Chapter 154

As they strolled through the market, Wei Sheng unexpectedly ran into a familiar face.

“Uncle Weiguo? Isn’t your family running a guesthouse in town? What are you doing setting up a stall here?” Wei Sheng called out as he spotted Jiang Weiguo and his wife bustling around a stall selling roasted eggs.

Roasted eggs weren’t something you usually saw in J City, and Wei Sheng wasn’t sure where the snack originated. On Jiang Weiguo’s stall sat a makeshift grill fashioned from an old oil drum, glowing with charcoal. On top, more than twenty eggs were roasting—chicken eggs, quail eggs, goose eggs—and, to their surprise, even a few massive ostrich eggs!

“Teacher Wei? I heard yesterday that your crew was coming to film here. I was hoping we’d run into you! Come, sit down and try our roasted eggs!” Jiang Weiguo greeted them warmly and beckoned them over.

The setup was simple: a few long benches with dozens of small plastic stools underneath. Wei Sheng picked a roasted goose egg, a chicken egg, and a glutinous rice salted duck egg. The others were intrigued by the novelty and ordered one of each as well. Chen Mengjie, ever the generous one, even got everyone an enormous ostrich egg.

“Isn’t that too much? Feels like a waste if we can’t finish it,” Ouyang Xia said, eyeing the ostrich egg and already thinking about returning some of the others she’d ordered.

“No worries! See those beggar ghosts over there? If we can’t finish, we’ll just ask the stall owner to reheat the leftovers and give them to those guys. That’s what you call ‘when in Rome’!” Chen Mengjie pointed to a few “beggar ghosts” sitting against the wall at the corner, each with a battered bowl in front of them.

“Pfft—” Wei Sheng nearly spat out his iced tea.

This ghost market was something else. They even had beggar ghosts?

Seeing their curiosity, Jiang Weiguo chuckled and explained that those beggar ghosts were actually “specially approved” by the scenic area.

It had all started with a few quirky netizens who thought it would be fun to cosplay as beggar ghosts at the tourist site. Local residents saw them, and soon, a few disabled individuals approached the management, asking if they could do the same. They didn’t want a salary—just to keep whatever they earned from begging.

“They’re all former miners who were injured in accidents years ago. With limited mobility and no way to run a business, the scenic area made an exception and gave them a few spots. But they still get paid a salary. Each of them receives two thousand yuan a month from the site, plus whatever they make from begging and their disability subsidies. It’s enough to get by,” Jiang Weiguo said with a sigh.

Wei Sheng and the others hadn’t expected those amusing-looking beggar ghosts to be real disabled people. They felt a twinge of guilt for joking about them earlier. Chen Mengjie’s face flushed red with embarrassment. Wei Sheng patted her on the shoulder, exchanged some cash with Jiang Weiguo, and the two of them went over to drop ten yuan into each of the beggar ghosts’ bowls.

“Is ten yuan too little? Should we just give them a hundred each?” Chen Mengjie asked hesitantly.

“It’s enough. Think about it—if every tourist at the night market gave just one yuan, they’d still make several hundred a night.”

“That’s true. A few hundred a day adds up to ten thousand a month,” Chen Mengjie nodded thoughtfully.

“Earning ten to twenty thousand a month without a formal job? That’s only possible because the scenic area made an exception. But they had no choice. Most of these miners don’t have medical insurance, and rural coverage doesn’t reimburse much. Making more money means they’ll at least be able to afford hospital visits in the future.”

That was probably the main reason the scenic area allowed them to “beg legally” within the market.

Sure enough, when Jiang Weiguo saw them giving money to the beggar ghosts, he brought over two roasted oranges on the house. Probably worried they’d get a bad impression of the place, he quickly explained—

“Old Zhang over there lost both legs when he was young. Prosthetics cost a fortune.”

“And that’s Xiao Jia—sigh, I heard he was abducted years ago and forced to work in an illegal coal mine. He lost an arm and was dumped outside afterward. His family doesn’t care about him. He used to beg in town and didn’t even have a place to live. Now things are better. The scenic area arranged housing for him and even enrolled him in medical insurance. At least now he’s got some security.”

Hearing this, the group finally felt a little better.

Wei Sheng joked, asking if Jiang Weiguo’s family had closed the guesthouse, since they were now running a stall at the night market.

