Chapter 149

Back in Houzhai Village once again, the treatment the production team received this time was almost on par with Zhen Huan’s return to the palace from Ganlu Temple—if not exactly the same, it was close enough.

They were staying at the village’s newly opened resort hotel. To accommodate them, the village had reserved the entire top two floors of guest rooms just for the crew.

As for meals, there was no need for Wei Sheng and the others to cook for themselves like before. In fact, the village had been arguing for half a month over who would get the honor of hosting the production team. In the end, it was Hou Tianbao who made the final decision: draw lots! Whoever drew the winning lot would host the crew for a day. That way, the crew would dine at a different home each day and enjoy fresh, home-cooked meals every time.

The lottery process was completely fair, with no behind-the-scenes manipulation. Proof? Even Village Chief Hou Tianbao and the village’s “wealthiest man” Hou Pengfei didn’t draw a hosting slot.

The villagers who did win were as thrilled as if their family was about to welcome a new bride. That very night, they drafted a menu, cleaned the house from top to bottom, and rushed to town for groceries. The whole family was so busy their heels barely touched the ground.

Sure, they were grateful to the production team, but more importantly, everyone knew that “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” was now a nationwide hit. When it was their turn to host, wouldn’t that mean their whole family would get screen time on national TV?

No sooner had the production team stepped out of a meeting at the Village Committee than they were swept away by enthusiastic villagers eager to welcome them into their homes.

The first lucky winner was Hou Pengyuan, an elementary school classmate of Hou Pengfei.

Hou Pengyuan’s family used to be dirt poor. But unlike most rural families, his didn’t favor sons over daughters. Hou Pengyuan wasn’t cut out for academics, but his older sister, Hou Fangting, was a top student from a young age. The family couldn’t bear to let such a promising daughter drop out to work, so his parents gritted their teeth and supported both children through school.

It’s often said that those born in the 1980s had it the hardest—every misfortune seemed to fall on that generation. When Hou Pengyuan and his sister were in school, compulsory education wasn’t yet free, and college tuition was steep. After his sister got into university, the family simply couldn’t afford to support both children. Hou Pengyuan, whose grades were at the bottom of his high school class, realized there was no point dragging things out. He dropped out after a year and went to work on a construction site.

Because all the family’s money had gone toward his sister’s education, they continued living in a crumbling mud-brick house built thirty years ago. And Hou Pengyuan, unable to afford a proper bride price, remained unmarried.

A few years back, the villagers used to mock his parents, saying they’d wasted all that money on their daughter’s education, only for her in-laws to reap the benefits. Meanwhile, their son, who never went to college, couldn’t land a decent job and still hadn’t found a wife.

The old couple, not being very educated, initially worried that their son might resent them. But to their surprise, Hou Pengyuan never once complained about favoritism. Instead, he turned around and comforted them.

“Mom, Dad, don’t listen to their nonsense. Me not going to college has nothing to do with Sis. I just couldn’t pass the exams! If I’d really gotten in, would you have stopped me from going? Besides, there are scholarships now. If I’d made it, even if you couldn’t afford it, I’d have busted my ass to go anyway.”

“And what’s so bad about getting married a few years later? We’ve got nothing right now. Even if we borrowed money to scrape together a bride price and brought a girl home, wouldn’t that just be dragging her down?”

Who would’ve thought that less than half a year after saying that, Hou Pengyuan would actually get engaged?

He worked as an electrician on construction sites. The year Wei Sheng and the crew came to film in the village, the site he was working on shut down due to a failed project. Unable to find suitable work, he decided to take a break and return home. As luck would have it, the village was undergoing a wave of infrastructure development and badly needed electricians, plumbers, and masons.

Hou Pengyuan was quick on his feet. After discussing it with his parents, he made a few calls. After all, years of working on construction sites meant he knew people in every trade. With a dozen phone calls, he pulled together a small construction team. Then, borrowing some startup capital from his sister and brother-in-law, he first landed a contract to build a new factory for his old classmate Hou Pengfei. After that, he took on projects for the village—constructing the office building, the grand hall, and the resort hotel.

Who would’ve imagined that the laborer everyone once looked down on would transform into a well-known contractor?

After saving up some money, Hou Pengyuan tore down the old family house and built a brand-new five-story building. The first floor was for the family to live in, while the upper four floors were converted into guest rooms. His parents no longer had to work on construction sites. They stayed home to run a bed-and-breakfast, earning a steady income of over 100,000 yuan a year.

Not long ago, a girl brought her classmates back to the village for a visit. Unexpectedly, she and Hou Pengyuan fell in love at first sight. At first, his parents couldn’t believe it. After all, the girl had a graduate degree and worked at a major company in Province S, reportedly earning over 300,000 yuan a year. Why would someone like her be interested in their son, who hadn’t even finished high school?

Well… let’s just say Hou Pengyuan’s face really worked in his favor. Years of physical labor had kept his physique in top shape, and compared to the greasy, middle-aged men she’d met on blind dates, Hou Pengyuan—young, handsome, and fit—was a rare catch.

