Chapter 57
The deputy director of the Nancheng Development and Reform Commission is an old cadre with a straightforward personality and a stubborn temper.
His surname is Li, and everyone calls him Old Li.
At 35, she should be in the prime of her career, but she feels neglected and unloved at work.
At a review meeting for a major project last year, this stubborn mule pointed out a loophole in the qualifications of a certain enterprise cooperating with the government. He spoke passionately and logically at the meeting.
Although the loss of state-owned assets was avoided, it thoroughly offended the higher-level leaders.
Someone advised him: "Guang Heng, what's a little money lost? If you offend Boss Liu, how will you survive? How will you live?"
"Just coasting along?" Li Guangheng, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, raised an eyebrow and retorted, "Did I get to this position just to coast along?"
"..."
She's completely impervious to reason.
From then on, Li Guangheng was marginalized and pushed to the edge of power.
However, he himself does not think so.
Exclusion?
fart.
He is clearly isolating the whole world.
A year later, Li Guangheng became completely self-centered.
No one calls on him for important meetings, and no one consults him on core tasks—hmm, the archives have been neglected lately, so he might as well go there and take a quiet job.
Therefore, when the city selected cadres to go to the countryside for poverty alleviation, requiring them to be "able to endure hardship and dare to take responsibility," the leaders immediately thought of him.
In this way, we don't have to worry about him causing trouble at the grassroots level, we can use poverty alleviation to get rid of this "troublemaker" completely, and we can also put on a show of "a discerning eye for talent"—a win-win-win situation.
Unsurprisingly, Li Guangheng, as the most unpopular marginalized person, received the most votes for being selected to go to the countryside for poverty alleviation.
When the results came out, he shrugged, took the thermos that had been with him for many years, and went home to pack his luggage.
For him, it would be better to go to the countryside and do some real business than to waste time in the archives.
This place is called Tongjia Village, and its forest coverage rate is 80%.
The mountains and fields are planted with a lot of fruit and Chinese medicinal herbs.
On his first day there, Li Guangheng was dragged by the villager to wander around the mountains for a long time.
The village chief was a local with a thick accent. He gave a long introduction to all the crops grown in the village, and his assistant fed him water no less than ten times during the presentation.
Li Guangheng didn't quite understand; he was like Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, eating whatever was given to him.
By evening, the village chief still wanted to take him to the back of the mountain. Li Guangheng was too tired to walk any further, so he waved his hand, patted his knee, and said, "I used to play ball too recklessly when I was young, and I hurt my knee."
The village chief then realized that he had been too hasty on the way here. This cadre, who came from a wealthy family in the city, had not rested for a moment.
He was extremely nervous, fearing that the other party would back out.
Li Guangheng patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile that he knew what he was doing.
The village chief's family has lived here for generations, and he longs for this place to prosper more than anyone else. He is willing to give everything to help the villagers escape poverty and leave the mountains.
Upon hearing Li Guangheng's words, two streams of tears flowed down her cheeks. Without asking any questions, she hugged Li Guangheng tightly and babbled a string of dialect words.
This time, Li Guangheng understood and said thank you.
I said it dozens of times.
For the next week, Li Guangheng stayed in the empty room left by the village chief for a long time, only coming out to ask a question or two when he needed to confirm something, or to take a look at the mountain.
Many villagers had never seen him, but they knew that the newly arrived poverty alleviation cadre's house was filled with smoke, making it look like he lived in a chimney.
The new cadre has a heavy smoking habit.
One sunny day, Li Guangheng gathered all the villagers together.
Holding a tattered piece of paper with a messy, illegible draft, he explained the entire poverty alleviation plan.
He stood on a makeshift platform, cleared his throat, and without any pleasantries, went straight to the point: "These past few days, I've discovered some wild persimmon trees growing on the mountain. Their branches are quite thick, and when I tasted them—wow, I threw up my dinner from the day before yesterday."
