I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 234 - 100: As the spring breeze fills one with pride, horse hooves hurry along—whose new swallow pecks at the spring mud!_1

Chapter 234: Chapter 100: As the spring breeze fills one with pride, horse hooves hurry along—whose new swallow pecks at the spring mud!_1

It wasn’t just the viewers urging them on; Nu Liu also wanted to see how the top player’s official collaboration for the farming assistance project would pan out.

After the webpage finished loading.

The first thing that caught her eye was the set of illustrations for the NPCs from Stardew Valley.

Nu Liu noticed that for this theme, the top player’s officials didn’t just rush through the job.

Instead, they put a lot of thought into it, redrawing the character portraits completely.

There was a slight difference from the game itself, diverging from the pixel art style of the game.

Here, they were drawn more exquisitely and delicately, more in line with the aesthetic preferences of the general public.

It seemed they wanted the site to be appealing even to those who didn’t play Stardew Valley, so that they would take an interest in the website.

It felt like they really wanted to help the farmers...

Next to each NPC’s portrait, one or two infographics about fruits and vegetables were also attached.

These were mainly of summer and autumn produce, briefly explaining their scientific names, families, growth environments and cycles, as well as which regions produced the best quality and which varieties were superior.

The information was detailed without being verbose, and there were bits of trivia about fruits and vegetables even Nu Liu hadn’t known before.

Because it was a transition from a beloved game, even the audience in the live stream watched with great interest.

Paired with the NPCs’ narrations, there was an almost mistaken belief that an old friend was sharing about their own farm produce with you.

Nu Liu scrolled down the page as she browsed.

Until she reached the latter half of the website.

Only then did the top player finally depart from the NPC dialogue style seen in the game.

They formally introduced the farming assistance project.

The first thing presented was messages from the employees who participated in the Stardew Valley development, sharing their thoughts about helping the farmers.

"When we focus on helping the farmers, we see not just the hard work in the fields but also the resilient hearts and the struggle of each home. This is a topic that touches upon life itself, a story filled with emotion—Ke Jin, Chief designer of the top player"

"To help farmers is not just about taking action, but also about transmitting emotions. Under this theme full of feeling, we are willing to work for the happiness of the farmers and struggle for the revitalization of rural areas. —Raindrop Yu, Chief Graphic Designer of the top player"

"On that sturdy land, farmers silently give their all, their hands coated with soil, yet they cultivate our food supply. Each drop of sweat bears their hard work; each patch of land tells the tale of their determination. —Gou Chehua, Game Director of the top player"

"We sincerely hope..."

...

After more than a dozen key figures from the top player’s officials finished their messages.

What followed was an in-depth narrative about the theme of this event.

There were candid photos of simplistic farmers, with mountains and fields of orchards behind them, and lust-worthy fruits and vegetables.

These were coupled with concise and meticulous copy and a short video clip filmed by the government during a visit.

These also made the viewers more aware of the stories of farm life.

From the introduction, Nu Liu and the audience learned that among many farming assistance themes, the top player chose to focus on helping the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled.

The dreamy, light-hearted way of farming in Stardew Valley exists only in the game.

But in reality, the farmers who silently provide healthy vegetables and nutritious fruits to thousands of urban households have endured too much.

There are elderly grandmothers who still insist on farming at the age of 80.

There are illiterate, disabled old men.

And middle-aged people with mild mental disabilities who are quiet and reticent.

For these weathered farmers, farming seems to be their only way out.

But maybe that’s not the worst of it.

After all, as long as they are living earnestly and diligently, they should not be pitied but respected.

Yet when players read the next part of the text.

They learned about the large quantities of fruit left rotting in the fields.

It wasn’t that the products couldn’t be sold.

It was just that these simple farmers had spent their lives in rural areas, and to choose a more suitable farming environment, they set up in remote mountains and deep forests.

These farmers all had one thing in common.

They were either too elderly, disabled and inconvenienced, or had cognitive and communication impairments.

They couldn’t use the internet, didn’t understand marketing, didn’t know how to promote their products, and certainly couldn’t negotiate with people.

Wherever they looked, what they cherished most was that handful of earth.

Their only means of selling their fruits and vegetables.

Was through those middlemen who drove their trucks deep into the mountains to package and sell their goods in bulk.

If they encountered reasonable and conscientious middlemen, after a year of hard work there was still some hope.

But there were some unscrupulous traders who, knowing the farmers couldn’t wait or store their produce.

Would deliberately drive down the price.

If you don’t sell, then it will just rot in the field; there are plenty of others who will sell to me.

If you do sell, then you must agree to sell it to me at a price of a few cents or even fractions of a cent per pound, take it or leave it.

And these few cents’ worth of fruits and vegetables would often be sold in the market for several dollars or even tens of dollars each, with the profit margin skyrocketing hundreds or thousands of times.

Even after accounting for the middlemen’s transportation costs, the profits squeezed out of this sweat and toil were still substantial.

What’s more, if there happened to be a bumper crop one year for a certain type of produce.

People wouldn’t even take it if it was given away for free.

The farmers could only watch helplessly as the crops rotted in the ground, batch after batch.

This would ultimately lead to a very absurd phenomenon appearing in the market.