Rebirth: 1977

After hanging up the phone with Ye Tianshui, the smile on Wu Pingtao's face slowly faded.

He took out a thick stack of papers from the drawer and stared at them.

This is what he wrote down about what he saw and heard during his two months in Meihua County, as well as ideas that Ye Tianshui told him about how to develop Taibai Mountain resources and lead Meihua County to quickly get rid of poverty.

The planning map and budget that Ye Tianshui needed were very simple. The first step was just the financial budget and planning for building a highway.

No matter how many treasures there are in Taibai Mountain, without a good transportation road to transport the fresh goods out, all ideas will be in vain.

In addition, when Wu Pingtao came to Meihua County, he went directly to the village and had in-depth exchanges with farmers and hunters about the "land division and household responsibility" plan suggested to him by Ye Tianshui.

Here, the advantages of Wu Pingtao's ten years of working in the countryside became apparent. Not only was there no language barrier, but his dialect, which was so pronounced that the locals could mistake it for that of a 'local', allowed him to quickly integrate into local life.

Bi Tianliang, the county party secretary, originally wanted to maintain a good relationship with Wu Pingtao, and there was no such phenomenon as the two teams stepping on each other and fighting for resources as many other teams do.

This reduced a lot of obstacles for Wu Pingtao when he was doing things according to his own ideas.

The leaders of the Meihua County Party Committee and the County Government are both "new officials", and many people are eagerly waiting to see the "love-hate" drama.

In particular, the following five were commune secretaries promoted by Bian Kang. Without Bian Kang, they wanted to wait and stand in line again.

They took turns to maneuver between the secretary and the county magistrate, and after several rounds of flattery, Bi Tianliang was still lukewarm.

Wu Pingtao was neither humble nor arrogant.

They were not given any useful information.

"Secretary Bi, are you familiar with these commune secretaries?

How are their work abilities?

At the end of a meeting, Wu Pingtao humbly sought out Bi Tianliang to learn about the situation.

Although he knew that Bi Tianliang had only been in office two days earlier than him, Bi Tianliang was at least a local cadre.

Even though they were separated by a county, he had served as a deputy county chief for several years at the grassroots level. He must have more experience than him who had come here from the capital across thousands of miles and had never dealt with these local cadres, right?

“County Magistrate Wu, I’m not familiar with them either, they were all promoted by the former county party secretary.

They should all have matching abilities, right?

What did you find? Is there anything that doesn't meet your requirements and needs to be replaced? "

According to the different division of labor, the commune secretary is under the jurisdiction of Bi Tianliang.

But Meihua County is not big, and it is difficult to divide the work in a very detailed and appropriate manner. It is understandable if the county magistrate wants to intervene.

Moreover, the original Meihua County team was accustomed to Bian Kang being in charge, and now both teams finally had a leader. Logically speaking, the first thing a new official should do after taking office is to consolidate the authority that belongs to him, right?

But Bi Tianliang was nearly fifty years old, a typical local cadre, who worked diligently through thick and thin. He had no ambition, but he accidentally became the county party secretary. He always felt that his ancestral graves were filled with shame.

He positioned Wu Pingtao as a person who came from a prominent family in Beijing and was a top student at Qingdao University, and who would definitely have a bright future.

The mayor of Meihua County was only his starting point, and for him, being the secretary of Meihua County was already the limit of his life.

He did not intend to act like a secretary, he just wanted to serve Wu Pingtao and be a stepping stone for him. After Wu Pingtao "spread his ambitions and fly high", he would come back to protect him and become his backer.

I still have more than ten years left in this position, so, haha, everything will go smoothly for me, and Meihua County will surely have good weather and good harvests!

If Wu Pingtao knew what Bi Tianliang was thinking, he would definitely give him a finger in his heart.

Wise man!

"Secretary Bi, you misunderstood me. I just took over the position of county magistrate and I am unfamiliar with the place. I didn't want to change people, I just wanted to learn more."

"Oh." Bi Tianliang was still suspicious. Isn't the former deputy county magistrate your younger brother?

Didn’t he tell you the basic information about these five people?

"County Magistrate Wu, I only learned the basic information from their archives. It seems that former Secretary Bian Kang thinks highly of them.