Jiang Weiguo laughed heartily. “Teacher Wei, you don’t know. These days, a lot of people are renting long-term in Jiangdong Town. All our guest rooms are leased out! My wife and I just live on the first floor. We lock our bedroom door and let the guests use the downstairs kitchen and living room. Since we’ve got nothing to do, we figured we might as well set up a stall here and make a little extra cash.”

Ever since reconciling with their daughter, Jiang Weiguo and his wife had been living with a newfound clarity. One of the main reasons they rented out the guest rooms long-term was so they could visit their daughter in the city more easily on weekends and holidays.

They used to think their daughter had a great job and a well-off husband, so she didn’t need anything from them. But they’d misunderstood. Sometimes, what family and friends need isn’t material things, but the care and thoughtfulness behind them.

Once they realized that, the couple couldn’t help but think of their daughter and her family whenever they saw something good. Many vendors on their street had supply channels back in their hometowns. Jiang Weiguo would buy a box of authentic Dangshan pears from the stewed pear seller, two legs of Ningxia lamb from the baked bun vendor, and even a full thirty-pound bag of sweet potato noodles from the Huainan beef soup stall—all because his daughter once said their noodles tasted better than the ones from the supermarket.

They’d haul big bags of goodies to their daughter’s home again and again. At first, Jiang Wan was a bit reserved about it. But one time, when she was sick and bedridden while her husband was away on a business trip, Jiang Weiguo dropped everything as soon as he found out. The next day, he showed up with freshly slaughtered free-range chicken and duck, plus a big box of goose eggs. It was the first time in her life Jiang Wan had been taken care of like a little girl by her parents. That night, while video chatting with her husband, she couldn’t hold back her tears.

From then on, Jiang Weiguo truly understood what it meant to have a “little cotton-padded jacket” in your old age.

Before the weather even turned cold, their daughter had already sent them brand-new down jackets, thick fleece pajamas, and two sets of thermal underwear each, afraid they might catch cold.

Jiang Wan and her husband had good workplace benefits. During holidays, they’d send over carloads of gifts—milk, rice, flour, oil, fruit, eggs—you name it. Jiang Weiguo was over the moon. Even though roasted eggs didn’t require oil, he went out of his way to create a glutinous rice egg that did, just so he could proudly point to the bottle of peanut oil next to the grill and tell customers, “We use only top-quality oil. It’s from my daughter’s workplace benefits. We can’t finish it all ourselves, so we use it at the stall. You can eat with confidence.”

The locals who knew the inside story were already used to this kind of scene. Jiang Weiguo, that guy! These days, he can’t even go to a public restroom without mentioning his daughter at least twice. He especially loves it when people ask him for toilet paper—because the toilet paper they use at home now is a benefit from his son-in-law’s workplace!

But what really caught the old couple off guard was this: after they firmly decided to cut ties with their son and treat Jiang Chen as if he didn’t exist, the brat, without his parents to fall back on, actually went back to work like a proper adult!

Not only that, according to their daughter, without the family’s financial support, Jiang Chen didn’t just stop talking about quitting his job—he didn’t even dare to take time off anymore. With the job market being so tough these past two years, even college graduates were applying for front desk positions at his hotel. Hearing that, Jiang Chen didn’t dare to act cocky anymore.

Even Jiang’s mother, who had still felt a bit guilty before, stopped saying anything. She even told Jiang Weiguo, “If we’d known cutting him off would make him work properly, we should’ve kicked him out the moment he graduated.”

As the group chatted and ate, they managed to finish off two roasted ostrich eggs between them. The rest was too much to handle, so they shared some with the cameramen following the crew. The leftovers were reheated with Jiang Weiguo’s help, packed into plastic bags, and given to a few disabled friends who had been playing the roles of “Beggar Ghosts.”

By now, the Mine Ghost Market had evolved far beyond the original concept Wei Sheng and the others had designed. In addition to the stalls lining both sides and the wandering “official NPCs,” there were now plenty of “wild NPCs” as well.

And these wild NPCs were even more outrageous than the official ones!

Along the way, Wei Sheng and the others saw someone pretending to be an orphan girl “selling herself to bury her father,” with the “corpse” beside her lying still with ghost-white makeup on, playing the part with full dedication.

