Marry a female star at a bargain price

The rumors about Han Xixi having plastic surgery have finally made it to the top of the trending searches.

Although at the event where she was endorsing the Jiarun brand, Han Xixi responded quickly to the "plastic surgery" speculations and also promoted the brand with high emotional intelligence, turning the crisis into an opportunity and making the sponsor very happy.

However, the photos of her appearing at the plastic surgery hospital are undeniable and irrefutable evidence.

The event has ended.

Those paparazzi photos quickly went viral online, attracting widespread attention.

Netizens quickly realized what was happening.

At the endorsement event that day, Han Xixi skillfully defused the crisis by responding eloquently to the questions raised.

But ultimately, she did not deny going to the plastic surgery clinic.

With these irrefutable photos, it's hard for netizens not to believe that there's definitely more to the story.

Indeed, Han Xixi's analysis makes a lot of sense; four days is not enough time to complete a cosmetic surgery.

However, this does not prove that she has not had plastic surgery.

Perhaps she had surgery previously and was just getting touch-ups on the day she was photographed? Or maybe she hasn't had any cosmetic surgery, but went to the hospital for a check-up before starting any procedures?

There could be a million different guesses.

Unless Han Xixi provides a reasonable explanation for the secretly taken photo, she will never be able to clear her name.

However, she was destined not to reply.

After all, Xie Xiaowei had finally regained the courage to face life, and Han Xixi couldn't possibly expose her best friend's ordeal online and let the whole internet discuss it just to clear herself of the rumors.

Xixi clearly distinguishes between what is important and what is not.

She swallowed this bitter pill without hesitation, simply considering it a contribution that provided a lively topic for the bored lives of netizens.

Xixi didn't take it to heart at all.

The National Day holiday is over, and this year is also coming to a close soon.

It's strange, it's only October.

But once the autumn winds blow and the weather turns cool, light jackets are quickly replaced with cotton-padded coats and down jackets, and then New Year's Day and the Spring Festival arrive, and the year passes by in a blur.

Lin Xiao and Han Xixi had no time for sentimentality.

The couple was so busy they were practically on their feet, they had no time to lament the fleeting nature of time.

Just three days after resuming work following the holiday, the village directors of the 12 administrative villages in Xingguang Town, along with more than 40 enthusiastic villagers, came to the Xingguang Town government with gongs and drums, and presented 33 banners to the town mayor and deputy mayor.

The scene was so grand that it was filled with the sounds of gongs and drums, the crackling of firecrackers, the waving of red flags, and a sea of ​​people.

The twenty-odd cadres in the town government were completely bewildered and didn't understand what was going on.

When everyone's eyes swept over the bright red banner, they finally understood why the villagers were so excited.

The two words that appeared most frequently on the banner were "orange" and "Mayor Lin".

It's not that there's no connection, but rather that there's absolutely no relationship.

The villagers came to express their gratitude with gongs and drums, for no other reason than one thing: in the short eight-day National Day holiday, nearly 80% of the 10,000 mu of orchards and 20,000 tons of oranges in Xingguang Town had been sold.

That is 1.5 tons.

This is an extremely large number, so large that if those oranges were piled up, they could completely bury the town government building.

However, all those oranges sold out in just eight days.

What's even more outrageous is that these oranges aren't sold by villagers picking, packing, and shipping them themselves, nor are they sold by fruit vendors who pick them up at the market, sit by the roadside, or have them maliciously undercut by fruit merchants who come to the countryside to buy fruit.

Instead, they sell oranges at a "sky-high" price of around 4 yuan, allowing tourists to bring their own baskets into the orchard, pick the oranges themselves, weigh them, and pack them up to take home.

Fruit farmers don't need to work or pack the fruit; they can simply sit at the entrance of their orchard and sell almost all of their oranges.

After the tourists come out, they have to take them back to their own homes and sell them a farm-style meal for the price of the meal.

They're making an insane amount of money.

Of course, Xingguang Town was also a first-timer in agricultural picking, with little experience. During the National Day holiday, the influx of tourists far exceeded the carrying capacity of this small mountain town, resulting in chaos in all aspects, including order and service.

In the midst of the crowds, tourists inevitably felt resentful, so they indulged in all sorts of gluttony once inside the orchard.

But oranges are so juicy, eating them is no different from drinking water.

No matter how big your appetite is, you can only eat two or three at most. Women and children can't eat more than one.

So even if we take into account tourists eating in the orchard and the damage caused by the violence during the orange picking process.

The average selling price at the orchard can be maintained at around 2.5 yuan per kilogram, which is more than double the purchase price of around 1 yuan per kilogram by fruit vendors.

