What fans used to find hilarious about this scene now feels incredibly heartbreaking and infuriating!
What kind of situation has this driven the principal and his nephew to?
The flowers of our motherland, living under the same blue sky as them, can't even afford to eat a meal of pork cracklings?!
So here's the question: where did the nutrition meal subsidies that should have gone to Langshan Primary School?
The incident escalated too quickly, and it happened late at night. When the topic "The nutritional meals for impoverished students at Langshan Primary School are suspected of being embezzled" suddenly topped the trending search list the next day, all the officials in the county and city where Langshan Village is located were stunned.
"Investigate! Investigate thoroughly! I want to see who withheld the nutrition subsidy application for Langshan Primary School!" The head of the Municipal Education Bureau slammed his fist on the table.
Corruption in the education system, especially at the grassroots level, has always been a serious problem.
A few years ago, they severely punished a group of corrupt officials because of this issue. I didn't expect it to happen so soon.
The first batch of people who went to jail are still working on sewing machines inside, and the next batch can't wait to go in already?
A thorough investigation is certain, but clarification is also necessary.
The city acted swiftly, quickly transferring the application for nutritional meal subsidies for impoverished students submitted by Langshan Primary School several years ago from each level. It would have been better if they hadn't looked at it; once they did, the leaders' blood pressure instantly soared!
Five years ago, Langshan Primary School had a total of 52 students enrolled in compulsory education, of whom 37 were eligible for the national nutrition subsidy program for impoverished students.
According to regulations, each of these students should receive a nutritional meal subsidy of 800 yuan per year, which would amount to 29,600 yuan for 37 students.
Even though Langshan Primary School later lost students and its student population decreased to just over thirty, those who were truly forced to stay in the village primary school due to poverty were basically eligible for the nutrition meal subsidy.
In other words, the amount of nutrition meal subsidies illegally embezzled from Langshan Primary School alone over five years reached a staggering 150,000 yuan!
What does 150,000 mean?
In impoverished counties where housing prices are low, that's enough to buy a new house of over 80 square meters!
And it was full payment!!!
"Investigate! Investigate everyone who has gone through this application, one by one!"
The Municipal Education Bureau was furious; they were just sitting at home when this trouble fell on their head!
Online, angry netizens have already flooded the official Weibo account of their education bureau with criticism.
Jiang Cancan's fans are especially vicious here!
Who would have thought that a nine-year-old girl would have such high overall quality fans!
Look, there are people claiming to be media reporters who are directly questioning the standards for nutritional meal subsidies for impoverished students in the name of the media. Why is Langshan Primary School, such a poor school, not included in the subsidy program? They even said they would continue to follow up on the story.
Several verified lawyer followers also said they would keep an eye on the follow-up solutions, and if they were not satisfied, they would "voluntarily provide legal aid to Langshan Primary School"!
There are also entrepreneurs, social media influencers, university professors... These people are really difficult to deal with. I don't know what kind of personal connections they used, but they managed to get the provincial education department to call them directly.
In short, the overall message is the same: we don't care how you investigate or judge internally, just make sure that the dilapidated cafeteria at Langshan Elementary School is repaired and that the students receive the nutritious meals they are entitled to!
Some volunteer teams even said they had set off for Langshan Elementary School—they were really worried that Jiang Baichuan, the principal of Langshan Elementary School, who had inadvertently exposed corruption in the education system, would be retaliated against, and they wanted to keep an eye on things personally!
Who would dare to retaliate at a time like this? Do they think they haven't already exposed themselves quickly enough?
Jiang Baichuan applied for a nutrition subsidy for the students for five years without success, and the money arrived in his account within three days.
At the same time, a major earthquake struck the county's education system, with the top two leaders being taken into custody and half of the education bureau being shut down.
It was only at this point that Jiang Baichuan and his classmates learned that not only their Langshan Primary School, but also dozens of other rural primary schools in the county that were located deep in the mountains and had not yet been merged, as well as some other primary and secondary schools in remote mountainous areas, had their students' nutrition meal subsidies reduced to varying degrees.
Some schools allocate places based on half of the applicants, while others, like Langshan Primary School, have all their spots taken up...
Jiang Baichuan and his rural primary school built their own canteen and became famous overnight. Even the national television station reported on it on its news channel. Media from all over the country flocked to report on this rural primary school that became the top trending topic because it was too poor to afford pork cracklings.
The county education bureau was shut down, and the city had to quickly send people to clean up the mess. They originally wanted to rush to demolish and rebuild the school's dilapidated self-built canteen, but who knew that the school was actually holding illegal summer classes...
Under normal circumstances, if Jiang Baichuan were caught doing this by the education authorities, his job as principal would be over.
But this time it's different; media outlets from all over the country are watching.
They dared to dismiss and investigate Jiang Baichuan, the principal, and then the media dared to suspect that their education system was retaliating.
