Chapter 202: Because of Li Yi

While Li Yi was busy handling the loan in the county seat, Nianzi Mountain Village was in an uproar.

The commune had already notified the village yesterday that a high-ranking official from above was coming for an inspection, asking everyone to cooperate.

So early that morning, the villagers and educated youth had all gathered at the village committee office.

Then, under the direction of Feng Kai and Zhang Tongfu, they began cleaning up the village to avoid leaving a bad impression on the officials.

At the same time, the commune had also mentioned that the focus of the officials’ inspection would be the village’s elementary school.

So Feng Kai personally led a group of women to thoroughly clean the school, inside and out.

Since many of the school’s windows were broken and hadn’t been replaced yet, the women even had to find some burlap to patch up the windows on the spot.

They worked until 11:30 a.m. Then, accompanied by the roar of car engines, a convoy of over a dozen sedans and Jeeps finally appeared at the village entrance.

What no one had expected, however, was that as soon as these high-ranking officials got out of their cars, without even taking a step back, they immediately demanded to see Li Yi!

This left Feng Kai and the others completely dumbfounded. Why did these officials from the city want to see Li Yi? Did they actually know him?

In fact, Feng Kai wasn’t the only one baffled. From the provincial to the prefectural committee, down to Qing Shan County and Hongqi Commune, there were no fewer than forty or fifty officials accompanying the delegation, and they all wore the same puzzled expressions.

Some knew who Li Yi was, but the vast majority had never even heard the name.

Where on earth did this guy come from?

How come even this billionaire from Hong Kong specifically requested to meet him? And the tone he used just now was extremely polite—that doesn’t seem like his usual style at all.

Especially the provincial officials—they’d been accompanying Huang Lixing on his inspection tour for seven or eight days and had some understanding of his personality.

Mr. Huang’s temper perfectly matched his status as a billionaire; he didn’t hold back when he got angry—not just with ordinary people, but even with his own wife.

Yet now he was being so polite to a villager—everyone was utterly stunned.

Though stunned, since Mr. Huang had made the request, they had no choice but to comply.

Immediately, a commune official contacted Feng Kai, urging him to find the man at once.

Feng Kai didn’t dare delay. He stuck out his neck and shouted to the crowd: “Shan Kui… where’s Brother Shan Kui?”

Someone in the crowd immediately replied, “Secretary Feng, that yellow mule in the livestock shed just broke free from its reins and ran off. Uncle Shan Kui and Uncle Gen Wang went to catch it!”

“What about Xiao Yi? Do you know if he went into town today?”

“He went into town. I saw him walking with Nana this morning when I was heading out to the fields!” another person answered.

Feng Kai could only explain the situation to these officials with a sigh of resignation!

Upon hearing that Li Yi wasn’t home, Huang Lixing felt a pang of disappointment and instinctively shifted his gaze to Wang Anguo.

At the moment, Wang Anguo was the only one who knew the truth—he was certain Li Yi had gone to the county seat to deliver mushrooms.

All of this was exactly as he had anticipated, so he immediately suggested, “Mr. Huang, why don’t we go check out the village school first? We can take care of the important business there before heading over to Brother Li Yi’s house?”

Noticing Wang Anguo’s subtle nod, Huang Lixing immediately replied, “Sounds good. Let’s go check out the school first!”

Then, led by Feng Kai and the others, the group headed straight for the village’s elementary school.

Nianzi Mountain Village is a natural village, meaning it developed organically.

Typically, a natural village is part of an administrative village, and administrative villages usually have a central school.

Nianzi Mountain Village is not an administrative village, and its population is small—less than four hundred people in total—so the village has only a small primary school.

This elementary school has only three rooms: one serves as a classroom, one is the teachers’ office, and the other is a storage room.

It is mainly used to store cleaning supplies, and in winter, it is also used to store firewood, branches, and coal brought in by the students.

When the group arrived at the school, there were no students in class; after all, it was the middle of summer vacation, and the children wouldn’t be returning to school for another twenty-odd days.

Even so, when Huang Lixing and the others saw the conditions there, they were still shocked.

The school before them redefined Huang Lixing and his companions’ understanding of poverty: a dilapidated mud-brick building with a pitch-black, exposed roof covered in spider webs—a sight that rivaled the haunted houses seen in Hong Kong films.

It was particularly jarring when the staff member accompanying the inspection explained that there were over forty students here, divided into four grades, all crammed into a single classroom.

Moreover, the teacher here was a literate villager selected by the community—and there was only one.

In other words, a single teacher was responsible for teaching all four grades, and this teacher received no salary—only a few work points for each day of teaching.

To be honest, Huang Lixing and the others had mentally prepared themselves for this before arriving, but they never imagined that the educational conditions here would be so harsh.

It’s truly hard to imagine how the children here manage to learn.

No wonder Mr. Li had asked him to donate funds to build a school in North Sai Province—it was indeed a necessity.

At that moment, Huang Lixing turned directly to Wang Anmin, who was also part of the accompanying delegation, and said, “I’d like to build a school here in Dxmbang, and I hope the local leaders will cooperate!”

Wang Anmin was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately replied, “Excellent, excellent! Qing Shan County will certainly provide our full support. Whether it’s rebuilding on the original site or allocating new land, we have a duty to do so!”

However, Huang Lixing shook his head and said, “Secretary Wang, you’ve misunderstood. The cooperation I’m referring to goes beyond that!”

“Mr. Huang, could you elaborate on what kind of cooperation you have in mind?”

At that moment, Huang Lixing suddenly pointed to the small school in front of them and said, “This school is simply too small. I plan to build an excellent school here that can accommodate several thousand students at once.”

“Of course, I’ll only be responsible for the construction. The staffing and student enrollment will need to be handled by your local government, Secretary Wang. I wonder if you’re up to the task?”

Hearing this, the leading officials from the provincial, municipal, county, and commune levels were all taken aback. A school capable of accommodating thousands of students at once wasn’t just a matter of a few simple buildings—it would likely require constructing multi-story buildings.

At that moment, Deputy Director Zhang from the Regional Committee, standing nearby, asked in surprise, “Mr. Huang, isn’t it a bit of a waste to build such a large school in such a small village?”

However, Huang Lixing shook his head and said, “It’s not a waste. Although I don’t know much about education, I do know that resources can only achieve maximum effectiveness when concentrated—and I imagine education is no different!”

“My plan is to build the school right here. Then, your local government will consolidate all the students and teachers from nearby schools here, bring in a group of outstanding teachers, and turn this place into a top-notch school with excellent educational standards!”

“Mr. Huang, why are you so insistent on building the school here? Compared to this location, the Red Flag Commune offers far superior conditions in every respect and would be much more suitable for a large school…”

But before the official could finish, Huang Lixing cut him off. He said calmly, “Because this is Mr. Li Yi’s hometown, so this school can only be built here!”

Upon hearing this, everyone present was once again taken aback.

It suddenly dawned on them: so this Mr. Huang wanted to build the school here because of Li Yi.