The male supporting character was actually myself.

If I were to change the plot so many years ahead of schedule, how would Song Aiguo perform then?

According to what Little White Cat said about the online forum where the auxiliary system and the script team were arguing, the script team that writes the story also has a lot of trouble revising the story, so why make things difficult for them?

What if they were all hosts who were forced to write scripts like me? It's kind of pathetic to think about it. They'd be scratching their heads bald from constantly rewriting scripts.

“Getting electricity is no small matter.” Jiang Chen shook his head and refused, “You have to consider the specific situation in our village.”

Now, we rely on this one dry rice crop and the little bit of sweet potatoes and potatoes that depend on the weather all year round. We can't even afford to eat enough rice or meat. Even if we get electricity, how many households can afford to pay the electricity bill?

Perhaps we should consider something more realistic.

Li Changgeng took this matter very seriously and hurriedly asked, "For example? Brother Jiang, you've seen a lot of things, you have to find a way to help our village!"

"I'm going to town later. When I come back, I'll sponsor the team to get some wheat seeds. After the rice harvest this fall, we'll try to see if we can plant wheat. The well has been dug and there's water, so irrigation shouldn't be a problem. The wheat should be able to grow. Once we harvest a season of wheat, the village will be able to eat wheat flour."

"Brother, as long as you can get us some wheat flour, you're my brother, I'll do whatever you ask! Our village is too poor. Now that I've become the acting village chief, I can't be complacent. I have to find a way to make sure everyone has enough to eat!"

Chapter Eighteen: What more could you want?

Jiang Chen looked at Li Changgeng, who was full of energy, and the young men who were busy digging wells and looked thin and pale, and felt a little worried.

If we don't help them, they'll have to live in poverty for many more years, unable to even get enough to eat.

They've helped them, but how will the protagonist, Song Aiguo, perform when he returns from university?

On one hand, there's the problem of feeding the poor;

On one hand, there's the personal contribution of the hardworking and positive protagonist;

The script hasn't been updated yet, so it's really difficult to choose the best supporting actor for this villain role.

The Li family village promoted planting two crops a year, which was also an idea that the protagonist, Song Aiguo, came up with to increase yields based on the characteristics of the land after returning from his studies.

However, at that time, Lijiazhuang had not yet implemented the household contract responsibility system, and the land belonged to the collective. The villagers had long been accustomed to this kind of life of just getting by and eating from the same pot, and no one from top to bottom had thought of making a change.

Plant wheat?

Can something that our ancestors never tried, grown in the cold and water-scarce winters of the mountains, survive?

Buying seeds costs money, and planting them adds a lot of unnecessary work.

The simple and beautiful life of having a wife and children in a warm bed when the weather turned cold was gone. In the dead of winter, they still had to take care of the crops, and the commune members were not in high spirits.

The village chief and the village party secretary also do not support such expenditures that may or may not yield any results.

Song Aiguo had no money in his pocket, and he almost wore himself out trying to persuade them. In the end, he spent his own money to buy seeds and cleared the land to plant a crop for a season.

After working from dawn till dusk to finish other tasks, they still had to take care of the crops. It wasn't until the following summer, when the wheat was harvested and milled into white flour, that the young people in the village started to get active.

If you want to eat steamed buns made from white flour, you have to grow wheat. That's why planting wheat in late autumn and harvesting it in early summer has become popular.

The next crop to be promoted is corn planted in early summer and harvested in late autumn.

The two-season-a-year planting method broke the centuries-old planting tradition in Lijiazhuang. Low-yield dry rice was eliminated, and villagers now have wells to irrigate their fields, resulting in a sharp increase in yields.

Subsequently, Song Aiguo, who had already gained some influence, began to lead everyone to open brick kilns to fire bricks, build fish ponds, contract mountains to plant fruit trees, and engage in aquaculture... Taking advantage of the era's rapid changes sweeping across the mountains and the outside world, he finally overcame countless difficulties and led everyone to common prosperity.

I'll provide the team with wheat first. As for whether to plant it or not, and whether it will be successful, that's up to the villagers of Lijiazhuang to decide!

