Chapter 15 Stepping Stone

"Uncle Songhai?"

The person who came to open the door was none other than Secretary Yao himself.

Chiang Songhai had a higher status within the village, but his presence was really low. He usually just worked the fields, gathered herbs in the mountains, and didn't join others in killing time playing cards and chatting at the village entrance like others. He had never been to Secretary Yao's house before, so seeing him show up late at night startled Secretary Yao as well.

Upon taking a closer look, "Why did you bring Chiang Xiao over too?"

Secretary Yao had a vivid impression of Chiang Xiao. Firstly, because she was the child with the best academic performance in the village, and there was a possibility she could get into a good university and bring glory to the village, and secondly because she was different from the other village children. It was probably impossible to find another girl in the village as fair-skinned and pretty as her.

In a poor and backward mountain village like Siyang Village, which half-grown girl wasn't wearing drab clothes, had slightly dark skin, and coarse hands? They had no shortage of household chores and farm work, and the villagers tended to have many children, so the older sisters almost always had to help take care of their younger siblings.

But Chiang Xiao was always dressed very neatly every day, her hair long and soft, plaited into two braids. Apart from weekends, she wore her school uniform every day, which was also clean and washed, her skin was white, delicate like porcelain.

In short, she was very conspicuous in the mountain village.

"Grandpa, put me down," Chiang Xiao said after getting down. She almost lost her balance, her body swaying, and Chiang Songhai quickly steadied her.

Secretary Yao seemed to realize something.

"Good evening, Secretary Uncle," Chiang Xiao said, looking up to greet him. It was then that Secretary Yao noticed her pale complexion and frowned.

"Let's talk inside."

The Secretary's house and courtyard were bigger than the Chiang family's, and they were covered with cement, scraped with lime, and the main room even had fluorescent light tubes installed, which were much brighter than the dim little light bulbs in their house.

The room was also very neat and tidy.

In the main room, to the left there was a dining table covered with a plastic mosquito protector. To the right against the wall, there were two wooden single sofas with a small coffee table in between.

Several wooden stools were placed to the side.

On the coffee table there was a stack of materials with both text and images, and a fountain pen on top of them.

It seemed that Secretary Yao was still working before they arrived.

After sitting down, Secretary Yao got straight to the point, "Uncle Songhai, do you have some kind of issue?"

Chiang Songhai looked at his granddaughter. The fact was, he also didn't know exactly why Chiang Xiao had wanted to come; could she be coming to complain to Secretary Yao?

Chiang Xiao's gaze, however, landed on that stack of materials on the coffee table. The top sheet with its scribbles and drawings suddenly reminded her of something.

"Secretary Uncle, were you drawing?"

"Drawing? I'm not good at that," Secretary Yao replied with a laugh while picking up the piece of paper, "Isn't that the row of old houses in front of our village primary school? The wall facing the school is so dirty, and some naughty kids have written and drawn all over it. I was just figuring out whether to give it a new coat of paint."

It was just a minor issue, but something sparked in Chiang Xiao's mind.

Later on, that wall was indeed whitewashed, but because Siyang Village couldn't find anyone who could paint a large promotional mural, they just added a few large characters. The white lime at the base of the wall got dirty again within a few days. Since it faced the school gate directly, it was quite an eyesore to see as soon as you walked out.

Later, the leaders from the town's education office visited Siyang Village Primary School, including one school principal who was very concerned about the school environment and even criticized Secretary Yao a bit, leaving him quite embarrassed.

Although it was a small matter, it...

Could also serve as a conversation starter.