Chapter 110
Jiang Xiaoman did not go home the next day. Shan Yan went into the mountains early in the morning to find his apprentices, planning to go back to the place where he had harvested rock honey before and get some wild old beehives to sell to Jiang Xiaoman.
After all, he's already a father of three.
Suddenly, the house has three money-shredding machines. If the father doesn't work harder, are the kids supposed to starve with him and his wife?
Jiang Yu didn't go up the mountain with them; he had to stay home to take care of his two daughters and also help Jiang Xiaoman send out the packaged honey she had prepared yesterday.
While waiting for the delivery, Jiang Xiaoman also called a few households on the list Jiang Baichuan had given him that lived nearby, asking if they still had any homemade tea cakes left, as he wanted to check on their quality first.
Halfway through the call, I suddenly received a call from Tang Xinlan.
"Sister Tang, are the honeys you and Sister Hui are going to send to your fans and customers? I've been holding back them and haven't sent them out yet. Give me your addresses later and I'll send them out all at once, saving you some shipping fees."
Before Tang Xinlan could speak, Jiang Xiaoman quickly explained her arrangements.
Tang Xinlan and Zhang Jiahui were looking out for him because their business was just starting out. It was a kind gesture, and he had no other way to repay them but to try his best to save them some money.
Otherwise, if he sends over a hundred boxes of local honey, Tang Xinlan and the others will have to spend another amount of money on express delivery to send them to customers and fans. Wouldn't that be a waste of money?
"Hey! Stop right there! It's not about the delivery fee, I have some good news for you."
Tang Xinlan has always had a good relationship with the provincial television station. As a graduate of journalism herself, she is particularly clear about what kind of news material the media needs and which material has explosive potential.
She didn't watch Jiang Xiaoman's live stream last night, but she did see the dilapidated "express delivery pickup point" that was filmed earlier.
Looking at the two extremely simple red brick houses and the pile of green tiles covered with pine needles on the roof, Tang Xinlan suddenly thought of a program on the provincial TV station.
This program mainly focuses on old house renovation projects. They will recruit families in the province who are in financial and housing difficulties, and then the program team will bring in home decoration and building materials companies to sponsor and renovate the houses of these families.
However, many TV stations in China are producing this type of program now, and it's not very original.
The reason the provincial TV station didn't cancel this program, which had very low ratings, is reportedly because the poverty alleviation office was very satisfied with it. Their leaders even called the TV station leadership to praise the program, saying it wasn't like those talent shows vying for attention, but rather promoted positive social values…
Since the leaders have said so, this program definitely can't be canceled!
Not only could they not withdraw, but the Taiwan leaders also went to great lengths to help them bring in several wealthy real estate companies as new sponsors.
With a new sponsor, the show managed to survive for another six months.
When Tang Xinlan saw the two brick houses that Jiang Xiaoman had rented, she felt that the dilapidated houses were a perfect fit for the show's premise.
What's most interesting is that Jiang Xiaoman's family is not an ordinary impoverished household.
First of all, he is a college graduate who returned to his hometown to start a business.
Secondly, he is a popular online influencer with over a million followers.
Third, she is also one of the sponsors of this program. The bamboo and wood furniture factory she runs with her best friend often sponsors free furniture and other items for the people in need on the program.
After making a phone call to the program director, Tang Xinlan secured a spot for Jiang Xiaoman in an old house renovation project.
Anyway, it doesn't matter who gets the makeover, it's all part of the show, right?
Besides, modifying other people's homes might only change the short-term living experience of one family.
However, the renovation of this express delivery collection point in Langshan Village could change the fate of the entire village!
Think about it, and you'll know: what's the most important thing for rural revitalization? What's the biggest difficulty for farmers returning to their hometowns to start businesses?
It's logistics, honey!
Langshan Village doesn't even have a courier pickup point, so how can the local people sell their local specialties online?
How can people escape poverty and become prosperous if they can't sell the local specialties they've worked so hard to grow?
