Marry a female star at a bargain price

Chapters 294 and 295. Lin Xiaoxi deliberately opposes her father.

After having dinner with Ge Tao, it was already 8 p.m.

It was only then that it truly got dark.

Lin Xiao drove home along the mountain road.

There were no streetlights along the way, and he drove with his high beams on the whole time. The foothills were dark and the forest shadows were eerie.

Lin Xiao, however, didn't take it seriously at all.

He has been working in Starlight Town for two weeks now and has gotten used to his commute. At first, he was extremely careful when driving and never dared to exceed 40 miles per hour.

He is now very familiar with this mountain road, and because of the quiet environment and the absence of traffic lights, he finds it much easier and more pleasant to drive than on city roads.

Of course, this feeling only applies during the day.

At night, the eerie bird calls from the mountains and forests outside the car window were quite chilling.

Lin Xiao, however, was completely unaware.

While driving, he kept thinking about merging villages and towns.

He absorbed too much information today.

From the actions of Yu Yaojun, a local tyrant, Lin Xiao gained a glimpse into the administrative atmosphere of the entire Mashan County and realized that it would be extremely difficult to make a difference in Xingguang Town—the kind of thing that truly benefits the people, not just something that looks good on one's resume.

Even though he has a powerful mayor father-in-law, it doesn't change the fact that being a town mayor is difficult for him.

After all, the South Korean navy is hundreds of kilometers away.

Mashan County is just the most inconspicuous and economically worst-performing of the dozen or so counties and cities under the jurisdiction of Yizhou City.

The city will not pay much attention to the economic development of Mashan County, nor will it have high expectations for it, let alone provide much financial and policy support.

of course.

Lin Xiao believed that as long as he asked, his father-in-law would do his best to help.

Firstly, he didn't want to ask his father-in-law for help every time he encountered a problem. Secondly, both he and Han Haijun had already been exposed online.

In other words, their work is now under the supervision of the entire internet.

Just like the incident at the fried noodle shop where he was recognized and photographed, such incidents will not be uncommon in the future and will become the norm.

Lin Xiao guessed that the news about his position in Xingguang Town, Mashan County, Yizhou City, Nanzhou Province, had already begun to spread in some corner of the internet.

Netizens are so concerned.

Lin Xiao and Han Haijun, this father-in-law and son-in-law pair, should be avoiding each other in the workplace as much as possible, so how could Lin Xiao dare to openly use his father-in-law's connections...? This sounds a bit strange.

In any case, whether from one's own perspective or from the perspective of public opinion.

Lin Xiao wouldn't easily play the father-in-law card.

However, if we don't play this card, the current problem is almost unsolvable.

On the issue of merging villages and towns, Mashan County and the villagers are almost completely at odds.

From the perspective of the county government, merging villages and towns is a major policy of the central government and must be implemented; this is certain.

From the perspective of county economic development and people's livelihood security, removing the scattered hollow villages from the map and consolidating the aging population of these villages into towns can, on the one hand, attract more special funds allocated by higher authorities for village and town mergers, and on the other hand, increase the urbanization rate, save investment in infrastructure such as water, electricity, roads and networks, and promote the professional and intensive development of local planting industries.

It is beneficial in every way, both publicly and privately, and the county will naturally continue to promote it.

From the villagers' perspective, leaving the homes where they have lived for most of their lives and moving to the town to live in apartment buildings requires them to adapt to an unfamiliar environment, increases transportation and time costs for farming, and may even lead to the loss of their land, while significantly increasing their cost of living.

As for the benefits, it's that you can get a small house in town for free.

However, given the existing problem of leaks in Phase 1 of the New Village Garden, even those villagers who were initially interested in the free houses inevitably hesitated upon arriving here.

In short, it is entirely harmful and has no benefit whatsoever.

The villagers naturally objected.

On one hand, the county government wanted to vigorously promote it, while on the other hand, the villagers stubbornly refused.

