Chapter 466: Chapter 466

Village Chief Huang and Chen Ke both looked over. Seeing Village Chief Huang’s puzzled expression, Chen Ke introduced in a calm voice:

"This is Miss Mai Qiqi, a friend of Wan Chu’er. She’s here for a visit and, incidentally, to see if there’s anything she can help with at the school."

Upon hearing this, Mai Qiqi frowned and gave Chen Ke a glance. Indeed, this man was annoying, taking the initiative on his own! She never mentioned wanting to help, and now that he had said it, she had no choice but to contribute somehow.

Learning that she was Wan Chu’er’s friend, Village Chief Huang smiled and eagerly asked first:

"Has Miss Wan returned? When will she come for a visit? When she left, we hadn’t even bought desks or chairs, nor had we installed the windows. It’s all set up now."

Then he greeted Mai Qiqi: "Good day, Miss Mai. The children aren’t that fussy; we saved on bricks, and the money saved can give the teachers an extra month’s salary."

Save money from the students to pay the teachers?

Seeing Mai Qiqi’s expression, it was clear she misunderstood. Chen Ke explained, "The school’s teachers aren’t officially appointed; the teachers’ salaries need to be covered by the school itself. Money from the Military Wife was originally enough to cover two teachers’ wages for two years, but now we’ve hired three teachers, so the funds are even tighter."

Mai Qiqi’s concern shifted to the three teachers, and she incredulously asked, "Three teachers for six grades of primary school? One teacher handling two grades and all their subjects?"

This time, Chen Ke answered directly: "Including children from military families in the village, there are over a hundred students. To save costs, three teachers are enough, with each managing over thirty students. The school doesn’t offer fancy courses, mainly Chinese and mathematics."

After a moment, Mai Qiqi commented with just two words: "So poor!"

Village Chief Huang didn’t mind and chuckled, satisfied, saying, "These conditions are already quite good. The elementary school in the village ten miles away is even worse. At least our school is made of brick, and the desks and chairs are all new."

Mai Qiqi chuckled a bit too and didn’t comment further, looking around, and then noticed two little ones playing with a small pile of leftover sand in front of them.

Seeing the siblings playing happily, Mai Qiqi didn’t go over to disturb them.

Chen Ke glanced at her bored demeanor, showing no desire to talk. His eyelids drooped as he asked the village chief, "In one month the school will be operational. What preparations are still needed?"

Hearing this, the village chief started to worry and said, "Never having run a school before, I didn’t know. Now that we are organizing it ourselves, I realize there is a myriad of things to be done.

There are still some minor tasks to be completed in the school, and I have to keep an eye on it daily to ensure progress.

Next term, the students attending here will have to be visited and counted one household at a time. We must order next term’s textbooks from Xinhua Bookstore in the county town early."

Without changing his tone, Chen Ke continued to ask, "Aren’t there already three teachers? Why aren’t they helping?"

The village chief sighed, saying, "Teacher Lin has gone back to his hometown to bring his child here, so he is unavailable. Teacher Zhang is preparing lessons, planning the content for next semester. Each of our teachers has to teach several subjects and thus needs time to prepare lessons and can’t travel far to help.

And our village girl, she’s not done handing over her job at the school in the county town, and she also has a lot of family matters to attend to. She’ll be back tomorrow and will then go house-to-house registering children for classes."

Chen Ke glanced at Mai Qiqi, who, puzzled by his look, glared back at him. Seeing that he ignored her and turned back to the village chief, he said:

"There’s a lot to do; I suggest you find more people to help."

"Isn’t it necessary to find some more people? But everyone in the village is busy in the farmlands; no one has any spare time. I am thinking of approaching your military leaders to see if we can get some available military wives to help."

At this, the village chief somewhat sheepishly said, "We can’t offer a salary, but if it’s fruits and vegetables you want, we have plenty. Mr. Chen, can you relay this to your leaders?"

Chen Ke nodded: "Sure, I’ll report this to the higher-ups."

Hearing this, Mai Qiqi felt a stir in her heart. People made their point clear, and she was indeed very idle at the moment. Looking for something to do seemed good, especially since the school was d by Wan Chu’er, so helping out for a few days wouldn’t hurt. If she didn’t like it, she could just leave.

She had just passed by several farmhouses and the lush, juicy grapes in those yards looked really tempting.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t impulsive. Thinking that she would talk to the village chief after Chen Ke had left, she felt somewhat displeased with Chen Ke. Fresh chapters posted on novel-fire.ɴet

But annoyingly, Chen Ke did not leave the village chief’s side and kept helping him with chores while Village Chief Huang made sure not to neglect Chen Ke, continuously talking and discussing the school’s situation with him.

Initially, Mai Qiqi was not in a rush, even going off to play with mud with the Legendary Hunter, or just enjoying the scenery. But after dilly-dallying for over an hour, she still couldn’t find an opportunity to speak to Village Chief Huang alone. Gradually, she grew increasingly irritated with Chen Ke, thinking that he was completely clueless.

Eventually, Mai Qiqi went over to ask Village Chief Huang, "Village Chief, do you know where Little Lizzi’s house is? The Legendary Hunter and Hunter want to find Little Lizzi and his sister to play."

Village Chief Huang responded and walked to the yard, pointing in a direction, "Follow that small path straight ahead, turn right at the end, keep going and you will see a patch of melon fields, and past those is Little Lizzi’s corn field."

"Thank you, Village Chief." After thanking the village chief, Mai Qiqi turned her head and signaled to Chen Ke, "You go start the car."

Seeing her unwilling to move and seemingly having something to discuss with the village chief, Chen Ke found it funny but didn’t linger. Saying goodbye to the village chief, he promptly went to start the car and get the children cleaned up and into the car.

This left Mai Qiqi with enough time to talk to the village chief.

Seeing Chen Ke leave, Mai Qiqi immediately lowered her voice and said, "Village chief, if you don’t mind, I’ll come tomorrow to help out. Oh, not just help you, but the school too."

"Ah?" The village chief was very surprised. He had mentioned it so many times to Mr. Chen, and this girl didn’t show any interest, he assumed she was unwilling and didn’t push further, but now out of the blue, she offered to help.

"I won’t ask for money, just volunteering," Mai Qiqi added after seeing the village chief didn’t respond.

The village chief, feeling a little embarrassed, politely said, "Won’t this delay your own matters?"

Mai Qiqi replied, "Don’t be too polite with me, I truly want to help. But also, I won’t do it for very long, if I get tired, I’ll just leave. It’s also a good chance to understand more about this place."

The village chief didn’t expect Mai Qiqi to be so blunt, but it was still a good thing that she was willing to help out for a few days, so he immediately agreed.

"Then, Miss, come directly to my place tomorrow morning, and join my daughter in visiting and registering the children who will attend school."

"Okay, no problem," Mai Qiqi decided quickly and then headed outside.

Once outside, Chen Ke had already gotten the car started, just waiting for Mai Qiqi.

When Mai Qiqi sat in the car, Chen Ke seemingly casually asked, "What did you say to the village chief?"

Mai Qiqi rolled her eyes, "Nothing at all." Men are so nosy; he’ll never find a wife in his lifetime!