【Little Extra】
Nan Zhi and Song Qing donated a school, because the original school was too broken, it was a bunch of small houses put together, and it was built a long time ago, that kind of old sloped-roof house, the top was covered with tiles, sometimes it would leak rain, the wall originally had a layer of paint, because of dampness and rainwater soaking through, now it’s almost all peeled off.
The glass was still single-layer, wooden frames, doesn’t block wind, and doesn’t prevent sunlight, the children were sunburnt pitch black in summer, and frozen badly in winter, the desks and chairs were also broken, patched again and again with a few nails, wobbly and shaking till now.
The most important thing was, the location was remote, the little kids had to walk through a very long stretch of wasteland to get to school, afraid something would happen to them, the teachers had to walk very far every day to pick them up before the wasteland.
There were no supermarkets or small shops nearby, deliveries didn’t reach, and the dormitory building was an utter mess.
Not only did the kids suffer, the teachers also couldn’t stand it. The two of them stayed for more than half a year, and one after another many teachers came over to do volunteer teaching, but couldn’t last long and ended up going back.
Now Song Qing alone had to teach three or four subjects, and sometimes when Nan Zhi was off, he still had to teach drawing and piano, so that he could teach the students.
Nan Zhi: “……”
What kind of sharing the people’s hardship is this?
The art supplies were all provided by her, and also had to provide for the students’, the piano was brought over on a weekend when they returned to her hometown, the one she used when she was little, only then could it be used.
Otherwise so-called music class would only be playing it on the phone.
There was no related teacher.
The school environment was too poor, the salary was also absurdly low, couldn’t keep anyone, now Song Qing was almost acting like the principal.
Of course that wouldn’t do, so the two of them went to the local government, after saying they were willing to build the school for free, the local government gave the green light completely.
All the procedures hadn’t even been handled yet, and that side was running around more diligently than the two of them, even gave them a piece of land for free, on the edge of the town in the wasteland.
The town wasn’t that lively, but the basic supermarkets were there, delivery services could also reach, and the dormitory buildings would be arranged with one-bedroom-one-living-room-one-kitchen-one-bathroom setup, no need to worry about not being able to retain people.
After everything was discussed clearly, then it was just a constant pulling out money to build build build.
One teaching building, one dormitory, also had to match with two school buses, could pick up and drop off the children, to avoid accidents when they go to school alone.
The school bus was arranged first, because the current school also needed it.
With school buses, teachers didn’t need to walk long distances early in the morning to pick up the kids anymore.
Song Qing could also sleep about half an hour more.
In the evening, Nan Zhi drove to pick him up, sometimes he came back himself in a wheelchair, sometimes he got off work early, and when Nan Zhi returned home and opened the door, she could even see his figure.
The one who wheeled himself to the door, usually by this time had already taken a bath, just waiting to start causing trouble.
Sometimes he even brought the kids over together, minor injuries and small illnesses stayed at home waiting, serious ones went directly to the hospital to find her.
Not only was the treatment free, even the medical fees were reimbursed, and she still had to throw in a few lollipops.
In the countryside it’s not like in the city where the whole family spoils them — most kids, when they get sick, don’t even dare to tell their family, afraid of getting scolded.
That’s right, even after getting sick they’d get blamed: who told you not to wear your clothes properly, who told you not to cover yourself with the blanket, who told you to play with water.
At home they didn’t dare to make a sound, but at school they could tell Teacher Song, because Teacher Song wouldn’t scold them, would even take them to see the doctor and give them candy.
And it wasn’t just his own class that got this treatment, the other classes too.
Teacher Song wasn’t afraid of spending money for the children to see the doctor; what he was afraid of was the start-of-school season after the winter and summer breaks, when there were a few fewer students in the class.
If it was because the family conditions got better, transferred to the county, or were taken away by parents to study in other places, that would be fine — most of them dropped out and stayed at home doing farm work, not allowed to study anymore.
They thought it delayed the labor work, and some even thought that girls didn’t need to study that much anyway. In the end, they would get married, and once they got married, they wouldn’t be part of their own family anymore, so whether they studied or not didn’t matter.
They wouldn’t consider the children’s future, could only see the current benefits.
Before, when Song Qing was visited by the teacher at home, they had to talk and persuade with all their might, finally convincing his uncle and aunt to let him go to school. Now he was the one going door to door, doing what that teacher once did for him.
How much money can one earn from doing farm work at home? Now with good national policies, going to school and studying could get you two to three thousand yuan in scholarship per semester.
Even more — five to six thousand was also possible. One semester, three to five thousand, one year would be more than ten thousand, way better than herding cows at home, and they could even learn something.
After going to school and becoming literate, it would be easier to find a job, and the salary could multiply several times.
Some girl studied all the way to university before finding a job, and in just two years became a company executive, earning hundreds of thousands per year. To thank her parents, she either bought a house or a car.
If really couldn’t convince them, then just go along with them — say being literate helps marry well, maybe could even marry into the city, with a bride price of hundreds of thousands, and bring the whole family to the city to enjoy life, and so on.
First think of a way to go to school. As for later matters, talk about them later.
He taught several classes, around a hundred people. Those few students who were missing, he dragged them back one by one.
Even students missing from other classes, he forcibly pulled them back to school.
As for the promised scholarships — of course they came out of his own pocket, along with school fees and school uniforms.
The school uniform might be the best clothes they had — just like Song Qing back then.
Back then Song Qing endured through it; he hoped they could too.
【Little Extra [Two]】
After the school was built and all the facilities were arranged properly, the two of them became poor ghosts again, could only double down on their side jobs to earn money.
