Teacher Liu couldn't help but nod. "That's true. My students, apart from not being serious about their studies, are all very capable at everything else."
Yun Zhaozhao and Xiao Yao: "..." Criticism from their own teacher is indeed the most lethal.
Yun Zhaozhao: "We don't need many people, just three or five quick and efficient ones will do. And the time won't be too long, at most a week. Clear Breeze Temple will also provide their meals, and after the Clear Breeze Temple, all your students will receive mosquito repellent bracelets and mosquito repellent sachets."
After thinking it over, Teacher Liu felt the deal was worthwhile, so she nodded in agreement. "Okay, I'll go back and ask if any children are willing to do it."
After Teacher Liu returned home, Xiao Yao couldn't help but ask Yun Zhaozhao, "If Teacher Liu can't find any students to help, will we still give away the mosquito repellent bracelets and sachets?"
Yun Zhaozhao: "Send them! Why not? Not only should we send them, but we should do it in a big way after school starts. We can not only send bracelets, but also send some books, notebooks, and other things to Teacher Liu's school in the name of Clear Breeze Temple."
Xiao Yao understood. "Using charity to win people's hearts and promote Clear Breeze Temple's reputation?"
Yun Zhaozhao nodded. "Anyway, we are serious about doing good deeds. As for whether we can win people's hearts or make Clear Breeze Temple's reputation well, that's beyond our control. We don't seek to be remembered in history, but only to have a clear conscience!"
Chapter 53
Teacher Liu initially had a neutral attitude towards mosquito repellent products, but after hearing Xiao Yao relay Yun Zhaozhao's words that evening, it seemed that in addition to mosquito repellent products, Clear Breeze Temple would also donate an extra batch of books and notebooks to the school, which completely changed the nature of the matter.
Teacher Liu's rural primary school couldn't even gather 100 students from first to sixth grade, so all the students from lower to higher grades were mixed together for classes.
Teacher Liu is responsible for tutoring older students, who in turn tutor younger students. Although the overall academic performance is not very good, out of 100 students, there will inevitably be one or two who love to read.
Sometimes when Teacher Liu goes to the city, she uses her own salary to buy one or two extracurricular books for these book-loving students. Book lovers have their own principles, so she can buy clothes and shoes from street vendors, but she only buys genuine books.
Nowadays, a book can easily cost thirty or forty yuan, and some with beautiful covers can even cost over a hundred. So with Teacher Liu's monthly salary of two or three thousand yuan, he really can't afford to buy many books.
Yun Zhaozhao's willingness to donate books was far more tempting to Teacher Liu than mosquito repellent products. So, after hearing Xiao Yao's words, she contacted several of her students that very night and told them about asking them to help out at the village entrance during the summer vacation.
The oldest of the students who came to help was Fan Youcai, who is now in sixth grade.
Fan Youcai was usually mischievous at school, and his combined scores in Chinese, math, and English might not even reach 100. However, he was undeniably a kind and filial child. Whenever Teacher Liu asked him to help carry water or gather firewood, he would be there immediately. So when he heard that Teacher Liu needed a few of them to help, he readily agreed.
Moreover, compared to the other children, he was the first to agree.
Teacher Liu couldn't help but remind them in advance, "This is a voluntary service, there's no compensation! However, the abbot of Clear Breeze Temple promised to send a batch of books and notebooks to our school after the start of the new semester, so that can be considered your payment for your work."
Fan Youcai stated frankly, "I'm willing to help Clear Breeze Temple even if they don't send books or notebooks."
Teacher Liu asked curiously, "Why?"
Fan Youcai: "Because the abbot of Clear Breeze Temple had given my grandma some pastries before. And Temple Master Yun of Clear Breeze Temple also said that if minors like us don't have enough to eat, we can go to Clear Breeze Temple to eat pastries for free on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month. My grandma told me that we should learn to be grateful, and that I should be good to those who are good to me."
Teacher Liu was very pleased to hear this. It must be said that, compared to academic excellence, this kind of gratitude is clearly more important.
Moreover, Teacher Liu remembered that Xiao Yao had said before that many of the students participating in the Clear Breeze Temple summer study tour were like Fan Youcai, students who had no interest in their studies. Perhaps Fan Youcai could actually be of help to Clear Breeze Temple.
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Zhang Lu, Xiao Yao's classmate, was in charge of the "Summer Rice Research and Study Activity".
Previously, Zhang Lu had been in charge of the tea garden with Grandpa Lin, so this was the first time she had taken on the responsibility of a summer study tour on her own. Although Yun Zhaozhao had promised that Xiao Yao and Lin Banxia would come to help on this day, and that Grandpa Lin and some local students would also assist her, Zhang Lu was still so nervous that she didn't sleep well all night.
So much so that she arrived very early on the day of the event.
Unexpectedly, she arrived early, but someone else had arrived even earlier. And this person who arrived earlier was none other than Fan Youcai.
