The Real and Fake Goddesses on the Chufeng Terraces of the Bai Ethnic Group

When Zhao Feifeng, a returnee master of agriculture, returned to an ancient village of the Bai ethnic group in Yunnan, she did not expect that what awaited her was not pastoral ideals, but the villagers' fanatical "goddess" worship. Ten years ago, in order to save the dying terraced red rice industry, Zhao Baoshan, the son of the village chief, fabricated the legend of "the goddess coming to the world" and asked his twin brother Baoshui to disguise himself as a woman and play the role of the goddess, uniting people with his faith. Now that Baoshui accidentally fell off a cliff and died, the sales of red rice are in short supply again. Baoshan, who is desperate, can only ask Zhao Feifeng, who looks similar to Baoshui, to temporarily act as the "goddess". Zhao Feifeng, who was forced to wear a silver tiara, embarked on the journey of becoming a substitute half-heartedly. She used her status as a "goddess" to promote modern agricultural technology: improving red rice varieties to resist pests and diseases, optimizing the terrace irrigation system based on the contour principle, and even led villagers to build an e-commerce live broadcast room to promote red rice grown using ancient methods to the outside world. Baoshan initially just wanted to use her identity, but after seeing her kneeling in the mud field to measure moisture and staying up late to adjust the soil detector, he fell into a torn between guilt and love. The collision between tradition and modernity is constantly happening on the terraces: Zhao Feifeng used a spectrometer to verify the phenological laws implicit in the "Goddess Sacrifice" and used data analysis to persuade villagers to abandon the old custom of burning straw. When she revealed her identity, the villagers who once worshiped her as a god were shocked, but they could no longer do without this "new leader" who could increase red rice production and improve their lives. In the end, Zhao Feifeng won respect with her true self, and Baoshan also stood side by side with her in confession, allowing the silent terraces to grow real hope in the fragrance of red rice.