After emerging from despair, he transformed into a money-making joy-bringer

In the eyes of her friends, she is a joy-bringer; in the eyes of the villagers, she is the guide who leads everyone to prosperity. Facing the camera, she spoke of hardships few people knew about. For the sake of her two children, she transformed from a kindergarten teacher into an entrepreneur, yet one amusing mishap after another ensued. See how Hou Zhenghong of Liping County, Guizhou Province, was forced onto the path of entrepreneurship and became a capable businesswoman.

A rainstorm suddenly struck Liping County, causing large-scale power outages across the entire city.

Early the next morning, Hou Zhenghong brought the reporter to her farm. Along the way, rocks washed down the mountain by the rain were visible.

About one kilometer from Hou Zhenghong's farm, Hou Zhenghong had to stop the car, because the aftermath of the rainstorm had become even more serious.

Reporter: Did this collapse yesterday?

Hou Zhenghong: It collapsed, it collapsed. Last time, all the rocks from up the mountain came crashing down, and this outer side was completely sealed off by rocks. Cars couldn't get through.

Hou Zhenghong walked to the roadside and checked repeatedly. She was so worried because more than 800 households on the mountain raised chickens with her, and this road is the only route connecting the mountain to the foot of the mountain. A business worth more than 10 million yuan depends entirely on this road for transport.

Hou Zhenghong: Today is still okay, the car can still get through, pretty good.

Reporter: You're quite happy.

Hou Zhenghong: Quite happy.

Reporter: You were anxious all night.

Hou Zhenghong: So anxious I couldn't sleep.

Seeing that the landslide had not affected the operation of her farm, Hou Zhenghong immediately headed to the village on the mountain.

Villagers cheering: Everyone come together, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand.

Hou Zhenghong: Drunk, drunk.

As soon as she arrived at the village, the enthusiastic villagers swept away all the anxiety the landslide had brought Hou Zhenghong.

This is Gunzheng Village in Liping County, and the villagers here are all of the Dong ethnic group. There is a local custom: only on the most important festivals is a long-table banquet set out, and only men sit at the table. But every time Hou Zhenghong comes, the villagers all turn out, and they honor Hou Zhenghong as a distinguished guest, setting out a long-table banquet for her.

Everyone respects Hou Zhenghong so much because Hou Zhenghong's under-forest chicken farm not only achieves annual sales of more than 10 million yuan, but also leads more than 800 households across the county to prosperity together. Villagers can earn tens of thousands of yuan more each year right at their doorstep.

Villager: Boss Hou is a strong woman among women.

Villager: A strong woman, a tough woman.

Reporter: A tough woman. Why a tough woman?

Villager: The kind who is quite capable.

But when everyone first met Hou Zhenghong, she was still an ordinary housewife who had never thought about making money.

Hou Zhenghong: What I used to hate most was, first, I didn't like entrepreneurship, and I didn't like doing business; second, I didn't like borrowing money from anyone; third, I generally wouldn't deal with strangers. I just liked living a stable life. But now it's different. I've done all the things I didn't like.

In the photo album at Hou Zhenghong's home, however, the reporter discovered that before 2007, Hou Zhenghong was a completely different person.

Son: In today's terms, my mom was at goddess level. This is my mom's old photo.

Reporter: She looks quite different from now.

Son: Because she's gotten busier and busier, her hair has gotten shorter and shorter, and now there's less of it too, so now she's got this lion's mane style.

In 2006, family upheaval and the polishing of time made the Hou Zhenghong of today completely different from before. What exactly happened?

Before 2006, Hou Zhenghong was a kindergarten teacher in Liping County. After marrying, she had a son and a daughter. Hou Zhenghong stayed home to care for her husband and raise the children, while her husband also did well in business outside, and even built a tea factory. Everyone envied Hou Zhenghong's carefree life.

On December 6, 2006, Hou Zhenghong's whole family was eating as usual, but she never imagined that this would become the last meal of her husband's life.

That night, her husband died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, without leaving a single word. Hou Zhenghong's world collapsed, and she hid in her room and cried for a month. At this point, only 4 months had passed since Hou Zhenghong's father passed away.

Hou Zhenghong: In July 2006 my father passed away, and in December my husband passed away. That year, the men who loved me most were all gone. At that time it truly was a bolt from the blue for me, truly a bolt from the blue.

Before his death, her husband was Hou Zhenghong's only support. When building the tea factory, he had used up all the family's savings. Overnight, the whole burden of life fell on Hou Zhenghong's shoulders.

Someone was willing to pay 600,000 yuan to buy the tea plantation her husband had left behind, but Hou Zhenghong, who had never thought about doing business and had never done business, made a shocking decision: take over the tea factory.

Yang Shuqiong: At the time our whole family opposed her. A woman at home, she had never worried about this before. When the time comes, you definitely won't be able to handle it.

Hou Zhenghua: Before, she had never been involved in even a tiny bit of my brother-in-law's affairs, never participated at all.

Hou Zhenghong: He's already gone. The dead cannot come back to life. I just thought, he can never return to my side, so I can only move forward. Taking good care of my two children is my greatest wish.

In April 2007, Hou Zhenghong listened to no one. She plunged headlong into the tea fields, vowing to build up the tea business for her children. But before that, let alone running it, Hou Zhenghong had never even set foot inside the tea garden gate. She didn't even know how many mu her husband had contracted or what tea was planted. At that time it was exactly the season for spring tea to hit the market, and many people went up the mountain to pick tea, so Hou Zhenghong followed them up the mountain.

His name is Lin Qiliang, a seasoned local tea dealer. Hou Zhenghong asked someone to invite Lin Qiliang to help her see how the tea should be sold, but as soon as Lin Qiliang arrived at Hou Zhenghong's tea garden, he wanted to leave.

Lin Qiliang: Her tea grows one bud and one leaf before Qingming each year, from the end of February to early March, and that's when picking begins. She didn't pick it. By April, I took a look, the leaves, the middle leaves had all opened. Tea that sells for 500 yuan per jin, when made later, can't even sell for 50 yuan per jin.

Hou Zhenghong: He said, Teacher Hou, have you picked the tea? I said no. You're really funny. I went up to look at your tea mountain. That tea is useless now. I said how is it useless, I said it's so nice, it's all very good. Wow, you're such an amateur, he said, it's all opened, this tea has opened, these are all open now, how are you going to deal with that.

Lin Qiliang: The leaves have all opened, like this, this big.

Hou Zhenghong: Boss Lin was saying these leaves have all opened.

Locally, the spring tea harvest period is before Qingming Festival, when the tea is one bud and one leaf and the made tea is of good quality. After Qingming Festival, the tea buds grow into leaves and can only be made into summer tea, which sells for about ten times less than spring tea.