But the good part was, the school had moved into the township, Song Qing too — was assigned a dormitory, and the new dormitory was personally overseen by the two of them, even better than the apartment she was renting. So Nan Zhi simply canceled her lease and moved into his dormitory.
She was nominally part of the school’s medical office, had no salary but still had to toil tirelessly — giving money, giving medicine, giving equipment. She was also a teacher’s family member, and on top of that, one of the people who donated the school, so living at the school was perfectly justified.
Now that they could be together during the day, when Nan Zhi wanted to eat something for lunch, she could ask him to cook it. The two cats stayed at his dorm. After one class, if he wanted to go back and check on them, he could — it was nearby, very convenient. Lunch was cooked at home, the cats could see people, and didn’t have to wait for them from morning till night anymore.
To be honest, with the two of them busy from dawn till dusk every day, the ones they owed the most were the two cats — but thinking about how they didn’t have to worry about food or drink, and had company, they didn’t feel bad about it anymore.
The two people weren’t lonely, and neither were the two cats.
Living together made things easier for her — Song Qing, having arrived earlier, still had to warm the bed and wait for her to come back and use it. Hard on him.
Recently Song Qing didn’t dare go home again — because he was sick, a bit feverish.
If it were before, just take some medicine and it would be fine. But ever since Nan Zhi learned medicine, getting a fever meant getting a butt injection.
Giving his students butt injections, and giving him one too.
But when teachers at the same school got a fever, they just took some medicine — only he, as a grown adult, still had to get butt injections.
He voiced his opinion, and Nan Zhi went around spreading rumors, telling the students in his class that he was a coward, afraid of injections.
Song Qing: “……”
He let out a sigh and still went home, not daring to let Nan Zhi see anything unusual, hiding and covering up, but his face was burning red. When she came over and touched him once, she still noticed — her eyes immediately lit up.
“Go lie down over there, wait for me.”
Song Qing whimpered, trying to get away with just taking medicine. Before he could open his mouth, Nan Zhi glanced at him again when she saw he hadn’t moved — and as if it were a command embedded in his genes, Song Qing immediately climbed onto the bed and lay down properly.
After lying down, he even felt like he was… something else — seriously cowardly.
She told him to lie down, and he lay down.
But he still obediently lay there until Nan Zhi came over, holding the injection solution in her hand. Sure enough, it was a butt injection.
It didn’t actually hurt — it was just kind of tormenting.
Song Qing hugged the pillow and laid prone, and before long, Nan Zhi finished mixing the medicine, and pulled down his clothes.
He had gotten butt injections when he was little, and after becoming a teacher himself, he’d brought kids to the health clinic and seen plenty — actually, just pulling down a bit of clothing on one side would be enough. But every time Nan Zhi gave him the shot, she would yank his pants all the way down, making him bare his entire lower half.
And then…
Song Qing heard slapping sounds — one after another — until his butt started to sting and burn.
Nan Zhi said this way could increase blood circulation, so the medicine would spread faster through the bloodstream, and the person would get better a bit quicker.
Song Qing buried his face deeper into the pillow, and his hands gripped the bedsheet tightly.
Quack doctor!
【Little Extra [Three]】
Nan Zhi had been living at the school for over a month, and by now, all the students already knew her.
But it wasn’t the image of a doctor angel who rescues the suffering — it was another kind.
“Doctor Nan is here to bully our Teacher Song again, quick, stop her, don’t let her come over!”
Nan Zhi kind of understood now how that relative of theirs felt, when jokingly saying at her house that they wanted to throw Song Qing out, and Xiao Bao cried and made a fuss, refusing to let them — that relative’s feelings.
Now she was like that relative, blocked by the children, while Song Qing was like their baby, being guarded tightly.
His popularity really was good.
Nan Zhi stood with hands on her hips and said: “Who said I bullied your Teacher Song, where’s the evidence.”
The children chattered all at once: “We all saw it, you even bit our Teacher Song’s mouth and made it bleed.”
“Teacher Song even said ‘don’t, don’t’, and you still did this and that to him, you’re too much.”
Song Qing: “……”
He didn’t wait for the students to continue, and quickly followed Nan Zhi away — afraid that if both sides stayed any longer, they’d say something even more shocking.
【Little Extra [Four]】
In the blink of an eye, more than half a year passed. In the second year since coming here, on an ordinary afternoon, Song Qing had finished cooking, fed the cats, washed clothes, mopped the floor — and still didn’t see Nan Zhi return to eat.
According to her usual patterns, it was easy to guess — it was Saturday or Sunday, lots of parents would bring their children for treatment, she was probably working overtime.
Medical workers, once they got busy, didn’t even care about eating. So he simply brought the food and went to look for her.
When he arrived at her area, he saw her sitting under a canopy in the courtyard of the clinic, and in front of her was a line — not a short one — all waiting to see her.
From time to time, someone would even praise her, saying this little doctor had such great skills. Last time she prescribed some medicine and it worked right away.
Even her shifu looked at her with satisfaction and a bit of surprise, “Your progress is fast — pulse reading and acupoint locating are getting more accurate.”
Song Qing couldn’t help but remember that dark history — every now and then having his pulse checked, every now and then having his acupoints touched, every single acupoint on his whole body had been poked by her, even the parts that were supposed to stay hidden.
After pressing, she’d even have to take off his clothes to check whether the red marks were on the right spots. If they weren’t accurate, he couldn’t put his clothes back on — she’d keep pressing. After pressing, she’d lift his clothes again to check, back and forth, over and over, until she completely memorized and mastered every single acupoint.
Song Qing subconsciously pressed his lips together.
Progress was fast? Well of course — it was all practiced on him. The acupoints on his body were almost callused from all her pressing.