Moreover, engaging in fruit picking saves fruit farmers from having to do the work themselves.

After calculating everything, it's no exaggeration to say that they made a killing. How could the farmers not be overjoyed and beat drums to express their gratitude for the town government's miraculous operation?

Now, Mayor Lin is like a god in the eyes of the villagers of Xingguang Town. Everyone would love to build a shrine for him!

The small government compound was packed with lively villagers.

Lin Xiao finally understood the villagers' purpose, and then belatedly scratched the back of his head, feeling somewhat flattered.

Lin Xiao was also a little confused about himself.

Faced with pressure from superiors, media hype, online smear campaigns, and work stress, she can easily handle them with ease, effortlessly employing a series of clever tactics to turn crises into opportunities and resolve conflicts.

But now, faced with the genuine gratitude of the people, he felt at a loss, completely losing his usual composure and calmness, like a primary school student receiving an award for the first time.

Lin Xiao awkwardly rubbed his hands together, revealing two rows of bright white teeth.

The lively atmosphere in the courtyard had already been noticed by tourists from other places wandering around the town, and the area outside the large iron gate was filled with people holding up their mobile phones.

Although the National Day holiday is over, the number of tourists in Xingguang Town has decreased sharply.

However, many people still make a point of avoiding the peak tourist season during the National Day holiday to visit Xingguang Town.

Then, following the deafening sound of gongs and drums, I arrived at the town government building and was fortunate enough to witness this scene.

These photos and video clips were quickly uploaded to the internet.

Lin Xiao is trending on social media again.

Lin Dingliu's influence is such that he's bound to top the trending searches and spark discussions across the entire internet.

However, compared to before, this time the internet sensation is not just due to Lin Xiao's personal popularity. While his own ability to generate trending topics is certainly the primary reason, the more important reason lies in the fact that a central-level official media outlet reposted it.

The reason why Lin Xiao attracted attention and support from the central government was naturally because he used his position as town mayor to do practical things for the people.

This is a textbook example of a grassroots public official.

In today's context of economic downturn and increasing social resentment, the government is gradually increasing its efforts to promote truth, goodness, and beauty in society. The promotion and publicity of positive public officials has multiple benefits, including strengthening government credibility, easing tensions and conflicts between officials and the public, and promoting positive social energy.

This is something that governments at all levels have been vigorously promoting, and the publicity of various positive examples has never stopped.

However, due to the limited capabilities of local media, coupled with the fact that positive publicity itself is prone to provoking resentment, such publicity struggles to garner widespread attention and genuine approval from netizens, resulting in virtually no impact.

Many positive role models promoted at the city and county levels are merely self-entertaining activities, with no sense of public participation or attention.

This is not the public's fault.

The reason is... well, everyone knows.

Now, Lin Xiao, a super role model who is deeply rooted in the grassroots yet has an incredible online presence, has emerged. His development of navel orange picking has boosted the local agricultural economy and increased the income of villagers, making it a highly topical and fruitful grassroots service case.

In addition, the people's sincere gratitude to Mayor Lin for his actions and contributions, along with the scene of presenting him with banners and drums, was extremely moving.

This event was grand in scale, rich in content, and full of positive energy. It practically had all the elements that propaganda departments at all levels needed to carry out positive role model publicity, and all of them were pushed to the maximum.

With such a delicious meal served, how could the official media of the central government not take a picture and post it on their social media?

Although the instructions are not visible to the outside world.

However, after a highly authoritative newspaper published an article and promoted it prominently on its official WeChat account, within just one day, official media outlets across the country forwarded and promoted it, and Lin Xiao thus appeared openly in the official accounts of governments at all levels across the country.

This did absolutely nothing to expand his fame.

Because he is already a top influencer on the entire internet, he can't be any more popular or famous.

However, the official seal, and such a high-level seal at that, is equivalent to adding a protective talisman to his status as an "internet celebrity town mayor."

With this protective shield, those online forces that want to smear him will have to think twice before trying.

After all, before the authorities got involved, Lin Xiao was both the town mayor and a musician, belonging to both the system and the entertainment industry.

There has been little online criticism of his status as a civil servant.

Most of the negative comments revolve around his identity as a musician, subtly mocking him for enjoying the benefits and status within the system while making money in the entertainment industry, a typical case of occupying a position without fulfilling its duties.

But now, the authorities are stepping in to protect their own, saying that this musical prodigy is one of their own. Those in the entertainment industry, especially the music industry, who were driven to desperation and on the verge of death by Lin Xiao's extraordinary talent, have completely lost their way.

Previously, they could use various means to smear Lin Xiao and his wife in order to damage their reputation and give their own artists a chance to rise to prominence.

