From collapsing rooftop to poverty alleviation village chief

"Village Chief Zhang, Director Liu, I'll be going now."

Lin Ye stood up, smiled, and took his leave.

"Take care, Village Chief Lin."

Zhang Dafu and Liu Ying had no choice but to get up and see him out. Liu Ying was still upset and muttered to herself.

"Can a mere ledger really control us forever?"

Lin Ye didn't look at her, and said with a smile, "There's a line in one of my favorite movies: 'This secret, I'll eat you for the rest of my life.'"

After he finished speaking, he walked out of the courtyard, leaving behind Zhang Dafu and Liu Ying, whose faces were grim.

Zhang Xiaoshan caught up from behind, "Village Chief Lin, wait for me!"

Liu Ying was furious. "You brat, come back here right now!"

"Director Liu, please don't interfere with my work." Zhang Xiaoshan turned around, made a face, and ran away, leaving Liu Ying slapping her leg and howling behind her.

"My daughter, whom I raised with such care, is siding with outsiders! This is outrageous!"

"That's enough!" Zhang Dafu's chubby face turned ashen. "Aren't you ashamed?"

Liu Ying pinched the fat on his arm hard. "You think I'm shameful? So what if I didn't give you a son? Go find those two widows and have one for you! Oh, by the way, they like pretty boys now, they don't want you anymore!"

Zhang Dafu, wincing from being pinched, dragged the woman into the house, slammed the door shut, and yelled, "Are you done yet! This Lin Ye isn't as easy to deal with as the previous two kids. What are you still making a scene for?!"

Liu Ying finally let go and plopped down in a chair. "Zhang Dafu, why don't we give him that ledger? We didn't take much. The reservoir is for the good of the village; we're doing a good deed!"

Zhang Dafu sighed, "Look at Lin Ye's expression. Do you think he'll let us off the hook if he really finds something on us?"

Thinking about Lin Ye's unfathomable, calm smile just now, Liu Ying felt a chill run down her spine. He didn't seem like a pretty boy in his early twenties at all.

"How about... we let Xiaoshan marry him, so we can be family? He can't keep messing with us then, right?"

Zhang Dafu stared at Liu Ying in shock. "What are you talking about?"

Liu Ying said, "Since Xiao Shan's reputation is ruined anyway, no one in the nearby villages is willing to marry her. Why not give her to Lin Ye? It's better than having no one want her, right?"

Zhang Dafu slowly sat down, pinching his greasy chin. "What if Lin Ye leaves after only a few days?"

Liu Ying laughed and said, "Isn't that even better? Xiao Shan can go to the big city with Lin Ye and won't be talked about in the village anymore, and we won't be embarrassed because of her."

Zhang Dafu was reluctant to let his daughter marry so far away, but after thinking about the various discussions in the village after she returned, he finally agreed.

"Then don't stop Xiaoshan and Lin Ye from getting to know each other. Young people should cultivate their relationship more."

Liu Ying warned, "We also need to be careful of Qin Guifen and Sun Xiuying; both of these widows are not simple!"

Zhang Dafu nodded, then suddenly asked, "When will Teacher Su be back?"

Liu Ying was taken aback. "You mean, Teacher Su and Lin Ye are about the same age, and they..."

She then shook her head. "I'm afraid Teacher Su doesn't think much of Lin Ye?"

Zhang Dafu thought for a moment and said, "Someone like Teacher Su might not be able to catch Lin Ye's eye. Xiao Shan and Lin Ye are more suitable."

"Village Chief Lin, there's only one household left, Yang Xiaofang's house. She doesn't live in the village; she lives on that hillside."

At the village entrance, Zhang Xiaoshan pointed to a small hillside across the way, where there was a field of rapeseed flowers, but it was not yet the season and the flowers had not yet bloomed.

Behind the rapeseed field, there is a mud-brick house of less than 20 square meters.

The two climbed the hillside, crossed the rapeseed field, and arrived at the small house. Zhang Xiaoshan whispered:

"Village Chief Lin, Sister Xiaofang is a little afraid of people. Please don't mind if she doesn't want to talk."

Lin Ye nodded. According to the records, Yang Xiaofang broke her left leg when she went up the mountain with her mother when she was fifteen years old. She did not receive timely treatment and became disabled.

After her parents passed away, Yang Xiaofang lived alone here and rarely showed her face. The village would send people to check on her from time to time to make sure she was alright.

Zhang Xiaoshan gently knocked on the door. "Sister Xiaofang, the new village chief Lin has come to see you."

There was no response from inside, so Zhang Xiaoshan knocked on the door again. "Sister Xiaofang, are you in there?"

Still no response, Lin Ye asked, "When was the last time the village sent someone over?"

Zhang Xiaoshan thought for a moment, "It's been about half a month."

His expression immediately changed, "Could it be...?"

Lin Ye called out loudly, "Yang Xiaofang, it's me, Lin Ye, I'm coming in now!"

After saying that, he pushed hard, and the door, which was unlocked, was pushed open. The two quickly went inside.

The room was small and cramped, with only a table and a bed. The table was neatly set with bowls, chopsticks and a porcelain basin. The whole room was clean and tidy, not as messy and dirty as I had imagined.

A woman in her late twenties lay on the bed, her body thin and frail, her hair neatly combed back, her oval face pale as if she had never seen the sun.

Hearing the sound, she didn't move, her eyes fixed on the wooden beam above her head.

If it weren't for her chest still heaving, anyone would have thought she was dead.

Zhang Xiaoshan rushed over, "Sister Xiaofang, Sister Xiaofang, what's wrong?"

The frail woman on the bed finally came to her senses and struggled to sit up. When she saw Lin Ye, she quickly lowered her head and instinctively hugged her arms and shrank back.

"Xiaoshan, I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

Yang Xiaofang lowered her head and apologized, her pale face devoid of color.

She had a nightmare just now, dreaming that she fell off a cliff and that her parents died. The terrifying images left her unable to recover for a while after waking up.

She was only able to escape the nightmare when Zhang Xiaoshan and the man rushed in.

She had never seen this strange man before, and she didn't dare to look up at him.

Lin Ye smiled and said, "Hello, Yang Xiaofang, my name is Lin Ye, and I'm the new village chief."

Yang Xiaofang hugged her thin shoulders, her hair falling on either side of her face, and whispered with her head down:

"Village Chief Lin, hello."

Lin Ye sat down at the table. "Your place is quite nice. It must be beautiful when the rapeseed flowers bloom in the summer, right?"

Yang Xiaofang kept her head down and said, "Thank you, Village Chief Lin."

Lin Ye smiled and chatted casually with her, but he did most of the talking while Yang Xiaofang answered a few words quietly.

Soon, information also appeared on the last house on the Qiongyu Village minimap.

Head of Household: Yang Xiaofang

Members: None

Poverty Alleviation Index: 8

This is undoubtedly the household with the lowest poverty alleviation index in Qiongyu Village.

Indeed, it's already quite remarkable that a disabled orphan girl can survive.

Fortunately, this is China, where every citizen has basic living security. If this were in the West, Yang Xiaofang would probably have been killed long ago.

[Completed basic survey of Qiongyu Village, rewarded with 300 poverty alleviation points]

[Total number of poverty alleviation sites: 600]

Having finally completed the investigation, Lin Ye breathed a sigh of relief when another line of light blue text appeared before his eyes.

[Poverty Alleviation Task 006: Complete the renovation of dilapidated houses in Qiongyu Village. Task Reward: 500 poverty alleviation points]