With the house secured, Li decided to give it a new identity as a village cafe, in keeping with her own love of coffee.

"But a cafe that only sells coffee won't survive these days, so we have to offer something of emotional value," she says.

With seven years of experience in the media, Li has a keen sense for building viral brands and turning online traffic into lasting, real life engagement.

She made a point of studying other nearby cafes and deliberately filtered out cookie-cutter concepts. Then, she spotted her niche.

"Coincidentally, I also keep a horse — and that's when the idea hit me: Why not combine the two?"

The cafe's concept is simple. Li pairs coffee with hands-on interaction with horses.

Patrons can book 58-yuan ($8) pony play sessions to groom Mario or to ride Oreo, a chocolate-colored dwarf horse, along the dykes that thread through fields of golden grain.

"It proves right that city dwellers don't just want coffee, they crave experiences they can't get downtown," Li says.

She shares stories about the cafe online and has more than 70,000 followers on her Douyin account. Her goal for the year is for sales to break 2 million yuan.

Li is one of the enterprising spirits that have been drawn to Henggang since it was transformed from a typical underdeveloped village into an environmental getaway more than a decade ago.

Once a major hub for pig farming, Henggang faced significant challenges from pollution resulting from animal husbandry.