Fan Youcai saw Zhang Lu, he addressed her as "Teacher Zhang" with exceptional politeness and warmth, which made Zhang Lu a little embarrassed. Although Fan Youcai only in the sixth grade of elementary school, he was taller than Zhang Lu. Standing in front of Zhang Lu and respectfully calling her "Teacher Zhang Lu, "Zhang Lu felt that she didn't have the confidence to respond.
Despite her lack of confidence, Zhang Lu still had to comply. Not only did she comply, but to ease her nervousness, she also struck up a conversation with Fan Youcai: "Why are you here so early? Our event doesn't officially start until 10 a. m.!"
Fan Youcai scratched his head sheepishly. "I like to sleep in during my holidays, and I was afraid I'd oversleep and delay your plans, so I decided to come a little early."
Zhang Lu opened her backpack, took out the bread and milk she had prepared beforehand, and handed them to Fan Youcai: "You came so early, you probably haven't had breakfast yet, right? Here, take this."
Fan Youcai waved his hand. "I can't accept it. Grandma said I shouldn't take things from strangers."
Zhang Lu insisted on giving him the bread and milk, saying, "You just called me Teacher Zhang, how can I be a stranger? Here, take it and eat quickly, I still need to call those parents after you finish eating!"
While the two were eating breakfast, Grandpa Lin arrived.
Although Yun Zhaozhao had found a group of students and their parents online to help with the summer study tour, Grandpa Lin still had to hire a combine harvester to harvest the rice that day. Everyone knew that relying solely on the students and parents from the city wouldn't be enough to harvest so many acres of rice. Moreover, Grandpa Lin had released fish fry into the rice paddies when he planted the rice, and now that the harvest was coming, those fish fry should be taken out.
Grandpa Lin and Zhang Lu divided the work: one was responsible for sending messages and making phone calls to the parents who came to the event; the other was responsible for catching fish...
As for Fan Youcai, he stood at the fork in the road leading into the village with a signpost, temporarily directing traffic. One side of this road led into the village, and the other side led to the rice paddies contracted by Clear Breeze Temple. There were no signs in the village, so it was easy to get lost if no one was there to guide you.
The event officially started at 10 a. m., but just after 9 a. m., parents began arriving in their private cars with their children.
The first to arrive were a mother and son surnamed Zhu. Mother Zhu had high expectations for this study tour to Clear Breeze Temple. In fact, she had long wanted to bring her son to the countryside to experience the hardships of farm work, because she herself came from the countryside and knew how difficult it was to leave the mountains.
Also, to let her son experience the difficulty of harvesting rice, while others only signed up for one session, she signed her son up for five sessions. In other words, while others only needed to harvest for one day, her son had to harvest for five days.
Moreover, upon seeing Fan Youcai directing traffic at the intersection, Mother Zhu couldn't resist giving her son a personal example. "Look, if you don't study hard, you'll end up like this person, directing traffic under the scorching sun in the middle of summer. But if you study hard, you can enjoy life like your parents, sitting in the office with air conditioning and cold drinks in weather like this."
Mother Zhu would repeat similar phrases hundreds of times a day in different ways. Zhu Ruiming was so tired of hearing them that he naturally couldn't give his mother any reaction.
Moreover, he even envied Fan Youcai a little, because if he could, he would also like to find an ordinary job like Fan Youcai and live a self-reliant life. But would his parents be willing? Absolutely not. His parents were too concerned about their image and would never accept him making such a fool of himself. They couldn't even accept him studying a major he liked.
This kind of life is just utterly boring... Zhu Ruiming leaned his head against the car window, thinking with a sense of utter despair.
Zhu Ruiming showed no interest in interacting with anyone. After arriving at the event location, he found a shady spot to sit and sleep. Mama Zhu, on the other hand, immediately began chatting with the parents who arrived later. Of course, "chatting" was more like complaining, but since these parents were there for their troubled children, Mama Zhu felt like she had found her people.
A group of parents were complaining enthusiastically, but the children were basically like Zhu Ruiming; they had heard it so many times that they didn't care at all.
Zhang Lu walked around the venue with the sign-in book, asking everyone to sign in. After confirming that everyone had arrived, Zhang Lu first asked Grandpa Lin to demonstrate the correct rice-harvesting technique, then emphasized safety issues, and then began distributing sickles and gloves to everyone, announcing the official start of the rice-harvesting activity.
At this moment, Fan Youcai and several other classmates arrived, and Zhang Lu asked these students who were familiar with farm work to help teach those who didn't know how.
Fan Youcai some impression of Zhu Ruiming, so when Zhang Lu asked him to help take care of the students, he took the initiative to walk towards Zhu Ruiming.
Many of the students who came today showed little interest in studying, and even less interest in farm work. They were lazy throughout the entire process and didn't harvest a single grain of rice in half a day. But Zhu Ruiming was one of the few students who worked very diligently. When Fan Youcai arrived, he saw that a neat pile of rice had already been laid out at Zhu Ruiming's feet.