There were also people dressed as Ox-Head and Horse-Face roaming around “capturing souls.” Of course, if you scanned a QR code and paid—even just a few cents—they’d “let you go.” This was one of the most popular attractions. People were even lining up to get caught, since in real life, no amount of money could buy mercy from Ox-Head and Horse-Face!

There were even people pretending to be emperors from various dynasties, recruiting followers to rebuild a new underground empire. They actually managed to rope in quite a few “ghosts” who wanted to be officials. Pfft!

As ridiculous as it was, Wei Sheng happily joined “Qin Shi Huang’s” faction and was granted the title of “Tingwei.” Chen Mengjie, a fan of palace dramas, joined the “Yongzheng Emperor” faction. Thanks to her family’s wealth (and generous QR-code donations), she was immediately granted the title of “Noble Lady.”

“Oh my god, this is way too fun! Once we finish filming, I’m definitely coming back to stay a few more days!” The group had originally just come to shoot some behind-the-scenes footage, but they ended up having so much fun that by the time they returned to the hotel, it was already past 2 a.m. Chen Mengjie was still buzzing with excitement. She had just been promoted to consort and hadn’t even reached the rank of Noble Consort yet. Next time, she was determined to make it all the way to Empress!

Wang Qun hadn’t expected it either. He thought he was just filming a short behind-the-scenes segment, but when the episode aired, the bonus footage ended up being even more popular than the main show. The proof?

The main episode had over 50 million online views.

The behind-the-scenes footage? 170 million views!

Wang Qun was dumbfounded.

So why are fewer and fewer people watching TV these days? Besides the clunky startup procedures and endless ads, the rigid rules from the broadcasting authorities—this can’t be filmed, that can’t be shown—have left directors with their hands tied.

If what you’re filming isn’t what the audience wants to watch, and then you ask why no one’s watching TV anymore, isn’t that just ridiculous?

Why don’t people like today’s movies and dramas? Don’t you have the slightest clue?

After wrapping up filming in Jiangdong Town, the crew rushed off to Lotus Pond Village.

They arrived just in time to catch the villagers digging up water chestnuts. A group of volunteers from the police academy had come to help the elderly villagers, and the whole scene was buzzing with energy.

Without waiting for the director’s cue, Wei Sheng and the others rolled up their sleeves, put on rubber boots, and jumped into the fields to help.

Water chestnuts aren’t commonly grown in J Province. Usually, they’re transported in from the south during this season. But Lotus Pond Village had plenty of wetlands, and if they only grew lotus roots, the market would be flooded, driving prices down. So the village introduced a batch of water chestnuts, and to everyone’s surprise, the first harvest was a bumper crop—and the price was over a yuan higher per kilo than lotus roots.

But digging water chestnuts is hard work. You have to wade through the mud, pull up the plants by their roots, remove the chestnuts, and then, after the mud dries, go back in for a second round to dig up the ones buried deeper.

Originally, the villagers hadn’t planned to trouble anyone. Water chestnuts buried in the mud won’t spoil quickly, so with fewer hands, they figured they’d just dig slowly over time.

Who would’ve thought the police academy had been following the village’s social media?

After seeing a video of the villagers digging water chestnuts, the very next day, the academy sent volunteers to help.

Not only that, the villagers didn’t even have to worry about selling the chestnuts. The students and teachers bought them up—five kilos here, ten kilos there—clearing out the stock internally.

Strangely enough, even though J Province doesn’t grow water chestnuts, the locals love eating them in winter. Water chestnut and pear soup, stir-fried pork with water chestnuts, water chestnut cakes, water chestnut and lean pork congee… Every year during this season, imported water chestnuts fetch a good price.

If it weren’t so labor-intensive to harvest, the village would’ve gladly replaced all their lotus roots with water chestnuts.

But nowadays, Lotus Pond Village no longer relies solely on their harvests to get by.

Ever since the show “Retracing the Path of Poverty Alleviation” brought this unique village into the public eye, whether people truly respected them or not, at least none of the nearby villages dared to talk trash anymore.

Soon after, the village’s vacation homestays opened for business, and tourists began to trickle in. Taking advice from online comments, Village Chief He Ruizhen built a camping site on the grassy riverbank. The village bought a batch of tents, lounge chairs, grills, and lights to rent out to visitors. That alone brought in enough income each month to cover the village’s expenses.

Mainly because the village’s expenses had gone down.

