Chapter 365: Chapter 364: Responding to a Call from All Sides
“Xiao Lin, this is a pork rib dish made by my eldest daughter, I brought it especially for you. Try it. Recently, you’ve been working too hard; you look so thin, you really need to nourish yourself!”
As soon as the school bell rang, Wong Xiaokou entered the first-grade classroom holding a lunchbox, his smile radiant as he placed it on Lin Nianhe’s desk.
Rubbing his hands together, he smiled jubilantly. If he had a tail, it would surely wag nonstop.
Lin Nianhe raised an eyebrow, then suddenly brightened into a brilliant smile.
“Niuwa, go get a knife from the principal, everyone will leave soon. Take out the lunchbox; the Leader Uncle has brought at for everyone.”
The little ones, slling the at, were already unable to move forward, eyes filled with envy as they stared at the lunchbox.
Before Niuwa went to fetch the knife, he took the lead and said, “Thank you, Leader Uncle.”
“Thank you, Leader Uncle!”
“Thank you, Leader Uncle!”
“…”
Wong Xiao grimaced, feeling extrely awkward.
Niuwa quickly returned with the knife, and Lin Nianhe took it, skillfully slicing the at off the bones and distributing it into the children’s lunchboxes.
As she made the knife flash with silvery gleams, she casually chatted with Wong Xiao, “Leader, sorry to embarrass you like this, our kids here barely get to eat at all year. Thanks to our school’s principal who initiated gardening, otherwise they’d be left with nothing but stead bread and cold water for every al, not to ntion at, they wouldn’t even have vegetables.”
Wong Xiao looked at the eager eyes of the children, his heart indeed felt uncomfortable.
He casually ruffled Niuwa’s hair beside him, saying to Lin Nianhe: “That’s why, Xiao Lin, only by focusing properly on production can the children avoid suffering. Don’t you think so?”
“I won’t stop you from focusing on production; I could even help, but not at the cost of sacrificing the children’s study ti,” Lin Nianhe said, her eyes downcast, suddenly trembling, she chopped a clean bone in half.
Wong Xiao flinched, instinctively covering his arm.
His mouth agape in pain, he sucked in a breath of cold air and complinted, “Good, good knife skills.”
She was just accidentally cutting the bone, right? She wasn’t threatening him, right?
It shouldn’t be, absolutely not, even if it is, it isn’t.
Lin Nianhe looked at him with an almost-smiling glance, then turned to Niuwa, “Niuwa, do you like studying?”
“I like it,” Niuwa replied without hesitation.
“If you could eat at every day but were not allowed to study anymore, would you want that?”
Niuwa blinked, suddenly turned around, and handed his lunchbox, filled with a few pieces of at, to Wong Xiao with teary eyes, “Leader Uncle, I won’t eat at anymore, please let continue to study!”
Following Niuwa’s lead, Bai Xiaojun imdiately joined in, crying and begging Wong Xiao to let him continue studying.
Bai Xiaojun never thought about why Brother Niuwa said such a thing, but he knew Brother Niuwa always did the right thing. Brother Niuwa was such a good person, he would always follow him!
The crying of Bai Xiaojun was highly contagious, and several little girls puckered their lips and cried as well.
“Leader Uncle, please let us study, we beg you!”
“Uncle, my grandma said if I don’t study well, she will make get married, I don’t want to get married wuwuwu…”
“…”
Wong Xiao was surrounded by a group of children. They clumsily clung to his clothes, their pleading words echoing in his ears, making his heart ache.
He suddenly understood Feng Yuanshan a bit more. Who could see such a group of children, so eager to study, and not feel compelled to fix the road to their school?
Wong Xiao had a headache from all the noise, and in fact, ever since Lin Nianhe “threatened” him, he had been in constant pain. He’d experienced this before, like when Feng Yuanshan cursed in the streets.
He raised both hands and, feeling helpless, surrendered: “Alright, alright, stop crying, little ancestors… I promise, I’ll find a way for you all to continue your studies.”
The children blinked their eyes, wiped away their tears, and smiled, showing their small white teeth.
“Thank you, leader uncle!”
“Leader uncle is so nice!”
Wong Xiao rolled his eyes at the complints, gave Bai Xiaojun’s head a casual flick, and shooed them away: “Okay, everyone go ho, stop dawdling.”
“Goodbye, leader uncle!”
“Goodbye, Teacher Lin!”
The children’s faces still wet with tears, they left while clutching their precious lunch boxes.
Once they had all left, Wong Xiao wiped the sweat from his brow and, letting out a long sigh, pointed at Lin Nianhe and said, “You really are…”
Using kids to deal with him was quite despicable!
Lin Nianhe passed him the last piece of at, her eyes curving into a smile: “Uncle Wong, deep down you know very well that you don’t really need children to help in production. Their little arms and legs, how much work can they do? You just don’t want to upset the villagers over such a ‘small issue’ and end up clashing with the commune, right?”
Wong Xiao felt a bit uneasy accepting the at from Lin Nianhe’s soft call of “uncle,” and didn’t eat it, but instead swung it in front of Lin Nianhe: “Xiao Lin, the villagers have been hungry for too long; put a piece of fat at in front of them but tell them they have to wait two months to eat… that’s asking for big trouble.”
Was it that he didn’t want children to go to school? To speak harshly, the school just sits there; it makes no difference to him whether a classroom has one student or a hundred. More students would an the school could be self-sufficient in managing costs, and he’d rather all children ca to school!
But the problem is, how could he convince those restless villagers to support this decision?
One person creating a fuss can be dealt with by reasoning with them day in, day out until they are convinced; ten people creating a fuss, he must consider the impact and consequences; a hundred people… lack of reason becos reason in their noise.
“The villagers might only see the piece of at, but as a leader, you have to help them see the pig behind the at,” Lin Nianhe said with a shallow smile, “as long as you can ensure that the children have schools to attend, I can play the villain.”
Wong Xiao frowned: “What do you plan to do?”
“Take the bla,” Lin Nianhe said, securing the only-bone-left lunch box and handing it to him, “You just say that it was , the teacher, who said it—if they don’t let their children attend school on ti, I’ll ss up the factory.”
“Would they believe that?”
Lin Nianhe smiled aningfully: “What do you think?”
Wong Xiao mulled over it with furrowed brows, finally clenched his teeth, and said determinedly: “Alright, for the children, for the future.”
Lin Nianhe looked at him, her eyes finally shimring with laughter. She spoke softly: “Uncle Wong, actually, there’s sothing else I need to report to you…”
Half an hour later, Wong Xiaokou left with a lunch box full of bones, surrounded by an aura of facing death unflinchingly.
Lin Nianhe stood on the playground, squinting her eyes as she watched the white head fade into the distance.
“Do you think the villagers will believe what Wong Xiaokou said?”
Lin Nianhe turned around and saw Li Dahe sucking on his pipe, his brows furrowed as he looked at her.
Lin Nianhe still smiling: “What do you think?”
Li Dahe pointed at her with his pipe: “If they really believe it, you’ll be bagged the mont you step outside!”
Lin Nianhe pursed her lips and chuckled softly, not answering.
A villain indeed needed to exist.
But this person, wouldn’t be her.
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