The villagers were amused and laughed heartily.
Li Guangheng added, "If we could improve the variety of persimmons and handle them properly... that would be great."
He didn't dare give the villagers too much hope, and didn't say that if they handled it properly, it would definitely fetch a good price. He just said that would be good, leaving a lot of room for imagination.
Is it better? How better?
Can it be sold in the city?
Is it possible to build your own brand?
The villagers looked at each other, seemingly unsure about the plan.
One man asked, "I've seen these persimmons since I was a kid, will they work?"
As soon as these words were spoken, someone immediately followed up: "Improving the variety must have cost a lot of money, right? Who will compensate us if it fails?"
Li Guangheng had a plan in mind. He said, "I will find experts to come and inspect the soil and assess the progress and climate conditions. Don't worry, I will pay for the first batch of experimental seedlings myself. I promise you that if they don't grow successfully, I won't spend a penny more on you. If they do grow successfully, I won't take a penny from you either, and all the profits will go to you."
"this……"
Sure enough, the offer was tempting as long as it didn't harm their own interests. After much deliberation, the villagers didn't dare to place too much hope in this empty promise, and simply said, "Let's get started."
In the days that followed, Li Guangheng contacted a fruit tree expert at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who was also his university mentor.
His college entrance exam score was neither high nor low. He couldn't get into a good university or a good major, and he didn't want to go to an average university. In the end, he only chose a comprehensive university and studied the niche field of agriculture.
He had some knowledge of agronomy and a fairly good grasp of the conditions in the mountains; otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to publicly announce his choice to "grow persimmons."
Calling in the tutor is undoubtedly an extra layer of insurance.
They spent five days traversing every inch of the mountains.
After going through the whole process, the test report was handed to Li Guangheng. He read through the entire report and summarized it in two words: capable.
Capable, capable.
Let's get right to it.
With this layer of insurance, Li Guangheng stopped resting altogether. He found three acres of land in the mountains and tended to the two seedlings every day.
Pruning leaves, removing pests, fertilizing—he made himself stink every day. When he gave training to the villagers in the evenings, many young girls covered their noses.
Over the course of the year, we survived the peak season for pests and diseases, and we also weathered the frequent rainstorms that clogged the drainage outlets.
Autumn has finally arrived, and we are just waiting for the results.
Cadre Lao Li was visibly anxious.
His stubble had grown half a millimeter, and he was only wearing a tank top; his arms and waist were all muscles from his labor. When he had nothing to do, he would sit on the steps by the door, lost in thought, cigarette butts scattered all over the ground.
That noon, he lit a cigarette, but after only taking a couple of puffs, it was knocked away by a "stone" that appeared out of nowhere.
Li Guangheng, with his fiery temper, could spout a national treasure without hesitation as he glanced in the direction from which the "stone" had come.
A boy was sitting on the top of the wall.
He propped himself up on one leg, the other hanging down naturally. His hands braced against the wall on either side, his clean white T-shirt billowing in the wind.
Even though it was the first time Li Guangheng had met him, he had the illusion that he had seen him somewhere before.
It seems like we've known each other before.
Something seemed to flash through my memory, but it didn't quite match the surrounding scenery.
Instead, it's a scene from a school campus.
...Impossible, he's so young.
I'm so old, how could we be high school classmates?
Li Guangheng squinted at him.
That's really picky.
He commented to himself.
Damn, even if I pick on him, I can't get rid of his cigarette.
"Which village are you from?" he asked.
"From Nan Si Village," the other person answered readily, then turned around and said to him, "Could you smoke less? When did you start smoking?"
"..."
Li Guangheng was bewildered when he was scolded instead of reprimanded.
A normal person would probably get very angry and upset if a young child talked to them, but Li Guangheng felt a strange sense of comfort when the boy talked to him.
He answered truthfully, "After I pass the civil service exam."
