Lu Jiaxin returned to her hotown and didn’t bring much money; the promised donations were to be paid by Zhang Sining. The one hundred thousand for building the ancestral hall, she gave directly to Seventh Uncle, with Big Uncle Lu supervising; and for the road construction’s two million, she first transferred one million, with the remaining one million to be given depending on the progress of the road construction, and she attached one condition—that the road in Lu Family New Village had to be built simultaneously.
These two matters were easily resolved, but building the school posed so problems. Zhang Sining called Lu Jiaxin and said, "Boss, I’ve inquired, and Feng County is a high earthquake frequency area. According to your requirents to build a three-story classroom building, the construction will take a long ti. It’s already mid-July now, and with this progress, the junior high students won’t be able to move into the new classrooms before the start of school."
According to Lu Jiaxin’s request, the village school next to Lu Family Village was to be built together with the town’s middle school. The elentary school construction was simple and could finish the classrooms in a month and a half; but for the middle school, which needed to build classrooms and dormitories (as many children lived far away and needed to board), it might not be possible to complete before the start of school.
Lu Jiaxin hadn’t really considered the earthquake issue, she thought for a mont and then said, "Let’s not build a multi-story building for the elentary school, just a single story. There’s plenty of empty space around the village school which is just right for this; but the middle school must have three-story classrooms and teaching buildings, this can’t change. If there are problems, ask the governnt to find a solution."
After that, Zhang Sining ntioned the matter of sponsoring poor students. Lu Jiaxin told her to investigate the two people recomnded by Big Uncle Lu, and if there were no issues, to let Big Uncle Lu hand over his duties to them. As for Big Uncle Lu, he would supervise the two people he had recomnded at that ti.
Zhang Sining said, "I’ve looked into these two people, they’re both very upright and have good reputations. But one of them, Ding Jiang, his wife is in poor health and takes dicine all year round. Would it be a problem for him to manage the sponsorship for poor students?"
Lu Jiaxin knew what she was implying, "It’s all right, my uncle will still manage the money; we’re just hiring two people to assist him. As for sponsoring the poor students, we will also send people to do ho visits in the future."
It’s not possible to visit all the poor students at ho, but having this rule can deter those with ulterior motives. Everyone has greed, it’s just that so can restrain it while others amplify it.
Zhang Sining saw that she had thought everything through and didn’t say anything more.
With the go-ahead from Lu Jiaxin, it didn’t take two days before construction began on the village school. Second Uncle Lu even went out of his way to take a look and ca back with mixed emotions.
Second Uncle Lu found Big Uncle Lu and said, "Big brother, what do you think this girl has in mind? She’s spending money to build schools and roads, yet we, the elders, can’t bask in any glory."
Lu Jiayao very much agreed with these words; his own household and the second branch didn’t bask in any glory at all.
Big Uncle Lu took a drag on his cigarette, exhaled a ring of smoke and then asked, "How do you want to bask in glory? Do you want Jiaxin to give you eighty or a hundred thousand Yuan as well?"
Second Uncle Lu said boldly, "The road construction alone is two million, giving eighty or a hundred thousand isn’t much! There’s also Jiazong and Jiayao, working hard all year and not even making twenty thousand Yuan."
Big Uncle Lu imdiately cursed when he heard this, "What do you count for? Expecting Jiaxin to give you eighty or a hundred thousand Yuan to spend. This money helps those children go to school, and they will at least be grateful; spending money to build roads will also earn praise from miles around. Giving it to you, not only would you not be grateful, but you’d also complain that Jiaxin gave too little."
Big Uncle Lu was so angry that he was spitting on Second Uncle Lu’s face.
If it were any other day, Second Uncle Lu would have cowered seeing Big Uncle Lu so angry, but today he was resentful, "Big brother, it’s clear that Lu Jiaxin is favoring outsiders over her own family. She’d rather give money to those unrelated people than help her own elders and brothers. How could you still curse at ?"
