Transmigration: Flirted with My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 323 - 322: Two Tea Leaves

Chapter 323: Chapter 322: Two Tea Leaves

Sun Bo looked at Lin Nianhe, with just one thought in his mind—

Hmm, not too bad, she didn’t go overboard, just used him as a tool.

Hmm... huh?

Sun Bo meticulously reviewed the whole matter from beginning to end, there were issues, but not major ones.

He pointed at Lin Nianhe, hardly able to suppress a chuckle: "No wonder you get along so well with Su Yuncheng. You two really are, really are..."

Really calculative!

Lin Nianhe innocently blinked, her face filled with fear: "Uncle Sun, I was wrong, sorry! How about I go tell Factory Director Tian now, and we just forget about the branch factory? The transportation difficulties are nothing new, we might as well continue to overcome them as we did before..."

"It’s just that local folks won’t be able to do odd jobs then, you might not know, but pasting ten thousand matchboxes only earns four yuan, which might not seem much to you, but for a farmer... Uncle Sun, I specifically checked our team’s ledger before coming here, our production team of over three hundred people has only four hundred eighty-six yuan and thirty cents."

"Our team’s village school is responsible for primary education for three production teams, but we only have a total of ninety-eight... oh no, now a hundred students. From three teams, a hundred students... Uncle Sun, it’s not that they don’t want to send their kids to school, they genuinely can’t afford it."

"We calculated before, if we need to send matchboxes to the provincial city, pasting ten thousand matchboxes would earn at most one yuan and eighty cents... but I estimate many villagers would still be willing to do it, because that’s the cost of a year’s school fees and books for their child."

Lin Nianhe originally intended to withdraw to gain an advantage by portraying hardship, but as she spoke, she herself began to look distressed.

Sun Bo fell silent, frowning and reaching for his cup.

Upon opening the lid, he saw two tea leaves floating inside.

A tea made from two leaves should hardly have any flavor, yet Sun Bo felt the tea bitter and scalding.

The gently brewed water felt like a steel knife, causing a burning sensation in his throat and a painfully hot flush on his face.

Lin Nianhe slightly lowered her eyes, her voice dropping: "Our school principal’s sister works at a textile factory. Before school started, she helped gather four big baskets of fabric scraps, can you guess what for? Ha... the children had no backpacks, so the principal and a few of us teachers stitched backpacks together from those fabric scraps."

"Our team is eight to nine miles away from Nine-miles Team, and these kids have to walk over ten miles of mountain roads to and from school each day, the youngest among them only six years old... They are not like city kids, they don’t have buses or bikes, they can’t even ride on ox carts or tractors, all they can rely on are their own legs."

"Uncle Sun, whether you believe me or not, I never used your name to coerce anything from the match factory, I just hoped that they would seriously analyze and evaluate the decision about opening a branch -- not just our production team, but other teams need this chance as well."

She didn’t embellish or use any negotiation tactics.

She simply laid out the current hardships, clearly and unhidden, right in front of Sun Bo.

Lin Nianhe finished speaking and quietly looked at Sun Bo, waiting for his decision.

Sun Bo wasn’t responsible for grassroots affairs and although he was somewhat aware, he didn’t understand the detailed situations.

Though Lin Nianhe didn’t provide very specific details, he could infer a bit of the truth.

Sun Bo quickly made his decision—

"Nianhe, no need to apologize, you did nothing wrong. Look, there’s not much I can help with here, take my car when you go back, use it for the children’s school commute."

Lin Nianhe: "..."

That wasn’t quite necessary.

Sun Bo thought, a car could serve a much more important role carrying children than carrying him.

Although he couldn’t provide a car for every child in every location, helping even one group counts.

Lin Nianhe wasn’t aiming for the car; the jeep, which was a rarity, would be less useful for the commune than a tractor.

Citing reasons like "no one can drive it" and "it’s too expensive to fuel," she sternly refused Sun Bo’s donation.

Lin Nianhe said: "Uncle Sun, I know you care about the children, don’t worry, our team’s leader said that if this works out, next year we’ll rear two more oxen, and use an ox cart to transport the children."

Sun Bo finally felt relieved.

He said to Lin Nianhe, "Nianhe, don’t worry, Uncle’s got your back. I’ll call the match factory in a bit to ask about their progress!"

Lin Nianhe refused, but Sun Bo insisted on getting involved.

He not only enthusiastically made a phone call to Tian Qingyuan that made his own heart pound, but he also went around knocking on every office door, gathering people in the corridor...

Finally, he handed Lin Nianhe a stack of small change:

"Nianhe, I didn’t count how much this is, it’s all donated by comrades. Take it back and buy school bags, books, and pens for the children."

This stack of money had bills as large as five yuan, and as small as one jiao and one fen.

Everyone had emptied their pockets.

Lin Nianhe couldn’t estimate how much money there was, but she could feel its weight.

In those days, no family was particularly wealthy.

If even Sun Bo could only afford tea with two leaves, what about the others?

"Comrade Xiao Lin, please accept it, and send our regards to the villagers."

"Any difficulties in the future, just let us know, the military and civilians are like fish and water!"

"Right, right, quickly take it..."

Lin Nianhe’s eyes grew warm.

She took a deep breath, solemnly accepted the money from Sun Bo’s hands, and then bowed to the expectant comrades.

"I thank you all on behalf of the villagers and children. Rest assured, every penny here will be spent on the children and not misused elsewhere."

...

When Lin Nianhe returned to the guesthouse, Wang Shumei and Wen Lan had also just arrived.

They went to the Cooperative Society in the morning as they had no other matters to attend to.

Besides handling their tasks, they also had the duty to shop for everyone. With a large amount of food and goods to buy, Wang Shumei and Wen Lan were quite exhausted.

Wang Shumei saw Lin Nianhe counting a handful of change and joked, "Didn’t you go to the military area? Why does it look like you’ve just robbed somewhere?"

"It’s fundamentally different from robbery," Lin Nianhe replied, "This money was donated by the comrades from the military area to buy school supplies for the children."

Wang Shumei quickly slapped her mouth, looking regretful.

Rubbing her sore arms, Wen Lan asked in confusion, "Why donate money? What did you tell them?"

"I didn’t really say anything, everyone just heard that the villagers are having a hard life and donated spontaneously." Lin Nianhe finished counting the money and recorded the amount in a small notebook: 298.67 yuan.

Wen Lan was shocked, "That’s a lot!"

Indeed it was a lot. Since Sun Bo had approached administrators, some of whom even ran home to get money.

Wang Shumei asked her, "What do you plan to buy for the children?"

With so much money, even if they bought a school bag for each student, there would still be more than half left.

Lin Nianhe bundled up the money with paper, saying, "Certainly what they need most... Sister Lan, you rest for a while, let’s go out again after receiving Factory Director Tian’s call."

Wen Lan: "..."

She would rather do fieldwork than go shopping again!