Normally, it's female relatives who have given birth to several children who have all survived. However, in recent years, another category has been added: families whose children are successful.
After all, when it comes to having children, it's not just about quantity, but also about quality!
In the past, many people in the village secretly sympathized with Jiang Youliang, who never found a wife in his entire life and whose son was adopted. Wasn't that like having no descendants?
Looking back now, those who sympathized with Jiang Youliang, haven't they slapped themselves in the face?
What good are all those kids they have?
All of them combined are not as successful as Jiang Xiaoman alone.
He's also very filial! He built his father a three-and-a-half-story villa as soon as he made money!
Many families here can't even afford to build a three-and-a-half-story house when their daughters get married!
As the most promising child in the entire Langshan Town, Jiang Xiaoman not only received an invitation, but was also seated at the head table.
Today, Shan Que's family is holding a big banquet. In the past two years, everyone has made money with Jiang Xiaoman. This is Shan Que's first pregnancy, and her mother, Shan Yun, is hoping that she can give birth to a big, healthy daughter. She has invited almost everyone in the village who has given birth to many daughters.
Of course, if I don't have a granddaughter, it would be great to have a grandson as successful as Jiang Xiaoman!
Sitting among a group of aunts and sisters-in-law, Jiang Xiaomian felt like Tang Sanzang, who had been captured and imprisoned in the Spider Cave.
Now that everyone has more money, those who come to enjoy the prenatal wine bring a lot of gifts.
When eating "pregnancy-supporting wine," it's common to include free-range chicken, free-range eggs, glutinous rice, regular rice, and noodles. This is because women in Langshan eat sweet rice wine with boiled eggs during their postpartum period. Glutinous rice can be used to make sweet rice wine, and free-range eggs are also very suitable for nourishing the body of new mothers.
The noodles were also prepared for pregnant women. In the past, Langshan was poor, and all year round they ate potatoes and sweet potatoes. Women could only eat some eggs and noodles to nourish their bodies when they were pregnant.
Relatives and friends gathered together to celebrate that Shan Yun's family finally had an heir. There was also a sweet-talking and clever one who, seeing that Shan Yun had invited Jiang Xiaoman to sit at the main table, rolled her eyes and loudly congratulated Shan Que on giving birth to a son as successful as Jiang Xiaoman.
These words were met with thunderous applause!
The aunt who came up with this congratulatory message was very proud of herself. She felt that under the influence of Xiaoman, she was almost a cultured person. She then quoted a line she had learned from a TV series and urged Shanyun, the mother of the sparrow, to continue to expand the planting area of golden chrysanthemums next year. It is said that in ancient times, the top scholars in the imperial examinations all passed down the family tradition of "farming and studying".
Shan Yun deeply agreed.
This year, because they planted fewer golden chrysanthemums, their family earned 10,000 to 20,000 yuan less than the villagers in the same village! Shan Yun imagined her grandson getting into university and bringing glory to the family, and secretly decided to plant more than ten acres of golden chrysanthemums next year.
This thing is incredibly valuable!
Shan Yun only learned this year that growing golden chrysanthemums not only yields profits from the flowers, but the chrysanthemum honey is also a valuable commodity. Jiang Xiaoman has already arranged with the growers that once the seedlings sprout next year, only 3-5 seedlings need to be left on each rootstock. The remaining seedlings can be sold to the cooperative, providing another source of extra income...
The mother and daughter were filled with passion, but the father felt ice-cold.
Poor young master Jin finally understood what was causing that faint unease and sense of unease in his heart...
Damn it!!
It turns out he was tricked into marriage o(╥﹏╥)o
She, she never even considered taking responsibility for herself from beginning to end!
She just wants to deceive herself into having her child!
And so, his belly grew big, the whole family was overjoyed, and he, as a "contributor of superior genes," completely lost his usefulness...
Jin Chengjie had good reason to suspect that the reason he hadn't been kicked out of the house by the titmouse and her daughter was probably because the titmouse wanted to have two more children with him.
That makes sense. After all, the probability of having a daughter as the first child is only 50/50. What if it's a son? Then you'd have to have another one.
Don't ask him how he knew.
After the initial novelty and excitement wore off, Young Master Jin's intelligence kicked in, and he belatedly realized that in Turtle Ridge, where the Shan family lived, it seemed that every household was dominated by women.
Even if there are men, they are all young boys who haven't grown up yet; you can hardly see any adult men.
This is not normal!!!
