The Sweetness of the Seventies
Chapter 560 - 531 Slots, Full Sponsorship_1

Chapter 560: Chapter 531 Slots, Full Sponsorship_1

On this descent from the mountain, her father had let her follow her senior apprentice brother to gain experience, and Qijia Village was a good place.

At the same time, since they hadn’t completed their task, they felt awkward about returning to the mountain, and having observed some rather strange people, they wished to stay and continue watching Huo Yingjie and He Tiantian.

"Let’s not talk about it anymore, let’s go up and continue to help the junior uncle with his work," said the member of the archaeological team recruited as temporary workers in Qijia Village.

"Yeah, if we’re late, the junior uncle will scold us again," Cui Ying laughed bitterly. Ever since someone had stolen their item, the junior uncle’s temper had gotten even worse.

At the slightest provocation, he would start cursing.

In reality, they didn’t want to fail either!

It was just that their opponent was too powerful, someone they simply couldn’t contend with.

Meanwhile, He Tiantian, having received a promise of assistance from Huo Yingjie, the Snake King, felt unburdened. Upon her return home with nothing particular to do, she began to make dumplings to eat.

Huo Yingjie could also make dumplings, and without letting the elders interfere, the two of them finished wrapping all the dumplings.

In the blink of an eye, it was the twelfth lunar month.

The cold wind howled, and snowflakes fluttered down!

The house was particularly cold, so they gathered in the kitchen, found an old enamel basin, placed some leftover firewood inside, and began to warm themselves by the fire.

Though they couldn’t go outside, warming themselves by the fire indoors was quite cozy.

He Tiantian placed a few sweet potatoes inside the basin; as they roasted by the fire, the sweet aroma of sweet potatoes filled the air.

Village Chief Qi, braving the heavy snow, came in from outside, brushed off the snowflakes on his body, stamped his feet, and then entered the kitchen.

"Here, Dazhu, come over and warm yourself by the fire," Third Grandma Qi called out, "Tiantian, pour some ginger tea for your Uncle Qi to drive the chill away!"

"Alright!" He Tiantian replied, standing up to place a small iron kettle onto the fire.

The water had already been boiled earlier, and when ready to drink, they would take some out from the basin and place it in the brazier to heat up quickly.

After drinking some ginger tea, Village Chief Qi felt the chill dissipate and his body warmed up a bit.

"Big Brother Qi, with this kind of weather, what made you think of going out for a stroll?" asked He Jingyu. Secretary Qi was not someone who came around without a reason.

Village Chief Qi replied with chuckles, "I’ve received promising news from the commune. They have allowed us to start a school in Qijia Village."

"That’s fantastic news!" said He Jingyu, "When spring comes next year, we can start construction."

"Indeed!" said Secretary Qi, "I’m lucky you reminded me, otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten this opportunity."

"I just mentioned it offhand, but really, it’s all thanks to your hard work," He Jingyu remarked, genuinely pleased that the children would have the chance to go to school.

"Our Qijia Village really caught a good time," Secretary Qi said, very excited. "Because of the suspension of classes, many schools had fallen into disrepair and needed renovation, and there were only two spots available in the whole county to build new schools. Since our village has many newborns, I also reached out to the three neighboring villages, and together we managed to secure one of the spots. The government will provide half of the funding for the school built tomorrow, and for the remaining half, our Qijia Village will contribute seventy percent, while the rest will each contribute ten percent."

"Why is our village putting in so much?" He Tiantian asked. After all, children from all four villages would be attending the school.

Secretary Qi laughed and scolded, "Isn’t it because we have so many little rascals and girls in our village? We account for sixty percent of the children under ten years old. Also, since the school will be built here in our Qijia Village and will be called Qi Family Primary School, there’s another benefit—for our village’s children, it’s just a stone’s throw away to school, while children from other villages will have to walk several miles."

"That’s true," He Tiantian said with a smile, "our village has all the advantages, so indeed we should pay more money."

"Luckily, our village has made quite a bit of money selling peaches these past few years, and there’s some extra cash in every household," Secretary Qi said, hopeful for the work of the coming year.

Under his leadership, Qijia Village had become the leading large village in Taoyuan County—mention his name, and who wouldn’t give a thumbs-up?

Upon hearing this, Third Grandma Qi thought for a moment and said, "Let’s not raise funds. Right now, with many children in the village and plenty of celebrations, people’s lives have just gotten a bit better than before. If we start fundraising, many will find it tight. Dazhu, calculate how much money is needed, and I will have Shuliang cover it."

Qi Dazhu was taken aback, having forgotten that there was a wealthy person in his own family!

"But it’s a village school. Isn’t it inappropriate to let Shuliang pay for it all by himself?" Qi Dazhu was tempted but felt uncomfortable agreeing so quickly.

In the village, some people are willing to send their children to learn to read, but others are not. Later on, there would be those who paid and those who didn’t. Once the school was built and children started attending classes, you couldn’t just turn them away; this would cause resentment among those villagers who did pay.

In a word, every village has its share of deadbeats.

"Why not?" Third Grandma Qi said. "In poverty, one takes care of oneself; in prosperity, one helps the world. If Shuliang didn’t have money, I wouldn’t say this. As for helping the world, Shuliang doesn’t have the ability to do that yet, but to build a primary school for our village, he certainly can."

Once again, everyone was moved by Third Grandma Qi’s noble character; even a lifetime in the countryside couldn’t conceal her unique and exalted personality.

"Auntie, now that you said this, I would seem ungrateful to refuse," Secretary Qi said. "When the weather clears, I’ll go to the county town to inquire and see if it’s possible!"

"Good, you handle this," Third Grandma Qi responded. "Build a good school for our Qijia Village so that all the children in our village have a school to attend. We’re not asking every one of them to become a talent, but at the very least to be literate, so that they won’t be blind when they travel far away in the future."

"Exactly," Village Chief Qi added. "Once literate, they can buy tickets and take the bus on their own; illiterate, they would find it hard to even locate a restroom."

"Heh, isn’t that the truth!" He Jingyu chimed in.

Everyone discussed how to build the school—where to build and which teachers to hire?

After the heavy snow stopped, Village Chief Qi drove an ox cart straight to the county town to discuss the construction of the school.

Upon hearing that Qi Shuliang’s mother had agreed to finance the school building on behalf of her son, the county officials were of course delighted and immediately stated that regardless of the amount Qijia Village could contribute, the commune would provide a thousand yuan as funding for the school’s construction.

In fact, with this thousand yuan, a standard school could be built. But the leaders of the commune also realized that there was a wealthy person in Qijia Village who had made good money in Country M—evidently, they wanted to build a good school.

Village Chief Qi was overjoyed to receive the commune’s guarantee and the official approval to establish the primary school, and he returned to Qijia Village.

The villagers were very happy to hear that they didn’t need to contribute their own money.

Since they didn’t contribute money, they offered their labor to build the school. Every household had children, and they would feel embarrassed to send their kids to school later if they didn’t pitch in to help with the construction!

Village Chief Qi communicated the situation to the chiefs of the other three villages, and they too were pleased, immediately promising to send extra people to help with the work.