DLWAV CH78

As always, once their idol had put it that way, they could only obediently do as he said.

Most importantly, Ao Ruizhe had already taken the lead—he had taken off his shoes, accepted the gloves and rubber boots handed over by a nearby villager, and stepped into the water first.

Seeing that, they immediately stopped hesitating and hurriedly took off their own shoes and socks as well.

Yet the very next second after they stepped into the lotus field, they regretted it.

Because it was just too cold—the kind of cold that drilled straight into your bones.

But Ao Ruizhe had already gotten to work, so they could only grit their teeth and bend down.

The villagers also began teaching them, hand in hand, how to dig up lotus roots.

Fortunately, once they got busy, it didn’t feel cold anymore.

But very quickly, even more problems appeared.

“Ah!! What is that?? It’s soft and slimy—snake, is that a water snake?”

“Ho, that’s a huge eel, and a whole nest of them too. Kid, don’t be scared—you’ll have something good to eat tonight!”

“Get away, don’t come near me.”

“Why does this water smell so bad?”

“Oh, see that row of little tile-roof houses over there? Those are some of the villagers’ pigsties. The pig manure usually gets drained straight into this lotus field. Otherwise, where do you think all this rich soil comes from?”

“You mean there’s pig shit in this lotus field too? Ahhhh!!!”

“My hand, my hand got cut!”

“Let me see. It’s fine, it’s only a tiny little cut. Just stick a band-aid on it.”

“Alright, keep digging.”

“What? I’m already injured and I still have to keep working?”

“There are five of you in one group, and you’ve only dug up that few lotus roots. If you stop now, your group probably won’t even earn enough for today’s food and lodging.”

…

Fortunately, all this chaos ended pretty quickly.

Because Ao Ruizhe would always arrive at the scene immediately.

The moment those fans saw Ao Ruizhe, all their temper instantly died down, because none of them wanted to embarrass themselves in front of their idol.

And just like that, the whole morning passed.

Then villagers from Kaoshan Village came over carrying buckets of food.

Perfect timing—their stomachs were already hungry.

They immediately crowded around.

But in the next second, their brows furrowed.

Because if they weren’t mistaken, although the iron buckets holding the rice were new, the bowls and chopsticks were all old, and some of them were even chipped.

Seeing where their eyes had landed, the old village chief hurriedly explained, “It’s just that the road in the village still hasn’t been repaired yet, so we haven’t had time to replace things like bowls and chopsticks.”

“But don’t worry. Although these bowls and chopsticks were collected from different households in the village, they were all boiled three times in hot water beforehand.”

In other words, who knew how many rural people had already used these bowls and chopsticks?

At that thought, quite a few people’s faces changed on the spot.

And when they looked into the buckets of food again—stir-fried cabbage with pork belly, egg soup, boiled eggplant—

there wasn’t even a single proper meat dish.

“How are we supposed to eat this?”

Someone couldn’t help blurting out right away.

Old village chief: “Well… with the speed you all work at, the fact that the employer is even providing food is already pretty good.”

The crowd immediately burst into an uproar.

Because they had never expected that after working hard all morning, the old village chief would actually turn around and look down on them.

“I’m not eating.”

Someone immediately walked off to the side.

By the end, the people who chose not to eat actually made up a third of the entire group.

Only this time, Ao Ruizhe did not step forward to persuade them.

Soon, the afternoon labor began.

Forget children raised in the city—even children who had grown up in the countryside couldn’t handle this kind of workload.

And by evening, the dinner delivered to them was even worse than lunch, just one dish and one soup. Naturally, more and more people refused to eat out of stubborn spite.

Some people were lucky—they had brought snacks with them when they came, so they wouldn’t go hungry.

But the ones who hadn’t brought snacks were miserable.

Worst of all, they even had to attend class at night.

For a while, quite a few people couldn’t help but develop a trace of resentment toward Ao Ruizhe.

Some directly took out their phones and called their parents, complaining and trying to get them to come take them home.

But since their parents had already gritted their teeth and sent them here in the first place, it meant they had made up their minds to reform them properly, so naturally there was no way they would agree to come pick them up.

Besides, the parents had all seen through the livestream that the meals Kaoshan Village was providing those fans had all been prepared in a brand-new kitchen, and the bowls and chopsticks really had been repeatedly boiled in water.

That was already cleaner than the tableware in the vast majority of restaurants.

And usually these kids never complained that restaurant utensils were dirty, did they?

