Guide to Rising to Power as a Wife in Beijing's Elite Circle

Baizhou City, located at the southernmost tip of China, is mountainous and remote, and its economy is underdeveloped. Yet, it occupies a peculiar position on the film and television cultural industry map of Zhongzhou City.

The city's film and television group applied for film and television subsidies five times within a year, totaling over eight million yuan. During the same period, similar companies in Zhongzhou City applied an average of one and a half times.

However, after reviewing all the application materials, Chen Nuo discovered a common thread: the reviewer for every single document pointed to the same person: Wang Longjie, the founder of Baizhou City Film and Television Group.

Chen Wei decided to personally lead the team to Baizhou, with Chen Nuo accompanying her. Ning Zetong joined under the guise of supervising the special campaign to address cultural security, while Luo Zhendong accompanied them under the pretext of cooperating with the investigation within the public security system.

After a three-hour drive, we got on the highway. The mountains on both sides were layered upon each other, shrouded in a thin mist, like a watercolor painting that hadn't quite dried.

"Sister Chen Wei," Chen Nuo lowered her voice, "why did Baizhou City apply for film and television funding five times in one year?" She pulled out a form from the documents and pointed to the dense data on it, "The first four were approved, totaling 23 million. The fifth is still under review. But when I checked the project progress, the first four projects were all for paying the extras' salaries for his scholarship extras training program."

"A student aid extras training class?"

Chen Nuo handed over the document. "It's a boarding school specifically for girls from impoverished mountain areas. There's no tuition, and room and board are provided. Currently, there are 120 students, all girls. Wang Longjie explained that he went to the mountains to gather material in his early years and saw many girls who couldn't afford to go to school because of poverty, and some were even abandoned. He couldn't bear it, so he founded this school. He personally funded it and also accepted donations from the community. However, he couldn't support so many students' living expenses on his own, so he had to apply for funding from Yingchuan."

Chen Wei took the document and quickly glanced through it. "Five film and television grant applications in one year, with most of the funds going towards the operation of the educational academy. Who knows if it's ostensibly for education, but actually just a way to siphon money off film and television grants?"

"No way, Sister Chen Wei, this Wang Longjie has a very good reputation in Baizhou. Locals call him 'Bodhisattva Wang.' They say he used all the money he earned to start schools and saved hundreds of girls. He's a really good person."

Chen Wei closed the document. "A Bodhisattva? Even Bodhisattvas need offerings from the people. Now he's spending the country's money. Eight million a year, that's forty million in five years. Forty million, how many schools could that build? How many students could that sponsor?"

She knew Chen Wei was right, of course, but she also knew that some things weren't as simple as right or wrong. It was a fact that Wang Longjie's educational academy saved those girls. It was also a fact that he misappropriated national film and television funding.

Saving lives and extorting money are done with the same hands. If you cut off those hands, what will happen to those girls?

After entering Baizhou territory, the road began to narrow. The mountain road wound its way through the landscape, and occasionally a few mud-brick houses would flash past the car window, with white slogans painted on the walls: "Boys and girls are the same, daughters also carry on the family line."

Looking at the slogans outside the window, Chen Wei suddenly spoke up. "Little Chen, do you know what Baizhou is most famous for?"

Chen Nuo thought for a moment. "Grow sugarcane? Grow oranges?"

"No," Chen Wei shook her head. "It was throwing away a child, a dead baby girl."

Chen Nuo's hand paused slightly.

Chen Wei looked out the window, her voice soft, as if she were telling a story unrelated to herself. "More than ten years ago, I went to Baizhou with my superiors for a grassroots survey. Back then, Baizhou was much poorer than it is now. There were no paved roads, no streetlights, and no running water. We went to a village called Shitang, which was deep in the mountains. Cars couldn't get in, so we walked for two hours along mountain paths."

She paused for a moment, as if recalling something.

"When I entered the village, I passed a very dilapidated and old house. On the straw next to it lay a child, very white, wrapped only in a tattered piece of paper, with maggots wriggling around. I went over to take a look, and she was already dead. It was a baby girl, and she looked like she had just been born. Her eyes were closed, as if she were asleep. But she would never wake up."

Chen Wei's voice was flat, as if she were reading a report. "I asked the homeowner, an old man, where are the child's parents? The old man glanced at the child, cursed, 'Who's so heartless as to abandon their child again?' Then he picked up a shovel from the roadside, scooped the baby girl into a woven bag, and threw her into the ditch. From beginning to end, it was like shoveling a pile of cow dung."

Chen Nuo's hands began to tremble.

"Later I learned that there were female infant corpses everywhere in that village, on the ridges of the fields, in the ditches, and in the latrines. Fat ones, thin ones, big ones, small ones. Some were abandoned right after birth, and some were abandoned after being raised for several months but no longer able to be raised. In the latrine behind the public toilet, dozens of small corpses were soaking and turning green. It was impossible to tell whose they were, how many months old they were, or whether they were dead or alive."

