The Scenery of the Lake and the Mountain

by Zhou Daxin

“You are right, our country is currently entering a phase of urbanization, and the phenomenon we see here is one inescapable outcome. But we must also understand that though the people of our nation are many, the land is still vast, and urbanization cannot replace rural life. Now suppose that the day comes when rural life is no more, and the farms are left to waste, then there will be no such thing as this idyllic scenery. This will be the true loss of our nation.”

  Something stirred in Nuannuan, and she began to feel warmth towards this person spreading through her chest.

  “Europe already feels such a regret.”

  “Europe?”

  “You studied geography in high school, you should know about Europe, shouldn’t you?”

  Nuannuan did not reply, though her face flushed with displeasure. Why does this man always sound as though he is lecturing me? Coupled with his arrogance, it really makes him easy to dislike.

  “Europe’s urbanization has created the decay of rural life, and as a result the idyllic scenes are being lost, the farmer populations are quickly aging and shrinking, and the farmlands quickly turning into a wilderness of waste. Many places have already reverted to wilderness, and now they are beginning to worry that, in a near future, such idyllic scenery will be but a memory.”

  Nuannuan watched him in silence, and had no idea what this man was getting at.

  “On the surface, a return to wilderness is beneficial for the environment, but in fact precisely the opposite is true. Europe has a well-known example, that being the village of Prastus, situated in the Peloponnesian Mountains, east of an ancient Greek city. This village once had 1,000 people who all toiled in the fields, with lands of green grass, orchards spread throughout and livestock on the mountains. Now only a dozen or so elderly people are left behind, mud washes through when it rains, the grass doesn’t grow and all of the orchards are left to spoil. The entire place is now full of dry shrubs; wildfires are common during summer, and the whole environment is dull and lifeless. An expert from the European Environment Agency, Mr. Peterson said that ‘as soon as shrubs cover the plains, the grassland ecology is all but lost’. All of the flowers, grassy plants, birds and butterflies also vanished, and forests do not grow there for more than a few hundred years, regardless of species. Therefore, Europe has awoken to the importance of such environments, and has begun to subsidize farmers who cut the wild grasses on the uncultivated lands on a yearly basis, in order to prevent the land from reverting to a complete wasteland.”

  “Please just tell me exactly what you want to say.” Nuannuan was a bit impatient. She still had many things to do, and had no time to worry about the troubles of Europe.

  “But it is important to first go through the theory. With the support of theory, we can move on to the practicalities, understand?” He carried on unhurriedly.

  Nuannuan forced a smile: “Well, carry on then.”

  “There are some indications now that decline may be happening here, but it has not yet caused serious effects. At the same time, I am aware that your village owes its existence to excellent natural abundance. Looking around at the clear lake water, green trees on the mountains, abundant grasslands, cows, donkeys and sheep kept around the farmhouses, your quiet village, primitive agricultural techniques, cultural relics from the State of Chu, and ancient food stock practices, such as the village millstone, wood-fire clay cookers and the like, this place has some true value to be visited.”

  “A true value to be visited?”

  “Yes. Nowadays, rural areas do not contribute much to the economy of the country. Whether or not a village can attract the attention of the people will depend on its true value of being visited, in other words, if that village has a tourism value. If so, it can develop and prosper. If not, it will decline and decay.”

  “Oh?”

  “But your Chu Wang Village is already a place that tourists come to for relaxation and tourism!”

  Nuannuan forced a laugh this time: “The adults of this village have spent their whole lives here, and are yet to see anything good about this place.”

  The man laughed: “You live amongst such fortunes, yet you do not see them! As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you I’ve come to your Chu Wang Village three times now. The first time was to see the Great Wall of Chu, Lingyan temple and the mists in the lake, and the other two times I came especially to do some investigations into your village. As I said, this time is much the same; I have some to investigate and understand that the 37 elderly people in your village who are older than 90 years old. There is nothing special about their quality of life; that they live for such a long time is mainly due to the benefits of good water, good soil, good food and good air.”

