Making Friends

"Hello sir, we're from Red Strong Delivery, your goods have arrived, should we drop the goods inside?"

One of the deliverymen said to Su Zhen politely.

Su Zhen understood that there were many boxes to unload, so it was better to enter the orphanage directly. He nodded directly and led them to the building.

Jian Boliu asked Su Zhen along the way, "Little Zhen, is it for the kids?" He remembered what Su Zhen told him on the phone yesterday.

Su Zhen nodded.

Quickly, the deliverymen unloaded boxes from the van and placed them neatly on the floor of the building.

It seemed like half of the van was occupied by the boxes directly. So, with so many boxes, it took them nearly twenty minutes to finish unloading.

Su Zhen inspected all the boxes by the way and made sure that there were no damages.

When the deliverymen left, Su Zhen turned to Jian Boliu and said, "Grandpa, these are the boxes, you can help me distribute them to the kids later."

Jian Boliu smiled, "Okay, don't worry."

…

When it was noon, everyone including the kids gathered in the canteen to have lunch.

Su Zhen suddenly missed the food made by these aunts and ate them with emotion. How many years had it been since he last ate these foods? They might not be the best, but Su Zhen was reminded of many touching memories during his time here.

As for Lele, this cat stayed next to Su Zhen all the time.

Because of this white cat, many kids were attracted and came over to surround Su Zhen with the intention of rubbing Lele's soft and fluffy fur.

Lele closed its eyes and let these kids rub its fur normally.

When lunch was over, the adults and some teenagers started cleaning the canteen diligently.

…

At 2:00, it was time for the kids to attend their language course.

When Su Zhen stayed here in the past, there was no such language course, so he was usually free at noon. But now, there was one, which was volunteered by several young people.

Su Zhen was interested and attended one of the classes. His purpose was to inspect the teaching quality of the teacher.

The teacher was a young man with an ordinary face. He was teaching pre-intermediate English courses to the young guys. Naturally, he didn't mind the additional Su Zhen in the class.

Su Zhen had to say that this young man's way of teaching was not boring at all. He interacted well with the kids, he didn't just stand on the podium and explain like a robot at all, he walked around the class, and occasionally said some jokes related to the course to cheer up the atmosphere inside the classroom.

With Su Zhen's years of learning, he determined that this young teacher's English was not bad, just that his pronunciation still retained the Chinese dialect.

The students also exchanged words with their young teacher and were full of confidence when answering the questions.

This was the best result in the class, a good teacher spread knowledge, good students worked hard by themselves, the combination between the two resulted in this satisfying atmosphere.

Of course, Su Zhen also joined in the conversation from time to time. He couldn't just sit there and act like a mannequin, could he?

The English class lasted for a full two hours and it ended at 4:00 in the afternoon. After class, Su Zhen got to chat with the young teacher and knew that the other party was named Wang Kai, a fresh IT graduate from the Fujian University of Technology in Fuzhou City.

After graduating, Wang Kai initially came back to his hometown, that was, Putian, to rest for a while before going back to Fuzhou to work. During his stay, he felt bored, so he found this orphanage and volunteered to teach an English course.

But as he continued to teach the kids, he suddenly found his passion in teaching. Finally, he decided to work full-time as an IT at a small company in Putian and work part-time as an unsalaried English teacher at Hope Social Welfare Institute.

He didn't earn much every month, but he was happy with his life now.

As for other volunteers, most of them were older than him and they were from other nearby cities. They worked full-time on weekdays and did this part-time voluntary work on the weekend.

Wang Kai and these volunteers had been helping the orphanage for three months now. During their time here, they also donated quite a lot of things, especially books and even a few used laptops.

In the evening, Su Zhen took the initiative to invite those volunteers to dinner at a decent restaurant.

This was the only way Su Zhen could think of to repay their kindness. It would be too awkward to give them money.

During the meal, they got closer to each other, and Su Zhen found out that most of them were around his age, and only two of them were a few years older than him.

The oldest one was Kang Xiaobai, a mature senior graphic designer, with a silent personality but was actually quite sophisticated. Different from most graphic designers, Kang Xiaobai was not bald at all.

There was also this pretty girl sitting next to Kang Xiaobai. She was called Fang Jialan, a fresh graduate from Fuzhou like Wang Kai, but she was from a different university and majored in international marketing. Not surprisingly, she was Kang Xiaobai's girlfriend.

Judging from her manners, knowledge, way of speaking, and miscellaneous accessories, she should be from a very decent family. But Su Zhen wondered how this girl got together with the 32-year-old Kang Xiaobai.

Next to Fang Jialan was her best friend, Ting Zihong. This girl dressed a bit more fashionable than Fang Jialan, her appearance was on the same level as Fang Jialan, but her personality was quite playful. Without accident, this girl was also from a good family like Fang Jialan.

The next person was actually the youngest among the group, he wore a pair of glasses a bit thicker than Su Zhen's, named Qin Wenshan, nicknamed Little One. He was the quietest and everyone treated him like their little brother. His main profession was different from everyone as well, he was a game streamer.

Su Zhen noticed that this boy might be quiet when it came to words, but his action was not so simple at all. For example, he would sneakily stretch out his hand to pick up the beer from time to time, and Ting Zihong would slap his hand away every time, saying that he was not allowed to drink alcohol.

The other people revealed that Qin Wenshan was actually a drinker, and he would always make trouble every time he was drunk, but the main problem was that he got drunk very fast. This was the reason why everyone strictly controlled him when it came to alcohol.

They also ate a meal together a few times in the past, but there was no alcohol involved each time. This time was an exception since Su Zhen was not aware of the problem.

Wang Kai sat next to the young boy, and next to Wang Kai was an ordinary man who had a strong interest in tea, and he also opened a teahouse. His name also had a tea character – "Cha", called Li Baicha.

The last person was a female photographer, named Xia Yue. She had an adventurous and heroic spirit, which went along just right with her profession. She looked only a bit older than Fang Jialan, but she disclosed that she was, for real, two years younger than Kang Xiaobai. She also shockingly admitted that she used to be a paparazzi for a few years in the past but later quit and did normal photography work instead.

These people knew that Su Zhen should not be bad himself, they were curious and boldly asked, "Brother Zhen, what do you actually do?"

Su Zhen was not surprised and gave them a half-true half-false answer, "I used to be a professional bartender, but I won a fortune in stock trading not long ago, and now, I'm investing in various things to make passive income."

This answer was actually not technically wrong. Su Zhen was currently investing his time and energy to complete the various tasks so that his daily income would increase.

It was just that no one would be so high to connect his words with such an unbelievable thing. They initially thought Su Zhen should be a doctor or in a more profound profession, but well, a professional bartender should be counted as one too, right? After all, it involved etiquette and urbane knowledge. He should've also been in contact with people from all walks of life.

Along with that, they also admired Su Zhen greatly. Different from them, all of them had parents waiting to lend a helping hand behind them, but Su Zhen grew up by himself and became what he was today all by himself.

At the end of the conversation, they asked to add friends with him on WeChat and Su Zhen naturally agreed. Without accident, Su Zhen was pulled into a group chat by them right away.

The group chat was called "Children Next Door", with a total of 29 members including Su Zhen.

…