Chapter 188

The rural market near Yuan Stream Township was unusually quiet lately.

It wasn’t that the locals didn’t want to go to market anymore. It was just that everyone was busy heading up the mountains to plant medicinal herbs. Not only were there fewer shoppers, even many of the usual vendors had stayed home, busy reclaiming land and planting herbs themselves.

In recent years, growing grain had stopped being profitable, and vegetables didn’t sell well locally. Most of the younger folks from the mountain villages had gone to the cities to work. As a result, many of the mountain plots that had once been cleared were left to go fallow. After a year or two without cultivation, they turned into nothing more than overgrown weeds.

But now, things were different.

After the county held a press conference, they quickly mobilized hundreds of poverty alleviation cadres to spread the word in every village and household, ensuring that the “Hundred Villages, Ten Thousand Households Common Prosperity Plan” reached every corner.

Wei Sheng gave them a suggestion: “Don’t just read the agreement to the villagers. Do the math with them!”

Or better yet, make a comparison chart. Say you plant potatoes or sweet potatoes on one mu of land. After setting aside what the family eats and what’s fed to the pigs, you’d be lucky to make a thousand yuan a year. But if you switch to the designated traditional Chinese medicinal herbs, one mu could earn you at least five thousand yuan annually!

Think about it. Nine Streams County has vast land and a sparse population. If a family has enough labor and is willing to work hard, clearing 20 or 30 mu of mountain land isn’t out of the question.

At five thousand per mu, thirty mu would bring in 150,000 yuan a year!

If a household could earn that much annually, forget just escaping poverty—they’d be well on their way to a comfortable life.

And Wei Sheng’s calculation was based on the lowest-priced herbs. If someone was bold enough, or willing to learn advanced cultivation techniques from the co-op, and planted high-value herbs, the income per mu could reach tens of thousands.

What did that mean? It meant that every extra mu of land cleared now could bring in thousands, even tens of thousands, in stable annual income down the line!

In no time, all across Nine Streams County, people were heading up the mountains with hoes on their shoulders, reclaiming land.

Well, not so much opening new land as re-clearing the old, abandoned plots.

Among them, Yuan Stream Township—the birthplace of Yuanxi Biotech—was the most enthusiastic.

After all, who would’ve thought that Wei Sheng would name his pharmaceutical company after their township?

That was the greatest honor their township had ever received!

Just thinking about how, in the future, people would know that a miracle drug exported overseas came from Yuan Stream Township made the locals dig with such fervor that sparks practically flew off their hoes. No way were they going to lose to any other township when it came to medicinal herb cultivation!

In Bailongjian Village, Wu Qionghua had finally had enough. She packed up her things, took the kids, and moved back to her mother’s house, unilaterally announcing a separation from her husband.

Wu Qionghua had been married into Bailongjian for seven years and had given Bai Pingbo two daughters and a son. Back when her husband was working in the city, things weren’t too bad. He didn’t care much for the family, but at least he sent her a thousand yuan every month. Life in the mountains was cheap, and that was enough to get by for her and the kids.

But a few months ago, Wu Qionghua called and told him that the village had started an agricultural cooperative. As long as they signed up as contract farmers and planted the herbs specified by the co-op, their dozen or so mu of mountain land could earn over 80,000 yuan a year!

Bai Pingbo quit his job and rushed back home.

But to Wu Qionghua’s disappointment, her husband didn’t join the other men in the village in reclaiming land and planting herbs. Instead, he clung to his phone everywhere he went. Even when he did go out to work the fields, he barely made an effort—digging a few shallow holes, tossing in the seedlings without checking the depth, not caring if they’d rot when it rained. He just wanted to finish quickly and get back to scrolling on his phone.

So Wu Qionghua was left to do everything—climb the mountain to plant herbs, cook for the kids in the fields, and now even take care of a grown man at home. She wasn’t one to suffer in silence. After several fights with her husband and seeing that he had no intention of changing, she took the kids and moved back to her mother’s house.

Bai Pingbo thought she was just throwing a tantrum and would come back after a few days.

