Assistant Manager Chen's brows were tightly knitted.
Since Lan Xin had been let go, she hadn't been able to find a suitable job at home. She missed out on the status of a fresh graduate from a normal university, which meant she couldn't take the education bureau exams—she could only apply through the teaching recruitment route instead. But with staffing quotas tightening these days, besides publicly funded normal school graduates, very few schools offered tenure-track positions anymore—almost all were contract-based. Low pay, no permanence, exhausting teaching work—Lan Xin turned her nose up at every option, feeling none of them measured up to her previous job! Selling a few luxury handbags on the side brought in four to five thousand a month, not to mention the hidden perks of tagging along for free meals. On top of that, her direct superior was a little brat, and the assistant manager was his own mother!
Lan Xin couldn't bring herself to settle for less, nor was she willing to stoop, and so she remained idle at home to this day.
"Enough." Sun Assistant Manager finished applying his eyedrops and took his leave. "I've got things to do on my end. You should hurry back and keep an eye on things! If you're any later, she'll have already scheduled your shift at Moonlight Pavilion for you."
"Then I won't see you out. Take care."
"No need, no need. Get back quickly."
Assistant Manager Chen was weighed down with worry.
She still had three years before she turned fifty. Generally speaking, long-serving household staff like Steward Lin were kept on even past retirement age. Assistant Manager Chen naturally wanted to be kept on as well, but judging by the current situation...
"Assistant Manager Chen, you're back."
Qiuyun greeted her with a bright smile. "The master's room has been prepared, but I'm afraid you'll have to rework the shift schedule and rotating staff assignments."
Seeing that Assistant Qiu had at least left her the scheduling task, Assistant Manager Chen's irritation eased slightly, and she maintained a surface-level composure.
"That's something I'm used to doing. Which floor is the master's room on?"
Qiuyun replied, "The guest room on the southeast corner of the third floor."
"What?" Assistant Manager Chen exclaimed. "That's so remote!"
Was she out of her mind?
Qiuyun said helplessly, "It was the madam and the young miss's decision. There's nothing we can do about it, right? I figured if I passed along the message, I'd be caught in the crossfire if the master got angry, so I went ahead and had things arranged directly—that way you wouldn't have to be the scapegoat either."
So that was it!
When the madam and the master locked horns, weren't they just cannon fodder themselves?
The knot in Assistant Manager Chen's chest loosened a bit, but she still worried. "But what will you do if the master really loses his temper?"
"It's fine." Qiuyun reassured her. "The young miss will always speak up for me."
"Alright."
Assistant Manager Chen let out a long sigh. Little Qiu had actually solved a problem for her, hadn't she?
That Sun fellow—always in such a hurry to come stirring the pot and drip poison in her ear. Did he take her for someone who couldn't tell which side her bread was buttered on?
Having smoothly dissolved Assistant Manager Chen's grudge, Qiuyun returned to the young miss's room and continued their earlier conversation.
"Charity?!"
Jiang Chuling was surprised. "You want me to do charity?"
"Yes."
"But the family has always done charity—that's nothing new."
Qiuyun explained, "The family's charity is just allocating funds and sending supplies, or donating to the Red Cross. What you'd be doing, miss, is different. You'd personally go to welfare homes or orphanages, and have passersby or onlookers take photos that get posted online."
Jiang Chuling caught on in an instant. "So everyone will praise me, and then Grandpa will let me attend the annual meeting?"
"Exactly." Qiuyun smiled. "The power of public opinion is a terrifying thing, but luckily you're young, miss, so netizens will be quite forgiving of you."
"But... wouldn't that be fake charity? A publicity stunt?"
Qiuyun reassured her, "With charity, what matters is the deed, not the motive. As long as the people you help genuinely receive assistance, then the good reputation that comes with it is something you've earned. You can't have people who do charity give up all the tangible benefits and not even get a good name out of it."
"I understand."
Now that she had a goal, Jiang Chuling grew visibly more focused. "Sister Xiaoqiu, what should I do?"
Qiuyun pondered for a moment. "Even though we're doing this charity for the annual meeting, we can't have anyone dig up that it was staged. So from now on, you'll spend one morning each month on this—whether it's going to a welfare home, an elder care facility, or paying respects at a martyrs' cemetery. At the very least, you must keep up this frequency until you start middle school."
"I can do that." Jiang Chuling promised. "Doing charity is a good thing—my mom also regularly donates to Hope Primary Schools."
Qiuyun added, "And for netizens to 'discover' it and share it online, it can't be from the first visit. So we'll go a few times first, and ideally, we'll find the right moment to let it leak out before the annual meeting."
"Alright." Jiang Chuling was equally a woman of action. "Let's go tomorrow morning, then."
Qiuyun rose to her feet. "I'll call the madam to ask for her approval."
When the call went through, Yu Xiang was working overtime at the school to dodge her husband.
"Doing charity at a welfare home? Is this Little Seven's idea?"
Qiuyun replied, "Yes, the young miss watched some social news today and was moved to act."
"Having a heart for the needy is a good thing. In that case, I'll go with Little Seven tomorrow. You go to the family office and ask Director Zhang for a list of welfare homes our family has been supporting. Have him allocate five hundred thousand to purchase clothes and shoes on short notice, along with children's books, milk, and fruit."
Yu Xiang thought for a moment. "Actually, you go instead. Sun Assistant Manager is fine when handling things for the master, but when it comes to donations for children, the money needs to actually be put to good use."
What good luck!
Qiuyun immediately agreed. "No problem, madam. If there's anything I don't understand, I'll seek advice from the procurement department."
"Good."
After hanging up, Qiuyun relayed the madam's intentions to the young miss, then went to the family office to get the welfare home list from Director Zhang, allocated the funds to buy supplies, scheduled the delivery for nine-thirty the next morning at the designated welfare home, and coordinated the process with the director over the phone—she didn't finish until dinner time.
That evening.
Neither of the two young masters was home; only the master, the madam, and the young miss were at the table.
When the master learned that the mother and daughter were going to do charity, he insisted on joining. And since he, as the group's president, was going, donating only five hundred thousand seemed a bit stingy—so he simply donated one million to each of the city's five welfare homes.
Standing to the side, Qiuyun said, "Sir, going to the welfare home to care for the children is the young miss's wish. If we're not there in person and just hand over money, who knows how it might be used? Why not let the young miss take that one million and carry out the charity visits to each welfare home herself, making clear along the way that the funds are your sponsorship? That way, we can ensure the young miss's kindness truly reaches the children."
Jiang Chuling immediately fueled the fire, charging in like an opening squad: "Exactly! Who knows who might pocket that money along the way?! Better that I personally turn it into supplies and hand them straight to the kids."
Yu Xiang looked on with approval. "Little Seven's grown up—she's even thinking about these things now."
"Fine." Jiang Yihua had no objections. "I'll have my secretary transfer the money to you to arrange yourself—good practice in learning how to spend money smartly."
"Got it."
With that little interlude, the atmosphere at the dinner table turned far more harmonious, until the master asked where his room had been arranged.
Assistant Manager Chen stayed silent, and Qiuyun replied, "The room on the southeast corner of the third floor. Would you like me to show you the way, sir?"