Big Uncle Lu didn’t waste words and directly picked up the sole of his shoe to hit him. Seeing it wouldn’t end well, Second Uncle Lu quickly ran outside, but he rushed so hastily that he tripped over outside the door and then passed out.
Although annoyed by his irrational behavior, Big Uncle Lu was still worried sick when he saw him fainting and imdiately had soone send Second Uncle Lu to the hospital.
Halfway through the journey, Second Uncle Lu woke up, but considering his arm had been hurting recently, he decided not to get up. Upon arriving at the hospital, and learning that Big Uncle Lu had paid, he asked the doctor to give him a full-body checkup. To his surprise, they did find sothing wrong.
The doctor said there was an issue with his stomach, but the county hospital couldn’t pinpoint the exact problem, so they suggested he go to a provincial hospital for further examination.
Hearing this, Big Uncle Lu didn’t hesitate to take him directly to a provincial hospital for the checkup.
When Jiaxin returned ho from work that day, the housekeeper told her, "Boss, I just received a call from soone claiming to be your Second Aunt, and she said that your second uncle has stomach cancer."
Jiaxin shuddered at the ntion of stomach cancer. In her previous life, it was stomach cancer that she had, and by the ti it was discovered, it was too late to be saved. She felt that she should go for a full-body checkup on Sunday, just to put her mind at ease.
The housekeeper, seeing that she didn’t respond, didn’t dare to speak further and just waited there for her to say sothing.
Jiaxin snapped back to reality and said, "Apart from my big uncle, elder brother, and Shanzi and his wife’s calls, just hang up all other calls directly."
What this implied was that the housekeeper could intercept the calls, but there was no need to relay the contents to her. Her patience with the Lu family mbers had worn thin, and she no longer wanted to be involved in their sses.
The next day, Second Aunt Lu called again, but the housekeeper politely said, "If your husband is sick, go get him treated. My boss isn’t a doctor, your contacting her is useless."
Second Aunt Lu, of course, knew that Lu Jiaxin wasn’t a doctor, but she was wealthy, after all. However, before she could speak, the call was disconnected from the other side. With no other option, she could only return to the hospital with tears in her eyes.
Jiacai’s wife could tell from her expression that sothing was wrong. But this was expected; her scheming over their younger cousin’s house back then had resulted in her own family not benefiting at all in the end. Now that her father-in-law was sick and they were hoping for Jiaxin to contribute financially, how could that possibly happen? Yet, she pretended to know nothing.
Second Aunt Lu said to Jiacai’s wife, "The doctor said your father-in-law must have surgery; otherwise, the cancer will spread rapidly, and he will die. Take out whatever money you have so I can go pay the fees."
Jiacai’s wife pulled out eighty Yuan, "This is all the savings we have in our family."
Second Aunt Lu flew into a rage, cursing Jiacai’s wife for having no conscience, as even for money for her father-in-law’s treatnt she wasn’t willing to contribute. Yet, she hadn’t anticipated that halfway through her tirade, Jiacai’s wife, with a darkened face, simply walked away.
Back in the hospital room, Big Uncle Lu, who saw only Second Aunt Lu, asked, "Where’s Jiacai’s wife?"
"I told her to take out money for the head of the family to get treatnt, and she only took out eighty Yuan, claiming that was all their possessions. Jiacai can earn more than one hundred a month outside, so over three years, they must have saved at least three or four thousand. Just eighty Yuan, is she treating us like beggars?"
Big Uncle Lu said, "Jiacai shouldn’t bear all the dical expenses alone, he still has four children to support! We’ll have him get together with Jiajie for the dical expenses. If that’s not enough, we can borrow so from Jiayao and the others."
"He’s not in the Forty-nine City, so how can we ask him for dical expenses," Second Aunt said. She didn’t dare ntion calling Jiaxin for fear of being scolded.
Big Uncle Lu thought the matter wasn’t difficult, "The disease should be treated in the Forty-nine City Hospital. I just called Jiaguang to arrange the hospital, once he finds soone, you all can go to the Forty-nine City."
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