309: Chapter 309 The ancestral hall can only remember the past, but he wants to give the village a future.

In the small room of the village committee, a group of elders all looked at Lu Qinghe.

Lu Qinghe was the granddaughter of Village Chief Lu Changhe.

After graduating from college, she didn't stay in the big city, but instead returned to the village to work at the village committee, doing charity work and rural education projects.

Many elders in the village didn't understand at first.

How could a college student, who had been supported with so much difficulty, come back?

Lu Qinghe didn't argue either.

She just went from door to door, tutoring the children, helping the elderly apply for medical registration, and occasionally leading a few young people to do live streams to help sell agricultural products.

She understood the new world outside.

So when she heard the words "remote education," she felt as if she had been struck by something.

This was not as simple as just building a house.

Village Chief Lu Changhe frowned as he looked at her.

"What do you know?"

"Your Aunt Wanqing said just now that it's just a place for the elderly to socialize and for the kids to read books."

"It's not like there isn't a place to sit in the village right now."

Lu Qinghe took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

She walked to the table and looked at the phone, which was still on speakerphone.

"Aunt Wanqing, can I double-check something?"

Chen Wanqing was stunned for a moment on the other end.

"Go ahead and ask."

Lu Qinghe stared at the phone, her voice clearly much more serious than before.

"Is this Neighborhood Center not just a matter of building it and that's it?"

"In the future, will equipment maintenance, curriculum integration, and charity training all be handled by the Guanghui Foundation?"

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.

Soon, Lu Li's voice came through.

"Yes."

Several elders in the room sat up a bit straighter.

Lu Qinghe asked again:

"Can the smart medical checkup do basic physical examinations for the elderly?"

"Like blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, and screening for chronic disease risks?"

Lu Li said:

"We won't install overly complex medical equipment in the early stages."

"But basic screening can be done."

"If there are abnormal conditions, it will alert family members and the village doctor."

"It won't replace a hospital, but it can detect problems early."

Lu Qinghe's eyes grew slightly warm when she heard this.

She knew all too well what this meant for the elderly in the village.

Many elderly people didn't refuse to see a doctor because they didn't want to.

They just didn't know when they should go.

They would endure a dizzy spell, endure chest tightness, and endure leg pain.

Minor illnesses dragging into major ones, mild symptoms dragging into emergencies—she had seen too much of this.

If the village really had such a set of smart screening equipment, even if it was just for basic screenings, it could save many lives.

She asked again:

"Are the Robot maintenance training and smart equipment operation free?"

Lu Li said:

"It's charity training."

"How much you can learn depends on the individual."

"But at least it gives young people who want to enter the Guanghui Technology branch factory or transition to smart manufacturing roles a chance to reach the threshold."

Lu Qinghe's breathing grew softer.

She turned around, looking at the elders in the room who were still somewhat bewildered.

The clan leader, Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan, frowned.

"Qinghe, you've been talking for so long, but isn't this still Lu Li spending money on the village?"

Lu Qinghe shook her head.

"Great-grandfather, this is not a matter of spending money."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was very steady.

"You want to build an ancestral hall because you want future generations to remember Brother Lu Li."

"But this Neighborhood Center is to give future generations a real opportunity to become better people."

The elders were all stunned.

Lu Qinghe walked to the wall and took down a photo of the village children participating in tutoring sessions last year.

In the photo, over a dozen children sat in an old classroom, looking up at an electronic screen that wasn't very large.

She pointed to a young boy in the photo.

"This is Second Uncle's little grandson."

"He's quite smart in math, but his English has never been able to keep up."

"There are no good teachers in the town, tutoring in the county is too expensive, and his parents work in other cities, so they can't look after him at all."

She then pointed to another girl.

"This is Aunt Xiulan's granddaughter."

"She likes Robots. Last year, she watched the video of the Guanghui Technology Robot Competition, and now she says every day that she wants to work at Guanghui Technology in the future."

"But she has never even touched real Robot maintenance equipment."

Lu Qinghe turned to look at the elders.

"If they want to learn, they can only scroll through videos on their phones and try to figure it out blindly on their own."

"Children in the cities have training classes, laboratories, and teachers to guide them."

"What about the children in our village?"

No one spoke in the room.

Lu Qinghe looked at the village chief again.

"Grandfather, last time your chest felt uncomfortable in the middle of the night, wasn't it Second Uncle who drove you to the town?"

Village Chief Lu Changhe opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

Fortunately, it was discovered early that time.

But he also knew that if it had been any later, the consequences would have been hard to say.

Lu Qinghe's voice softened a bit.

"Which of the elderly in the village isn't afraid of troubling their children?"

"But if something really happens, it'll be too late even for their children to rush back and cry."

The hand of Clan Leader Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan holding his cane slowly tightened.

Lu Qinghe looked at him and said word by word:

"An ancestral hall can let future generations know that Lujia Village produced a Lu Li."

"But the Neighborhood Center can make the lives of the village's children, elderly, and young people truly different because of what Brother Lu Li has left behind."

She paused.

"An ancestral hall tells future generations what kind of people our ancestors were."

"The Neighborhood Center tells future generations what kind of people they also have the opportunity to become in the future."

As these words fell, the small room fell completely silent.

A breeze blew outside the window.

The red lanterns in the courtyard swayed, casting light and shadows on the faces of the elders.

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan's originally straight back suddenly slumped slightly.

It wasn't that he understood all the high technology.

He just understood one thing.

Lu Li didn't think the ancestral hall was useless.

He wanted to exchange that empty reputation for a path that the villagers could actually walk on.

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan looked down at his rough hands, his voice suddenly sounding a bit hoarse.

"This child..."

"...is too kind-hearted."

Lu Qinghe shook her head gently.

"It's not just kindness."

"It's that his vision is already far beyond an ancestral hall."

"He wants our village to remember more than just one Lu Li."

"He wants more and more people to walk out of here in the future."

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan didn't say anything more.

He sat there, motionless for a long time.

Village Chief Lu Changhe lowered his head and pulled out a cigarette, wanting to light it.

But he pressed the lighter several times, and it didn't catch fire.

An elder next to him said in a low voice:

"Then what about the ancestral hall?"

"Are we really not building it anymore?"

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan looked up.

His eyes were slightly red.

After a long time, he suddenly stood up, leaning on his cane.

"Let's go."

Village Chief Lu Changhe was taken aback.

"Where are we going?"

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan didn't look at him, but just walked out the door.

"To the ancestral hall."

Several elders stood up as well.

Lu Qinghe was stunned.

"Great-grandfather, it's so late, why are you going to the ancestral hall?"

Clan Leader Lu Huaiyuan walked to the doorway and paused.

The night wind blew in, slightly disheveling the elder's gray hair.

His voice was hoarse.

"To ask the ancestors."