After laughing, I realized, holy crap, isn't this just us? We know perfectly well that lucky numbers are all a scam, yet we can't resist trying our luck again. We scoff at the health tips our aunts and uncles post in the family group chat, but secretly we order a heated foot bath and all sorts of herbal teas...
While netizens verbally criticized Wei Sheng for being unsophisticated and silly, their fingers betrayed their true intentions by finding Wei Sheng's verified personal account and silently clicking to follow him.
They wanted to see when this amateur idol, who took the silly route, would be assimilated by the entertainment industry, this big melting pot...
More and more netizens shared this view, and Wei Sheng went from an ordinary person to a rising star with over 30 million followers. People in the industry were secretly mocking him, saying he was foolish. Other ordinary people who became famous on the show would try their best to cut ties with the station and sign with a high-profit studio outside, but he sold himself for a permanent position.
That's right! To secure a position at J Province TV station, Wei Sheng miraculously passed the exam through the "technical talent recruitment" program, earning a permanent position at the station in a perfectly legitimate way! He applied for a technical position, but ended up doing the work of an idol...
People in the industry laugh at him for being foolish. To this, Wei Sheng can only say that you foolish mortals simply don't understand the joy of having a government job!
He now earns double the salary. As a "technical talent introduced" by the TV station, he enjoys the station's five social insurances and one housing fund, plus various benefits. As a popular idol cultivated by the TV station, he is practically the station's favorite son! He can be seen at all kinds of large-scale events, and his appearance fees are so high that he can't even count them on his hands... Apart from occasionally having to attend some awkward events for the TV station and being ridiculed by netizens as a "job-hunting worker," this job is simply a good job that Wei Sheng never dared to dream of!
They've reaped many benefits, so they must also contribute when the time comes.
For example, this time, when it came to the task of "discovering new talent" (feeding pigs and raising chickens) in the deep mountains and forests, the TV station couldn't get the other guests and big names to go, so they had to call on him.
"Xiao Wei, don't think this trip is just about enduring hardship. In recent years, the country has been vigorously developing rural revitalization, encouraging advanced areas to lead those in less developed areas, and achieving common prosperity. Langshan is a tough place, but try your best to overcome it. Just think of it as going there to gain experience!"
"When you return with the little lark, you'll have the honorary halo of 'supporting rural revitalization'~ Then, if the station has any major patriotic productions, we'll arrange for you to join the cast, and even netizens won't be able to say you're unworthy of the position~"
The Taiwanese leaders were trying their best to deceive Wei Sheng. Who knew—
"Huh? What's this hardship? Boss, actually I quite like raising pigs. I've always wanted to raise a guinea pig, but my landlord doesn't allow pets... When we go to Langshan this time, can I feed the pigs myself?" Wei Sheng looked at his boss expectantly.
Taiwan leader: "...Yes!"
Forget it, this kid seems a bit slow-witted and probably doesn't understand the ins and outs of this. Let's not bother explaining it to him. If there's a big-budget patriotic production on the station later and the role is suitable, we'll just have his agent bring him over and sign him!
Anyway, Wei Sheng has a permanent position, so there's no fear of him running away! Just keep exploiting him ruthlessly...
Chapter 48
"Oh my god! Why haven't we arrived yet? Did the station sell us off to the mountains?" Wei Sheng's assistant, Xiao Bai, looked out the window at the increasingly desolate mountains with a startled expression, completely panicked.
The station's task for them was a side story of the program, and also a rather interesting new segment. It involved the guests using clues provided by the program team to find hidden "dream-chasing teenagers" in designated locations, and then inviting them back to participate in the competition. Before they set off, the station leaders praised their group to the skies, as if they weren't going to pick up people, but rather to contribute to poverty alleviation in mountainous areas...
This made Xiaobai very nervous, fearing that the station would give an order to make him and Weisheng stay in the mountains to raise pigs as well.
