Chapter 120

Sun Limin only stayed in Huangbai Village for a day before leaving. But before he left, he called over Li Xiang, the head of the “Targeted Assistance Office” under the N City Development and Reform Commission. It turned out that Li Xiang had previously been in charge of N City’s targeted aid to Langshan, so there was already a connection—this kind of past goodwill would make future coordination much smoother.

Back when the central government called on economically developed regions to pair up with and assist impoverished areas, N Province was assigned to help G Province. Each city within N Province was then given specific counties to support, with responsibilities delegated down the line. Li Xiang was the liaison in this process and had worked with nearly every impoverished county.

However, after hearing about Huangbai Village’s situation, Li Xiang suggested they consider Dongxiang Town, which was adjacent to Langshan Town.

“Dongxiang Town is also within the Langshan Mountain range, but they managed to lift themselves out of poverty much faster. Back then, we had an industrial park that needed a large workforce, so to help the people of Langshan escape poverty quickly, we recruited a lot of laborers from Dongxiang Town to work in the factories.”

“Later on, I heard that many families from Dongxiang Town earned enough money working in the industrial park to move their entire households into the city, buy homes, and leave the mountains behind for good.”

“Because of that, there’s now a lot of abandoned housing and unused land in Dongxiang Town. It might be the perfect place to resettle the villagers from Huangbai Village.”

Since Wang Qun and his team weren’t familiar with the local situation, they decided to humbly take the advice of professionals.

Li Xiang immediately called the top official in Dongxiang Town.

As soon as Lang Qingsong, the Party Secretary of Dongxiang Town, received the call, he shot to his feet.

“Director Li! This is such a big deal—why didn’t you tell us earlier? How are the villagers doing now?”

“Not great…” Li Xiang briefly explained the situation in Huangbai Village over the phone. On the other end, Lang Qingsong’s eyes were red with emotion.

“Director Li! You’re treating us like outsiders! Weren’t we supposed to be one big family? How could you keep something this serious from us?”

Before Li Xiang could respond, Lang Qingsong declared firmly—

“Director Li, don’t hesitate. The health of our fellow villagers is the top priority! We’ve got plenty of vacant houses in Dongxiang Town. I’ll start organizing people right now to call around and borrow homes!”

“No matter what, we need to get the villagers out safely first. If they’re sick, they can recover slowly. Our Dongxiang Town is backed by Langshan, with good mountains, clean water, and fresh air—it’s the perfect place to recuperate.”

“As for long-term resettlement, we can figure that out once you get here. Dongxiang Town is big—what’s two or three hundred people? We can definitely find room.”

Of course, this kind of relocation still needed county-level approval. But really, it was like borrowing money—if Dongxiang Town had no objections and was willing to help, the county typically wouldn’t stand in the way. Besides, N City had once provided them with targeted aid—personnel, funding, resources—all without asking for anything in return.

Now that N City was in trouble and just wanted to borrow some space to house a few hundred people from a single village, it wasn’t a big ask.

Even if the people from Huangbai Village didn’t move in, those empty villages in Dongxiang Town would just sit there, becoming dens for foxes or weasels anyway.

Li Xiang hadn’t expected Lang Qingsong to act so quickly. In less than a day, he had already helped secure over a hundred vacant homes.

“There are enough houses,” Lang Qingsong explained, “but you know how spread out things are around Langshan. These hundred-plus households will probably need to be split into several village groups.”

“As long as there’s space for everyone to live, we’re not picky about how it’s divided. Brother Qingsong, we really can’t thank the people of Langshan enough!” Li Xiang was deeply moved and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

He had thought that, after all this time, just getting permission to borrow a plot of land for relocation would already be a big win. He never expected the warm-hearted and generous people of Langshan to give them such a pleasant surprise.

“This is amazing! If we can move them quickly, the production team can even cover part of the relocation costs,” Wang Qun said excitedly.

No one had expected such a thorny issue to be resolved with a single phone call! So why hadn’t they thought to reach out to other partner cities earlier?

“Ahem—dirty laundry shouldn’t be aired in public. It’s a Chinese thing, you know?” Li Xiang said awkwardly.

After all, they were from an economically developed region. Having a lingering issue like Huangbai Village within their jurisdiction—how could the local government not feel embarrassed?

Honestly, if it hadn’t been for the soil contamination that led to so many deaths in Huangbai Village, this issue might still have been swept under the rug.

Fortunately, now that the city had taken over the matter, there was no need to save face anymore.

Don’t be fooled by Li Xiang’s modest title—Director of the “Targeted Assistance Office” under the N City Development and Reform Commission. Because of the nature of his role, he had extensive connections. Once Dongxiang Town agreed to provide a relocation site, Li Xiang immediately mobilized people to help Huangbai Village with all the necessary paperwork and approvals.

He personally returned to the city to try and secure as much relocation funding as possible for Huangbai Village.

As for the relocation itself, they couldn’t expect Dongxiang Town to foot the bill. After all, they had only recently escaped poverty themselves. When it came to money, it was better for N City to handle it.

They might be short on land, but they certainly weren’t short on funds. Back during the lockdowns, while other cities were distributing vegetable packs, N City was handing out seafood gift boxes.

Wang Qun insisted that the production team also do their part. After a closed-door discussion, they decided to prepare a “New Home Starter Pack” for each household from Huangbai Village that would be resettled.

It was Wei Sheng who brought it up.

