Spark

"Wow, there's a little coal shop here!"

With Wilson's exaggerated performance, the central plot of this so-called "interview" finally kicked off.

The assistant stepped forward and looked at the store environment pretending to be curious, then asked the old man who was busy in the store:

"Master, what are you doing?"

The old man raised his head suspiciously and looked at the two people in front of him, feeling at a loss for a moment.

foreigners?

It is quite unusual for foreigners to appear in this county. In his memory, the last time he saw those blond teachers who came to teach in his daughter's school were several years ago.

"What are you doing?"

the old man asked warily.

"We are here for tourism. When we saw your store, we came to have a look if we were curious."

The assistant's expression was natural, showing no flaws at all.

After hearing her words, the old man also heaved a sigh of relief.

Although the promotion of the so-called "foreign guests" has long since ceased to exist in the past few years, in the heart of an old man of his age, there is actually a kind of reverence for foreigners after solidified thinking.

——

In other words, it is awe of certain rules.

For fear of losing people, for fear of damaging the image of this country.

He rubbed his hands nervously to wipe off the soot from his clothes, then straightened up and said:

"There's nothing to see here. If you're here for tourism, go to the riverside to have a look. There's a new water park by the riverside. It's so beautiful!"

"We don't want to watch those things, we like the original ecology."

The assistant continued to answer.

Original ecology?

The old man didn't quite understand the meaning of this word. He just smiled dully at Wilson who was holding the DV, stretched out his hand and said "yeah", and then wanted to continue to carry the coal piled at the door.

And that's exactly what Wilson wanted.

While pointing the DV at the old man, he motioned for the assistant to keep up and talk to the old man according to the script he had prepared long ago.

"Master, what are you doing?"

"Moving coal, what else can I do?"

The old man replied briefly.

"Why don't you wear a mask? There is so much dust here, you can easily get sick."

"If you are sick, you have to do it. Don't do it if you don't have money."

Hearing the old man's answer, Wilson secretly rejoiced. He could clearly feel that he had found the right person for the first interview.

The assistant on the side didn't ask the most important questions directly, but lowered his figure and offered to help the old man move a basket full of coal to the tricycle parked beside him.

And this action also made the old man who was not thinking much put down his guard against her.

"Hey, you girl is still weird, just let it go, don't do anything!"

"Dirty your clothes, I'm afraid I can't afford it."

The assistant smiled generously and replied:

"I don't need you to pay!"

After DV, Wilson also quickly grasped this detail, and said in English:

"It can be seen that ordinary people in this small town are very kind. My friend helped him just now, but the first thing he cares about is whether my friend's clothes are dirty."

"This makes me think he is more like a British gentleman."

"However, a gentleman does not live in such a rundown house, nor does he need to sell coal for a living"

While he was reading the narration into the microphone, the old man and his assistant finally finished moving all the coal. The former did not sit down immediately, but found two stools and carefully wiped the dust off them before letting Wilson Rest with him.

Obviously, now he has begun to regard the two of them as "one of our own".

Seeing that the time was right, the assistant also started her guidance.

"Master, does anyone still burn coal now? I think we all use natural gas."

The old man sighed and replied:

"Yeah, all of them use natural gas, how many of them burn coal now?"

"A few years ago, I went to pull a load of coal, and it would be sold out in half a day. At that time, not to mention every household, at least half of the households still had stoves."

"Why? Natural gas was expensive back then."

"Plus, it's also convenient to use coal. You said it's winter and you need to heat your home. It's not cost-effective to buy charcoal. It's great to burn a stove and cook."

"It doesn't work anymore. Now it's electric heaters, induction cookers, and liquefied petroleum gas."

"There are almost no coal users in the city, just a few restaurants, and some people burn coal in the suburbs and rural areas."

"In a few years, coal will no longer be burned in rural areas, and they will either simply burn wood or use biogas."

"Don't talk about others, I don't want to burn coal myself"

"That's true. Then do you make money doing this?"

The old man shook his head again and again, and replied:

"If you don't make money, what kind of money do you make? One thousand yuan a month is not bad!"

Wilson on the side smiled with satisfaction.

It seems that the previous investigation did not go wrong. The life of this old man is indeed extremely difficult.

What can 1000 yuan do in this day and age?

Maybe for some people, it's just a meal.

So, he quickly said into the microphone:

"The situation of this old man is more difficult than we thought, and his monthly income does not exceed 100 euros."

"You know, even in this small town, a simple lunch costs more than 1 euro."

"That is to say, the money he earns can barely cover the family's food consumption."

"100% Engel Coefficient! Unbelievable"

These words have begun to have an obvious guiding meaning, but under Wilson's superb acting skills, the so-called "surprise" covers up the maliciousness implied.

And just at this moment, the old man across from him suddenly coughed violently.

Seeing this, the assistant quickly took out mineral water from the bag, patted the old man on the back with concern, and asked:

"Are you all right? What's the matter?"

After several minutes, the old man finally calmed down.

