Reluctant to spend money on in-game purchases, Dang Yimin decided to use facial recognition instead.
No matter how strict the rules are at the TV station, would they dare disobey the county's top official? Humph! They're really something, using the power entrusted to them by the country and the people to make money for themselves!
Dang Yimin was furious and decided that he would never help the propaganda department forward any more tweets!
Even if the few hundred views on his party's WeChat Moments are minimal, the propaganda department can forget about piggybacking on them!
"Absolutely not! If the TV station leaders think we're trying to pressure them by asking the Party Secretary, they might not dare to hold a grudge against the Secretary, but surely they could at least cause trouble for Xiaoman? In business, it's best not to offend local media unless absolutely necessary." Sun Zheyuan quickly stopped Dang Yimin's dangerous idea.
"So, we're just going to let this go like this?" Dang Yimin was seething with anger.
“How can we let it go? That’s why I called to give you some advice.” Sun Zheyuan rubbed his temples and explained his thoughts to Dang Yimin.
Forget about free live streams.
But they could find another way. Anyway, Jiang Xiaoman hadn't told the town about this, so Dang Yimin could just pretend he knew nothing.
Once the opening date of the industrial park is set, call the Party Secretary or County Head a few days in advance to invite them to the opening ceremony. If the top leaders are attending, would the TV stations and newspapers dare not send reporters to cover it?
After making the call, Sun Zheyuan felt relieved, but now it was Dang Yimin's turn to have trouble sleeping.
"It's so late! You're tossing and turning in bed like a pancake!" Dang Yimin's wife, unable to sleep because of his noise, kicked him angrily.
Dang Yimin couldn't sleep, and not daring to disturb his wife, he simply put on his clothes and went to his study to work overtime.
The sense of defeat and impact of today's events on him was definitely not as understated as he made it sound on the phone.
To put it bluntly, why didn't the TV station even make a phone call to the town and just rejected Jiang Xiaoman outright?
Isn't it because they were too poor before and never spent money on TV stations?
The Chinese nation is inherently a society based on personal relationships. Relationships within the government are like those between relatives. If you don't visit each other for a year or two, who will recognize you after that? Why should anyone give you face?
Dang Yimin could guess why Jiang Xiaoman hadn't informed him beforehand; Xiaoman was such a thoughtful child! Knowing that the town was poor and lacked sufficient funds for publicity, she wanted to solve the problem herself and save the town some publicity expenses.
We can't stay this poor any longer!
The children's faces were pressed to the ground and trampled on.
It's all because their generation is so useless! They've caused their own children to suffer so much injustice outside!
Xiaoman suffered some injustice outside, but didn't even say a word when she came back.
If Sun Zheyuan hadn't called him, he wouldn't have known that Xiaoman had made this trip to the county.
That night, in the house Dang Yimin rented in town, the desk lamp in the study stayed on until almost dawn.
The next day, Dang Yimin thought of his words and first called the two county leaders to invite them to attend the opening ceremony of the industrial park.
This invitation didn't come overnight.
He first needs to verbally report to his superior. If the superior is willing to come, he will assign the task to his secretary and ask the secretary to make time for him. Only then can the town officially send an invitation letter to the superior. The process is complicated, but Dang Yimin is not afraid of trouble. He is only afraid that the superior will not come.
Fortunately, the two leaders still remembered Jiang Xiaoman, the poverty alleviation leader who had received a national-level award. Upon learning that the industrial park was also a joint venture of the county's investment company, they both agreed to try to make time to attend the event that day.
"Did you all hear that? The Party Secretary and the County Head will both be here on the day the park opens, so there are some things we need to get started now."
Dang Yimin had just finished a meeting when he led a team to Langshan Village that afternoon.
Upon hearing that the town had invited the Party Secretary and the County Head to attend the opening ceremony, Jiang Xiaoman immediately perked up and happily climbed up the pole.
“Secretary Party, look at us, we can’t find any cleaners in this rural area. The industrial park was just renovated, and it’s filthy everywhere. It doesn’t look right when the county leaders come.”
“I heard that there’s a task force of Party members and cadres in our town that’s dedicated to helping people solve their problems. Why don’t you arrange one for our industrial park as well?”
