Tazhai: The Village Chief Is Selling Goods, and You're Selling Arms?

Lin Yaoyang transmigrates to the 1990s and becomes the newly appointed village Party secretary of Tazhai Village. No System, no golden finger, just a village full of people to feed and an average annual income of 300 yuan per person. It happens to be the village chief’s father’s ninety-fifth birthday. When fireworks go off at the banquet, a thought flashes through Lin’s mind: Couldn’t these things be modified into rocket launchers? “Village chief, I’ve got a way to get rich.” “We’ll sell fireworks. It’s legal.” “Buyers might use them to blow up buildings, though.” “We only sell the materials and instruction manuals. What they do with the parts is none of our business.” And so, things start to take a strange turn: The ancestral hall becomes an arms factory, and village officials start discussing ballistics at their meetings. When county inspectors arrive, they stare at the bustling “safety production slogans” and fall silent in thought. Then one day, a major client from the Middle East sends a video: “Thanks for your village’s ‘gift package.’ We’re at peace now!” An old villager rubs his hands around a string of firecrackers and asks: “Secretary, should we put this deal on the books or keep it off the books?” Lin Yaoyang: “...Put it on the ancestral hall’s books.”