Chapter 70: Unexpected Shifts and Hidden Gems

Alright, the Mingsha side is in your hands. If any issues pop up, call immediately—and make sure you stay safe.

Li Jue finally felt complete relief.

“Don’t worry about it!”

“Okay!”

They chatted a bit more about other matters before hanging up.

“All set!”

After putting down his phone, Li Jue slowly leaned back in his chair.

“Is that your old classmate from the Su Province Cultural Relics Bureau? The one we had dinner with two years ago in Yan City?”

The voice on the other end was loud, and Liu Shan, standing nearby, caught most of it.

“That’s him!”

“Then, we’re all set!”

Liu Shan exhaled in relief.

Just as Li Jue was about to speak further, the meeting room door was suddenly pushed open and a voice called out, “Old Li, Old Liu, you’re here? I’ve been looking for you.”

At those words,

Both men turned to the door to see a man in his sixties, dressed in formal attire, walking in with a stack of papers.

“Old Cao, you’re back?”

The man, Cao Jun, is the Executive Vice Director of the Ancient Architecture Research Institute, responsible for the administrative liaison with higher authorities.

Lately he’d been representing the Institute at city symposiums, hardly ever coming to the office.

“Yeah, the meeting wrapped up this morning. By the way, take a look—this is the new poverty alleviation county assigned to our unit today.”

Glancing at the projection screen, Cao Jun looked puzzled, but he didn’t ask any questions. Instead, he pulled up a chair and handed Li Jue a stack of documents.

“A new paired county? They’ve changed it?”

Li Jue and Liu Shan exchanged stunned looks as they accepted the documents.

According to Long Kingdom policy, every Yan City subordinate unit has its designated poverty alleviation county—including the Long Kingdom Ancient Architecture Research Institute. But the previous pairing had been working so well. So why the sudden change?

“Our previous paired county achieved poverty alleviation last year. But this year’s county is a tough challenge; the average household income is barely over 20,000. Rapid progress seems unlikely.”

“I doubt anyone in our unit would want to be stationed in a place like that as a poverty alleviation officer.”

Cao Jun smirked slightly.

“Oh!”

Over at his desk, Li Jue opened the file and, after a quick glance, froze.

“What?”

Liu Shan also paused; in the poverty alleviation county section, it clearly read, “Su Province, Wei City, Mingsha County.”

“This is too coincidental! Our Institute’s luck this year is really something else.”

After a long moment, Liu Shan rubbed his eyes, making sure he wasn’t mistaken, and couldn’t help but exclaim.

“No kidding! Not even TV dramas could script something like this!”

“What do you mean by that?”

Their reactions only deepened Cao Jun’s confusion.

“Old Cao, here’s the deal. While you were away, Old Li unearthed a real gem for us—Xu Hao, the guy hustling around with the projector.”

They exchanged a look.

Liu Shan grinned and began explaining to Cao Jun.

There was no reason for Liu Shan not to be pleased. Xu Hao, now based in Mingsha County, has essentially solved our poverty alleviation problem as tourism kicked off over there. In a way, he’s delivered a huge service to our Institute.

As night deepened, the conference room in the Mingsha County Government Building still glowed with light.

Lately, meetings in the county had become frequent, with many agenda items related to Mingsha Tourism and Hongsha Gang Village 256.

At that moment,

The large meeting had long since ended, leaving only a few top leaders discussing matters behind closed doors.

“Leader, we just got word that more people from the province are coming. They’ll be staying in Wei City tonight, and the leaders expect us to send someone along.”

Qin Xuan took a deep breath and looked over at Wang Xun.

Since the registration of Mingsha Tourism, there have been visible, positive changes in the county, yet the pressure has also increased. In the past, provincial leaders never conducted such intensive inspections in Mingsha County.

“Are we still meeting at Hongsha Gang Village 256?”

Wang Xun frowned, “Weren’t the Ancient Architecture Institute leaders and Director Feng just there?”

“No specific reasons were given, but it definitely has something to do with Researcher Xu in the desert. I heard he’s been busy constructing some replica ancient buildings over there these days.”

After a moment of thought, Qin Xuan spoke up.

“Researcher Xu—why would a researcher from our Institute go live-streaming here? I suspect that without him, the provincial leaders wouldn’t have paid as much attention to Hongsha Gang Village 256.”

Wang Xun tapped the table with his finger.

Achieving such great results at Hongsha Gang Village 256 in just a month is certainly good for Mingsha County, but the more impressive it is, the more questions arise.

A researcher from Yan City, who doesn’t even work in the city but spends all his time in the desert, is hard to reconcile.

“Secretary, I suspect Researcher Xu might actually be our county’s rotated poverty alleviation leader!”

After a brief silence, Qin Xuan hesitated before replying,

“A rotated leader?”

“Yes. We just received word from Yan City that this year our designated poverty alleviation partner has been switched to the Long Kingdom Ancient Architecture Research Institute! Isn’t that oddly coincidental? I strongly suspect the Institute knew all along and sent Researcher Xu ahead to Mingsha County.”

Qin Xuan lowered his voice as he voiced his suspicions.

“I had a similar thought when I heard about the change. But I also heard that Researcher Xu was once a director. If he were truly a rotated officer, he could simply negotiate directly with Mingsha Tourism. So why participate in some survival challenge?”

Wang Xun rubbed his temples and shook his head.

While Qin Xuan’s theory sounded somewhat plausible, it didn’t hold up under closer scrutiny.

Rotated leaders are usually at deputy division head level or higher. A level-three researcher isn’t quite up to that rank.

“Maybe he’s using the wilderness challenge to gain followers. Nowadays, many rotated leaders become local influencers. Perhaps Researcher Xu had the same idea.”

“As for his rank, the Ancient Architecture Research Institute will probably send us an official letter later to clarify.”

Qin Xuan exhaled deeply.

“Forget it… I won’t dwell on it. This is a matter between Researcher Xu and the Institute. How they handle it is none of our business. We just follow the orders from above.”

After a while, Wang Xun didn’t want to argue any further.

“Alright, Secretary! So tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow, I’ll wait at the highway exit for the convoy. We should learn everything once we get there.”

“Understood!”

And that was the last word of the night.

The next morning, as the sun rose, Mingsha County welcomed a new day.

Meanwhile, Oasis 1 was seeing new developments.

At Tengwang Pavilion’s ground-level second floor, the structure was gradually taking shape, reaching about ten meters in height.

After breakfast, Xu Hao and several laborers had long climbed onto the wooden scaffolding to resume work. In short, the past couple of days had been extremely simple for Xu Hao—eat, sleep, work; a cycle that left no time for checking his phone or anything else.

Even while eating, Xu Hao’s mind was busy comparing the slight differences between Tengwang Pavilion’s components and the blueprints that were slowing progress.

“General Zhu, Brother Hao’s work this time is really something extraordinary!”

On the wooden boardwalk,

Luo Peng looked over at the bustling figure across from him and then glanced at Zhu Qiang by his side.

He had been busy repairing the boardwalk connecting Oasis 1 and Oasis 2 these past few days, leaving him no time to help on this side.

“It really is impressive, but those netizens just can’t understand why Brother Hao isn’t building the Ancient Building Courtyard.”

Zhu Qiang couldn’t help but smile wryly.