A god-tier fishing spot, anglers lined up to give me money.

Over by the reservoir.

In the real-time footage captured by Yang Qi through the system monitoring, large areas of land cracked open, and large sections of the mountain peaks sank into the cracks.

With a loud bang, a hilltop disappeared.

The 100-acre reservoir is being expanded...

The ground was constantly being torn open, and the cracks spread along the mountainside, swallowing everything in their path.

Trees, rocks, soil, and entire slopes plunged into the unseen abyss with a tremendous roar.

Water flowed in from all directions, causing the original reservoir shoreline to recede and expand outwards.

100 mu, 200 mu, 300 mu, 500 mu...

The cavities left by the vanished hilltops were all filled by the floodwaters.

A new body of water is forming, much larger, deeper, and more expansive than the original.

Half an hour later…

The village alarm sounded for nearly half an hour, and the cell phone...

At the entrance of Yangjia Village, a large number of rescue teams arrived.

The red and blue flashing lights made people dizzy, and people in different colored uniforms jumped out of the car, quickly unloading equipment, answering walkie-talkies, and setting up a cordon.

Rescue team leader Zhao Zhu jumped out of the passenger seat of the first fire truck. Standing at the village entrance, his 1.85-meter frame was like a wall. Holding a megaphone, he shouted, "Everyone, step back behind the yellow line! Do not crowd around, and do not approach any buildings!"

He strode into the cordon, his eyes scanning the crowd before locking onto the middle-aged man at the front.

"Who is the village chief?" Zhao Zhu shouted.

"I am," Yang Guocheng stepped forward to greet him, "Yang Guocheng, the village chief of Yang Family Village."

"Okay, I'll ask and you answer."

Zhao Zhu switched the megaphone to his left hand, took out a pen and a waterproof notebook with his right, and asked quickly and steadily, "Is anyone on the mountain?"

"no."

"Injured personnel?"

"no."

"How damaged is the house?"

"no."

"...?"

".....No!"

Zhao Zhu asked Yang Guo questions, and Yang Guo honestly replied that there were none.

Zhao Zhu closed the notebook, his brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly, and was about to ask something else.

A short firefighter ran over quickly and whispered in his ear:

"Captain, we've scanned the epicenter on the mountain; the instruments show it's above magnitude 7, almost as strong as that massive earthquake years ago. But down below..."

The short firefighter hesitated for a moment, then continued, "Not a single tile fell from the houses. The epicenter was so loud, but the village seems completely unaffected. This doesn't make sense."

Zhao Zhu raised his hand to interrupt him: "I know."

Looking past Yang Guocheng, the rows of old houses with earthen walls and green tiles, and the newly built guesthouses behind him, all had neatly arranged tiles, not a single one loose.

If the house hadn't been shaking so much and the movement up the mountain hadn't been so loud, the data on the instruments wouldn't have lied.

He couldn't believe it was an earthquake.

"Do not act rashly."

Zhao Zhu stuffed the notebook back into his pocket, turned around, and waved to the person behind him who had asked for help.

"Everyone, listen up: Groups one and two, maintain order and extend the cordon by fifty meters; Groups three, four, and five, cooperate with village officials to count the names of everyone, registering each person without exception; Group six..."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Group Six, continue scanning the area around the epicenter of the earthquake. Do not venture deep into the area; just take photos and record the surrounding area. Be careful."

"Yes!" came a chorus of responses.

When the cordon was re-established, the villagers had already begun to be evacuated out of the village in an orderly manner under the arrangement of village officials and rescue workers.

The elderly carrying children, young men supporting their wives, and tourists dragging suitcases—the group walked along the village road outwards.

Some people looked back at their own houses and muttered a few words with lingering fear.

Some people confidently asserted that surviving such a calamity would surely bring good fortune.

Yang Guocheng walked at the back of the line, clutching the roll call list in his hand, checking each person's number one by one.

……

By daybreak the next day, the reservoir had completely changed its appearance.

The original hundred-acre water surface has been transformed into a vast lake covering thousands of acres.

The evening news reported it that very evening.

A magnitude 7 earthquake struck the Houshan Reservoir in Yangjia Village, Xitian Town, Hongdu City, Yunnan Province at midnight last night. The earthquake had a very shallow focal depth and was strongly felt.

More than a thousand local villagers and tourists were all safely evacuated without any casualties or collapsed houses.

