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red star news reporter | cai xiaoyi

editor: zhang xun editor: deng feiguang

it was one in the afternoon, two hours before take-off, and xiaoying was still sitting on the old sofa where she often broadcast live, wondering whether to go to zhejiang. a few days ago, she was invited to attend an e-commerce conference, and she wanted to make up for the regret of not taking dabao to shanghai last time.

many people also advised her not to go, fearing that other incidents would arise. in recent days, some netizens dug up a video of her giving away two children for adoption during a live broadcast, and some netizens dug up that her husband once said that he and his youngest daughter xiaobao played the villains. for a time, topics such as "internet celebrity xiaoying's reputation collapsed", "is internet celebrity xiaoying playing the victim to gain attention", and "civil affairs bureau responds to giving away children for adoption" were frequently searched.

on september 20, red star news learned from relevant departments in xundian county, yunnan that the local authorities had some knowledge of xiaoying's family situation from the time they filmed the video many years ago to the process of getting out of poverty. "she has always had two children, and we do need to re-verify what she said."

▲the village where xiaoying lives

faced with the uproar in public opinion, xiaoying in the mountains of yunnan fell into self-doubt. "i feel now that i am not suitable for living in the city. i am only suitable to stay at home, in the countryside."

as the seconds ticked by, she looked up and asked the reporter, "do you think i should go?"

visit:the village was once a provincial poverty-stricken village

less than 100 kilometers north of kunming city is xundian county. the shanghai-kunming railway and several highways pass through the county. after removing the label of a poverty-stricken county in 2018, it also became a demonstration county for the beef cattle industry in yunnan.

in addition to the beef cattle brand, the internet celebrity xiaoying's family, who became popular this year, has also become a reason for many e-commerce and tourists to visit xundian. the account @小英一家's profile reads, "recording real life, from the mountains of yunnan, two children born in 1996, no parents-in-law, no education, farming and raising cattle at home."

on friday afternoon, unlike the recent clamor on the internet, villagers quietly squatted in front of their doors, picking corn, watching cows grazing and chickens wandering around. in front of xiaoying's house, dabao, a fourth-grade student, and xiaoying's brother's two children were washing xiaobao's pink bicycle in the sink.

▲samples displayed on the first floor of xiaoying's home

in the afternoon, people came to xiaoying's home one after another. the village head and the leaders of the street community paid attention to the online public opinion and came to understand the situation. the first floor was full of samples, and the guests were all in the living room on the second floor. earlier, in response to questions such as whether the internet celebrity xiaoying was playing misery to gain attention and whether she had given her children up for adoption, the xundian county civil affairs bureau, women's federation, and propaganda department responded to public concerns, saying that multiple departments were cooperating to verify the matter.

many villagers from the same village as xiaoying said that they would watch xiaoying's videos in their spare time. in their opinion, xiaoying did not play the victim. the life shown in the videos was basically the same as her life in the village. her daily routine was feeding cows, doing farm work, doing housework, and drinking sweet wine brewed in the village. xiaoying's family also lived in the village all year round.

▲there are cardboards piled up in front of xiaoying’s house. xiaoying said she could save them and sell them for money.

as for the matter of giving up children for adoption, many villagers recalled that they often saw only two girls, dabao and xiaobao, and did not know whether there were other children.

a local villager revealed that xiaoying had been married to the village for nearly ten years, and she often passed by their house when she went to work in the fields. she remembered that xiaoying had more than two children, "both the first and second were girls, and the second girl was later sent away, and then xiaobao was born, also a girl." currently, xiaoying's eldest daughter is studying in the village primary school, and xiaobao is also in the village kindergarten.

a villager recalled that many years ago, when xiaoying's family had not yet built their new house, their economic situation was indeed bad. she once visited her home and "there was no toilet. we wanted to find a dry toilet outside, but it was so dirty that there was no place to step."

▲the village where xiaoying lives

red star news learned from the local street office that xiaoying married here about ten years ago. the village where she lives is under the jurisdiction of caohaizi residential committee of jinsuo street. it was once a provincial poverty-stricken village with 230 farmers and a population of 831, mainly yi people. the number of registered poor people accounts for 96.5% of the village's population.

around 2016, with the help of the government, local villagers built about 226 resettlement houses of uniform structure, with white facades painted with yi-style figures. it was later rated as a "chinese ethnic minority characteristic village."

a staff member of the local government said that xiaoying's family's living conditions are much better now, but she lives in a mountainous area and needs to do farm work on weekdays, so she may have problems with her personal living habits and hygiene habits. the local authorities are also communicating with xiaoying to help her change.

"i am not suitable for the city, i am suitable for staying in the countryside"

after the relocation, xiaoying and her family lived in the upper part of the village, close to the mountain. after the road surface was hardened, cars could drive directly to xiaoying's door.

at 1 pm, zhang received a request from xiaoying's husband shang laru to pick xiaoying up from the county seat to the airport. zhang introduced that he was shang laru's friend, and that shang laru was doing a live broadcast to help farmers in an electronics industrial park in xundian county today and could not get away.

less than two hours before the plane took off, xiaoying was still struggling with whether to attend the zhejiang e-commerce creator conference. she sat on the old sofa where she usually broadcast live, and next to her stood the headlight she used for live broadcasts. her figure was as thin as in front of the camera, and her face was dark from long-term sun exposure.

