Chapter 399 - The Snow Was Coming

Chapter 399 The Snow Was Coming“Hello?”

“Hello! Young Master Yan, is your ceremony over?”

“Almost.”

“Where are you going for lunch after that?”

“Stay in school.” This was also arranged by the Publicity Department beforehand. People of Shen Group would have a simple lunch with the kids in the dining hall, and the journalists would follow them, recording this meaningful scene.

“Young Master Yan, I have some very important information…” Liu Sijie said in an anxious voice, and Shen Yan listened to him.

He knew that if the information was not important, Liu Siji would not call him at this time. But Liu Sijie’s words had not been finished when the line was cut off. Shen Yan was about to call back but found that there was no signal.

What a good timing! Shen Yan looked at his phone helplessly. What was Liu Sijie going to tell him?

As he was thinking, the headmaster came to him and said, “The weather station said that it would snow in the afternoon. It seems that the weather is going to change soon.”

“Oh!” Shen Yan was still thinking about Liu Sijie’s phone call. And as the wind was strong around him, he was a little upset. So, he took his phone and headed for the classroom.

Liu Sijie had something important to tell him, but the signal here was not good, and he was still busy with things here. It was better to let Xia Yu go to the post office and call back to him to ask.

Around him were kids running here and there.

Shen Yan heard someone just call him behind and turned around. It was a middle manager of Shen Group who was standing on the platform and waving to him. “We need you for the group photo.”

A couple of journalists had already settled their cameras. Shen Yan had to turn back. Several naughty boys were playing with each other over there.

“Young Master Yan?”

“What?”

“Smile!” The middle manager reminded him aside. Shen Yan rubbed his forehead with his hand and forced a smile to the cameras, but he felt a loss at the bottom of his heart, as if something had flashed away and he couldn’t catch or touch it, just like the empty plateau in front of him and its endless barrenness.

After the group photo, Shen Yan had some interviews contingently, so when he had lunch, it was already one o’clock in the afternoon. They claimed to the public that they had lunch with all the kids, but actually, it was impossible. All the things were arranged beforehand by the organizers. Most kids had already had their lunch, and the obedient ones were left to have a meal with Shen Yan and his companions for filming completely. After that, they would take some photos together and interview the children who got aid. The kids spoke in front of the camera nervously. What they said was something that had been memorized several times in advance.

When all the procedures were over, it was past four o’clock in the afternoon. The wind became stronger outside the window. A group of people indoors could hear the wind penetrating through the cracks in the wall.

A middle manager of Shen Group was holding his large backpack which he carried with him on the whole journey tightly. Then he secretly asked one of his companions next to him in a low voice, “The wind sounds so terrible. When will we leave this creepy place?”

“I’ve no idea. I heard that it would snow soon.”

“But it was still sunny in the morning. I don’t believe that it will snow.”

“Why not? The climate change in the plateau is unusual. It will storm and snow in a second even if it was very sunny before.” An employee of the Publicity Department in Shen Group said. The manager shrugged disapprovingly. Just as they finished their talk, Jian ran in through the door in a hurry.

“Headmaster!”

Ji Cang, sitting behind a desk, stood up with a tobacco pipe in his hand. “What did they say? Can we leave now?”

“I’m afraid not. It has started to snow in the mountains, and the wind is very strong. Under such conditions, an accident may happen on the road.”

“What?” That middle manager shrieked sadly, “I won’t spend a night in this awful place.” After saying that, he glared at the staff of the Publicity Department next to him. “It’s all your fault! You jinx!”

Hearing this, a county leader was a little embarrassed. He pulled Ji Cang to the side and said, “If they can’t leave, where will they spend the night?”

“What about the dormitory?”

“You must be joking. How can we let them sleep in the dormitory?”

“Why not? Our students can live there, and why can’t they?” Ji Cang was also frank and spoke out what he thought in his mind in a loud voice, which made the atmosphere there more awkward. The county leader had to agree with him since Ji Cang was very stubborn and he also worried that something might happen on the road back.

“But there are so many people.”

“Then they have to share space. If necessary, I can carry some quilts and sleep in the classroom with Jian.”

After the negotiation, they still decided to stay there for now. The county leader came to ask Shen Yan for his opinions. Shen Yan was sitting near the window and looking at the sky outside. It became darker gradually. Several snowflakes fell down from time to time and were blown away by the wind soon.

“Let’s wait and see.” He was still thinking about Liu Sijie’s phone call.

It turned out that the wait lasted more than half an hour. The wind became stronger and stronger, and light snow became very heavy. The county leader also suggested staying overnight. After all, safety first.

Hearing the order, that middle manager’s heart was almost broken. He held his large backpack in his arms and kept yelling, “I won’t sleep in the dormitory. I have brought my sleeping bag with me, so I can figure it out myself.”

He had seen the conditions of the dormitory when he followed the reporters to take photos just now. Not only were the bunks dirty and scruffy, but the space was also not enough for so many of them. Besides, there were many cracks in the walls, which could not keep out the wind. He was unwilling to sleep with the kids in such a crowded place, so he felt very lucky that he had taken the trouble to carry his sleeping bag here at this moment.

Ji Cang arranged for Jian to prepare dinner and asked someone to cook a large pot of Gamianpian for everyone to eat and warm their bodies. It was dark outside completely, and the kids started to line up to go to the dining hall for dinner.

“Pretty sister!” That little girl who had greeted Xia Yu smiled at her when seeing her.

Xia Yu also smiled at her and walked towards Shen Yan.