After all, there was no one left on her side of the family. Her mother had passed away two years ago, leaving behind only a few rundown houses and some unwanted land. What was she going to do, go back and eat dirt?

At first, Bai Pingbo was even a little pleased. Now he could stay up all night watching videos on his phone without anyone nagging him. No one to buzz in his ear in the morning, telling him to get up and eat. No one to push him to go work in the fields. If he got hungry, he could just boil some instant noodles or roast a few sweet potatoes. A pot of water could last him the whole day.

But after three months of this carefree bachelor life, with no word from his wife, Bai Pingbo started to feel uneasy. Was she really planning to divorce him? No way he was letting her take the kids! Those were Bai family blood!

So he headed down the mountain, bought two bags of candy, weighed out some apples and bananas, and trekked over an hour to her mother’s house.

He hadn’t been there in nearly three years—the last time was for his mother-in-law’s funeral. Following his memory, he found the house, only to discover that besides his wife and kids, there were two other men inside.

Bai Pingbo: “!!!”

“Who are you people?”

Wei Fang and Wei Ping looked at him like he was crazy. This guy barges into someone else’s house and asks who they are? Was he nuts?

“This is our wife’s house. Who the hell are you?”

Bai Pingbo completely lost it. “I’m her man!”

He pointed a trembling finger at Wu Qionghua.

Wu Qionghua rolled her eyes.

“Oh, please! We never got a marriage license, never held a wedding. We were just shacking up. What kind of ‘man’ are you supposed to be?”

“How am I not? We lived together for seven years! You gave me three kids! We’re as good as married!” Bai Pingbo shouted, furious.

“Then go ahead and sue me!” Wu Qionghua sneered. “Don’t think I don’t know the law. Our Ping here graduated high school! He told me that what we had was just cohabitation. If we get along, we stay together. If not, we split. You don’t believe me? Go to court and see if the judge will force me to keep living with you!”

Bai Pingbo stood there, dumbfounded. He looked at Wu Qionghua, then at the tall, burly Wei brothers, and suddenly everything clicked.

“You, you, you… Wu Qionghua, you shameless woman! You’re cheating on me with two men?!”

Wu Qionghua slammed her youngest son’s bowl on the table, grabbed a broom, and started swinging it at Bai Pingbo while cursing him out.

“We never got a license, so if that makes them adulterers, then guess what? You’re adulterer number one!”

“The smartest thing I ever did was not marrying you! I can live with whoever I damn well please! When I was trying to make things work with you, you lazed around all day while I raised the kids, worked the fields, and cooked. Now that I’m done serving you, you suddenly care?”

“Well, let me make it clear today—I like Wei Fang and Wei Ping! I want to live with them! They’re younger, better looking, and way more hardworking than you.”

“You just wanted to be left alone to play on your phone, right? Fine! I’ll give you what you want. From now on, stay in your house and play on your phone all you like. No wife, no kids to bother you. Isn’t that the life you wanted?”

When she was done beating him, Wu Qionghua shoved the broom into Wei Fang’s hands. The brothers exchanged a glance—one picked up the broom, the other grabbed a hoe. But before they even made a move, Bai Pingbo had already turned tail and fled.

“Coward,” Wu Qionghua scoffed, then went back inside to feed her youngest son.

Wu Qionghua had expected that taking her three kids back to her mother’s place would mean two years of hard times. But she wasn’t afraid. After all, even when she was with Bai Pingbo, she’d been the one raising the kids and working the land. Now that the useless man was gone, it was just one less mouth to feed.

Now the entire village was following Wei Sheng’s lead in setting up agricultural cooperatives. Back at her family home, Wu Qionghua had both land and a house. As long as she was willing to work hard, with her two older daughters in school and not needing much care, she could carry her youngest son on her back while planting medicinal herbs in the fields. Earning tens of thousands of yuan a year, she could still live a good life.

Who would’ve thought that now, even a single mother with three kids was in such high demand?

The Wei brothers, Wei Fang and Wei Ping, aged 33 and 28 respectively, were both considered older, unmarried men struggling to find wives in the village. They had both taken a liking to Wu Qionghua and didn’t mind that she came with three children. The only problem was, Wu Qionghua had been burned by her previous marriage and had no interest in tying the knot again.