This kind of maneuver is similar to Han Xixi being publicly questioned about having "plastic surgery" at an endorsement event, and the news of Lin Xiao holding a concurrent position as deputy town mayor going viral online.

But now that the authorities have spoken out, this kind of shady tactic can no longer be done.

After all, once Lin Xiao and Han Xixi are involved, the discussions about them will no longer be limited to the internet and online circles. If those capital forces dare to cause trouble and incite public opinion to smear the couple, they will be smearing the positive role models at the grassroots level that the country is vigorously promoting. This is going against the central propaganda department.

This is extremely serious!
They've got some nerve, daring to mess with government officials?!
that's the truth.

With this statement from the official central media, the negative public opinion from a few days ago regarding Lin Xiao's subordinate working part-time as a ride-hailing driver and Han Xixi's suspected plastic surgery disappeared from the internet overnight.

The entire internet was so clean and righteous; those voices seemed to have never existed.

Faced with praise from the entire internet, Lin Xiao, being only human, couldn't help but feel a little arrogant.

But soon, he calmed down.

It wasn't that he felt unworthy of the honor or that his work didn't deserve such a great reputation. Rather, he realized that the close relationship he had painstakingly built with the villagers as the mayor of Xingguang Town was likely to be broken by his own hands before long.

After the National Day holiday, the pressure on the sales of navel oranges in Xingguang Town was greatly reduced, and the remaining hundreds of tons of oranges were sold out in an orderly manner through online live streaming channels.

This year, the orange harvest was bountiful, with both quantity and price rising, and villagers' pockets bulged overnight.

From the perspective of agricultural output and increased income for villagers, Lin Xiao and Xingguang Town's work during this period has been very successful.

But as the oranges were all sold, the focus of work in Starlight Town quickly shifted.

The next focus of his work, after many twists and turns, returned to the first tough challenge Lin Xiao faced upon arriving in Xingguang Town—the merger of villages and towns!
Since the project was initiated in the middle of the year, Lin Xiao has personally spearheaded its advancement several times.

Every time I go to the countryside for research, I encounter great resistance. The policy from above is to merge villages and towns so that villagers can move to the city and live in high-rise buildings. But the reality is that the villagers would rather toil in the barren land in the mountains than live a decent life in the town.

Lin Xiao had a thorough understanding of the reasons behind this and fully comprehended the villagers' choice.

However, the work still needs to be postponed.

Merging villages and towns is a central government policy and an inevitable trend of urbanization that cannot be changed.

Therefore, the only thing that can be changed is the villagers' mindset.

Three months ago, Lin Xiao decided to bring in Dijin Group, one of the top real estate developers in Yizhou City, to take over the construction of the second phase of the village consolidation and town merger project, namely the second phase of Xincun Garden.

The project site has already been determined.

After taking over, Dijin quickly assembled a team, and the project commenced construction in full swing.

Three months later, the land planning project had completed all the preliminary procedures and, like other residential communities, had built a "sales office" and a project model, and even a show flat.

These are all things that Lin Xiao requested the developer to provide.

The reason for "wasting" this money is to completely change the negative expectations and impressions that the poor quality of the first phase of Xincun Garden has brought to the villagers, so that they can see the quality of this project and the decent life they will have after moving into the city and living in an apartment building.

What you see is what you get, and life is worry-free.

Lin Xiao did this out of genuine concern for the villagers and to alleviate their resistance to the policy.

This method is completely without any problems.

If this sales office had been built three months ago, while it might not have completely changed the villagers' mindset and caused them to flock to the sales office to compete for housing, it would at least have allowed the work to proceed with less resistance and made grassroots work easier.

But now, it's even more difficult.

In the main conference room of Starlight Town.

After experiencing the positive encouragement from the central government's praise and the internet's buzz these past few days, all the town's cadres are now as energetic as if they've been injected with adrenaline, throwing themselves into their ordinary yet extraordinary posts and work.

However, when faced with the perennial topic of "merging villages and towns," several deputy town mayors couldn't help but look worried.

Deputy Mayor Ge, puffing on his cigarette, said, "Mayor, to be honest, I've been traveling around the villages these past few days and I've noticed a dramatic change in the villagers' spirits. They're all cheerful now, a far cry from their previous lifeless demeanor."

Deputy Mayor Dong Jianhui added, "Yes! And I've noticed that there are more young people in the village now. Many of the young people who went out to work have returned and started agritainment and homestay businesses in their old houses, which are doing very well!"

Office Director Yao Jun nodded and said, "After the National Day holiday and the booming sales of navel oranges, the villagers have really made money. With their pockets fuller, their spirits are naturally higher."

All the cadres nodded.

This achievement is also the reason why they were recognized by the central government and became famous throughout the internet.

