He pressed the doorbell twice, but there was no ringing nor was there an answer. So he knocked on the door. Not long after there was a muffled "Yes." of acknowledgement beyond the walls of the house.
Stepping backwards to not crown the front door, Lan Lingxiao stood patiently until a stern-looking woman in her mid-years opened the door. Immediately her eyebrows scrunched as she eyed him up and down.
As though reminding herself not to be rude, the woman forced a smile on her face and asked for a form of identification.
Lan Lingxiao gave her an ID before the woman nodded her head and proceeded to open the door fully to welcome him inside.
"Please come in Mr. Lan. I am Miss Hu. The orphan keeper of this establishment. Have you brought your documentation or did you just come to meet the children today?"
Lan Lingxiao's heart beats in his chest thinking of the best excuse he can use which will serve his purposes. Mi Bai's school will probably end soon, so he doesn't want to stay too long. Just enough that he can pass by the child.
"Neither. I am looking to sponsor orphanages and came upon yours by coincidence. I don't really need to meet the children either as I am in a bit of a rush. If I could just look at the state of the rooms, your storage and kitchen so I could estimate how much I can give, that would be sufficient."
Miss Hu once again discreetly surveyed him, judging whether he was a potentially dangerous man. But since he said that he didn't need to meet the kids, he probably wasn't a pedophile and Miss Hu decided to proceed with giving him a tour.
In total the tour was a disaster. Not to be confused with unproductive. Miss Hu was a very informative tour guide and gave concise descriptions of what they had, which rooms had which problems, and what they lacked. But every room he visited made Lan Lingxiao regret his decision to not come sooner.
Lan Lingxiao's mind raced with excuses on why he couldn't come sooner. But he knew that that was all he was doing. Making excuses. The truth which he knew was that even if he came on the very first day when he had the least money, he still could have helped even a little.
"The Kitchen concludes the tour of my establishment. Do you have any questions Mr. Lan?"
"None about your establishment. You have been very informative, thank you very much. Where can we proceed to complete paperwork on donations?"
"That would be my office. Please follow me."
Lan Lingxiao nodded his head and followed the stern yet surprisingly hospitable lady to an office that was just as rotten down as the rest of the building. All the furniture looked decades old except for a laptop and a table lamp. There was even a typewriter off to the side which could be sold to a museum if it had not looked so worn.
There were also stacks and stacks of paperwork filling the shelves and half the table. Except for the watermarks and wood rot, everything looked clean without a speck of dirt.
He truly had to applaud the woman for keeping the old place in as pristine condition as it could be.
Miss Hu was a very well organized woman. In a few seconds, she took out all the blank forms that Lan Lingxiao could take home to fill out. And she discussed the process of filling them out, sending it to her along with the donations, and the time period he could expect for the donations to appear on his tax returns.
This was one thing he learned from Miss Hu that he never knew before because he was a regular poor college student. You can apparently get tax returns based on how much you donated throughout the year. It was like eating two bats with one bowl. He gets to financially support Mi Bai while getting tax cuts on his business. A win-win!
When he learned of this, he pretended as though he knew about it from the start and it was his main goal in why he wanted to donate.
Learning this made Miss Hu's facial expression relax. As though learning of his intentions finally made him someone more trustworthy. Indeed a selfish businessman who simply wanted to donate for the sake of tax breaks had clearer intentions than some random single man who specifically wanted to donate to an orphanage for no other reason than 'goodwill'.
Lan Lingxiao was certain that Miss Hu had met quite a couple of these men with 'goodwill' which explained her initial suspicion of him.
Time flew by and he didn't notice that it was time for all the children to come back from their school. The orphanage quickly grew louder and Miss Hu was in a rush to bid him farewell as she had to prepare their supper.
Now that he was here inside the dilapidated old building. Lan Lingxiao was a bit reluctant to leave without having done anything. But he believed that it would be a little strange to offer help to Miss Hu to prepare supper when they just met. Doing so might make Miss Hu doubt his intentions once again. Hence, Lan Lingxiao decided to come a few more times before offering his help.
Walking out, Lan Lingxiao was surprised to be greeted by a throng of children who were all fearful of him except one snot-nosed kid who stared at him with bright eyes.
Lan Lingxiao was taken aback when the snot-nosed kid jumped up to grab hold of his upper arm while shouting "Bramble! Bramble!"
"Eh! Ehh?!"
Flustered to have a kid suddenly grab hold of him and hug his torso like a monkey to a tree, Lan Lingxiao was frozen in place. Suddenly being surrounded by all the kids who laughed and started climbing him like little monkeys.
"Bramble! Bramble Bramble!" They chanted in chaotic chorus. Miss Hu who was off to the side chuckled at the kids' mischievousness before aptly calling the kids to attention to get off of their guest.
There was another chorus of "Awws" as they got off him one by one and falling into a straight line.
"Apologies Mr. Lan. These are our children. I thank you for your patience."
"No no. It was nothing. I'd be glad to play again just as long as they warn me next time."
"Really?" Excitedly shouted the same snot-nosed kid from earlier.
Lan Lingxiao could no longer hold down the laughter in his chest and he ruffled up the hair of the snotty sprout.
"Of course". Lan Lingxiao replied. He has never been accepted so happily before and the kids just made his day.
Though he could feel a burning glare from somewhere near the door which made him look. Taking that glance was something he deeply regretted.
By the door was the most beautiful child you would see. A pubescent kid with neat dark hair and a fierce glare. There was no doubt that the kid would grow up to be a heart-breaker one day. He seemed to be glaring at the snot-nosed kid, but Lan Lingxiao couldn't help but feel that some of that anger was directed towards himself.
As though sensing his gaze. The beautiful child changed his expression into the most angelic smile in the world. The stark contract between his two expressions made Lan Lingxiao wonder if the previous malice had been a trick of the eye.
[Ding! Dissatisfaction was detected from the target. Ero meter decreased to -20%]
That thing could decrease?!
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Mini Theatre:
Mi Bai: "That's it?
. . .
THAT'S IT?!?
ARE YOU TOYING WITH ME AUTHOR?!"
Author: *hides in the corner*
Mi Bai: "Not one sentence. Not even a single world. I didn't even make a sound! You call that the entrance of the second main character?!"
Author: *Trambling in fear* "Xiao Si help!"
Xiao Si: *eats watermelon seeds*