The feeling of struggle is the happiest - Remember the "post-80s" Li Wei who is looking for dreams in rural entrepreneurship

Xinhua News Agency, Yinchuan, May 1 Title: The Feeling of Struggle is the Happiest - Remembering Li Wei, the "Post-80s" who started a business in rural areas and sought dreams

Xinhua News Agency reporters Jin He and Cao Jiangtao

On a sunny morning in the spring of 2017, Li Wei, 37, personally planted a row of willow saplings next to his own farmland, filling each tree with the last piece of soil, and he would rub the trunk and whisper: "Brother, fight for breath, you must survive." ”

He said this to the saplings and to himself. At the peak of his career, he returned to his hometown to start a business with a heart for the countryside, but he quickly spent all his savings and owed some foreign debts, so that the work of planting trees and moving stones had to come by himself, and in the face of the incomprehension of many people around him, Li Wei only hoped that the saplings planted by his own hands could understand him.

In The Jingxing Farm in Helan County, Yinchuan City, Ningxia, Li Wei is a celebrity, after graduating from Nankai University, he broke through tianjin port, and then returned to Yinchuan to start a business for 12 years, and the annual net profit of the network company he founded reached more than 600,000 yuan, but in early 2016 he decided to transfer the company and return to the Jingxing Farm where he was born and raised.

"I like pastoral life from my bones, and I have always had a dream to make the rural environment more beautiful and make the villagers' lives better, so I returned to my hometown to run a rural Taobao service station and launched an ecological sharing farm project." Li Wei said.

Afraid that the family would be difficult to accept for a while, at first, Li Wei was secretive to their hometown to start a business, but he did not expect that the Taobao service station was running well and attracted a lot of media attention. After his wife saw Li Wei's report on TV, she understood why his face was tanned and why he couldn't go home for a long time.

In May 2016, Li Wei launched the ecological sharing farm project, in his vision, not only to concentrate the operation of land, but also to unite at least 300 enterprises, hundreds of families to build and share beautiful farms, and to drive surrounding farmers to participate in the development of rural tourism, leisure, accommodation, rural e-commerce and other industries. However, due to the advanced concept, there were few responders at the beginning, and the scale of the project was huge, only the initial farmland and water system area reached more than 700 acres, and the funds were thrown into the project like flowing water, but the income was delayed, and by 2017, Li Wei had to borrow usurious loans to complete the project and pay workers' wages.

"My wife repeatedly advised me to go back to the city and honestly find a job, I think she didn't understand my ideas, the two often chatted and quarreled, and a few times almost divorced." There is no shortage of people around who watch jokes, and some people even say that I have a brain disease and do things that are meaningless. Li Wei stood with both hands and said with a smile: "It is really a domestic and external difficulty." ”

In the most difficult moments, Li Wei lived in a colored steel house next to the farm, sleeping in a recliner at night, moving stones, planting trees and planting grass during the day, with a beard on his face and covered in mud. His parents and father-in-law and mother-in-law saw that he was so pitiful that they came to help him build a grass hut, build a road, and grow vegetables. Many villagers were also touched by Li Wei's spirit and took the initiative to come to help.

When the reporter went to interview, Guo Laiyi, a villager of the 4th team of Jingxing Farm, was driving a tractor to help Li Wei straighten the land without receiving any money. "I like the vigor of the young man, others are also sincere, in recent years, I always help the villagers sell agricultural products through e-commerce, what do I do this work?" Guo Laiyi said.

As the farm gradually has benefits, this business model is optimistic about more and more people, more than 80 companies participate in the project, another 180 companies have the intention to join, and the project has attracted an investment of 50 million yuan. A few days ago, the investment enterprise brought more than 1,000 entrepreneurs to visit, which surprised the villagers. Li Wei also completed the docking with the travel agency, and since mid-May, it is expected that more than 200 foreign tourists will come to travel, eat and stay every day. At the call of Li Wei, more than 100 villagers in the surrounding area began to convert their houses into homestays to receive upcoming guests.

The water of the Yellow River flows gently by the side of the field, the blue sky reflects the earth, and not far away, the weeping willows and various fruit trees planted by Li Wei have spit out green buds and swayed gently with the wind. Looking at the increasingly beautiful farm, Li Wei, standing on the field mound, smiled: "Now I walk through every tree and every stone here, and I feel that they are greeting me; I also feel that I have always been a young man in my 20s, full of endless energy, wonderful, maybe this is the happiness of struggle." Li Wei said. (End)