How did hiring someone to press a pig image during Chinese New Year become a top trend?

The wind in the yard seemed to have suddenly stopped.

Only Director Wang Xingbang's heavy breathing sounded like a broken bellows.

The corn cob in Xu An's hand rolled to the ground.

He instinctively sprang up from the stool.

He rubbed his hands haphazardly on his dusty military overcoat.

An instinct called "disaster association, unique to social anxiety" instantly took over his brain.

It’s over.

The director rushed over in such a hurry, something must have happened.

Did the molten iron fireworks last night burn down someone's plastic greenhouse?

Or did someone in the air-raid shelter eat all the dried sweet potatoes without paying?

or……

Xu An's gaze fell on the Huawei Extraordinary Master standing next to him on a stone roller.

The black and gold body gleamed in the sunlight with a luster that seemed to say, "I'm expensive, you can't afford to pay for it."

"Chief..."

Xu An's voice trembled slightly, and his neck involuntarily shrank into his collar.

"Is it...is it that phone...?"

"You're here to collect your cell phone, right?"

Xu An quickly took the phone off the stand.

They moved with extreme care, as if they were holding a grenade that could explode at any moment.

"I told you this thing is too expensive and I'm not used to using it."

"I was live streaming all night, so it might be a bit hot, and the battery is almost dead."

"Please keep it safe. It's not damaged, but... there might be some corn silk stuck to it."

Xu An handed over the phone.

Those hands, slightly red from peeling corn, were still trembling slightly.

The live stream screen shook slightly, but it didn't disconnect.

More than 1.7 million netizens watched as this "refreshing blogger" who had just rejected a 5 million yuan contract stood by and watched.

At this moment, he was like a primary school student who had made a mistake, eager to hand over the "tools of the crime".

[ID: Reality of Humanity]: Hahahaha! Look how scared the kid is!

[ID Extraordinary Master]: Huawei: Don't I have any pride? Am I that hot as butter?

[ID I Want to Laugh]: Xu An: Take it away! Don't keep me from peeling corn!

Wang Xingbang was stunned.

Seeing Xu An's apprehensive expression, he swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

The bureau chief, who was usually decisive and efficient in the county government compound, suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

What a good boy.

Others who have this much data would practically want to weld their phones to their hands.

He is fine.

They were afraid of taking even a penny of public funds for themselves.

"What are you collecting?!"

Wang Xingbang shoved Xu An's hand away with such force that Xu An almost stumbled.

"Once something is given away, there's no reason to take it back!"

"This is for you!"

"From now on, these will be your office supplies! They'll be used specifically to promote Huixian County!"

Xu An blinked, looking completely bewildered.

"No... Chief, this will cost over ten thousand..."

"I couldn't afford this thing even if I shelled corn for a year."

Wang Xingbang took a deep breath to calm his excited emotions.

He pulled over a small stool from the side, not caring that it was dirty, and plopped down opposite Xu An.

"More than ten thousand?"

"Xiao An, do you have absolutely no idea what you've been doing these past two days?"

Wang Xingbang pointed to the outside of the courtyard wall.

The luxury car at the village entrance has left.

But the faint sound of car horns could still be heard in the distance.

"Do you know?"

"Although most of those thousands of netizens have gone back."

"but!"

"And there's a steady stream of people heading towards Huixian!"

"They couldn't get into the village, so they settled down in the county town!"

"The county guesthouse is full! The hostels are full! Even the lobby of the bathhouse is packed with people sleeping!"

"Yesterday's restaurant revenue was three times higher than last year's Spring Festival!"

"Even Wu Dalang, the pancake seller, sold out last night and had to keep kneading dough all night!"

Wang Xingbang became more and more excited as he spoke, spitting as he spoke.

"A phone costing over ten thousand yuan is nothing!"

"The GDP you brought to the county this time is enough to buy hundreds, even thousands of these crappy cell phones!"

Xu An was stunned.

He opened his mouth wide, trying to convert "pancakes" into "several thousand mobile phones" in his mind.

The CPU is a bit overloaded.

But he understood one thing.

I didn't cause any trouble.

It seems... he even performed a meritorious service?

"That's good then."

Xu An breathed a sigh of relief and put his hands back into his sleeves.

