Chapter 44

After staying up late for a village meeting, Li Lei, Wei Sheng, and the others all felt like their bodies had been completely drained the next day.

Staying up late wasn’t the real problem—what was truly terrifying was having to help draft that so-called industrial development plan!

God knows! Li Lei had lived this long and had never seriously written an official document like that.

And it wasn’t just him. Even Le Ling, the screenwriter in their crew who was best at writing, had never worked on something like this.

After an entire night, aside from that little monster Wei Sheng, everyone else felt like their brains had nearly burned out from the brainstorming session.

Honestly, wasn’t it clear that anyone who could pass the civil service exam on their own merits was a genius?

At first, they were still able to offer some suggestions from a filmmaking perspective, but by the end, it was just Wei Sheng and that poverty alleviation officer, Wei Sizhe, brainstorming together.

Wei Sizhe was utterly shocked.

He wasn’t one to brag, but his writing skills had been well-honed over the past two years working at the county committee office. He considered himself quite adept at drafting official documents.

But what he hadn’t expected was that Wei Sheng could keep up with his logic and thinking speed the entire time. In some aspects, Wei Sheng’s insights and perspectives were practically on par with those of a seasoned bureaucrat.

How did he do it?

“Mr. Wei, does your family… have any elders working in the government?” Wei Sizhe couldn’t help but ask.

If the Wei family had a high-ranking official, it wouldn’t be surprising for a younger generation member to have such insight from growing up in that environment.

After all, Wei Sizhe himself had benefited from something similar. His mother was just a regular middle school teacher, but thanks to his father’s connections, many of his father’s former colleagues and leaders had taken care of him after he joined the system.

They wouldn’t break rules to promote him, and he wouldn’t expect them to, but just having experienced mentors to guide him through obstacles had helped him avoid many detours in his career.

Wei Sheng was momentarily stumped by the question.

After thinking it over, he answered honestly, “I don’t have any elders working in the government. But my grandpa has a group of card-playing buddies, and my grandma has a lot of old friends in her senior dance group—many of whom are retired civil servants. Sometimes, when I run errands for them, they’ll pull me aside and start talking about all kinds of things…”

Oh, wow! This was like getting a VVVIP-level intensive training course for the civil service exam—something money couldn’t even buy!

Think about it: a group of former government officials who retired “safe and sound” and were now enjoying their lives—these people had to be the cream of the crop.

There were plenty who managed to thrive in the system, but to go through an entire career without a single misstep, retiring without any accountability issues? Either they were truly honest and dedicated public servants, or they were the kind of workplace veterans who could navigate anything.

No matter which type, learning from them had given Wei Sheng the skills to survive in the bureaucracy with ease.

But then—

“If you have access to that kind of resource, why didn’t you just take the civil service exam?” Wei Sizhe frowned.

What kind of question was that?

Just because the streets are full of luxury cars doesn’t mean I own one! Do you think I didn’t want to?

Of course, I just couldn’t afford to! o(╥﹏╥)o

Seeing the pitiful look in Wei Sheng’s eyes, Wei Sizhe immediately understood.

“Civil service exams have specific strategies. Tell you what—help me refine this tourism development plan, and later I’ll teach you some fast-track techniques for these exams…”

Wei Sizhe had been a top student all his life, especially skilled at passing all kinds of exams. While others might need ten attempts to pass the civil service exam, he had aced it on the first try—with no backdoor connections, just sheer excellence in both the written and interview portions.

Li Lei never expected that what started as a script reading session would turn into a full-blown seminar on Huangjiabao’s tourism industry development.

A film director like him had somehow become an enthusiastic advocate for rural development?

But oddly enough, he found the experience rather exhilarating.

Especially with the village officials involved, Li Lei was convinced that their revised second half of the script was going to be outstanding!

That afternoon, Li Lei’s wife, He Yaru, arrived with their child.

To everyone’s surprise, she had also brought along her younger sister, He Yani!

More precisely, He Yani had been forcibly escorted by her eldest sister and a few bodyguards.

The He family had four children in this generation: the eldest, He Yaru; two younger brothers; and the youngest, He Yani.

Because He Yani was the baby of the family, she had been pampered to the point of being completely sheltered from the hardships of life. And now, she had fallen for a poor boy and was dead set on marrying him, no matter what!

It wasn’t that the He family looked down on him for being poor. After all, their own grandfather had once fallen on hard times, even working as a valet at a hotel just to pay for his education.

But financial poverty could be overcome—poverty of the mind, however, was a lost cause.

The man He Yani was involved with came from a place even poorer than Huangjiabao. His entire family toiled away on the land, yet their annual income was less than 10,000 yuan. They couldn’t even afford rice or wheat, surviving mostly on roasted or boiled potatoes. During the lean spring months, they sometimes had to mix in wild greens to stretch their meals.