  “Really?” Nuannuan grew more interested as she listened, “I’ve never specifically counted how many elderly people we have in the village, and you’ve gone and found out!”

  He nodded: “I’ve come to find you, specifically to tell you that this is the place that city folk will come to for holiday relaxation. This will stem the trend of decline and decay, and in turn, develop a popular tourist resort, also allowing the local villagers to flourish through fast development.”

  “Really?”

  “Your village needs a saviour!”

  “A saviour?”

  “This saviour must understand the trends of development in the world; have unique understanding of environments; possess plenty of knowledge on tourism, and be able to generate dynamism. In fact, this saviour is here right now.”

  “Where is he?” Nuannuan had to laugh at this man and his vague manner of speech.

  “He is me. I am here to save your village!”

  “How will you save it?” Nuannuan controlled her laughter.

  “I will save your village through a rapid development of its tourism industry, a process that the Western nations have used to save their rural areas.”

  “We have already developed our tourism industry.” Nuannuan informed him of her work.

  “This development is simply too small and slow. Look at your Chu Di Ju. It is built with the bare minimum, with no bathrooms in the rooms, so guests have to get up and put on clothes before heading outside to use the toilet. You would not be able to host very wealthy guests, and have no way of earning big money.”

  “These very wealthy guests you speak of, would they really be willing to come to our small village?” Nuannuan asked, listening in intently.

  “Where else do you think they are willing to go? Abroad? They’ve gone everywhere and are fed up with it all! None of the places they go can be visited for long periods; and they’ve seen all of the famous scenery anyway. Right now what they like most is a place to relax, that being a place with clear water, green mountains, few people and good air. Such places are not yet open to development. Here in your village, to the east is the boundless Red Lake, to the north, south and west are endless, ever stretching mountains. Livestock forage in the grass and between the trees, farmland spreads up to the sides of the mountains, the sails of the fishing boats reflect across the vast clear water, and the environment even holds the beautiful imagery of ancient human activities. A most tranquil place for people.”

  “Well, with all of this in mind, what do you say we should do?” Nuannuan was slowly growing more and more interested in what this man was saying, regardless of the fact that she did not like all of his saviour preaching.

  “Immediately build more high-grade holiday dormitories. These few will have the same exterior as your houses, conserving the local-styled appearance, but the facilities inside will be modernized, with top-rated beds, flushing toilets, bathrooms, entertainment areas and reading rooms, all in order to bring the city folk here and give them the feeling that they never want to leave.”

  “Where would we get the money to build such houses?” Nuannuan said in surprise.

  “What if someone was willing to give you an investment?”

  “Are you saying that there is someone willing to build such houses together with us?”
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  “Yes, the other party will provide money and you build the houses, then it can be jointly managed, with all of the profits split 60/40.”

  “Who? Who would give us the money to build these houses?”

  “Me! What do you say?” The man laughed, his eyes again flashing with superiority.

  “You? Really?” Nuannuan did not loose her temper, rather, her eyes opened wide. This man, who clearly thought very highly of himself, didn’t look wealthy. Was he exaggerating?

  “I don’t look like a wealthy man, right?” The man said as he took out a business card and gave it to Nuannuan: “Here, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Xue Chuanxin, I am responsible for directing new projects of the Five Continents Tour Group in the provincial capital. And you are —?”

  “Chu Nuannuan, our company is called the South Water Landscape Company. Our company director is the father of my baby, Kuang Kaitian.”

  “Should I speak with Director Kuang about our company’s collaborating?”

  “You can just talk with me.” Nuannuan stared, then: “Director Xue, I would like to know, If you are going to build holiday dormitories by investment, what kind of money would you be investing?” She wanted to test the water with him.

  “The first investment will probably not cover everything, as this is a new tourist route, and so we must work gradually. Building too many houses would leave some empty and idle.”

