Chapter 1716 — The Building Burned Down Too?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
"Young Master Bing, I too was only following your orders when I poured the gasoline..." Chief Zhu said with a sour face. Neither he nor Li Cihua was an expert in such matters, nor had either any experience; how could Li Cihua have calculated the spread of the fire? And Chief Zhu, his mind fixed on carrying out the job, was even less likely to have worked out that the flames might reach the Qibing Building!
"It's not your fault..." Zhao Qibing waved a hand helplessly and sat down heavily on the floor. This fire — had he known it would cause such a disaster, he would rather have given the orphanage a little more money, or built them a new orphanage somewhere else!
But it was too late for regrets now. He had achieved his aim, but the price he had paid was far too high.
Li Cihua had been hoping to make a little more money on this project to pay off the Blood Robe Yellow Springs Sect, but now that hope had gone up in smoke, and he wore a worried frown all day long.
Compared with Li Cihua and Zhao Qibing, though, the worst off were the people of the orphanage. The orphanage was gone, and the old director could only take the children and rent a cheap duplex attic; a hundred-odd children crammed into a space of just over three hundred square meters — it was no exaggeration to say they were packed in like sardines.
Yu Xiaoke had raised a large sum for the orphanage not long ago, but it was clearly not enough to rebuild. After all, they could hardly put up the same old single-story houses again — a second build ought to be done properly. And that money was meant to cover the orphanage's daily expenses; if she withdrew it from the bank to build, it would not be enough, and once it was spent, what then?
The gold and silver treasures Yu Xiaoke had brought out were worth only about five million! Five million — if they built something simple, that would do, but if they wanted all the supporting facilities, it probably would not even cover the equipment.
"That fire was definitely set by someone from Zhao Qibing's company, and they botched it and burned down their own company nearby too!" Xiao Ben said indignantly. "Serve them right, I say — they reaped what they sowed!"
"I expect that Li Cihua will come to us again about swapping the land, and this time we will have to trade whether we want to or not!" The old director sighed, helpless. "We really cannot afford to offend the hidden Zhao family. If it were back in the day... ah..."
What she meant was that back in the day, she would never have given a piddling hidden Zhao family a second thought. But now the hidden Zhao family was a colossus to her.
Yet even Yu Xiaoke knew only so much about the events of those years, and the old director did not want to say more about the past, lest enemies come looking for them and shatter the peaceful life they had now.
"How about... I go take on another big job?" Yu Xiaoke mused for a moment, then gritted her teeth and spoke. It was the only solution she could think of — she would have to come out of retirement; otherwise, where would the money to rebuild the orphanage come from?