Chapter 66

When the director of the New Year’s film heard that Wei Sheng was rushing to finish his scenes so he could go shoot a poverty alleviation variety show, the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but twitch.

If the female lead on that side hadn’t just shown her true colors—nearly getting captured by a passing Taoist while she was still doing shady things—the director would have thought he wasn’t filming a fantasy epic of immortals and demons, but some kind of feel-good poverty relief drama.

Then again, with how hot the serious drama market is right now, maybe after this film wraps, he really could consider putting together a new project—a serious drama this time. And he already had a leading man ready: that kid Wei Sheng!

He had the looks, the acting chops, and came with built-in popularity from the poverty relief variety show. So what if he was a newcomer? Could he carry an entire drama?

What a joke! If he dared to cast him in a big fantasy blockbuster, why wouldn’t he be bold enough to use a rookie as the main lead in a serious drama?

This director was infamous in the newcomer circles for being bold and unconventional. He immediately set his eyes on Wei Sheng…

Meanwhile, Wei Sheng had no idea he was about to get forcibly handed more resources again. He rushed to finish part of his scenes with the film crew, secured five days off from the director, and without a break, hurried off to Yangjiapo with his old colleagues to film the variety show.

The villagers in Yangjiapo never expected that when their ancestors said good deeds would be rewarded, the reward would come so soon!

They had simply sympathized with Gao Xiaojun, a lonely orphaned girl with no parents or family backing, who was nearly bullied to death by her in-laws. Out of compassion, they took her and her two kids back to the village to care for them.

But who would’ve thought they weren’t taking in a helpless widow and orphans—but a hen that lays golden eggs!

From an outsider’s perspective, Gao Xiaojun should’ve been wallowing in tears after being abandoned by her man. Instead, she had long since decided to dump the scumbag and focus entirely on building her career.

Since the show focused on left-behind mothers, the network placed great importance on this special segment. The new station chief was also very pleased with Wang Qun and Wang Yang for taking the initiative to come forward and expose what had happened, and he gave them a special green light.

Just so happened that the station still had an open slot for their targeted assistance program this year?

So they decided to make Yangjiapo the priority focus for the station’s rural revitalization assistance program!

Don’t underestimate what that means. With this title, for the entire upcoming year, J Province TV Station would not only provide free promotional support for Yangjiapo through various channels, but would also bundle it with other partnered organizations, taking them along to participate in the network’s various poverty alleviation and agricultural aid activities. This included free agricultural product promotions, internal sales events, corporate purchasing conferences, and more…

In simple terms: once you become a partnered assistance village with the TV station, as long as Yangjiapo can successfully grow its sweet potatoes and sesame, they’ll never have to worry about selling them!

Even if e-commerce channels don’t move the products, the station will help clear unsold agricultural goods through official government procurement.

And the price? It definitely wouldn’t be lower than through e-commerce.

After all, these are agricultural support goods. Would the officials really have the nerve to take advantage of the farmers?

With the government backing the show, and a top agriculture university expert like the brother-in-law on board, Wang Qun was flying high.

This was already his second time attending a village-level rural industry development planning seminar under the guise of filming a show—ahem.

It might sound a bit off-track, but hey, rural revitalization is everyone’s responsibility!

He was part of Huaxia too. Three generations back, his family were farmers. Why shouldn’t he care about rural development?

Wang Qun and Wang Yang sat with the production team in Yangjiapo’s humble meeting room, listening to the local poverty relief officer introduce the village’s situation.

Oh right—Yangjiapo originally didn’t have a dedicated poverty relief officer. It was actually neighboring Gaojiapo that had one.

But Gaojiapo had just had a major scandal, hadn’t it?

Their local economy hadn’t developed, and their cultural and moral standards had already collapsed!

Because of that, their superiors had been publicly embarrassed online. The county was furious and reassigned Gaojiapo’s poverty relief officer to Yangjiapo instead.

As for Gaojiapo? If you want to escape poverty and get rich, you’d better fix your household values first!

If you can’t even sweep your own house, how are you going to clean up the world?!

“Yangjiapo village covers an administrative area of 7.6 square kilometers. It currently has 900 mu of forested hills and over 2,700 mu of arable land. The rest is riverside wasteland and protected forest zones under logging bans.”

“There are 15 villagers’ groups in total, with a population of 1,633. Last year, the village collective earned just over 560,000 yuan, with a per capita annual income of under 10,000 yuan…”

After a simple overview from the poverty relief officer, most people were still processing it, but Wang Qun’s brother-in-law—Professor Song Bing, PhD advisor at the Provincial Agricultural University and head of the Rural Issues Research Center—was already frowning.

“900 mu of forest and over 2,700 mu of farmland, and the collective only made just over half a million yuan all year?”

