Country Love: Guang Kun Is Reborn and Finally Knows When to Quit

After Xie Guangkun from Ivory Mountain fell into the river, he came back a changed man. He used to obsess over Liu Neng's welfare payments. Now he squats outside Dajiao's supermarket filming the vegetable stall, saying he wants “city folks to see how fresh our produce is.” He used to call Xie Yongqiang a good-for-nothing; now he pulls him in front of the camera and tells him, “Say it loud: this orchard is yours.” Even when Zhao Si's wife mends his jacket, he nags, “Iron the collar so it sits crisp. It'll make me look sharp.” Liu Neng senses something is wrong. Leaning on his hoe at the village entrance, he mutters, “He must've hit his head when he fell in the river.” But then he runs into Xie Guangkun helping villagers ship vegetables to the city, keeping accounts even more meticulously than Accountant Xu. Yet rumors gradually start to spread: Guangkun keeps heading to the cornfield, claiming he's “shooting footage”; the light in his room stays on late into the night, his phone screen shining through the window paper. When the thoughtful “new Guangkun” runs up against Ivory Mountain's old ways, fresh developments start cropping up in everyday village life. Some people follow his lead and learn to make videos; others hope to sell their produce farther afield. Only Liu Neng still stubbornly insists, “Just you wait. I'll see what kind of tricks he comes up with!”