Anyway, I would never go from house to house begging and pleading like the protagonist to plant wheat.

"Host, why don't we just wipe out the male lead's scenes before the script team comes up with any new plot?" The little white cat sneakily approached, licking its paws and muttering, "It's because the script always makes you do bad things and be the villain. Let's block the script team's escape route first, and see how they write it!"

Jiang Chen shook his head and refused, saying, "We can't deliberately push the blame and steal credit. It's a positive and uplifting story to begin with. If we let others mess it up, the script team will definitely complain if they can't continue writing it."

By changing the plot in advance through spoilers, we are in the wrong even if the main censorship system investigates.

"Just find loopholes to complete the task without doing anything wrong, what more could you ask for?"

"Oh, I see." The fluffy little dumpling rubbed its face against its host's neck and softly praised, "Host, you must be loved by everyone and admired by flowers in the real world."

After all, who could resist the charm of such a handsome man—gentle, considerate, humorous, thoughtful, and knowledgeable? Host, is your real life quite colorful?

Reality?

Jiang Chen was slightly taken aback.

There's a vague dream in my memory. Although I don't remember the specific details after entering the memory machine, I occasionally recall some ethereal and unreal fragments.

Heartless or compassionate?

The person I am in real life and the person I am in the mission world are really like two different personalities...

Without answering the little white cat's question, Jiang Chen walked home thoughtfully.

"You're back?" Song Aiwan greeted him with a smile and brought him a bowl of warm sugar water. "Have some water, the temperature I cooled it down to is just right!"

How's the well digging going? Is everything going smoothly?

Take your clothes off and I'll wash them for you; look how much dirt is on them.

Song Qingshan was hanging the bedding on the clothesline in the yard to air it out when he saw the two of them being so affectionate. He quickly finished and turned back into the house.

Upon noticing her father's avoidance, Song Aiwan blushed slightly, but a smile involuntarily appeared on her face.

"No need to wash it, I'll take you to town later anyway." Jiang Chen took the bowl, drank the water in one gulp, patted the dirt off his clothes, and laughed, "I'll take you there first, and then buy some big items for the house."

I'll teach you how to use the washing machine, so you won't have to wash clothes by hand anymore.

"You stay home and tidy up your room. I'll come back and pick up Aiguo and Uncle. From now on, we'll focus our lives in town; it's much more convenient there."

She took the bowl, her face slightly flushed with confusion. "What's a washing machine? Is it a machine that can wash clothes? All machines are expensive, don't waste money."

"It's just washing a few clothes, I've been doing it since I was a child."

The mission world is largely similar to the 1970s as I know it, but some things appeared earlier.

According to the newspaper, "Yulang" brand gas water heaters have already appeared, but most people in the town still use coal stoves, so even if they have water heaters, they can't use them for the time being.

Televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, sewing machines, bicycles, and other convenient living items can be bought with extra money. We need to get them all today so they can live a stable life in town.

As for the village, we'll have to see how the script team writes the next part of the story before deciding whether to intervene in advance.

"You can take my sister to stay in town." Song Aiguo, holding a book, hesitated for a moment and said softly, "My dad and I will stay here for now, until I get into university..."

Jiang Chen glanced at the first-grade elementary geography textbook in his hand, interrupted him, and asked, "You've hardly studied geography before, right? Do you know it all? If you go to live in town, I can help you find a private tutor. Nobody wants to come to the village just to teach you."

One sentence left Song Aiguo speechless.

I was born in a chaotic era. The few teachers in the village had all been sent for reform, and the little knowledge I had was taught to me by my father, who taught me by counting on his fingers.

For subjects like Chinese, mathematics, history, politics, and geography, this was the first time I'd ever seen formal textbooks, let alone studied them systematically. I relied entirely on what my father taught me and tried to learn by reading, which was indeed quite difficult.

Song Qingshan was in a dilemma. He still had his pride and didn't want to rely on his son-in-law too early.

But my son really loves reading, and with the times stabilizing, his knowledge will come in handy sooner or later. We can't let our children's prime years be wasted.

