Chapter 389: – Welfare Institute
"This child was born with cerebral palsy. His parents abandoned him shortly after he was born" The auntie currently caring for the children saw the three standing at the stairway. She smiled as she approached the shocked three of them and said "The one sitting in the wooden bucket was born without legs, we had to order a bucket that fit his waist."
"Most of the children here have some kind of disability, otherwise their parents wouldn't have abandoned them." The chubby auntie’s face had a gentle smile. "Are you the volunteers coming today? Our situation here is really poor and it’s also too remote. We don't get many volunteers even in a week."
"Yeah. Yes, yes." Lin Jin quickly nodded and gave the snacks in her hands to the auntie "Could I trouble you to distribute these for me?"
"Of course" the auntie took the snacks from Lin Jin and Wu Min, then looked at the camera in Zhu Dong's hand. "Are you planning to make a video?"
"Yes, that way your welfare institute can get support from more people and the children can have a better life, right?" Lin Jin’s smile was a bit complicated. Among the many children in this hall on the second floor, she actually hadn’t seen many normal kids.
Zhu Dong was clearly affected by the scene as well. Hesitating, he took out his camera, turned it on and panned around the entire room. Then, he turned the camera to face Lin Jin.
"Don't record me, record them" Lin Jin sighed and looked around. There were probably about thirty kids on the second floor, but only three aunties caring for them. Aside from the auntie who was greeting them, there were two others who were a little overwhelmed. Lin Jin turned to the auntie and asked, "What can we do today?"
"Play with the children."
The auntie waved to a physically healthy child nearby. The child immediately ran over and loudly called out to Lin Jin: "Hello big sister! Hello two big brothers!"
The child looked at the three of them with expectant eyes. His mental state seemed to be relatively good. He looked around four years old and was chubby and cute.
Lin Jin took a lollipop from her pocket, helped peel off the wrapper, and handed it to the child. The child took the lollipop and immediately stuffed it into his mouth, he smiled so widely that his eyes turned into crescent moons.
"Thank you big sister!"
"Such a good boy" Lin Jin crouched down and softly asked, "Tell sister what you want to play, sister will play with you."
"I... I want..." The little boy thought for a long time before asking, "Can my little brothers and sisters play too?"
"Of course they can."
Lin Jin replied with a smile.
The little boy cheered, jumping and running to call over the other children who weren't too severely disabled and could play with him.
In just a few minutes, seven children aged between three and five gathered before Lin Jin, looking at her with eager eyes.
"Why do all these kids seem to be no older than five or six?" Wu Min glanced at the children in the room and then turned to ask the auntie beside him, "Have the older ones all been adopted?"
"They've all gone to attend elementary school. This place is too remote, so we sent them to nearby schools as boarding students" the chubby auntie looked very kind and answered all of the group’s questions.
"Oh right, the reputation of this welfare institute didn’t seem too good." Wu Min was planning to do an interview and Zhu Dong immediately turned the camera towards Wu Min and the chubby auntie to record it." Before we came, the driver told us there would often be bad news reports about this place."
A helpless expression appeared on the chubby auntie’s face as she shook her head and said: "Actually, I only started here three months ago. During that time, the director was in poor health and rarely came to this institute. So some staff members started misbehaving, taking gifts meant for the children home to their own children. Some of them who lacked patience even hit the children."
"Actually, our welfare institute is closing soon. The director's funds are almost depleted. Due to the bad reputation, there aren't many donations. Volunteers like you only come once every week or two. There’s no money, so the children's quality of life is now a lot worse compared to before."
The chubby auntie shook her head and sadly looked at the children jumping and playing around Lin Jin.
Noticing the chubby auntie's gaze, the children who had been excitedly surrounding Lin Jin immediately quieted down. They looked timid and didn't dare reach out to Lin Jin for snacks or toys anymore.
Lin Jin looked back at the chubby auntie in surprise. The auntie shook her head and explained: "They're just young children, so I have to be more strict with them sometimes. That's why they're a bit scared of me."
"Oh, it’s like that." Lin Jin also didn't think much of it. When she was around three to five years old, she was quite a little demon herself. Her younger brother Lin Chen followed her and they almost tore the house down, so she didn’t lack beatings from her parents. Therefore, she understood the chubby auntie being strict towards the kids and smacking their hands or something to scare them into behaving.
"Let's play eagle catching little chicks!" Lin Jin was all smiles as she squatted down and said to the children "I'll be the mother hen, you guys are the chicks, and he'll be the bad guy eagle, okay?!"
"Okay!" The kids immediately got excited again, shouting at Wu Min, "Bad eagle!"
Zhu Dong very dependably recorded everything with his camera.
The second floor wasn't spacious enough for them to play, so Lin Jin led the seven children to the small playground next to the welfare institute.
The playground was very small, probably only about 30 or 40 square meters, with an old dilapidated slide installed and a swing off to the side. The seven kids followed and surrounded Lin Jin, completely ignoring Wu Min, the bad guy eagle.
Lin Jin noticed that among the seven children, only four were the outgoing and lively type. These four were the ones jumping around her earlier while the remaining three were mostly silent. Although there was also excitement in their eyes, they did not say much.
She paid special attention to those three kids. Two were little girls around three or four years old. They looked very excited but were still a bit timid. The other was a boy with a somewhat blank expression. His head was lowered and he didn’t speak much. He needed the other children to lead him when walking and seemed to be a very withdrawn child.
Lin Jin furrowed her brow slightly but quickly composed herself. She clapped her hands like a kindergarten teacher and called out to the kids: "Come! Line up behind me, the eagle is coming!"
Wu Min very cooperatively let out a “roar”, sending the children giggling and running behind Lin Jin to form a makeshift "train."
"The eagle is coming~" Wu Min looked completely like a preschool teacher after they started playing. He completely ignored his own embarrassment and pretended to be fierce. He stretched his hands at Lin Jin as if they were claws and threatened the children behind Lin Jin. But, the children also knew this was just a game and giggled as they ran around while protected by Lin Jin.
Wu Min circled around Lin Jin twice as if he couldn’t find a gap. He gave Lin Jin a signal and then suddenly sped up, rushing towards the children. Lin Jin, who was prepared, turned quickly and spread her arms to block Wu Min. When the two made contact, Lin Jin immediately whispered: "Go easy, let them have fun."
"I'm not stupid."
After this quick encounter, Wu Min backed off without any success and continued looking for another opportunity.
Of course, after about ten minutes, Wu Min still hadn’t caught any of the little chicks. But after running around all over, the little chicks looked tired. One even looked like they couldn’t run anymore. Lin Jin then announced the game was over and the three to five year old children all immediately crowded around, criticizing the eagle for being too slow and not making the game exciting enough.