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Chapter 317: I Suddenly Feel Like I’m A Knowledgeable And Kind Person

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Jiang Duoyao stood on the street of a little town with pathetically insufficient goods with her phone in her hand. The voice of her manager, Ge Shuang, came from the phone. “Duoyao, let me tell you—sometimes, we only have one shot in our lives. I know it’s a little tough there but just press on and endure it and three months will pass by very fast. Look, haven’t you made it through over 10 days already?”

“Sister Shuang, it’s precisely because I’ve survived 10 days here that I’m certain even hell is better than here. You didn’t even come over, so you don’t know what kind of place this is. The village I’m staying at doesn’t even have reception. In order to call you, I had to take a mule cart for an hour to come here. You know very well that I can’t even stand a place without 4G signal usually.” Jiang Duoyao pulled her dry hair and said, “Also, I’ve only showered once in the 10 days I’ve been here. Even if you wanted to choose a voluntary teaching place for me, you could’ve still chosen Szechuan, Guangxi, or something like that. What kind of place is this? I can’t even find it on the map.”

“There are so many celebrities putting on an act right now. There aren’t so many places for you to choose from,” Ge Shuang said. “Previously, Song Shuofan from our company even followed a team walking from Szechuan to Tibet for a month. She also stayed out in the wild and endured hardships. Sure. You can come back, but it’ll be seen as not following the company’s arrangement. The company is still giving you a chance right now. Next time, you won’t even be given a chance. Think about it carefully. I still have work to do.”

Ge Shuang hung up after saying that.

Jiang Duoyao stood at the desolate entrance of the town and spaced out hopelessly for a while.

She never that she would come to a place with such terrible conditions. She only knew the company had arranged for her to go to someplace near Nagchu but she didn’t think it would be so deep in Nagchu. When the car first arrived in Nagchu, she still needed another two consecutive days of car travel. After that, they took a trishaw for one whole day before they reached this town that didn’t even have any roads. The road to the village from the town was mountainous and they could only take a mule cart over.

The so-called school was just two blocks of mud houses. There was only one class with eight students. Because of a lack of water, the children only bathed once every half a month so the classroom stank as well.

After 10 days of interactions with them, Jiang Duoyao suddenly felt that she should just forget about revenge against Zhu Fenglei. She would rather return to her villa, swim a little, eat some snacks, bathe under the sunlight or even go overseas for a vacation.

One shouldn’t always think of revenge indeed.

“Teacher Jiang, have you bought your stuff?” A tan old man who looked in his sixties rushed over with the mule cart. He was merely 40.

“Ah, I haven’t. I just made a call. Uncle Ah Si, please hold on for a while.” Jiang Duoyao rushed to the shop at the side. She bought a few air-tight cakes and noodles made from highland barley.

She wanted to buy more things but this place was too out of the way and the goods suppliers rarely came, so there was limited selection available.

Uncle Ah Si was still there when she returned to the entrance of the town. Jiang Duoyao climbed up his mule cart and started back on the rough ride once again. She pulled a long face because she felt as though her bones were about to fall apart.

Uncle Ah Si said with a smile, “Teacher Jiang, you’ve never taken this kind of cart outside before, right?”

“No.” Jiang Duoyao shook her head. “Why aren’t there any roads built here?”

“There are very few people and this place is too out of the way. Actually, it’s considered not bad already,” Uncle Ah Si said. “10 years ago, when I went to Nagchu, the roads were basically non-existent and it would take five to six days to get over there.”

Jiang Duoyao was in disbelief. Uncle Ah Si continued. “Teacher Jiang, honestly, the villagers are pretty grateful to you. It’s too tough over here and too far out. There are almost no teachers willing to come and those who come don’t last more than 10 days. It’s fine for me to not know how to read, but I hope my children will be able to read a few more words than me so that when they walk out of the village one day, they won’t need to walk down the same path as us and can feed themselves.”

Jiang Duoyao was stunned. She lowered her head and looked back at the road they had come from. She subconsciously wrapped herself in her down jacket more tightly.

