Marry a female star at a bargain price

Chapter 286-287. First Exploration of Starlight Town

After fulfilling his mission, County Magistrate Wan Zhilong prepared to leave.

Before leaving, with a dark face and a gruff voice, he repeatedly instructed the two deputy mayors of Xingguang Town to obey the leadership of the new mayor and cooperate in carrying out all tasks.

His words of advice were sharp and stern, carrying a hint of subtle threat.

Lin Xiao felt that this County Magistrate Wan did not seem to be a good-tempered person.

This conclusion was reached just as it was being drawn.

When Wan Zhilong turned around, he had a kind and gentle face with a friendly smile, a smile that seemed quite incongruous with the deep lines on his face.

County Chief Wan warmly shook Lin Xiao's hand.

"Mayor Lin..."

This title gave Lin Xiao goosebumps.

How could a county magistrate address a town mayor with such respect?
It is simply contrary to Tiangang!

"Mayor Lin, if you encounter any difficulties in your work, please feel free to let me know. And don't hesitate to put your ideas into practice; I, on behalf of the county, will fully support you! Although Xingguang Town is remote, it's a vast and promising place, and I look forward to seeing you achieve great things here..."

Wan Zhilong's words were passionate and fervent.

The more Lin Xiao listened, the more uneasy he felt.

This... doesn't sound like something a leader would say to a subordinate, does it?

How could you even say something like "representing the county's full support"? Does that mean you, Lin Xiao, aren't a member of this county, and you're just here to gain experience and will leave sooner or later?

Lin Xiao maintained a calm expression and a composed smile, but inwardly he was both amused and exasperated.

He knew perfectly well that he was parading around with the title of "Mayor's Son-in-Law," practically as if the words "Prince" were etched all over his face.

The leader also wants to treat me like a normal subordinate, but who dares to?

Not to mention, besides having the South Korean Navy as a powerful backer, he also carries a lot of other miscellaneous titles.

If we were to ask for lodging at night...

Upon knocking on the door, the homeowner asked, "Who is it?"

He answered from outside: "Lin Xiao, a well-known musician, son-in-law of the top official in Yizhou, a rising top internet celebrity, the original singer of 'Thousands of Mountains and Rivers,' and husband of singer Han Xixi!"

Before he could finish speaking, someone inside slammed the door shut in fright and shouted, "Our house is too small to accommodate so many people!!"

Lin Xiao felt quite embarrassed when he thought about it.

However, the past is already set in stone.

His many disguises have been exposed, and all his identities have been revealed—this is an undeniable fact.

He himself cannot change it.

Now he can only try to adapt to the identity of "internet celebrity town mayor" and accept everyone's curious, inquisitive, and polite gaze, including that of a group of county leaders.

The current situation is that a group of department-level leaders are being very polite to him, and he is now acting more like a leader than the leaders themselves.

Although it is somewhat contrary to the Heavenly Stems.

However, Lin Xiao had to admit that the leaders' "support" was very helpful for his future work.

He accepted this benefit with ease, thinking to himself that as the mayor's son-in-law, it was indeed good to have a powerful backer.

After seeing off County Magistrate Wan Zhilong.

Lin Xiao returned to the meeting room where all the town's officials were still sitting and waiting for him.

On the conference table, the nameplates of Wan Zhilong and the other two county leaders had been removed, while Lin Xiao's nameplate had been moved from the secondary position to the central position, which was where Wan Zhilong had just been sitting.

This subtle change surprised Lin Xiao quite a bit.

Only then did I realize that no matter how far, remote, or dilapidated Xingguang Town was, it was still a legitimate first-level grassroots government.

Regardless of how well the town's work is progressing or its economic development level, let's set aside that for now.

This understanding of the difference in rank is ingrained in all cadres, and they will never make mistakes in basic meeting procedures—especially on the first day of the town mayor's term, when they are extremely cautious and careful.

Everyone is both very sensitive to this and used to it.

Lin Xiao, on the other hand, felt a little awkward.