“The conversion rate of the village economy is way too low…”

That one comment from Professor Song made all the village officials flush with embarrassment.

Economic conversion rate? Most of them had never even heard of that, let alone knew how to improve it. Their traditional practice was to divide up the forested land to individual households, then collect a portion of the income at year-end to support village expenses.

If households made less, they collected less. As long as they weren’t starving, it was fine.

As for leading villagers in forest development and economic growth?

They’d tried once. Someone had leased forest land to grow yellow peaches. Unfortunately, the timing was terrible—the leaseholder bought seedlings when they were at peak price. By the time the peaches started fruiting, everyone else was also harvesting yellow peaches and the market was flooded.

Prices crashed. With high labor costs for mountain harvesting, after subtracting a year’s investment and labor, they actually lost over 2,000 yuan per mu. The leaseholder was so furious he didn’t even bother harvesting. The peaches rotted on the trees. At first, villagers picked some to eat themselves, but later even they couldn’t finish them. Eventually, they just fed them to cows and sheep.

That poor leaseholder reportedly came in with over five million yuan in capital. Even he couldn’t make it work. Yangjiapo didn’t even have half a million on the books—how could they afford to invest?

“No one in the village ever thought about taking out a loan from the credit cooperative?” Song Bing asked.

The village party secretary waved his hands in panic. “We wouldn’t dare! What if we can’t repay it? We’d be in deficit!”

Everyone fell silent.

With guts this small and not a single leader willing to take the risk, no wonder the collective economy never took off.

But looking over at Gao Xiaojun, who was taking diligent notes beside them, hope sparked in everyone’s hearts. They hadn’t had a leader before—but now they did!

Sure enough, after the village’s report, Gao Xiaojun paused, then shared the information she had gathered with others at the meeting.

“Everyone knows I work in social media, and through that, I’ve gotten to know quite a few successful content creators who returned to the countryside to start agricultural ventures. I’d asked around before and heard that over in our neighboring SD Province, there’s a large-scale grower in a situation similar to ours.

Their region is also made up of hills and mountains, with few paddy fields. In the past, they relied on farming, and life was tight for the locals. But later, with support from local poverty alleviation officials, the village set up an agricultural cooperative. They began large-scale planting of tobacco sweet potatoes and white radishes. That same year, the entire village achieved 100% poverty alleviation, and the average annual income per person surpassed 20,000 yuan!

I think their model offers valuable insights for our own village—namely, pooling our efforts to do big things. First, form an agricultural cooperative, then apply for a loan from a credit union in the name of the collective. Purchase seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers in bulk to reduce the upfront costs for villagers.

Then, through a buyback agreement with the cooperative, we loan the production materials to signed-up villagers in the first year. Once their sweet potatoes and white radishes are harvested, the cooperative buys them at a pre-agreed price. The cost of the loaned seeds and fertilizers is deducted, and the remainder is returned to the villagers.

This way, the startup cost burden on farmers is nearly zero. Everyone’s more willing to give it a shot. The cost to the village collective is also relatively low, and with potential outside investment, the financial pressure isn’t too high.

So, let me make my position clear. I want to thank all the uncles and aunties here in Yangjiapo for accepting me and my kids as one of their own and taking us in. I, Gao Xiaojuan, have little else to give in return. If our village establishes an agricultural cooperative, I’m personally willing to invest one million yuan to buy shares in the cooperative!”

“What?! One million yuan?”

Wei Sheng and the others were just worrying that Gao Xiaojuan might be flaunting her wealth and end up being targeted—only to find the villagers were even more anxious than they were.

The village secretary immediately stood up and opposed: “No way! Xiaojuan, you’re divorced and raising two kids—you can’t just throw all your money into this! What’ll you do when it’s all gone? How will you and Dabao and Xiaobao get by?”

“Exactly! The village collective needs money, sure, but we should all pitch in together, each household buying a small share. How can we let you, a single mother, shoulder this kind of financial burden alone?”

“That’s right! Xiaojuan, we didn’t bring you and the kids back to rely on your money—we just wanted you to feel safe and settled here at home. If you do this, won’t the folks over in Gaojiapo laugh at us?”

The villagers all chimed in one after another, but the sentiment was the same: they absolutely would not allow Gao Xiaojuan to invest that much on her own. A divorced woman raising two kids already had it tough enough—how could she manage without some savings?

Gao Xiaojuan hadn’t cried even when she was bullied by Gao Jiaping’s family, but now, tears welled up in her eyes from being so moved.

Just then, Wang Qun stepped forward with a cheerful smile.

“Everyone, don’t get too worked up. You haven’t forgotten why our program crew came here, have you?”