The man asked, "Were you mentored by your boss?"
Li Guang raised an eyebrow. "No need to bring it. I'll buy a pack of Yellow Crane Tower cigarettes downstairs tonight, and I'll just put it in my mouth and smoke."
After a while, the man fell silent.
His gaze was wistful and profound, and he couldn't look away for a long time.
Li Guangheng felt uneasy under their gaze and asked, "What's your name? What are you doing here?"
The man then looked away, rested his forearm on his raised knee, and said, "My surname is Wu, and my given name is Qi."
“You’ll soon find out why I’m here,” he added.
Li Guangheng was amused by his rambling appearance. "No need right away, buy me a cigarette first. All this nonsense, and you say you'll know why you're here soon? You've come to bring me a cigarette, hurry up."
After saying that, he raised his hand and unceremoniously asked a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy for a cigarette.
Wu Qi: "..."
Do I look like smoke?
Wu Qi didn't argue with him and pressed for details, asking, "Weren't you bad at Chinese when you were young? Why did you choose to study literature?"
"From literature?" Li Guang leaned back against the door frame and replied, "You must have some misunderstanding. I'm wielding a hoe and tilling the land every day, I don't see any 'literature' in it."
“Besides,” Li Guangheng flicked another cigarette out of the pack, smelled it under his nose, bit it between his teeth without smoking, and said, “When God closes a door, he opens a window. Just because I’m bad at Chinese doesn’t mean I’m not politically sound. Back in college, I never got below 90 in Marxist Philosophy and Mao Zedong Thought.”
After saying all that, he finally asked, "How did you know I'm bad at Chinese?"
Wu Qi smiled and then remained silent.
Li Guangheng didn't mind and asked him a bunch of other questions, like where he went to school and what he usually did for fun.
The other party answered each question, but their answers seemed... a little off.
Before Li Guangheng could think about it, he noticed a copper coin lying on the ground.
He picked it up, wondering where the copper coin came from, when a flash of inspiration struck him and he remembered the "pebble" he had knocked away earlier when he was smoking.
"Hiss—" he said, exasperated, "You spendthrift child, did you take out the family's antiques to play with???"
Wu Qi had already stood up and landed steadily on the eaves.
A gust of wind blew by, and he shouted, "It's yours!"
"..."
This piece of junk can't be spent or grown, so what's the point of giving it to it?
That's just insane.
"Where did this brat come from?" Li Guangheng wondered.
At that moment, he vaguely realized—the child said he was from the South Fourth Village—there are only three villages to the south, where did the South Fourth Village come from?
He exclaimed "Hey!" and was about to ask when he realized that the person on the eaves had disappeared sometime earlier.
There was still no movement.
They didn't even say goodbye.
Li Guangheng was completely bewildered, but subconsciously he still took out a lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette.
He inhaled and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, which rose into a high plume of mist.
He had just taken a bite when someone behind him called his name, calling urgently and excitedly.
"Old Li! Old Li!"
What's wrong?
Li Guangheng slowly inhaled his second breath.
A group of people ran towards him, saying something.
Only after the fog cleared did Li Guangheng finally see what they were saying.
For a moment, he was stunned, like a child.
"They've borne fruit! The persimmons have borne fruit!"
"The fourth row from the south, there's a whole bunch of them!!!"
...
South Fourth.
And then there's that line, "You'll soon find out why I'm here."
Li Guangheng suddenly looked in the direction of the eaves.
Unfortunately, there were hardly any people there anymore, only an empty sky with wispy clouds.
Could it be such a coincidence?
His heart was pounding.
But now, he can't care about that anymore.
The villagers shoved him toward the experimental field.
Upon seeing those unripe fruits, Li Guangheng was filled with nothing but passion and boundless motivation.
He was clutching the copper coin in his hand.
Sooner or later, the setting sun will paint half the mountain red, and the air will be filled with the fragrance of persimmons.
-The End-
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