He forced himself to adjust, and calmly walked to the center of the conference table, where he sat down in the seat bearing his name.

"Hello everyone, I am Lin Xiao. County Chief Wan has already introduced the relevant situation."

Lin Xiao forced a smile and tried to speak in a friendly manner, "I won't repeat myself. Since the boss isn't here, I'll say something different. You've probably all seen the recent online discussions about me and my family, and you probably have a lot of questions and curiosities about me."

"This is normal, and I understand. We'll have many more opportunities to get to know each other in the future, so feel free to ask me anything outside of work hours. As for work, I hope everyone can forget about the rumors, trending topics, and various other identities surrounding me, and just treat me as the mayor of Xingguang Town, as your colleague, comrade-in-arms, and partner, so we can work together to do a good job."

"As for myself, I will quickly adjust and adapt to the position of mayor of Xingguang Town, and try my best to avoid bringing my personal issues into my work. In the future, I hope to unite with all of you present here, work hand in hand, and jointly develop the cause of Xingguang Town, improve the environment, and better serve the people!"

Lin Xiao spoke with great passion and sincerity.

So much so that the phrase "good service" was unconsciously emphasized.

The moment that voice rang out...

The twenty-odd cadres in the conference room were all jolted awake as if a switch had been flipped, and they all raised their hands simultaneously.

The room erupted in applause instantly.

Lin Xiao was a little confused, not understanding why he suddenly acted out of line, even though he hadn't planned or prepared for it before speaking.

He was a little puzzled, and could only explain it as the awakening of certain genes deep within him.

This is similar to how people, when they reach a certain age, start to have a strange liking for things like calligraphy and opera. When they were young, they thought these things were outdated and wished they were worthless and would disappear from the world as soon as possible.

But unexpectedly, as I got older, the strokes of my calligraphy became interesting, and the sounds of opera became pleasant to the ear.

Lin Xiao originally thought that he would need some time to adapt before he could enter the "top leader" state. After all, he was getting on in years, and even he couldn't believe that he was already the head of a town.

Unexpectedly.

The moment I sat down in that chair, I immediately got into character, as if the chair were a socket and the moment I plugged in, I was instantly connected to the "top leader" circuit.

Lin Xiao found it all very strange.

I was initially a little nervous, but at this moment I completely forgot about it.

Under the influence of these emotions, the subsequent agenda proceeded smoothly.

The three deputy mayors introduced themselves in turn and reported on the basic situation of Xingguang Town and their respective responsibilities.

Lin Xiao listened attentively, nodding in affirmation from time to time.

I'll also jot down anything I think is important in my notebook.

Even he himself didn't realize that he now had a very commanding presence.

Next, the other cadres spoke in turn, introducing their positions and responsibilities.

Although Lin Xiao forgot what he had just heard, he still tried his best to absorb the information and listened attentively.

After all twenty-two cadres had finished reporting.

Lin Xiao suddenly felt a burning sensation on his face and realized that the setting sun was shining on his face.

I glanced at my watch and realized it was already 5:30 pm.

His heart skipped a beat.

He then realized that the meeting had unknowingly lasted for more than two hours, without him even noticing.

I can't believe it!
You should know that when he was a civil servant in Ninghai Subdistrict, he was the secretary of the leadership team.

Every week during the leadership meeting, what annoyed him most was the endless chatter of the leaders, whether there was something to say or not. He often cursed their families in his heart, especially the then-top leader, now his mother-in-law, Liu Liyun.

Now... has the dragon-slaying hero become the evil dragon himself?
Or did another gene in my body naturally awaken after I became a leader?

"Today is my first day on the job. I spent a long time talking with my colleagues this afternoon, and I have gained a certain understanding of the basic situation of Xingguang Town. In the future, there will be many opportunities to interact with each other in our work. I hope we can become a harmonious team and create a bright future for Xingguang together."

Lin Xiao forcefully suppressed the emphasis that was about to slip out of his mouth in the last sentence.

"Okay, let's break up the meeting!"

This sentence came suddenly.

Because there was no emphasis, the cadres were caught off guard, and the applause was sparse.