Simply put, if it weren’t for the government’s education support programs for underprivileged areas, this man—Ding Chengcai—might never have had the chance to attend university.

Such an incredible opportunity to change his fate, yet he stubbornly refused to seize it, dragging himself and his family down in the process!

He Yaru had someone look into Ding Chengcai and learned that in order to pay for his education, his three older sisters had married early, using their dowries to send their only brother to school in the city.

To his credit, Ding Chengcai worked hard and got into a decent university.

But for some reason, this guy seemed to have been brainwashed. Despite coming from a poor background, he firmly believed that “all professions are inferior, only officials are noble” and was dead set on getting into the civil service!

Did he think passing the exam was easy?

He failed not once but twice, and given his family’s situation, any normal person would have found a job to support themselves first, then studied in their spare time.

But not Ding Chengcai!

Somehow, he landed a job as a “garbage sorting manager” at a waste disposal station in the residential complex where the He family lived. His role was simply to supervise residents and ensure they sorted their trash correctly.

The job wasn’t demanding, leaving him plenty of free time to study. The community paid a 2,000-yuan stipend per month, and if he didn’t mind the smell, he could even sleep in a small storage room at the station overnight.

He Yani enjoyed morning runs, and every morning, Ding Chengcai stood outside the waste station reciting exam questions. Over time, she—this pampered heiress—somehow developed feelings for this down-and-out scholar with his unyielding pride!

And so, the two secretly got together. Though Ding Chengcai accepted his girlfriend’s generosity—moving into the luxurious, fully furnished apartment she paid for and receiving a 10,000-yuan monthly allowance—he insisted that he would only propose after securing a civil servant position.

When He Yaru heard this from her younger sister, she nearly blacked out from rage!

This girl was a lost cause! How could she be so foolish?

Had she never been online? Didn’t she know the saying: “The first thing a man does after passing the exam is dump his girlfriend”?

Honestly, if Ding Chengcai were just another gold digger, as long as he wasn’t too greedy, the He family could afford to support him as a son-in-law. But the problem was his twisted sense of pride—enjoying the luxurious life He Yani provided while stubbornly clinging to his so-called “dignity.”

A man like him, who claimed to be “content with poverty,” was, in reality, someone who refused to lower himself to ask for help yet expected others to offer assistance unprompted.

The reason he pursued He Yani was likely because he had his eyes on the He family’s wealth. If she married into their family, he wouldn’t even need to ask—her parents, unwilling to let their daughter suffer, would naturally provide him with a lavish house, a luxury car, and perhaps even a hefty monthly allowance.

That way, he could still maintain his image as an upright and noble man, while his wife took care of all their expenses.

He Yaru painstakingly broke this down for her younger sister, explaining it repeatedly until her mouth was dry. But in He Yani’s eyes, her eldest sister was simply too materialistic, too shallow to appreciate Ding Chengcai’s noble character and unshakable pride!

After all, since they had started dating, Ding Chengcai had never asked her for a single cent!

The luxury apartment they lived in? She had rented it voluntarily. And Ding Chengcai insisted on splitting the rent—though, since he had no money, he simply wrote IOUs.

Even the 10,000 yuan she secretly deposited into his account every month—Ding Chengcai had written IOUs for that too, promising to pay back every cent once he became a civil servant.

The two sisters argued furiously at home.

He Yani even declared publicly: If the family refused to accept her marrying Ding Chengcai, they might as well consider her dead! She would cut ties with them entirely! Even if she had to follow Ding Chengcai back to his hometown, survive on wild vegetables, and eat potatoes, she would never take another cent from the He family!

Fine!

If she wanted to play the role of Wang Baochuan, faithfully waiting in poverty for eighteen years, then so be it!

Her mother decided to give her a real taste of hardship—she’d take her to a truly remote mountain village and let her dig up as many wild vegetables as she pleased!

When Li Lei heard that his sister-in-law had fallen for such a man, his thick brows furrowed into one long caterpillar.

Wasn’t this just a modern-day version of Wang Baochuan and Xue Pinggui?

Even elementary school kids knew better than to fall for a guy like Xue Pinggui—one of those “three-no products” (no rejection, no responsibility, no commitment). Was He Yani’s brain eaten by zombies?

He Yaru rolled her eyes dramatically.

She didn’t even have the heart to tell her husband that, during one of their arguments, her little sister had actually used Li Lei as a comparison—demanding to know why the He family had accepted him as a son-in-law but refused to accept Ding Chengcai.

Was that even a fair comparison?

Sure, the Li family wasn’t as wealthy as the He family, but they were still well-off.

Li Lei’s father was a veteran professor at the Film Academy, and his mother was a well-known pediatric specialist. He himself was incredibly talented. More importantly, he wasn’t just some idealistic artist who only cared about art.

When he was young and struggling, he shot commercials for several years to save up money before pursuing his dream of directing realistic dramas.

