Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

After they’d talked about all these, everyone was not far from the school. Very soon, Hong Dali saw a huge city wall emitting light with a dark shade of blue—Yes, that was the city wall, and from afar it looked like a twisting and turning huge dragon, meandering far away until it couldn’t be seen. Even from that city wall alone, Hong Dali saw a few buildings that looked like blockhouses…

Hong Dali stared in bewilderment. “It’s true, Principal Wang, the school is being built so fast?!”

“Actually, constructions were going very slowly initially.” Principal Wang let out a long sigh. “But then they sent another construction team, and it’s said to have come after building some military airbase. In just one month or so, such a big school has been built from the ground up.”

Hong Dali said in surprise, “This Uncle Chief, he doesn’t ask for my opinions in everything he does, he’s so sloppy. But I like it!”

He’d actually sent a construction team to construct an airbase. Awesome!

Now that he was closer, Hong Dali finally saw the entire appearance of the school.

A campus city, this was a true campus city.

Just the gray city wall in front of his eyes alone was at least five meters in height, and below it were various stalls used as shops. Construction hadn’t finished on the top yet, but it was at the finishing stage, and it seemed to be around eight meters in width. There would definitely not be a problem to drive a few cars there—the pillars below were all made according to high-end bridges’ style.

One large door was at least 20 meters wide. This position should have been the earliest to be constructed. There wasn’t a traditional signboard on top, but instead, a super large one like a polyhedron that was made based on some cosmic satellite. On top of it were seven large words almost identical to the words at the start of “Transformers” in his previous life—New Lanxiang Campus City.

Other things aside, just this big door alone made Hong Dali beam with delight. “Wahahahaha! Awesome, this is just too awesome! I want exactly this kind of aura! Hahaha!”

Upon looking at how elated Hong Dali was, Principal Wang let out a long sigh, secretly pulling Hong Dali’s sleeve as he whispered, “Young Master Dali, there’s something that I don’t know whether I should say…”

“Ah? What thing?” Hong Dali felt strange. “Why do you need to be so polite to me, your junior?”

“I have to be polite, it’s something about spending money.” Principal Wang whispered, “I was thinking that many good things that were passed down by our ancestors have been lost. Nobody learns about what has been preserved. Look at the ‘Classic of Changes’, etiquette, Chinese medicine, carpenting, pottery… If there are no successors for these, in the future, they might just be completely lost. I was thinking that since you don’t lack money, why don’t… Why don’t…” Speaking up to this point, Principal Wang couldn’t really bear to be thick-skinned, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and said, “Why don’t you take a little more money out and hold classes related to all these…”

“Take a little more out?” Hong Dali asked.

“A little more, not a lot. Just a little more will do. It’d be good to buy some books and let the children read them by themselves as well…” Speaking up to this point, Principal Wang felt that he’d lost quite a bit of his dignity. If there were a hole in the ground now, he’d definitely hide inside it.

“Then, is 10 million enough?” Hong Dali thought for a while. “If it’s not enough, I can take more!”

“Cough cough cough—” Principal Wang almost choked to death on his saliva. He coughed for quite a few times before exclaiming, “Hundreds of thousands are enough…”

“How can that do?!” Hong Dali said matter-of-factly. “Can hundreds of thousands bring out my aura as a prodigal? It’s settled, 20 million! Don’t tell me it’s too much, I won’t give a discount!”

Someone wanted hundreds of thousands and you gave 20 million at once, and you didn’t allow the person to say that it’s too much. And you’re not giving a discount!

But upon careful thought, this was really a good thing. After all, he couldn’t throw away the ancient treasures of Heavenly State. Not many people wanted to learn about these nowadays. Thus, if 20 million could allow the traditional culture to be spread widely once again, this money would indeed be quite well spent.

Now that this matter was settled, everyone instantly entered the school.

Upon going past that terrifyingly huge city wall, the decor inside had long been greatly changed. The workers that had constructed the military airbase were all very familiar with their work. Machinery, workers, and tractors came in endlessly, and there were literally never-ending raw materials being transported inside. There was already a fixed scale of the few school buildings, and it could be seen that the teachers’ hostels and so on inside had more or less been built—if they were not so particular, they would really be able to hold lessons there already.

Just then, an engineer wearing a construction helmet hurriedly ran over once he saw Hong Dali. He pointed at a large hole with a full few thousand square meters in size and asked, “Young Master Dali, is the hole for the pond big enough?”

Hong Dali wasn’t satisfied. “Is that a swimming pool?”

The engineer instantly broke out in cold sweat. “That’s a manmade lake that’s meant for the Black Tortoise to live in…”

Hong Dali stomped his feet. “This is the place where our Big Turtle will stay in? It’s so tiny, it’s probably only suitable to keep fishes in there. Don’t you find it too small to rear the Black Tortoise in it? Once it goes in, even its head wouldn’t be able to fit in, right?”

“This…” The engineer’s cold sweat kept dripping down. “Then I’ll expand further?”