Office Director Yao Jun came over and respectfully led Lin Xiao upstairs, guiding him all the way to the town mayor's office located on the far east side of the second floor.

The room was about seven or eight square meters and was very clean. The desk and bookshelves were empty, and there was no trace of the previous owner.

"Thank you, Director Yao. I'm all set," Lin Xiao said with a smile.

"Yes, Mayor."

Yao Jun smiled warmly and took out his phone as he spoke, "Mayor, let me add you on WeChat. Feel free to contact me anytime if you need anything..."

Lin Xiao added him on WeChat, and Yao Jun then left.

The office door had just closed when Director Yao sent me his phone number on WeChat, which I had just added.

Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow, his mood somewhat strange.

Without giving it much thought, he saved the phone number to his contacts, looked around at his future office, and then stood by the window with his hands behind his back.

The windows face south, offering an excellent view.

In the distance are verdant green mountains, below which are thriving rice paddies. Behind the paddies is a large area of ​​houses in the town, seemingly chaotic yet quite picturesque. Between the houses and the town government building is a winding cement road whose destination is unknown.

The afterglow of the setting sun already possessed the intensity of midsummer.

Through the office window, a slanted shadow is cast on the slightly mottled white wall, like a portal from a science fiction novel.

Downstairs, the cadres rode their electric bikes home one by one.

Lin Xiao stood at the window for a long time.

Once the sounds downstairs had almost faded away, he packed his things and went downstairs, ending his long and tiring day.

……

on the way home.

Lin Xiao deliberately didn't turn on the navigation, wanting to familiarize himself with the road from Xingguang Town to Mashan County.

There is no such thing as an evening rush hour in this mountain town. On the narrow roads, you can hardly see any cars, but there are quite a few electric bikes.

The town is very small, spanning less than two kilometers from east to west.

Lin Xiao had only driven for less than three minutes when all he could see were rice paddies and green hills.

He was still processing what he had learned that afternoon. “Xingguang Town is more than twice the size of Chaobai Town, and 90% of it is mountainous forest, with less than 10% being arable land.”

"Although its area is twice as large as Chaobai Town, its registered population is only slightly over 20,000, which is less than half of Chaobai Town."

"Of the mere 2 registered residents, most work or settle elsewhere, leaving only about 8000 permanent residents in the town, with 3000 living in the town itself and the other 5000 scattered across 12 administrative villages and 33 natural villages."

"These are truly forgotten villages, with 16 villages having a registered population of no more than 500 people, and as many as 23 natural villages with a permanent population of no more than 200 people..."

The more Lin Xiao thought about it, the more his brows furrowed.

When I first arrived in Chaobai Town, I thought it was the most basic level of grassroots and the most rural area.

But now it seems.

Although Chaobai Town is a township, it is only separated from Ninghai, the provincial capital, by a single line. Its terrain is relatively flat, giving it unique advantages and a solid foundation for industrial development. As a result, most locals are able to stay in their hometown, find work, and live quite well.

Because of the support of various industries, large and small, the proportion of people from Chaobai Town who work outside the town is not high.

At least it's not like Starlight Town, which reached a terrifying level of 60%, and that number is still rising.

Speaking of grassroots and rural areas.

Perhaps only Starlight Town is more representative.

The original Chaobai Town has been completely invaded and changed by the development of the Internet age, and has been reflected and changed by the new era of economic and social development.

However, Xingguang Town is isolated by the continuous mountains, which means that people keep leaving, but the tide of the new era has a hard time penetrating in.

At least for now, Lin Xiao drove all the way and didn't see a single modern factory.

This is consistent with the situation reported by the three deputy mayors earlier.

The town's pillar industry is agriculture, with crops including not only the most common rice but also various fruits.

Because of the suitable soil, the entire citrus family is widely planted in Xingguang Town, and a large part of the continuous green mountains has been transformed into planting bases for navel oranges, kumquats, tangerines, and pomelos.

In addition, Xingguang Town also grows fruits such as peaches, plums, and apricots.