"You little brat..." Dang Yimin's feelings of gratitude and guilt vanished instantly after being poked by Jiang Xiaoman's blunt words.
Fortunately, on the way here, he was thinking about how to comfort Jiang Xiaoman subtly when he saw her.
Now it seems that he was the one who was truly fragile!
"Hehe~ It's just that our village has limited funds, there's really nothing we can do~" Jiang Xiaoman scratched his head sheepishly, then pointed to the villagers working on the riverbank with an air of self-righteousness.
“Secretary Party, look! It’s not that the people in our village are lazy. In the spring, in order to increase the yield per mu, we asked the professors from the Agricultural University for guidance and made full use of the tea gardens and idle mountain land to sow a batch of purslane seeds.”
"The purslane is ripe now, and recently the whole village has been busy drying it."
"As you know, city dwellers love to eat our wild mountain vegetables now. I just filmed a video of drying purslane, and look, it's already got over a million likes!"
"We've received over 100,000 comments saying they want to buy our dried purslane."
“During this period, even toddlers who have just learned to walk are busy helping their families dry purslane. We really can’t spare any manpower to clean the industrial park, Party Secretary!”
Jiang Xiaoman was practically begging Dang Yimin on her knees.
Dang Yimin led a team to the village to investigate, originally hoping to see if they could help Jiang Xiaoman and the others solve some of their difficulties. When they heard that the industrial park needed help, they nodded and said, "Let's go and take a look first."
It's not that he doesn't want to agree, but he needs to see the scope of the project first. If there are too many places to clean, in addition to the town's party member and cadre task force, he can actually recruit a group of volunteers to help.
Upon hearing that the Party Secretary had led a team to inspect the area, the village officials also rushed over.
There were two arms with purslane still stuck to them.
It seems the village really can't spare any manpower to clean the industrial park; even village officials have gone to help dry the purslane.
Upon arriving at the industrial park, Jiang Xiaoman led Dang Yimin and the others on a tour.
Dang Yimin had seen the planning and design drawings of the industrial park before, but now that he has seen the actual place, all he can say is that the netizens' complaints were not without reason. This is the legendary difference between a buyer's show and a seller's show!
The industrial park in the renderings, with its white walls, gray tiles, and lush greenery, looks just like a city park.
In reality, apart from the white walls and gray tiles, the cement roads on both sides are bare, and the gardens are also bare. When you walk in, apart from the pre-installed production lines and other equipment, it is also bare.
"Did you run out of money while you were building this?" Dang Yimin looked at Jiang Xiaoman suspiciously.
"Hehe~ How could that be? I still have money. I just feel that some money is unnecessary to spend~" Jiang Xiaoman pointed to the empty office area and explained to everyone why he did not buy office furniture.
“I went to a meeting at the city investment company that day and heard that two of their factories were going out of business and we couldn’t use the machines, but the office furniture inside was quite cheap, almost like it was free, so I decided to take it all.”
"Let's clean up first. After that, I'll hire a few trucks in a couple of days to bring the furniture back from the county. Then I'll find two furniture installers to help with the installation. It'll be a bit of a hassle, and it won't look as nice as custom-made furniture, but it'll save us money!"
“I’ve calculated it. If we bring these old furniture back, install them, and then spray them with new paint, they’ll look almost brand new. That could save us over 100,000 yuan.”
"With this money, I plan to equip our industrial park with some good equipment and set up an official live streaming team. Then, not only our Langshan Village, but also other villages in our town, will have no need to ask others for live streaming services. We can do it ourselves!"
He shouldn't have said it, because his words made Dang Yimin's eyes redden, and he almost couldn't hold back his tears.
Yes, if they could find outside help, who would want to shoulder all the responsibility themselves?
Just like this time, Jiang Xiaoman originally wanted to cooperate with the county's media center for mutual benefit, but who knew that they didn't even look at them. Of course, they couldn't borrow the county's well-equipped live broadcast team either.
Looking back now, Xiaoman was a shrewd girl who knew that it was better to rely on herself than on others. If the industrial park wanted to promote itself with the least amount of money, it would have to build its own publicity team.
This money can't be saved!
Of course, they can't provide financial assistance, since the town is indeed poorer than the village now, but they have connections.
