Jasmine asked again, “Are you really, really fine?”
As he saw Jasmine caring for him so much, Boyce would rather dig himself a hole and hide in it to hide
his embarrassment.
He drank some water that was on a table and replied, “I’m fine.”
Jasmine felt slightly relieved after she heard him. She recalled that there was an unused toothbrush in
the house, she then found it and handed it over to Boyce and said, “You can use my cup.”
She left Boyce alone as he brushed his teeth. She then fried some eggs, just in time for the porridge to
be ready.
When they were eating together, Jasmine asked, “You want some chicken?”
Unsurprisingly, Boyce was taken aback by her question.
Jasmine pointed towards the door with her head, where the chicken was dancing around lively, “the
principal’s gift to you. They’re treating you very nicely, eh?”
Someone gifted him a watermelon last night, while he got a chicken as a gift this morning.
Boyce knew that people would send stuff to them thanks to Jasmine and her efforts. He looked at her
with warm eyes.
Jasmine was a very kind girl, so it was no surprise that people repaid her kindness with their own.
Moreover, the people in this village were very down-to-earth and honest.
After they had their breakfast, both of them went to the town to buy some daily supplies and new shirts
for Boyce.
As Boyce was wearing Keith’s shirts, Jasmine bought some shirts with the same size for Boyce.
She did not like Boyce owing Keith a favour, so she felt obliged to return the favour.
Even if it was not a big deal, she felt that she must return his favour.
After they returned from the town, they left the supplies in their house and went to the school. Jasmine
bought some study supplies for the students, she could not wait to gift those to the students.
Keith was at the school as well, so Jasmine also returned him his shirt, “Thanks for your clothes.”
Initially, Keith did not take the shirt, “Bah, it’s only one shirt, it’s basically free, you can keep it.”
“No, I insist,” said Jasmine as she held her hands out to him again, “While I’m not particularly well-off, I
don’t like taking advantage of others, the same goes for my boyfriend.”
Jasmine was someone who was straightforward when it came to dealing with other people. If Keith was
not in love with her, and he did not state that, she might have paid him back in other ways. However,
Keith was in love with her, so she must pay off this favour as soon as possible.
She could not leave Keith hanging with his favour.
Keith took the shirt and asked, “You really are very considerate of your boyfriend, huh. Did you pay for
this?”
Jasmine held Boyce’s arm and replied, “He’s my boyfriend, what belongs to me belongs to him, too.”
If Keith did not know about Boyce’s identity, he would have insulted Boyce as a man that shamelessly
relied on his girlfriend.
However, Boyce was someone with a rather notable background, so even if Keith himself did go for
higher education, he doubted that he would end up living better than Boyce.
Unwillingly, he admitted defeat, took his clothes and said, “I’ll go for my classes now.”
Jasmine nodded in response.
“Give me the bag,” Jasmine reached for the bag that contained the gifts for the students, which was
being held on to by Boyce.
Boyce did not comply, “I’ll go in with you.”
Jasmine asked with a smile, “Do you like kids?”
Boyce did not know the answer to that question, though he did like the two kids in Matthew’s house, he
was not sure if he would like other kids or not.
Jasmine smiled, “I like kids. If I ever have kids, I’m gonna give them the best things in the world, love
them, let them enjoy a world full of love.”
Boyce knew that she lacked family love, as she grew up in a rather poor environment. He patted her on
the head, “You’re still a kid.”
Jasmine glared at him, “You’re the kid, not me.”
She then walked big steps towards the classroom. Boyce chuckled, then followed her steps.
When they reached the classroom, Jasmine, with the bag in hand, asked everyone to come over to her.
The students were curious about what was in the bag as they approached her.
The contents in the bag were not exactly big and luxurious, just some fruit shaped erasers, pink
notebooks, stationery boxes shaped like a car among other random toys.
Even so, everyone was beyond happy.
One of the students was someone without a mother, she cried as she hugged Jasmine. She never
knew what her mother looked like. Jasmine heard that her mother was someone that was not local that
moved to the village with the student’s father, hated the fact that they were poor, and she left after
giving birth to her.
Her father had to work instead of looking after her, so he left her to her grandparents.
Her grandparents were old, unsurprisingly. Thus, they were unable to give her clean clothes. When
Jasmine first met her, she was dark-toned and skinny, wearing a shirt that was so unbelievably dirty,
she could not tell what colour it was supposed to be, her hair was also as messy as an overgrown field.
Jasmine brought her back to her home, gave her a shower and washed her clothes as well as she
could.
This time, she specifically bought a new skirt for her.
The girl had basically never worn new clothes, as all her clothes were hand-me-downs from other
people when they grew out of those clothes.
When she saw the skirt, she felt sad but grateful.
She was sad because her mother abandoned her, but she was grateful because a woman that was not
her mother loved her like her mother should have.
Jasmine patted her on the back, “Don’t cry, Jenny.”
The girl’s name was Jennifer Marsh. Everyone gave her the nickname “Jenny”, as she was skinny and
small for her age. She looked like a five-year-old despite being seven years old.
Jasmine wiped off her tears. She recalled her tragic childhood when she looked at Jenny.
It was because Jasmine knew full well how painful it must be for Jenny and other kids in similar
situations, she had always did her best to help these kids. However, her abilities were limited by her
wealth and influence, or lack thereof.
Thus, she could not help as many kids as she wanted.
Boyce was right, she must be better herself, so that she could help and support more kids.
She decided to finish her university studies before helping them.
“Are you crying, Ms. Burke?” Jenny wiped off Jasmine’s tears.
Jasmine was not crying, her eyes started to tear up as she recalled her childhood. Her home was a war
zone most of the time, all she saw was her father relentlessly abusing the ever living hell out of her
mother, let alone receiving parental love from them.
Boyce walked over to her, placed his hand on her shoulder, patted her on the back and said in a pained
tone, “Don’t cry.”
She was holding back her tears when Boyce said that. With his pat, she felt as if she was supported,
thus she turned around and cried audibly without a care in the world in his embrace. Chris, with his
broken leg, slowly limped into the classroom. When he saw Jasmine crying in Boyce’s embrace, he
frowned, continued limping forward, and interrogated Boyce, “How dare you bully Ms. Burke!?”
“I’m telling you, even if we are little boys and girls, we can still help our teacher to fight off bad people.
Many ants can move an elephant, you know?”
Chris said in a proud tone.
Jasmine wiped off her tears, got out from Boyce’s embrace and said, “No one’s bullying me, okay?”
“Then why are you crying?” asked Chris.
“There’s some sand in my eyes, alright?” Jasmine pulled out the car-shaped stationery box and handed
it to Chris, “This is for you.”
Upon seeing his gift, Chris was so happy that he forgot his injured knee as he ran towards Jasmine to
grab his gift. As soon as he could get his hands on the stationery box, he opened it and saw that it was
the double-decker car-shaped stationery box that he had always wanted.
“Thank you, Ms. Burke!” With that, he had completely forgotten to ‘avenge’ his teacher.
After his rush of happiness, he blinked and looked back at Jasmine, “Ms. Burke, are you dating this
man?”
After all, she was crying in his embrace not long ago.
She was not crying because she got bullied, so those tears might be tears of happiness, or else why
would she cry while hugging him?
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