Chapter 607: Welfare House
Tang Xiu originally wanted to stay in the capital for a few more days while waiting for the confirmation from the Virus Research Inst.i.tute that the infectious disease was completely solved before returning to Star City. However, he finally decided to leave tonight since he didn’t feel like explaining the misunderstanding to his family members.
After making a few phone calls, Tang Xiu drove back to Star City overnight. He was stumped for words when he returned to South Gate Town however, as he found that his parents were not resting yet. They were now chatting in the living room in their pajamas.
“Sonny, are you in love?”
It was two in the morning, but Su Lingyun didn’t look like she was sleepy at all and came to welcome him with a joyful expression instead.
“The news flew this quickly?” Scratching the back of his head, Tang Xiu could only reply with a helpless expression, “Mom, Mu Wanying and I are only fake lovers. She happened to have many male students pursuing her, whereas your son was also pursued by a lot of female students, and therefore we thought it over and decided to be a fake couple just to deter those pursuers.”
Fake couple?
The revelation made Su Lingyun and Tang Yunde struck dumb.
The very reason they weren’t asleep yet was that they learned that their son was returning back from Beijing. They were full of expectations and were waiting due to the news they were told by others, but little did they expect that it was actually false news. In a flash, Su Lingyun seemed as though a deflated balloon as she sat back on the sofa, looking dispirited and downcast. She then yawned and said, “Son, I heard that this girl called Mu Wanying is quite outstanding. But even so, pretense may turn into a reality if you work hard on it! Well, I’m bit sleepy now. I’m going to sleep.”
Tang Yunde shot Tang Xiu a ruminating look before shaking his head and turning to walk to their room.
Continuing with the pretense may become reality?
While looking at the back of his parents, a depressed feeling filled Tang Xiu’s heart. Then, he went to the second floor, took a bath and changed his clothes into new pajamas and went to sleep in his comfy bed. A few hours later, he woke up and had his spirit recovered and full of energy, following which he washed and began to cultivate.
His present cultivation level had now reached the Peak level of the Viscera Transformation Stage and had his internal organs been tempered. They were now thousands of times stronger than that of an ordinary person’s. He was now only a little away from the Blood and Qi Circulation Stage, and only after he reached this stage would he be able to conjure more profound magical spells easily.
Nevertheless, he was conscious of the fact that haste would make waste. It would be very difficult to breakthrough to a higher stage for the next few years. The reason being that him being able to reach his cultivation level at present was caused by too many fortuitous encounters. However, he didn’t feel a need to rush it either, for every high-rise building started with its foundation first. The last layer of the first stage of his cultivation, the Stars Tyrannical Body Realm, was to condense his qi into Nine Cores Phase Forming, yet it was but only a foundation stage for the Heavenly Art of Cosmic Genesis. His cultivation in the later stages would be more stable only if he laid out a robust foundation.
It had been more than half a year since he returned from the Immortal World, yet he was able to achieve his current state. His cultivation was indeed progressing by leaps and bounds. Therefore, on the premise that there was no huge fortuitous encounter, he would need to suppress this progress rate even if the situation was possible and allowed him to have a breakthrough.
Huff…
After expelling out a foul breath, Tang Xiu slowly opened his eyes. South Gate Town may have a beautiful environment, yet it was still located in the city, and the concentration of spiritual qi here was in no way compared with the Walled Hill Village’s, let alone the Nine Dragons Island’s. Without a rich concentration of spiritual qi as the medium, the degree of energy absorption from the stars was weakened by several points.
Tang Xiu got out of his bed and opened the curtain. Big flakes of snow were unexpectedly falling down outside. Star City was neither located in the South nor did it belong to the North Region, and only had a little snow whenever New Year was over. Yet it unexpectedly snowed, though there were still a few days away from the New Year’s. Moreover, heavy snowing like today was a rare sight in Star City.
The outside world was shrouded in white. Even the plum blossoms which were proudly blossoming were covered with white snow, shrouding its gorgeousness. There was hardly any resident walking through the falling snowflakes, but a lot of security guards and employees from the Property Management Office were sweeping the snow on the concrete road in the villa area.
“Long Xueyao?”
Tang Xiu’s gaze landed on a tall girl. He immediately remembered his promise to treat her to dinner for her help in obtaining his driver license. It was a very long time ago, and yet he hadn’t fulfilled this promise.
A few minutes later, Tang Xiu was neatly dressed. In order to not attract attention, he disguised himself by putting on a down coat, which he didn’t know when his mother bought him, and then walked outside.
Back when he was in the Immortal World, Tang Xiu had seen the world of ice and snow, so he wasn’t that disturbed nor did he care about the heavy falling snow at present. After greeting the security guards he knew well, Tang Xiu came to Long Xueyao’s front. He watched as she cleaned the snow with a shovel and then said with a smile, “I’ll help you!”
Long Xueyao stood up and immediately smiled upon seeing Tang Xiu, “You’re a busy man, Mr. Tang! I haven’t seen you for a long time. Are you on vacation from college?”
Tang Xiu took over the iron shovel from her before nodding and smiling, “Yeah. I just returned to Star City last night. Never thought it would be snowing heavily today, though.”
“It’s great that you came back yesterday.” Long Xueyao smiled. “It wouldn’t be easy for you to come back if the heavy snow had closed up the road.”
“Indeed.” Tang Xiu smiled. “Anyways, how about I treat you to lunch this noon, provided that you have nothing to do by then, that is.”
