Rachel sat on the throne. The sink and mirror were across from her, so her deathly pale face was reflected inside the mirror. Her brows were tightly furrowed and there was a stilted expression on her face as she fought an inner battle.
There were some fuzzy flashbacks in her mind at the moment, and she could remember hearing noises of someone continuously shifting away the broken boulders on top of her before she fell unconscious. She had experienced a headache from the noise.
As for whether she had spoken her last words to Justin, her memory was fuzzy about that. Was it actually a dream or not?! This is so nerve- wracking!
Rachel opened the door after washing her hands and Justin instantly moved forward to help her as soon as he heard the noise. She immediately retracted her hand. “No, I cant walk without help.”
“Are you sure about that?” Justin’s voice sounded doubtful. She held onto the wall and walked several steps forward. With much difficulty, she finally moved several meters forward. “I’m doing f- fine.”
However, those two steps that she took had caused her to sweat profusely from the effort. “You should allow me to help you.”
Justin’s voice rang out from behind and she didn’t even get the chance to reject him. Rachel was quite thin, so he could easily lift her into his arms and escort her back to the bed. She leaned against her pillow with a slightly lost look on her face. “How long will it take for me to recover?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll keep you company right by your side until you recover.” As soon as Rachel heard that, her expression faltered significantly. This was her worst nightmare. Don’t tell me that he’s going to carry me to the bathroom every single day?!
“That’s not necessary.” She shook her head earnestly. “I’ll hire someone to help me. I don’t mind paying at all. You’re busy dealing with matters of raising funds for the disaster, right? You can go and deal with your work. You don’t have to worry about me.”
“We’ve temporarily stopped handing out supplies for the next two days.” “Huh?” Rachel was stunned. “Why is that so? I thought that the logistics team bringing supplies had arrived in Greensborough?”
“I told them to stop.” As Justin spoke, there was a knock on the door from the outside.
“Come in.” “Mr. Burton.” The person who walked in was Harry Finnigan from Greensborough, and hel held a bag of fruits in his hand. He nodded at Rachel upon seeing her. “Hi, Miss Hudson. I’m Harry from the Greensborough welfare group. I’m here to visit you as the representative of the townspeople.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Rachel struggled to get. up, but Justin held her back. She didn’t understand the reason behind that but she noticed Justin reply indifferently, “Have a seat. How are things at the village?”
“I’ve done everything according to your instructions and locked the necessities in the community hall building. I’ve also arranged for men to take turns guarding the place. Other. than the daily necessities and medications for the elderly, the weaker ones, those with illnesses, and pregnant women, I’ve temporarily suspended the distribution of supplies for the others.”
“Has the medical team gone back?” “The first team came back this morning and the medical supplies have been put into use. Just before I came over, the second team arrived too.”
“Did those people continue to kick up a fuss?” “They wouldn’t dare to! They realized they were at fault, so each of them had been hiding at home and they didn’t even dare to come out. I’m here to see you and discuss this matter. This is their letter of apology…”
As Harry spoke, he reached into his pocket and drew out a piece of paper. It was a handwritten letter of apology that he held and there were scrawling’s of names on the bottom and the back of the paper. There was even a thumbprint in red next to each name.
However, Justin didn’t accept the paper. Meanwhile, Harry awkwardly held the paper int his hand and sat back down.
“Mr. Burton, the townspeople are uneducated and they’re undeniably quite narrow-minded. The authorities sent us university graduates to be stationed here to help with the welfare of the townspeople. One of our roles is to improve their impoverished status, but our other more important role is to enhance their intellect too.. Please don’t take offense to their actions. When do you reckon it’s fine to start giving out the supplies to the rest? There have been many. townspeople who starved for the past few days.”
Rachel listened to their conversation by the side and she could practically piece the whole situation together in her mind.
Earlier on the phone, she had heard Frankie mention that the townspeople of Greensborough were an unruly bunch. They had forcefully held Justin captive because the second batch of supplies hadn’t arrived on time. Now that the supplies had arrived, their attitudes changed faster than the weather, and they now took a conciliatory stance. This was clearly unacceptable. Justin was generally a haughty man, so he definitely wasn’t going to tolerate this.
However, he couldn’t exactly continue depriving the townspeople of food, so Rachel coughed awkwardly before advising him, “Are you talking about the distribution of supplies for those who went through the disaster? The townspeople are indeed at fault, but perhaps you should carry out the punishment at a later stage. Don’t threaten them with the supplies right now. It’s quite cold out there. What if something bad happens…”
At that moment, Justin looked significantly appeased. “Start the distribution of supplies to each family according to the number of family members. from tomorrow afternoon. Go back and inform them in advance this afternoon.
If another riot and looting occurs, then whoever leading them will not receive any single supply. Meanwhile, those who manage to control the looting will get double the amount of supplies. I’ll also come up with another list of protocols to follow when collecting supplies later on and Frankie will discuss that with you.”
Harry nodded instantly. “This is a good solution. No problem. I’ll head back to get things ready.” Before Harry left, he turned back from the door and smiled gratefully at Rachel. “Thank you, Miss Hudson.”
Rachel had a perplexed look. After all, she hadn’t done much to help. As for Harry, he left the ward and bumped into Frankie. Elated, the former said, “Assistant Beckham, thank you so much. You were right and I’ve succeeded. Mr. Burton has given me permission to go back and distribute the supplies.”
Frankie held on to a thermos flask and he had a matter-of-fact expression. “I told you that you should relax and wait till President Hudson regained consciousness. No matter how sincere you and the townspeople profess your apologies, President Hudson’s single sentence would be way more effective.”
“Yes. You’re quite right. I’ve finally experienced that in person.” “Go back, then. It will take you another two hours to reach Greensborough.”
Frankie smiled and shook his head after sending Harry off. Everything will be successful as long as President Hudson’s the one who voices it out in front of President Burton. Right now, inside the room, Rachel asked about the issue in Greensborough..
“I heard from Frankie that the townspeople kept you captive. Were you hurt?” “No, I wasn’t.” Justin held an apple in his hand and tried to remove the peel for her but he was quite clumsy. It was evident that he had never done such delicate jobs.
“Hand that over to me.” Rachel reached out and took the peeler and apple into her hands quite naturally. “How’s the current situation in Greensborough? Why does your current enforcement method sound like it’s a military camp?”
“The townspeople are too uncouth,” Justin replied. “There have been looting incidents more than once. Previously, they even jumped over the fence and entered the hostel to steal from the medical staff in charge of providing medical aid to them. Several nurses left on that night itself after that frightening ordeal.”
“They’ve crossed the line!” Rachel’s expression turned solemn. “It’s no wonder then that you’ve halted distribution of supplies for the time being. They sound like robbers!”
“The best way to handle a robber is to give them a taste of their own medicine. It’s pointless to be kind to them. Harry Finnigan’s too young and he was appointed to this position right after graduation, so the townspeople don’t even bother to listen to him. At the moment, they only follow the instructions of the person in possession of supplies.”
“So is that why you’ve decided to come up with a list of protocols to follow for those who come over to collect supplies?” Justin nodded slightly. “Do you think that I’m making a big fuss out of the matter?”
“Of course not. It’s much better to teach one to hunt than to supply food to them. Charity isn’t just about giving out supplies or money. For us, the easiest way would be to give out money, and we would gain a good reputation too. However, if we really intend to help these people, then money would be just a temporary solution. You’ve done the right thing.”