"It's okay, it's okay, it's an old problem."

"It is said that there is something wrong with the lungs, maybe it is lung cancer."

"Lung cancer? No way?"

An exaggerated look of surprise appeared on the assistant's face, but Wilson became more and more excited.

This is living suffering.

And the suffering of the other party is exactly the breaking point that one wants to consume.

"Why not? People who do this are prone to lung cancer."

"Hey, I don't even want to talk about this, and I dare not look at it."

"A few years will be a few years. When I raise my two daughters, I will leave without any worries."

There was a kind of calmness in the old man's voice, and even Wilson, who was not in the right mind, finally felt a little moved.

But they didn't really forget what they were going to do.

After the old man got on the tricycle, they naturally helped him push the tricycle and followed him.

And it was this trip that allowed them to collect enough material to make a video

A few days later, a video went live on YouTube.

Its title is "Traveling China, Met an Old Man Selling Coal".

At the beginning, its popularity was not high, but with the assignment and promotion of the background, the playback volume of this video began to increase at a speed visible to the naked eye, and it was quickly reposted to China's domestic video platform.

In a very short period of time, the influence of this video spread rapidly.

It is undeniable that the true status quo of the bottom society shown by it really hurt everyone's softest heart.

In the video, what people can see is definitely not just the simple conversations between Wilson's team and the old man, but also some heart-wrenching details shown through "not-so-clear lenses" .

For example, the brightly colored children's electronic watch on his hand may not know which stall he bought for a few dollars, the purpose is just to ensure that he can arrive at the place requested by the customer on time.

For example, the walls of his home are covered with awards, but on the table under the awards is a bowl of leftovers whose color cannot be seen clearly.

For example, those families who are still ordering coal are often in poor conditions, and some old people even only order a few yuan at a time, because he earns money by picking up waste, and he can only afford these few yuan for fuel to survive the cold winter.

It all seemed so real, yet so unreal.

is it really like this?

In those corners that we can't see, are there really people still living such a life that is so bitter that they can hardly breathe?

With the coughing of the old coal seller, the audience in front of the screen seemed to suffocate along with him.

At the end of the video, Wilson concluded the video in a low tone.

"This video was originally just to record the new things we encountered during the trip, but the appearance of the old man broke our plan."

"We decided to record him—maybe, after seeing this video, more people will pay attention to him and help him."

"By the way, it's not him, it's them."

"I think that in every corner of the world, there are hidden people who are suffering just like them."

"There's so little we can do for them, but at least something should be done."

There is no such thing as "breaking the defense" in this year, but it is undeniable that after the video was released, many people did break the defense as soon as they saw it.

Under the comment section of major video sites, netizens shared their experiences one by one, discussing the video itself and the problems it brought up.

"This video is really real. My hometown is in a small county, and the situation in many places is the same as that shown in the video."

"The lower the bottom, the less money they have, and what's more, they don't even have a chance to stand up."

"Those who sell coal will sell coal for a lifetime, and those who sell vegetables will sell vegetables for a lifetime. When we are enjoying the dividends of rapid development, they seem to be abandoned."

"Maybe we should really stop and wait for them, or rather, we should give them a hand."

"Indeed, I am so touched by this kind of thing."

"I went back to my hometown during Chinese New Year this year and saw many similar things."

"You are all paying attention to the old man who sells coal, but almost no one has noticed the old man who picks up waste in the video."

"There is such a person near my house. Heating is already a luxury for him. If the village didn't pay for him to buy rice flour oil, I guess he would not be able to survive for a year."

"This is outrageous, do you know? In the past, the poem said 'worries about charcoal and humbleness, wishing the weather is cold'. I never thought that it has been this year, and there will be people who can't solve the problem of 'food and clothing' and can only go up. God pray for it to warm up soon"

This is the most normal comment, and at the same time, under the deliberate guidance of some accounts, a trend of "contrast" began to appear.

On one side is a picture of a new type of equipment that looks like a sci-fi product.

On one side were the old man's withered and chapped hands.

On the one hand, there is a huge scientific research budget released publicly.

On one side, there are several damaged banknotes stained with soot.

Such a picture is full of impact.

And under such impact, more and more extreme and radical comments gradually began to increase.

"Your country is like this. What you care about is face and international influence."

"It's really ironic. The officials have just announced the news about Xinghuo. This organization has swallowed up a lot of funds in the past few years."

"Yes, we recognize that the payoff is huge, but the question is, is it really worth it?"

"Maybe, we don't need so much advanced military equipment, and we don't need chips, excavators, and the like."

"We just want everyone to have a bite to eat, is it that hard?"

In this series of turbulent public opinion, a core point of view gradually emerged.

That is:

Are we really going in the wrong direction? Is our so-called "for the happiness of the people, for the happiness of all mankind" just empty words?

Is happiness won by weapons and fire?

Obviously not?

Since it is not

So what did we do and what are we doing now?

What did Xinghuo, an organization that carried countless honors, do?