After seeing Ella’s recording, the little “children” realized they had misunderstood.
The person in front of them was the one the beloved director had chosen to care for them, not an intruder.
So they became unusually obedient.
Seeing Ruan Qiao turn around, the little ones lined up and followed her quietly.
Ruan Qiao led them back to her dorm, having them sit in the living room while she went back to her bedroom and opened her most treasured backpack.
Since she had crossed over to this world, her backpack had come along with her.
Inside, besides the large pack of seeds and mushroom culture mediums she had just bought, the rest was all food.
After all, for a hardcore homebody like her, venturing out in the scorching heat was rare, so she naturally stocked up on a week’s supply of food.
Moreover, she had gone to the Agricultural Science Institute, where their internal supermarket carried the city’s best and most complete selection of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables.
Naturally, Ruan Qiao had shopped extravagantly.
She took out a box of strawberries and two peaches, washed them, and carried them back to the living room.
Seeing the items in her hands, the little creatures’ eyes widened in astonishment.
The floppy-eared rabbit was the first to nuzzle up to Ruan Qiao, standing upright to appear affectionate.
The little one was enormous; standing up, it easily reached over 1.5 meters.
Its fluffy head nearly came face-to-face with Ruan Qiao’s mouth.
Seeing the sudden, huge plush face appear in front of her, Ruan Qiao’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest, she almost exploded on the spot!
“No!”
She quickly took a few steps back, instinctively raising the fruit over her head. After calming herself a bit, she forced her voice steady and said, “Sit first. Wait for me to hand it out.”
Watching Ruan Qiao, the little rabbit’s black, crystal-like round eyes were filled with puzzlement.
It seemed to wonder why, even though it had already stretched its head over for her to pet, this human could still hold back!
It’s worth noting that when facing the former director, this little rabbit’s act of trying to charm had always worked flawlessly.
Hearing Ruan Qiao’s words, the little rabbit pouted, its expression clearly showing disappointment.
Yet it obediently squatted back down beside her.
But it was obvious the little one had no intention of giving up and continued to act cute to win her over.
Its little nose twitched, and its tiny paws rubbed against its face, back and forth.
It looked as if it were washing its face, or perhaps trying to tell Ruan Qiao, “I’m all clean now, so you can serve the food!”
That little pose was absolutely adorable.
Even though Ruan Qiao was still a bit wary, her heart was melting.
Staring at the rabbit’s gray-and-white, fluffy, soft fur, for the first time she felt the urge to touch it.
Before she could hesitate, her free hand seemed to have a mind of its own and reached out to stroke the rabbit’s head.
The sensation was unlike anything Ruan Qiao had ever felt. Silky, yet smoother than silk; soft, yet lighter and gentler than cotton.
It was completely unlike the cold, damp texture she had imagined.
She couldn’t help but touch it again.
And again…
After several strokes, satisfied, she withdrew her hand and picked up a strawberry, bringing it to the rabbit’s lips.
But before Ruan Qiao could even react, a bunch of little heads suddenly crowded around her hand.
The mischievous little squirrel even leapt onto her shoulder, pressing its tiny furry face against hers and rubbing affectionately.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Ruan Qiao nearly went insane, screaming wildly inside her mind.
But the little bit of remaining rationality still held her back, and she managed not to let her terror show on her face.
Touching the lop-eared rabbit was entirely instinctive, she hadn’t even thought about it.
That didn’t mean her fear of fur had disappeared!
Ruan Qiao felt her whole body go numb.
While scolding herself silently for her own misfortune, she forced herself to act calm, refusing to shy away.
She gritted her molars and took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain control. Then she finally spoke, giving an order: “Everyone, go back and sit properly. The one who behaves the best will get theirs first.”
Sit in a row, share the fruit.
Not knowing how much each little one could eat, and having seen how crazily they had devoured the first meal—Ruan Qiao didn’t dare give them too much.
Each got one strawberry, and the two peaches were split evenly. She then put the rest of the fruit back into the fridge.
Even so, the little ones were overjoyed, holding their portions carefully and eating with satisfaction!
Being so young, they quickly started to get sleepy after eating.
By the time the last bite of fruit was swallowed, one by one they began to sway drowsily, clearly about to fall asleep.
Ruan Qiao couldn’t let them just doze off in her dorm, so she scooped up the little hedgehog into her palm, then had the others follow her back to the dorm.
The cat, the rabbit, and the big quail obediently followed behind, while the little squirrel had already claimed Ruan Qiao’s shoulder as its personal seat, hopping up without waiting for permission.
Fortunately, after so many shocking experiences, Ruan Qiao had grown numb to this behavior, and the six of them headed to the small building together.
After settling the little ones onto the beds and watching them lie down, Ruan Qiao tiptoed back to her own dorm.
Before she even reached the door, she saw 001 waiting outside.
“Room all set?”