She was convinced the program team wouldn't take the bait with such a significant news lead that perfectly aligned with the national theme of rural revitalization!
Sure enough! When the program team leader heard Jiang Xiaoman's story of returning to his hometown to start a business, and learned that he actually had more than a million fans, he was immediately interested.
Well, of course, he's definitely not after those million-plus followers.
He was just eager to demonstrate the social responsibility of media professionals...
Jiang Xiaoman was stunned when she heard Tang Xinlan's good news.
Is today some kind of super lucky day?
First, his miserly uncle generously gave him a bank card, contributing his own savings for his funeral to support his business venture.
Immediately afterwards, Sister Tang, whom he hadn't contacted for a long time, quietly arranged for him to get a free spot to renovate a courier station?
At this moment, Jiang Xiaoman suddenly felt a surge of ambition.
So what if he's empty-handed? He can always start from scratch and build it up gradually.
First, we need to find a way to set up the express delivery collection point, and then work with Shanyan and the others to expand the beekeeping area, and strive to get every household in the village to join their beekeeping cooperative!
Well, we still don't know where this "beekeeping cooperative" is.
But Jiang Xiaoman believes that as long as their honey can be sold, and the villagers see that they are making money from beekeeping, they probably won't even need to go door-to-door to persuade them; the villagers themselves will be tempted to start beekeeping with them.
After all, there are very few ways for people in the mountains to make money!
At that time, he also wants to try to develop not only the beekeeping cooperative, but also the tea cakes and local embroidery of Langshan!
With a source of goods and smooth logistics, why worry about not making money?
After finalizing the recording of the program with Tang Xinlan over the phone, Jiang Xiaoman felt incredibly refreshed after hanging up!
Jiang Yu was quite happy for him when she heard about this.
After all, building a house in the countryside is not easy. Although the plot of land that Jiang Xiaoman bought is not large, if he were to build a two-story house according to his plan, it would cost at least 100,000 yuan.
This doesn't even include the renovations.
Jiang Yu knew this because he had recently been inquiring about which family in the village was transferring their homestead land.
He and Shanyan had already discussed it; it wasn't right to keep renting other people's houses all the time.
There are three girls in the family. The eldest is not yet in junior high school, and compulsory education doesn't cost much. The two younger ones haven't even started school yet. Their family hasn't reached the most financially burdensome stage yet.
So, the couple discussed it and decided to take advantage of their relatively comfortable financial situation in the past two years to build a house down the mountain.
This way, it will be convenient for the three children to go to school in the future. Looking at the long term, when the three girls are getting married, having a house in the village will sound much better than having an old house in the mountains.
Because of this matter, Jiang Yu recently asked many families in the village who had built new houses, including the approximate price of transferring homestead land in the village, how much it costs to build a two-story house, how much it costs to build a three-story house, and how much it costs to decorate... After asking around at several places, he had a general idea of the situation.
Just then, Jiang Xiaoman also needed to repair his house, so Jiang Yu shared the information he had gathered with him.
"Hey! Of course, my savings alone wouldn't be enough. But I have a cheat code~" Jiang Xiaoman proudly took out the card her uncle gave her and waved it around. "See? My uncle lent me more than 50,000 yuan, plus the program team's sponsorship, it's enough to build a simple two-story house."
"Besides, building a house will take at least half a year. Does that mean I won't earn a single penny during that time?"
“That’s true! Wild honey is only available twice a year. If we want to make money, we need to find some other business.” Jiang Yu nodded thoughtfully.
"Speaking of making money, Brother Xiaoyu, what do you think about the thing I told you before, about having you start a video account to go fishing?" His words reminded Jiang Xiaoman.
"I've known how to fish since I was a child, so it's not difficult for me. It's just that I don't know how to shoot and edit videos," Jiang Yu said, distressed.
"If you don't know, I'll teach you! It's very simple. Just download a few video editing apps, something simple, and you can do it on your phone."