In the past, the village had to scrimp and save to support the many elderly residents, most of whom had no health insurance. Even with rural coverage, many couldn’t afford the out-of-pocket costs and had to rely on village aid.

But things had changed. The annual checkups for the elderly were now provided free of charge by top provincial hospitals. There were also numerous donations from across society, specifically earmarked to help these elderly survivors of war stay healthy. With that financial support, the village’s economic burden was greatly eased.

When the crew visited other villages, the local village committees usually handled the hospitality. But when they came to Lotus Pond Village, even Wang Qun made sure to book two homestays in advance with his own money. He knew the village didn’t really need the money anymore, but still—if the village could save a little here and there, maybe they could buy the elderly a few extra sets of clothes at the end of the year. Who could bear to spend the money meant for those old folks?

Wei Sheng and the others had originally gone down to the fields to help dig up water chestnuts, but to their surprise, the field held more than just chestnuts—it was teeming with loaches!

After asking around, they learned that the villagers had deliberately released the loaches into the field when planting the water chestnuts. The idea was that if the chestnut harvest didn’t go well, they could at least catch and sell the loaches for a bit of extra income.

It seemed even the heavens took pity on the elderly, women, and children left in the village. Not only had the water chestnuts yielded a bumper crop this year, but even the casually released loaches had grown fat and plump!

And Wei Sheng? There was no way he was letting those loaches go.

Loaches were his absolute favorite!

That night, Chef Wei made another appearance, serving up a river delicacy feast for the elders of Lotus Pond Village.

Even Wang Qun was surprised to discover for the first time that Wei Sheng could cook such amazing convalescent meals!

Wei Sheng just smiled.

The messy business with the Wei Family had already been dug up and rehashed countless times by his haters. Even now, there were still people online—whether actual haters or just self-righteous pretenders—posing as moral crusaders to accuse him of being cold and selfish, saying he didn’t even care for his own father and grandmother, and that he was bound to be struck by lightning one day.

Pah! If lightning’s coming, it should strike down you hypocrites first!

At this point, there wasn’t much left to hide about his family’s past. As he cooked, Wei Sheng spoke to the camera and explained—

“My dad was always the kind of guy who’d rather pretend to work overtime or help out at a coworker’s house than come home early and do chores. My mom, on the other hand, was very concerned with appearances. When she got sick, she didn’t want to worry my grandparents, and she didn’t want to be a laughingstock among relatives and neighbors, so she just toughed it out at home alone.”

“What could I do? By the time I was in fourth grade, I already knew how to cook. When my mom was sick, she couldn’t eat greasy or raw food, so I went to the library and borrowed a cookbook to follow.”

“I was mostly drawn in by the pretty pictures in the book. Who knew it was actually a cookbook for convalescent meals? At first, my mom really enjoyed the food. Even after she got better, she still wanted to eat it. We kept it up for about half a year before we realized I’d been making nothing but meals for the sick.”

“Pfft—hahaha!”

The atmosphere had started off heavy and somber, but the moment Wei Sheng mentioned that it took them six months to realize they’d been eating convalescent food, the whole place burst into laughter. Even the cameraman was struggling to hold it in, his bladder on the verge of exploding.

At first, he’d just been holding in his pee. But now, with Wei Sheng cracking jokes, his whole body started shaking along with his bladder. It was pure torture—he almost couldn’t hold the camera steady.

(End of chapter)

———

Ox-Head and Horse-Face (牛頭馬面) are fearsome guardians of the Chinese underworld who capture souls and escort them to face judgment. In mythology, they are completely incorruptible—no amount of money can prevent them from taking a soul to the afterlife

Qin Shi Huang was the first emperor of unified China (259-210 BCE) and founder of the Qin Dynasty. He’s famous for unifying China, building much of the Great Wall, and creating the Terracotta Army.

The “Tingwei” title granted to Wei Sheng was one of the Nine Ministers (九卿) in ancient Chinese government, specifically the Minister of Justice who oversaw legal affairs and punishments.

Emperor Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) was the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty, known for his administrative reforms and centralization of power. Chen Mengjie’s fascination with palace dramas likely refers to popular Chinese historical TV series about imperial court life, which often feature Qing Dynasty emperors like Yongzheng.

The “Noble Lady” (贵人) title was an actual concubine rank in the Qing imperial harem system, below higher ranks like Consort and Imperial Noble Consort.