Chapter 258 – Donation

Since the processing plant would soon be ready for staff to move in, the subdistrict office carried out a survey among residents within its jurisdiction. The aim was to allow truly impoverished households and unemployed youths priority access to jobs at the plant.

To be honest, the subdistrict office didn’t have enough funds or resources to help all the struggling families. Being able to offer job placements and resolve employment issues was already the limit of what they could do.

After conducting an in-depth investigation, they discovered that some families hadn’t even reached the most basic standard of living. For instance, there was a family in Courtyard No. 55 with no one holding a stable job, relying on one person doing odd jobs to support a family of five. On average, each person’s monthly expenses didn’t even reach two yuan.

You have to understand—the minimum standard of living now is five yuan per person per month. That’s just the bare minimum, so you can imagine how dire life must be on two yuan a month.

It was basically impossible for them to eat their fill. If they weren’t starving to death, it was already something to be thankful for. Food prices had risen sharply in the black market—doubling or more compared to before.

Director Li summoned Clerk Liao to her office.

Clerk Liao followed behind, a little nervous.

He was thinking to himself—he hadn’t done anything wrong lately, except maybe that situation with Yang Daguo, and the main responsibility hadn’t even been his. If Director Li punished him over that, he’d really be more wronged than Dou E herself.

Once inside the office, the door was shut.

Director Li spoke, “Xiao Liao, I have a task for you. This is a list of impoverished households from the latest survey. Since we can’t help everyone at once, I want you to go to the courtyards where the poorest households live and organize a donation drive.”

“If it goes well, it’ll help ease the burden on the subdistrict. If it doesn’t, we’ll figure out another way.”

There was no other choice—times were hard for the country too, and it was almost impossible to support so many poor families. It just wasn’t realistic.

Hearing this, Clerk Liao instantly felt relieved.

“Yes, Director, I’ll take care of it right away.”

“Wait!” Director Li suddenly called out.

Clerk Liao turned around, confused. “Director Li, is there anything else?”

Director Li said sternly, “Remember—this must be voluntary. No forced donations, no moral coercion.”

She was worried someone might use morality as a weapon. Other neighborhoods had already seen that sort of thing—residents being pressured to donate every few days. But who gave them the authority to do that? Some even relied on their status as ‘elders’ to pressure others, encouraging everyone to isolate those who didn’t donate.

Eventually, it caused a big scandal and embarrassed the subdistrict office. The district leaders even criticized them by name.

Director Li had taken it as a lesson learned—nothing like that could be allowed to happen on her watch.

“Understood. You can count on me,” Clerk Liao nodded.

Then, he went off to do his job.

Courtyard No. 55 was right next to Zhou Yimin’s place, the one where Zhou Dazhong lived.

When Clerk Liao arrived, he explained the situation to the three old men in charge of the courtyard and repeatedly reminded them not to pressure anyone. He even came up with an idea—anonymous donations. Each household would receive a red envelope; they could put money in it or leave it empty, then all would be placed in a donation box.

That way, no one would know who donated and who didn’t. There’d be no gossip like, “Everyone else gave, and your family didn’t.” It effectively shut the door on any form of moral coercion.

“Don’t worry, Clerk Liao. We’ll gather everyone for a meeting right away.”

The three old men quickly informed the residents and called a courtyard-wide assembly.

As a resident, Zhou Dazhong was, of course, notified too.

He wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about donating. His family was from the countryside and wasn’t well-off. Thanks to Uncle Sixteen’s help, things had only just improved. He still owed Uncle Sixteen some money. His job had been secured through compensation for his father’s death, but his sister’s wasn’t.

So he wasn’t exactly rolling in cash.

Still, as part of the courtyard community, he felt he should contribute at least something. After thinking it over, he put one yuan into his red envelope.

The other residents, after hearing the details, also secretly slipped “money” into the envelopes. Whether they actually put anything in—only they knew.

They thought this method was pretty clever. If someone was really strapped for cash, they didn’t have to donate, and no one would make them feel ashamed about it.

Zhou Dazhong also found the system quite humane.

The impoverished household in question kept thanking everyone. Whether or not people had donated, they were still deeply grateful.

While the “donation” process was going on, one of the old men spoke again: “Just now, Clerk Liao also mentioned something else—our subdistrict’s new processing plant is recruiting. Anyone of age and unemployed can sign up. This time, the chances of getting a job are very high.”

As soon as he said that, nearly everyone in the courtyard lit up with excitement.

There were quite a few unemployed young folks in the courtyard—both men and women.

Everyone had been hoping and waiting for a job. Even street-sweeping jobs were hard to come by these days, with so many jobless youths in the city.

“When can we sign up, Elder?” someone shouted.

At that point, no one had any complaints about the donation anymore. If a few yuan could lead to a job, why not?

You had to understand—one job was worth hundreds of yuan!

“You can sign up tomorrow,” the second elder answered the crowd’s most pressing question.

Truth be told, his family also had an unemployed son.

The construction team and processing plant project were known across the entire subdistrict. Everyone was looking forward to it. Some people even complained the construction was too slow and went to volunteer for free just to speed things up.

They just wanted the plant up and running as soon as possible—so they could start working.

Amid all the cheerful chatter, the donation drive came to an end. Under everyone’s gaze, the three elders opened the donation box and started unsealing the red envelopes.

Some had a few cents, others had a few yuan.

The most was twenty yuan—from the second elder. Of course, since there were no names on the envelopes, no one but him knew who had donated it—just that it wasn’t them.

This donation effort in Courtyard No. 55 raised over one hundred yuan in total.

The three elders formally handed the money over to the needy family.

“Thank you, thank you all so much!”

The first elder reminded them, “Dongzi, your family should go to the subdistrict office and thank them too.”

After all, the donation drive had been organized and led by the subdistrict office.

“Got it! We will. Thank you for the reminder, Elder.”

(End of Chapter)