"What if Huixuan wakes up?"
"It's okay, just tell my mom. My second aunt is here. My mom was busy with my grandfather's funeral, so it was my second aunt who helped me take care of the children."
"Second Aunt must have treated Huixuan as her own grandson," Zhou Mo asked, "Where's Brother Hun? Isn't he here today?"
"Isn't there a community fire show in the village? He's in charge of organizing it, and he's probably at the performance right now," Liu Xia said. "They're all elderly people from the village. They need a leader, otherwise it'll be hard for the town to direct them."
"Brother Hun...is there anything going on now?" Zhou Mo asked curiously.
"There's nothing wrong with him," Liu Xia sighed. "If there was anything wrong with him, my second aunt wouldn't have taken Xuan back as her own grandson."
"Brother Hun is one year older than Han Chen, so he'll be 32 next year. I guess my second uncle and aunt are even more worried."
"There's no point in getting anxious," Liu Xia said. "He's got a good leader now. Didn't our town just get a director from Shanghai's Poverty Alleviation Office, specializing in poverty alleviation and economic development? When Liu Hun met him, it was like he'd met a benefactor. He's completely focused on working with him, completely disregarding his own lifelong plans. He even said he can find a wife anytime, because he only has one good leader. Once this one's term is up, who knows how hard it will be for the next one to work with."
"Brother Hun has a point," Zhou Mo said. "They're all doing things that can realize social value, and when they achieve results, they feel a great sense of accomplishment. The only headache is probably the coordination between administrative departments and interpersonal relationships. Brother Hun said the current leadership is good, so we must seize the opportunity to do a great job."
"The current director of the Poverty Alleviation Office is great in every way, except... his background isn't great," Liu Xia said. "Your brother Hun said that town-related matters can be handled by him in minutes, but going to the district or city... becomes more difficult. We've been reporting the long commute for village children to school for a long time, but it's still nowhere. They say the paperwork is stuck at the district level, and the district leaders are holding some kind of seminar, which is really annoying. Your brother Hun said it's not about whether or not a meeting is held, but that the new director has no one above him and is young, so the district officials don't bother to pay attention to him, and the issues he brings up keep getting shelved."
“That’s too much of a bully!”
"Isn't it like this at the grassroots level? The higher-ups don't take you seriously, and the lower-ups struggle to cooperate. You're stuck in the middle, neither side is happy with you. If anything goes wrong, you'll be the first person to be blamed."
"Is the new director of the Poverty Alleviation Office a graduate of Fuda University in Shanghai?"
"yes."
"He and Third Brother Han Chen are schoolmates."
"Really?" Liu Xia asked, "Isn't Han Chen's third brother the one we met at the entrance of the marriage registration center in the mall last time?"
"Yes, that's him."
"What a coincidence."
"Well," Zhou Mo asked, "By the way, what's the name of the director of the Poverty Alleviation Office?"
"Qi Zijin," Liu Xia thought of something and added, "Didn't Shanghai bring in a group of experts for research a while ago? It's said he invited them through his connections. Your brother Hun even went to entertain them, and before they left, he gave them a lot of local specialties."
"I heard from my dad that they took and demanded so much that they almost demolished my uncles' farm."
"Yes, he sounds like an expert, but what he does is not at all what an expert does."
"Isn't it like this now? They sound like they're from a prestigious organization, but they're just sitting there doing nothing."
"Let's not talk about this anymore, let's go and watch the community performance."
"Yeah."
The two of them went out hand in hand to the town center.
In order to prepare for this community fire show, the town government specially closed several main roads, and the queues for the community fire show were very long and stretched for several kilometers.
Police and security guards were dispatched together, pulling up isolation tape on both sides of the road to stop the onlookers on the side of the road.
The sound of gongs and drums was deafening, and in the front were the yangko team and stilt team from Ba Village.
The yangko troupe wore colorful clothes and wore brightly colored makeup on their faces.
The stilt team has all kinds of characters, such as the Four Talented Scholars, the Green Snake and the White Snake, Yang Jian, Nezha, and the county magistrate.
It is said that the custom of Yushan Community Fireworks originated from Ba Village.
Therefore, every time there is a community fire, the community fire team of Ba Village is the vanguard and the first to walk.
Baishan Village led by Liu Hun is in the center of the team. He is both the leader and the drummer of the team.
When Zhou Mo and Liu Xia arrived, they could only hear the sound of gongs and drums, and could only see the backs of heads moving.
Fortunately, every village would hold up a tall banner with words like "XX Village's Lantern Festival Team wishes the people of Yushan a happy new year" written on it.
Zhou Mo and Liu Xia searched along the outskirts of the crowd for a long time, and finally found the Baishan Village Lantern Festival Team led by Liu Hun in the latter half.
The community fire performance in Baishan Village is a fan dance, with pink and blue interwoven, using large feather fans with bright colors, similar to those used in Errenzhuan, and also performed in a cross-step.
Leading the way in Baishan Village was a small truck with a big red flower tied on it and the word "Fu" pasted on it. The people in the truck were responsible for beating gongs and drums.
Liu Hun stood in the car with a huge lead drum in front of him. When the gong sounded, the drum beats would stop. He had just finished beating the drum, with his jacket open and sweating profusely.
I guess playing drums is also a strenuous job.
"Brother Hun, it's Brother Hun," Zhou Mo recognized Liu Hun and was extremely excited.
Liu Xia also saw Liu Hun and waved at him, trying to make him see them.
However, there were too many people, and Liu Hun was concentrating on observing the team and paying attention to the drumbeats, so he had no time to observe his surroundings.
Zhou Mo and Liu Xia followed the team led by Liu Hun.
The team will go to a square in the center of the town and make a special presentation, with each village having two minutes to present.
There were staff from the district's integrated media center who were there to conduct interviews, filming, and drone photography, and the entire process was broadcast live on a certain audio platform.
When Zhou Mo and Liu Xia arrived at the square, a reporter from the integrated media center happened to come for an interview and happened to catch the two of them.
The female reporter asked: "What do you think of this Yushan Community Fire?"
Zhou Mo was giving a TV interview for the first time. He looked at Liu Xia awkwardly, then said generously, "I grew up in Yushan and later lived in the city. My memory of the Yushan community fire is very vague. I didn't expect that Yushan would restart the community fire performance this year. It was quite unexpected and eye-opening. I haven't had such a festive New Year in a long time."
The microphone was turned to Liu Xia, who said, "I've been in Yushan all my life. It's been three to five years since we've had a community fire show here. Previous community fire shows were very short, with only a few villages with a strong community fire tradition performing. I didn't expect all the villages in Yushan to come out this time, and it was a spectacular sight. I hope we can have one next year as well."
Female reporter: "Of course there is. Thank you for cooperating with the interview."
Simple little episodes are uplifting.
Zhou Mo suddenly thought of something and asked, "Will our interview appear in Dongjiang News?"
Reporter: “There should be a chance.”
Zhou Mo: "Wow, first time on TV."
The reporter smiled, said goodbye and left.
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