Jiang Xiaoman is right. Langshan is the only town in the county with a township-level industrial park. If this industrial park were to be located in Langshan, it would be a real achievement.
Thinking of this, the Party Secretary and the Mayor looked at Jiang Xiaoman with even more affection than they would at their own son!
Thinking of the recent rumors circulating in the village that Xiaoman's biological mother had married a wealthy businessman and might take him back, the Party Secretary and the Mayor couldn't help but become secretly wary.
But there's nothing to panic about. After all, everyone knows that Xiaoman was abandoned by his biological mother and then adopted by Old Man Jiang Youliang. As the saying goes, the kindness of raising is greater than the kindness of giving birth. Although Xiaoman wasn't born in Langshan Town, fate has destined him to be a Langshan native.
So what if she's his biological mother? As long as they treat Jiang Xiaoman better than his own mother treats him, I don't believe Xiaoman would want to go back to his unreliable biological mother!
...
After returning with honors, Jiang Xiaoman didn't have time to share her experience and feelings about receiving the award in the capital with her friends. She immediately gathered the partners and shareholders of several cooperatives to prepare for the international trade fair to be held in D Province next spring.
The international trade fairs in D Province have always been well-known in China. However, in the past, they were all comprehensive international trade fairs, as well as some technical exchange and cooperation events. Individual business owners like Jiang Xiaoman were not even qualified to receive an invitation to such high-end international trade fairs.
This time, D Province specially hosted the China Cultural Tourism and Agricultural Specialty Products International Exhibition and Sales Fair. According to Jiang Xiaoman's guess, it is very likely a bold trial.
After all, in recent years, tiny countries like South Korea and Japan have been using trivial so-called intangible cultural heritage learned from China to claim that these were their traditional cultures, which infuriated Chinese netizens!
The two sides have been engaged in a war of words online for many years, with no clear winner.
This time, it seems even the official authorities couldn't sit still anymore and were planning to personally step in and slap them in the face?
But thinking about it carefully, there's nothing to be afraid of. Take Langshan's intangible cultural heritage embroidery, for example. The patterns are taken from the totem culture that has been passed down for hundreds of years by various tribes in Langshan, and the craftsmanship has been passed down from generation to generation. You want to provide evidence?
Hilarious! Forget about professional embroiderers, even in their family, which only has two grown men, there are still many of his childhood clothes and shoes hidden away, all authentic Langshan embroidery!
There are also their wild tea cakes, local honey, precious rock honey, wild mushroom sauce... These are all things that the people of Langshan have been eating since ancient times. Unlike the luxury goods abroad that are often hyped up to tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram, their local specialties are plentiful and affordable, and even ordinary Chinese families with average incomes can afford them.
Trying to counterfeit our local specialties? First, consider whether your country's land area can support such a large production volume!
"In short, that's the gist of the trade fair. We're representing the national team this time, so we have to bring out our best!" Jiang Xiaoman made the final decision at the internal meeting.
"However, the price can't be too low. The export price can't be calculated based on the usual wholesale price; it should be calculated based on the online retail price! We should make money off foreigners!"
“Exactly! They’re selling it too cheaply; they’ll probably think it’s a knock-off,” Jiang Yu chimed in.
“Leave the rock honey to me. It’s perfect timing since the brothers have been idle at home since winter started. Let’s take them out to the mountains. Otherwise, they’ll get rusty with the skills passed down from the older generation if they’re always stuck at home.” Shan Yan volunteered to take on the task of collecting rock honey.
The main problem is that no one else can do this job.
Shan Yan had another thought he didn't voice. Lang Ying had once privately reminded him that many martial arts and fantasy film and television production crews still had a high demand for stunt doubles.
While Shan Yan's apprentices may not be considered exceptionally skilled, their ability to scale walls and leap across rooftops far surpasses that of most male celebrities.
As long as they don't lose this skill, once the film and television base in Langshan is built, these guys will have another way to make a living: working as stunt doubles or extras for film crews.
Don't let the undignified appearance of this job fool you. If you're a stunt double for a main character and do a good job, you can earn several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan per film crew. If you do guest appearances on several film crews a year, your family can earn tens of thousands of yuan more each year.