And really, what’s wrong with a lower education? Hou Pengyuan wasn’t just a laborer anymore. He had started his own construction company and was now his own boss, easily earning hundreds of thousands, even millions, a year. That’s a far cry from those middle-aged men with barely five-figure monthly salaries who still nitpick every little thing about a potential partner.

And just like that, Hou Pengyuan found success in both his career and love life. Word was, after getting married, his wife didn’t even return to her old job. Instead, she switched to being a content creator, and thanks to Houzhai Village’s growing fame online, she was now earning just as much as she did working at a big company.

Both husband and wife believed that this stroke of fortune was all thanks to the show. The arrival of Wei Sheng and his team hadn’t just changed the fate of Houzhai Village—it had changed their own lives as well. So, when it came to welcoming the production crew, the entire Hou family raised the reception standards to the level of a wedding banquet. They even hired a renowned rural chef who specialized in large village feasts to cook for them.

So when Wei Sheng and the others arrived after their meeting, they were greeted by the sight of a massive red canopy set up in the Hou family’s courtyard, with eight large round tables neatly arranged underneath.

To host the production team, the Hou family had even invited designated companions to entertain the guests.

“This is really too much,” even Wang Qun felt a bit embarrassed.

He had assumed that when the villagers said they’d take turns hosting meals, it would just be some simple home-cooked food—maybe a chicken or a few fish. He had even gone out of his way to buy some cigarettes, liquor, and health supplements from the village store as a token of appreciation. He never expected the villagers to be this enthusiastic. What was supposed to be a casual meal had turned into something that looked like a wedding celebration.

Fortunately, the production team was no longer what it used to be. They now had more sponsors than they could count. So, after sitting down, Wang Qun quickly discussed with the team leaders and decided they couldn’t let the villagers bear all the cost. In the end, they agreed to take 5,000 yuan from the show’s budget as a gift. After all, hadn’t Hou Pengyuan just gotten married? They could treat this feast as a belated wedding banquet from the crew.

At the banquet, Hou Pengfei and his wife also joined as guests.

Hou Pengfei had been working with Wei Sheng over the past two years, and they had a good relationship. So Hou Pengyuan arranged for them to sit at the same table. When Hou Pengfei saw Wei Sheng, it was like seeing the God of Wealth himself. If the setting had allowed, he probably would have lit three sticks of incense and offered a year-end report, maybe even thrown in a little prayer—

God of Wealth, will there be more orders next year?

“Of course there will. I’m just worried you won’t be able to keep up,” Wei Sheng said with a smug grin, then leaned in to share some insider tips with his old friend.

“Did you catch my livestream from Huazhi Village? They’re planning a Blueberry Picking Festival next year. I’m thinking of renting out a whole blueberry field and launching a line of premium blueberry gift boxes with folk elements. I’ve already started looking for designers. You’ll be in charge of the bamboo baskets, and I want the outer packaging to have shell inlays with decorative patterns. I’ll have the designer contact you with the details.”

“I talked to the Huazhi Village Committee. They said several villages in the area grow blueberries—thousands of acres in total. Do a good job, and I’ll help you promote it!”

“Ah! Thanks, bro!” Hou Pengfei was overjoyed. He raised his glass and downed it in one go without a second thought.

Wei Sheng was speechless but followed suit with a toast.

Only after that did they set their glasses down and continue chatting.

Hou Pengfei was genuinely grateful to Wei Sheng—not just because he and the production team had changed his family’s fate, but because now, whenever people in Houzhai Village and the surrounding areas mentioned Wei Sheng or “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation,” they were full of gratitude. Honestly, if the villagers were the type to follow celebrity fandoms, Wei Sheng’s haters wouldn’t stand a chance.

The villagers might not have much formal education, but when it came to cursing someone out, they didn’t hold back. They didn’t care about getting banned online either. Anyone who dared say a bad word about Wei Sheng instantly became their mortal enemy.

“Remember that old widow who lives behind our village? Grandma Guiping—the one who gave you those eggs?”

“Of course I remember! Her eggs had green shells, and they were delicious!” Wei Sheng smacked his lips. Before leaving after the last shoot, he had even gone to buy a basket of green-shelled eggs from her. His whole family loved them.

“Heh heh~ You won’t believe it, but now Grandma Guiping is living with her daughter!” Hou Pengfei chuckled gleefully.

Everyone in the village knew the story of Grandma Guiping’s two sons—how she had raised them for nothing.

She had two sons and one daughter. She worked herself to the bone raising the boys. As a single woman, she braved the freezing winters to cut bamboo in the mountains, just to earn enough money to find them wives. The hard labor left her with a body full of ailments.

She thought that with two sons and a growing family, her old age would be secure. Who would’ve guessed both sons would turn out to be so heartless? The eldest lived in the new house she had paid to build and even had her raise his kids. But once the kids were grown, he kicked her out, pretending it was because she didn’t get along with his wife and they wanted to avoid arguments.

What a joke! When she was raising your kids, you weren’t worried about arguments then?

