Chapter 54
There were about twenty people in Cheng Dachuan's group. Cheng Jun's place only had a wooden house, which was not suitable for living in any way.
Tao Zhi hung up the phone and hurried out. She wandered around the kindergarten, looking for any houses to rent.
As she passed the village entrance, she heard a commotion from afar. It was so noisy and she didn't know what they were arguing about.
Tao Zhi walked around the place where the crowd gathered and planned to go directly to the next intersection.
Suddenly, a sharp female voice rang out: "Such a grown-up person, and he just ran away. As the landlord, don't you have any responsibility at all?"
As soon as he finished speaking, someone rushed into the yard and pulled a thin old man out of the house.
Someone shouted, "Old Song, either you hand over the director, or you pay us back."
The people around also echoed: "Yes, the landlord should compensate."
Tao Zhi stopped and stood at the outermost edge, her ears pricked up high.
Some people are crying out: "That's the hard-earned money I worked so hard for..."
It was really sad to hear it, and many people were wiping tears.
Someone even grabbed the old man and said, "Old Song, are you in cahoots with him? Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence that everyone else is going to watch the comeback rehearsal, but he chose this time to run away?"
Tao Zhi quietly asked the person next to her, who was obviously also watching the show, "Sister, what's going on?"
The older sister leaned closer to her and lowered her voice, saying, "The principal of the kindergarten at the intersection has absconded with the money."
"Which intersection?"
The older sister pointed to the main road ahead and said, "Turn left and go straight. At the intersection, there's a large area with a kindergarten."
Tao Zhi listened to her description and drew a map in her mind. Why did this road look more and more familiar? She was startled. Isn't this where Mingming and Cheng Jin went to school?
Tao Zhi instantly lost her composure. She grabbed her elder sister's hand and asked, "What about the children?"
The elder sister was grabbed and it hurt: "It hurts, it hurts, please let go."
Tao Zhi immediately let go of her hand and apologized sheepishly. The eldest sister sympathized with her: "Is your child there too?"
Seeing Tao Zhi nod, the elder sister patted her and said, "The child is still in the garden and is being watched by the teachers. There is no need to worry about this."
"So where is this place?"
"The kindergarten's landlord. The parents couldn't find the principal, so they wanted compensation from the landlord. I heard the landlord also owed the teachers their wages."
Tao Zhi was horrified. If she hadn't come out this time, she wouldn't have received any news at all. She didn't care about the money. She immediately ran to the kindergarten. After all these troubles, she had to take the baby home first.
Normally, the kindergarten is full of laughter and joy, but now, you can't hear any sound even when standing at the door.
The security guard was gone, so Tao Zhi banged on the door and called out Cheng Mingcheng and Cheng Jin's names. After waiting for a long time, no one came out. Tao Zhi rolled up her sleeves and prepared to climb over the wall when she saw someone jogging towards her.
"Huff, huff, huff—" Teacher Gao gasped. "Auntie Tao, why are you here?"
"I'm here to take the kids home."
Teacher Gao gestured to Tao Zhi to watch the door, where several chains were wrapped around the door, topped with large iron locks. "The parents are afraid we'll run away, so they locked us all up."
Tao Zhi pulled the chain, which was as thick as a child's arm. The rattling sound was a bit scary in the slightly empty kindergarten.
Tao Zhi said, "It's okay. This lock can only protect against gentlemen, not women. Just step back a little." After that, she kicked a few times, climbed up the gate, and landed lightly with a somersault.
Teacher Gao was petrified on the spot. Tao Zhi patted her and said, "Take me to find Cheng Jin and the others."
She came to her senses and looked at the big iron gate again. It didn't seem very high.
But now was not the time to think about that. She led the way, and Tao Zhi followed behind, all the way to the back of the kindergarten, where there were two teachers' dormitories. On the first floor was a large reading room, the windows of which were now closed. No wonder no sound could be heard from the front door.
As soon as the door was opened, hundreds of children were crowded there, and the huge sound waves almost blew off the ceiling.
Tao Zhi stood at the door, her back to the light, searching around with her eyes.
"Grandma, grandma." A little fat boy was squeezed in the corner. His hair was messy, as if it had been scratched by a chicken; his clothes were also wrinkled, like a rag that had just been used to wipe the floor.
Tao Zhi took a closer look and said, "Mingming."
Cheng Mingcheng was still trying to squeeze out, but Tao Zhi stepped forward and pulled him out with one hand. "Where's Xiao Jin?"
"Behind me." Cheng Mingcheng looked back, "Hey, where's Xiao Jin?"
Tao Zhi stared at the place where Mingming came out. There was a small head pupating, but it was too small to be noticed at first.
"Brother, sister, make way." Little Cheng Jin struggled to get out. She pulled the hair off her face, revealing a row of small teeth, and smiled sweetly. She ran over and hugged Tao Zhi's legs: "Grandma."
Tao Zhi picked her up and asked, "Did you behave well today, little darling?"
"Very good, very good." Cheng Jin said, putting his hands on his waist.
