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Chapter 441 Support Projects
The two little cuties were huddled behind He Daqi, clearly filled with curiosity about the live free-range chicken.

They wanted to touch them but didn't dare to go forward. When the chickens fluttered slightly, the two little guys would panic and hide behind He Daqi, peeking out and peeking around, which made the farmer's aunt very happy.

Since she entered the door, she had already pinched the two little rascals' faces several times. If He Daqi hadn't been watching, she probably would have picked them up and kissed their little cheeks long ago.

"Hey, here you go. Take this and give these chickens a good shake and they'll eat obediently. Try it!"

The older woman happily scooped a bowl of cornmeal and placed it in front of the two little ones.

In the end, curiosity overcame fear. Seeing that their fathers didn't say anything, Huanhuan and Huanle followed their aunt's instructions, each grabbing a handful of cornmeal and forcefully tossing it into the chicken coop.

Well, that's it. A dozen or so chickens made quite a stir, flapping their wings as they charged over, startling the two little ones who quickly grabbed He Daqi's trouser leg.

The two little guys breathed a sigh of relief when they saw them huddled together pecking at food.

At that moment, the old man from the farmer's house was quick-witted and grabbed a big, fat chicken, laughing as he headed towards the kitchen.

This made the two little ones anxious, and they quickly shook He Daqi's trouser leg.

"Dad, that grandpa caught the chicken."

"I just fed it, Dad, you need to go and save that chicken."

Children's friendships are strange. Perhaps he felt that after feeding them once, he had become friends with these free-range chickens. Now he was in a panic, wanting He Daqi to save his animal friends.

Fortunately, our animal friends slaughter and stew the chicken on the spot. They fry garlic, ginger slices, and shallots in rapeseed oil and chicken fat until they turn golden brown, and then add the chicken to fry. Soon, the aroma filled the yard.

Free-range chickens are so fresh and appealing; it's no wonder He Daqi has been longing for this dish.

Just like he'd been drinking the northwest wind for days, his stomach was empty. When he finally got his hands on something good to eat, he couldn't get enough. He Daqi ate three big bowls of rice in one go.

The two little ones stopped clamoring to rescue their new friend and started munching away happily, their little mouths smacking non-stop. Their new friend had found a new way to stay by their side.

I've done my best. At least I saved my new friend's two wings, one leg, and one claw, and even cooked two bowls of rice for him. This friendship is truly commendable.

Having estimated that they had filmed enough footage of the meal, He Daqi signaled to the cameraman to turn off the camera, then quietly took out two more red bills and placed them under the bowl before cheerfully chatting with the elderly couple.

"Auntie, I see that everyone in your village raises ducks, but only your family raises chickens. Besides chickens and ducks, do you raise anything else around here?" After eating and drinking his fill, He Daqi began to think about other recipes.

"There are black pigs raised, but not many. The meat of those pigs is so fragrant when stewed. It's different from the white pigs you usually eat. The pigs we raise here can only be raised on the mountain. The only downside is that these pigs don't grow very big; they can only grow to a hundred pounds at most."

He Daqi's eyes lit up instantly.

As a seasoned gourmand, he didn't even need the older woman to explain in detail; he had already guessed what kind of pigs were being raised here.

When we first came here to film the variety show, we discussed with the local cultural and tourism authorities and the county government that we would use a portion of the revenue from filming the variety show to support a local specialty agricultural project.

The original idea was that since this is a mountainous area, we could cultivate a specialty fruit or set up a mushroom farm, and then improve the roads so that farmers could transport their fruits and other agricultural products out of the area.

He Daqi now feels that the plan can be slightly modified.

Fruit cultivation can be abandoned, and mushroom farming is still on the agenda for now. However, pig farming can be supported on a large scale. I'll go check in a bit to see if it's the kind of black-skinned pig I know. If it is, we don't need to consider it anymore; we can just let them raise it on a large scale.

These pigs are difficult to raise and have a low meat yield, but the price is good. If they can really scale up, with several villages working together, producing several thousand pigs a year, He Daqi could easily take over the entire operation.

Sending gifts to relatives and friends, and providing employee benefits, several thousand heads are probably still not enough for He Daqi.

Thinking of this, He Daqi took out his phone and dialed Lu Yang's number.

"Junior brother, do you know which household I live in? Come over here quickly, let's go and see what the pigs raised here are like."

"Okay senior brother."

Lu Yang was handling the negotiations with the local authorities, so He Daqi couldn't overstep his bounds. Besides, he found it troublesome, so he decided to let Lu Yang handle it again.

