Chapter 175: The End of the Vacation

"Henry, can you take me to the library?" Lady He Ben opened the window and called out to Henry, who was still tending to the flowerbed.

"Sure, I'll just finish up and come right away." He kicked the dog still frolicking nearby, brushed the dirt off his clothes, and headed inside.

As for the dirt on him—how much of it came from that Jack Luo Su terrier? Well, five of them, so Henry might've kicked the wrong one. But he didn't care; he'd rearrange the household pecking order among those five dogs eventually.

Just as he reached the door, Robert opened it and stepped out, wearing casual sportswear and swinging a dog leash idly.

At the sight of the leash, the Jack Luo Su terriers became more excited than anyone else. All five rushed to Robert's feet, circling and sniffing, as if trying to wag their tails off.

Henry asked, "Robert, going for a jog? I'm taking Lady He Ben into town—need me to bring anything back?"

"No thanks," Robert patted his slightly protruding belly and complained, "Every time you cook, I end up eating too much. If I don't exercise more, I'm afraid one day I'll get so fat I won't be able to get out of bed."

"But every time you come back from exercising, you say you're hungry and eat an extra bowl of rice. Don't you think you're getting fat because of the exercise?" Henry joked.

"Ah, you little rascal. The real culprit is you, yet you're trying to blame someone else." Robert protested as he fastened the leash.

Once the leash was secured, he not only slapped his own cheeks to perk himself up, but the dogs also dashed to the front, pulling the leash taut. With all five tugging, Robert had to run whether he wanted to or not.

Robert called back, "I'll be back before dinner—make sure you cook something tasty." Then he ran off.

Behind him, Henry shouted, "Hey, buddy, you can't blame me for your fat!"

The cheerful, optimistic old actor raised a tall middle finger over his shoulder and ran off without looking back.

Just then, Audrey He Ben, who had been preparing to leave, walked up to the entrance and met Henry's gaze. He looked at the distant figure jogging away and asked, "Is Robert going out for a run?"

"Yes, Boss. Give me a moment—I'll grab my keys and tidy up, then bring the car around."

"No rush. Take care."

"Got it." Henry went up to the attic, to his room, and packed several stacks of books into a paper bag. These were borrowed using Lady He Ben's library card from the town library.

They were all French and German books, different in content from the English books he'd read in Los Angeles, and they offered Henry considerable insight. But the town library's collection leaned heavily toward literature; the advantage was that it held books from many countries, in their original languages.

He placed the paper bag of books directly on the passenger seat, drove to the front door, and got out to help Lady He Ben carry her books.

"Carry"? Actually, there were only a few books—nothing compared to Henry's reading volume. Seeing the paper bag of books in the passenger seat meant to be returned, Audrey He Ben exclaimed, "You've read all these already? You're fast."

Opening the back door, Henry carefully held his hand above the doorframe as he smiled and said, "I read quickly. Besides, these aren't literary masterpieces—just treat them like storybooks."

"That's terribly disrespectful to the authors," Lady He Ben scolded.

"Understood. If I ever meet them in person, I'll sincerely apologize." Henry spoke as if humble, but in truth he was brushing it off. Honestly, this was just a habit from reading web novels.

Lady He Ben, as if already familiar with Henry's lazy nature, merely muttered, "You kid," and said no more. Then she remembered something else and asked, "Has the United Nations contacted us?"

Henry, driving, replied, "The Children's Fund staff have already started planning activities. But this year, civil wars across Africa are fierce—many places require peacekeeping troops to accompany any visit."

"South America and Asia are much safer, but we've just visited many of those locations. Returning so soon wouldn't yield good results, so they're having trouble arranging a schedule."

"Do they have any destination in mind? At least a rough idea?"

"Apparently not, so they said they'd like to hear your opinion as well."

"My opinion?" Lady He Ben was slightly surprised.

While the car was temporarily stopped, Henry pulled a stack of documents from the passenger-side briefcase and handed them to Lady He Ben in the back seat. "I originally planned to present this to you during afternoon tea, but since you asked now, I'll go ahead and explain."

"This document is what I compiled last night—your activity trail with the UN Children's Fund since 1988, and the organization's aid efforts over the past decade."

"Starting from page three are assessments of each country's stability, based on UN data and news reports from newspapers and magazines."

"After that are each country's needs for humanitarian aid—basically, their poverty levels. Finally, whether they've formally invited the UN."

In addition to written explanations, Henry had hand-drawn maps of Africa, South Asia, Central America, and South America, including most of the world's poorest nations.

He marked different countries with colored pencils at varying intensities, making the situation instantly clear.

This presentation's skill came from his past-life training. The prototype of PowerPoint was created in 1987 and acquired by Microsoft in 1990, but it was far from the ubiquitous tool it would become in ten or twenty years—users were few, and its features limited.

So Henry simply drew everything by hand, designing exactly the layout he wanted. At his current speed, drawing was much faster than using a computer to layout and then print the documents.

Lady He Ben was already accustomed to Henry's reports—always presented in visual form. This made understanding and comparison far easier than plain text.

Since all the maps were drawn in the same position, Lady He Ben stacked the reports and held them up to the sunlight streaming through the window—suddenly, she noticed a dark, unmarked region on the African continent.

It lay south of Ethiopia, north of Kenya, and west of Somalia. Lady He Ben pointed to the blank area and asked curiously, "What's this place?"

Henry glanced over and answered, "Wakanda. A backward, poor agricultural nation. Still a monarchy—the current king is T'Chaka. It has no diplomatic relations with any country, yet it's a UN member."

This information came solely from UN documents; Henry made no speculative additions based on his own memory.

Lady He Ben asked, "Can we go there? Wakanda?"

Henry replied bluntly, "Probably not. Wakanda hasn't accepted any humanitarian organization's aid or established human rights protection agencies, so we have no reason to visit."

"On the other hand, they've never issued an invitation—we can't just show up uninvited. But you could try asking the Children's Fund to formally request access to Wakanda. I don't think they'll agree, though."

(End of Chapter)