Now, dying is not hard, but living without money is even harder. At the end of last year, Wei Ran published a book based on his investigation diaries - "Grain Farmers".
"I want to write down the problems I see but cannot solve, so that more people know and find ways to solve them together," he said. The three biggest problems farmers face now are: college education, late marriage age, and serious illness.
He visited a farmer's family in Qinghai, where although they had sent three children to university, this did not change their impoverished fate. Instead, it left them with debts of tens of thousands of yuan. The eldest daughter graduated from university with a loan, but because she could not repay her debt, the school would not issue her diploma. As a result, she still worked as a high school graduate. Subsequently, her two younger siblings were also admitted to university.
The housewife told Wei Ran: Now, dying is not hard, but living without money is even harder! Adults dare not get sick, and children dare not go to school, especially university. If a family encounters these two situations, it will be devastating.
"Late-age" farmers do not only refer to those bachelors who cannot afford wives, but also include those "elderly farmers."
"When talking about aging in China, people often focus on urban populations, as if rural areas do not or will not experience this problem. But according to my observations, the situation in rural areas is more severe. First, the majority of young and middle-aged adults in rural areas work outside, leaving elderly farmers without social security behind, leading to a situation where the elderly have no one to rely on; Second, farmers engage in heavy physical labor for a long time, which causes them to age prematurely,"
In a small town in Yunnan with little population mobility, Wei Ran encountered an 80-year-old woman collecting scraps. At the time, a small cigarette box was blown into a ditch by the wind, and she bent over and crawled down to pick it up. "She could only collect a few cents each day, using this money to buy a bowl of rice at a small restaurant." Upon learning that the old woman had a son, Wei Ran became angry. But after visiting this son's home, his anger disappeared, and he had no complaints. "This son's life is even worse than his mother's. He is sick, uneducated, and dare not work outside, relying on farming a bit of thin land to survive. Unable to afford fertilizer, his crops grow poorly, and the little grain he harvests is not enough to support his two children. In order to reduce the burden on her son, the old woman went out to collect scraps to solve her own food problem."
There was a nursing home in the town, where three elderly women lived. One, over 80 years old, was paralyzed in bed, while the other two, around 70 years old, went out to collect garbage. The nursing home only provided accommodation, and if they wanted to continue surviving, they had to be self-reliant. During the day, the two elderly women collected scraps. At night, the three of them made incense candles together. Some of these candles were sold to villagers who believed in Buddhism, while others were kept for their own use. "Burning incense and worshipping Buddha is considered the 'medical insurance' of these three elderly women."
On the way, many farmers complained to Wei Ran: "We don't have a retirement age, nor a pension. Even when we can't work anymore, we still have to. If we don't go out to work today, we won't have food tomorrow! Relying on our children when we're old is all nonsense. How many children can we actually depend on nowadays? They can't even take care of themselves."
"The village now consists of the elderly and the young. The land relies on us to farm. Those who go out to make money, their money doesn't come back, and neither do they. They leave behind their elders and children, barely scraping together tuition fees, it's difficult!"
"Although the national policies towards farmers are getting better, as long as you have money, you can get anything. But why does life seem to be getting harder?"
On his kang (a traditional heated bed), Old Wang, a farmer from Jinghechuan in Gansu, told Wei Ran about his wife's story.
"On the day before she passed away, she steamed three pots of steamed buns and noodles for me and the children, and washed our clothes. By then, she was already skin and bones. In her final days, when she was in pain, the sweat on her head and body was like rain, soaking through her clothes. But I couldn't even afford to buy her a single painkiller! All I could do was watch her suffer from her illness, powerless to help."
Old Wang was paralyzed on one side of his body and couldn't walk a step. With no other options, he arranged a marriage for his teenage daughter, receiving 2000 yuan from the groom's family, which he used for his wife's chemotherapy. After just two sessions, the money was gone.
"When she was in pain, my only method was to extend my left hand and hold hers. I didn't know if it would alleviate her pain, but without my left hand supporting me, I couldn't sit up, so I could only lie down and reach for her hand." As Old Wang spoke, he sobbed uncontrollably.
Wei Ran handed Old Wang a tissue, reached out and held his hand. But he didn't know what to say to comfort him. After a long silence, Old Wang continued through sobs: "Since she got sick, despite being in such pain, she almost never cried out. I saw it in my eyes and felt sorrow deep in my heart. On the night before she passed away, she grabbed my hand and said, 'I haven't cured your illness, and now I'm sick myself. I'm worried about you and the children, but I can't bear it anymore. When I'm gone, you must slowly struggle to get up and learn to take care of yourself and the children.'"
"After saying this, she cried for the first time since she got sick. Later, she took out the small mirror we bought when we got married, looked at herself, and combed her hair. Then she said she wanted to sleep and lay down next to me. Since she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she slept alone, but that night she didn't. She lay next to me, pale-faced. I asked her if she was uncomfortable or in pain, and she shook her head with her eyes closed. I didn't disturb her any further, thinking that if she could sleep, let her sleep. After she got sick, she hardly ever slept, suffering from severe pain at night. When the sky began to lighten, I felt something wasn't right, so I called her, but she never woke up again..."
