Chapter 282: There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

The next day.

When Mou Lili went downstairs, she saw Ling Feng beaming, holding a bag of steamed buns in his hand.

"Breakfast for you." Ling Feng handed the steamed buns to Mou Lili.

Mou Lili took them, then looked at him in confusion: "Did you find money?"

"Vulgar."

"True, is our Young Master Ling the type to be short on money? You're the kind of person who wouldn't even bother to pick up ten thousand yuan if it fell on the ground."

"Is money really that important?" Ling Feng asked.

Mou Lili took out a steamed bun and stuffed it into his mouth: "Your mouth needs to be plugged, lest you get beaten up by a crowd on the street later; I won't be able to help you then."

Ling Feng smiled and took a bite of the steamed bun, then stuffed the remaining half into her mouth: "I've already eaten."

Mou Lili was stunned; two people eating one steamed bun together, that's something only couples do, right?

She couldn't help but say: "You still haven't told me why you're in such a good mood today."

"I thought of a way to solve the problem of Xiaozhu's schooling," Ling Feng said.

"How to solve it?"

"Start a daycare. That way, not only will Xiaozhu and the younger siblings have a place to go, but there's no need to worry about the danger of leaving them at home."

Mou Lili was surprised: "But wouldn't that mean your expenses will be even higher?"

"It doesn't have to be all on me; I plan to apply for some charity funds after a while. Of course, it's not that I don't have the money, but I'm worried that one day I won't be here, and then no one will do this, so it must be standardized."

Mou Lili smiled: "That's a really good idea."

"Then I'll have to trouble you to help me teach for these few days. I need to survey the village to see how many children like this there are, see if everyone is willing to pay a little for living expenses, and I also need to find an auntie willing to work, hire her to take care of the children, and talk about the salary."

Mou Lili said: "But I don't know how to teach."

"As long as you've finished elementary school, that's enough. Just teach them what you know," Ling Feng said.

"Alright, then I'll give it a try," Mou Lili said.

The vehicle had already reached halfway when Ling Feng suddenly turned his head and asked: "Then how much salary are you expecting?"

Mou Lili didn't know why, but a wave of anger surged up for no reason.

She had originally been holding onto Ling Feng's waist, but now she couldn't help but pinch him hard.

"Ouch." Ling Feng was most ticklish, especially with this kind of sudden pain and itch.

Consequently, the front of his scooter swerved.

The electric scooter plunged into that pile of mud again, and both of them fell off.

Ling Feng was pinned underneath; he spat out the mud in his mouth and couldn't help but say: "Why did you suddenly pinch me?"

Mou Lili climbed up while saying: "Don't know, not clear."

"I kindly asked you about your salary, and this is how you treat your boss?"

"I heard there was money, got greedy at the sight of it, and suddenly got a bit excited, okay?"

Ling Feng glanced at Mou Lili and suddenly realized something, so he slowly helped the electric scooter up and said: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you like that; it makes it seem like you're a person who gets greedy at the sight of money, and it's disrespectful to you."

Mou Lili looked at him.

The dignified Young Master Ling now looked so servile, appearing quite pitiful.

She wasn't angry anymore and said: "Let's talk about the money later; anyway, I won't ask for any less."

"That's fine, so you're not angry anymore." Ling Feng smiled at her.

In the distance were mountains, all around were fields, there was a breeze, and with this smile from Ling Feng, it was as if the mountain flowers had all bloomed.

At that moment, Mou Lili was a little dazed.

Mou Lili taught the children, but at first, she really didn't know how to go about it.

Xiaozhu didn't come today, Qiqi was late, and when Qiangzi arrived, his hands were covered in ash, saying he helped his family cook porridge in the morning so his parents could eat when they returned from farm work at noon.

However, fortunately, the classroom discipline was okay; the children all sat upright, only they were a bit slow to absorb things at first.

She first had the children review the pinyin taught yesterday, then taught a few simple characters, and then had the children practice each character ten times to deepen their memory.

When she wasn't a teacher, Mou Lili considered herself an outsider, just there to visit; now that she was a teacher, her sense of responsibility welled up naturally.

She was even worried that Xiaozhu, who was on the mountain and not coming to school, would fall behind in his studies, and even wanted to go up the mountain alone to tutor Xiaozhu.

Ling Feng had been running around the village all day making arrangements.

One moment he was looking for Jin Shu to discuss a venue, the next he wanted to find an auntie.

The auntie part was easy; as long as there was money to be made, there were plenty of diligent and responsible women in the village to apply.

The venue was not easy to solve. Although there weren't many people in the village, that was because the young people had all gone out to work; the empty houses in the village were all occupied during the New Year, and besides, the land in the village had been clearly divided over the years, and no one wanted to clear out their own land to let Ling Feng run a daycare.

In a fit of anger, Ling Feng wanted to buy a plot of land to build a house.

However, rural land could not be sold, and even if he wanted to buy a house, he wasn't qualified because he had a city household registration; rural houses could only be resold to locals with rural household registrations.

At lunch, Ling Feng told Mou Lili about this.

Mou Lili said: "That's easy to solve, why don't you just find a local girl to marry? That way you can move your household registration here."

"Go away!" Ling Feng rolled his eyes at her.

"You look down on them? But, if you want to accomplish great things, you have to make some sacrifices," Mou Lili advised with a serious expression.

Ling Feng said: "If you keep talking, I'm going to get angry."

"Then what should we do?"

Ling Feng said: "Can't buy, then I'll just rent one. As long as the price is right, I can always rent one."

Thinking of this, Ling Feng wanted to trouble Jin Shu to help him arrange it again.

But Jin Shu did not agree.

Jin Shu said, "Do you city kids not understand how the world works? You come here spending your own money and effort to help the locals, and the locals still want to earn your money. If this keeps up, they'll start taking you for fools. As the saying goes, 'A pint of rice breeds gratitude, a bushel of rice breeds enmity.' Aren't you afraid they'll latch onto you and come to you for everything in the future?"

Ling Feng and Mou Lili looked at each other in dismay.

Mou Lili knew Ling Feng had money and he didn't care about that small amount, but since Jin Shu had brought up human nature, Mou Lili realized it too.

They came here to alleviate poverty, not to act as bodhisattvas.

Jin Shu said, "If you ask me, it's fine if you want to run this daycare, but you can't just do the work without taking payment while also subsidizing so much of your own money. You need to make the villagers voluntarily pay something so they know there's no such thing as a free lunch."

Mou Lili asked, "But what if, like in Xiaozhu's family, they refuse to pay a single cent? What if they would rather have Xiaozhu look after his younger siblings than pay for food?"

Jin Shu said, "Then that can only be blamed on Xiaozhu's bad luck; he wasn't born into a good family with parents who don't care about his future."

Mou Lili and Ling Feng looked at each other, then both sighed.