed up too.

Oh, right. He forgot to give the relatives a heads-up.

Because Qin Fang couldn’t find suitable bridesmaids, all these bridesmaids were police academy girls Wei Sheng helped arrange… Forget about pinning down wedding pranksters—these girls could easily take down armed suspects barehanded! Even the shortest one among them was a sniper, known for her hundred-meter bullseye shots.

The relatives: “!!!”

Nope. Can’t mess with this. Who would’ve thought Shao Ping’s bride was such a badass?

Who the heck borrows bridesmaids from the police academy for a wedding? This was pure overkill!

From that moment on, not a single relative dared stir trouble. They all sat quietly like chickens, watching the bride with eyes full of reverence.

“I was wondering why Wei Sheng ignored all the girls from our TV station and insisted on getting people from the police academy. Now I get it,” Jin Yannan said with admiration.

Lesson learned! When she marries off her daughter someday, she’ll definitely ask Wei Sheng for help to borrow people from the police academy!

After bringing the bride home, both families moved to the community cultural hall for the banquet. The Shao family was extremely pleased with Qin Fang as their new daughter-in-law. Though the wedding feast was held at the cultural hall, the standard of the banquet was anything but modest.

There were large-armed lobsters, steaks, lamb chops, pork knuckles, big crabs, bamboo prawns… not a bit worse than dining in a hotel. Even the wedding cigarettes on the tables were premium Huazi!

And whether it was coincidence or not, Qin Fang’s ex-husband’s house wasn’t far from the community cultural hall.

Hearing the joyful music from the hall and the host’s endless praise of the bride, Jin Haiyang clutched his head in misery.

He regretted it. Truly regretted it.

Why on earth had he been so blinded back then, chasing away such a good woman like Qin Fang for that wretched woman?

Qin Fang had been amazing—beautiful, capable, diligent, filial to his parents, taking excellent care of their two kids, never giving him the slightest worry in life. She had been every man’s dream wife.

But now, this enviable good wife belonged to another man…

And what had he ended up with?

A promiscuous, unfaithful woman who not only made him raise another man’s child but even had that child registered in the Jin family household as their eldest grandson!

The joke was, Father Jin and Mother Jin had long been dreaming of a big grandson from their daughter-in-law.

Well, now they had one—only, he carried another man’s blood.

And Jin Haiyang? He didn’t even dare divorce this cheating woman!

Because she was now pregnant again—with twins by that other man. That big shot was thrilled and even sent him a hundred thousand yuan, hinting for him to take good care of her and, by the way, make sure both twins got registered under the Jin family household too…

(End of Chapter)