Still, before long, those fans suppressed that trace of resentment in their hearts again.

Because someone, nobody knew who, had suddenly said: “You’re already blaming Ruizhe over something this small? Are you really true fans of Ruizhe?”

So almost at once, guilt rose in their hearts instead.

But several of the fans couldn’t help having their expressions shift a little, because those words sounded far too familiar.

Back when they themselves hadn’t had enough money in hand but had wanted to buy Xia Ruizhe some expensive gift for his birthday, and had chosen to start crowdfunding among other fans, hadn’t they said similar things?

For example: “You won’t even chip in a few hundred yuan—are you really true fans of Ruizhe?”

So all they could do was comfort themselves with the thought that tomorrow would be better.

Because tomorrow, buyers would come to purchase the lotus roots, and according to the agreement, they would receive half the profit as compensation for their hard work.

When that happened, they could take that money and go into the county town to have a proper meal and reward themselves.

But what they hadn’t expected was that the next day, as soon as the buyer arrived, he immediately started finding fault with the lotus roots.

“These lotus roots are broken, mud has all gotten inside them—how am I supposed to sell this?”

“And these roots too—once you wash the mud off, they’re full of fingernail marks. If people didn’t know better, they’d think ghosts from the water dug these up. How could they possibly sell for a good price?”

…

“How about this? Since you all had it rough too, I’ll give you seventy cents a jin.”

“What?”

The moment they heard that, all the fans who had specially gotten up early were enraged on the spot.

Seventy cents a jin?

They roughly estimated the weight of the lotus roots their own groups had dug up.

Which meant that five people had worked hard for an entire day, their hands almost dug raw, some of them even getting a dozen cuts on their hands—

and in the end they could only make a little over a hundred yuan.

What could a little over a hundred yuan even buy?

It wasn’t even enough for a small portion of crayfish.

They immediately surrounded the buyer. “How could lotus roots possibly be this cheap?”

There were still people who knew the market price. “Aren’t lotus roots in the supermarket usually five or six yuan a jin?”

The buyer’s brows immediately drew together. “Stop arguing, stop arguing.”

“You also know that’s the supermarket price. Don’t I need to spend money on gas to transport these out? Don’t I have to pay the driver? Even if I don’t make a single cent because we’re all fellow townspeople, do you think the supermarket won’t make money?”

The old village chief also said, “That price really is already quite fair.”

The fans’ faces turned green.

But someone quickly reacted. “If the wholesale price is that cheap, then why don’t we just take the lotus roots into the county town and sell them ourselves?”

Hearing that, the buyer didn’t feel offended at all. “Sure. If you want to go, then go ahead. I happen to be heading back too, so you can ride with me for free.”

At once someone said, “We’ll sell the damaged lotus roots to you. We’ll take the good ones into the city and sell them ourselves.”

The others all nodded in agreement.

Out of respect for Ao Ruizhe, the buyer didn’t want to argue with them either. “Fine then.”

Since they were unfamiliar with the place, naturally the old village chief couldn’t let them enter the city all by themselves.

So he had no choice but to assign two villagers to each fan group to go along with them.

The fans immediately forgot all about the bumpy mountain roads and excitedly carried the lotus roots into town.

But if the buyer wasn’t willing to haggle with them, the elderly people buying groceries certainly were “sharp” enough.

“What? For lotus roots like these, you actually dare ask five yuan? Other stalls are selling for four. Yours are dirty as hell. I’d think three yuan was expensive already.”

“Four yuan a jin? Make it cheaper. Look, just look—your lotus roots are full of fingernail marks.”

“What fingernail marks? The lotus roots we brought were perfectly fine. You clearly pinched them just now yourself.”

“What do you mean I pinched them? Would I bully a bunch of little brats like you?”

“Eight yuan for just these few? That’s way too expensive. And these probably aren’t enough for our dinner tonight anyway. Good timing—there are a few small ones here, just throw them in for me.”

“No, no, those little ones are almost a whole jin.”

“How could those tiny things possibly weigh a whole jin? You’re so stingy. Do you even know how to do business? Be more generous and I’ll come back to your stall next time.”

“You—”

By the end, the fans’ faces turned even greener.

They wanted to curse out “country people” for being uncivilized, but the words reached their mouths and then they remembered—they were in the city now, and the people bullying them were all city-dwelling old men and women.

So their expressions immediately became even more complicated.

Because they had never expected that there would also be so many rude, low-quality people in the city.