Didn’t want to get legally married? That was fine too—just living together and sharing a life would do!

As the saying goes, “Three years single, and even a sow looks like a beauty queen.” The Wei brothers were desperate for a wife. But with bride prices in the countryside now sky-high, their family simply couldn’t afford it. After thinking it over, they decided to compete fairly—both would court Wu Qionghua, and whoever won her heart would move into her home. Even without a marriage certificate, having a wife was good enough. Who needed a fancy ceremony?

But as time went on, things between the three of them started to change.

Both Wei brothers were excellent workers. Wu Qionghua appreciated Wei Fang’s steady and dependable nature, but she also liked Wei Ping’s cleverness and sweet talk. She couldn’t bear to choose between them.

So she thought, since she didn’t want to get legally married anyway, why not just lay everything out on the table? She asked the brothers if they’d be willing to both be her men and live together as a family. With an extra pair of strong hands in the household, Wu Qionghua now had two “boyfriends.” And with that, she no longer had to worry about her ex-husband showing up to cause trouble.

If this had happened in the city, it probably would’ve gone viral online. But in their mountain village, although people gossiped behind their backs, no one accused Wu Qionghua of being immoral. Instead, they envied the Wei brothers for their good fortune and quick thinking. After all, both of their marriage problems were solved in one go!

Most importantly, Wu Qionghua didn’t ask for a single cent in bride price, nor did she demand a wedding banquet. So the villagers all agreed that the Wei brothers had really lucked out.

As for Wu Qionghua’s “ex-husband,” Bai Pingbo? He had a wife in hand and still managed to lose her. Serves him right if he never finds another woman willing to marry him!

A year later, Wu Qionghua gave birth to a healthy baby boy for the Wei brothers. Together, their families now had thirty-five mu of mountain land, all contracted to grow traditional Chinese medicinal herbs through the cooperative. By the end of the year, they had made over a hundred thousand yuan. Life was sweet and comfortable.

Bai Pingbo, now deeply regretful, had tried several times to win back his ex-wife, but each time he showed up, the Wei brothers drove him off.

Seeing villagers from all around getting rich by planting medicinal herbs, Bai Pingbo no longer wanted to work in the city. But he was too lazy and had no farming skills. The herbs he grew often didn’t meet the cooperative’s standards, and the money he made each year wasn’t even enough to cover the cost of seeds, fertilizer, and hiring people to harvest.

When news came that Wu Qionghua had given birth to a son for the Wei brothers, Bai Pingbo was squatting by the hearth roasting potatoes. The only large iron pot in his home had broken. He had asked around at the market—one of those traditional iron pots for clay stoves cost 300 yuan! Adding a lid would be another twenty.

Unwilling to spend the money, Bai Pingbo had settled for a small stainless steel soup pot for twenty yuan. He used it to cook noodles and rice. Life was a mess. The only time he got to eat a decent meal was when neighbors held a banquet and he could show up under the pretense of doing them a favor, just to grab a couple of stir-fried dishes.

He muddled through like that for over a year. When he heard that Wu Qionghua had given birth for those two brothers, Bai Pingbo finally gave up all hope.

He decided to return to the city to find work.

But this time, no one helped him pack. No one stuffed snacks or drinks into his bag.

As he walked along the mountain road, he saw the hillsides and ravines on either side filled with neatly planted medicinal herbs. Thanks to the cooperative and Wei Sheng’s pharmaceutical factory, people no longer had to worry about getting a good price for their harvests. Families that were willing to work hard not only planted every inch of their own land, but even cleared out overgrown areas in their private forests. As long as you weren’t lazy, following the cooperative meant making money.

He watched as the men worked in the fields and the women cooked nearby with children at their sides. Families were cheerful and content. In that moment, Bai Pingbo was overwhelmed with regret.

If only he had listened to his wife back then and worked hard in the fields, wouldn’t he now be among those living the good life, with a wife, children, and a warm bed?

(End of Chapter)