  “What about 100,000 yuan?” Nuannuan was hopeful; she knew that with 100,000 yuan they could build a few good houses.

  Xue Chuanxin laughed: “What could be done with 100,000 yuan? This afternoon I went behind the mountain near your village to look at a stony open space, and estimate you could build 50 houses there.”

  “50?” Nuannuan took a sharp breath in: “How much money would that need?”

  “3 million yuan. Building the houses, adding fittings, then renovating the landscape and the surroundings. In such a secluded area, that figure should do it …”

  Nuannuan stared at his mouth, and had already stopped listening to what he was saying. “3 million yuan” had stunned her. In all of her life, this was the first time she had known money could have such a big number. 3 million! How can this man possibly have so much? How can he be willing to invest this sum into our remote Chu Wang Village? Is it possible? … Nuannuan forgot how she bid farewell to the man, or how she arrived back into her own bedroom. Her mind was filled with the figure of 3 million. Would 3 million yuan of banknotes even fill her bed room …?

  Chapter 37

  Not until she awoke the next day, was Nuannuan able to completely calm down, and finally told Kaitian in detail what had happened.

  Kaitian had arrived back home very late last night, and Nuannuan had also wanted to turn over the possibility of this matter thoroughly in her mind, so she had not told Kaitian immediately. After thinking about it all night, she had concluded that even if this were a fraud, her own company would not lose anything. If he doesn’t give over the cash, we won’t build the houses; once the houses are built, if they don’t continue to pay, we won’t renovate them; once they are renovated and they start earning money from guests, if we don’t receive our shares, then we will just detain the houses. After all, he is doing this on our land. Kaitian listened somewhat disbelievingly, and asked who in their right mind would throw 3 million yuan into our remote land? There are lots of fraudsters about these days, we must be careful, and not make the same mistakes that we did with the weedkiller. A meeting to sign the letter of intent was agreed in the afternoon three days later. Nuannuan did not imagine Xue Chuanxin would be so fast with it all. It seemed as though he had decided that Chu Wang Village would be the place for him to make money. Once the letter of intent was agreed, Five Continents Travel Group and South Water Landscape Company agreed to manage the new holiday dormitories of Chu Wang Village; Five Continents would be responsible for investing 3 million yuan into building the new holiday dorms, including the cost of all room fittings, wooden furniture and electrical goods; South Water Company will be responsible for building the blocks and the installation, as well as for providing the land for the buildings; and then jointly managing it, splitting the profit 60/40 with 60% to Five Continents and 40% to South Water. After signing the agreement, Nuannuan still did not truly believe that this was all real, and comforted herself that this was all a dream. None of this could have been truly happening. It was not until half a month later, when Xue Chuanxin brought the formal contract and a cheque for 1 million yuan along with two engineers to Chu Wang Village, and then placed an order for cement, sand and wood in Juxiang Street, that Nuannuan affirmed that this was really happening, and began to busy herself with the management and formalities of the ownership of the land. Kaitian said: “What formalities? First build, then manage the formalities, we can do what we like with Chu Wang Village now.” Nuannuan shook her head, saying: “We are spending millions and building dozens of houses, and on village land too. With something as big as this, you are simply asking for trouble if you think you can manage it alone. First report it, receive the approval of the county, then hold a meeting with the villagers, explain how the land will be used, that we will buy the land for a fixed number of years at a fixed price with a legal right to use, and then our company can formally purchase the land.” Kaitian was impatient at this, saying: “But I am the leader! Can I not simply decide upon the legal right to some uncultivated land?” Nuannuan stared at him: “You are beginning to sound very much the way Zhan Shideng did when he started! How can the land of the village be decided upon by one man?” On hearing this, Kaitian changed his tone: “Okay, we will use your idea. First to the county office to make a report.”

