By the time Liu Yutong arrived at the fifth school, it was already past ten in the morning.
The school was located in a place called Qingyu Town. When an earthquake struck the previous year, half of the town’s elementary school collapsed. Fortunately, the school had been holding its sports day that day, so all the students were outside and no one was injured.
The new school, funded and built by the Wanlong Charity Foundation, stood in the newly developed part of the town.
It was a brand-new, three-story school building with pale yellow walls and a blue roof. The playground had a rubber running track. Although the grounds were not large, they had all the necessary facilities.
Several large characters were embedded above the school building:
WANLONG HOPE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
As soon as Liu Yutong’s convoy came to a stop, she saw that the school entrance was packed with people.
The principal was a woman in her fifties whose surname was Zhou. Behind her stood all the teachers and students in the school.
The students wore matching uniforms and bright red scarves. They stood perfectly straight, their eyes shining as they watched the convoy slowly approach.
“Welcome, Director Liu! Welcome to our school for an inspection!”
Principal Zhou hurried forward and clasped Liu Yutong’s hands tightly.
After all, this was the first time the chairwoman of Wanlonghui Group had personally come to inspect the school, so Principal Zhou naturally regarded it as a very important occasion. She had begun preparing several days in advance.
Liu Yutong smiled as she held the principal’s hands. “Principal Zhou, you’re too kind. I’m just here to see the children and find out whether the school needs any further assistance.”
“We already have everything we need—more than enough.”
“Director Liu, you have no idea. After last year’s earthquake, all the buildings at our school collapsed. The children could only attend classes in tents. It was only after your company donated money to build this new school that they finally had a proper place to study.”
“Director Liu, on behalf of all the teachers, students, and townspeople, I want to thank you!”
Liu Yutong said, “Principal Zhou, you’re making too much of it. This is simply what we ought to do.”
Principal Zhou wiped the corners of her eyes, then turned to the students and called out, “Children, this is Sister Liu, the person who built this new school for you. Shall we all thank Sister Liu together?”
“Thank you, Sister Liu!” the children shouted in unison.
Looking at those young, innocent faces, Liu Yutong felt a warm current well up inside her.
She bent down and spoke to a little girl standing at the front. “What’s your name?”
The girl was a little shy. Her cheeks flushed as she said softly, “My name is… Zhang Xiaoya.”
“Xiaoya, what a lovely name.”
“Do you like your new school?”
“Yes!”
“The classrooms are so big, and we have new desks and chairs. There’s even air-conditioning, so it doesn’t get hot during class in the summer.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Liu Yutong straightened up and said to Principal Zhou, “Principal Zhou, I brought some gifts for the children. Would you like us to hand them out now or later?”
“Chairman Liu, you really shouldn’t have gone to so much trouble. This is too generous.”
“It’s nothing. It’s just a small token of my appreciation.”
Liu Yutong waved her hand, and her assistant, Yun Cheng, immediately led several people in unloading the gifts from the truck.
There were schoolbags, stationery sets, candy and snacks, as well as a red envelope for every child. Everything was neatly arranged along the edge of the playground.
The moment the children saw the brand-new schoolbags and stationery, their eyes lit up.
“Wow! New schoolbags!”
“There are pencil cases too, with little animals on them!”
“Mine has a bunny!”
“Mine has a red panda!”
“So cute…”
The children chattered excitedly, their faces filled with delight.
Liu Yutong personally handed the gifts to the children one by one. Each time, she would bend down to say a few words to the child and gently pat them on the head.
The last child in line was a thin, undersized boy wearing a school uniform several sizes too large for him. The sleeves had been rolled up several times, revealing his slender wrists, as though his arms were too thin to hold the clothes in place.
“Thank you… Thank you, Sister,” he murmured.
Liu Yutong crouched down and looked at him. “What’s your name?”
“I… My name is Wang Xiaoshu.”
“Xiaoshu, how old are you?”
“I’m ten.”
The boy was ten years old, yet he looked only seven or eight. He was so thin that it broke her heart.
Liu Yutong felt a pang in her chest and asked, “Who else is there in your family?”
Wang Xiaoshu lowered his head and answered quietly, “My grandmother, and… my older brother.”
“What about your parents?”
“My parents… they didn’t make it through the earthquake.”
Seeing the tears glimmering in his eyes, Liu Yutong reached out and gently pulled him into her arms, patting his back.
“Xiaoshu, study hard. If you make it to college one day, you’ll be able to live a better life.”