“Then, you two siblings go to town. I’ve spent most of my life in Lijiazhuang, and it’s really hard for me to leave my hometown.” After thinking it over, he made a concession.

"No way!" Song Aiwan and her brother refused in unison.

“You don’t have a household registration in the village, so you can’t work to earn work points and get food. What are you doing staying in this lousy place?”

Song Aiguo gritted his teeth with hatred as he recalled the past, "We'll all go out and make our way. In the future, I'll go to university and get a job, and I'll repay Brother Jiang Chen. We'll never come back to this lousy place again!"

Chapter Nineteen: A Wonderful Life I Never Dared to Dream Of

“What do you mean by ‘shabby place’?” Song Qingshan’s face immediately hardened. “This is our home, our roots! No matter how far a person goes or how high they fly, they can’t lose their roots.”

Song Aiguo sneered, "What roots? I've heard you say since I was a child that our ancestral home is Dayang City, which is a big city!"

Our ancestors had no connection with Lijiazhuang.

They just sought refuge here; how could they have taken root here?

You wait, when I get into university, I will definitely find a good job and work hard to earn money. Then I will go back to Dayang City with Brother Jiang Chen and my sister.

I also want to buy the house that my ancestors lived in!

Although I've never been there, you once mentioned that ancestral home..."

Before he could finish speaking, Song Qingshan, his face pale with anger, took off his shoe and smacked him twice with the soles, shouting in a low voice, "You didn't get beaten up enough in the past few years, did you? You dare mention Dayang City?!"

"Little ancestor, can't you keep your voice down?" Song Aiwan was also terrified and stepped forward to press her younger brother's head down and push him into the house. "Your reactionary remarks will ruin our family!"

Now that things are finally starting to look up, how dare you say that?

Jiang Chen: ...

As the saying goes, "once bitten, twice shy," having experienced an era where a casual remark could be taken as irrefutable evidence, this father and daughter are now utterly terrified.

Song Aiguo was clearly still unconvinced, and Song Qingshan held him in the room for half a day of ideological education.

He overheard it and, sure enough, it was the same line of dialogue used to guide the protagonist in the original storyline.

The mistakes of the times should not be used to hold grudges against certain implementers; reading can enlighten the mind, clarify reason, and distinguish right from wrong; the ignorance and wickedness of the people of Lijiazhuang are all due to their backwardness and lack of culture, and so on.

Finally, the old scholar solemnly advised his son that regardless of whether he could get into university in the future, he should not hate these ignorant and fearless people because of his own experience. On the contrary, he should help them distinguish right from wrong and use scientific knowledge to get rich...

"Host, does this old man have masochistic tendencies?" The little white cat was full of questions. "If you repay evil with good, how will you repay good?"

Back then, the whole family was forced to kneel in the street and be beaten, and the villagers didn't even offer an apology. The protagonist just gave up his promising future and resolutely returned to help with the construction. I've read the original story; after those people got rich following the protagonist, none of them felt remorse for what they did before.

On the contrary, Song Aiguo was busy transforming the mountain village and leading the villagers to prosperity. Not only did he miss his first love, but he also failed to marry her even when he was over forty years old, and later he developed a lot of illnesses.

In a family of three, the older sister fell to her death, the old man starved to death, and the protagonist, Song Aiguo, survived, but in the end, he only received praise from the villagers. What good was that?

Everyone praises him as a good person, saying he can bring his sister and father back to life?

Or can I help him win back his first love?

In the end, he's still all alone, looking at his first love's photo with tears in his eyes.

The difference between you and the villain is that the protagonist suffers most of his life and has some money in his old age; you enjoy most of your life, but in the end you mess things up and die poor and destitute.

I think the protagonist's life was so hard mostly because of the old man's brainwashing.

Jiang Chen looked at the serious-looking little white cat in surprise, "Oh, you've learned to analyze things now? You even remembered the original plot so clearly after watching it?"

"Of course!" Praised, the fluffy little ball puffed up its chest, swayed its big, fluffy tail, and meowed, "I'm trying to grow up too!"

"Hmm, I've gained quite a bit of weight."

"How dare you! Host, I'm helping you analyze the script, and you're complaining about my chubby figure!"