Jiang Xiaoman downloaded her two favorite video editing apps onto Jiang Yu's phone and also found several blogger accounts that specialize in teaching people how to edit videos and sent them to him.
"Brother Xiaoyu, let me tell you, this era is different from before. You can learn anything online. Except for not having a college degree, I think some bloggers online are much more knowledgeable than college students. If you want to learn video editing, take a look at these accounts. The courses here teach you step by step."
Jiang Yu watched one of the bloggers' videos for a while and found that the teaching was indeed very detailed. She quickly became engrossed in learning.
After sending out the first batch of packages, Jiang Xiaoman took the opportunity to go home and pick up some clothes and everyday items, as well as dried vegetables and bamboo shoots that he had dried himself, various pickles and sauces that he had made, and some cured meat and fish that he had cured at home. He filled a woven bag with them, plus his usual travel bag.
"Are you going out?" Jiang Youliang had gone to the field to cut pig feed, and when he came back, he saw his son packing his luggage, which startled him.
"Could it be that something happened to Can Can again?"
After Jiang Xiaoman returned, she rarely went on long trips, and the few times she did go were all for Jiang Cancan.
“Cancan is doing well at school, she has an agent and a personal assistant to take care of her. I’m just taking some things and going down the mountain to stay with Jiang Yu for a few days.”
"What?!" Jiang Youliang's expression changed drastically, and he grabbed his son. "Isn't Jiang Yu the sworn brother of the Shan family boy? They've fallen out? What does this have to do with you?"
"You...you didn't become one of those 'other women' in TV dramas, did you?"
Jiang Youliang stared sternly at his son.
It seemed that the moment Jiang Xiaoman confessed, he would resort to family discipline...
Even without a marriage certificate, in Langshan, sworn brothers like Shanyan and Jiangyu are a couple recognized by everyone!
Besides, they even have children now!
Anyone who dares to become a third party in a relationship will be cursed to death by the villagers from all around!
"Dad! You should watch less of those melodramatic family dramas in the future. If you can't watch that, watch something like 'Getting Rich' or 'Agricultural Science and Technology' or something." Jiang Xiaoman interrupted her father's daydreaming with a wry smile.
"Uncle Baichuan has a new teacher and there's not enough room for him, so I'll stay at Brother Xiaoyu's house for a couple of days."
"Sister Tang helped me contact a program on the provincial TV station. She said that if I participated, they would renovate the house I used to rent as a courier station for free."
"Oh dear! You're not talking about that 'Old House, New Home' program on our provincial TV's economic channel, are you?" Jiang Youliang perked up instantly when his son said it was a home renovation program on the provincial TV station.
He's a die-hard fan of this show!!!
Chapter 111
Jiang Xiaoman was surprised that her father also knew about the show. What a coincidence! A ready-made loyal viewer of the show!
He needs to ask his father about it, and make sure there's no chance the show will backfire.
For example, a few days ago there was a TV program in China about an elderly person in a rural area who had saved up their entire life savings and wanted to renovate their old house into a grand villa so that their children could stay comfortably when they came back for the Chinese New Year.
Unexpectedly, the designer invited by the program team seemed to have some serious illness, as he actually designed a drafty, unfinished brick house for the elderly person, and the elderly person was required to force a smile and express satisfaction in front of the camera.
Satisfied my ass!
Jiang Xiaoman was browsing the internet when she saw the renovated house and really wanted to say to the designer: "Since this house is so good, this is such a great blessing for you, do you want it?"
However, to Jiang Xiaoman's surprise, although their provincial TV station's program didn't have many viewers, they were actually seriously renovating the old house for the fans who trusted them.
In particular, the designers they hired were probably because the program team had limited funds and not much fame, so they couldn't afford to hire those well-known domestic and international designers. They simply had the decoration companies that sponsored the program take turns sending designers to do old house renovation designs for the fans participating in the program.
These designers' design styles are definitely not something that the big names would appreciate, since they usually design home decoration for ordinary people.