When they arrived at the school, Jiang Duoyao bade Uncle Ah Si farewell and walked in with her head down. She saw a tan little girl of around seven to eight years old running over towards her. Her red cotton jacket was in tatters and it was so dirty she almost couldn’t tell its color. However, the girl’s eyes were smiling very purely and innocently.

“Teacher Jiang, my Ma got me to send you some butter tea. I left it on your table.” The little girl was a student from class, Luma.

Jiang Duoyao had a complicated look on her face. “Thank you. It’s already dark—go home and have dinner soon.”

Luma turned to walk away but Jiang Duoyao called out to her again and passed her an air-tight cake.

Luma’s eyes lit up as she accepted it carefully. “Teacher Jiang, you’re really nice.”

“Isn’t it just a cake?” Jiang Duoyao sighed.

“But I rarely eat it,” Luma said. “My Ba only buys one for me every year during my birthday.”

Jiang Duoyao felt stuffed up inside. She only returned to the teacher’s dormitory after Luma left with a spring in her steps with the little cake in her hands.

The teacher’s dormitory was also a mud house built in the seventies or eighties. It didn’t even have a foundation, much less painted walls. The ground was covered with a layer of cement and this was already the best house in the entire school.

There were two bowls of piping hot butter tea placed on the table. Her assistant, Xiling, was eating one of them. “Luma sent these over just now.”

“Oh.” Jiang Duoyao put down the things she bought and took out another air-tight cake. “You know what, I wouldn’t even eat these things if this was in the past, but Luma actually said she’s only able to have one of these on her birthday. How could such a poor place exist in the world?”

Xiling rolled her eyes. “You’re in the entertainment industry and you live too lavishly. Actually, there are way more people out there who have no food to eat.”

“Isn’t there subsistence welfare?” Jiang Duoyao frowned.

“Subsistence welfare?” Xiling sighed. “Do you think these people have subsistence welfare? Subsistence welfare has to reach them in the first place.”

“That’s simply too much.” Jiang Duoyao was angry. “How much can someone get from subsistence welfare? Why do these government officials even want to steal that amount of money?”

“No matter how little the money is, it’s still something. No one will ever complain about having too much money.” Xiling sighed. “I heard the few families with students in class are so poor they can hardly afford their three meals a day yet they even sent us butter tea. How rare.”

Jiang Duoyao fell silent with discomfort.

“Right, how did the call with Sister Ge go?” Xiling watched her with anticipation.

“Sister Ge was hinting that if I went back, I would be left alone to die in the future.” Jiang Duoyao lowered her head.

Xiling also fell silent. Actually, she didn’t really want to stay in this place either.

After having the butter tea, the two were too lazy to do anything else. They couldn’t use their phones, couldn’t switch on the TV and it was below 0°C outside, so the two could only lie on the heatable brick bed.

Jiang Duoyao propped herself up as she stared outside at the moon. The moon was exceptionally big, close, and bright on the highlands. “Say, how do you think the villagers manage to endure through the hardships here?”

“I don’t know. What other choices do they have but to endure through this, to beg for food outside?” Xiling said.

Jiang Duoyao fell silent again.

Not long later, Xiling fell asleep. Jiang Duoyao thought for a long time in the darkness before falling asleep slowly as well.

The next day, Xiling woke up at 6 am. She saw Jiang Duoyao sitting at the end of the heatable brick bed with the lights on. She was holding a textbook and a pen in her hands, writing here and there. It was very cold and she had to blow on her hands that were frozen red from time to time.

“What are you doing up so early? Didn’t you say you couldn’t stay here any longer?” Xiling said lethargically.

Jiang Duoyao lifted her head up and sighed. “I thought for a very long time last night. If I were to leave, what would happen to these kids? They might have to wait for a very long time before the next teacher comes and the worst part is, the teacher might not be able to persevere on either. This place is so bad that I don’t want to stay a minute longer, but I’ve already been here for 10 days. I just have to push through another 80 days. My suffering for three months might actually change the lives of eight children.”

“Change their lives?” Xiling was stunned.

