Chapter 219: Twists and Turns: Why? Why? Why? ...
Zhu Yingning returned to the village in the afternoon. Wen Wenxu and Shen Fei didn't know that she had come back a day earlier, and they were shocked to see her come in.
Wen Wenxu had been sitting on a yoga mat on the living room floor practicing yoga—he'd recently given up on weight training and had inexplicably become addicted to it, saying it was more spiritual. Chen Fei revealed that he was simply irritated by the village's trivialities and had cowardly chosen to practice his ability to take it. Seeing her, he stood up, his features flaring, and said in a high-pitched voice, "Captain! Why are you back early? You didn't even let me pick you up."
"Well, nothing happened, so I came back early." She replied with a smile.
I haven't been back for so many days. Although I have followed up online, there are still a lot of documents piled up offline that need to be processed. After saying hello, Zhu Yingning started to organize these things.
She worked seriously and would ask Chen Fei and Wen Wenxu any questions she encountered, and they would tell her everything they knew. However, Zhu Yingning noticed that Chen Fei seemed a little absent-minded. Several times, she looked as if she wanted to say something but hesitated, as if she wanted to say something to her but felt that the time was not right.
At night, when she had washed up and was about to go to bed, Shen Fei said to her in the lower bunk: "Captain... have you heard about that incident?"
This statement was vague. According to common sense, Zhu Yingning should have said she didn't know. She wasn't anyone's confidant. But the villagers had been talking about this matter frequently lately, and she had heard some rumors on her way home. When she heard this, her voice dropped, "Is it about Grandma Lu?"
"Um."
Lu Yigui is dead.
Over the past month, her condition had become so severe that she had to be transferred several hospitals, from the county seat to the city, and from the city to the provincial capital. But these wanderings ultimately failed to save her life. She died, and only her husband, half-dead from the epidemic but with the tenacity of a cockroach, returned.
When she first heard the news, it would be impossible to say that she had no feelings at all. After all, they were from the same village and had lived together day and night. She would often see him dragging his slightly bloated but swift body past the entrance of their alley, carrying a basket of vegetables. Every time this happened, she would say to Lu Yigui, "Are you going to buy vegetables?" Lu Yigui would reply in a loud voice, "Yes, you have to get up early to grab the hanging dragon."
How could such a strong man die?
Lu Yigui's grandson and husband had been taken to the city where they worked by their children, who had come to visit her. The house they had lived in was now empty. But as she passed by the empty house, the words Lu Yigui had asked her to help take care of her grandson before she left still echoed in Zhu Yingning's ears.
She felt depressed and sad about Lu Yigui's death, but because she had vaguely foreseen this outcome, she felt numb, as if she had been fooled by fate and thought, "It's just as I expected."
The room was silent. Just when Zhu Yingning thought Shen Fei was also lost in thought, she spoke: "I have relatives at the provincial hospital. I know why she died."
Zhu Yingning was stunned: "Isn't it because of the new coronavirus?"
"Yes, but..." Chen Fei said, "She has COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This underlying disease is the direct cause of her severe illness. Captain, do you know how COPD is contracted? I looked up information and it says that it's mostly caused by long-term exposure of the airways and alveoli to harmful particles or gases, which is common in smokers."
Lu Yigui doesn't smoke.
They have lived here for nearly two years and have never seen Lu Yigui smoke.
But she has a husband who loves smoking.
Like boiling water splashing into a frying pan, Zhu Yingning's heart made a rumbling sound.
Shen Fei spoke again, this time her voice was muffled, as if it were corked: "Her husband also had COPD...but he survived, and she died."
She asked, "Captain, why?"
The words fell into the floor, and only long silence remained in the dormitory.
Zhu Yingning thought that Chen Fei might not really be asking her, she was just asking the silent night for an answer that had no answer.
Why do people who are always good at exploiting others live better?
Why do those who give more always get no rewards?
Why is there no fairness in this world?
**
During the three-day Qingming Festival in April, Zhu Yingning returned to her hometown to visit the graves of Zhu Dashan and the old lady.
Liu Guifang still looked like a frost-bitten eggplant. The passing of her two patients freed her hands, but not her mind or soul. Villagers reported that she spent her days either sitting on a stool by the doorway, lost in thought, or wandering aimlessly through the houses of the villagers, playing mahjong with others or watching them play.
Every time it was almost dinner time, she would subconsciously say, "It's the last game. After this game, I have to go back home and cook for the two old guys." After saying that, when she realized that there was no one at home waiting for her to cook, she would suddenly burst into tears.