“All set.”
“Good.”
Ruan Qiao nodded. “Then you can go back and rest as well.”
With that, she couldn’t help but yawn.
But this time, 001 didn’t follow her command and just stood at the door.
Ruan Qiao paused, hesitated, and asked, “Does Ella have something else to tell me?”
As a robot, shouldn’t obeying its master be common sense?
Since she had taken over the orphanage, 001 naturally fell under her authority.
Other than prior instructions left by Ella, Ruan Qiao couldn’t think of anything that could make 001 disobey her.
“Yes. Ella left instructions for me to send you the orphanage’s financial reports. Please give me your comm ID.”
Ruan Qiao now knew that the comm ID here was essentially the equivalent of an email address in her old world, a primary means of communication on this planet.
She gave her number to 001, and he immediately transmitted a file to her light screen.
She still had plenty of questions, but she was too tired and thought she’d rest before dealing with them.
Since the little robot had come to the door, Ruan Qiao figured it was better to ask everything now and get peace of mind.
She called out to 001, “Don’t rush off yet, I have some questions for you.”
Then she gestured for him to come inside with her.
Ruan Qiao double-clicked on the light screen, and a translucent display rose up in front of her. The balance sheet 001 had sent was laid out clearly.
Ruan Qiao had studied agricultural science in college, so finance was completely foreign to her. Seeing all the dense numbers on the screen made her dizzy.
She even forgot the other questions she had wanted to ask.
But no matter how dizzy she felt, she knew she had to understand this.
So, difficult as it was, she forced herself to study the numbers.
Fortunately, 001 was there, and whenever she didn’t understand something, he could give her a satisfactory explanation.
Soon, Ruan Qiao spotted a problem in the report.
“What is this grain tax? Why are we paying so much?”
She didn’t understand, this was an orphanage, not a farm. Why were they paying this tax? And it was as high as five thousand star coins per year!
According to the spreadsheet, the entire orphanage’s current account balance was barely over seven thousand star coins.
And they still had daily expenses to cover.
Was this the kind of situation where paying the tax would instantly bankrupt them?!
Hearing her question, 001 let out a human-like sigh: “Sigh… it’s a long story. who told Ella to own so much land?”
Ruan Qiao: …
No need to be so dramatic.
She gave the little robot a side glance. “Then let’s cut the long story short.”
She was increasingly convinced that whoever had designed 001 must have been a drama queen, just one that nobody was around to appreciate.
So all the things left unsaid were voiced through the little robot.
After 001’s explanation, Ruan Qiao finally pieced together a rough understanding.
It turned out that Planet 0813 could be considered a wasteland planet within the surrounding Star System where it is located.
It had once been prosperous, but later suffered an invasion by the zerg species.
The land became polluted, plants began to mutate, and almost all the buildings on the surface were reduced to ruins overnight.
Humans on the planet either died or were forced to relocate, and for nearly a hundred years, nothing grew there.
Eventually, descendants of the original inhabitants couldn’t bear to see their homeland remain a wasteland, and people gradually began returning.
Through the efforts of several generations, they rebuilt the planet into its current state.
Although Planet 0813 is now far better than it was before, it remains the poorest and most backward planet in the system.
Many of the more advanced planets essentially treat it as a garbage dump.
On 0813, many people and even whole cities survive by collecting and recycling trash.
But that trash severely pollutes the environment, which is clearly unsustainable in the long term.
Visionary people repeatedly called on the government to take action and break this vicious cycle.
But having tasted the benefits, how could those advanced planets ever be willing to stop?
They cruelly used the threat of cutting off food supplies, forcing Planet 0813 to continue receiving their discarded garbage and waste.
To escape this predicament as soon as possible, the government began, three years ago, promoting the cultivation of barren land and crop planting, striving to achieve self-sufficiency.
They even launched many support programs to aid this effort.
But the planet’s land had been polluted before, making it extremely difficult to grow crops successfully!
Many people preferred to secretly collect trash or work hard to earn money to emigrate rather than farm the land.
The government had no choice but to introduce a new policy, calculating the required food output based on the amount of land each resident possessed.
If the output fell short, they had to make up the difference with money.
The more land one owned, the more money had to be paid. The idea was to pressure families with large land holdings to actively recruit workers and cultivate the land.
Ella’s husband’s family was a local noble household, owning vast tracts of land.
Even the mountain behind the orphanage largely belonged to her husband’s estate.
After her husband passed away, all of it was inherited by Ella.
Originally a good thing, but with the food tax policy, it immediately became a heavy burden.
Although the orphanage itself was exempt from the tax according to regulations, that massive mountain still had to be included!
Mountain land was counted as taxable too.
And since Planet 0813 was sparsely populated, the orphanage couldn’t even hire a caretaker to farm the land, so they had to rely on robots.
Within the orphanage, besides Ella, there were only the children, who else could farm the land?