Chapter 136: Thirteen Mile Town (Additional Chapter)

  Thanks for everyone's support, collection tickets exceeded 10 within a day and I'll add an extra chapter.

  Actually, this is an extremely simple matter for everyone. The prodigal son will keep his promise and update more chapters when the votes are high. If there are over 10 votes in one day, he will add more updates; if there are over 15 votes, he will add even more. Even if he updates 10 or 20 chapters a day, as long as everyone's support is strong, the prodigal son's updates won't stop!

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  Since it's like that, then let's just calm down. We've already arrived at Thirteen Mile Town anyway. At this point, worrying about those things won't do any good. Why not find a place to fill our stomachs first and talk later?

  He walked into the town of Shisanli with He Wenbao, this town was not very big, only one straight street, the length of the street was about a mile or so, even if you tried hard, you could see from one end to the other, the area was really small.

  Sighing at the poverty of this place, it can be seen from the appearance of this town. Fortunately, although the town is not big, it has everything, the two-story building is the town government, and the one with a large courtyard should be the school. Near them, there is a door with several bicycles parked in front, which should be a restaurant. Looking at the small restaurant with a sign that reads "Benefiting the People's Snacks", Feng Sicheng smiled, "Okay, Director He, I think we'll have lunch here today."

  "Alright." He Wenbao wiped the sweat from his forehead, this walk was over ten miles, after all, he was almost forty years old, and his body couldn't keep up. Because of walking for so long, his neck was also growling with hunger, now that he finally saw a restaurant, who cares about its class? The most important thing now is to fill his stomach first. Besides, even the leader didn't mind, what could he say?

  "Alright, here we are." Feng Si Zhe still maintained a very good spirit and physical appearance. After long-term exercise, walking over ten miles didn't feel tiring at all. He strode into the restaurant with big steps.

  The restaurant wasn't very big, about the size of five or six tables. Maybe it was past lunchtime, or maybe people around here didn't have extra money to spend on eating out. In any case, only two tables were occupied: one had two people and the other had three. There were a total of five customers in the restaurant. After taking a quick look at the surroundings, Feng Sichu found an empty table by the window and sat down.

  The restaurant suddenly had more customers, and they seemed to have some money. The boss immediately walked over enthusiastically. "Hey, you two aren't locals, are you? Are you visiting relatives or...?"

  "Visiting relatives, visiting relatives." He Wenbao hastily picked up the conversation. If Feng Sichu had opened his mouth, others would have immediately noticed that his accent was not right, so he quickly switched to dialect.

  "Oh, haha." The small restaurant owner responded with a busy tone and handed over the menu. In his opinion, what others came to do was not important, what mattered was that they came here to eat and pay.

  He Wenbao took the menu and nodded to Feng Siche, seeing the leader shake his head, he casually ordered two small dishes, mainly those that can be made quickly. To be honest, He Wenbao was really hungry, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that his stomach was sticking to his back.

  The restaurant owner took down the order and turned to head towards the kitchen, there was no other way, the small shop was too small, cooking, serving dishes, collecting money were all done by him alone.

  The boss went to work, and He Wenbao took over as the waiter. He picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Feng Sicheng, then poured another one for himself and drank it down in one gulp. It was really thirsty all the way here, and this cup of hot tea made his body feel very comfortable.

  Feng Siche also took a sip of hot tea, and then quietly talked to He Wenbao about the situation in Shisanli Town. Shisanli Town was really too small, and it was poor to the extreme. The whole town looked like there wasn't even a single building except for the town government, let alone the villages below.

  The Central Plains region is like this, lacking in mountains and water, and transportation is not convenient. Adding to that, the geographical location is not very good, economic development is slow, so it's poorer here. Nowhere is as rich as some coastal cities, because of their favorable location, national policies also tilt towards them, naturally making them much wealthier. However, at its root, it's still the people's consciousness that's lacking. The education level of the general public is not high, and they are relatively traditional in their thinking. It's a bit better in county towns and townships, especially in rural areas below them, where the biggest problems are two-fold: one is overpopulation, due to the severe preference for sons over daughters, many families have many children, and parents try their best to give birth to boys, even if it means having multiple boys. As a result, population growth leads to insufficient land use, which is the second problem. However, it's indeed difficult for farmers to change their mindset, as they fall into a vicious cycle of poverty: the more children they have, the poorer they become, and the poorer they are, the more children they have. This perpetuates a cycle that makes people's lives increasingly difficult under the larger environment.

  "Alas, there's no way around it. It's all because of having children that we're in this predicament. You don't know, the people here are very traditional in their thinking, always believing that having sons can ensure a secure old age. But they don't realize that it's precisely because of too many children that the land that was originally sufficient is no longer enough. As a result, due to poverty, children can't afford to go to school, and education is neglected from the root. This cycle continues, so how can there be prosperity and reason?!"

  He Wenbao sighed, seemingly feeling helpless.

  Indeed, in rural areas, the most difficult task is family planning. Even though they're fined for having too many children, the peasants will still continue to have more. This is just one aspect of their ignorance.

  He Wenbao's one sentence revealed the root cause of the obstruction to the development of Dahu County, and Feng Sicheng nodded in agreement. "Director He said it well, but have you thought about how to solve this problem?"