Moreover, this income requires no cost. When filming, you get paid for each day you film. If you can't find work during the off-season, you can go to a film crew as an extra. Not only will you be provided with food and drink, but you can also earn at least a hundred to several hundred yuan a day.
Shan Yan thought it was a good idea too.
Most of his younger brothers are not married yet and are working hard to save money. Other men in the village can enjoy a warm bed with their wives and children during the off-season, but they don't even know where their wives and children are. How can they be entitled to lie on a warm bed and enjoy life?
Get up and go make some money!
Shan Yan immediately decided to take this opportunity to take the team to the mountains for a team building activity, so that they wouldn't neglect training for too long and ruin their ancestors' skills. They would end up with big bellies and fat heads, and wouldn't be ashamed to see the film crew looking for extras from other places.
"Master, I won't go. Yingzi is pregnant, and I have to take care of Da Niu and Er Niu. I can't let her get tired." Qing Shan happily declined his master's invitation.
His wife is the head of the wild mushroom planting cooperative and the only food processing plant in the village. She is also a major shareholder. Qingshan is very satisfied with his wife's financial support.
His mother and sister both said that it's not shameful for a boy to live off a woman; the real skill is if he can turn that lifelong job into a secure one.
Didn't you see a lot of women over at Turtle Ridge who kicked their husbands out after having children?
Qingshan has not yet been kicked out by his female boss, Lang Ying. Qingshan's mother and sister are very proud of him. Every time Qingshan comes home, the mother and daughter try their best to brainwash him, telling him not to be arrogant and complacent, and to reflect on whether he made his wife angry that day, whether he did a good job of what his wife asked him to do, and that he must not let other male vixens take advantage of the situation...
With Lang Ying's current wealth, she could support not just one Qing Shan, but several more!
Qingshan was very wary; how could he possibly leave Langying while she was pregnant?
Wouldn't that just give other male demons an easy opportunity to exploit?
When they heard that Lang Ying was pregnant, her fellow apprentices were extremely envious and all clamored for Qing Shan to treat them to a meal.
"Go away~ If you're going to invite her, you'll have to wait until after Yingzi gives birth. We'll definitely have to invite you to her one-month celebration then. The doctor said that Yingzi is already considered an older mother and needs to be careful to protect the pregnancy. You're not allowed to come to my house and disturb her rest, understand?"
Seeing him smugly acting like a treacherous concubine who had successfully risen to power, everyone looked down on him, but after looking down on him, they couldn't help but secretly envy him.
Sigh, when will they be able to get married?
Master is right. Don't get cocky just because you earn a hundred thousand or so a year. These days, to get married, you need at least a hundred thousand or two. Even matchmakers won't bother to come knocking. They're not as lucky as Qingshan, who actually got married into Lang Ying's family as a wealthy woman. Sigh...
So, Lang Ying's previous husband really lost the big picture for a small gain. Such a lucky woman, who had given birth to two children with him, was still lost by him. No wonder the older generation says that wealth and honor are determined by fate. It's clear that this person was born to be poor!
Jiang Xiaoman never expected that Sister Yingzi would be pregnant.
But thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. That seems to be their custom here. During the first three months of pregnancy, they worry that the baby in their belly will be frightened and run away. Some don't even tell their husband's or wife's relatives. No wonder they didn't come to the meeting today and sent Qingshan as their representative.
"Alright, Yingzi's pregnancy is great news. Everyone, please stop spreading rumors and calm down. Just wait for the wedding day to come and eat the celebratory eggs." Jiang Xiaoman picked up the blackboard eraser, tapped the table, pointed to the lines drawn on the whiteboard, and continued to assign tasks.
The task of harvesting honey in the mountains is left to Shanyan. Their Langshan Village's signature local specialty, wild mushroom sauce, already had a large stock before winter, so there's no need to rush. It's just a matter of changing online sales to international trade fair orders. Anyway, if it doesn't sell at the trade fair, it can be packaged and sold during the Spring Festival promotion through live streaming, so it won't cause any delays.
This year, the yield of local honey from Langshan is also quite good, and the quality of the honey is especially good. Jiang Xiaoman plans to find someone to repackage a batch and take it to the trade fair to sell.