Because of the large mountainous area and small permanent population, almost every household in the area has four or five acres of orchards, and in some villages, the average person can even reach seven or eight acres or more than ten acres.

And this per capita area has soared to an even higher peak today, especially with the large outflow of population.

In fact, due to the large number of orchards and the small number of people, many villages have abandoned large areas of orchards, simply because the young laborers in the villages have gone out to work, and the elderly who remain are simply unable to cope with such large-scale planting work.

Lin Xiao was surprised when he first heard the report.

In his mind, all kinds of fruits in the market are now very expensive, much more expensive than vegetables in the vegetable market.

Leaving aside expensive fruits like durian and cherries, which have entered the ranks of luxury goods.

Even native species like oranges and tangerines sell for five or six yuan per kilogram in supermarkets.

This price is by no means low.

Based on the per capita planting area of ​​specialty fruits in Xingguang Town, if we do a rough calculation, the annual income of fruit farmers is not wealthy, but it is certainly not impoverished. So why do so many young people choose to leave their hometowns and go out to work?

As soon as this question arose, Lin Xiao basically had the answer.

He is now driving on a winding mountain road at a speed of no more than 40 miles per hour, where traffic is extremely difficult.

This main road, the only one in the town, only covers 10 of the 33 administrative villages.

There are also 23 villages hidden in the vast mountains, with only cement roads or even dirt roads connecting them to the towns, and a 30-minute one-way trip is considered short.

Going to Mashan County is even more difficult, almost like the journey to the West.

If it's so difficult for people to travel, imagine how difficult it is to transport fruits by the ton.

To get rich, build roads first.

It's wishful thinking to try to develop a large-scale fruit planting industry when the roads aren't even finished.

In the entire Xingguang Town, there are currently only three large-scale navel orange planting bases.

The other hundreds of acres of orchards are privately planted by villagers in various villages, resulting in inconsistent fruit tree varieties and varying fruit quality.

In addition to competition from other counties and towns, many fruit merchants are unwilling to come to Xingguang Town to purchase goods, and even if they do come, they drive the prices down very low.

The fruit farmers had absolutely no right to negotiate prices.

Fruit is not easy to preserve. If you don't sell it to fruit vendors, the fruits of a year's hard work will either rot on the trees or you will have to carry them to town to sell yourself.

With only about ten thousand people in Starlight Town, it's impossible for them to consume hundreds or thousands of tons of oranges.

Therefore, although oranges in city shopping malls can sell for five or six yuan per kilogram, the purchase price at the place of origin is only about two yuan, and good quality ones can reach two and a half yuan.

Xingguang Town suffers from inconsistent quality and inconvenient transportation.

The purchase price has been suppressed to below 1.5 yuan for many years, and for two years it was even less than 1 yuan.

Even with government subsidies, villagers' annual household income is only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan. After deducting expenses such as pesticides and fertilizers, the per capita income is basically just enough to make ends meet, which is completely disproportionate to the labor required for fruit tree planting.

It's no wonder that many young and middle-aged laborers would rather go out to work than stay at home and "live off the land".

Lin Xiao understood all this, and felt a pang of sorrow in his heart.

He himself came from a rural area and knows how deeply ingrained the Chinese people's concept of "being attached to one's homeland" is. If they can have a stable income at home, most of them are unwilling to go out and make a living.

The permanent residents of Xingguang Town account for less than 40% of the registered population.

Clearly, this scenic place with its rolling green hills is only suitable for recuperating and relaxing, not for settling down and making a living.

Lin Xiao was deeply moved.

Looking at the navel orange trees on both sides of the road, the fruits are already as big as jujubes, looking energetic and full of vitality.

Lin Xiao's gloomy mood was quickly swept away.

He came here to change the status quo and lead the villagers to prosperity, not to be a mascot, gain experience, or make a name for himself.

He became more excited.

However, he couldn't come up with a solution for how to develop the local economy even after thinking about it for a long time.

Developing orchard economy is essential; it's the only natural advantage the town can boast about.

But if we want to develop, we must solve the transportation problem.

