Chapter 390

Zhang Ping'an had said before that educators in this era were all capable of burning themselves to illuminate others, so he would rather donate more money to ensure their living conditions.

"This... you are a good comrade," Principal Zhang said, gripping Zhang Ping'an's hand and shaking it vigorously again.

"Principal Zhang, you are the good comrades; the country needs people like you even more."

The abundance of funds also allowed them to be uncharacteristically generous, renovating the teachers' original dormitories while also adding a row of small bungalows.

Zhang Ping'an shook his head helplessly after learning of this later; he did not try to persuade them further, his admiration for them growing a little more in his heart.

"Where are Weiping and Weibing?"

"Didn't you ask them to take over the inspections before this round of donations? Weiping went to Modu, and Weibing is in the area of our hometown; they shouldn't be back for these few days."

"Oh, they've already gone?"

"Yes, they said they want to finalize Sijiucheng and Modu before the students' summer break, and then go to the areas around Jingzhou, Jinghai, and Pengcheng."

"That's fine."

Zhang Ping'an nodded; currently, Sijiucheng and Modu were among the best in the country, so there shouldn't be many places in need of donations there.

"Wei Chun, Wei Xia, Wandong, Wanshu, Wanyi, have you considered it? Do you want to go to school here?"

"Dad, I still need to study Traditional Chinese Medicine with Great-Grandfather, so I won't be coming over," Wandong refused directly; there was no place here for her to practice.

That's right, practice; though only twelve years old, she had already begun practicing at the Xiangjiang medical clinic, and of course, with the Divine Doctor Wang overseeing her each time, she wasn't afraid of making mistakes.

"Good."

Zhang Ping'an patted her head and agreed; he was afraid that if he didn't, Lao Wangtou would come over with his back-scratcher.

"And you all?"

"Dad, I don't plan on coming over to go to school either; my classmates and friends are all over there, and the curriculum here is different from the one there."

"That's right, Dad, we still want to be like our big brothers and come over after we graduate from university."

"Alright then."

Zhang Ping'an did not force them; he had indeed been taking things for granted before and hadn't considered so much, but what they said all made sense.

At the end of August, the three women returned to Xiangjiang with the children; Wang Xiaoling had also missed more than half a year of classes, so it was time to go back.

When school started in September, the students couldn't believe their eyes as they looked at the brand-new campus, especially the public restrooms and the two ceiling fans that had appeared overhead.

The teachers were also overjoyed to see the extra row of dormitories; finally, they didn't have to squeeze six people into one room.

Principal Zhang naturally took in everyone's expressions, looking proud, and even heaped praise on Zhang Ping'an during the opening ceremony;

Things like the school's most outstanding graduate, your most outstanding senior, and the like; Weiguo and his brother both looked proud, as the principal was praising their father.

It was the same for Wei'an, who had entered middle school; the middle school principal was also praising Zhang Ping'an at the opening ceremony.

"Grandpa, Grandma, Dad, Mom, the principal and teachers were all praising Dad today," Wanshu boasted proudly as soon as she returned.

"That's right, our middle school principal was too."

"Hehe, alright, don't let it slip when you're outside, otherwise you won't be able to tell who is truly good to you and who is fake."

"Yes, Grandpa, we won't say anything."

Zhang Laohan actually didn't like Zhang Ping'an being so flashy; there was no reason to flaunt one's wealth, and besides, his own schooling back in the day was no different from not having gone at all, so what did he care about some alma mater.

But ever since Weibing came back and said he wanted to invest in building a primary school in Zhang Family Village, he stopped talking; this was a major event that could be recorded in the genealogy, so money didn't matter anymore.

The primary school didn't need to be built very large; being able to accommodate five or six hundred people at once was enough, while also satisfying the surrounding villages.

In Zhang Weibing's inspection plan, he wanted to build a primary school based on a production brigade—that is, about the seven villages now—but this was vetoed by Zhang Ping'an.

That would be too dense, and the Commune itself already had a central primary school, and the production brigades had village schools; although many had been abandoned, this would still overlap.

It would be better to expand on the existing foundation to avoid wasting resources; of course, the primary school in Zhang Family Village still had to be built.

In the end, it followed Zhang Ping'an's idea; Zhang Weibing had already communicated the plan to the township leaders, and with the first two schools as examples, he believed the review would be completed soon.

Once all the procedures were finished, construction could begin next summer.

Zhang Weiping's experiences in Modu were different from those here and had a great impact on him; Sijiucheng was under the feet of the Son of Heaven, so the school infrastructure was definitely among the best in the country.

But Modu was different, with a huge gap between rich and poor; the most intuitive example was Pudong and Puxi, separated by the Huangpu River, which felt like two completely different worlds.

Puxi was the core of Modu, with high-rise buildings, dense lights, and top-tier commerce, culture, and infrastructure;

While Pudong was synonymous with the countryside, with backward infrastructure and inconvenient transportation, relying mainly on ferries to get out; this was also the place that impacted Zhang Weiping the most, and it determined his future direction.

"Dad, I want to be in charge of the group's Charity Foundation in the future."

"Have you thought it through?"

"Yes."

"Alright, then you will be fully responsible for it from now on, but before that, you must humbly learn from your seniors, after all, this is not your major."

Zhang Ping'an also wanted to find someone he could trust to be in charge of the group's Charity Foundation; after all, they would definitely put effort into this in the future, and it would be the face of the entire group. Since his third son had taken the initiative to propose it, Zhang Ping'an naturally would not object.

"Okay, Dad."

"Mm."

Regarding the inspection of the school site in Jingzhou, after Zhao Lichun found out, especially upon learning that the Oriental Group wanted to donate money to build a school, he directly pulled the most detailed information from the education system.

"Secretary Wang, please thank Mayor Zhao for me; this has saved us a massive amount of manpower and material resources."

"What are you saying? You are doing charity and good deeds, helping us develop education, so we naturally must provide support. As soon as Mayor Zhao heard about it, he mobilized all the files immediately."

"If it weren't for Mayor Zhao being so busy with official business, he would have wanted to meet with you, General Manager Zhang."

"Mayor Zhao is too polite; this file has already saved us a great deal of effort."

"Hahaha, as long as it helps you."

"Mayor Zhao is truly a good mayor for our people."

Of course, as the place where Zhang Weijun's father-in-law governed, donations to Yantai City were naturally inevitable.

After Li Weidong in Jinghai learned the news, he, like Zhao Lichun, also provided convenience to Zhang Weiping and his group.

The supermarket site inspections for October concluded, and Zhang Ping'an reached friendly agreements with the relevant persons in charge in Sijiucheng and Modu, with construction set to begin after the New Year.

Zhang Ping'an had originally intended to only run fresh food supermarkets, but after thinking it over, he decided to go big and build them directly as five-story large-scale shopping centers like in his past life.

The first floor is for fresh food, the second floor for clothing and daily necessities, the third floor for home appliances and digital products, the fourth floor for restaurants, dessert shops, and movie theaters, and the fifth floor is reserved for office space.

In any case, he had enough time to squander; there were currently no signs of any decent supermarkets in the country, and foreign supermarkets would not enter the country until after the nineties, so seven or eight years was enough time for him to develop.

Time flew by, and before anyone realized it, it was already the end of December; two people whom no one expected returned, and they caused quite a stir.