Chapter 163: Sky Screen Live Streaming System (38)

As material standards have risen, people have also begun to value their spiritual lives.

Ten years ago, Nanbeihe Cun was still covered in cow dung, houses were filled with chicken droppings, and the river emitted waves of foul odors; today, the water quality is clear, the roads are clean, and the living environment has seen a qualitative leap compared to ten years ago.

The vast farmland had long since been harvested clean by large harvesters this season, leaving only neat haystacks.

At the edge of the farmland lies a fruit and vegetable Nongchang contracted by a large-scale farmer, with glass-steel greenhouses arranged in uniform rows.

Sparrows in groups of three or five chirp as they perch on utility poles, singing a hymn to the harvest.

A village road, wide enough for two cars to pass each other smoothly, cuts through the boundless fields and leads straight to the village where the residents live.

To the east are old houses with white walls, black tiles, and upturned eaves; to the west are Western-style buildings with a uniform appearance.

A small river with clear water winds around the village, with willow and peach trees planted at intervals along the embankments; in spring, the peach blossoms are red and the willows green, with swallows circling, though it looks somewhat desolate at present.

But in the dusk of midwinter, draped in the gorgeous gauze of the sunset, it is still as beautiful as a painting.

【So this is what the countryside of the Heavenly Palace looks like!】

【To think there are buildings in the countryside of the Heavenly Palace too!】

【Are those rows of structures at the end, which look like houses but aren't, made of Glass? The Heavenly Palace is far too wealthy!】

Not to mention the people of Daliang, who were wide-eyed seeing a modern new countryside for the first time, even Xie Yang couldn't help but stop the car to take a few snapshots of her nephew and niece.

"Yang Yang? Is it really you?"

Wen Dajiu was carrying a water jug, returning from finishing work at the Nongchang, when he saw a car with Beijing license plates parked by the road. He muttered to himself: Could this be my niece's car?

But he immediately dismissed the thought: Beijing is so far away; how could his niece have driven here with two children?

To his surprise, the next second he saw his niece taking pictures of the two little ones in front of a scarecrow by the field, and he was instantly both shocked and delighted:

"Did you drive here? When did you arrive? Why didn't you tell me in advance so I could have your brother pick you up!"

Seeing the pair of adorable children beside his niece, Wen Dajiu was overjoyed:

"Are these A Ci's son and daughter? They look so handsome! Come, come, come! Let's go home! It's so cold outside! If you like taking pictures, I'll take you to the warm Greenhouse tomorrow at noon; it's warm there, and there are flowers and trees—it's much prettier than here!"

Xie Yang hadn't expected to run into her uncle on the road, so she quickly taught the two children to recognize him and address him, then told her uncle to get in the car.

"Uncle, is it easy to park in the village?"

"It's easy! See that bridge up ahead? Turn right after the bridge and there's a parking lot for visitors."

"Do visitors really come to our village to play?"

"They do! Quite a few! Especially in spring and summer, some come to take pictures in the rapeseed fields, some go to the Nongchang to pick produce... When it's busy, the parking lot isn't even big enough, and the roadside is full of cars."

Xie Yang looked at the road they had come from through the rearview mirror; she had just thought this road was quite spacious.

A village road that allows two cars to pass—that would be considered wide for a rural area anywhere in the country, right?

She hadn't expected that when there are many visitors, one side of this road could be completely filled with parked cars?

"Then what do you do when you encounter oncoming traffic?"

"Ha! At those times, we just have to learn from the city and implement what they call a one-way street," Wen Dajiu said with a smile. "This one is entrance only; you have to go around the back of the village to leave."

Speaking of this, Wen Dajiu sighed with emotion: "Come to think of it, this road was built with donations from your parents when they were still alive!"

Xie Yang's father had made his fortune relatively early, and he hadn't forgotten his relatives on both sides once he became successful.

It was just that some people's desires were like bottomless chasms, never knowing satisfaction, eyeing other people's family property before the deceased's bones were even cold;

while others held gratitude in their hearts, remembering the departed whenever they saw the road.