And this is a very difficult problem to solve.

Xingguang Town boasts an astonishing 15000 square meters of land per person, a figure surpassed only by a few westernmost provinces across the country.

It is truly a vast and sparsely populated area.

With such a small registered population and such a large jurisdiction area, and most of it being mountainous.

Achieving paved road access to every village is extremely difficult and requires a tremendous amount of investment.

In fact, this work has been ongoing with the support of national policies.

However, due to funding constraints, it will take at least three to five years to complete.

Lin Xiao certainly couldn't sit in his office and wait three to five years—not because he was in a hurry to gain experience and leave, but because he wasn't the kind of person who would sit idly by and wait for death. Since he was determined to develop the economy, he would focus on a quick and easy approach.

Moreover, transportation is not actually the biggest obstacle to the development of the fruit industry in Xingguang Town.

When it comes to citrus cultivation, Xingguang Town is just the most famous production area in Yizhou City, but this "fame" doesn't even rank among the top in the province or even the country.

In addition, Xingguang Town still relies on small-scale farming, making it difficult to maintain consistent fruit quality.

This is the main reason why fruit vendors lower prices.

After much deliberation, Lin Xiao realized that if he wanted to significantly improve the economic situation of Xingguang Town in a short period of time, focusing solely on those few fruit trees would be a case of being blinded by a single leaf.

"I could stick to my old profession and develop rural tourism... but that doesn't seem like a good idea!"

“This is not Chaobai Town. It is backed by the huge market of Ninghai, the provincial capital, with a population of nearly 10 million. We can attract people here with just a little gimmick.”

"This is Xingguang Town. There are no big cities within a 100-kilometer radius. Not to mention big cities, you can't even find a fourth-tier town. The few small county towns that exist are all blocked by mountain roads, making transportation extremely inconvenient!"

"Even if the town has good natural resources, developing mountainous areas is far more difficult than developing rural agricultural tourism. It will be hard to see results in less than three to five years..."

The more Lin Xiao thought about it, the more difficult it seemed, as if he had gone around in circles and ended up back where he started.

He didn't have a good idea for the time being.

At this moment, feeling the bumps of the car, his consciousness, which had drifted far away, instantly returned to its place. He found that the road in front of him had changed from an asphalt road to a dilapidated cement road, and the scenery in front of him had not become more open at all, but rather more confined.

Even the six o'clock sunset was blocked off by the towering mountains on the other side.

"Where have they driven all this way?"

Lin Xiao announced his first failed attempt to find the way. He took out his phone, opened the navigation, and discovered that he had indeed gone the wrong way and had already driven nearly ten kilometers on the wrong road.

If the road hadn't gotten worse and worse, he wouldn't have realized he was on the wrong track.

He quickly turned around.

Because the cement road is very narrow, not much wider than a car body, and there are ditches on both sides.

Therefore, it was very difficult for the head to fall off.

After finally getting the car back in the right place, Lin Xiao shifted gears again and prepared to head back.

An electric scooter is coming from the front.

Lin Xiao didn't take it seriously at first and was about to shift to the right.

When the electric scooter got closer, he was surprised to find a handsome young man sitting on it. He had fair skin and flowing hair that was clearly carefully permed and dyed, so much so that he looked stylish even as it fluttered in the wind.

Lin Xiao looked on with surprise.

In this remote town, which is almost entirely populated by the elderly and children, young people are virtually nonexistent, let alone such stylish young people.

It's been at least an afternoon until now.

Aside from seeing two young faces at the town government, Lin Xiao never saw them again.

The person in front of me has very fair skin, showing signs of careful skincare.

This stylish and handsome young man stands in stark contrast to the lush and ancient mountain village, making him impossible to miss.

Lin Xiao kept staring at him until he passed by his car, and even leaned out of the car window to look at his back.

I watched until the electric car disappeared from sight around the bend.

Lin Xiao turned his gaze away, and his mood instantly brightened.

"Where there are young people, there is hope. This Starlight Town still has a bright future!"

(End of this chapter)