“Yeah. After I wash clean of my unhappy past and return back to the entertainment industry, I’ll definitely gain attention from the public for this voluntary teaching experience. That way, not only this village but the villages surrounding it might receive help from philanthropists.” Jiang Duoyao felt increasingly proud of herself as she went on. Her eyes lit up. “I think as a public figure, I should use my influence to garner help for more people and do more meaningful things. I’ve decided to earn a lot of money in the future to help others. I was very wasteful in the past and I didn’t cherish what I had. I even complained of being tired of having delicacies. My attitude was very bad and very shameful.”

Xiling was completely dumbfounded. She looked at Jiang Duoyao as though she was seeing her for the first time. “You’ve completely changed as a person overnight. I almost can’t recognize you. You’ve had such profound insight and enlightenment that I’m in awe right now.”

“What do you know? I’ve always been a person who’s very aware.” Jiang Duoyao lifted her chest up. “I just didn’t have a life goal. Getting into the entertainment industry was also just trying my luck to earn more money. Sometimes, I find working in the industry quite meaningless. The things that have happened recently have touched me a lot. God actually gave me such a role so I have to cherish it. The attitude of leaving after making money isn’t right. Even if I can’t go back to the entertainment industry, it’s still good for me to be able to teach these children a few English words, to let them understand a little more about geography and to give them more exposure to the outside world.”

“Good. Good.” Xiling nodded stupidly.

“I want to see the Principal to discuss opening an art class and music class for the children. I’m not bad at these either.” Jiang Duoyao continued to be submerged in her own thoughts as she said while walking, “I suddenly feel like I’m a knowledgeable and kind person.”

The corners of Xiling’s mouth twitched. When Jiang Duoyao left, Xiling finally came back to her senses as she yelled angrily, “Hey, can you close the door properly?”

Before Jiang Duoyao came, the school only had Alongso as the Principal cum teacher cum department head. Alongso, like the others there, looked older than he really was.

Upon finding out that she wanted to open two more classes, Alongso was elated. “Teacher Jiang, you’re really great. Actually, I’ve long wanted to tell you that.”

“Then it’s set. I’ll tell the children later during morning self-practice,” Alongso said merrily. “How many times will we have that class each week?”

“Maybe once a day.” Jiang Duoyao tilted her head as she thought. “I’ll only be here for three months and I hope I can teach the children as much as possible,”

Alongso was stunned. His eyes moistened. “Teacher Jiang, truth to be told, I’ve always thought that the glamorous celebrities on TV were very difficult to get along with and that they couldn’t tolerate hardship. I thought you would definitely leave within days. I really didn’t expect...”

Jiang Duoyao felt slightly embarrassed. “I am sometimes very difficult to get along with too. Alright, I won’t leave. I’ll definitely finish my three months of teaching.”

“I’m really thankful to you. I will thank you on behalf of the children.” Alongso shook her hand hard.

During the morning self-practice session, Jiang Duoyao and Alongso announced the addition of classes to the children together and they were all so happy they cheered loudly.

Seeing the eight children smiling so happily, Jiang Duoyao felt a surge of pride from within as though she could understand how a teacher felt.

In the past, they had four classes in the morning. Now, there would be two additional classes in the afternoon but the children were still looking forward to the music and art classes.

The first song Jiang Duoyao taught them was a song called “Sunshine After the Storm”.

Although she wasn’t really a singer and hadn’t released any albums, she had sung once or twice occasionally during variety shows. The company also got someone to train her in singing. Her voice was soft and gentle. The children were very immersed in her singing and when she was done, they applauded happily.

Jiang Duoyao said seriously, “Why am I teaching this song to you first? It’s to tell you that there are always ups and downs, turbulence and storms in life. After you’ve weathered the rain and wind, there will always be sunshine and rainbows. We shouldn’t be pessimistic and upset over our current situation. Just like in the lyrics of the song, you will all live very blissful lives in the end.”

The children listened to her very seriously and engraved every word she said in their hearts. Their eyes shone brighter than ever before.

Once she had found hope and a goal, Jiang Duoyao suddenly didn’t think much of her current bad situation. Life became meaningful and she was always thinking about what to teach the next day.