Young Master Jin didn't even need to inquire; he just listened to some village gossip, and immediately felt terrible...
It turns out that after the titmouse successfully borrowed him as a "high-quality gene donor," the other families in Turtle Ridge all felt that they had learned something!
What can be done about the fact that local men are generally not tall enough?
There are men all over China, not just in Langshan!
With so many tourists visiting Langshan now, there must be quite a few handsome, single men among them, right?
Pick one, and when the opportunity arises, turn back to sleep there!
Anyway, there's no need to get a marriage certificate. It's all consensual. I've heard that men in the city are particular about marrying someone of equal social standing. Surely they wouldn't come here to marry a woman from the mountains just for the sake of having a child?
Wow~ No responsibility, no money to feed or support a man, and I can get a chubby baby for free, what a great deal!
Listening to the village women excitedly discussing how to seduce handsome single male tourists, Young Master Jin felt completely numb.
who is he?
Where is he?
...
Jiang Xiaoman was unaware that his younger brother, who had been subjected to a brutal attack, was already questioning his existence. After finishing the prenatal wine at Shan Que's house, on his way down the mountain, he suddenly received a call from Director Sun.
"Xiaoman! Congratulations! That's great! That's great, hahaha!" Sun Zheyuan was already rambling incoherently on the other end of the phone.
Congratulations for what? Jiang Xiaoman, the person involved, was completely confused.
It took Director Sun on the other end of the phone a long time to regain his composure.
Jiang Xiaoman then learned that the province had previously selected "Advanced Individuals in Contributing to Rural Revitalization" and Sun Zheyuan had also registered him. He hadn't had high hopes, but this year, many counties and districts that had previously used rural revitalization as a pretext to defraud the government of subsidies had been exposed, and several people from their county had also been eliminated because of this.
After some consideration, the county leaders decided to nominate Jiang Xiaoman as the county's representative to be selected as an outstanding figure in rural revitalization and to participate in the provincial selection process.
"The county leaders praised you for being down-to-earth and steady in your business, and for being a positive role model for rural revitalization in the new era. By the way, the county is also planning to do a profile interview with you. How about these next few days? If so, I'll invite a reporter over right away."
Nonsense! It concerns the collective honor of the town and the county. Would Jiang Xiaoman dare to say no?
"Then let's do it the day after tomorrow. I'll make an appointment with them tomorrow, and I'll give you a day to prepare. Get your hair cut to look neat! And clean the house too."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Xiaoman rushed home.
Receiving honors is a good thing.
He had no protective umbrella; the official honorary certificates he received were his biggest protection on his entrepreneurial journey.
Carrying too many umbrellas is really too tiring!
However, his father must be very happy.
Sure enough! Jiang Youliang, who was walking behind, was already happily preparing to clean the house inside and out as soon as he got back after listening to the two of them on the phone!
Even free-range chickens at home need to be penned up to prevent them from pooping everywhere.
There were also two big yellow dogs. Worried that some of the reporters might be afraid of dogs, Jiang Youliang decided to send Dahuang and Erhuang to his neighbor's house for temporary foster care for two days.
Because of the incident of returning entrepreneurs fraudulently obtaining subsidies, the county leaders felt somewhat embarrassed. In order to save face, the county propaganda department spent a lot of money this time, spending 80,000 yuan to hire a professional documentary filming team from the provincial TV station to help film the competition video.
If this had happened in the past, and Jiang Xiaoman had told the county that he wanted them to fund the production of a documentary for him, the county leaders would have thought he was out of his mind.
But now, the county is spending money to get Jiang Xiaoman to appear in this documentary.
Who could blame them when the county counted them all and found that only Jiang Xiaoman's entrepreneurial experience was solid and reliable, without a trace of fraud?
Not to mention the provincial investigation team, even the professional haters hired by Jiang Xiaoman's rivals have a hard time finding any stain on Brother Xiaoman's reputation. There's no way around it; Jiang Xiaoman is an honest and upright person, not greedy, and willing to lead his fellow villagers to start businesses and escape poverty... Almost every change in Langshan Village in the past few years can be traced in the short videos that Jiang Xiaoman once posted.
So much so that when the documentary filming team received the assignment, they joked that they didn't need to go to Langshan Village to shoot footage.
Just have Jiang Xiaoman export the footage she filmed before and send it to them; they could probably edit enough to make a whole episode.
However, if I were to do that, I would feel a bit guilty about taking the 80,000 yuan.