Lin Xiao, as the town mayor, is caught in the middle, facing a real dilemma.

He acknowledged that merging villages and towns was a great policy, but judging from the current implementation plan formulated by the county, the policy has been completely misguided.

We must follow the county's guidelines and implement them accordingly.

Even if the target is forcibly met in the end, it will only lead to widespread resentment and misery among the people.

Lin Xiao was determined not to allow this to happen.

Therefore, the county's plan must be stopped, and a plan that fully meets the actual situation of Xingguang Town and satisfies the people must be put forward.

As for how to do it, we need to both implement the policy and satisfy the majority of villagers.

Lin Xiao was at a loss for what to do.

Just as I was lost in thought, the car rounded a bend.

As Lin Xiao straightened the steering wheel, an elderly man walking alone in the dark suddenly appeared in his field of vision, startling him so much that he quickly stepped on the brakes.

"yoke--"

The car suddenly stopped, and Lin Xiao stumbled forward.

Ahead, the old man showed no reaction and continued to walk slowly forward.

This calm reaction, combined with the dark and desolate environment around the mountain path, inevitably seemed quite eerie.

"Is that... a human or a ghost?"

Even Lin Xiao, a materialist, couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

After all, no matter how materialistic he was, he had come from a parallel world, so he could accept whatever monsters and demons appeared in this world.

Lin Xiao hesitated for a moment.

Ultimately, the long shadow cast by the old man under the high beams confirmed that he was a living person.

He restarted the car and slowly drove up.

"Grandpa, where are you going? Let me give you a ride."

Lin Xiao took the initiative to greet him.

The old man stopped walking slowly and looked at Lin Xiao with a somewhat bewildered expression.

Clearly, he had traveled for quite some time and must have passed by many vehicles, but none of them stopped.

The old man was used to it.

That's why I was so shocked by the sudden appearance of the kind person.

The old man didn't think he had anything to gain, so he instantly accepted the stranger's kindness. His calm, even somewhat wooden expression instantly blossomed into a flattered and embarrassed smile, accompanied by a hurried wave of his hand.

"No, no, no... it's not necessary..."

The old man spoke Mandarin, but with a very heavy accent.

Lin Xiao had gotten used to the Mashan dialect recently, which is why he was able to understand it.

"It's alright, please come on up."

Lin Xiao pulled the car over to the side of the road. The mountain road was narrow, so he drove half of the car into the non-motorized vehicle lane and turned on his hazard lights.

"It's so late at night, it's not safe for you to walk alone. Tell me where you live, and I'll take you home!"

"No, no, no... no need, thank you young man..."

The old man still gratefully declined.

It wasn't until Lin Xiao urged him repeatedly, and even had to "turn hostile" and say that the old man was really "troublesome," that the old man, with a mixture of gratitude and shame, shakily got into the car.

"boom!!"

The car door slammed shut with a loud bang, revealing the old man's unfamiliarity with and fear of the car.

Lin Xiao, however, did not take it seriously.

After learning that the old man lived in Shiliang Village, 2 kilometers ahead, he started again.

Lin Xiao drove slowly, while the old man sat in the back, looking very restrained and tense.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao took the initiative to strike up a conversation: "Grandpa, where are you from? Why are you walking alone on the street so late?"

The old man hurriedly said, "I went to the town health center to get my medicine, but I arrived late. By the time I finished getting the medicine, there were no more buses running, so I walked back. Luckily, it wasn't far."

Lin Xiao frowned slightly.

Shiliang Village is five kilometers away from the town, not even counting the small roads leading from the main road into the village.

This journey takes at least an hour during the day and even longer at night.

And yet, the old man said it wasn't far.

Lin Xiao once again felt both respect and helplessness at the extent to which rural people could endure hardship.

"Where are you feeling unwell?" he continued, making small talk.

"Hey, high blood pressure and back pain are old ailments..."