There's no need to bring the golden chrysanthemum and honeysuckle; the yield wasn't high to begin with, and he wants to save them to boost his sales at the end of the year.
I'll be bringing back a lot of Langshan's specialty wild mountain tea cakes this time. China's tea culture is renowned internationally, and many people in the international import and export trade also enjoy the tea business. Tea cakes don't spoil easily, making them particularly suitable for sea freight, and the transportation costs are much lower than for fresh produce.
Jiang Xiaoman assigned the tasks one by one.
This is where the advantage of having people at your disposal comes in. The current veterans of several cooperatives are people who have worked their way up from the grassroots with him and Shanyan, and their level of understanding is absolutely perfect!
Even her younger brother, whom she had only known for a short time, cough~ Jiang Xiaoman used the excuse that she had to take charge of the overall situation and was too busy to handle it, so she put the task of preparing the Langshan Tu embroidery for the exhibition on Jin Chengjie.
"Why me? I haven't taken any wages from your cooperative!" Young Master Jin said angrily.
"So now you understand why the mountain sparrow looks down on you, right?" Jiang Xiaoman snorted coldly, her sarcasm reaching its peak. "Look at the men of Langshan, young and old, which one of them isn't working hard to learn a skill to make money? If you don't have some real ability to support your family, forget about getting married, you'll be rejected by girls even if you try to have a walking marriage!"
Jiang Xiaoman clearly didn't say that Shan Que disliked Jin Chengjie for anything, but Young Master Jin was already furious on the spot.
"Let's do it! Our Jin family is the leading enterprise in China's garment industry! You bunch of bumpkins, who can compare to me?" Young Master Jin jumped up and down, eager to make a name for himself so that Shan Que would look at him with new respect.
Jiang Yu buried his head in his tea with a look of disgust.
In terms of sheer intellectual disability, none of the young men from Langshan present can compare to Young Master Jin.
That's so stupid!
Did Xiaoman provoke you into falling into a trap?
Chapter 251
Not long after Jiang Xiaoman and her team returned from receiving their awards, another piece of good news arrived: the high-end custom fashion brand advertisement that Jin Yan had filmed in Langshan was officially released!
Both spokespeople, Su Yuan and Jiang Cancan, immediately retweeted the official Weibo post.
Jiang Cancan, needless to say, has always been a staunch "wild spokesperson for Langshan Scenic Area." It's clear that the teaching level of schools in the capital is indeed much better than that of village primary schools. Jiang Cancan used a lot of superlative words to write a short essay praising Langshan embroidery.
Fans couldn't help but shed tears upon seeing this.
Their adorable little one has finally grown up and can write eloquent essays! We must share this enthusiastically, along with even more flowery and touching compliments!
The wealthy fans, who can't write long posts, bought promotional traffic for Jiang Cancan's post as usual. Perhaps because so many people bought it, it suddenly jumped to the top of the rankings...
Jiang Xiaoman could only pretend he hadn't seen it and dutifully reposted Jiang Cancan's post. He didn't need to spend money to buy traffic, after all, he was a popular influencer with millions of active fans, and reposting didn't cost him a penny. His enthusiastic fans would repost it for him when they saw it.
To his surprise, Su Yuan, a big star who earns hundreds of thousands or even millions for a single advertisement, actually posted an additional nine-grid update after forwarding the official announcement post.
Actresses usually have their accounts managed by their staff, but this post was clearly edited and published by her personally, because Su Yuan even mentioned her hometown in her short essay!
The agent was dumbfounded. However, what no one expected was that when the haters came to imply that Su Yuan came from a rustic background as usual, before the fans could even fight back, they were actually slapped in the face by passersby!
"The countryside? If you're uneducated, go back and study for a few more years. Do you even know what Langshan is? It's a famous old revolutionary base area!"
"To put it bluntly, if it weren't for those so-called country bumpkins from Langshan, your grandparents wouldn't even know how they died! They shed blood and sacrificed their lives to bring peace to our generation. Does your mother know how you're badmouthing your benefactors like this?"
"What nonsense are you talking about upstairs? How could such a beast have a mother? Even if it did, wouldn't it be stupid enough to be killed by the placenta it raised?"