"... Back then, your father paid to help us pave the narrow yellow mud village road of Nanbeihe Cun into a two-lane asphalt road, and he even left a road maintenance fund. Whenever the road surface was uneven and needed repairs, it would be paid for from this fund, so it's still very smooth after ten years..."

With a smooth village road leading straight to the town and connecting to the national highway, and with Xie Yang's father acting as a bridge, Nanbeihe Cun attracted many entrepreneurs starting factories and large-scale farmers contracting land.

The village successively opened grain and agricultural production and sales businesses and built ecological Nongchang.

The Nongchang is very large; in addition to the two-season farmland, they also started livestock farms and Greenhouse Planting areas, with the warm greenhouses divided into four-season vegetable zones, four-season fruit zones, and four-season flower zones.

In short, with these factories and planting and breeding farms, the villagers can go to work right outside their doors.

They are still doing the farm work they are skilled at, and while the wages might be a far cry from the intellectuals in first and second-tier cities, they are not much lower than ordinary office workers in the town or County.

The key is that it's right at their doorstep, so they save on rent! If there's anything at home, they can just tell the foreman and go back to handle it—how convenient!

"If your parents were still here..."

Mentioning his late sister and brother-in-law, the uncle let out a long sigh and didn't continue.

It's the New Year, and it's rare that his niece is willing to bring her nephew's two children back; he shouldn't keep bringing up sad things.

"Linbao, Jinbao, you two stay at your uncle's house. Although my house is a single-story building, it has many rooms and a large courtyard, suitable for you to play in. When we renovated last year, we connected it to the Nongchang's heating pipes; it's about the same as the heating in your big cities, and it's warm inside!"

After listening to her uncle's explanation, Xie Yang understood: the biogas from the Nongchang's Biogas Digester couldn't be used up, so it was opened to the whole village; as long as one was willing to pay for the pipe materials and regular maintenance fees, one could enjoy Biogas Heating.

The uncle and his wife both work at the Nongchang and can even enjoy employee rates.

Aside from the one-time investment in pipe materials, the subsequent monthly cost is less than two hundred yuan to enjoy whole-house heating, which is much cheaper than the heating in the north!

The key is that the biogas can also be used for cooking and boiling water for baths. With it, gas bills are saved too!

It's equivalent to spending one cent and enjoying multiple benefits.

While talking, Xie Yang drove to the parking lot.

The parking lot was converted from the former Threshing Floor; the area is not small, but perhaps because it is near the end of the year, there are few visitors to Beihe Village, and the few scattered cars parked there, according to the uncle, were there to make purchases at the grain and oil factory.

"Since every unit is distributing New Year's goods, they send people directly to the grain and oil factory to purchase Rice and rapeseed oil; by cutting out the supermarket as a middleman, they can save quite a bit of money."

Xie Yang nodded in understanding.

Then she began to unload the New Year's goods from the car: "Uncle, these are for your family."

She left the New Year's goods for her younger uncle's and aunt's families in the car.

The weather is cold, so they won't spoil inside the car.

The point is that if she took everything down, she wouldn't have enough hands to carry it.

"Oh my! Why is there so much stuff! It's enough that you people came; why bring so many New Year's goods back? Your aunt has already bought everything needed for the New Year!"

"Yo! Huaqiang, which relative is this? Coming to bring you New Year's gifts?"

At this moment, an old man leaning on a cane passed by outside the parking lot and greeted Wen Dajiu cheerfully.

"Wushu! On such a cold day, why have you come out? This is Huaying's daughter Yang Yang, and these two little ones are Huaying's grandson and granddaughter."

"What? Huaying has a grandson and granddaughter? Wasn't it said..."

"That's a long story; I'll chat with you about it slowly later, Wushu."

"That's true, it's getting late and it's cold outside, hurry and go inside! Since you've come, you're staying for the New Year, right?"

"We are, we are! This year our families are spending the New Year together."

"That's wonderful! Bring the children over to Wushu's house to play later!"

"You got it! Take care on your way, Wushu!"

After seeing Wushu off, Wen Dajiu stopped standing on ceremony with his niece to avoid lingering and attracting more villagers to ask questions.

It wasn't that he wanted to hide it from everyone, but he was worried that his niece and the two children were new here and would catch a cold from the chilly wind.