Chapter 902 – The Smiles Orphanage
“Smiles Orphanage…,” William muttered as he looked at the place where he had been raised with love and care.
Although there were times when the food wasn’t that good because they didn’t receive enough donations, it was still a place that William had called home.
With a glance, William could tell that the white paint that now covered the outside had been done recently. It was a stark contrast to the old orphanage that he remembered, where the paint had already turned gray with some parts of it flaking off.
His gaze then landed on the newly built steel gate, and the small guardhouse that was manned by two guards.
Back then, there had only been one rusty old gate, and there had been no guardhouse. Seeing these improvements, the Half-Elf had to admit that Raymond had kept his promise and ensured that his old home was well taken care of.
Approaching the gate, the two guards asked his reason for coming to the orphanage. William looked too young to adopt a child, so they didn’t tag him as someone who would come to visit for an adoption.
“I came here to personally give a donation,” William said with a smile. “Can I meet the person in charge?”
After hearing the words “give a donation” the two guards’ attitude completely changed and they enthusiastically allowed William to enter the premises of the orphanage.
William sighed internally as he walked the familiar path that led to the entrance of the Orphanage.
A few years ago, the place looked so bare, but now, the path was littered with flowering plants and trees, making the surroundings look more… alive.
After arriving at the main entrance, a chubby middle-aged woman wearing glasses greeted Wiliam.
Willam noticed the two small children clinging to her legs. Though he didn’t recognize the two of them, he estimated that both of the children were around five to six years old.
She was none other than the Director of the orphanage, whom William and the other kids called Mama Beth.
William wanted to hug the kind woman who had taken good care of him all these years, but he forced himself to hold back as he greeted her with a smile.
“Good morning. My name is William Von Ainsworth, and I have come to give a donation,” William said.
Upon hearing the name William, a sad expression momentarily passed across Beth’s face before she tried to force herself to smile.
“My name is Beth, and I am the Director of Smiles Orphanage,” Beth replied. “Thank you for taking the time to come to our humble orphanage. Please, let’s talk in my office.”
Beth held the hands of both children as they walked beside her.
William followed a few steps behind the three as he observed the inside of the orphanage. Things were almost the same, except that the interior of the orphanage had also been repainted to look new.
The children were wearing clean and proper clothes, and their laughter could be heard in the hallway, which made William feel at ease.
It made him feel that what he did was worth it.
Before arriving at the office, Beth entrusted the two children to one of the staff, so that she could talk to William in private.
“Please, take a seat,” Beth said as she sat on her chair. She eyed William with a calm expression on her face, but deep inside she wasn’t feeling calm.
The boy in front of her greatly reminded her of the boy who had passed away in order to give all of them a better life. William may have been sickly, but he was a very hardworking boy. All the kids in the orphanage looked up to him. This made it very hard for Beth to break the news of his passing to them.
In the end she told everyone that William had been adopted by a good family, and had to be taken abroad as soon as possible to cure his illness.
Although the children dearly missed him, the thought of their big brother being adopted by a good family made them happy.
After reminiscing for a while, Beth pulled herself back to reality and smiled at the red-headed teenager, who was looking at her with a tender gaze. This was the first time she was meeting the handsome boy, but for some odd reason, she had a feeling that they had known each other for a very long time.
“I came here to give my donation,” William stated as he handed a check to Beth with both hands. “Here, please accept this.”
“Thank y—” Beth wasn’t able to finish her words because of shock. After she received the check from William’s hands, her eyes subconsciously locked on to the amount of money written on it, and it made her body shudder.
“T-Two Hundred Fifty Million?!” the Director of the orphanage almost dropped the check in her hand due to her surprise. “W-William. I’m sorry, but you shouldn’t play a prank on this old lady. Are you planning to give me a heart attack?”
“This check is real, Miss Beth,” William replied. “Of course, if you are still doubting whether this money is real or not, I can just have it directly transferred to the orphanage’s bank account.”
“P-Please, just transfer it directly to our account,” Beth stuttered. “I’m afraid that I might lose this check on my way to the bank.”
She was still half in doubt if William was telling the truth or not, so she decided to play it safe. The middle-aged lady knew that she would be heartbroken if the boy in front of her was just teasing her, and let her go on a fool’s errand.
William nodded in understanding. He had considered that this scenario might happen, so he decided to just let Adele handle the bank transfer.
Raymond had already injected a good amount of money into the orphanage, so his credibility would be higher compared to William’s.
Before the Half-Elf had accompanied Belle to school, William had a private talk with Adele.
He asked for some money in exchange for the gold bars in his possession. Adele almost lost her composure when William presented her with two suitcases of gold bars.
Naturally, this gold came from the resources that he had commandeered when he was still in the Southern Continent, and negotiating with Princess Sidonie during the War with the Elves.
He had acquired several mines in the process, and among them were three gold mines.
The Requiem Antz had helped him mine these resources and processed them into gold bars for him.
This gave the Half-Elf unprecedented riches, which he didn’t plan to share with his Grandpa James because both of them were two peas in a pod.
The Ainsworth family seemed to have a popular saying that went along the lines of, “What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine alone”.
Since that was the case, he would just hoard all the gold he could get, and hide it from the old coot, who always told him that their family was poor!
After a series of negotiations, Adele decided to give William the base price of two hundred fifty-five million for the gold bars in his possession.
The Half-Elf didn’t plan to bargain because these were Belle’s parents, who would also be his in-laws in the future. Naturally, if his in-laws were happy, he would be happy as well.
What William didn’t know was that after he had left with Belle to school, Adele hurriedly told her husband about his exchange with the Half-Elf.
After confirming the authenticity of the gold bars, Raymond’s impression of William changed. He had originally been worried that the red-headed teenager was a country bumpkin whose sole intention was to marry his daughter because of her duty and their wealth.
The thought of William mooching off on their family fortune made Raymond quite dissatisfied with the boy. But now, things had changed.
After seeing that the red-headed teenager could casually exchange two briefcases of gold bars with his wife, Raymond had to re-evaluate the person who claimed to be Belle’s fiance.
After regaining her composure and giving an apology to William, Beth took her guest on a tour of the orphanage.
They visited the dining area, the playground, the bedrooms, the prayer rooms, as well as the other facilities that were recently added to the orphanage—like the badminton court.
William couldn’t help but smile when he saw the children playing badminton outside the orphanage. All of them were having fun.
It was at that moment when one of the guards that was stationed at the gate came running towards Beth and whispered something in her ear.
“I didn’t ask for a delivery of toys,” Beth said. “Are you sure that they didn’t get the wrong address?”
“No, Miss Beth,” the guard replied. “The address written in their form is the address of this orphanage.”
“But, I didn’t make any orders for toys,” Beth shook her head firmly.
While the Director of the orphanage and guard were unsure about what to do, Willliam spoke up and cleared their confusion.
“I was the one that asked for those toys to be delivered here,” William stated. “Don’t worry. Those toys have already been paid for.”
Before William went to the orphanage, he visited the largest toy store in the city and bought toys in bulk. He then asked them to be delivered at the Smiles Orphanage to serve as a gift to his brothers and sisters.
Beth stared at William in disbelief. She was starting to wonder if she was dreaming or not.
Fortunately, after giving herself a pinch, she realized that this was not a dream but reality.
With the red-headed teenager taking the lead, the toys that he had bought were distributed to all the children in the orphanage, which made the kids extremely happy.
Beth had tears streaming down the side of her face when she saw the happiness in the children’s faces.
For a brief moment, Beth thought she saw the sickly William’s image overlap with the handsome, red-headed teenager who was handing a little doll to a three-year old girl with a doting smile on his face.