Fortunately, Jiang Baichuan is a kind person. Faced with the embarrassed education bureau staff, he stood up for everyone in front of the media and said: "This is not the education bureau's fault. The main problem is that there is a huge shortage of physical education, music and art teachers. Schools in the county are in dire need of teachers. We don't know when we will be assigned here. So we had to take advantage of the summer vacation of the university and invite two intern teachers from the physical education and music departments to tutor the children in our mountain area."
"Principal Jiang, you guys are really having a tough time!"
The reporters were almost in tears.
Reporters quickly grabbed Fang Xingchen and Chu Mengluan for interviews. Upon learning that they were Jiang Xiaoman's juniors, the principal's nephew, and that they had come to teach in the mountainous area under the encouragement of their seniors, the reporters' eyes lit up. They decided to praise the school later, because teacher training colleges need to cultivate such selfless and dedicated good teachers!
Langshan Elementary School's school buildings and canteen, which can be described as "Syrian-style," quickly became a popular spot for major media outlets and online influencers. Eventually, Jiang Baichuan got so annoyed that he used the excuse of school building renovations to simply keep people out of the school.
Because Jiang Cancan's fans have been at the forefront of defending the school's rights in this matter, many media outlets have also interviewed the director and producer of the program "Young People Singing for the Motherland".
Zhou Mingxing is known for protecting his own artists and is skilled at securing benefits for them. Seeing this, even the national television station praised Jiang Baichuan, the "village school principal," and quickly approached the director, Chen Shu, to promote the project.
"Old Chen, look, our station is about to sign Can Can! The station leaders have high hopes for her! She might become the pillar of our station in the future. Aren't you going to come and help her out?"
"What are you planning to do now? Let me make this clear first, you're not allowed to provoke Xu Ying again!" Chen Shu looked at him warily.
"Tch~ As long as she doesn't try to steal my girl, why would I bother her?" Zhou Mingxing rolled his eyes and got back to the point. "Now a lot of people are paying attention to Langshan Elementary School, where Cancan used to study. Our program is all about positive energy, so isn't there a single sponsor willing to donate a small amount of money to help rebuild the school buildings at Langshan Elementary School?"
"Their school only has about thirty students. Building a two-story building and a kitchen, even with all the desks, chairs, and audio-visual equipment, would cost at most a million or two. If things go well, they might even get featured on national television. How cost-effective!"
Chen Shu narrowed his eyes instantly, pondered for a while, then slowly raised his head and looked at him thoughtfully: "With such a small amount of money, why bother the sponsors? What exactly do you want to do? Just say it! Otherwise, I'll really go find the advertisers."
"Hehe~ Old Chen, you really understand me!" Zhou Mingxing chuckled. "Our show is so popular right now, don't you guys want to win a few more awards at the end of the year? While the show is still going strong, let's do some charity work in the name of the production team! It won't cost much, and if we win an award, we can easily recruit a few more advertisers next year. The money we've spent now will be earned back tenfold or even a hundredfold in no time!"
“Zhou Mingxing, if you ever quit your job and start your own business, remember to tell me. I’ll invest some money in you too.”
Chen Shu sighed heavily. This Zhou Mingxing is even more cunning than a ghost!
Actually, this is such a small matter. If they really wanted to get sponsorship for Langshan Primary School to build school buildings, with Zhou Mingxing's connections, there would be plenty of advertisers willing to take the money.
Don't assume that celebrities beg sponsors to sign them up. For someone like Wei Sheng, aside from a few truly big brands, most brands are willing to pay a fortune to have him endorse them. Spending a few hundred thousand to curry favor with his agent and securing a deal with a popular young star like Wei Sheng is definitely a worthwhile investment!
But Zhou Mingxing went through several roundabout ways to persuade him to step forward. At first, Chen Shu didn't understand, but he wasn't stupid. When he thought of Jiang Cancan, who was rumored to be about to sign with Zhou Mingxing, he immediately understood the real reason why Zhou Mingxing had come to him to curry favor.
By having the director personally apply for a charity fund from the TV station for contestant Jiang Cancan's school, the rest of the production team would think that he, as the director, greatly admires Jiang Cancan. This would subtly lead them to give Jiang Cancan, the "director's favorite" contestant, more preferential treatment during the competition.
Secondly, perhaps it's a human flaw: the more you invest, the harder it is to let go.
The station made a big fuss about signing Jiang Cancan and even spent money on charity work for her alma mater. They had already invested so much in the early stages, so how could they not put effort into nurturing her later?
Otherwise, wouldn't all the money spent so far have been wasted?
Another point is that since the station has spent such a large sum of money on public welfare, it certainly won't be done quietly. The station will definitely put a lot of effort into promoting it.
This inevitably links Langshan Primary School, which received the donation, with Jiang Cancan, essentially giving her a huge boost in attention for free. Perhaps, with the momentum of subsequent reports, Jiang Cancan, the subject of the news, could even appear on national television, which is a publicity resource that money can hardly buy!
For a newcomer like Jiang Cancan, being featured on national television before even debuting is more than just winning at the starting line; it's like being parachuted into the finish line!
This Zhou Mingxing is really shrewd!
Chapter 84
"What? The production team plans to donate one million yuan from their charity fund to Langshan Primary School for a new school building? And a new cafeteria?"
