Pampered by My Ex's Cousin-Chapter 772 - 764: Who is the True Master of the Ji Family? (Part 2)

"Come sit over here."

Ji Chicheng had vacated the sofa, so Ji Anning grabbed two stools and placed them by the window to sit with Jin Yuanyuan.

Any distance from Ji Chicheng was preferable, after all.

Once seated, Ji Anning focused her attention entirely on Jin Yuanyuan, distressed at the sight of her thin face, which had lost its usual fairness to a wheatish hue, "You’ve lost so much weight this year, it must have been tough."

Jin Yuanyuan chuckled, "Getting thin has always been my goal."

She pursed her lips with a smile and took a small sip of water.

Despite her best efforts to hide it, there was a trace of bitter struggle and world-weariness in her smile. Ji Anning reached out, took her hand, and spoke with heartfelt earnestness, "Yuanyuan, if it’s really hard on you, maybe you should consider changing your way of living. Why make things so difficult for yourself?"

Teaching in the countryside is commendable, but doing so out of a sense of guilt is something else entirely.

"Chick soup as soon as we meet, did you spend the last two years raising chickens?" Jin Yuanyuan lifted her eyelids and gave Ji Anning an amused look, pulling her hand away to hold her cup, only to see Ji Anning looking at her with that same concerned expression.

She frowned, "I’m actually doing quite well now, I feel fulfilled, and I really enjoy and adapt well to this way of life."

Her resolve was strong, and it seemed unlikely she would change her current situation anytime soon, so Ji Anning let the matter rest without further comment.

"Who would have thought you’re a teacher now? Are the children well-behaved?"

Jin Yuanyuan nodded, "Yeah, they are all sensible kids."

As she spoke, she glanced at Zhen Cheng, who was playing with blocks on the bed with Fenfen, sympathy in her eyes.

Ji Anning followed Jin Yuanyuan’s gaze to Zhen Cheng, who, even with his constant cheerful smile, seemed to have difficulty seeing and would feel around the pile of blocks to find the shapes he wanted.

After watching for a while, she asked Jin Yuanyuan, "What happened to the child’s parents?"

"Ah," Jin Yuanyuan sighed, "He’s an orphan, the only one among those left-behind children. Although those kids seldom see their parents, they at least have parents to take care of them."

An orphan?

Ji Anning was taken aback, "Then... are you looking after his well-being now?"

If that was the case, for a single girl at only twenty-two, had she thought about the future?

"I’m just teaching now, with hardly any salary; how could I manage to take care of him?"

Jin Yuanyuan shook her head, self-deprecatingly, then smiled again, "However, there is a kind-hearted person from overseas who has donated money for Zhen Cheng’s school fees and all living expenses; the medical expenses for his eye treatment were all paid by this person as well."

"A kind-hearted person from overseas?" Ji Anning casually expressed curiosity.

She didn’t intend to delve into who the kind person was.

Moved by the thought, Jin Yuanyuan said, "Yes, if it weren’t for that kind person’s help, Zhen Cheng and I would have had a very tough time."

In her words and in her eyes, there was a deep sense of gratitude when she mentioned that kind person.

This piqued Ji Anning’s interest in the benefactor from abroad...

Ji Anning pondered, and involuntarily, Yao Yiyang came to mind. She looked at Jin Yuanyuan and ventured to ask, "Have you ever met this kind person?"

If she had, it surely couldn’t be him.

"No," Jin Yuanyuan shook her head, seemingly unbothered as she discussed the kind person.