The villagers tried to comfort her at first, but later, seeing that she was like this every day, they gradually got used to it. She cried as she did, and the others played mahjong as they did. Sometimes, when someone had some free time, they would comfort her casually by saying, "Everyone is gone now, you have to get used to it slowly. Look how nice it is to play mahjong like this now," and they would think they had done their best.
Zhu Jixiang doesn't often live at home. I heard that he went back to his roommate's company before Qingming Festival.
Zhu Yingning pondered how to help Liu Guifang relieve her loneliness and move on. She suggested enrolling her in square dancing, but Liu Guifang waved her hands repeatedly, saying, "I can't do it, no! I'm too thick-armed and stiff-boned. I'd be laughed at if I did!" She suggested buying her a clingy breed dog from somewhere else, but she said, "Aren't there enough stray dogs in the village? I get annoyed by these shedding creatures." She suggested planting flowers and vegetables, but she said, "What's the point of planting all by myself? Planting too little is boring, and planting too much is too much to eat." She suggested sending her to the town's senior citizen activity center to learn erhu or singing, but she giggled endlessly and said she was too shy.
After much discussion and consultation, there was no result. Zhu Yingning had no other choice but to put the matter aside for the time being.
After sweeping the graves, she stayed home for another night before planning to leave. Before she left, Liu Guifang held her back and said to her worriedly, "Ningning, I think your brother's job is over."
Zhu Yingning asked if Zhu Jixiang had said that himself, and Liu Guifang said no: "I heard him arguing with his roommate on the phone. It was a huge argument. I think his job is definitely over. He's unemployed, how can this be? I don't know what to do. Do you think I should let him take the civil service exam? After this epidemic, I've come to realize that working for the government is the most stable. Running your own business depends on luck. The weather can change, and the jobs of ordinary people can be turned upside down at any time."
Zhu Yingning was indifferent to this: "It depends on what Brother Xiang wants. He's more concerned about his reputation. If you tell him directly, he'll definitely argue with you. Once he takes the initiative to talk about it, you can just casually give him some suggestions."
Just three days after returning to the village where she took up her post, Zhu Yingning received a call from Liu Guifang, who cried and said that Zhu Jixiang not only did not listen to her advice, but also had a fight with her.
Zhu Yingning was already very familiar with her personality. He knew it was just a quarrel and there was no need for her to call her and cry. So he cleared the clouds and asked the key question: "And then?"
"He said he wasn't going to take the civil service exam and that he wanted to go into business. He said he didn't want to form a partnership anymore and wanted to go it alone so he wouldn't have to deal with other people's bullying."
Everything was exactly as Xu Sirui had reminded her before. Zhu Yingning wanted to sigh after hearing it, but she stopped her from wandering off and focused on the key point: "How much did you borrow from him?"
Liu Guifang's business was choked. After a long while, she stammered, "I... I lent him 80,000 yuan. He asked me for 150,000 yuan. I didn't dare give him all the money, for fear that he would squander it all. He said he wanted to do futures, but I have no idea what that is."
"What did you promise me before? You said you would keep this money for your retirement."
"I heard him say he'd pay me back later... He said not only would he be able to return the 80,000 yuan, but he'd also buy me a big house. Ningning, do you think this is reliable? Aren't you studying economics?"
Zhu Yingning sighed.
**
Affected by the epidemic, pork farming in the village where Zhu Yingning worked suffered a brief impact in early 2020. During the two months when the epidemic was at its peak, logistics were interrupted and offline catering was closed. The pork they originally planned to provide to the catering industry was inevitably unsold due to the sudden epidemic, and there was no market for pork.
After a two-month shutdown, it's hard to say things weren't tense. However, in mid-March, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs jointly issued a document supporting pig production and implementing policies to ensure smooth transportation. Furthermore, with everyone working and studying from home, offline gatherings have decreased, and household demand for pork has increased, filling the gap left by the catering industry. And most importantly, the production capacity gap caused by the 2019 outbreak of African swine fever remains, and pork prices remain relatively high.
From another perspective, risk is an opportunity.
After returning to the village from the county town, Zhu Yingning immediately started to manage the breeding business.
She considered establishing a livestreaming base in the village, focusing on Douyin (TikTok), to expand their sales channels to households. However, establishing a base, or even an industrial park, was a slow process, and would require her to travel extensively to negotiate partnerships. After some deliberation, she decided to first encourage young people in the village to create Douyin accounts, even if it was as individual accounts.