At the Party Secretary's order, the next morning, a team of Party members and cadres from the town arrived to provide support, wearing red vests and carrying brooms, shovels, rags, buckets, and other supplies.
They came together with volunteer teams from other villages, making a total of about 300 people.
With so many people, they can definitely clean the entire industrial park in one day.
Since people came to help their village, Jiang Xiaoman couldn't possibly let them work for nothing.
There would definitely be no wages, but food and drink would be provided.
Jiang Xiaoman found several aunties and sisters-in-law in the village who were good cooks, and personally drove to the town to buy ingredients. She first brewed several large buckets of herbal tea and placed them in the duty room of the industrial park so that the helpers could take them to quench their thirst at any time.
Since the canteen in the industrial park hadn't been cleaned yet and cooking wasn't allowed there, Jiang Xiaoman found a master chef in town who specialized in catering banquets and rented his cooking equipment. They temporarily set up several tents in the industrial park's courtyard and placed more than thirty large round tables.
When you're treating someone to a meal on short notice, especially a work meal, you can't have a feast like a rural banquet with a dozen or so dishes on one table.
Jiang Xiaoman asked her sisters-in-law to help her cook more than a dozen pots of cured pork and potato rice. She also dragged a large freezer from her own shop and filled it with drinks. There were only three dishes.
One dish is stir-fried pork slices with chili peppers, another is stir-fried minced pork with pickled cowpeas, and the last is braised pork with tofu.
In addition, there are a few homemade side dishes to go with rice, such as pickled bamboo shoots, pickled peppers, and pickled radish peel, which are simple and filling.
“This is already pretty good~ Usually when we work overtime or have events in our town, we just give each person a bowl of instant noodles. Why are you making so many dishes? Wouldn’t it be enough to give each of them a bowl of cured pork and potato rice?” Dang Yimin was immediately unhappy when he saw that he had rice, dishes, and iced drinks.
Knowing full well that the industrial park is just starting out and is short of funds, they are still indulging in extravagant spending on food!
They're wearing red vests to do voluntary work at the grassroots level, not to eat at a banquet, okay?
If it were anyone else, they would have been burying their head and obediently accepting a scolding right now.
But who is Jiang Xiaoman?
When it comes to sophistry, few among the hundreds of people present could match him.
"Secretary Party! You're mistaken! This is the first meal after our industrial park is officially completed, it's of great significance!"
"When doing business, you have to pay attention to auspiciousness, don't you think? If we eat instant noodles for the first meal after opening the park, that would be so unlucky! What if we ruin the auspiciousness and business in our industrial park doesn't go well? Would we have to eat instant noodles for every meal?"
Dang Yimin was stunned by what he said.
This reason is so compelling that it's impossible to refute!
Thinking about it, it really is true~ Eating instant noodles for the first meal after the park opens is indeed not a good omen.
Wait a minute! How did he get caught up in Jiang Xiaoman's trap again?
Chapter 272
With the help of the town's party member and cadre task force and volunteers, the sanitation of the entire industrial park was completed by 5 p.m. that day.
Dang Yimin and his colleagues even helped him dig the holes for planting trees on both sides of the road.
"Do you have enough money to buy the seedlings? If not, there are seedling and flower businesses in our town. I'll talk to them and ask if you can get a batch of seedlings on credit." Dang Yimin was really worried about Jiang Xiaoman.
"Hehe~ I didn't plan to spend money to buy seedlings." Jiang Xiaoman chuckled and explained somewhat embarrassedly, "I asked Uncle Baichuan to help me get a batch of konjac seedlings, which I will transplant here later."
"Konjac trees look beautiful, and once they're grown up, we can dig them up to make konjac tofu, which can supplement the meals in our industrial park's canteen. Isn't that more cost-effective than buying seedlings?"
Dang Yimin couldn't help but burst into laughter!
He should have thought of that sooner!
The roads in this industrial park have been completed for a while now, so why haven't I seen this kid buy any trees?
So, it turns out they never intended to plant trees; they were going to dig holes and plant konjac instead?
"Then you'll have to take good care of these konjac plants. They eat a lot of fertilizer, and if you want them to grow big, you'll have to fertilize them every few days."