He’d heard that shopping in Langshan wasn’t easy. Locals had to travel all the way to the county seat to buy big-ticket items. But nearly every household in Huangbai Village had at least one sick family member. Years of medical expenses had drained their savings. Now they were moving—sure, the government would give them some relocation subsidies, but with today’s prices, just buying the essentials and doing a bit of home renovation would likely eat up most of it.

Before Wei Sheng could even finish his thought, Wang Qun cut him off: “This time, don’t even think about calling Jin Yannan! Our own sponsors are still waiting in line.”

Wei Sheng gave him a deadpan look. “I never said anything about working with Sister Jin.”

Wang Qun snorted, “I swear your butt’s already halfway over on ‘The Wage Earners’ side.”

Middle-aged men acting cute—truly lethal. Wei Sheng had no choice but to surrender, promising he wouldn’t switch sides and would keep “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” at the center of his career plans. Only then did Wang Qun let him off the hook and start assigning tasks to the show’s guests.

Basically, they just needed to tweak the original script. Initially, the plan was to use the guests’ social influence to help Huangbai Village “beg online” and alleviate some of their hardships. But now, reality had outpaced their expectations. And this new direction gave the guests’ efforts even more meaning.

One was emergency aid; the other was helping impoverished villagers from Huangbai Village move into new homes and start new lives. What could be more meaningful than that?

“Wait! Aren’t we forgetting something really important?” Wei Sheng suddenly interrupted Wang Qun’s planning.

“What?”

“I think I remember reading in the materials that some of the seriously ill and disabled villagers in Huangbai Village have completely lost the ability to work. These people will have to travel a long way to relocate to Langshan. Shouldn’t we arrange for more medical staff and emergency equipment along the way? It’d be best to have at least two ambulances on hand.”

“Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right! We definitely need to get someone on that. What else?”

“I think Xiao Wei’s thought of everything. Besides medical personnel, we should go to the village and get a better sense of the situation—see how many families might have trouble moving. The production team can organize a group of volunteers to help them with the relocation.”

The regular cast members chimed in one after another, helping Wang Qun flesh out the new script. Once they felt there was nothing more to add, everyone split up to contact their respective sponsors—er, “benefactors.”

Of course, it was all part of the show. Who they called and what kind of sponsorship they would receive had already been arranged in advance. Otherwise, calling sponsors live on air in front of a nationwide audience wouldn’t be fundraising—it’d be extortion.

What the production team didn’t expect was that the live broadcast, originally intended as a subtle advertisement for the sponsors while gathering supplies for the struggling villagers of Huangbai Village, would spark something much bigger.

As soon as the stream went live, warm-hearted viewers from all over the country began offering to help with the relocation effort if resources fell short.

Some truck drivers said that if there weren’t enough moving trucks, they’d be happy to help transport the villagers’ belongings for free.

A distributor of home medical equipment offered to donate a batch of essential health devices—blood pressure and glucose monitors, home first-aid kits, and so on—if the villagers needed them.

A clothing wholesaler, after seeing how many villagers were wearing worn-out clothes because they were saving every penny for medical treatment, wanted to donate a batch of clothing as well.

While Wei Sheng and the others were still on the phone “fundraising,” the backstage team had already logged over a thousand messages from enthusiastic viewers wanting to donate money or supplies to Huangbai Village.

“This is amazing! I think with the supplies we’ve raised from sponsors, plus donations from the audience, we can absolutely help the villagers of Huangbai Village build a brand-new home,” Wei Sheng beamed, holding a thick stack of donation forms.

He looked like a little money-grubber—anyone who didn’t know better might think all this stuff was being donated to him personally.

Wang Qun was just as excited. With a grand wave of his hand, he said, “Alright! Let’s tally everything up and see how much we can fit into the care packages.”

Everyone bustled about, counting and sorting for ages, only to realize in the end—no matter how big the care packages were, there was no way they could fit everything…

Just the batch of refrigerators and washing machines donated by a major home appliance brand would take several large trucks to transport to Langshan. Thankfully, the company had agreed to send their own trucks to deliver the appliances directly to Dongxiang Town.

Then there was another small appliance brand that donated rice cookers, induction stoves, soy milk makers, electric kettles—you name it. There was so much stuff, it was impossible to fit it all into the care packages. They’d probably have to just print a list and include it in the package, while the actual goods would be delivered straight to the new homes, saving the villagers the trouble and cost of transportation.

There were also donations from Li Ji—seasonings, rice, flour, cooking oil. A bottled water company donated two full truckloads of drinking water. A convenience food brand contributed 200,000 yuan worth of self-heating rice meals and instant noodles. A smartphone company donated smart health watches that could monitor blood pressure and heart rate in real time…

All of these came from the show’s official sponsors.

Then there were the donations from the livestream viewers—an even more eclectic mix, but clearly chosen with practicality in mind. One viewer, apparently thinking ahead to the villagers needing to clear land and farm after moving into the mountains, donated a batch of farming tools, seeds, and fertilizer. This viewer must own a farm supply chain store or something.

Others donated beds, bedding sets, furniture, toiletries… At this rate, you’d think someone was preparing a dowry for their daughter’s wedding.

“Thank goodness no one donated test papers,” Wei Sheng muttered with a shiver as he looked over the donation list.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than Wang Qun exclaimed joyfully, “Great news! A publishing house just contacted us—they want to donate books and school supplies for the children of Huangbai Village!”

Wei Sheng: “…”

Was his mouth blessed by a fortune-teller at birth or something?

(End of Chapter)