"before this public opinion, i would definitely be willing to see the outside world." xiaoying told red star news that through short videos, many partners would come to her home to find her, "i can see what kind of people they are, and i have also met a lot of outstanding people." her voice was a little hoarse and she coughed from time to time.

the organizers have already booked the hotel and air tickets. xiaoying's original idea was that many netizens in the comment area questioned her favoritism towards her younger daughter, and this time she wanted to make up for the regret that her eldest daughter did not go to shanghai. with friday and the three-day weekend, she only needed to take one day off, which would not affect the child's studies.

as the online doubts intensified, xiaoying backed off and no longer had any thoughts about her trip to zhejiang. "it seems that the public opinion started to emerge after i went to shanghai." she fell into self-doubt, and after struggling for a while, she said, "i am not suitable for going to the city, i am suitable for staying in the countryside." after days of public opinion, she came to a conclusion, "i was born in the countryside, and there is nothing to do in the big city."

response to doubts: there is no script

usually, shang laru works in the county. after she became famous, xiaoying couldn't feed the cows and chickens by herself, so her brother and sister-in-law from her mother's side came to her house a month ago. "they usually help her share some of the work, feed grass for the cows and chickens," said xiaoying's brother.

▲brother and sister-in-law with xiaoying

on the 20th, xiaoying's parents also rushed back from another village in xundian to help. the family sat together in the living room on the second floor. xiaoying's parents, brother and sister-in-law were all tanned by the sun like her. xiaoying's father had just come from the fields and his cloth shoes were stained with mud. "because of my problems, my parents and family are worried, i can't eat or sleep well." xiaoying said that she felt guilty towards her family.

according to zhang, xiaoying has not been in a good state these days after the online public opinion. he said that xiaoying's works are all real and not pitiful, and the family has always lived in the village. "in the countryside, people usually do whatever is comfortable and convenient, so the environment is inevitably a bit dirty and messy."

he recalled that both of them did not graduate from junior high school, and they published their videos entirely based on their life experience. "there was no script, no team, and no plan for the future. most of the products sold through live streaming were agricultural and sideline products from the village." in his opinion, xiaoying's life was indeed very hard before, and her account became relatively popular in march and april this year, and her life began to improve.

in a latest video released in the early morning of the 20th, xiaoying stomped corn leaves to load them into a truck during the day, and packed pecans with her brother and sister-in-law at home at night. she wrote, "i want to say something but i don't know what to say, i'll just let it go," she said, which was her response to a series of recent controversies.

xiaoying told red star news that what she couldn't understand was why there were so many doubts on the internet in the past two days. she had never hidden them before. "old fans all know. i said all this myself a long time ago." xiaoying said that she did not have a script. many speculations on the internet were not in line with reality, and some were over-interpreted or even distorted.

local: multiple departments will investigate and issue a report

most of the videos xiaoying posted recorded her daily life in the countryside. xiaoying was often busy with work, while shang laru was more like a hands-off boss, with two daughters.

most of the netizens who follow xiaoying are moved by her ability to find joy in adversity. "oh my, sisters..." when old fans hear this familiar opening line, they know that something in xiaoying's house is going to be in trouble again. many fans joke that the three busiest things in xiaoying's house are xiaoying, the grease cleaner, and the washing machine.

"life is a mess, but it doesn't stop her from loving life." an old fan recalled that in her early videos, xiaoying claimed that when she first got married, she lived in a cowshed without a roof, but she thought it was very romantic and could see the stars when she looked up. today, xiaoying's douyin fans have exceeded 5.8 million. "it's not easy for a rural woman to get to where she is today."

▲xiaoying's most popular videos

xiaoying's most popular video was taken on a meadow on august 3 this year. she wore a red skirt, her arms were open, and the mountain breeze blew into her sleeves. she wrote, "ten years ago, i followed shang laru wearing pink high heels. she took me home to live in the cowshed for the first time and took me to the mountains to play. later, it became the place where i came to herd cattle. the environment is exactly the same, nothing has changed. in order to chase cattle, i ran up and down mountains."

in xiaoying's video account, shang laru is her name for her husband. in yi language, this word means "goodbye". netizens summed up xiaoying and shang laru's love story in one sentence, "using the mountains to lure me, and using the mountains to trap me". during a live broadcast, fans asked her if she regretted following shang laru. xiaoying replied, "sometimes i think that eyes are used to look forward, not to look back. maybe you can't see anything when you close your eyes, but when you open your eyes, you can see what's in front of you."

xiaoying said that the relevant departments are investigating the matter of giving the child up for adoption, and she will not respond for now. "my mind is a little hot right now, and i don't know how to say this. i will sort it out one by one later and give an explanation to my fans."

the reporter noted that xiaoying had previously responded in the live broadcast room, "i don't want to go into too much detail, i can only say that this incident is true, it was a little girl." she told fans, "i can't face it. if i tell you all about my past without leaving out anything, you won't be able to bear it. i just want to move on."

on september 20, the head of the relevant department of xundian county told red star news that the government had known about xiaoying's family situation from the time she started filming the video to the entire process of poverty alleviation. "she has always had two children, so we do need to re-verify the situation she told us."

the above-mentioned official said that what xiaoying said about giving away children for adoption was something that happened before 2018. "according to what she said, the two children now are the eldest daughter and the youngest, with another child in between."

it is reported that the government has arranged for multiple departments to verify the situation. since it involves the public security settlement, whether the civil affairs department had the adoption agreement procedures at the time, and the health department needs to confirm the birth certificate and admission certificate at the time with the hospital, the county will integrate the materials from various departments to announce the specific investigation results and respond to public concerns as soon as possible.