"As long as it doesn't cause trouble for the county, it's fine."

"Why did you rush over here in such a hurry? Is there any other instruction you need?"

Wang Xingbang was both annoyed and amused by Xu An's stubbornness.

He took out his phone and opened a calculator app.

"I gave no instructions."

"I've come to give you good news."

"All you do is peel corn, haven't you ever checked your own account's backend?"

Xu An shook his head.

"I didn't watch it."

"I dare not look."

"There are too many red dots. It makes me dizzy and gives me trypophobia."

In the live stream:

【ID Versailles】：? ? ?

[ID Top-Level Understanding]: Too many red dots causing dizziness? I wish I had this condition too!

【ID Lin Jia Da Shao】: Ahem, the main event is coming, everyone buckle up, I'm going to take screenshots for memes.

Wang Xingbang sighed.

"Fine, you don't need to look at it, I've already calculated it for you."

"The revenue from live stream donations these past two days."

"There are also traffic incentive subsidies from the platform."

Wang Xingbang pressed a few buttons on the calculator.

Then he shoved the screen right in front of Xu An.

On it was a string of numbers so long it made Xu An's eyes dizzy.

"Deduct the platform's commission, deduct taxes."

"A conservative estimate."

"At this number."

Wang Xingbang held up three fingers.

It waved in front of Xu An.

"Three...three thousand?"

Xu An tentatively asked a question.

Thinking to myself, three thousand yuan is enough to buy Grandpa a decent electric tricycle.

It can also get you a bigger color TV at home.

Good.

Wang Xingbang almost fell off the bench.

He rolled his eyes and said through gritted teeth:

Add three zeros at the end!

"Three million!"

"It's three million! RMB!"

boom--!

It was as if a bolt of lightning had struck Xu An precisely on the top of his head.

Xu An felt a buzzing in his ears.

The world around us seemed to have stopped.

The two crows stopped cawing.

The sound of corn being peeled also disappeared.

Only the three words "three million" seemed like three giant golden millstones, relentlessly grinding through his mind.

Three...three million?

Xu An subconsciously looked down at the half-peeled ear of corn in his hand.

This corn costs 50 cents a pound.

One mu of land can produce 1,000 jin.

That's five hundred yuan.

Three million...

How many acres is that?

Six thousand mu?

That means planting corn on all the land in the village, and it would take ten years?

Or a pig?

A pig can now be sold for three thousand yuan.

Three million...

Are there a thousand pigs?

That means filling up that air-raid shelter from yesterday, stacking pigs on top of each other, and even building the pigsty up to Uncle Er's roof.

Xu An's pupils began to dilate.

That was genuine panic, the kind that truly belonged to honest people...

The scene in the live stream.

Xu An remained in that position with his mouth slightly open, his eyes glazed over, and his hand still tightly gripping the corn cob.

It froze for a full minute.

It's as if it has been transformed into a sculpture titled "The Bewilderment After Getting Rich".

At this moment.

On a highway hundreds of kilometers away.

A black Mercedes-Benz G-Class is speeding by.

In the passenger seat.

Lin Zixuan held her phone, watching Xu An's expression in the live stream.

I laughed so hard tears almost streamed down my face.

He slapped his thigh frantically while sending voice messages in the core fan group of 500 people called "Protecting the Best Xu An in the World".

[Lin Zixuan]: Hahahaha! I knew it! I knew he would react like this!

[Lin Zixuan]: This guy must have been mentally calculating how many ears of corn that was!

[Da Biao]: Oh my god, I see he's so scared his face has turned white. Should we call 120?

[Da Biao]: If it were me, I would have said something sarcastic, but he just crashed.

The live stream chat was filled with comments that flew like snowflakes.

[ID Calculator Comes to Life]: Blogger: Don't talk to me about money, it hurts our feelings, because I have a heart condition.

[ID: I'm so jealous]: Three million! I've never seen so much money in my life!

[ID: Human Sober]: Don't be so sour, upstairs. This is what they deserve. There was no script, no formula; it was nurtured little by little by millions of netizens!

[ID wants to go to Xujia Village]: Look! Bo has taken the initiative!

In the picture.

Xu An finally restarted successfully.

He swallowed.

His Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty.

then.

He turned his head and looked at his grandfather, who had been sitting silently beside him.