Is there any discrepancy? Sorry, I didn’t check it carefully. If you want to know, we can call the old people in the county to ask, what do you think? "

Seeing that Bi Tianliang didn't seem to be shirking his responsibility, Wu Pingtao quickly declined.

"There's no need to go through so much trouble. Let's get to know each other slowly at work. Thank you Secretary Bi for your support for my work."

Wu Pingtao was grateful to Bi Tianliang for not setting any obstacles for him.

At this moment, Wu Pingtao was looking at several names in his notebook. Cuihua, the personal secretary who committed suicide with Wu Pingyan, turned out to be a waitress in the county guesthouse.

When Wu Pingyan came to Meihua County, Bian Kang specially arranged her to be by his side.

This is also Wu Pingyan's true love in Meihua County.

The young woman was unmarried and told her family that Wu Pingyan was her partner.

Her family thought she was daydreaming and introduced her to a local young man, but it was not a case of "forcing" her into marriage.

So, when Xiaoshui and his friends came to Meihua County to rescue 25 people that day, Pingyan was not in the county compound. He was tricked out by Cuihua.

Wang Lao Hu, Cuihua's father, was a hunter. After his daughter died of love, he did not dare to make a fuss because he was charged with "suicide out of fear of punishment".

He did not take Cuihua's body home, but found a place on the mountain and buried her hastily.

It was only because the village chief Wang Tujin took out a thin coffin from his home that the girl was prevented from being rolled up with a green straw mat and buried in the earth.

Wang Guangrong, Wang Laohu's distant cousin, is the secretary of Wangjiaping Commune.

Wangjiaping is located in Meihua County, a 'poor commune' under a 'poor county'.

Most of the commune's land is mountainous, and the total amount of farmland that can be used to grow crops is only a few hundred acres in the commune.

There used to be hunters, but now there are no prey for hunters to catch. Every blade of grass, every tree, every bird and every beast in the mountains are owned by the collective.

Who dares to take a shot?

The mountains are barren and most crops grown are sorghum, corn and potatoes, with very low yields.

After Wu Pingtao came to Meihua County, he carried out his work while investigating Cuihua's family who had committed suicide out of fear of punishment together with Wu Pingyan.

But whenever he mentioned "Deputy County Magistrate Wu" or anything about "Cuihua", he kept silent.

This is a large Wang family, and he cannot investigate openly.

In some situations, Lin Hao did get some clues, but there was no substantial progress.

The people in the village have now changed their tune and no longer say that Cuihua and Deputy County Chief Wu committed suicide out of fear of punishment.

But "suicide for love" seems to sound better to Cuihua's family.

"Master Tao, everyone here says the same thing. Either they don't know, or they praise Cuihua's love as strong as gold."

Lin Hao reported to Wu Pingtao helplessly.

He wanted to throw money at them to make them shut up, but Wu Pingtao was now the county magistrate, and Lin Hao was his secretary. Everyone was keeping an eye on them, so they couldn't act rashly.

There has been no progress in the investigation of Wu Pingyan's death. The police learned that the new county magistrate was Deputy County Magistrate Wu's brother and no longer mentioned the matter of "suicide out of fear of punishment."

Wu Pingtao met the commune secretary Wang Guangrong several times at county meetings and also received him during his field research.

Around fifty years old, with a low level of education, the cadres of this age here cannot be said to have a high level of education, most of them are already educated after graduating from elementary school.

In actual work, they don’t need to have a high level of education, but they are definitely smart people.

Wu Pingtao sorted out the information, put it in the drawer and locked it.

It was already late at night. The person living in the room across the corridor was Bi Tianliang. He went home twice a month without fail.

Today, he went home, picked up by a county car.

Although the county is poor, the secretary and the county magistrate are both equipped with cars.

Wu Pingtao pushed open the window on the side of the yard, and the cold wind whistled in. Outside, he saw a scene covered in silver and white snow.

After closing the window, he stood for a while, opened the door of the next room connected to his room, turned on the light switch, and inside, there was an urn on a square table.

On the box was a photo of Wu Pingyan.

In the photo, he looks young and has a carefree smile on his face.