“Let me share some good news. Our J Province TV station has officially decided to partner with Yangjiapo for poverty alleviation. According to our usual practices, this year we’ll help the village apply for a special rural revitalization interest-free loan of no less than one million yuan!”

“What? Interest-free? For real?” The village secretary jumped up in excitement.

Wang Qun nodded with a smile. “Absolutely real! This policy’s already been in place for three years. It’s a joint initiative by our TV station, the provincial poverty alleviation office, and the credit union, specifically for helping remote impoverished areas.”

“As long as our project is attractive enough to gain approval from the poverty office and the credit union, we can secure an interest-free loan of at least one million yuan for a two-year term!”

At that, not just the village secretary, but all the village officials present—including Gao Xiaojuan—got excited.

The biggest headache in agriculture has always been the massive upfront costs. Many places have the resources and conditions to develop specialty farming, so why haven’t they taken off?

Sure, some villagers dragging their feet is a factor—but the biggest reason is still a lack of funds.

Being able to borrow interest-free from a public institution like a credit union means the biggest hurdle to launching a business—money—is no longer a problem!

The villagers of Yangjiapo felt like they should immediately make a banner and present it to the credit union!

What they didn’t realize was that the credit union was more than happy to take part in public-interest agricultural programs like this. A one million yuan interest-free loan sounds like a lot, but the principal still needs to be repaid to the bank. All the credit union is giving up is two years’ worth of interest—a small cost in exchange for great PR.

There are so many banks in the country, but credit unions are embedded in towns and villages. This kind of poverty alleviation initiative is a great way for them to build goodwill with farmers. Later on, with loan services, they can encourage every member of the cooperative to open accounts at their credit union. With that, the branch’s transaction volume and service stats will skyrocket.

A win-win situation!

Now that the most troublesome startup funding problem had been solved, it was time to think about industrial development plans.

Dr. Song heard Yangjiapo still had several hundred mu of yellow peach trees and suggested they make better use of these forestry resources.

First of all, with proper care, yellow peach trees can keep bearing fruit for many years. And since the trees in Yangjiapo were already planted by someone else, the cost of early-stage cultivation was already saved. The problem was just a few years of neglect—they’d need pruning, pest control, and fertilization, but none of that was a big deal.

“Also, peach orchards can support an under-forest economy. For example, in a poor village we previously assisted, they addressed the weed problem in their orchards by raising chickens under the trees.”

“Under-forest chicken farming—free-range chickens eat the young grass, scratch at the soil, and loosen it for the trees. Chicken manure is a natural organic fertilizer. As long as we cage the chickens during peak fruit season to keep them from pecking the peaches, there’s really no downside.”

“Based on a rough estimate—five thousand chickens per hundred mu—if we develop all 900 mu of hillside into peach orchards, we could raise around 50,000 free-range chickens!”

“Even accounting for losses due to chick mortality, if each chicken brings in 30 yuan in profit for the village, then even with some losses, that’s at least one million yuan in net annual income from chicken farming alone!”

“Add in the profits from the yellow peaches and peach resin, and our forest-based economy could generate several million yuan per year for the village!”

The village officials were thrilled—but they immediately raised a concern:

“We’ve heard that yellow peaches are being grown on a large scale across the country these days. Wouldn’t they be hard to sell? A few years ago someone tried growing peaches here and ended up losing millions!”

The production team all turned to look.

Bro, clearly you don’t understand the current livestream e-commerce economy at all.

Forget that Yangjiapo now has Gao Xiaojuan, an influencer with over a million followers. Just look at the fact that the TV crew came all the way out here—wasn’t it to help the locals achieve prosperity?

Helping them secure interest-free loans and develop specialty farming is only the first step.

Next, the production team would continue helping Yangjiapo sell yellow peaches, free-range chickens, eggs… After all, how could they live up to the show’s newly revised name?

“Retracing the Road to Poverty Alleviation”—what’s the key here? The key is the “retracing”!

Director Wang Qun now had a grand dream: to turn this program into a “long-running evergreen show” for J Province Television. Every year from now on, the team would set out again on the same journey, continuously revisiting and helping the places they once supported in poverty alleviation efforts.

Now that’s what staying true to the original intention really means!

Seeing that Director Wang was now completely self-motivated without anyone needing to push him, Wei Sheng smiled faintly and continued to play the role of the obedient one.

Nice—an understanding director should know how to hustle on his own!

Over in Yangjiapo, everyone sat together in a warm circle, munching on roasted peanuts and sweet potatoes, chatting excitedly about the village’s future industries and the great cause of shared prosperity.

Not far off in Gaojiapo, the elderly couple from the Gao family were fuming after a call from their son. They were practically about to explode.

How had things turned out like this?