“Liu Sijie called me today and said that he had something important to tell me. But the signal disappeared before he could finish his words, and I couldn’t hear what he wanted to say.” Shen Yan frowned and whispered, “I’m so anxious since I do not know what is going on there.”

“I think Liu Sijie knows what to do.” Xia Yu comforted Shen Yan and said as she watched the heavy snow outside. Although she had the same thought as Shen Yan, she knew that under such a circumstance, worry was not helpful.

“Hope so.” Shen Yan sighed and responded as he looked at the darkness outside.

Xia Yu glanced at the kids waiting in a queue to get their dinner. Their hands and faces were all red with cold, and each of them was holding a porcelain bowl. She then looked at the staff of Shen Group who came here with them. Some of them could stand it as they saw the kids, and others wore a disdainful look on their faces.

Since these children were still very young, and the weather was so cold, some of them had a running nose. They didn’t wipe their noses with tissues or handkerchiefs but just sniffled hard.

Others just lifted their arms directly and wiped their noses with their sleeves.

“Too gross! It makes me sick when looking at these children, not to mention having dinner and sleeping with them.” That middle manager who kept complaining began to express his opinions again.

It was just heard by a county leader who accompanied them to come here, and he felt very embarrassed. They did make some better arrangements in the county, but they could not leave now.

Xia Yu frowned and whispered to Shen Yan, “Now that this is a poverty alleviation activity, we should not complain about poverty. Everyone wants a better life, so do these kids.”

Speaking of this, Xia Yu paused for a moment and continued to say, “This is on the one hand. On the other hand, Shen Yan, don’t you think that today’s activity is too hypocritical? Shen Group is experiencing an eventful period now. This poverty alleviation is aimed to win back a good reputation for Shen Group, but I’m afraid if it’s too superficial, we may get a counterproductive result.”

“Do you think that something is wrong?” Shen Yan asked back. They had done such activities in this way many times before, but nothing went wrong in the end.

“Don’t you think so? Since we are here to help the poor kids, it means that we should care about their lives with sincerity. Look at them. They are smiling at us with their true hearts.” Xia Yu looked around and saw that a journalist was just taking a photo of a kid with a camera in his hands.

Xia Yu elbowed Shen Yan’s arm and whispered, “If this journalist had taken photos of the leader of our Headquarters with his camera just now, what would be the meaning of our journey this time?”

Shen Yan nodded as if thinking of something.

At this moment, that little girl came to the front of Xia Yu and said, “Pretty sister, my classmates want to invite you to join us for dinner. Is that OK?” The little girl’s eyes were full of longing.

“Absolutely!” Xia Yu stood up. She took the little girl’s hand and walked to her classmates together.

The kids seemed to be very excited and kept asking Xia Yu a lot of questions, and Xia Yu kept answering each one with a smile. The kids had great fun listening to her.

After having dinner together, Xia Yu washed the dishes together with the kids and asked them to use the liquid soap which she brought here to wash their hands. Then she applied some body lotion and hand cream for each of them. As for those who got a chilblain on their hands as well as feet, she applied some chilblain cream for them herself.

“It’s so nice of you, Miss Xia!” The old headmaster was really so moved. These kids lived in the mountains and were not tidy and decent, but Xia Yu was willing to have a meal together with them and wash their hands and feet. It was very rare in her generation indeed.

“Fishing for fame!” The middle manager who had been complaining before muttered in a low voice aside.

He thought no one could hear him since his voice was very low, but Shen Yan had sharp ears and heard all his words. He walked indifferently to the front of the middle manager and said in an unprecedentedly serious tone to him, “I guess you also have a child, right? Would you say so again if your kid was among them?”

That manager blushed with shame and lowered his head.

But he was still very reluctant in his mind. In the past, when he went to such activities with Young Master Mo, they ate delicious food and had a comfortable bed. He had never experienced such bad conditions like this.

“Director Shen, things are limited here, and I’m sorry that you have to tolerate all of these things.” The old headmaster came over and said to Shen Yan apologetically.

“Not at all. The kids do not feel wronged, and how can we feel wronged?” Shen Yan looked at these children in front of him. They were not ragged, but the clothes on them were neither new nor of good quality.

He couldn’t help feeling sad for it in his mind. Especially when he saw Xia Yu’s chilblain cream which had just been opened ran out, he was shocked in his mind. How could they write with a frostbitten hand?

“Xia Yu, when we can communicate with the outside world tomorrow, the first thing you should do is to call the company to send a few cases of hand cream and chilblain cream to the kids here.” Shen Yan said.

“Director Shen, thank you so much.” The old headmaster held Shen Yan’s hands in excitement. These things were just what the kids needed here.

The kids were also very happy after hearing this. A wave of applause started to sound on the spot at once. Some journalists sensed that it was a rare moving scene, so they picked up their cameras in their hands and took pictures of the moving scene.

Just at this moment, Jian ran in hurriedly with the phone in his hand.

“Headmaster, has Wu Xiaomin not been back yet?”

“Wu Xiaomin?” The headmaster repeated this name. Wu Xiaomin was a university student and came here to be a volunteer teacher from the city. She was a teacher of this school. The headmaster was busy receiving Shen Yan and others just now, so he didn’t notice her.

As Jian asked him now, he realized that he hadn’t seen her indeed.

“No, she has not. She said that she was going to visit Qu Ma’s little brother at noon and left after lunch!”

“This young girl!” Ji Cang sighed and was about to go outside, throwing down his pipe.

Jian followed up hurriedly and asked, “Where are you going?”