199: Pay money

"Take it," Raphael handed it to him, then glanced at the other children's eager yet shy gazes.

He rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a few more boxes of snacks. "You all can share these."

Only then did Zhou Bowen accept them. He ran back to the classroom with a pitter-patter sound and placed the box of chocolates on the podium.

He planned to let Teacher Li distribute them later.

Upon returning, he said to Raphael, "Thank you, Brother."

Raphael smiled and said, "Now can you tell me?"

Zhou Bowen pulled over another child, who was clutching a few pebbles in his hand. "We usually play with these."

Raphael looked at the stones in their hands, confused. "How do you play with this?"

Zhou Bowen demonstrated with the child. They scattered the stones on the ground, picked up one, and then proceeded to pick up the others.

They were having a great time, but Raphael couldn't understand what was so fun about it.

However, he could no longer bring himself to ask, "Why don't you play something else?"

Through the two stories Ye Bai had told, he realized that not everyone in this world was like him, born into a wealthy family.

Du Xihou was standing on the side, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He stood up, looked at the run-down campus, and walked alone under the walnut tree.

He just stared at the walnuts on the tree.

"Brother, do you want to eat a walnut?" a little girl walked over and asked.

Du Xihou was stunned. "Walnuts?"

Weren't the green fruits on this tree apples?

"That's right," the little girl said. "Teacher says eating more walnuts is good for the brain. When we want to eat them, Teacher uses a pole to knock some down, and we just pick them up off the ground."

Du Xihou shook his head. "I don't want to eat any."

"Alright," the girl continued. "Brother, where did you come from? Is the outside world big?"

She looked very curious.

Du Xihou sat on a large rock beside the walnut tree, looking at the girl squatting in front of him. "We come from Zhonggui City."

"The outside world... is very big, but it is also very small."

"The vastness of the heart is the true vastness."

He was shocked by himself for suddenly blurting out such a profound statement.

Seeing the look of admiration on the little girl's face, a surge of pride welled up in his heart.

That's right, he wasn't a fool like Raphael.

Look, the words he said off the cuff were so profound.

So, his comprehension was obviously higher than Raphael's!

On the other side, Ye Bai was still learning about the situation here.

The reason this village was poor was, firstly, because it was too remote. As the saying goes, "If you want to get rich, build roads first." Since it was so difficult to even enter the mountains here, it was hard to make money.

Furthermore, there was a loss of young and middle-aged labor; many of the young and middle-aged people chose to leave their hometowns to work elsewhere.

There was almost no labor force left in the rural area.

Those who remained were basically elderly people and children, and the elderly mostly had some kind of ailment.

Like the students here, they could only have a good life if they walked out of the mountains after elementary school.

Some children, if their family conditions were a bit better, might be taken out by their parents to go to school elsewhere; those who stayed here were from very difficult family backgrounds.

"We came here uninvited this time and brought some school supplies and some clothes," Ye Bai said. "We hope to distribute them to the children here."

Upon hearing this, Teacher Li quickly stood up. "This... thank you all so much!"

He bowed deeply.

Ye Bai waved his hand. "It's nothing. Actually, we might need to trouble you a bit more—could you find us a place to stay? We would like to stay here for a few days."

Duan Xingye, who was on the side, quickly spoke up. "Just stay at our place. We happen to have a few empty rooms."

Ye Bai smiled. "It wouldn't be right to keep troubling you. My friends here have never lived on their own since they were little; they really want to try living independently while they are here."

"I wonder if there are any empty houses that we could rent for a few days?"

Upon hearing this, Li Xinran seemed to understand.

Ye Bai's group of friends didn't look like ordinary people; they were likely here to experience life.

"Alright, there are quite a few empty houses in the village. I will help you arrange it."

Many people in the village had gone out to work, leaving behind many empty houses. If the village chief spoke to them, someone would surely be willing to let them stay for a few days.

After Ye Bai agreed with him, he said, "We left those things at Uncle Duan's house. We are going to go move them over now."

Li Xinran quickly said, "Uncle Duan's house is some distance away. How about this? I'll call a few people to help move them."

As he said this, he went to get his phone.

There was still signal here, so he made a phone call to the village chief.

As soon as the village chief on the other end heard that big shots had come to their village, he hurriedly gathered some people and was about to come over.

Ye Bai waited right here. He looked at the little girl next to him. "What is your name?"

"Xie Xiangxiang."

"So you are Xie Xiangxiang," Ye Bai smiled. "I read the letter you wrote to me. Thank you for liking Little Nezha."

Xie Xiangxiang's face instantly turned red. "You're welcome, you're welcome. We all really like Nezha."

Ye Bai then asked about their grades, whether the road to school was difficult to walk, and what they usually did.

Before long, the village chief arrived with people from the village.

The village chief hurriedly came over to shake hands and offer cigarettes, but realizing they didn't smoke, he stopped.

"Thank you! Thank you so much for making this trip," the village chief held Ye Bai's hand and thanked him repeatedly.

Ye Bai quickly said, "Let's go move the things first."

On the way back to Duan Xingye's house, the village chief had already sorted out their accommodation.

They would stay in a house near the school. The family that owned it was relatively well-off, and upon hearing that it was for Ye Bai and his friends to stay in, they agreed immediately.

They even said it was a pity they didn't have time to come back right now, otherwise, they would have definitely come to see what they looked like.

Ye Bai had brought quite a lot of things on this trip. Not only did he bring school supplies for the children, but also some clothes, shoes, socks, and so on.

In addition to that, there were also some sports equipment.

In this world, there were things like table tennis and basketball, but it seemed there was no soccer.

Ye Bai had bought a bit of everything.

The people from the village carried these things back toward the school, and the children were extremely happy to see so many things.

Ye Bai and the others distributed them to the children one by one and encouraged them to study hard.

Finally, they escorted Ye Bai and his group to the place where they would be staying.

The house was big enough for all of them. Aside from giving one room to the only lady present, it was fine for the other big guys to squeeze in together.

However, after they left, Raphael looked at Ye Bai and asked, "Why not just give them money?"

Actually, he had wanted to ask for a long time, but several times he hadn't been able to get a word in.

He could only act cool and aloof.

Ye Bai raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

Raphael: "Aren't they very poor and don't have money for medical treatment? If I give them money, they can live a good life."