Back home, Jiang Youliang started cleaning, and Jiang Xiaoman wasn't idle either. When reporters came to film, they would definitely film his studio. But where would Jiang Xiaoman have a separate studio?
His studio at home is actually his bedroom! It's separated by a curtain. Anyway, he lives alone in this room, so no one bothers him.
After cleaning the room, he hurriedly went down the mountain.
The courier station and guesthouse at the foot of the mountain are usually cleaned by hired cleaners, so they don't need to be cleaned again. However, Mr. Jiang cleverly brought out all the local specialties of Langshan again, filling an entire shelf, intending to take advantage of the free camera footage from the provincial TV station.
"Xiaoman, what are you busy with?" A villager who came to pick up a package saw him climbing up and down carrying things and rushed over to lend a hand.
“Hey! The county has invited a reporter from the provincial TV station to come and interview us. They want to film a segment here. Oh, I almost forgot to tell the village. Uncle, could you please tell them on your way back to the village committee? Just say that a reporter from the provincial TV station is coming to our village for an interview. They know what to do.”
"What you're saying, I know what to do!" the villager who helped laughed.
They've even hosted internationally renowned directors, and the village has filmed several TV dramas, movies, and variety shows. The villagers are very experienced, so what are a few provincial TV station reporters compared to them?
She said it was nothing, but she still didn't want reporters to photograph her messy home.
In no time, Langshan Village was bustling with activity. Every household cleaned up their front and back yards and even put away the chickens that used to roam freely.
When Han Jingru, accompanied by the provincial TV station's photographer, followed Sun Zheyuan to Langshan Village, what she saw was a small mountain village that, although slightly dilapidated, was clean and tidy.
"This place is great!" the photographer couldn't help but exclaim.
Those who make documentaries about rural life often travel to the countryside. Don't be fooled by the romantic imagery of "picking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence" in poems; in reality, many remote villages suffer from severe loss of young and middle-aged people. Not only are the old houses dilapidated and decaying, but the environment is also terrible. In pig-farming households, you're greeted by the stench of pig manure. Some even keep their chickens locked inside for fear of weasels, and stepping on them is truly awful.
In comparison, Langshan Village may be poor, but its environmental sanitation is really good!
"There's no other way, most of the businesses in our village are in the food industry, and you have to be hygienic when you're making food," Jiang Xiaoman explained from the side.
In the past, people pampered their pigs and chickens because farmers didn't earn much money from farming, and their pocket money depended on the income from raising pigs and chickens. So they had to treat them like royalty.
But things are different now. Whether villagers go into the mountains to dig bamboo shoots, pick tea leaves, gather mushrooms, or dry potato chips, sweet potato chips, or various dried vegetables, they have to be clean to get a good price.
Jiang Xiaoman is very strict about food hygiene. If any local specialties delivered to her for sale are contaminated with chicken droppings or other dirt, then sorry, next time, you can take your goods to the market yourself; I won't accept them anymore...
When it comes to their own money, how can ordinary people not be cautious?
With fewer pigs and chickens running around, the environment naturally improves.
"I see..." Han Jingru thoughtfully noted this down in her interview notebook.
Langshan Village is changing every day.
Previously, this area at the village entrance was considered a "remote area," and villagers didn't like to build houses here. Otherwise, the village wouldn't have sold the land for the express delivery station to Jiang Xiaoman at such a low price.
But ever since Jiang Xiaoman started buying mountain products next to the express delivery station, this place has suddenly become the "wholesale market for agricultural and sideline products" of the entire Langshan Town. While the timid villagers were still envying Jiang Xiaoman's good eye, the bold villagers had already bought up all the remaining homesteads in this area.
Rural homesteads are not supposed to be bought and sold, but transactions within the same village are allowed, especially for families with many sons. When the sons get married and need to build separate houses to divide the family property, is the village going to hold them back from giving them the land?
As long as you can afford to buy a homestead, the village doesn't care whether you live with your parents or not.
Now, several houses have been built in this area. Interestingly, regardless of the size of the houses, every household has changed their original sloping roofs into flat balconies. Walking up to the balconies, you can see all kinds of dried vegetables and fermented soybeans drying in the sun.
"It's practical, after all, our Langshan potato chips, dried sweet potatoes, fermented soybeans, and dried plum vegetables sell quite well online. I buy them all year round. The villagers who are a little hardworking can earn ten thousand yuan a year just from selling various dried vegetables." Jiang Xiaoman scratched his head, feeling ashamed of his behavior of inadvertently changing the architectural style of the Langshan area.