The old man gradually relaxed his guard and started chatting with Lin Xiao. Before long, the car left the provincial highway and turned onto a small road leading to Shiliang Village.

Under the high beams, bamboo fences lined both sides of the road, and the undulating hills were covered with orange trees two or three meters tall, now laden with green fruit.

Lin Xiao recalled the industrial materials he had recently read about Xingguang Town, which mentioned that Shiliang Village was the natural village with the largest navel orange planting area in the town, with an average orchard area of ​​nearly 10 mu per person, ranking among the top in Xingguang Town's 33 natural villages.

Lin Xiao suddenly became interested.

"Grandpa, I heard that Xingguang Town has been merging villages and towns in the past two years. Why didn't you leave the village and move to the town?"

Lin Xiao tentatively asked, "If you go to town, wouldn't it be much more convenient for you to see a doctor and get your medicine? You wouldn't have to walk home alone at night, which is not only troublesome but also quite dangerous..."

Upon hearing this, the old man's tense expression relaxed, as if he had been listening to a lecture for a long time and finally understood a point of knowledge.

“We’re all practically half-buried already, what’s the point of climbing up to town? When we close our eyes one day, are we going to be buried in town? We’ll definitely be buried on the village cemetery, so the whole family can be reunited. Otherwise, we’ll go to the underworld without our ancestors to guide us, and we’ll really become lonely ghosts…”

The old man's words made perfect sense.

Lin Xiao felt a chill run down his spine!
Good grief, I'm telling you about the broad road to wealth and prosperity, and you're talking to me about the dead that your ancestors led you to... You can't talk to me like that!

However, the old man's statement provided Lin Xiao with an unexpected perspective.

The villages included in the "merger" list are mostly inhabited by elderly people who have an unprecedented level of attachment to their homeland.

This may be the reason why the villagers are so determined not to relocate.

Lin Xiao grasped this point, and his assessment of the difficulty of this key task reached a new level.

This made things even more difficult for me.

……

They escorted Grandpa Liang to his doorstep.

The old man was very grateful to Lin Xiao and kept inviting him into the house for a late-night snack. Lin Xiao declined for a long time before finally managing to leave.

Before leaving, the old man forcibly put a sack of watermelons on the back seat.

Lin Xiao couldn't refuse the kindness, so he could only thank the old man and then quickly drove away while the old man was going to the backyard to catch a live chicken.

Chickens: Thank you so much, kind person!

It took a long detour to get to Shiliang Village.

When we got back to the county town, it was already 10 p.m., and the whole family was already asleep.

Hearing the sound of someone entering, Zhou Xiuping came out, still half asleep.

"Why are you working so late again?" Mom asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"Ah."

"As the town mayor, not only have you moved all the way to this remote mountain village, but your work is also much more tiring than before..."

While pouring water for her son, Zhou Xiuping complained, "If you had known that being a town mayor was so difficult, and that the incident online last time caused such a big stir, you might as well have just resigned. Your daughter was born anyway, so why don't you stay home and spend more time with her? Wouldn't that be better than being this insignificant official?"

Lin Xiao listened to his mother's nagging and laughed awkwardly and helplessly.

Listen to this, even his mother, a native of the countryside, is disgusted with his job. He really feels like he's been "abandoned by everyone."

You should know that a large part of the reason he decided to take the civil service exam during his senior year of college was to stay close to his parents and put their minds at ease.

Now... the boomerang hits right between the eyebrows.

"Ms. Zhou, you're getting too cocky now, you don't even respect the town mayor anymore?" Lin Xiao joked with his mother.

"It's not that I don't care, it's just that you're so tired every day, and why do you have to live in a big villa in Ninghai and rent a place with your wife and kids..."

"Oh I see!"

Lin Xiao grinned seriously, "I'm telling you, your standards are so high now, you don't even look down on the town mayor. You used to be living in the villa your son bought, enjoying the good life. Now that you're living in a rented room, you're resentful, aren't you?"