  Now that Kaitian had become the leader, when he and Nuannuan arrived at the town government office, it took no effort at all to meet with the newly appointed town chief. When Kaitian explained the situation, the town chief was quite surprised, saying: “Your village can attract 3 million in investment is a big thing, and a big opportunity to increase the income of the remaining workforce there too. Right! I agree that you may use this uncultivated land. According to Environment Law, the distance of your village from the lake permits you to build such houses. As for the price of the land, according to current regulations concerning the public owned land in the county, the standard cost is 10,000 yuan per acre of land, which can be used for 50 years, but the entire village must be told of this matter …”

  The uncultivated land took up an area of 20.3 acres of land. When taking the land measurements, Nuannuan specifically invited the sick village Party secretary and several old cadres from the village committee, alongside some high-standing elderly locals to supervise the inspection. Afterwards, Nuannuan took 89,000 yuan that she had prepared for the land purchase, and a credit note of 34,000 yuan and handed both to the village accountant with the whole village watching. The credit was clearly marked to be paid off within one year. The 89,000 yuan was just about the entire accumulated wealth of Kaitian and Nuannuan. Not until after handing over the credit surety and money did Nuannuan realize that this was the largest single investment that the family had ever made. It was also a gamble. This project must succeed. If it fails, not only would all of her work come for nothing, then the squeezing pressure of debt would again be upon them.

  Xue Chuanxin named the new project Shang Xin Yuan. Due to Xue Chuanxin’s meticulous planning and Kaitian’s support, the construction of Shang Xin Yuan commenced. Xue Chuanxin provided and arranged the blueprints, building materials and workmen, and Nuannuan called in some unskilled labourers from the village. Excluding board and meals, she paid 60 yuan per day, a very attractive price in Chu Wang Village, and there was stiff competition for the job. Wages of the unskilled workers were also calculated within the 3 million yuan. Nuannuan also provided a guesthouse free of charge for Xue Chuanxin to live in.

  Nuannuan discovered that, although Xue Chuanxin spoke with much exaggeration, he was in fact very much down to earth. He worked clearly and lo
gically, and had everything planned, down to the last man and job. After the materials were prepared, the digging of the foundations began.

  Who would have thought that, just as the digging began, an astonishing discovery would be made.

  At Xue Chuanxin’s request, the foundations were to be sturdy, and so holes were dug a little deeper than normal. When digging for the first row of houses, a young labourer’s spade suddenly made a ‘peng!’ sound as it struck against a hard object. It was a noise unlike that made hitting a rock, and the youngster cleared away the earth, to find a large green-rusted copper object buried beneath. He called out: Come and check this out! A group quickly gathered around, and on first sight everybody was stunned. Together, they pulled the copperware from the ground. Good heavens! the object was at least half the height of a man, and very, very heavy. Xue Chuanxin and Nuannuan had both been discussing work not far away, and turned their heads to see what was going on before hurriedly running over. Xue Chuanxin took a look and said: “Wow, a copper Ding (a three-legged triped or four-legged cauldron)! my god, a real treasure! How can such a thing be found here?” Nuannuan didn’t really understand, and quietly asked: “Can it still be used?” “It still has a use alright. This is a cultural relic, very valuable!” The youngster that first discovered the Ding heard this, and hurriedly said: “But I dug it out!” Xue Chuanxin laughed, saying: “No matter who dug it out, if it really is a cultural relic then it belongs to the country, and after they take it away, you will be rewarded! Everybody continue to dig at the second row of foundations. Nuannuan, go and give the county’s Culture Bureau a phone call, and ask them to send someone over to see.”

  The crowd hurriedly dispersed back to work.

  Five Continents Company had paid to install a telephone line into Chu Di Ju, and after Nuannuan had returned to call the county Culture Bureau to tell them about the discovery, she thought to herself that Uncle Tan would probably also be interested to hear, and so gave the old man a call. Sure enough, he became unusually excited at the news, saying: “I am on my way now.”