Chapter 143: A New Situation in the Five Towns

After visiting Crazy Lai and his wife and inspecting their storefront, He Zhixing took them to the Municipal Beverage Company to oversee the production of his health drinks and fruit juices. To his surprise, the company’s performance had been steadily climbing. With the workforce now grown to three thousand, the company was gradually taking shape, which brought He Zhixing a sense of relief. His initial decision to acquire the company had clearly been the right one. The rewards confirmed his belief that the trend toward health and lifestyle products would continue to rise in the coming years—a truly gratifying realization.

After hosting a dinner for a few key individuals, including the beverage company’s manager (Dongzi’s girlfriend, Chen Yali) and all the department heads and management staff, he immediately set off for Wuzhen. Passing through the county seat, he made a brief stop at the county government office to visit Su Mei. Su Mei was delighted to see him and desperately wanted to take him to her apartment, but her heavy workload kept her tied down, forcing them to postpone their time together until the next visit. Escorted by Su Mei’s look of lingering reluctance, He Zhixing and his three companions got back on the road to Wuzhen.

Upon arriving in Wuzhen, the twin sisters and Aunt Zhang, having heard the news, were already waiting in front of Lai Min’s flower shop. As soon as He Zhixing’s car pulled up, they rushed forward. Seeing the man they loved finally home, they all wept with joy.

To He Zhixing’s surprise, the girl Zheng Huizhen was also waiting there. Seeing her left him feeling stunned. Upon inquiry, he learned that she had finished teaching Sister Lan and had rushed over to see him. It seemed this girl had fallen hopelessly in love with him. Only then did He Zhixing grasp the magnitude of her decision. He also spotted the beautiful Xiao, who, unexpectedly, had chosen to help out at Lai Min’s flower shop. Afterward, they returned to the He family home in Zhang Village, enjoying a few brief, tender days together.

During these days, He Zhixing inspected his industrial park. It had gradually taken shape, housing his own logistics company, production facilities for fruit and dairy beverages, fresh vegetable processing plants, and packaging plants for medicinal herbs and fresh, specialty wild fruits. Many of the migrant workers from Wuzhen had returned home to work in He Zhixing’s industrial park, receiving wages equivalent to those in the provincial capital. The return of the local villagers who had once drifted away gave the local residents a sense of hope for Wuzhen.

The label of Wuzhen as a cluster of four impoverished and backward remote mountain towns had been shattered. No longer were the villages filled only with left-behind elderly and children; now, families were reunited, working nearby and living in harmony. The town had transformed from a sparsely populated place of exodus into a bustling, prosperous hub of returning residents.

With the establishment of the Wuzhen Green Countryside Specialty Tourist Zone, visitors from the city and even further afield began flocking to the area to sightsee, play, and taste various wild vegetables, fruits, and game. Captivated, they often lingered, leading to the opening of many farmhouse-style restaurants.

Building beautiful pavilions next to small hillside vegetable plots to host these farmhouse inns allowed visitors to enjoy the scenery and elegance while savoring fresh fruits and delicacies. Wuzhen had become a tranquil sanctuary for leisure and entertainment.

It served as an escape from the clamor of the big city, a beautiful, serene town that offered relief to the soul and a sense of freedom and ease. Such changes filled He Zhixing with profound satisfaction. His grand vision had been implemented step by step in Wuzhen and had achieved remarkable results. He had never expected such success to come so quickly; he had assumed it would take decades, yet it had all unfolded in just five or six years.