"Don't worry, we've signed so many events and advertising endorsements. I'd like to stay here and raise pigs for a while, but I'm afraid the station won't be willing to pay the breach of contract penalty for me~" Wei Sheng was particularly relaxed. Since signing with the station as an artist, he has rarely had the opportunity to go out and relax like this.
His male contemporaries in the industry are always sour about him, writing all sorts of press releases saying that he's clinging to the TV station and grabbing resources everywhere. It's a truly unjust case!
Actually, nobody knew that he never wanted to be a big star. He was a rather ordinary person; he just wanted a stable, high-paying job and to be a high-level corporate slave. So when the TV station offered him that lucrative contract with a permanent position, he immediately succumbed to the sugar-coated bullets of his sugar daddy.
However, Wei Sheng never expected that being an "idol" would be even more demanding than working behind the scenes! Those who released press releases accusing him of stealing resources had no idea that the station hired him not because he was good at flattering the leaders, but because he was a station employee and his appearance fee was cheap! Sometimes he would even make a cameo appearance without any compensation at all.
He hadn't had a break in a long time, and he had indeed made a lot of money, so he hardly had any opportunities to spend it. This trip to Langshan was a good chance for him to take a rest.
The car bumped along the way, but finally arrived at Langshan Primary School before dark.
The entrance was quiet; there were no enthusiastic fans, and not even a single person to greet them!
"Is this really a school? Could the production team have some hidden script?" Assistant Xiaobai looked up at the peeling paint on the doorplate, then at the dilapidated walls, and tensed up.
A desolate mountain, an old house, no one around—could they be playing a supernatural role this time? Waaaaah! No way! He's terrified of ghosts!
"Why don't we just go in and see for ourselves?" The foolish and bold Wei Sheng took the lead and pushed open the dilapidated school gate.
The courtyard was deserted, except for a dilapidated thatched hut in the corner, from which a faint light emanated, but not a sound could be heard... Even someone as bold and reckless as Wei Sheng couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.
The cameraman, who had been filming since getting out of the car, also noticed the camera was shaking a bit. However, his strong professionalism kept him going, and he bravely held the camera steady! For the footage, let's go!
Just then! A few deliberately hushed voices came from inside the thatched hut—
"Are you done yet?"
"Alright! Change to a bigger pot and boil water. We'll cook it when the person arrives!"
Put them in the pot? Who's putting them in the pot? Them?
Wei Sheng and his assistant Xiao Bai exchanged a glance and unconsciously moved closer to each other. The driver who was following behind also silently stopped in his tracks. Although Wei Sheng was of a higher rank than him at the station, when it came to escaping for their lives, they couldn't care less about rank. If they really encountered a ghost, he could still run faster if he fell behind. Anyway, he was also a permanent employee at the station. At worst, he could just go back and write a self-criticism! Could the leaders fire him?
The four people were hesitating, unsure whether to continue forward or quietly retreat and escape, when suddenly a voice came from behind: "Principal, the person has arrived!"
Oh no! There's no escaping now! o(╥﹏╥)o
Wait! The principal?
Wei Sheng suddenly looked up and saw a tall, middle-aged man emerge from the thatched hut. He had short, graying hair, and his face was somewhat indistinct, but his voice was deep and warm.
"You must be from J Province TV Station? Sorry, I forgot to turn on the lights." With that, Jiang Baichuan pressed a switch on the wall, and the corridor lights came on immediately.
All four of them secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Assistant Xiaobai, beaming with the joy of escaping death, rushed forward to begin work coordination.
"Yes, yes! We are from the 'Young People Singing for the Motherland' program team of J Province TV Station. I am Xiaobai, the guest assistant, and this is our dream-realization ambassador, Mr. Wei Sheng. You must be Principal Jiang? It's an honor to meet you!"
Wei Sheng also came to his senses and put on a standard business smile to greet Jiang Baichuan. Jiang Baichuan quickly led him to the kitchen, "The school conditions are simple, and there is no dedicated canteen. We usually eat in the kitchen, so please don't mind."