In this room, if any of the children spoke even slightly, they would be drowned out by the screams. Teacher Gao took Tao Zhi to the next room and poured her two glasses of boiled water.
Tao Zhi apologized: "Teacher Gao, you have worked hard."
Teacher Gao smiled bitterly: "Hard work is secondary, it's just what being a kindergarten teacher is like. But seeing the children's smiling faces makes it worth it sometimes. Now we're not getting paid, and the parents are taking their anger out on us. We don't know what to do."
"Director Cha was going to run away, and there was no warning at all?"
"I'm afraid you won't believe me, but we really didn't notice. We didn't get paid last month. The director said he donated some money after Hong Kong's handover, and that we wouldn't get paid until this month. We were foolish enough to believe him."
"You can't be blamed for this. Many people donated money just to participate in this great event and contribute to the motherland."
Seeing his grandmother chatting, Cheng Mingcheng ran back to the reading room to play with his friends. Cheng Jin nestled in Tao Zhi's arms, his big eyes twinkling as he listened intently to the adults' conversation.
Teacher Gao also said: "Yes, the teachers have also donated. Who would have thought that this beast would use such a thing to deceive people."
Tao Zhi suddenly asked, "Teacher Gao, how much salary does Principal Cha owe you in total?"
"Fifteen teachers, each earning an average of 800 yuan. In three months, that would be 36,000 yuan."
"Do you know the rent here?"
"It seems to be around 18,000."
Tao Zhi did the math: three hundred per student per month. Considering a hundred and twenty students, that's thirty-six thousand per month. Add in the food expenses and operating costs. Principal Cha isn't making any money? Tao Zhi tutted. No wonder he'd run away.
Tao Zhi had an idea, but she wanted to wait and see, so she asked Teacher Gao, "Can I walk around the garden?"
Teacher Gao could sense that Tao Zhi didn't blame them, and she also hoped that Tao Zhi would stay and, when other parents arrived, she could speak up for them. So she said, "Go ahead."
Tao Zhi carried Cheng Jin around, and Cheng Jin explained to her grandmother: what this place was used for, what that place was used for. After walking around for a while, she made a decision.
After more than an hour, a large group of people came over. They were the parents just now.
They opened the door and went to the reading room one by one to look for their children.
Tao Zhi dragged Cheng Mingcheng out in advance. She didn't leave first, but stood at the corner to see if she could hear anything else.
One mother was still crying: "I don't know how I'm going to tell my family when I get home."
The grandparents also sighed: "It's all my fault. If I hadn't told you this place is close to home, maybe we wouldn't have been cheated out of over a thousand yuan."
The fathers were furious: "We'll dig him out even if we have to."
There were also some other voices: "I didn't expect that Old Song was also deceived..."
Tao Zhi understood when she heard this. Seeing that no one did anything to the teacher, she simply took the little babies home, one in each hand.
In the evening, after handing the child over to Cheng Xing, Tao Zhi returned to her house and told the old man about this.
The old man said, "Once this man left, he changed his appearance. Where can we find him?"
Tao Zhi agreed: "The chances are slim."
"Then Mingming and Xiaojin, are you going to look for a new school tomorrow?"
Tao Zhi sat upright and said, "I have an idea."
Cheng Xiangqian glanced at her for a few seconds and asked, "Is it what I think?"
Tao Zhi grinned: "It's just what you think."
"I should have thought of this long before you built a kindergarten for Dongshan Village." The old man slapped his thigh.
Tao Zhi grabbed his hand and said, "Brother Cheng, what do you think?"
"Didn't you say you wanted to travel around the world?"
"Wait a few more years until the infrastructure is developed and there are more flights. What do you think?"
The old man shook his head: "No matter what I think, it's useless."
"By the way, Dachuan and his family are coming over, bringing their families and children with them."
The old man's eyes lit up: "When?"
"It should be in the next few days."
"Okay, okay, then where are they going to live? Have you arranged everything?"
Tao Zhi burst out laughing: "It's because of them that I made up my mind to take care of the kindergarten."
Cheng Xiangqian thought about it and realized the kindergarten had plenty of space and plenty of rooms, so it could easily accommodate dozens of people. And if Tao Zhi took over the kindergarten, at least his nephews wouldn't have to worry about the children's lunch and evening care. Thinking of this, the old man admired Tao Zhi. Killing two birds with one stone, this thing could definitely be done.
He was sincere now: "Then I'll accompany you tomorrow to ask the landlord how to rent it?"
Tao Zhi said, "Don't worry. This is just hearsay, don't take it seriously. I'll ask Cheng Jun to check it out first."
"Can we afford to wait?"
Tao Zhi looked at him steadily: "I have a bolder idea."
The old man took a deep breath and waited until his mood calmed down before saying, "Go ahead."
“If I could, I’d like to take that land.”
Cheng Xiangqian gasped, "I just saved a little money, and you're already thinking about it? Are we not going to build our house anymore?"
Tao Zhi held his hand and said, "Brother Cheng, trust me, it's just a slight delay."
The old man grabbed his hair angrily.
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