Xu Liang: "You’re such a strong person. How many men could stand by your side without feeling intimidated? I’m a man too, and you know that men ultimately need to find their sense of worth next to a woman. Someone like you... you can easily make a man feel inadequate."

"If a man doesn’t even have the courage to stand by my side, or even walk toward me, then I wouldn’t choose him. I’d rather be single my whole life than choose someone like that."

Tan You smiled. "In daily life, I can take care of or tolerate others, but when it comes to emotions, I’m very selfish and stingy."

Xu Liang shook his head. "You’re a contradiction. I see you’re pretty good to the villagers. You were running around for them before."

Tan You: "That’s different. While it looked like I was running around for them, I was getting tangible benefits, I won’t deny that. Another reason is that it wasn’t a huge hassle for me; it was something I could do with just a little effort. It was tiring, sure, but in terms of emotional investment... to be honest, it’s hard for me to get emotionally invested in others."

Xu Liang thought for a moment. "A cold person."

Aunt Shen was not happy. "How is that cold? Our Ali is just fine the way she is. In fact, I was furious about what the villagers did back then. Ali has been back for half a year. If it weren’t for her, could the village’s mountain delicacies even be sold?"

"Could the autumn tea have been sold? Every single one of them is earning several times more than they used to, and now they turn around and say Ali is an outsider. What’s even more heartbreaking is that so many of them agreed."

Tan You soothed her furious aunt. "It’s alright. My surname is Ji, not Shen, so it’s not strange for them to think that way. These things are impossible to settle. Anyway, I’m doing well now, so please don’t be angry."

Aunt Shen sighed. "Sigh, I think they were penny-wise and pound-foolish. They used to count on that old tea tree to make money. Well, now the old tea tree is under protection and the tea money has been handed over, so nobody gets it."

Tan You: "Maybe diligently picking and processing tea is what will allow their restless hearts to settle down. In this world, how many people can remain unmoved in the face of such huge profits? We’re all just ordinary people. You can’t have expectations that are too high for others."

"You say that, but deep down, you’re disappointed," Xu Liang poked the charcoal fire and said softly.

"Any amount of disappointment will eventually fade. I’ve said it before, I’m a very stingy person; I won’t waste too much of my emotional energy on these things. Aren’t I getting along with the villagers the same as before? I still help when help is needed."

Tan You didn’t deny Xu Liang’s words. "But that’s as far as it goes. If the tea factory needs my help to drive traffic, I won’t refuse, but that’s it."

"I used to strongly agree with the saying, ’When successful, one should benefit the world; when in poverty, one should maintain their own integrity.’ It seems now I can only manage the second half. I can’t do the first. I’m just an ordinary person."

Uncle Shen: "Then just live your own life well. You’ve already helped the villagers a lot. They shouldn’t place their hopes on others; they should figure out how to save themselves."

Tan You smiled. She knew they understood what she meant. After the turmoil over the tea money, Tan You had been reflecting on her own actions. She knew perfectly well you shouldn’t test human nature with money, but she did it anyway.

’Did I do something wrong?’ Tan You didn’t think she had. First of all, the tea factory belonged to the village, the tea leaves came from the mountains, and the tea was meticulously roasted by Uncle Qiao. All of this meant that the huge sum of money was never meant to belong to Tan You alone.

It was only because she had found the buyer. But could she ignore everyone else’s contributions just because she was the one who introduced the buyer? Honestly, Tan You couldn’t do that.

Tan You could understand why the villagers had objections. In truth, she didn’t want that borderline money herself. Even if she had taken it, she would have ultimately given it to the village anyway, because she wouldn’t have felt at ease keeping it.

But at this point, anything she said would sound like an excuse after the fact, so Tan You didn’t bother explaining this to anyone.

Not long after the New Year, the village got busy, as did the tea factory. Tea-picking season was about to begin. For a major event like picking tea, Fifth Uncle naturally wanted to involve Tan You.

"Are you all planning to pick a batch of pre-Qingming tea?" Tan You was no longer a complete novice; she could guess what was happening just by looking at their preparations.

"Yeah. We used to pick it in the early years, but those tea buyers were too ruthless, so I couldn’t bear to do it anymore." Fifth Uncle took a drag from his cigarette. "I was thinking, since your fans like our tea, we’ll pick a batch of pre-Qingming tea this time. Hopefully, we can sell it for a good price."

"We won’t ask you to help for free. The tea factory will pay you your usual advertising rate."

Tan You raised an eyebrow slightly. "No one’s going to object this time, are they? My advertising rates aren’t cheap."

Fifth Uncle: "We’ve all discussed it. If the pre-Qingming tea sells well, this payment is just a drop in the bucket. When you promote our tea factory, at the end of the day, it’s the tea factory that profits."

Tan You wasn’t coy about it. "Alright. But forget the full amount; I’ll give the tea factory a 20% discount. Also, we’ll need to do on-site filming in the tea garden, and we’ll need to follow the post-processing as well."

Fifth Uncle’s expression relaxed. "Great, as long as you agree. To be honest, the village has its own account too, but it’s barely making a splash."

Tan You just smiled and didn’t respond. It was hard enough for her to manage her own account; the village’s business was something the village should figure out for itself. Seeing that Tan You didn’t take the bait, Fifth Uncle could only give a wry smile before saying a few more words and leaving.

As soon as Fifth Uncle left, Xu Liang walked in. "The village chief seemed a little disappointed."

Tan You was calm. "It’s just as Shen Cunxi said: it’s a transactional relationship. There’s no need to talk about anything else."

"Besides, I’m not the village chief, and they aren’t my responsibility. And anyway, aren’t they all doing pretty well now? As long as they’re willing to work hard, their lives are much better than before. They really don’t need me to be their leader."

"I take the money and do my best to film the advertisement. If it’s something we can settle with money, then let’s not bring emotions into it. That just makes things messy. Plus, I already gave the village a discount, so I’ve taken the personal relationship into account."

Ever since the autumn tea sold out in a flash, the fans had been waiting day and night, and they had finally made it to the spring tea harvest. They were especially excited when they heard that, as a thank you to the fans, the village would be picking a batch of pre-Qingming tea this time.

Even though Tan You was just livestreaming herself picking tea in the garden every day, everyone watched with unflagging enthusiasm. It was just that their favorite influencer was too low-key. Other streamers would go live from time to time, but not her. You could only see her when she uploaded a new video; otherwise, she was incredibly private.

Now, even if they were just watching the same monotonous tea-picking motions, as long as they could see Tan You’s divine face, the fans were more than happy, okay?