"Come on, Mr. Ye, eat... eat some more. You've really worked hard today."

"No need to be so polite, it was just a little effort."

"But, I'm really sorry for delaying your schedule."

"How's the child doing?" Xiaofan wasn't concerned about that; he just asked about the child's condition.

"Ah, thanks to you. Not even half an hour after drinking that medicine, my naughty boy started sweating, and after coaxing him to sleep, the fever really went down."

"Keep an eye on him these next few days, make sure he doesn't catch a cold again. By the way, Mrs. Zhang, you should come out and eat too."

"No, you all eat first..."

"Hey, today is the baby's one-month-old celebration, and it's rare for both the mayor and the secretary to be here. This kid is really special."

"Hahahaha..."

"Mr. Ye is right, honey, come, bring the boy over."

With her husband's permission, the woman brought out the child.

"That's how it should be, Mrs. Zhang, you eat first, I'll hold the child for you."

"Hey, how can that be? Mr. Ye, you haven't even eaten enough yet..."

"Oh, let me hold him, practice a bit, or I'll be in trouble if I get married and have a kid and can't even hold my own."

Saying this, Xiaofan took the child from Mrs. Zhang. She then had her hands free to have dinner.

"Oh, by the way, how old are you this year, Mr. Ye? Where are you working now?"

"Me? I'm twenty, studying at Capital University."

"Studying? Twenty years old? This..."

Xiaofan didn't explain further to the surprised looks from everyone and casually took a few hundred-dollar bills from his wallet, tucking them into the baby's clothes.

"It's your one-month celebration today. Here, here, uncle gives you a red envelope, wishing you grow up safely and healthily in the future."

"No, no, no, Mr. Ye, you've already helped us so much today, why give a red envelope..."

"Principal Zhang, this red envelope isn't for you; it's for the child, are you trying to control that too? Kuo, where's yours..."

"Oh, here it is." Li Kuo also gently placed a few hundred dollars in the baby's clothes.

A principal's monthly salary is five hundred and twenty-seven yuan, something Xiaofan had never thought of. But that's the reality, just like how here, eight hundred thousand can build a three-hundred-square-meter teaching building, whereas in Capital City, eight hundred thousand isn't enough to buy an eighty-square-meter apartment, not even for a down payment.

"Mr. Ye, I see it now, a genuinely good person, truly good. If you don't mind this homemade white wine, please allow me to toast you a glass, just one..."

"It's a full moon celebration, of course we should drink, come, bottoms up."

"Hey, okay."

After a glass, Xiaofan filled his glass again: "Come on, everyone, one more, after this glass, we'll head off."

Because of treating the students, Xiaofan's schedule was certainly delayed. Now it's past eight in the evening, it would be almost nine to get to town, and reaching the city, they definitely wouldn't catch the plane.

Yet, Xiaofan didn't seem to have any immediate intention to leave.

Back in town, Xiaofan and the mayor closed the door and chatted for a long time. After hearing what Xiaofan was discussing, Li Kuo was stunned.

Afterwards, Xiaofan and Li Kuo rescheduled a different evening flight to their next destination.

Indeed, within a week, they smoothly completed all their trips. Moreover, the donation activity ended successfully.

"In total, we donated seventy-five million eight hundred thousand. If we add the latter negotiations with the first town's mayor, we might have to inject another twenty million later. And that's just the initial investment."

"How much money do I have left?"

"Don't worry, there's plenty. But, are you really planning to rent land here to set up agricultural production? And a processing factory as well? Hey, hey, an early investment of twenty million is necessary, but later investments might exceed two hundred million."

"Mm."

"What's your idea?"

"Six hundred thousand, eight hundred thousand, can it really build a three-hundred-square-meter teaching building?"

"Mm? Yes, because there's plenty of land here, but most of it's mountainous, building it is a bit difficult, of course, the cost of living here is very low, like in the Capital City, a construction worker earns around five hundred yuan a day, but here, it might be just a few dozen a day. That's the difference, the materials are the same, but the cost will definitely vary widely. Even if six hundred thousand isn't enough, it's not far off."

"Looks like you've taken a lot of effort to understand this."

"Of course, you said it yourself, this isn't child's play. If we're doing this, we do it seriously."

"Mm, seriously."

"But I can't figure it out, why are you willing to spend an extra twenty million, even two hundred million, instead of giving these kids more living subsidies..."

"Hey, hey, are you really the general manager of Li Group? You can't even see through such simple things? I'm renting land from the town, planting a wide variety of crops, raising dairy cattle, raising water buffalo, etc., establishing farms, ranches, achieving scale, and then completing the industry chain. The early investment is huge, it might not see returns in three to five years, but, I'm not short on cash, I'm not building this to make money."

"Huh? You're not making money and you're still doing it? Do you have too much money that it's bothering you?"

"Think long-term. If the industry chain is complete and large-scale, the first to benefit will be the local residents, right? We have to run farms, ranches, and first, we need to hire people. This area is mostly mountainous, very few flat lands but once we develop them, it'll benefit everyone in the future. Think about it, here crops are scarce, and many rely on the fruit trees they grow every year for income, or they go into the mountains to gather mushrooms in certain seasons. If all these could scale up, imagine their lives improving gradually. This is fundamentally a way to benefit forever; do you see any problem with it?" Xiaofan asked, quite naturally.

"This... listening to you, it does sound like it could work."

"Exactly. I could take that entire two hundred million and give it all to these kids to ensure they make it to university smoothly, but then what? What happens to the next generation? What about those who don't want to leave? What about forty or fifty years later? So I take what I 'lose' as a donation, and then later, the money will come back to me, while they can live and work in peace here, have enough to eat and drink, you see, Principal Zhang's family only has one laying hen, and during my student check-up, without a second thought, they slaughtered it for me. Mrs. Zhang just finished her confinement period, and they didn't even dare slaughter it during that time."

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm not arguing with you, no need to lecture me like that. Alright, alright, let's do it your way, but you must help this time, don't leave everything here for me to handle."

"Nonsense, I'm the chairman, you're just the general manager, if you don't do it, who will."

"Hey, you youngster..."

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