Old Wang couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears.
"You should help our village build a road! We've been waiting for this road for generations!"
One early morning, Wei Ran received a call. A man with a Sichuan accent shouted loudly: "Is this Wei Ran? We need to pay back the money!" Wei Ran was momentarily confused, subconsciously thinking: I haven't borrowed money from anyone!
When he didn't respond, the man urged again: "We need to pay back the money!"
"You calm down, tell me first, where are you from?"
"We're from Guizhou, Anshun."
At this point, Wei Ran realized: "Oh, you're from Bamaochong, right?" Then a thought flashed through his mind: It's ruined!
A year ago, Wei Ran went to the Anshun area in Guizhou. Pushing his bicycle, he walked along a small path in the mountains from 9 am until 3 pm before reaching a household. He stayed in the village and discovered that each family there had about ten acres of forest land. "Under the trees, there were no shrubs, only lush grass. Suddenly, I came up with a poverty alleviation idea."
Before going there, he had seen vendors from Guiyang buying local free-range chickens at twelve or thirteen yuan per catty, selling them back in Guiyang for twenty yuan. "Pointing at the forest, I told the villagers, you're holding a golden bowl but begging for food! They raised their eyebrows and replied: those trees, we can't cut them, or we'll be fined by the government. I said, I'm not asking you to cut trees, but to raise chickens, free-range chickens!"
A young man heard this and immediately became excited: "Wow! I've thought about this too, but I don't have the capital!"
"As long as you're willing to do it, I'll provide the capital and technology, free of charge!"
Just then, a netizen from Guizhou contacted Wei Ran, saying he could sponsor five to ten students, even from elementary school to university. Wei Ran immediately contacted him and explained the project, planning to start with four households, investing 5000 yuan per household for purchasing chicks, building chicken coops, and setting up nets. The netizen agreed right away.
Next, Wei Ran accompanied the four farming households to town to select materials and negotiate prices. Then he had the netizen transfer the funds directly to the manufacturer. Once the chicken cages were set up, the slope was fenced, feed was prepared, and the chickens were raised, Wei Ran left.
"They suddenly called now, wanting to repay the money. Did they fail? No, if they lost money, how could they have any money to repay?" Hearing the urgent and nervous tone, Wei Ran said: "Calm down, explain slowly, what money are you repaying?"
"Teacher Wei, all four of our families have made money. Now, another four families want to raise chickens. We've given them the chicks, and helped them buy the nets." Originally, the free-range chickens were sold for eighteen yuan per catty in the first batch, and the capital was almost recovered.
Wei Ran had agreed with them that the sponsored money didn't need to be repaid, but should be rolled over to the next household. However, these farmers were stubborn: "We Miao people don't have the habit of owing money. Now that we've made money and have money, we want to repay it!"
In Dapanyu Village, Longnan, Gansu, located deep in the mountains and hanging on the waist of the mountain, Wei Ran noticed the dense shrubs growing everywhere and its proximity to Guangyuan in Sichuan, believing that sheep farming would definitely be a good project. "No pollution at all, the mutton is absolutely green organic food, and the wool can be further processed." When he enthusiastically explained this to the villagers, he was unexpectedly rejected.
"Look at our road, every year we have to carry fertilizer for two days. On the first day, carrying fertilizer halfway, we are already exhausted. We have to go home, eat well, sleep overnight, and only then have the strength to continue the next day."
"With poor roads, the pigs we raise cannot fetch a good price. Pigs sell for six yuan per catty downhill, but we can only sell for four yuan at most. Why? The pig traders said, look at your road, with many paths carved straight into stone slabs. The pigs might fall and die on the way back. What's the value of a dead pig?"
"Teacher Wei, you don't need to help us with any projects, you don't need to help us catch chickens or lambs. These things we can manage later by borrowing or taking loans. You just need to help us build a road for our village! We've been hoping for this road for generations."
Hearing this, Wei Ran's brain buzzed. "In Shanghai, even with good road foundations, just scraping off the surface and relaying asphalt costs hundreds of thousands of yuan per kilometer. Their village needs to blast through mountains and rocks, and building eight kilometers of road would require a significant investment."
For more than ten years, the village had organized villagers multiple times to try to build the road manually. Due to the rocky cliffs, it was impossible to dig with manpower alone, and the village was too poor to gather sufficient funds, so they gave up every time.
Hearing that there was a resident cadre in the village, Wei Ran said he wanted to meet him. The villagers became upset upon hearing this: "What kind of resident cadre, just a cadre staying at home. We rarely see him all year round."
At night, Wei Ran couldn't sleep due to worry, constantly searching his brain for usable information and connections. After racking his brains all night, he still had no solution. Just as dawn broke, he climbed up the mountain to clear his mind.