In 2019, thanks to the hype generated by Xu Sirui's game, a few recent graduates returned to their village during the autumn and winter months. The pandemic trapped them in the village at the start of the year, and they were now job-hunting. Zhu Yingning had initially encouraged them to help out on the farm, and after the Qingming Festival, the idea of livestreaming was confirmed. She gathered these young people, along with Chen Fei and the others, to discuss how to create a Douyin account.
"I came up with a gimmick: 'After graduating from a 211 university, my best friend and I returned to the village to raise pigs.' What do you think?"
She gathered a total of four young people, and the highest academic degree among them was indeed from a 211 university, so it was not a lie.
One of the four is an extrovert, chattering nonstop. Zhu Yingning feels he's perfect for chatting with the audience on camera, without having to worry about awkward silences. Even introverts who don't like to show up don't matter; someone has to handle photography, account management, editing, and other tasks. As long as the work is divided, everyone can perform their duties and work together as a team.
They are all young people with active minds. They discussed enthusiastically how to create gimmicks to become popular on the Internet.
Someone said, "I think it's okay to be a little self-deprecating, like, 'Come in and see what the worst-performing 211 graduates are doing now.' With so many people unemployed right now, everyone loves to see others struggling, to soothe their souls."
Someone said: "It can also be a bit controversial or a plea for help, like 'After graduating from a 211 university, my dad forced me to go home and raise pigs. Who can save me?'"
Someone said, "Everything you're saying sounds like you've had a very hard life, especially your dad forcing you to do that. If it's revealed to be a lie, you'll be reported, right? Is there anything more subjective, like 'After graduating from a 211 university, I voluntarily returned to my village to raise pigs. Come in and see if I regret it?'"
Someone said: "Funny ones are fine too. If it's 'A Day in the Life of a 211 Undergraduate Student Carrying Pig Manure', I'd definitely click on it. I love reading shit and fart literature."
Wen Wenxu interrupted weakly: "I don't recognize the three numbers 211 anymore."
Thankfully, the gimmick got everyone talking. Zhu Yingning had initially worried that this type of discussion wouldn't resonate, but seeing everyone so enthusiastic reassured her. Once the discussion about the gimmick had subsided, she intervened, steering the conversation towards the division of labor, livestreaming procedures, and account operations. For an entire afternoon, the seven of them engaged in lively conversation, finalizing every detail of the Douyin account and ultimately deciding to release a few vlogs to test the waters.
As for the script, editing, appearance, photography and other tasks of the first vlog, they have also been carefully allocated.
After the meeting, the three of them walked home. The setting sun bathed the country lanes, its warm orange hue casting a soft glow on the pale white walls. Wen Wenxu walked in front, stretched, and sighed, "But this means our workload will increase dramatically again. Sigh... Time flies so fast. Our service period will end in August. Can we get the live broadcast up and running before then?"
Zhu Yingning wanted to be optimistic, but that was unrealistic. She whispered, "It's difficult."
What is more difficult than getting rid of poverty is consolidating the results of poverty alleviation.
From an economic perspective - as a newly-started industry, the pig farming in their village is still very weak in its ability to resist risks compared to other large-scale pig farming industries. If any unexpected natural disasters occur, all the efforts of everyone in the past two years may be wiped out.
From a spiritual perspective—
"Mass work is repetitive and tortuous," she said.
Working at the grassroots level isn't like taking an elevator, ascending from the ground floor to the top and then being all set. Quite the opposite: mass work often involves frustrating setbacks. This is because the human mind isn't plasticine; it won't stay the same once molded. It has a tendency to return to its original form.
Mass work is like the math problem of a snail climbing a well that we did in elementary school. A snail is at the bottom of a 17-meter-deep well. It crawls up 4 meters during the day and slides down 3 meters at night. The question is, how many days will it take for the snail to crawl out of the well and see the light again?
But it's not entirely a math problem. Math problems have clear numbers and can calculate exact answers, but mass work is not like that. No one can calculate the exact day that can be defined as "successful."
Glory lies in the ordinary, and difficulty lies in the long journey.
After she finished her brief explanation, Wen Wenxu, who was walking in front, and Chen Fei, who was lagging behind her, fell silent.
They continued walking. It had rained lightly for several days during the Qingming Festival, and lush green moss had grown on both sides of the alley. Tiny, green strands weaved intermittently and continuously across the path ahead. The sound of their soles hitting the alley was completely swallowed by the moss.
When they reached the middle of the alley, Chen Fei spoke, asking in a voice neither too loud nor too soft:
"So that's why you decided to stay, Captain?"
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