Worried that Ye Xiaoqiong might be too harsh and leave Zhou Yi half-dead.

Xia Xiaolan had arranged for Luo Yaozong to follow Zhou Yi, a matter she had already informed Jiang Hong and Zhou Wenbing about.

Jiang Hong maintained an expressionless face: “I’m not worried. Whatever young Ye does, Zhou Yi deserves it.”

If she weren’t worried, she wouldn’t have asked.

Though concerned, Jiang Hong simply refused to admit it!

Xia Xiaolan pondered, “Sister Zhou Yi hasn’t told her family about this yet, right? She thinks she can handle it herself.”

Telling the family would be too embarrassing!

Xia Xiaolan could understand about seventy to eighty percent of Zhou Yi’s mindset.

This thinking was completely wrong. The Zhou family knew about it now, but if they truly didn’t know and Zhou Yi kept concealing it, by the time she finally realized she couldn’t resolve it alone, the situation would have certainly deteriorated significantly!

And the Zhou family, caught unprepared, would find themselves in a passive position.

The Yuan Han matter wasn’t just a simple romantic entanglement; Du Zhaoqi had been involved earlier.

Of course, Zhou Yi’s major downfall was imminent. Jiang Hong, Zhou Wenbing, and everyone else, including Xia Xiaolan, had already mentally prepared themselves.

Zhou Cheng was also summoned by Zhou Wenbing and Zhou Guobin.

They weren’t discussing Zhou Yi’s matter – in their view, this issue was too trivial to warrant special attention.

Including Old Master Zhou.

They needed to discuss Zhou Cheng’s transfer to a new work unit!

This concerned Zhou Cheng’s future development, so the family naturally needed to analyze and discuss it.

After consoling Jiang Hong briefly, Xia Xiaolan finally found an opportunity to speak with Gu Zhengqing.

“Uncle Gu, I’ve been wanting to talk with you for a while.”

“Perfect timing, I’ve been meaning to speak with you too. I just returned from Ji Bei Province a few days ago. Let me update you on the progress. For the first pilot phase, we selected three provinces. We’re treating these three provinces as three major regions, recruiting 120 college student volunteer teachers in total, including 80 male students and 40 female students… Did you know? Your Huaqing University has 3 participants. After announcing this plan, university students responded enthusiastically. We’re not worried about lacking volunteers; we’re concerned about having too many willing participants.”

Too many willing participants!

Gu Zhengqing wasn’t joking.

With Qihang Real Estate’s funding support and the Ministry of Education’s subsidies, although the teaching conditions were somewhat harsh, the college students who went weren’t burning their time while having to bring their provisions. The living allowance for volunteer teachers was equivalent to a monthly salary, and considering China’s current per capita income, this allowance wasn’t low.

This addressed the volunteer teachers’ living concerns.

But the enthusiastic response wasn’t just because of the allowance – most students nowadays had high ideological awareness, their blood still ran hot, they wanted to do something meaningful, and were willing to take action.

However, the more this was true, the more pressure Gu Zhengqing felt. The plan was Xia Xiaolan’s proposal, strongly supported by Gu Zhengqing himself, and now he had become the plan’s executive director.

He had to be responsible for all the college students going to teach, ensuring they wouldn’t waste one or two years without positive feedback, while also making sure the plan wouldn’t deviate from expectations – having spent manpower, money, and the students’ precious time, this plan needed to be truly useful and bring about real changes, right?

Was it possible to change the overall rural education environment just through college student volunteers?

Not!

The spring breeze of Reform and Opening Up hadn’t yet reached rural areas.

Even if they knew about Reform and Opening Up, what could the farmers do? They only knew about the household responsibility system, and besides putting all their energy into their family fields, they had no other sources of income.

Farming was hard work.

And in some places, the soil was inherently poor, making it difficult to earn a living from farming alone.

Rural poverty couldn’t be changed overnight, but at least they could provide pathways to change their mindsets.

Initially, Xia Xiaolan had intended to create a protective cover for Qihang, doing good while establishing a talent reserve pool, but after the plan was approved by higher-ups, it was given deeper expectations.

At this point, Xia Xiaolan could only forge ahead with this project.

She would do her best with what she could control, leaving the rest to the Ministry of Education’s vision and Gu Zhengqing’s oversight.

“I know about Huaqing’s volunteer teachers. Uncle Gu, you mentioned 3 students from Huaqing University, and I know one of them, a senior from the Civil Engineering department. Now that the plan has launched, whether it’s your side or mine, we can only try our best to guide it in a positive direction.

The male-to-female ratio for volunteer teachers is correct. I’m not advocating gender inequality or suggesting male students should contribute more while female students shouldn’t go.

The reality is what it is – when female students go to remote areas, personal safety becomes a major concern. You must ensure their safety!”

What was there to fear about volunteer teaching?

They weren’t afraid of harsh conditions – students willing to volunteer had already mentally prepared for that.

But harsh conditions and human malice were two different things. Poverty brought not only simplicity but also ignorance and extreme human ugliness.

Every village had idlers like Zhang Erlai, and he wasn’t even the worst.

The more remote and isolated a place was, the more reckless and ignorant people became in committing crimes.

After all, they couldn’t have a worse life anyway. Already at society’s bottom, some bad people might even think violating a female college student would be worth immediate execution – it was disgusting to say, but Xia Xiaolan had seen such news in her previous life.

The volunteer teaching program was beautiful, but taking extra precautions to prevent such beauty from being destroyed was better than summarizing lessons afterward!

Gu Zhengqing wasn’t naive about this. There had been a severe crackdown just two years ago.

The crackdown was due to rising crime rates.

“Xiaolan, this isn’t the first time you’ve raised this concern, and I take it very seriously. That’s why we finally decided on 80 male and 40 female students for the pilot program.

We’re assigning male students to places with difficult communications, though we must consider their safety too. Local township officials will monitor each area. Female students will be placed in slightly better conditions, with companions, and local police will regularly deliver supplies… We’re trying to eliminate all dangers preemptively.”

Xia Xiaolan still wasn’t entirely reassured, so Gu Zhengqing spoke seriously:

“We provided training before their departure, emphasizing that they shouldn’t put themselves in danger and should always protect themselves first, rather than prioritizing others.

They’re going to do good work, driven by lofty ideals, so they shouldn’t take their safety lightly… After a decade-long talent gap in our country, every college student we’ve newly cultivated is precious!”

The Ministry of Education had no intention of letting these students stay permanently in their volunteer locations, especially those from strong professional barriers like science and engineering. Having them shine at the grassroots level rather than contributing in their professional fields would be too wasteful.

So when they sent them to volunteer to teach, they needed every single one to return safely, without exception!