On the slope, an early-rising elder was building a house. Wei Ran approached and asked how the original house collapsed. The elder said it fell during the "5.12" earthquake. Wei Ran then asked: After the disaster reconstruction housing policy, the state stipulated that cement and steel must be used to reinforce the foundation to withstand an eight-magnitude earthquake, why is yours only a wooden structure? The elder smiled bitterly and said: if I carry the cement and sand up here, it would take ten years, I can't wait that long.
His words instantly reminded Wei Ran: "There's a way!"
After the "5.12" earthquake, Wei Ran went to Wenchuan and participated in rescue and post-disaster reconstruction efforts, so he was very familiar with relevant national policies. Post-disaster reconstruction housing must be completed by the end of 2009, meeting national standards, allowing each household to receive a subsidy of 20,000 yuan. Additionally, if the inspection fails, local officials will be held accountable.
"I immediately thought of the post-disaster reconstruction office, so I quickly called them. But the signal in the mountains was poor, and I ran all the way to the top, where the cell phone signal was intermittent." Calling the reconstruction office of the Longnan municipal government, after listening to his introduction, they asked Wei Ran to write a report and send an email.
"What email? I've run all the way to the top of the mountain, hanging on tree branches to make the call. Forget the email, I'll bring the documents directly." Excitedly, Wei Ran ran down the mountain and entered the village secretary's house. While opening his laptop to write the report, he shouted at the secretary: "Get up, quickly, let's go to the city!"
They boarded a long-distance bus and traveled for fifteen or sixteen hours before reaching Longnan. When they got off the bus, they were so numb from the ride that they knew they were moving forward but couldn't feel their legs.
Upon arriving at the reconstruction office, Wei Ran first introduced himself, emphasizing that he was from Shanghai, and then detailed the relevant post-disaster reconstruction policies. "The state requires that by the end of this year, the reconstruction houses must be built and inhabited. Given the current construction methods in this village, it's impossible to meet the standards. What will you inspect? How will you pass? Unless you falsify records."
Even Wei Ran didn't expect that on the third day, while traveling to Tongwei, he received a call from the village secretary. The old man's voice was loud, making his ears buzz: "The mayor has arrived! He brought the transportation bureau director, and they've decided to build a road for the village, haha... I represent the eight generations of our ancestors to thank you!"
Wei Ran said that every time he helps a household or a place's farmers, accomplishing something that slightly improves their lives, the satisfaction, contentment, and joy he feels cannot be expressed in words. "All the hardships and fatigue of the past few months vanish at this moment."
China does not lack people who want to do good deeds, but it lacks channels for doing good.
Wei Ran's blog once won the title of one of the "Top Ten Social Responsibility Blogs." After being elected, it attracted even more netizens, resulting in more phone calls, with many inviting Wei Ran to visit them.
Before setting out now, Wei Ran would first post a travel notice on his blog. Quickly, netizens going to the same place would emerge and leave contact information. One time, arriving in a certain place in Gansu, Wei Ran called a netizen who had left a comment, "Only to find out that he was originally a deputy district chief."
"The identity dilemma no longer exists," Wei Ran said he was proceeding more smoothly. "In a place, as long as there's someone who knows me leading the way, and as long as I've attended a market day, almost everyone in the township will know me. The speed of civilian communication is very fast. At this point, you just wait, and the farmers who care will come knocking on your door."
"I help farmers, and many people are helping me," Wei Ran said. Netizens would occasionally leave messages for him: Brother, can you hold on?
Currently, his assistance includes three major areas: labor, funds, and projects, with 99% relying on netizen support. Currently, the number of netizens gathered around Wei Ran's blog is conservatively estimated to be in the tens of thousands. "I collectively refer to them as benevolent individuals. Without them, many things I couldn't accomplish. China does not lack people who want to do good deeds, but it lacks channels for doing good."
This year, Wei Ran set out on the third day of the first lunar month.
A fashion designer found him. This designer not only has his own brand and specialty stores, but also a factory in Shenzhen producing mainly export clothing, from spinning thread to weaving fabric, and finally sewing, all done by hand. He wanted to find a poor area, organize women who cannot leave home and are skilled at needlework, train them, and allow them to work locally to earn money and escape poverty.
Wei Ran accompanied him to some villages in Tongwei, Gansu. Before returning to the county seat, it started snowing, and it snowed for three days and three nights, with thick ice covering the ground, making walking slippery. Initially, they tried counting how many times they fell, wanting to see how many falls they could endure. "Walking for exactly eight hours, eventually, the number of falls was too numerous to count."
Their pant legs were completely soaked, froze, and hung with ice blocks like bells, clinking with every step. Their shoes were full of water, and stepping caused bubbles to form. As they struggled to climb a cliff, Wei Ran's phone rang.
"Hello! I am the Party Secretary of Guangling County. Our county is a poor area in northern Shanxi. I formally invite you to come to our county..."
Each time, after returning from trips outside to Shanghai, Wei Ran's business friends would throw him welcome parties. Drinking and chatting, they often lamented during meals: Nowadays, we have money, houses, luxury cars, beautiful women galore, nothing is lacking, but why do we still not feel happy?
"You guy, every time you return, though black and thin, from your eyes, it's evident that among us, you have the highest happiness index."