“Okay!” Wang Xiaoshu nodded vigorously.
After the gifts had been handed out, Principal Zhou took Liu Yutong on a tour of the school’s classrooms, library, dormitories, and computer room.
The computer room contained more than a dozen computers. Their specifications were not particularly impressive, but they were perfectly adequate for the students’ needs.
“All of these were donated by the Wanlong Charity Foundation,” Principal Zhou said with emotion. “The children had never even seen a computer before. Now they have computer classes every week, and they love them. They come running over early every time, just to wait for class to begin.”
Liu Yutong nodded. “Education has to keep pace with the times. It’s good for the children’s development to be exposed to new things from an early age.”
By the time they finished touring the school, it was noon.
Principal Zhou insisted that Liu Yutong stay for lunch.
“Director Liu, the cafeteria is ready. It’s just simple home-style food, so please don’t look down on it.”
Liu Yutong smiled. “Why would I? I love home-style cooking.”
The cafeteria was in a row of bungalows behind the main school building. Inside were more than a dozen long tables.
The children had already lined up and taken their seats. Each had a stainless-steel tray in front of them, and they sat in neat rows.
The day’s dishes were braised potatoes with pork, marinated chicken legs, stir-fried bok choy, and seaweed-and-egg-drop soup.
After getting her food, Liu Yutong carried her tray over and sat among the children.
“Sister Liu, sit here!”
“Sit with me! My spot is clean!”
“…”
The children competed to invite her over.
With a smile, Liu Yutong sat down beside Wang Xiaoshu.
The food on her tray tasted quite good. The potatoes were tender, and the meat was flavorful.
But when she glanced at Wang Xiaoshu’s tray, she froze.
He hadn’t touched the chicken leg or the pork. They were both piled carefully to one side. He was eating only the potatoes and bok choy.
“Xiaoshu, why aren’t you eating your chicken leg? Don’t you like it?”
Wang Xiaoshu quickly shook his head. “No, I like it!”
“Then why aren’t you eating it?”
He lowered his head and whispered, “I… I want to take it home for Grandma. She hasn’t had meat in a long time.”
Liu Yutong’s heart clenched painfully, and her nose began to sting.
She looked at the other children’s trays. Besides Xiaoshu, two girls had also left their chicken legs untouched, carefully wrapping them in plastic bags and setting them aside.
After thinking for a moment, she called Lan Die over.
“Contact our warehouse and see if we can arrange for a shipment of ready-to-eat marinated chicken legs and duck legs. Since these children are reluctant to eat them, let’s prepare some more for them to take home.”
Wanlong Supermarket was extremely strict when it came to selecting products—so strict that it was almost harsh. Although the products were ready-to-eat, every step of the preparation process was fully traceable, and the hygiene standards were exceptionally high. Parents could rest assured that their children would be perfectly safe eating them.
“All right. I’ll call someone right away and have them delivered.”
After finishing their meal, they prepared to leave.
Liu Yutong said to Principal Zhou, “From now on, the school cafeteria’s meals need to be improved. Every meal must include at least two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup. I’ll cover the cost.”
Principal Zhou was so moved that he hardly knew what to say. He could only thank her repeatedly.
Liu Yutong was just about to get into the car when she suddenly thought of something else and asked, “By the way, Principal Zhou, does our school have any students from especially impoverished families?”
Principal Zhou thought for a moment before replying, “There are a few. The one in the most difficult situation is Wang Xiaoshu’s family. His parents and grandfather are all gone, and his grandmother is in poor health and has to take medicine year-round. The family survives on a few small plots of land and welfare payments. He also has an older brother named Wang Dashu, but there’s something wrong with his mind—his intellectual development isn’t normal. He seems to have gone missing some time ago, and they still haven’t found him.”
Liu Yutong frowned. “Gone missing? Did you report it to the police?”
Principal Zhou replied, “We did, but there hasn’t been any news.”
“For a child with an intellectual disability like his, it’s very difficult to find him once he goes missing. Xiaoshu has had such a hard life. He’s still so young, yet he has to take care of his grandmother while attending school. It’s truly not easy.”
Liu Yutong was silent for a moment before asking, “Principal Zhou, does Xiaoshu’s family live far from here?”
“Not far. They’re in the village behind the school. It’s only a little over ten minutes on foot.”
“Then please take me there to have a look.”
Principal Zhou quickly nodded. “Of course, of course. I’ll take you there.”