His eyes held a cry for help.

"Master..."

"Was our family...was our family landlords before?"

Am I dreaming?

Grandpa is tapping his pipe.

Upon hearing this, the old man didn't even lift his eyelids.

"dream?"

"You can dream about having this much money?"

"You've only ever dreamed of eating meat buns since you were a kid."

Grandpa stood up, put his hands behind his back, and walked up to Xu An.

He glanced at Director Wang's calculator.

Then he looked at Xu An's pathetic appearance.

Three million.

"Is it a lot?"

Xu An nodded frantically.

"Too much, sir! This is far too much!"

"We could tear this house down and build a palace over it!"

Grandpa snorted.

"That means we'll just eat it with pickled vegetables right here."

"If this were in the city, it would only cost the price of a toilet."

"We'll see."

"Did you steal this money? Or rob it?"

Xu An shook his head so hard it resembled a rattle drum.

"That settles it then."

Grandpa reached out his rough, calloused hand and patted Xu An on the shoulder.

"This is a reward from everyone because they see you as honest."

"Just like in the old days, if an actor sang well, people in the audience would throw money at them as a reward."

"Since you took the money..."

"We have to keep this show going and do it well."

"Don't get carried away with the money and go buy those fancy, shabby junks."

Xu An listened to his grandfather's words.

The heart that was about to leap out of my throat slowly returned to my stomach.

Yes.

This was given to me by everyone.

It wasn't a windfall; it was earned little by little through the generous donations from strangers, older brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts.

Xu An took a deep breath.

He looked at Wang Xingbang again.

"Chief."

"Can I withdraw this money?"

Wang Xingbang was delighted.

"Of course! Of course!"

"As long as you complete the real-name authentication, the tax will be deducted and the money will be credited to your account immediately!"

Xu An nodded.

His expression suddenly turned serious.

That "clear stupidity" contained an unprecedented firmness.

"That's right."

I'll bring it up later.

"Let's take some of it and pave the village road again."

"That day I saw that Brother Da Biao's car had a scratch on the undercarriage, and I felt really bad for him."

"There are also air-raid shelters."

"Since everyone likes living here, let's get someone to connect the electricity, install an exhaust fan, and get some decent beds."

"We can't really make everyone sleep in sacks."

"The rest..."

Xu An looked at the corn cob in his hand.

I looked again at the vast wheat field.

"I want to save the rest for Academician Zhang."

"Set up that...breeding base."

"I've heard that doing scientific research is quite expensive."

"Even though we don't understand science, we can still buy some fertilizer and provide meals for the scientists."

"I can afford this money."

Wang Xingbang's smile froze on his face.

He looked at the young man in front of him wearing a tattered military overcoat.

Suddenly I realized...

This is a socially anxious young man who usually shrugs his neck and tries to avoid people.

At this moment.

His body became unusually tall.

There was a three-second silence in the live stream.

Then, the screen was flooded with comments like "tears welling up in my eyes".

There were no grand pronouncements.

There was no show of me donating a certain amount of money.

Only the most basic plans.

Road construction.

Repairing the cave.

Support scientific research.

Every penny is meant to be spent on others.

[ID with a tendency to cry]: Waaah, his first reaction was to feel sorry for Da Biao's car chassis.

[ID Agricultural Powerhouse]: Leaving money for scientific research? This vision puts countless so-called big stars to shame!

[ID Guardian Xiao An]: This is the kind of internet celebrity we want to see! This is the kind of person we want to protect!

Xu An didn't read the comments.

He picked up another ear of corn.

"Splash—"

The sound of corn kernels falling echoed through the courtyard once again.

This time.

Xu An thought the voice was really nice.

It sounds even better than that "three million" figure from before.

"Um... Director."

Xu An said in a low voice as he peeled the shell.

"Now that we have the money..."

"Then can I...?"

"Could you broadcast it for a shorter time?"

"I want to go help my second uncle's family till the land."

"His donkey is too old to work anymore."

"I have strength."

Wang Xingbang looked at him.

a long time.

The bureau chief smiled.

His face was all wrinkled from smiling.

"middle!"

"Go if you want to!"

"Take this extraordinary master with you."

Even if it's just patting a donkey's ass.

"I bet everyone will love watching this!"