Jiang Xiaoman was completely stunned when she received Zhou Mingxing's call.
There's been a lot of attention on Langshan Elementary School lately, and of course he knows about it.
In fact, it is precisely because the whole society is paying attention that the number of views and comments on his recent videos have reached new highs.
In particular, the video of him helping to cook and prepare the "bench feast" in the school cafeteria has now been viewed over 30 million times, and his daily earnings have exceeded 6,000 yuan!
At first, he was a little scared, worried that if this matter were exposed, it would have a bad impact on Jiang Baichuan.
The family members of the officials caught in this corruption case must hate Jiang Baichuan to the core.
If he hadn't been so nosy and insisted on paying for the students' cafeteria to cook for them, those two intern teachers wouldn't have filmed it and posted it online, and wouldn't have been exposed by idle netizens, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of half the education bureau...
But when the national television station's report came out, Jiang Xiaoman immediately felt relieved.
When the national team takes the field, it's basically a done deal, sealing the deal.
In other words, now and in the future, Jiang Baichuan, as the central figure in this matter, is living under the public spotlight.
Anyone who dares to touch him, or retaliate afterward, should be prepared to go to jail as well. Who dares?
Besides, Langshan Elementary School is no longer just a bullied village school; J Province TV station is going to donate money to rebuild their school building, hehehe...
The thought that Jiang Baichuan and the school suddenly had a provincial-level media outlet protecting them instantly made Jiang Xiaoman stand up straight.
He rushed to the office and told Jiang Baichuan the good news.
"The production team said they'll send someone to the school in the next couple of days to go through the procedures and they'll also hold a simple donation ceremony. Uncle, hurry up and write the thank-you speech!"
"By the way, there's no restaurant in our village. Where will the TV crew eat when they come? Why don't we buy some groceries and cook for ourselves? We can clear out a room on the second floor, borrow some tables and chairs from the villagers, and cook for ourselves to save money!"
Unbeknownst to her, Jiang Xiaoman had been turned into a stingy version 2.0 by her uncle.
Jiang Baichuan also quickly got busy, but he was busy making phone calls to report. After all, Langshan Primary School was still under the jurisdiction of the education department. Although the leaders of the county education bureau were now in prison, there were still people in the township in charge. He quickly made a phone call to ask for instructions and report.
Jiang Xiaoman also got busy. She first went to tell Fang Xingchen that an extra labor class would be arranged for tomorrow. Everyone should work together to clean up the empty room on the second floor. Once the guests arrived, they could borrow tables and chairs from the village and put them up directly.
Many of the old windows on the second floor are missing glass. Fortunately, it's summer, so the broken glass keeps things cooler. However, the walls are moldy and crumbling, and the floor is full of potholes. There's nothing we can do about it; we can only try to clean the surface as much as possible, sweep the floor, and fill the larger potholes with soil.
After finishing these tasks, he went to his office to get paper and pen and started drafting the menu.
They donated a building and a canteen all at once. Such a generous charity event might attract attention from higher authorities. For the guests, we'll tentatively set a capacity of ten people, plus village officials and school teachers. We can set up three tables with ten dishes per table for now.
Too much is also not good, otherwise, if a primary school in a poor mountain area eats so well, then what's the point of all the poverty alleviation efforts?
Thinking of this, Jiang Xiaoman immediately abandoned her plan to "go to the county town to buy groceries".
I'll just rush to the market and buy some local farm produce!
Buy a few slices of pork belly, a few pounds of lard, a few pieces of pig liver, a few large silver carp, two slabs of tofu, some tofu skin, dried tofu, tofu puffs, etc., and you can take care of the rest yourself.
The school has free-range chickens and ducks, so there's no need to buy them. Cured meat is cheaper to buy from people in the village than in town, and vegetables are even cheaper. At this time of year, the school's vegetable garden has more vegetables than they can eat every day. Worried about them going to waste, they've started drying their own vegetables.
"For meat dishes, we'll have braised pork with dried bamboo shoots, braised pork with taro, braised chicken with dried eggplant, braised duck with konjac tofu, stewed silver carp with tofu, and stir-fried cured pork with green peppers."
"Make fewer vegetarian dishes: a cold eggplant salad, a plate of stir-fried green beans with shredded pork, a plate of chive and egg pancakes, and some water spinach with minced garlic. Oh, and make a tomato and egg soup too. For dessert, just pick some melons; they're free since we grew them ourselves."
Jiang Xiaoman did the math and found that after deducting the cost of their own ingredients, the cost of buying groceries was less than 300 yuan, which was enough to prepare three meals. It was true that cooking for yourself was the most economical option!
After borrowing three hundred yuan from Jiang Baichuan, Jiang Xiaoman thought for a moment and decided to go ask the fishermen in the village first. And sure enough, he got a good deal—
The fisherman had just caught several big fish from the river yesterday, including silver carp, bighead carp, and crucian carp. Jiang Xiaoman didn't want the crucian carp because they had too many bones, and only bought three silver carp, which cost less than fifty yuan, much cheaper than buying them in town!