Now that she’s no longer useful, you just throw her out?

The younger son was even worse. After getting married, he took his whole family down south for work and ended up settling near his wife’s family. He hadn’t come back in years and didn’t care whether his mother lived or died.

In the end, it was her daughter who remembered her. She would stop by to help with cleaning and chores, and during holidays, she’d bring food and gifts.

Two years ago, Hou Pengfei’s bamboo and wood processing factory started doing well. Grandma Guiping, never one to sit idle, began taking work home from the factory. No one expected that, with her quick hands and nimble fingers, the elderly woman could earn several thousand yuan a month!

Sure enough, her eldest son and his family came crawling back, all smiles and flattery, loudly insisting they wanted to bring their mother home to live with them. But who didn’t see through their little scheme?

Hou Pengfei had been worried that Grandma Guiping might fall for her eldest son’s fake kindness. But to his surprise, she quietly went to Village Chief Hou Tianbao and arranged for an early division of the family property—with him as the witness.

According to village customs, the houses she and her late husband had built for their two sons, along with the family’s land, would go to the sons after her death. However, the old house where she currently lived would go to her daughter.

But it wasn’t a free gift. Grandma Guiping set a condition: from now on, each of her two sons had to give her 2,000 yuan a year as a support allowance. If they failed, the house would go to whoever took care of her in her old age.

That was unacceptable to them.

Her eldest son and his wife exploded with anger. In their eyes, the family’s house and land were naturally the sons’ inheritance—what did the daughter have to do with any of it? And this division was completely unfair. Why wasn’t the money in Grandma Guiping’s hands being split too?

“How shameless can they be? They’re even eyeing their own mother’s savings for her old age?” Wei Sheng couldn’t help but say.

“Exactly. Uncle Tianbao scolded them right then and there. He said Grandma Guiping had worked herself into poor health just to help her sons get married. The little money she had left was for her medical expenses. If they wanted it, they could start by paying for her medicine and doctor visits. That shut them right up.”

“You wouldn’t believe it. When the property was being divided, those two ungrateful sons were actually cursing their own mother. They said she’d gone senile, claimed the daughter and son-in-law were just after her money, and that once they got it, they’d throw her out. Said she’d end up dying alone on the street…”

“Holy crap! You didn’t hire those two into your factory, did you?” Wei Sheng stared in disbelief.

Hou Pengfei waved his hands frantically. “Hire those two who’d even scheme against their own mother? No way! Not just me—pretty much the whole village has cut ties with them.”

“Good! That’s more like it.” Wei Sheng let out a breath of relief. “So Grandma Guiping’s living with her daughter and son-in-law now? Are they treating her well?”

“Well? She’s living her best life!” Hou Pengfei beamed, looking as pleased as if he were the one enjoying retirement.

“Her daughter’s pretty sharp too. Worried that her brothers might one day accuse her of mistreating their mother, she started a video channel and films Grandma Guiping’s daily life in their home… pfft!”

“And then?” Wei Sheng could already guess where this was going.

“And then the account blew up, haha! You wouldn’t believe it, but Grandma Guiping’s son-in-law is a bit of a drama queen. He’s so worried about what the villagers might say about how he treats his mother-in-law that he brings her up in everything he does!”

“Whenever he and his wife go to the market, he always looks for stuff his mother-in-law likes—bananas, sorghum candy, those big apples with pink flesh. Every trip, he buys more for her than for their two kids!”

“Worried she might slip in the bath, he even paid to build a new bathroom in their courtyard. Just like the ones on TV, with a toilet that has handrails and a shower area with a bench.”

“Knowing she can’t sit still and still wants to take handcraft work from my factory, her son-in-law got the whole family involved to help her. Grandma Guiping, worried she’d keep the kids from doing their homework, now goes to bed early every night. She’s glowing with health, and all the elderly folks in the village are green with envy.”

Meanwhile, her two ungrateful sons thought they’d finally shaken off the burden of their aging mother. But who could have guessed that starting the very next year, Houzhai Village’s collective economy began turning a profit, and they started distributing dividends per person?

Not only that, but for elderly villagers like Grandma Guiping, who were over seventy, the village also gave out special senior subsidies. Between Spring Festival, Double Ninth Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, each elder received about 2,000 yuan a year.

For frugal rural elders, 2,000 yuan a year was more than enough for food and daily needs. As for the village dividends, Grandma Guiping used all of it to give red envelopes to her two granddaughters from her daughter’s side. Her biological grandsons didn’t get a single cent.

“Serves them right! If you can’t even be filial to your own mother, may your kids follow your example and never take care of you either.” Wei Sheng savored the juicy gossip with satisfaction and grew curious about how much money Houzhai Village was distributing to its residents each year.

Hou Pengfei proudly held up one finger.

“A thousand?”

“No way. Ten thousand yuan per person, per year!”

“Holy crap! Your village hit the jackpot!”

Next to them, Wang Qun was so stunned he stopped eating. He immediately called the cameraman over. This part had to be recorded!

(End of Chapter)