How could the four of them dare to complain? They had finally seen living, breathing people! At this moment, the warm, homey kitchen was the safest place in this deep mountain forest, wasn't it?
"You've come at just the right time. If it had been a moment earlier, we wouldn't have even finished making this konjac tofu." Jiang Baichuan led the people to sit down by the fire pit and then busied himself pouring tea and serving them snacks. The tea was wild tea picked by the students themselves from the mountain, and the snacks were potato cakes and sugar triangles made by Jiang Xiaoman.
The school rarely makes desserts, mainly because brown sugar is too expensive. Jiang Xiaoman overheard Chu Mengluan crying on the phone with her mother yesterday, saying she'd almost forgotten what cakes and bread looked like—it sounded quite pitiful. He didn't know how to make bread or cakes, but there were plenty of traditional Chinese desserts too!
He went to the convenience store and bought two bags of brown sugar. He made sugar triangles and found them surprisingly delicious. Chu Mengluan cried and said that the calories were too high, but she ate four sugar triangles with tears in her eyes.
"Brother! Brother, eat less. This sugar triangle is full of flour and sugar, it's easy to gain weight~" Seeing Wei Sheng finish a sugar triangle in three bites, his assistant Xiaobai wished she could sew his mouth shut with a needle and thread!
Didn't you see the cameraman filming you? Don't forget you're an idol who relies on your looks for a living!!
"Haha~ Eat more if you want to eat. We're going to Jiang Cancan's house tomorrow. Her house is a bit far from school, it's more than an hour's walk up the mountain road. If you eat this little, you'll digest it after two round trips up and down the mountain road tomorrow." Jiang Baichuan had a pretty good first impression of Wei Sheng.
I originally thought that a big star like him would be hard to get along with, but I didn't expect Wei Sheng to be so easygoing. Sometimes he even looks a bit silly, just like his nephew. Although Principal Jiang scolds his nephew every now and then, he is still very satisfied with his nephew Jiang Xiaoman. Now that he sees a young man who looks a bit like his nephew, he can't help but feel a little sympathetic towards him.
"Let's save some room for dinner." Jiang Xiaoman walked over carrying a large earthenware pot, placed it on the brazier, and took the opportunity to complain about her uncle, "This is a special old hen soup made for you, you must eat more! This is a free-range chicken raised by our Principal Jiang himself, he doesn't usually give us any."
“Even if I don’t give you any, you still steal plenty! You do the math yourself, how many chickens have you slaughtered for me in a year?” Jiang Baichuan glared at his nephew.
"Pfft~ These are the free-range chickens raised at school? I've seen them in videos." Wei Sheng chuckled.
As a dedicated office worker, he had watched a lot of videos on Langshan Elementary School's official video account before coming here, including the "dispute over free-range eggs" between the principal and his nephew. For a difference of four cents per egg, the principal insisted on selling the free-range eggs laid by his own chickens, because one free-range egg could be exchanged for three factory-made eggs, so that the students could eat more eggs. However, the principal's nephew often secretly used his free-range eggs to cook, and the uncle and nephew often quarreled over this...
They'd start a fight over a few free-range eggs, let alone killing the free-range chickens the principal raised himself—those are laying hens!
Thinking of this, Wei Sheng felt a little embarrassed: "Um, I suddenly remembered that I still have a lot of money left on my cafeteria card. Principal Jiang, could I exchange it for some rice, flour, and oil at the cafeteria to donate to the school?"
"How could I possibly accept this?" Jiang Baichuan hurriedly waved his hands. This person had kindly come to help his student; wasn't it only right that he kill a chicken to treat them? How could he possibly accept something from them?
"What's the big deal? I've been on a diet anyway. My company gives me a 500 yuan lunch allowance every month, which is deposited directly into my meal card. I don't have that money to give you, and I don't usually eat in the cafeteria anyway. I might as well exchange it for something else."
