Me! A high-ranking official!

Forcing it is impossible, and moral blackmail is powerless in the face of survival pressure. Since it cannot be solved from within the family, we can only look for solutions from the outside and from the system!

"Two-thirds of the villagers are elderly, and this is definitely not just Aunt Wang's problem. If I could come up with a way to coordinate the elderly left behind in the village and solve their problem of being cared for in their old age..."

A very forward-thinking idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

The issue of elderly care, in essence, boils down to money and people. He has plenty of money right now, but he can't just hand out cash directly; that would only breed a bunch of greedy parasites. He must create a self-sustaining, self-sustaining grassroots elderly care model in Luo Village, like an "environmentally friendly bank"!

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Zhao Jianguo woke up.

After washing up, the first thing he did was open his phone and send a long message to the "Loving Family" WeChat group of Luojia Village: "Good morning, everyone! I'm Zhao Jianguo, the first secretary stationed in our village. Tonight at 8 PM, I will be starting our second live broadcast of 'People's Voices' at the village committee. In tonight's broadcast, I will first give you a detailed report and breakdown of the operation of our village's environmental protection bank and the progress of the lighting project over the past week. Secondly, I will also plan out several key tasks that our village will focus on in the coming week and in the short term. These are matters of vital interest to every household, so I hope everyone will actively participate in the discussion in the live broadcast room after dinner and offer your valuable opinions!"

At nine o'clock in the morning, the roar of a car engine suddenly came from the originally quiet dirt road in the village.

Boss Chen's efficiency was indeed high. The materials for the lighting project began to arrive one after another. Several small trucks, fully loaded with brand-new solar street light poles, high-brightness LED light heads and batteries, slowly drove into Luojia Village.

As the workers deftly unloaded the streetlights on both sides of the two main streets that intersected, the villagers who had been idle at home were drawn out.

The crowd gathered by the roadside, pointing and admiring the gleaming solar panels and sturdy steel pipe supports in the sunlight.

"Wow, look at this light bulb! It's huge! If it were set up, wouldn't it be as bright at night as during the day?"

"Absolutely! This new Secretary Zhao is really capable! He just announced over the loudspeaker yesterday that he was going to install streetlights in our village, and today they've already been delivered! His efficiency is a hundred times better than those old guys who all talk and no action!"

"Secretary Zhao is a good official who gets things done! Our village's days of being shrouded in darkness every night are finally coming to an end!"

The villagers were buzzing with discussion, praising Zhao Jianguo, the new Party Secretary.

Hearing the commotion outside, Zhao Jianguo came out of the village committee office, walked to the pile of streetlight materials, greeted the villagers with a smile, then squatted down and personally picked up several light bulbs and batteries to carefully inspect them.

Although he didn't understand engineering, he had seen too many shady practices of using inferior materials within the system. He specifically used his mobile phone to search online for the standard parameters of lighting project materials stipulated by the county, checked the thickness of the pipe wall by comparing the model and material, and looked at the power rating of the solar panel.

"Boss Chen is quite honest; this batch of materials is genuine and of good quality, no adulteration." After confirming that everything was correct, he felt relieved, dusted off his hands, and returned to the village committee office with peace of mind.

Sitting behind his desk, Zhao Jianguo opened his notebook and began to carefully organize the various data to be discussed in tonight's live broadcast, as well as his mental outline for breaking the deadlock in the elderly care problem left behind in rural areas over the next week.

Just as he was about to get into the flow of his thoughts, a rapid vibration came from the phone on the table.

When I picked it up, I saw it was a call from Boss Chen.

As soon as the call connected, Mr. Chen's voice came through the receiver, frantic and sweating profusely, even bordering on exasperation: "Secretary Zhao! Something terrible has happened!"

His heart skipped a beat, and he asked in a deep voice, "Boss Chen, don't worry, what happened?"

"Our truck carrying the second batch of materials was stopped in Dongsanzhuang Village, right before your village!" Boss Chen complained urgently. "Those villagers have completely blocked our truck on the village road, saying that our truck damaged their village's asphalt road. They're refusing to let us leave and demanding compensation! Secretary, what should we do?"

His brows furrowed instantly. Had he damaged the road surface?

"Are our trucks overloaded?" he immediately asked.

"No! How could it be overweight, Secretary!" Boss Chen complained bitterly on the phone. "I know the village roads are bad, so we specifically used small trucks weighing just over a ton each for short-haul transport. That weight is about the same as the trucks we usually use to haul cabbages! How could it damage the road surface? The asphalt road in Dongsanzhuang Village is already like a rotten twisted dough stick, full of potholes! They're just nitpicking, deliberately making things difficult for us, trying to extort money from us!"

Upon hearing this, his eyes instantly turned cold and sharp.

"I understand, Boss Chen. Tell the driver not to get into a conflict with them and to stay calm. I'll be right there!"

After hanging up the phone, he walked out of the village committee without saying a word, borrowed Liu Zhijun's old two-wheeled electric vehicle next door, twisted the throttle, and drove straight to Dongsanzhuang Village along the dirt road leading out of the village.

Dongsanzhuang Village is located at the eastern end of Luojia Village. The distance between the two villages is less than two kilometers. Dongsanzhuang Village is similar in size and population to Luojia Village. Both are hollow villages that have not changed much over the years. People from all around live in this area. Logically speaking, if a passing vehicle carrying dozens of streetlights were to pass by, the villages would turn a blind eye.

Ten minutes later, he rode his electric bike to the entrance of Dongsanzhuang Village.

As soon as we turned onto the main road of the village, the scene before us confirmed what Boss Chen had said.

On a narrow, bumpy cement road, a small blue truck carrying street light pipes was completely blocked in the middle.

The people blocking the traffic weren't young adults wielding wooden sticks, but rather seven or eight elderly men and women with white hair and wrinkled faces!

These elderly men and women each carried small stools and folding stools, surrounding the front and back of the small truck. Some were fanning themselves with palm-leaf fans, while others were puffing on their pipes. They sat openly in the sun, chatting in twos and threes, completely acting as if they owned the place.

The driver, a man in his thirties, was sweating profusely as he stood in front of the elderly men and women, holding two packs of cigarettes. He kept bowing and pleading, speaking softly, but the old folks seemed deaf to him. They chatted and fanned themselves as usual, not even glancing at him or paying him any attention.

He frowned and pushed his electric scooter over.