Chen Nuo looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"The most terrifying thing was a family that had two daughters in a row. The third one was also a daughter. The midwife brought the baby out and said it was a girl. That old woman took a shovel and with one shovel, she chopped the newborn girl in two at the waist. Then she dug up the soil under the threshold, buried the lower half in it, and then put the threshold back on. Do you know why she buried the threshold? It's said that if she buried it, the next girl to be reincarnated wouldn't dare to enter this house. She'd be afraid of being chopped up. Afraid of dying."

Chen Nuo's stomach began to churn. She remembered growing up in the city, never having gone hungry, never having been cold, never being abandoned. She thought that's how the world was, that girls and boys alike had food and clothing, education, and school.

She didn't know that in the same country, under the same sky, some baby girls were cut in half at birth and buried at their doorsteps.

"Why do the old people over there hate girls so much? Girls are human too. Aren't they flesh of my flesh?" Chen Nuo's voice carried a hint of resentment.

"Because boys are weighed in the womb so they can work, earn money, and support you in your old age. Girls, on the other hand, are light. As light as a blade of grass, a handful of ashes, or a bone buried under a doorstep. So they are thrown away, drowned, or cut up because they have no weight."

Chen Nuo remained silent.

"Then do you know why girls crave love and security, and so desperately want to be loved in relationships?"

Chen Nuo was taken aback. "Why?"

"Because boys are surrounded by love from a young age. They are loved by their parents, by their grandparents, and by society. From the moment they are born, they are told that they are the pillar of the family, the hope of the future, and that they can do anything, even taking a dump, they will be praised for their strength. This kind of love is the taste of power. Those who are loved stand on high. Those who are not loved kneel on low. After kneeling for a long time, they want to stand up. How do they stand up? By being loved. By someone telling them that they deserve to be loved. But that kind of love is given by others, not something they grow themselves. Others can give it to them, and they can take it away. So they are always lacking, never enough, and always waiting."

In Chen Nuo's mind, she had thrown a stone. The stone sank to the bottom, creating slow ripples.

"The essence of a lack of love is that women haven't grasped power. It's not that others don't give it, it's that they don't have it themselves. Once you have it, you won't care who gives it to you. Once you have it, you'll disdain those empty promises men make. Because you know that love from others is unreliable. Love from the power you hold in your own hands is reliable."

Chen Wei smiled. "Outsiders do think Wang Longjie is a truly great philanthropist. He saved hundreds of girls, gave them food, shelter, and education. He even arranged jobs for them. But what outsiders don't see is what kind of food he gave them, what kind of shelter they had, and what kind of books they received."

She paused, her voice lowering. "One hundred and twenty girls, all female. The youngest is two years old, the oldest is eighteen. There are no boys, no male teachers, no male security guards. In the entire academy, apart from Wang Longjie, there isn't a single adult male. Tell me, why?"

She opened her mouth, wanting to say it might be for easier management, but the words caught in her throat. Because that didn't make sense. A normal boarding school couldn't possibly be without an adult male. It wasn't that they couldn't have one, it was that they dared not.

"And another thing," Chen Wei continued, "did you notice? On the college's list of students receiving financial aid, he remembered every girl's birth date, home address, parents' names, and contact information perfectly. But there was one column that was blank."

Chen Nuo picked up her phone and pulled up a screenshot of the list. She looked at it column by column: name, age, place of origin, family situation, enrollment date, grade, and the last column, which she hadn't noticed before because it was completely blank.

"What's that column for?" she asked.

"Where will you go after leaving school?"

One hundred and twenty girls—some will grow up, some will leave. Where did they go after turning sixteen, eighteen? There's no record on the list.

There are no records of further education, no records of employment, and no means of contact. It's as if it never existed.

"Were they assigned to work as extras at a film studio?"

"Being an extra is a job, but not a destination. A destination is where they went after leaving the academy. Did they rent a house, or get married? Did they go to work in a factory, or return to their hometown? Are they alive, or are they gone? Nothing is written on the list. It's not that they forgot to write it, it's that they dared not write it. Because if they did, someone would investigate. If they investigated, someone would find out that none of those girls who were over sixteen years old had ever left Wang Longjie's sight."

Some things aren't about whether you can do them, but whether you dare to look at them. If you look, you won't be able to sleep. She dared not think further, because further down lay an abyss.

The sunlight shone warmly on Chen Nuo's face, but she felt cold. A cold that seeped into her bones. She thought of the 120 girls, the blank "Where to Go After Leaving School" form, and Wang Longjie's kind face. Was he really helping them?

Were they truly rescued? Or did they fall from one pit into another? She didn't know. But she knew they needed someone to find out for them. And that person could be her.