"Oh, thank you so much! On behalf of all the teachers and students of our school, I thank Mr. Wei for his donation." Jiang Baichuan said gratefully.
Don't be fooled by the seemingly cheap price of rice, flour, and oil. Their school cafeteria receives no subsidies, and he has to raise funds for every grain of rice and every bag of salt. If there were more donors like Wei Sheng, and if they could raise pigs and grow their own vegetables, the cafeteria's expenses could be greatly reduced. The money saved could be used to buy more meat or fruit for the children.
"Well, I don't eat in the cafeteria very often, so I'll bring some rice or noodles instead." Assistant Xiaobai scratched his head.
Anyway, Wei Sheng will definitely hand this task over to him in the end. Wei Sheng's meal card is with him. When he goes out with Wei Sheng to participate in activities or filming, the event organizers and film crews pay for his meals. He doesn't eat at the station's canteen very often, so it's a waste to keep the money on the card. It's better to exchange it for something and donate it to the school.
The cameraman filmed this scene and thought the footage could be used. However, the "exchanging cafeteria meal cards for things" joke was too down-to-earth and didn't seem like something a popular idol would do. What none of them expected was that this joke would unexpectedly gain Wei Sheng a large number of thrifty mom and grandma fans after the show aired...
Jiang Baichuan was usually very frugal, but he was exceptionally generous to his guests. Not only did he allow Jiang Xiaoman to kill a chicken, but he also gave him ten extra free-range eggs. The moment Jiang Xiaoman received the eggs, she almost thought that Wei Sheng was Jiang Baichuan's nephew... He didn't even get this kind of treatment!
The ten free-range eggs were eventually made into three dishes: a bowl of steamed eggs, a plate of stir-fried eggs with chives and a tomato egg soup, a stewed old hen soup, a large pot of ham stewed with dried bamboo shoots, braised pork with preserved mustard greens, braised fish, a plate of stir-fried red amaranth, and a plate of minced meat stewed with konjac tofu. The table was full of food.
The table was made up of two low square tables. Because it wasn't big enough, the two student teachers and Jiang Xiaoman didn't sit at the table. Instead, they found a place to sit by the stove. Jiang Xiaoman left some of each dish on the stove, which made it convenient for the group to eat.
Wei Sheng wants to donate desks to the school again.
This school's conditions are so terrible! They can't even gather enough tables for meals. I wonder how much it would cost to donate a cafeteria. Sigh, his mom used all the money he earned to buy a house, otherwise he wouldn't be so strapped for cash...
Wei Sheng silently did some calculations and decided to pass this problem on to his agent, asking him to see if there were any commercial activities with high appearance fees recently. Anyway, it's relatively easy to make money in their industry. Although the company takes a large share, it's still much faster than ordinary people. He planned to take on a few jobs, work hard for a few days, and change the school's cafeteria.
"Come on, try some of the konjac tofu my son Xiaoman made. He messed it up several times, but finally managed to make it right the first time." Jiang Baichuan took a communal spoon and scooped some for the guests, then explained why they hadn't come to the door to greet them earlier—
“There aren’t many good dishes in the village, and there’s no market today, so Xiaoman said she’d dig out a few big konjac twigs from the yard and make some konjac tofu for you to try.”
"The older generation here all say that when making konjac tofu, you must close the door and not talk, otherwise the konjac won't take shape. Xiaoman didn't believe it the last few times. What did I tell you? Sure enough, this time everyone kept quiet and it was done in no time, right?"
As she spoke, she glanced sideways at her nephew.
Jiang Xiaoman rolled her eyes, speechless.
Superstition is unacceptable, Uncle!
Chapter 49
After dinner, it was getting late. Jiang Baichuan knew they were going to stay there for two days, so he specially borrowed two rooms from the villagers for them. Wei Sheng and the others had thought they would have to sleep on the floor at the school, so they were pleasantly surprised to hear that there were even two beds available.