Then they counted the money they had earned. Adding in what they had gotten from the buyer that morning, and after subtracting the half they had to hand over to Kaoshan Village, it was still less than two hundred yuan.

They couldn’t understand it. They had put in so much effort, so how had the money they ended up with become so little?

At the side, the old village chief knocked the tobacco pipe in his hand and said only, “That’s just how the world works. Even if every lotus root you dug up were perfect and undamaged, it still wouldn’t sell for much.”

“Because in order to maintain national stability, grain prices can’t rise.”

“In the city, a bottle of mineral water that’s just pumped out of the ground and simply filtered can sell for two yuan. In the countryside, the purchase price for one jin of grain that people toil over for half a year to grow is only one yuan three.”

Hearing that, quite a few people fell silent.

Especially those who had once mocked rural people as only dragging the country down.

Now it seemed that no one could really tell who had been dragging down whom.

Old village chief: “The government has always been supporting us, but Kaoshan Village is just too remote. It’s really too hard to develop.”

Someone couldn’t help saying, “Then why not stop staying in Kaoshan Village and just move out?”

Old village chief: “Move where?”

“Houses in the city are too expensive. The government can’t afford to cover them, and we certainly can’t afford to buy them ourselves. We also don’t have any special skills, so after leaving here there’s basically only one road—going to work in factories. If you don’t have a wife or children, it’s okay, you can just live in the factory. But if you do have a wife and children, then you have to rent outside. And if you rent outside, once you add up food, drink, and daily living expenses, you might end up with less money left over in a whole year than we can save by farming for a year. After all, in the city, even drinking water costs money.”

At that, the old village chief laughed. “But all that is in the past now.”

“Once the village roads are fixed, and once we get the farmhouse tourism project going… then it’ll be you city people envying us country people.”

“At the very least, the air in the countryside is much fresher than in the city.”

Hearing that, everyone’s mood improved just a little.

“This is all thanks to our Ruizhe!”

“Exactly!”

The old village chief said, “Alright, the lotus roots are all sold. If there’s anything you want to buy, go get it. Two hours from now, we’ll gather here and head back together.”

“Okay.”

Everyone immediately got excited again.

But it turned out they were happy too soon.

One group spotted a snack street not far away and rushed straight toward it.

“I want this… and this… and this…”

Who would have thought that in the next second, a passerby beside them suddenly said, “Stop pointing. What if the band-aids on your hands fall into the food trays below? Are the rest of us supposed to keep eating then?”

Before they could even react, other passersby had already begun chiming in.

“Exactly.”

“And why are you all so dirty? Stay away from us!”

The moment they heard that, their faces flushed red—half from humiliation, half from anger.

To use the words Ao Ruizhe had used to comfort them yesterday, the wounds on their hands were medals earned through hard work and honest labor. How dare these people look down on them?

But very quickly, they came to their senses again.

Because those words, too, sounded all too familiar.

Just one month ago, hadn’t they themselves more than once said things like: “Rural people’s fingers are all black and filthy, who knows how dirty they are? Forget people—even our dog wouldn’t eat the food they make…”?

Elsewhere, another group had just left the market when they discovered that their money had been stolen.

They panicked on the spot.

Fortunately, it wasn’t long before the police caught the thief through surveillance footage.

Who would have thought that the thief wasn’t afraid at all. “Catching me won’t help. I’ve already spent the money. I’m buried in debt myself, so I can’t pay you back anyway. So if I get locked up, it’s actually a good thing for me. At least for the next half month, I won’t have to worry about food, drink, or daily living.”

Hearing that, those fans exploded instantly.

“That was money we worked hard for over two whole days.”

“That’s also our food and lodging money for the next few days, and you just spent it all right away.”

“Don’t come any closer, I’m going to kill you, kill you—”

They immediately lunged at the thief.

If the police hadn’t stopped them right away, the thief probably would already have been beaten bloody.

And seeing them so furious, the thief instead straightened up and said seriously, “Right now you’ve just had one or two hundred yuan stolen, and you’re already this angry. If one day Xia Ruizhe killed your family members, how angry would you be then?”

“No, actually, you probably wouldn’t be angry.”

“After all, weren’t you the ones who said that even if Xia Ruizhe were a murderer, he’d still be your idol for life?”

The moment they heard that, the motions in the fans’ hands came to a halt.

Then, suddenly, they fell silent.

And scenes like this were playing out in every corner of the county town.

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