Chapter 2151: Sponsor Children....
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
The two of them stared at each other for a while. Xia You sighed resignedly and said, “How do you know about this?”
“Your mother told me about it. She didn’t know how to ask you, so she came to look for me,” Qiao Mei replied frankly.
“Actually, this matter is a very simple one. That man or I should say, that boy is a poor student whom Lu Huai and I used to sponsor,” Xia You said.
Qiao Mei still had some doubts about what Xia You just said, but it did not sound too far-fetched. It was possible for a boy of 16 or 17 years old to be as tall as an adult, but that still did not explain why they were tugging at each other?
Xia You slowly explained the whole issue to Qiao Mei. The kid’s name was Gao Jie. He was the son of one of Lu Huai’s seniors among the truck drivers, Gao Lei. At that time, Lu Huai was not a team leader yet, just a part of the convoy team. One year, when Gao Lei was on a delivery trip, he encountered a mudslide and the truck was knocked off the cliff with him still inside. Gao Lei’s wife was extremely affected by the tragedy and passed away a year later. That year, Gao Jie was only 10 years old.
Gao Jie had always been a smart boy with a photographic memory and he was very studious. In the beginning, all the team members would pool together some money for Gao Jie. However, the amount dwindled when everyone started making less money. Lu Huai could not bear to see the boy being affected by this. He did not have much of an aptitude for studying, so he was fond of people who studied hard. In the end, Lu Huai continued to sponsor Gao Jie on his own.
He did not tell Xia You about this matter. However, at some point in time, she became suspicious when she realized that there was a big chunk of his earnings missing every month. She had a big fight with him and he had no choice but to tell her about it.
Xia You immediately made a decision to adopt Gao Jie, but Gao Jie refused to accept this arrangement because he did not want to cause trouble for Lu Huai’s family. In the end, they could only sponsor Gao Jie.
Gao Jie had now been admitted to a university in another city. During the school holidays, he had made some money by working part-time and he wanted to give the money to Xia You as a show of filial piety to the couple. Xia You did not want to take his money and that was why the two of them had tugged at each other.
“I see. Then are you still paying for his school fees now?” Qiao Mei asked.
“Now that the kid has grown up, he doesn’t want to take our money anymore. He says that he can support himself by working part-time and even wants to give us money!” Xia You said in a gratified manner, as if Gao Jie was really her own child.
Qiao Mei suddenly had an idea. There must be many children caught in the same circumstances as Gao Jie. Given that the college entrance examination had now resumed, anyone could strive to enter university.
However, the economy was still in its early stages of development. There were definitely still many families who could not afford to send their children to school, particularly the daughters. Most families had three to four children and could only afford to send one child to school. Basically, each family would choose to give the chance to the boy.
She wanted to set up a foundation and start a welfare academy for those children who had outstanding results but were orphaned or came from poor families. These children should also get an avenue and a chance to do well in life.
Of course she did not intend to spend this money for nothing. If these children turned out to be outstanding in all aspects when they grew up, she could hire them to work in those enterprises which she co-owned with the Xia family and the Gao family. She viewed this as a way to nurture talents. In the event that the children did not want to work for her, then she would consider the school fees to be a loan to them. The children could take their time to repay the loans and there would be no interest charged.
“This is a good idea! This is considered doing good deeds! Good deeds will accumulate merit! I want to join in too!” Xia You said.
“It’s not an easy task and we have to put more thought into it. We also need to look for a location, among other miscellaneous stuff. We can’t rush this,” Qiao Mei said.
“I just bought a big piece of land on the edge of the city. My original plan is to build a vehicle parking area for Lu Huai, but it looks like it has come in handy now!” Xia You said excitedly.
When Qiao Mei heard the address, her eyes instantly lit up. In the future, it would fall within the five inner ring roads of the capital! This was a top-notch location! It was the perfect spot for a welfare academy since the children could easily head out to the surroundings to have fun during the holidays.
This issue needed proper planning and she also needed to discuss it with the government! The most important thing now was to quickly untie the knot in Liu Fen’s heart!
Qiao Mei pulled Xia You along to tell Liu Fen the whole story. Liu Fen raised her hand angrily and was about to hit Xia You when Xu Lan stopped her and said, “Why do you want to hit her! The child didn’t do anything wrong! What are you doing!”
“I’m angry that she didn’t tell me about this earlier! Why didn’t she bring the kid home so that we can take good care of him! That kid must have suffered a lot on his own,” Liu Fen said.
“If I’m bringing up ‘my child’ when I haven’t even given birth yet, people are going to talk about it. What if they gossip about me and say that I’m infertile? I just want to avoid inviting trouble ” Xia You said aggrievedly.