The Path to Prosperity
"Not me! I didn't! Don't talk nonsense!"
Village Chief Cui, who devoted himself wholeheartedly to the villagers, absolutely refused to be branded as crazy, even if he was nearly going out of his mind trying to find a way to lift the village out of poverty.
Li Bai cautiously asked, "Then what exactly is wrong?"
Village Chief Cui was on the verge of exploding. He forced down his agitation and spoke as calmly as he could. "Doctor Li, was that phone call you just made real?"
"Of course. I've been to the Miao villages in Western Hunan, Xiaoxiang Province. There are people there who raise poisonous scorpions professionally. A single mature scorpion can sell for four hundred yuan. I think the snakes and insects Granny Hua raises should be worth something, at least. If the whole village helped raise them, lifting everyone out of poverty shouldn't be a problem."
Li Bai explained his idea.
Four hundred yuan for one scorpion?!
That price nearly turned Village Chief Cui's whole world upside down.
When the swarm had run wild in the village that afternoon, he had seen the live scorpions—and the dead ones they had swept up afterward. There had been well over a hundred, and surely five hundred of all sizes.
They were all money!
If they could all be converted into yuan, Qishui'ao Village might immediately be able to shed its poverty-stricken status. Every household could improve its living conditions, repair its house, replace some appliances, and fix up the road connecting the village to the outside world...
Village Chief Cui was almost lost in the fantasy.
"Hey, hey, be realistic. Only the venomous snakes and insects Granny Hua raises can be sold. Ordinary varieties probably wouldn't even cover the shipping costs."
From Village Chief Cui's