Chapter 235: Did a Fairy Visit Last Night?
Su Tao had just received 30 crystal cores, but before she could even warm them up in her hands, she immediately spent 25 of them to incorporate the nursery and orphanage into Taoyang.
The nursery housed 200 preschool-aged children, mostly between 3 and 8 years old, along with 14 teachers and caregivers.
Most of these children had parents working decent jobs in Dongyang; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to afford the hefty tuition fee of 6,000 federal credits per month.
But the high tuition fee was justified.
The nursery’s facilities were excellent, including teaching buildings, activity rooms, and dormitories for the children.
After a thorough inspection, Su Tao found that the biggest inconvenience was the lack of proper water and electricity access. She immediately added restrooms to each floor of the teaching building.
She even spent a long time searching through home improvement stores, eventually finding slightly shorter toilets designed for children and replacing all the old ones.
Four more activity rooms were added—two for playtime, equipped with easy-to-clean puzzle mats and rainbow-colored round stools, and two for extracurricular activities, furnished with small tables, chairs, and a full wall of shelves.
Unfortunately, books were scarce in the post-apocalyptic world, and illustrated children’s books were even rarer. Otherwise, that bookshelf would have been both aesthetically pleasing and practical.
To compensate, Su Tao installed a large wall-mounted TV on the opposite wall.
This way, teachers could bring students into the extracurricular room to read fairy tales or watch cartoons.
As for the children’s dormitory building, she also added bathrooms and shower rooms on each floor while leaving the rest unchanged.
Finally, there was the massive playground spanning 3,000 square meters, shared with the nearby elementary school and orphanage.
Given the limited number of crystal cores, Su Tao decided not to spend any on managing the playground.
The orphanage covered a larger area than the nursery but had poorer facilities.
With only ten teachers looking after 400 children, the classrooms were bare—just whitewashed walls with old desks and chairs that had clearly been in use for many years, some even missing legs or arms.
Su Tao couldn’t stand it. With a wave of her hand, she replaced everything with brand-new furniture identical to that in the nursery.
She redecorated the classrooms with colorful wallpaper and replaced the windows with similar ones from the nursery, adding adjustable blackout curtains.
The activity rooms were also renovated, and considering the larger number of children in the orphanage, she built four extra rooms.
The dormitories were refurbished as well, featuring polished marble floors and cute cartoon wallpaper.
The orphanage also had a cafeteria.
Director Guo explained that two cooks prepared large meals for the children—perhaps not the tastiest, but enough to keep them fed, which was already a luxury in the apocalypse.
The former leader had done everything possible to ensure these orphans weren’t mistreated.
Hearing this, Su Tao couldn’t help herself—she completely overhauled the orphanage’s cafeteria.
All the kitchen appliances were replaced, with four new induction stoves, two large single-basin sinks, and a dishwasher installed under the combination counter. With so many kids, a dishwasher was much more efficient, provided there was enough water and electricity.
She also replaced all the dining tables and chairs.
After upgrading the orphanage’s cafeteria, Su Tao considered whether she should build a small cafeteria for the nursery as well.
Unlike the orphanage, the nursery didn’t have a cafeteria—children brought home-cooked meals from their families.
But there was no time to think.
When she looked up, the sun had already risen.
Another all-nighter…
Drowsiness hit her hard. Rubbing her eyes, Su Tao stumbled back to her room, collapsing onto her bed without even changing clothes. She hugged the blanket, turned over, and instantly fell into a deep sleep.
At that very moment, the children and teachers at the nursery and orphanage were just waking up.
For the first time, they had slept comfortably without sweating through the night.
The children who lived in the nursery dorms were the first to notice the transformed restrooms—not only were there small toilets, but the sinks were also low enough that they didn’t need to stand on tiptoes. Clean water flowed freely from the taps.
The day students arrived at school to find bright, spacious activity rooms and a huge TV!
Even parents dropping off their kids felt the drastic temperature difference the moment they stepped onto the nursery grounds.
Immediately, they started buzzing with excitement.
“Did Taoyang take over the nursery?”
“Looks like it! Otherwise, how could it be so cool in here? It’s like stepping into a different world—I almost want to stay and study with my daughter.”
“This is too fast! They just took over the maternity and childcare hospital recently—I thought we’d have to wait at least two months. No way, I need to call my sister and tell her to send her child here ASAP! Once the news spreads, getting a spot will be impossible!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd of parents scattered like water being poured into a hot pan, rushing home to inform their families.
At the orphanage, most of the children were too young to fully understand, but they excitedly ran up to Director Miao.
“Mama Miao, Mama Miao! Did a fairy visit last night?”
“Mama Miao, I made a wish before bed—I wished for a new desk, and now there are so many new desks this morning! The fairy is so generous!”
Director Miao’s eyes welled up with tears as she stroked their fluffy little heads.
“Yes, a fairy really did come.”
*
Meanwhile, outside, the excitement and commotion had nothing to do with Su Tao, who was still sound asleep.
She was so deeply asleep that even when Jiang Jinwei arrived at Taoyang to find her, she was completely unreachable.
Qi Yunlan, knowing about the strawberry incident last time, was highly alert to Jiang Jinwei’s presence. Since she couldn’t get in touch with Su Tao either, she simply said:
“Miss Jiang, please leave. We can’t reach Miss Su at the moment.”
Jiang Jinwei frowned. “How can you not reach her? Isn’t she one of your tenants?”
Qi Yunlan replied calmly, “Taoyang is not a prison. We don’t track our tenants’ whereabouts.”
Jiang Jinwei felt like she was being deceived, and anger bubbled up inside her.
“Are you doing this on purpose? First, you stopped my brother from seeing her, and now you’re keeping me out too! I’ve been watching your place for days—others can enter just by registering, but when it comes to us, you shut the door in our faces! Why?”
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Ever since she started following Er Cheng, she hadn’t faced rejection like this in a long time.
Qi Yunlan kept smiling. “We’re not targeting you. We truly can’t reach Miss Su. If, as you say, you’re really her biological sister, why don’t you call her yourself and ask her to come out?”
Jiang Jinwei’s face flushed red with embarrassment.
Su Tao had blocked every member of their family—she couldn’t contact her even if she wanted to!
Qi Yunlan continued smiling at her.
Jiang Jinwei suddenly realized that hidden behind that smile was a hint of mockery.
Her fury exploded, and she raised her hand to slap Qi Yunlan.
How dare a mere gatekeeper mock her? What trash!
But before she could even lift her hand, Meng Xiaobo shoved her forcefully.
A push from a “Super Strength” ability user was no joke.
Wearing high heels, Jiang Jinwei stumbled backward, rolling twice before coming to a painful stop. Her meticulously styled hair was in disarray, and one of her shoes had even fallen off.
Her driver and bodyguards rushed to help her up, but none of them dared to challenge the muscular Meng Xiaobo. Let alone retaliate.