Stunned for a moment, Long Xueyao immediately smiled and said, “How come you are treating me to lunch all of sudden?”
While shoveling snow, Tang Xiu replied, “Back when I got my driver’s license, I said that I would treat you to a meal. Many things happened and delayed me, though. It just so happened that Long Zhengyu called me on the way back yesterday. He learned that I was gonna come back and invited me to a meal. Hence, I want to invite you too.”
“Nevermind with the driving license matter. You don’t need to worry about that.” Long Xueyao shook her head while letting out a faint smile. “It was not my merit that it went smoothly, to begin with. Anyhow, I won’t join in the fun in the men’s gathering, though. Besides, I’m afraid I won’t be able to go out since there are things I need to tend to at noon today.”
“Ah, since you have things to do, then how about some other day?” Tang Xiu nodded and asked.
Long Xueyao gently nodded in response. Suddenly, she seemed to recall something and then said, “Are you guys going to have a drink and a meal and then hang around at night? If I remember correctly, Long Zhengyu played mahjong with his friends last night. I’m afraid it will probably be very difficult for him to get up this noon, right?”
“How do you know he played mahjong all night?” Asked Tang Xiu, surprised.
“Did you forget we’re relatives?” Asked Long Xueyao with a smile. “We had dinner together last night. He told me at that time.”
Tang Xiu suddenly understood. Long Zhengyu and Long Xueyao were cousins, so it was nothing special for ones of the same family to have dinner together. After pondering, he then replied, “I’ll look for him in the evening, then.”
“If so, how about going to a certain place with me at noon?” Asked Long Xueyao with a smile.
“Where to?” Asked Tang Xiu with a puzzled expression.
“You’ll know when you go with me,” said Long Xueyao. “Anyways, Let’s finish this first!”
Tang Xiu smiled in response. He didn’t think much about her keeping him guessing. Besides, he just came back and didn’t have many things to tend to, whereas following her to have look at what exactly it was wouldn’t make him stay at home and got unceasing nagging from his parents about a man and woman relations.h.i.+p issues at the very least.
As an hour pa.s.sed, the snowing reduced a bit and Tang Xiu returned home to have breakfast. After spending two hours reading a book in the study room, he got a call from Long Xueyao. The villa complex was filled with a lot of people now compared to the deserted and cold scene in the morning. Not only were there teenagers, even their parents were accompanying them to play, throwing s...o...b..a.l.l.s and making snowmen.
“It’s still ten in the morning. Why go so early?”
As Tang Xiu came to the front of the Property Management Office’s building, he asked Long Xueyao, who stood in front of an SUV.
“There are some things I need to buy.” Long Xueyao slightly nodded. “I guess it will be noon when I get everything.”
“What are you going to buy, exactly?” Asked Tang Xiu.
“Are young going to pay whatever I buy today, by chance?” Asked her with a smile.
Tang Xiu couldn’t help laughing and replied, “If what you want to buy can make up for the meal, then no problem.”
“That’s a promise then,” said Long Xueyao with a bit self-satisfied smile.
Immediately after, the duo drove to the nearby shopping malls. What made Tang Xiu feel strange was that he could tell that Long Xueyao had clearly noticed the staff in the stores in advance, for the purchase of twenty to thirty sets of down jackets with a lot of shoes and socks. All of which were for children under ten years of age.
“Xueyao, are we going to the welfare house, by chance?” Asked Tang Xiu after pus.h.i.+ng the trolley with the help of the store staff, and then the duo finally moved everything.
“I knew I couldn’t hide it from you.” Long Xueyao smilingly said. “We are indeed going to the welfare house. Furthermore, this welfare house is in the worst condition in the entire Star City.”
Tang Xiu nodded without speaking. In fact, he was also very supportive of visit and doing charity to the welfare house. Many children who had lost their loved ones were very pitiful, to begin with. Supposing that the welfare of the said welfare house was really poor, they would be facing and enduring hard times in the dead of winter.
Bluestar Welfare House. It was the most dilapidated welfare house located in the suburbs of Star City, and only had six staffs to manage it including its Head, whose leg was crippled due to a fall a few years ago. The other five were responsible for buying groceries, cooking, and their daily needs. The welfare house itself adopted 32 children, and four of them were less than a year old.
At the gate of the welfare house where the snow fell gently, the Head of the welfare house—Wu Xiufen held a broken umbrella and waited near a dilapidated sign. She received a phone call from Long Xueyao yesterday and therefore kept coming to the gate since this morning. She had been waiting for more than an hour and came out dozens of times.
Creak…
The SUV stopped at the gate to the welfare house and Long Xueyao and Tang Xiu came out from the car. Long Xueyao walked toward Wu Xiufen and looked at her lips that had turned slightly purple, and then said with concern, “Dean Wu, why did you come out? The weather is cold and snowing!”
“It’s all right. I’m wearing thick clothes!” Replied Wu Xiufen.
The clothes she wore were very thick and she was a bit plump. But some padded cotton on the shoulder of her wadded jacket were exposed. The needlework on it was obviously broken, while there were also several st.i.tches on some other places. As for her feet, she only wore worn, unpadded shoes.
Tang Xiu, who stood at the side, secretly sighed inside. Long Xiaoyue told him on the way here about the situation in the Bluestar Welfare House, so he learned that this welfare house was only funded by a few people out of their good intentions, while the aid from the government was close to nothing.