Chapter 425

"Long time no see, Mr. An." I heard that after Zhao Runze graduated, he did not accept the school's work arrangement either, but left Jincheng alone. He was rarely mentioned when former classmates got together, and no one knew where he was.

I didn't expect to see him again today.

"Mr. Zhao." ZhiXia An politely nodded, her eyes swept over the sky that was growing dark, "It's getting late, I won't delay Mr. Zhao, I'll get going first."

ZhiXia said she was leaving, when she heard Zhao Runze ask, "It's snowing. I have a car, let me give you a ride home?"

"No need, my home is not far, walking is good exercise." ZhiXia declined.

Zhao Runze smiled bitterly, "An ZhiXia, we really can't even be friends?"

It seemed that she had always rejected him, even if he no longer had other ideas, she still refused to put down her cold attitude.

"Mr. Zhao, I love my husband very much and don't want to do anything that could make him misunderstand." ZhiXia thought, just as he had been very self-disciplined over the years. Feelings are mutual, and one must be self-aware for them to last long.

Otherwise, once there are cracks, it will be very difficult to repair them again.

Besides, ZhiXia felt that her behavior was good for both of them. Indulging in the past all the time was simply not wise, not to mention that it was just a memory that appeared out of nowhere without any substantial contact.

When living, one must always look forward.

Watching ZhiXia's carefree leaving figure, Zhao Runze realized that he would never have another chance in this life.

Perhaps it was his own mistake that caused there to always be that little gap between them.

In his memories, when he hesitated after learning she was pregnant, he missed his chance. Later he regretted it immensely but there was no longer any hope.

And in reality, after obtaining that memory, he hesitated repeatedly, unsure if it was real or not, and thought that if it was true she would come looking for him. He didn't expect that when they met again, she was already a married woman and mother, and he missed his chance once more.

Perhaps this was heaven's arrangement.

Losing once meant no longer deserving to possess.

In recent years, Zhao Runze had been developing outside all along. Now he was quite accomplished. Coming back this time was to see his parents who he hadn't seen for years and bring them over to attend his wedding. Meeting ZhiXia today was purely accidental.

Regarding feelings, he had given up all hope long ago when he chose to leave this place. He just didn't expect that they wouldn't even have the chance to be friends.

When ZhiXia returned home, she saw a figure standing outside her door.

"Hello, may I ask who you are..."

"Hello, you must be Mr. An ZhiXia, right?" said the man in his 30s with a flattering smile on his face. "Hello, I am Liu Cun, the vice principal of Jincheng University. I came to talk to you about sponsored overseas students. I wonder if Ms. An has time?"

"So it's Vice Principal Liu. Nice to meet you." ZhiXia said, "Regarding the sponsored overseas students, I think we have already explained it. Vice Principal Liu, is there anything you still don't understand?"

In recent years, ZhiXia had been sponsoring outstanding students to study abroad. Although they signed a contract to work for the company for a certain number of years after returning to China, she would not force those who had better opportunities to stay.

The reason for signing this contract was mainly to prevent herself from spending money and effort only to end up nurturing talent for foreign countries.

But after learning what Pei Wanqing had experienced at school, she stopped the sponsorship quota at her company.

It was this batch of students, many of whom spoke cold, sarcastic words to mock and ridicule Pei Wanqing. As an adult, she could hardly bother them, and it was difficult to hold a crowd accountable by law. But she thought that after bullying her daughter, they still wanted to use her money and resources to study abroad. That was absolutely impossible.

Regarding Jincheng University, she didn't give a clear reason why she stopped the quota. She only said briefly that after repeated discussions, her company had decided to allocate the overseas study quota to high school students instead. This would also save university places and nurture more talents.

The purpose of Vice Principal Liu's visit this time was to try to persuade her again, but he found that An ZhiXia's words were perfectly watertight. She maintained an attitude that was completely for the sake of the school and society, leaving him no way to intervene at all.

After returning home disappointed, he happened to mention this matter and learned that An ZhiXia was the daughter of university president An JingZhi.

Now it became clear. After sponsoring the university for several years, she suddenly switched to high school for this reason.

As veterans in the same industry, Vice Principal Liu and President An were acquainted with each other.

He was polite and courteous to ZhiXia, but took on a completely different attitude when facing An JingZhi.

In a matter that he was clearly in the right originally, after learning what happened to Pei Wanqing at school, Vice Principal Liu finally understood the specific reasons.

He knew of this girl Pei Wanqing. She was as outstanding as the other two girls in her class. The three took turns ranking first in class, and they were all beautiful and cheerful, looking educated and sensible.

Such a girl was extremely outstanding, yet she suddenly dropped out for reasons of studying abroad not long ago. Her family was well off so the school could not force her to stay, and it did not occupy the school's study abroad quota either, so the school actively helped process relevant formalities.

