147. Returning to South City

The matter of the foundation was settled in this manner. Both of them provided the funding, while Bai Jinyan contributed the effort.

Building a Project Hope primary school was not particularly difficult; the real challenge lay in the abysmal transportation conditions of Rainbow Village. Everything had to start from building roads, taking it one step at a time.

Bai Jinyan was no naive saint either. Jiang Yi's cautionary tale served as a stark reminder, preventing him from underestimating the complexities of human nature.

Bai Jinyan leaked the intention of road construction to the village chiefs of Rainbow Village, Apricot Blossom Village, and a few others. He merely mentioned that while they had some funds on hand, they lacked local connections and a sufficient workforce. They wished to help the villages, but feared their own influence was inadequate.

Upon hearing that someone was willing to help them build roads, the village chiefs were moved to tears, practically wanting to kneel before Bai Jinyan on the spot.

Consequently, the village chiefs mobilized the able-bodied men from their villages and traveled all over the relevant imperial administrative offices to process the paperwork.

Generally speaking, ordinary commoners wishing to blast mountains and build roads would struggle to achieve this even if they begged everyone they knew. However, Chen Ruowen had previously given a heads-up to the officials in charge, so the clerks merely put up a token resistance in accordance with instructions from above, allowing the villagers to grasp the difficulty of the undertaking before letting the matter pass.

Negotiations with the construction teams were personally handled by Village Chief Ge and the others, and all preparatory work was undertaken by the men of the various villages.

The principle that a grain of rice breeds gratitude while a bushel breeds resentment holds true in any era. Letting them experience the difficulty of the task was not about bestowing favors and demanding repayment, but rather a precaution against insatiable greed.

By late August, when Chen Ruowen, Bai Jinyan, and their entourage were compelled to leave, villagers from the three nearby mountain towns lined the road to bid them farewell. Over thirty children had reddened eyes. Their sensible demeanor—clearly reluctant to part yet holding back their tears to send off their teachers—tugged even at Chen Ruowen's heartstrings.

Having gone down to the countryside, they hadn't experienced much of the hardship, but these children truly tugged at one's heart.

Partings are everywhere and inevitable.

No sooner had they been seen off by the people of Rainbow Village than it was their turn to see others off.

Geng Jiaojiao and her friends were also preparing to leave Nancheng to study abroad. Before departure, the little girl hugged Chen Ruowen and cried for a long time, her tears soaking the entirety of Chen Ruowen's shirt—a sight that left Kang Wenbo standing nearby, green with jealousy yet too timid to speak.

The only good news was that with the arrival of the school season, Guo Jingyuan, who had been working hard in Beiping, and Assistant Pan, who had been tasked with protecting her, finally returned one after the other.

Guo Jingyuan was remarkably obedient, reporting only the good news and leaving out the bad. She did not mention a single word about the unpleasant experiences she had encountered in Beicheng, bringing back only a large assortment of Beicheng local specialties. She then happily shared the interesting anecdotes and the care she received during her final job, before shyly shoving a bank card into Chen Ruowen's hands, claiming she was returning the money.

Chen Ruowen accepted it without even looking at it, and thus remained unaware that aside from the one thousand yuan returned in accordance with the IOU, the card also contained the ten thousand yuan she had wired to her at the end of June.

Guo Jingyuan hadn't touched a single cent of it.

As for Assistant Pan, the moment he laid eyes on Chen Ruowen, he shed a couple of pitiful tears.

"Miss, please don't send me so far away from you in the future. When you fell ill, I couldn't take care of you; when you were in danger, I couldn't protect you; when you needed help, I couldn't be of any assistance..."

Assistant Pan had entered the Chen family at the age of ten, and sixteen years had passed since then. He could well be considered someone who had "watched Chen Ruowen grow up."

Chen Ruowen patted Assistant Pan's shoulder with an air of mature authority. "Didn't I entrust you with an even more important mission? Alright, take my slip to the finance department for reimbursement, and take three days of paid leave to go home and visit."

Home?

This word left Assistant Pan in a daze for a moment before he smiled again.

"Miss, have you become the vice president of Zuxing?" Seeing Chen Ruowen nod, Assistant Pan's eyes lit up. "Does that mean I can claim a bit more on my expense reports from now on?"

Chen Ruowen was left speechless.

"You really have no loftier ambitions..."

...

Having wrapped up the tasks at hand, Assistant Pan changed into a plain, neat outfit and took a taxi to a small courtyard on the outskirts of the city.

A rustic marble plaque hung outside the courtyard gates, inscribed with the three characters "Starry Cottage" in regular script.

Pushing open the courtyard door and stepping inside, one was greeted by an ancient, lush locust tree with dense foliage, its trunk too thick for a single person to embrace.

An elderly woman with hair half-turned gray was holding a child by the handrail, practicing walking. The child's legs seemed somewhat weak, making him unsteady after taking a single step, and the elderly woman hurriedly steadied him, encouraging him with a smile.

Next to the handrail was an activity room where several children were engaged in simple activities inside.

This familiar sight made Pan Pan's eyes sting with warmth. Twenty years ago, he too had been right here, repeatedly practicing walking back and forth along that handrail to exercise his congenitally withered leg muscles.

Every time he gripped the railing, bit his lip, and endured the pain to walk, he would wonder if it was because of his congenital defect that his parents had abandoned him without a second thought. If his illness were cured, would his parents come to take him home?

Later, his illness was cured, and even his former weakness transformed into one of his strongest assets, yet Pan Pan never once entertained the notion of "going home."

Pan Pan was an orphan.

From his earliest memories, he had spent his days in this orphanage.

It wasn't called Starry Cottage in the beginning; it was named "Zhenning Orphanage," Zhenning being the name of the street.

Yet on the day Chen Liwan took him away from this place, Chen Liwan said that every child is a star in the sky, and when a child is born, the star falls into the mortal dust to illuminate this human realm.

Therefore, the orphanage was renamed "Starry Cottage."

If he truly had a home, then the Starry Cottage that took him in was his home, and wherever the Chen family members who took him away resided, that was his home.

At this thought, a surge of emotion colored Assistant Pan's voice.

"Mother Fu!"

Hearing the familiar voice, the elderly woman raised her head, and upon seeing Assistant Pan, a warm, benevolent smile bloomed across her face.

"Pan Pan is back?"

"Yes, Mother Fu, I just returned from a business trip and came especially to see you."

Mother Fu cupped Assistant Pan's face in her hands, examining him thoroughly from left to right before nodding with a relieved smile. "Pan Pan has grown up, and we are getting old! Pan Pan, is your work going smoothly? How do you get along with your colleagues? Is anyone bullying you?"

"Smoothly, very smoothly. Chairman Chen and Miss are both exceptionally good to me, and Miss even specially gave me three days off to come back and see you."

"That's good, that's good. The Chen family is good, and it's a blessing that you have them to take care of you. Then I can rest easy."

Holding the little boy beside her, Mother Fu chatted with Pan Pan about the recent developments on both sides.

Ever since Chen Liwan took Pan Pan away, he had allocated a special fund to renovate the aging facilities of Starry Cottage and improve the living conditions of the children. In Mother Fu's eyes, Chen Liwan was not the dreaded Zuxing chairman who struck fear into the hearts of Nancheng residents, but rather a genuinely good man willing to spend time and effort on these physically and mentally disabled children.

Nor was Chen Ruowen some capricious young socialite prone to throwing tantrums; she was simply a younger sister who frequently accompanied her "son" back home for a visit.