……

……

In the evening, He Daqi led his two children to sit in front of the dilapidated house, each holding a bowl of cornmeal porridge, slurping it happily.

The two little ones kept asking questions and wouldn't stop for a moment. They had only ever had millet porridge in Beijing, so this sudden sip of cornmeal porridge was quite novel to them.

He Daqi only remembered this when he saw the old lady feeding the chickens with cornmeal in the morning. He asked for some cornmeal and cooked it himself when he got home that night.

The local corn grown here is glutinous corn, so the taste is slightly different from that in the north. Also, people here like to add some vegetables when cooking porridge, while cornmeal porridge in the north is mainly dry.

Back when food was scarce in the north, corn husks, ears, cobs, kernels, and even stalks were all used. They were all ground into powder by pulling a millstone with a tractor's belt. As long as it wouldn't kill anyone, that was real cornmeal. The cornmeal we eat now is considered refined grain.

The adult and two children were slurping away when Lu Yang strolled over with his entourage.

"Senior brother, I've confirmed it. It is indeed a Tibetan pig, but there aren't many places where it can be raised. The local authorities are organizing people to study it. This is Professor Wang from the Agriculture Bureau. He came all the way from the province. He started his journey here this morning without stopping and only just arrived."

He Daqi quickly stood up and politely shook hands with Professor Wang.

If Lu Yang hadn't told him, He Daqi would never have guessed that he was a professor. His hands were calloused, his skin was dark, he was very thin, and he wasn't very tall. The only feature that might match a professor was that he wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

If you encountered such a person on the street, your first thought would definitely be that he's a bricklayer on a construction site, or someone tying steel bars.

"Professor Wang, thank you so much for coming over so late at night. Actually, this matter is not urgent. We can discuss it after we finish filming the variety show."

"I'll call you Daqi, haha. My daughter really likes you. There are posters of you all over the wall in the house. No matter whether things go well here or not, you have to give me a couple of autographed photos. Whether my daughter will behave this year or not depends entirely on your autographed photos."

Professor Wang's words surprised He Daqi slightly, but he nodded with a smile and readily agreed.

Professor Wang was clearly not one to beat around the bush; after exchanging greetings, he went straight to explaining the breeding challenges here.

Tibetan pigs require a relatively high altitude for breeding, ideally above 3000 meters, though 1000 meters is also acceptable, but they are more difficult to care for. These pigs are omnivorous and mostly free-range, making them very susceptible to parasites and heavy metal contamination. Bacterial contamination is also difficult to control, so the local breeding scale has always been small, and the input and output are not proportional. Raising one of these pigs will only yield 100 jin (50 kg) at slaughter, while raising a white-skinned pig well could potentially yield 400 jin (200 kg). You don't need to think too much about either option.

This is why He Daqi has so much money to burn. He can guarantee sales channels and organize large-scale breeding. Breeding can avoid parasites and heavy metal contamination, and can pass inspection and quarantine. Otherwise, the local government might not have supported this project.

He Daqi asked a few questions and then had Lu Yang talk to Professor Wang.

This was just a chance event. It would be great if it succeeded, but it wouldn't matter if it didn't. However, He Daqi felt that it should succeed because the copyright of this variety show sold for an amazing price. With less than a tenth of that, it would be enough to overcome all kinds of difficulties.

By the time Lu Yang led Professor Wang to the village chief to arrange accommodations and returned, it was completely dark. Today was the first day of official filming, and Lu Yang wanted to discuss the details with He Daqi, especially He Daqi's unconventional approach, which Lu Yang deeply resented.

"Let's change the plan for tomorrow. We'll postpone going to the fields for a day. I went to the farmer's house this morning and told him to slaughter a pig to try it out tomorrow. So we can change tomorrow's task to a pig-slaughtering feast. The adults can help slaughter the pig, and the children can wander around the village doing tasks. The reward for the task is to get pork."

"Senior brother, can't you come up with a proper plan instead of this haphazard approach? So all that script we wrote for the variety show was for nothing? It's all just last-minute changes, isn't it?"

Lu Yang's tone was full of complaints. He Daqi's demands made Lu Yang feel that the burden on his shoulders was a bit too heavy. What kind of good person would be a director and have to manage rural support projects? This job is too trivial. If he hadn't agreed beforehand, he wouldn't have filmed this lousy variety show.

"Just tell me if you can do it or not! Do you still want to film 'Flower Opening: Hundred Flowers Kill 2'?"