Unlike Ding Chengcai, he had never forced his older sister to sacrifice her marriage for his education. And when he knew his aging parents needed support, he didn’t recklessly chase after his dreams at their expense!

Hearing his wife say she wanted her younger sister to experience some hardship in the countryside, Li Lei’s eyes gleamed with mischief.

He immediately arranged a “perfect” opportunity for He Yani.

The idea, actually, came from Wei Sheng.

To speed up production, their film crew was revising scripts while shooting. A newly added scene featured:

Villagers from Huangjia Fort, led by the newly appointed poverty alleviation officer, Yang Fan, picking up hoes and shovels to help investors quickly construct a road leading to an outdoor adventure base.

Because the mountain road was steep and difficult to traverse, the villagers brought their own food up the mountain to save time.

Was it tough? Of course, breaking through the mountain to build a road was hard work.

But no matter how tough it was, life always had its little moments of sweetness.

The women in the village started bringing their stainless steel soup pots every day, along with coarse wheat flour, salt, and chili peppers. They carried kitchen knives and ladles up the mountain as well.

While the men dug and cleared the mountain, the women would forage for wild greens and pick wild fruits nearby. They’d dig a simple earth stove by the roadside to cook wild vegetable porridge or sweet potato gruel for the village’s “mountain-digging squad.”

Eating just dry food was too difficult to swallow. Each person getting a bowl of hot wild vegetable porridge—with chili and salt added, and for those who could afford it, a few spoonfuls of lard—made all the difference. They’d crumble their dry flatbreads into the soup, soak them up, and down two big bowls. Instantly revived, they’d start singing folk songs while digging away at the mountain again.

After the revisions, this scene became one of the most inspiring moments in Huangjiabao!

Moreover, the road construction plot also tied into an earlier, emotional moment—when the villagers mourned with regret after Secretary Huang’s tragic sacrifice.

Back when the village first started making money from kiwifruit farming, Huang Xiujuan had suggested that once the village collective had some savings, they should raise funds to widen the only road leading out of the mountains. She also wanted to build a retaining wall along the mountainside to prevent flooding.

That way, if heavy rains hit, the road wouldn’t become impassable, preventing their harvest from being transported out.

Unfortunately, at the time, the villagers were too caught up in their newfound prosperity to care about an old, crumbling mountain road.

Mountain folks had simple ways of thinking—rainstorms didn’t last forever! If the rain was too heavy, they’d just avoid taking that road.

Back in the day, when winter snow sealed the village off for a month, no one starved to death, did they?

Everyone thought road repairs were an unnecessary expense.

Until one fateful rainstorm turned that treacherous road into a death trap—taking the life of their most beloved Secretary Huang.

The very villagers who had once opposed road repairs were now wracked with guilt, wishing they could smash their heads against Secretary Huang’s tombstone in remorse.

It was precisely because of this painful memory that, when Yang Fan proposed helping the investors build a road through the mountain, not just the young people but even the seventy- and eighty-year-old elders grabbed their shoulder poles and baskets to join in.

Li Lei took 200,000 yuan from the budget to hire more than half of Huangjiabao’s villagers, determined to make this road-building scene as passionate and inspiring as possible.

And wouldn’t you know it—what a perfect coincidence!

This segment happened to be missing a young bride who had married into Huangjiabao.

The new bride was a city girl who couldn’t even tell rice from wheat. To help with the road construction, she had to follow her rural mother-in-law up the mountain to forage for wild vegetables and fruits—and even learn how to cook wild vegetable porridge over an earth stove!

“Pfft~” He Yaru almost burst out laughing.

This was the perfect job for that stubborn girl, Yani!

After all, if she was truly dead set on marrying Ding Chengcai, she’d be spending a lifetime foraging and cooking wild vegetable porridge. How could she not get some practice in first?

(End of chapter)

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—Wang Baochuan (王宝钏) is a famous figure in Chinese folklore and traditional opera, particularly in The Legend of Wang Baochuan and Xue Pinggui (《王宝钏与薛平贵》). She is often depicted as a symbol of loyalty and perseverance in love.

The Story of Wang Baochuan

Wang Baochuan was the daughter of a high-ranking official during the Tang Dynasty. Despite her noble background, she fell in love with a poor scholar and warrior, Xue Pinggui (薛平贵). Her father strongly opposed their union and set a difficult challenge: any man who could dig up a hidden treasure with a single strike would be worthy of marrying her. Xue Pinggui, with his extraordinary strength, succeeded. However, Wang Baochuan’s father disowned her for marrying a poor man, forcing her to live in a cave for 18 years while waiting for her husband, who went to war and later became a powerful general.

After many trials, betrayals, and battles, Xue Pinggui eventually returned, and they were reunited. The story has different variations—some ending in a tragic betrayal, while others conclude with a joyful reunion.

Wang Baochuan is often seen as a tragic yet steadfast figure, representing unwavering devotion and suffering in pursuit of love.