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Originally, the girls on the medical team were having cold feet coming to the second village, but seeing the children made their hearts melt.

Jovannie waved at the girls, signaling for them to come over to give the children the candies that she brought.

Upon seeing the candies, some children showed interest in approaching them. After hesitating for a while, some children walked over to them, but some stayed where they were and were reluctant to come nearer.

With that, the girls grabbed a handful of candies each and started giving them out to the children who came up to them first. They would touch the children's heads and introduce themselves. After that, they took more candies and went up to the other children.

Just then, Jovannie caught sight of a bald kid with a scrawny physique and wanted to give some candies to him too. The child acted quickly and ran away as soon as he saw her.

Among these children, he was the only one who refused the candy and ran away.

Seeing how quick he was, Jovannie was unable to react.

The escort hastened to explain to her that the kid she just saw was Bradyn Gutierrez. The village's teacher, Edgar Gutierrez, was his grandfather and only family. His parents were gone because they took their own lives. The villagers wanted to send him to an orphanage so that he could have better care, but he refused to open up to anyone except Edgar. Not wanting to see him walk the same path as his parents, they decided to leave it as it is.

After listening to Bradyn's life story, Jovannie could help but feel bitter for him as children his age were supposed to grow up happily, not knowing the burdens of such pain. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like these children had been through lots of suffering and internal turmoils.

Later, the escort brought them to the school, which was one of the better buildings in the village, and it would act as their stay for this trip.

When she entered the school building, she was quick to notice a bald head peeking out from a corner. Even if the rest of their body was hidden, she could tell at one glance it was Bradyn.

He was secretly watching them.

At the same time, Luke noticed him too, and he moved closer to her subconsciously. However, he did not say anything about it.

Since they arrived fairly early, they were done unpacking before noon. Noon came, and they started what they were here for.

The medical team could only treat minor illnesses and injuries, giving the villagers medicine and ointment after the consultation. For more serious illnesses, they recommended treatment at the hospital to prevent conditions from worsening. However, the villagers took their words with a pinch of salt. Most of the villagers remained silent throughout the consultation, including Edgar.

Seeing how things were going, the escort could only shake their head.

After that, a little birdie told them that it was not that the villagers loathed the idea of receiving treatment from the hospital. In fact, most of them had given up all hope of life, and medical expenses were just too costly for them. Although they could receive reimbursement for part of the cost, they would not be able to make up for the rest. After all, they relied on cultivation to feed themselves. Other than that, hospitals were reluctant to take in AIDS patients with the risks for operations being too high.

After coming to know about this, Jovannie felt her heart sink. The smile disappeared from her face.

As her closest confidant, Luke knew what she was thinking inside, so he tried to console her, "Jovannie, if you're really concern about them, I will do my best to help them. There's no rush now."

Hearing his comforting words, she nodded and hugged him.

"Luke, I just feel... lucky and grateful."

It turned out that having a healthy body was also something to be grateful for.

Stroking her head, he replied, "You sure are.

But you don't have to make it too hard on yourself. You're giving it your all to make a change for them."

The next day, the village received the news. There were two options available for the villagers. Firstly, they could choose to go to a professional sanatorium with special medical equipment. While all the medical fees would be covered, they were required to work in the fields near the sanatorium to earn living expenses. Secondly, they could wait a few years for the construction of a hospital in the area. Then, they could visit the hospital and get free medical treatment. Plus, the hospital would set up a section for treating AIDS. This way, they could stay in the village without compromising their health while keeping their work in the village and support themselves.

In addition, a few teachers would be sent to the village to provide proper education for the children. And of course, the choice of taking online classes was available for the children. In due time would there be an improvement in schooling facilities and teachers' quality.

Those with excellent results would be put under scholarship where all the school fees would be covered, including college fees, with additional grants too.

The final and most important thing was that there would be enterprises brought in to purchase the village's agricultural produce at a fair price. And these enterprises would set up a few factories nearby to encourage the villagers to start their own businesses at zero start-up cost.

In addition, houses of age would be getting free renovations. Low-income families were entitled to all the financial aids with additional private aid.

As for the seniors of the village, they would receive regular subsidies from private companies apart from the government to help them live a better life in their old age.

In fact, before Jovannie and the medical teams' arrival, Luke had already asked someone to make these arrangements for the villagers. To let her witness the current situation of the village, he deliberately delayed the news announcement to two days later since their arrival.

There was an uproar in the village when they found out about the news, and they couldn't believe their ears.

Although they did not understand the general reason, they still understood that these were private sponsorships. This was a large sum of money to support the whole village. Moreover, they were all ill, even they looked down on themselves, let alone people who were not from the village. Since long ago, they had decided it that they would isolate themselves from the world. Now that there was someone who was willing to lend them a hand and show them light, they felt like they were dreaming or someone was just spreading rumors to them.