Seeing Lu Yang complaining with a gloomy face, He Daqi smiled and made it clear to him who the king and queen were.

The results were outstanding, and Lu Yang was immediately full of motivation. Let's do it! We absolutely have to do it, even if the dog doesn't, we'll do it ourselves.

"You're capable! I'll stay up all night writing the script, and I guarantee it won't delay tomorrow's filming."

……

……

the next day.

After breakfast, the adults among the program's guests all went to the farmer's courtyard.

The children aren't here yet; they're running around the village excitedly, busy doing tasks and earning rewards.

"Daqi, didn't you say most of the shots were of the children? Why did you schedule them for us too?"

He Bing is well-versed in the secrets of laziness. He's not even old yet, but he's already dreaming of retirement. It sounds like he's hoping that Charlie will work hard to make money so he can just slack off.

"Isn't this an opportunity to broaden our horizons, Uncle? Have you ever seen a pig being slaughtered? You should learn a few tricks from this great opportunity so you can use them in your performance."

"Get lost, you're probably the only one here who's never seen a pig slaughtered," He Bing retorted irritably.

He was right. He Daqi had only ever seen pigs being slaughtered on TV or in videos; this was the first time he had ever seen it in real life.

He was the only one with energy right now, happily following the farmer's instructions to busy himself with various tasks, just waiting for his two little ones at home to finish their tasks and come over to collect their reward and share the pork.

Everything went smoothly, or rather, uneventfully, until Old Zhang decided to show off his skills.

With a sharp stab, the knife plunged into the pig's neck. Zhang Yimou, like a ruthless killer, moved with incredible speed and precision.

He was quite adept at it, so he took the large basin to collect the pig's blood and even got excited, demonstrating his skill in butchering a pig.

He Daqi clicked his tongue.

Old Zhang is truly a master of disguise. I wonder if he imagined this pig to be He Daqi, because he slashed it mercilessly, leaving no room for mercy.

Skinning, tendon-removing, bone-breaking, and meat-chopping—even the farmers praised Yi Mou as a promising talent, saying that when they want to take a break, they can try this kind of work.

While He Daqi was watching Old Zhang's busy work, and the children were charging through the village, a convoy of nannies slowly drove in along the winding village road.

Vivian Chow, wearing sunglasses and with a camera hanging around her neck, got out of the car with a smile.

Realizing she couldn't disturb the filming, she quickly instructed the driver to park the car near the production team's bus. Then, without taking anyone else, she cautiously peeked around the village, first looking for her two children. She spotted them from afar, hid behind a wall for a while, and saw the two kids running around happily with their friends. She gradually felt relieved.

Not seeing He Daqi, Zhou Huimin wasn't in a hurry and wandered around the other side of the village, avoiding the film crew.

This village was chosen as the filming location after searching many places. It has mountains and water, and the scenery is pleasant. Although there are only 40 or 50 households, they grow all kinds of crops, have running water and electricity, and there is even a small shop in the village. It is truly a small but complete village.

At this moment, Zhou Huimin got excited and took pictures of everything she saw. She even wandered around someone's field twice, picked a tender cucumber, and casually grabbed a bunch of grapes.

The villagers assumed she was also part of the production crew, since the village chief had given instructions beforehand. So when they saw Zhou Huimin trample the seedlings in the field, no one bothered her, and as for the cucumbers and grapes, no one said much.

Zhou Huimin was quite happy, feeling that the people here were simple and honest, but it was a bit far from the city. Otherwise, it would be nice to have a house here.

After wandering around for a while, stopping and taking pictures and finishing the grapes, she suddenly bumped into the children rushing towards the other side of the village to do a task. Zhou Huimin was startled and almost fell into the ditch. She hurriedly hid and only came out of the shadows when she saw her two children running past happily. She covered her mouth and laughed for a long time.

After laughing, he took out his phone and called He Daqi.

"Daqi, where are you?"

"Of course, we're filming a variety show in a mountain village. Where else would we be?"

"I was asking for the exact location. I'm in this village too. Just now, Huanhuan and Lele were running really fast with their little baskets. Luckily, I hid, or they would have bumped into me."

He Daqi remained silent for a while before replying, "Why are you causing trouble when you have nothing better to do? Wouldn't it be better to stay home quietly?"

"No way! Why should you bring the kids out to film a show while I have to stay home?"

"Have some conscience when you speak. Don't forget that our mother is at home too. She can tell you're not filial just by listening to her."

"Hehe, anyway, I'm here, you figure it out."

(End of this chapter)