Soul of the People

This is a story of the land, conscience, and roots. In 2017, twenty-nine-year-old Zhao Peirui hit rock bottom after his interior design company collapsed, leaving him with a staggering debt of 9.27 million yuan. Starting over by collecting purslane and corn cobs to pay off his debts, he weathered the highs of viral social media fame and the lows of intense online cyberbullying, surviving the darkest days of pandemic lockdowns. Step by step, he turned unwanted, discarded sweet potato vines and dandelions into a thriving export business. In 2024, armed with years of hard-earned experience, he returned to his hometown of Shiquan Village in Mianchi County. Starting with just three experimental mu of land, he set out to promote standardized sweet potato cultivation. Faced with farmers' distrust, defamation from competitors, natural disasters, the temptations of capital, and complex grassroots interpersonal dynamics, he held firm to his moral bottom line. By revitalizing the village's idle greenhouses, cold storage units, and drying facilities, he transformed a modest sweet potato supply chain into a rural enterprise spanning twelve villages and over two thousand mu of land. Over a decade of stumbling, paying heavy tuition to life's lessons, and witnessing both the light and dark sides of human nature, he came to a profound realization: the soul of the people is not found in earth-shattering slogans, but in the steadfast, honest grit passed down through generations—farming with integrity, living with dignity, and living life grounded in truth. The land remains silent, yet its life endures, generation after generation.