After learning about this, Vice Principal Liu no longer felt wronged and did not have the nerve to look for ZhiXia again.

This also made him realize that in educating students, it was not just about imparting knowledge, but even more important to give more guidance on moral character.

Zhang's wife was busy supervising the packing of New Year's gifts while ZhiXia got up early to make food for the few children, and left a portion in the space warehouse for Pei Wanqing as well.

She would occasionally go to the space warehouse to eat something, but most of the time the dishes remained untouched, because she was with classmates most of the time, eating together. She would only miss her mother's cooking especially when she missed home a lot.

After seeing the children off to school, ZhiXia had just breathed a sigh of relief when she saw An JingZhi coming in pushing a bicycle. "The little ones left?" he asked.

"They just went out. Have you eaten?" ZhiXia said, "There are still buns left in the kitchen. Want to eat something?"

She was a little puzzled in her heart. Ever since she changed his hairstyle last time, An JingZhi now looked displeased at all of them. The last two times he came over he was forcibly dragged along by Zhou Nan and the old lady.

After interacting for a period of time, she realized that he was the face-conscious type who regarded face more importantly than life itself.

It was rare for him to come over, so ZhiXia still had to enthusiastically entertain him. After all, she had angered him quite a bit last time. "Don't be busy, I came after eating," An JingZhi told her about Liu Cun looking for him yesterday, and asked her at the same time, "Aren't you giving that overseas study quota to our high school just to piss him off on purpose?"

In these few years, ZhiXia had done quite a few things that poked at his sore spot. The overseas study quota was one of those things.

And because he had wronged her back then, he felt somewhat embarrassed to talk about some matters, so he could only forcibly swallow them. After a long time it became stifling to himself.

"I did have that idea, I just don't know if your school wants it."

The words ZhiXia uttered would certainly not just be empty talk or to piss anyone off. Now she was a well-known figure after all, and had to take responsibility for her words, otherwise if it caused trouble that would be embarrassing for her.

Since it was such a great favor being actively sought, how could An JingZhi possibly refuse? He agreed on the spot, "This is a good thing, how could we not want it? But you have to keep your word. You can't change your mind later and say you won't sponsor it anymore. That would have a huge impact on the school too."

He was nearing retirement age. To have this good thing happen before retirement could also be considered his contribution.

With these overseas students quota for publicity, their high school would definitely be one that everyone rushed to get into, although it was already not bad now, who didn't want it to be even better?

"You can rest assured, I am not fickle," ZhiXia said. As for Jincheng University, if it hadn't been for those students of truly horrendous moral character, she would not have withdrawn funding so drastically either.

She may not be omnipotent, but she had a say over how her own hard-earned money was spent.

"That's good then," An JingZhi sighed, "I'm not insisting on deducing something from you, but there is one thing I have to remind you - you're still young yet have such great wealth, you need to understand that it's hard to endure the cold when you're in a high position. Those who are rich should be benevolent. It was because your great grandfather was kindhearted and generous that our family has been safe and steady all these years. No matter when, having a kind heart is key to being a good person. When you earn money, you should do good deeds. Only then can you prosper for long. You should learn this from the Ji Family. Look at them, they're either aiding mountainous areas or holding charity auctions every day, who knows how they spend their money, but their fame for doing charity resounds loud..."

"I understand this philosophy. I've always been doing charity too. Every year, our company allocates a certain percentage of our profits to help the poor and needy. I just haven't publicized it like others." ZhiXia didn't want that kind of publicity for what she did. As long as she had a clear conscience about what she did, that was enough. She didn't need everyone to know about it.

Like the last charity auction held by the Ji Family, which they claimed was to help education in mountainous areas, she also sent large quantities of learning materials to those remote and impoverished areas every year. Given her spatial abilities, obtaining these materials in bulk was minimal effort and cost for her, almost negligible.

However, for the people in this world, many things were still hard to come by.

She also collaborated with Third Elder Brother's hospital to provide aid to patients who couldn't afford medical treatment. Just this effort alone accounted for a considerable amount of spending every year, since quite a lot of people still couldn't afford healthcare these days.

"So what I want to remind you is this - you've done it, but if you don't publicize it, it's equivalent to not having done it. Similarly, whether you've done it or not, as long as you spread the word and everyone knows about it, that's your credit."

He thought ZhiXia didn't understand this logic, but actually she understood everything clearly. She just wasn't keen to fight for credit.

An JingZhi had said what he needed to say. As for how to carry it out, he couldn't make that decision. It would depend on ZhiXia's own preference.

But confirming the international student quotas today was genuinely exciting news. He planned to announce this as soon as he returned, given that the college entrance examinations were coming up next year. Releasing this news now would also motivate the students.