“Forget it.” Hong Dali looked at the surroundings. “If you expand it further, there wouldn’t be space left for a walking path. Dig deeper into the ground—it must be at least five meters deep. Oh right, how will you solve the problem with the source of water?”

“This problem is easy to solve.” The engineer had long been prepared for this. “We plan to suck out water from the underground lake at Tianjing Mountain, and by then try to take more fishes out as well, then the Black Tortoise would have food.”

Since everything was more or less done, Hong Dali instantly nodded. “Then let’s do it this way.” After which, he said to Principal Wang, “Later, when I go back, I’ll make another trip to Water Spirit Village and fetch Sister Yuxi and the rest back. I’ll also tell them to inform the children in the village to come and start attending school.”

“Then…” This time, Principal Wang wore a very solemn expression. “Young Master Dali, sorry for the trouble.”

“No problem.” Hong Dali sniffled. “Anyway, I won’t need to spend money on petrol. I’ll get Uncle Chief to send someone to fetch them!”

…

After returning to Chenhui Building, upon calculating the time, “Where Are We Going, Dad” should be more or less already finished filming. After Ling Xiaoyi had prepared the helicopter, the group instantly set off. Now that they were already familiar with the route, they reached Water Spirit Village again very soon.

“Young Master Dali, you’ve come?” Mu Yuxi had long brought everyone to wait at the entrance of the village. Once she saw the helicopter, she hurriedly went forward. After all, she was a rich girl who had been pampered all her life. Though she was an extended family member of Hong Dali’s, she hadn’t suffered such hardships before. Once she saw Hong Dali, it was as if she’d seen a family member. “Everything is fine here, but it’s just that there are too many mosquitoes. These two days, we’ve been bitten so badly. Everyone’s hands and legs are full of mosquito bites!”

Women, especially pretty women, did smell good, but the problem was that mosquitoes didn’t have any aesthetic sense—they only cared about whether the blood was nice to drink…

As expected, once Mu Yuxi said this, the rest appeared dispirited as well. Tang Anqi was furious at it, but she could only hit people with bricks, it was too difficult to hit mosquitoes.

On the other hand, Catherine was better. The life here, to her, was full of mysteriousness and novelty. Though she was also bitten badly, it hadn’t reached the extent where it was too serious, so she could still bear with it.

Just then, Little Wang Mo came over and said, “Big Bro Dali, are we going back now? I miss my mummy.”

“Mm, after I handle some matters we’ll leave.” Hong Dali walked towards the village chief and asked, “Village chief, um, I’ve already bought this village. So, this place now belongs to me. Of course, you don’t need to move away. It’s just that I’ve built a school and there are very few students. How many children in the village do you think will be able to attend my school?”

“Young Master Dali, you’re asking the children in our village to go and study at your school?” The village chief was evidently stunned. “Sure, that’s a good thing! Then I’ll call them to come here right away?”

“Sure.” Hong Dali nodded. “Then ask them to come over here. I’ll notify them and ask them to get ready. Then, I’ll get someone to fetch them. It’s just one or two days later.”

“OK OK OK!” The village chief was so moved that his eyes brimmed with tears. He shouted towards a child hiding at the entrance looking at them, “Chen Er Gou, go and call all the children in our village above the age of six over here! Remember, it’s all of them, don’t leave any behind!”

Chen Er Gou looked at the old village chief in a rather blank manner, as if he hadn’t really understood.

The old village chief urged him. “Quickly go, Young Master Dali says that he wants you to go to his school to study!”

This time, upon understanding it, Chen Er Gou ran away at once. The old village chief ordered from behind. “Run faster!”

Chen Er Gou instantly ran like a mad dog that had freed itself from its leash, quickly disappearing from their sight.

“This little lad, he runs quite fast.” Hong Dali smiled happily. By then, everyone finally discovered another side of him—this fellow was not only nice to animals, but he was also nice to others as well…

In no time, the village chief gathered groups of children in front of the office—all the men in the village had gone out to work, and what was left were the old, women, and children. The ratio was almost 3:1. Though the entire village had only around 1,000 people, the children alone amounted to 300 and above.

The children arrived in batches. Some still brought their farming tools, thus it was evident that they had run over from the midst of work.

Hong Dali looked at the time on his smartphone. “In the future, train these children in running long distances, or else it’d be such a waste!”

Very soon, Chen Er Gou ran back. “Village chief, Big Bro Dali, I’ve searched every place in our village that people could be at and didn’t discover anyone else.”

“Mm, not bad.” Hong Dali was very satisfied. “I’ll reward everyone with 100 yuan as pocket money, and reward you 200 yuan!”

All the children instantly cheered.

After there was finally silence, Hong Dali cleared his throat and said, “I won’t beat around the bush. Everyone, go and get the village chief’s signature and start your preparations. Someone should fetch you to school in two days. When you arrive there, feel free to voice out anything that you want to learn. It’s fine as long as you don’t act as terrorists or whatnot. Food and lodging are all free, and those with good grades will have prizes!”

After he said this, the children instantly cheered again.

Upon seeing these pure and down-to-earth children beaming with delight, everyone around Hong Dali suddenly felt that sometimes, it was actually quite good to squander…