Everything had been going so well. Their son had landed a good job in the city and even found a girlfriend with a much better family background. They’d been waiting for the day he’d kick that uneducated peasant wife, Gao Xiaojuan, to the curb, and with help from his new girlfriend’s wealthy parents, rise through the ranks, earn more money, live in a fancy house, drive a nice car—and maybe even bring the whole family to the city to enjoy life.

It was all practically guaranteed—so how had things suddenly gone completely off track?

The old Gaos had always looked down on Gao Xiaojuan, who only went to high school for one year. But the truth was—they were the real illiterate fools!

To be honest, this shameless old couple had never thought there was anything wrong with their son secretly seeing another woman.

Their son was so excellent, so promising—why should he settle for a lowly village woman?

He deserved a city wife with a high social standing, ideally an only child with retired parents and pensions—who could help support him. And when her parents passed, wouldn’t everything from her side become their son’s property?

And what did Gao Xiaojuan have? A penniless orphan with no parents. When she got married, her adoptive mother couldn’t even afford to give her a decent dowry! Sure, they hadn’t given a bride price either, but the old Gaos still felt annoyed about it.

Especially after Gao Xiaojuan started making money with her social media work—look at her, all smug and arrogant!

What, just because you made money smiling at your phone, you think you can flaunt it in front of them?

One day she’s buying someone a car, the next day gifting someone gold bracelets—what, trying to prove you’re better than their son?

The old Gaos were burning with resentment. When they heard their son was seeing a city girl with better prospects, and then looked at the clueless Gao Xiaojuan still toiling away back home for them—they couldn’t be happier!

They dreamed of the day they could finally kick her out.

Now that dream had finally come true, why didn’t it feel as good as they’d imagined?

First, their son’s new relationship suddenly hit the rocks and ended.

Then they couldn’t even get in touch with him. After struggling to get the number for his workplace through a relative, they were told he’d been fired for causing a public scandal due to his extramarital affair—bringing serious damage to the company’s reputation.

As for where he went? Who knew? Maybe he had some other mistress or two out there.

While the old couple panicked, they never expected that little bitch Gao Xiaojuan would dare show up with her adoptive family to take back her stuff!

The small truck, the gold jewelry—sure, they were bought with her money, but so what? Once she gave them to the Gao family, they were Gao family property. What right did she have to take them back?

Even worse—she didn’t just take the things, she took the eldest grandson and granddaughter too! And now she was all over the internet dragging their son’s name through the mud, even accusing them of “transferring marital assets”?!

Pah! When she married into the family, she only brought a few thousand yuan and two threadbare quilts. What marital assets?!

Besides, the money she made online—wasn’t that all thanks to their son? If she hadn’t had two kids to use for pity points, would anyone online even pay her any attention?

Unfortunately for the old Gaos, no matter how angry they got, things just kept spiraling further downhill…

A few days later, the so-called “missing person,” Gao Jiaping, finally called.

The two old fools were crying tears of joy—only to hear the next moment that their son wanted to reconcile with Gao Xiaojuan.

Which meant: all the money they took from her, all the stuff she bought for the family—had to be returned. On top of that, they had to personally apologize and beg her forgiveness.

“Why should we?!” Gao Xiaojuan’s mother-in-law shrieked over the phone.

“Because she’s got your son’s future in a death grip! If she keeps going like this, your son can forget about living a normal life,” Gao Jiaping snapped. He was furious too—but what could he do?

If it were just Gao Xiaojuan, she might be manageable. But now even celebrities were speaking up for her, and the villagers from Yangjiapo—those country bumpkins!—had gone and called his workplace hotline to report him!

Now, millions online were cursing him. His company had already fired him. Not only would he receive no severance, they’d canceled his bonus too.

At first, Gao Jiaping wanted to file for arbitration. But then he thought—if the company turned around and sued him for damage to their reputation, what then?

Say what you will about Gao Jiaping, but a man who can juggle several women at once isn’t entirely brainless.

The real reason he was dragging his feet on the divorce wasn’t just to avoid paying back the money—it was also because his rich girlfriend had cut ties with him, and he’d lost his job. In the short term, he probably couldn’t find anyone better than Gao Xiaojuan.

He was still holding out hope: now that he’d broken up with Xiaolei, maybe—just maybe—Gao Xiaojuan would forgive him for the children’s sake and take him back. Then he could play the prodigal son returning home, and everything might be salvageable.

But Gao Xiaojuan clearly wanted to go down in flames together!

She had nothing left to lose—but he was still young and didn’t want to crash and burn with a crazy woman. The problem was, if he kept refusing to divorce her, Gao Jiaping had no doubt she’d take him to court.

And if that happened… the bigger the drama, the worse it would be for him.

(End of this chapter)