"I didn't follow celebrities before, but I suddenly discovered that Su Yuan has such positive values, so I became a fan!"
"Isn't this a true veteran artist with both virtue and talent? I'm not saying Su Yuan is old, it's just that she debuted quite early. I always thought she was a star from my parents' generation. I just searched her Wikipedia page and found that she's actually quite young. And judging from her appearance, she really is a kind-hearted woman. I've become a fan."
"Xiaoman's fans are here! Thank you, Sister Su Yuan, for supporting Langshan."
"Stop arguing! Come and eat some melon seeds, hahaha! The agricultural channel next door even reposted this post, what the heck? Did the editor switch channels?"
Upon hearing this, netizens forgot about their own arguments and rushed to the agricultural channel to join the fun. Wow, this is truly the first time I've ever stumbled upon the official Weibo account of an agricultural channel while trying to find out what's going on!
When I opened Weibo, I found that the person who reposted it was actually the one Jiang Xiaoman had just posted, and Jiang Xiaoman, in turn, reposted Su Yuan's Weibo post... Is this the legendary nested doll reposting?
However, just by looking at the caption, you can tell the editor is a seasoned agriculturalist—
#Innovative Models for Under-Forest Economy# Langshan has been rich in forestry resources since ancient times. Today, relying on these abundant resources, local people are actively trying various under-forest economic models, including wild mushroom cultivation and beekeeping. The dyeing materials for the famous intangible cultural heritage—Langshan embroidery—also come from local pure natural plant dyes, adding luster to China's high-end garment manufacturing industry!
The accompanying image was actually a screenshot from an advertisement of several common, all-natural dyeing plants... Jiang Xiaoman herself never expected that it could be opened in this way!
The onlookers were also amazed. So, the silks and satins our ancestors wore all those years were dyed with natural plant dyes? I've learned something new! I'd love to go to Langshan sometime to find these amazing plants!
However, with even the national channel showing its support, the online trolls dared not cause any more trouble.
Celebrities can be criticized at will, but what kind of behavior is it to bully farmers?
Putting aside the feuds between fan groups, Jin Yan's latest advertisement can be considered a rare masterpiece in the advertising industry in recent years.
No wonder Su Yuan visited Langshan once and couldn't stop thinking about investing in and building a film and television base there. The finished product of the advertisement was almost as good as a short film.
The scene unfolds with the chirping of birds, revealing distant mountains, clouds, bamboo forests, and streams. Langshan Mountain in the early autumn morning is as beautiful as a fairyland.
A loud mountain song rang out from somewhere in the mountains. The scene changed, and Su Yuan, who played the "mother", wore a flower headscarf and Langshan embroidery clothing. She carried a basket of pig feed and walked barefoot on the clear stream dam.
Of course, real people from Langshan, unless they're out of their minds, would never walk barefoot in the icy cold stream in late autumn. Anyway, after filming this scene, Su Yuan drank a whole bowl of ginger soup to ward off the cold!
Immediately afterwards, Jiang Cancan's smiling face appeared in the camera. The mother and daughter were wearing Langshan embroidery clothes with different patterns, one indigo and the other in pinkish-purple. One was preparing breakfast on the warm stove, while the other was at the door holding a bamboo frame, clumsily embroidering a small flower on a piece of rag.
Seeing this scene, Su Yuan's fans were already in tears.
For some reason, Su Yuan and her husband have been married for several years, but there has never been any news of her pregnancy. Many unscrupulous paparazzi and marketing accounts have been making a fuss about this, and some have even spread rumors that Su Yuan used to sell her body to get ahead when she was young, that she slept with countless directors, and that she had several abortions in secret, ruining her health and that she may never be able to have children again... Su Yuan even sent a lawyer's letter because of this, but it was to no avail.
Even though Su Yuan's husband Cheng Mo remained devoted to her, their marriage was still frequently brought up by gossip and entertainment accounts, and if anyone had ever counted, there would be at least a hundred news reports about the couple being "divorced."
Fans were even more anxious than Su Yuan herself. Some even secretly discussed that Su Yuan could secretly go abroad to have a child through assisted reproductive technology. As long as it was her and Cheng Mo's biological child, the process didn't matter. What mattered was that the couple needed a child to shut up the gossip accounts!