But everything has two sides.

This experience gave them an unprecedented sense of value in their work, but it also added unprecedented difficulty to their next steps.

Ge Tao sighed, "Now, the villagers are full of expectations for the future. I am a local from Xingguang Town. Many of my relatives had planned to go and stay with their children who had settled in other places and rent out their orchards. Now, things are great. The orchard has a bumper harvest and the orchards are selling like hotcakes. The old man has earned seventy or eighty thousand yuan, which is more than my brothers, sisters, and cousins ​​who work in the city."

"Making money is certainly a good thing. The elderly people are helping their children support themselves and feel that their years of hard work in the orchard have paid off. They have given up their plans to move to the city and are preparing to expand their planting area next year to grow more oranges and earn more money. There are many similar cases in every village. As Lao Dong just mentioned, many young people are also returning to build homestays, and the village is getting more and more crowded!"

As Ge Tao spoke, he looked even more worried, as if these thriving scenes were a bad thing.

"Now, the villagers in each village are full of expectations for the future, which is completely different from the stagnant old people's villages that were like a pool of water before!"

Old Ge exhaled a puff of smoke. "But even when there was a large outflow of people and villagers' incomes were low, those old men and women were unwilling to leave their old houses and move into the resettlement housing in the town. Now, with the booming sales of navel oranges and the rise of cultural tourism, the villagers have all tasted the benefits, and they are even less willing to leave the village. This has raised the difficulty of our upcoming battle to merge villages and towns from the diamond level to the hell level!"

Lin Xiao burst out laughing: "Old Ge, you're something else! You can even use internet slang now, that's pretty trendy!"

Ge Tao chuckled: "Since we have such a top-tier town mayor, we have to keep up with the times and pay attention to the latest things on the internet, otherwise how can we work for you?"

Lin Xiao laughed heartily, but as everyone in the room joined in the laughter, he suddenly stopped and put on a serious face.

"We're talking business, stop flattering me!"

Mayor Lin said solemnly.

Ge Tao's grin vanished instantly, followed by Lin Xiao's words: "Come to my office to take the picture after the meeting!"

As soon as he said that, the whole room burst into laughter.

The tense atmosphere vanished instantly.

After the laughter subsided, Lin Xiao said with emotion, "I understand what everyone means, and I understand your fear of difficulty, and I understand the villagers' resistance. Everyone must feel now that we shouldn't have put so much effort into helping sell navel oranges this year. The villagers benefit, but our work will be even more difficult in the future. It's like lifting a rock only to drop it on our own feet, right?"

No one responded; awkward smiles appeared on everyone's faces.

Lin Xiao knew he had guessed correctly.

Everyone knows they shouldn't think this way, but the facts are undeniable, and that's indeed the case.

Lin Xiao did not criticize anyone.

These reactions and thoughts are all normal human feelings. Cadres are just ordinary people who earn wages and don't have so many lofty ideals and beliefs that transcend worldly concerns.

They just hope the work will be easier, that they can leave work on time every day, and that their wages will be paid on time.

However, in reality, even such a simple requirement is difficult to meet.

So everyone can only settle for second best, hoping that there won't be so many unpleasant things at work, and at least that they can have a good mood at work.

However, they are facing the upcoming battle to merge villages and towns.

The cadres were far from happy, because they could fully anticipate that this would be an extremely tough and arduous battle!

Lin Xiao didn't try to appease them, but simply looked around and told the cadres to look up at the office.

This was the first house he entered after arriving in Starlight Town.

It is also the largest room in the small Starlight Town office building.

Because the area is large enough, the 33 thank-you banners that were presented by various villages with gongs and drums a couple of days ago have all been hung here.

This is already the largest house in Starlight Town.

But if all 33 banners were fully unfurled, they would circle the house and still have room to spare.

Now, when the sunlight shines on this room during the day, it glows with red and gold light—red for the brocade cloth and gold for the words. Every stitch, every word, is a testament to the villagers' heartfelt enthusiasm.

Lin Xiao said with emotion, "I won't make any grand claims. Just for these 33 banners, I'll accept whatever obstacles or difficulties arise in the next phase of our work!"

In the conference room.

More than twenty cadres stared blankly at the wall covered in gold and red, and for some reason, they all became excited, their eyes shining brightly.

Suddenly, a "snap" sound rang out in the room.

Everyone was shocked.

Looking in the direction of the voice, one could see Deputy Mayor Ge Tao, his face flushed, panting heavily as he excitedly and fiercely shouted, "Suanqiu, let's not talk about the past, let's just focus on moving forward!"

He shouted his final words with fervor:
"Just do it!!"

(End of this chapter)