However, their smiles soon faded.
Every household in Langshan raises pigs and chickens. In order to prevent wild animals from dragging away their pigs and chickens, people usually leave a separate, elevated area when building houses to keep livestock and poultry. The smell is so familiar to the mountain people that they don't mind it. But Wei Sheng and his group had a hard time. They barely slept all night. The next morning, they got up early, thanked the farmhouse where they were staying, and practically fled.
It's not that they can't endure hardship, it's just that the taste is too terrible!
Wei Sheng's hometown is also in the countryside. When he was a child, his family raised pigs and chickens, but they would build separate pigsties in the yard or behind the house. They would never sleep in the same room as the livestock, not even on different floors!
Looking at it this way, the school is still slightly better. Jiang Baichuan is, after all, a scholar, and he knows that maintaining environmental hygiene is good for the children's health. Therefore, the pigsty and chicken coop are built separately downwind of the vegetable garden, and the air in the entire teaching building is very fresh.
Seeing that they got up early, Jiang Baichuan assumed they were in a hurry to go to Jiang Cancan's house, and couldn't help but show a gratified smile, calling to them: "Come and have breakfast. Xiaoman boiled salted eggs, made chive and egg pancakes, and also fried dough cakes and brown sugar rice crusts."
There are no breakfast stalls in the village, so everyone has to make their own breakfast. They usually just cook a pot of sweet potato porridge to get by. But today they have guests, and they even brought a camera. Jiang Baichuan is a bit concerned about his image and doesn't want people to see their school as too shabby on TV, so he was unusually generous and let Jiang Xiaoman use as much flour and oil as she wanted.
This is truly like the sun rising in the west!
It was a rare opportunity to get some money from her uncle, so Jiang Xiaoman got up before dawn, kneaded dough, made brown sugar filling cakes, and fried them in oil until golden brown on both sides. The outer skin was crispy, and the brown sugar inside melted from the hot oil. You had to be very careful when eating them, or you would burn your mouth. However, it was precisely this slightly melted brown sugar filling that made them especially delicious when they were hot.
Jiang Baichuan didn't throw away the leftover rice crusts from cooking either; he kept them all in a flour sack. Jiang Xiaoman took some out, fried them in oil until crispy, and sprinkled them with a little brown sugar after they came out of the fryer. They were crunchy, crispy, and slightly sweet.
The main dish was still a big pot of sweet potato porridge, served with homemade salted eggs and pickled vegetables, as well as hot chive and egg pancakes—made with free-range eggs, the pancakes were a beautiful golden color.
"Xiaoman, your cooking is absolutely amazing!" Wei Sheng's appetite was whetted, and he decided to temporarily give up on dieting.
After all, he hadn't had such authentic farm-style food in a long time, so he should savor it while he could—his manager would be keeping an eye on his diet when he got back o(╥﹏╥)o
The cameraman picked up his camera and started filming the breakfast, snacks, and kimchi on the table. After filming, he couldn't help but put down the camera, picked up the large bowl, and started eating heartily.
The dough for the fried dough cakes is made of glutinous rice flour. After being deep-fried, the outer layer is crispy and the inside is soft and chewy. It's filled with brown sugar, and it's delicious, but it can be a bit greasy if you eat too much. The chive and egg pancakes are the best, but Jiang Xiaoman only took ten eggs, so she couldn't make many. Each person could barely manage two pancakes, and everyone felt a little unsatisfied after eating them.
The most delightful surprise at breakfast was the pickled vegetables made by Jiang Baichuan. Perhaps because he used old pickling brine, the flavor was exceptionally rich! The mountains may lack many other things, but they are overflowing with fresh vegetables, especially wild bamboo shoots, which can be dug up for free. Every year, Jiang Baichuan digs up several bags of wild bamboo shoots to pickle, adding garlic, chili peppers, and young ginger—it's appetizing and goes perfectly with rice!