Zhou Xiuping frowned, seemingly about to strike, after being teased.

Lin Xiao bared his teeth and dodged.

Both mother and son burst out laughing.

"Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" Mom asked.

"I am a little hungry, but I don't need to make a midnight snack. I have a bag of watermelon in my car, Mom, go and bring it up... I'm going to take a shower first!"

Lin Xiao didn't stand on ceremony with his mother and handed over this heavy work to her.

Zhou Xiuping didn't hesitate at all; she took her son's car keys and went downstairs.

Lin Xiao returned to his room.

Xixi is already asleep.

Using the light from the living room, Lin Xiao saw a crib on the right side of the bed, with a chubby little girl fast asleep on it.

The nanny had some family matters to attend to and took leave to go home yesterday afternoon.

These past two days, Xixi has been putting her daughter to sleep.

Right now, the mother and daughter are both lying on their sides, one facing left and the other facing right, sleeping soundly face to face.

Lin Xiao stood by the bedside for a long time, and unconsciously revealed a maternal smile.

The fatigue of a long day vanished in an instant.

I took my clothes out, took a shower in the guest bathroom, and then ate half a watermelon in the living room.

He then put down his spoon, burping contentedly.

After gathering his urge to urinate and successfully urinating, he returned to his room.

Lying in bed, I hugged my wife from behind, the warmth and coolness transferring heat in our tight embrace.

"Hmm...you're back~"

Xixi turned over sleepily.

Lin Xiao looked up, gently kissed her forehead, and said softly, "Mmm, my wife must be exhausted today..."

"It's alright... it's my brother who has a hard time at work..."

Xi Xi mumbled in a daze.

She looked so adorable that Lin Xiao couldn't resist gently touching her lips, again and again.

Then, smelling the faint milky scent on his wife, this light, fleeting gesture unconsciously led him toward a deeper biological experiment on bacterial exchange.

"Um... what are you doing~"

Xi Xi woke up a little, supporting herself on his shoulders with both hands, her voice like a cat's or a small animal's.

"Not doing anything~~"

"What else is there to do but not do anything... Aren't you tired after a long day at work? Time for bed~"

"Going to sleep?"

Lin Xiao pondered the lines he would use to coax his daughter, and his heart softened even more.

"We still have plenty of time, let's get things moving!"

"Um?!"

Xi Xi's eyes widened in fright, and she cried out urgently in a low voice, "You...you beast! Our daughter is right here!!"

Lin Xiao didn't take it seriously: "She's asleep, she won't wake up..."

The words hadn't even landed yet.

Lin Xiaoxi, who was sleeping peacefully in bed, suddenly started waving her arms and kicking her legs, and began to wail loudly with her eyes closed.

"???"

Lin Xiao was completely numb, thinking, "This is possible?"

They say daughters are their fathers' little cotton-padded jackets, but this looks like cheap, imported cotton!
What time did she drink her milk?

Although Lin Xiao harbored resentment towards this wicked cotton who was always causing trouble, the sound of crying was an imperial edict, and as a servant, he could only obey.

"A little after seven," Xixi replied, suppressing a laugh.

"They're probably hungry!"

Lin Xiao sighed with a resentful look, but considering that his wife had been taking care of the child all day, he had no choice but to get up himself.

First, I changed my daughter's wet diaper and put on a clean and comfortable new one.

Lin Xiao's movements were smooth, and after he finished, he slapped that little fleshy bottom, which carried a bit of personal grudge.

This made Lin Xiaoxi cry even louder.

Lin Xiao immediately chickened out and quickly hugged his daughter, coaxing her while going to the living room to make formula.

Han Xixi lay on the bed, propped up on her side, watching the commotion outside, a bright smile on her face.

For some reason, she suddenly felt: life is really, really good right now!

(End of this chapter)