The reservoir expanded from its original size of a hundred acres to a lake of a thousand acres due to geological changes, which experts called a "rare earthquake spectacle".

Following this, major platforms simultaneously pushed out the news, with each headline more frightening than the last.

"Zero casualties in a magnitude 7 earthquake! Yangjia Village achieves a miracle."

"A hundred-acre reservoir transformed into a thousand-acre one overnight; the reason behind it is..."

The accompanying photo is an aerial view of the new reservoir taken by drone, showing its vast expanse of blue water surrounded by mountains, a scene as beautiful as a painting.

On the third day, media outlets from all walks of life flocked to Yangjia Village with their cameras and microphones.

The road at the entrance of the village was blocked by interview vehicles. Reporters chased after Yang Guocheng and Yang Siwen with microphones in hand, while the two old village officials smiled so broadly that their wrinkles appeared on their faces.

Finally, a large group of people flocked to the new bank of the reservoir because they all said, "The owner of the fishing spot is Yang Qi, a college graduate who returned to his hometown to start a business."

As a result, Yang Qi was eating a steamed bun when he was cornered at the gate of his own yard.

With half a meat filling still in his mouth, seven or eight microphones were shoved in front of him, and a camera behind him was flashing a red light.

The female reporter at the front, dressed in a business suit, stood with a standard professional smile on her face as she held the microphone to his mouth:

"Hello Mr. Yang, I'm a reporter from Southern Province TV. What are your thoughts on the changes to the reservoir?"

Yang Qi swallowed the steamed bun, wiped his mouth, and smiled at the camera:

"Hmm... I was very scared during the earthquake, but thankfully everything is alright. Regarding the changes in the reservoir, I want to say that I welcome anglers from all over the world to fish at my fishing grounds. A great place for big fish, you'll never come home empty-handed."

The female reporter then asked, "Now that the reservoir covers thousands of acres, there must be many issues regarding its subsequent management, right? Could you tell us about your plans?"

Yang Qi scratched the back of his head and thought for a moment: "Plan...plan, let's see. There's a solution step by step."

"Uh," the female reporter smiled, "Mr. Yang has a really optimistic attitude. Okay, thank you, Mr. Yang!"

After the camera cut away, Yang Qi stood there for two seconds before Chen Zilu poked her head out of the courtyard and whispered, "Has that annoying reporter left yet...?"

This earthquake made Yangjia Village famous.

The village gained national attention due to the earthquake, and also attracted the attention of higher-ups.

In particular, Yang Qi, a college graduate, is a typical example of returning to his hometown to start a business and leading the whole village to prosperity through green tourism.

What's behind a village that suffered zero casualties in a magnitude 7 earthquake?

Is it due to effective grassroots governance, strong villager sense of ownership, or some unique talent of the young boss? Speculation abounds.

But its popularity is undeniable; it's number one on the list.

……

A week later, the village returned to normal life, and the roads were repaired to be even smoother than before the earthquake.

Special funds were allocated from above for post-disaster reconstruction, but even though the houses didn't collapse, all the money was spent on infrastructure and tourism development.

Everyone was worried that the earthquake would wipe out the customer base, but the number of visitors increased several times over.

Tourists who come here always say, "This village survived a magnitude 7 earthquake, we have to come and see it."

They also euphemistically call it an "earthquake blessing tour".

People who come here say they want to share in the good fortune of Yangjia Village. They were unharmed even in a magnitude 7 earthquake. This blessing is more effective than burning incense at a temple.

The energy radiation also indirectly boosted the tourism industry in the entire Xitian Town. The town's homestays were fully booked, and even the hotels in the neighboring town benefited from the effect.

The cement road at the entrance of the village is lined with stalls selling local specialties, such as mountain products, wild vegetables, and handmade tofu. An old lady selling cold noodles from a tent can sell out two large buckets in a morning.

The once deserted bus station in Xitian Town now dispatches more than a dozen tourist buses a day.

The restaurants in town are busy from morning till night, and the stoves in the kitchens never go out.

Yang Qi stood on the bank of the new reservoir, looking at the thousand-acre lake.

Because of the assistance from the Gu family, the Bai family, and higher-ups, and because there wasn't a single ungrateful person in the entire village,

He successfully secured the contract for the thousand-acre lake, and to improve the fishing area, he hasn't opened for business for a week.

Chen Zilu walked over from the side and asked, "Yang Qi, am I also going to the conference in early November?"