"That's right, good job!" Xie Lian said encouragingly to Lang Ying.
Lang Ying truly did not like to speak for some reason—Xie Lian even wondered if Lang Ying was mute, but the social worker mentioned no such thing so he must just be extremely shy. Lang Ying simply responded by smiling and started playing the simple song he was taught from the beginning again.
Xie Lian was teaching Lang Ying how to play the guitar as promised. This was during the scheduled hobby time during the weekdays when the kids were allowed to develop their hobbies. Yes, allowed—group homes were notorious for the kids breaking out into fights with each other, perhaps even having sexual assault problems between the kids, or god forbid even between the staff—they were usually called house parents—and the kids. Most group homes were therefore only for boys or only for girls, but the one Xie Lian was at had always been co-ed. Thankfully, there had been no such problems in the group home, but Xie Lian had a feeling that one day would come when the home would have to be either all boys or all girls.
Therefore, the kids were usually constantly watched by the house parents one way or the other, and to prevent the kids from getting into any mischief, they were given a rigid schedule that filled up their days completely. The rigid schedules helped the house parents manage the home more easily as well. Some kids responded well to that, but many usually felt that they had no freedom whatsoever with their own time—they were constantly being told what to do, and if they did not obey they were punished. They had little to no voice in the system enough as it was, being bounced from foster home to foster home to maybe a group home, mostly without their input.
Of course, if the child was physically or emotionally abused by a foster parent, then the social worker would place the child elsewhere—which led to some children lying about the foster parent abusing them to get out of a home they simply dislike, sometimes at the cost of the foster parent's license. This led to social workers doubting accusations of abuse by a foster parent from a foster child, which led to some foster parents getting away with abusing the foster children. So these days there are extensive background checks and required training for prospective foster parents that could take a full year to go through, which meant fewer foster homes available since it was so difficult to get a license. Xie Lian himself remembered how long and arduous the process seemed when he tried to start working at the group home. And once they got a license, the good foster homes adopted the children and stopped fostering, which meant that the less desirable foster homes stayed in the system. A lot of the children entering the foster system were abused during their childhoods or suffered serious malnutrition due to poverty, or both, so most of the parents had difficulty with these children as well, which led to too many foster children bouncing from home to home. These children usually had some form of constant, deep-seated resentment from years of having zero control of their own life, and from receiving little to no love from the hardened foster parents cautious of the foster children, or perhaps even from their biological parents. At this point, the foster children themselves were too hardened for the average parent to handle.
Social workers generally tried to place foster children in foster homes rather than group homes, but if the kids did not do well in the homes for one reason or the other, they generally ended up in a group home. Xie Lian's group home was one of the better ones, and if a social worker had to place the child in a group home they called Xie Lian first and foremost.
"Amazing!" Xie Lian flattered Lang Ying. "You're doing very well. Do you want to learn the next part?"
Lang Ying nodded enthusiastically.
Xie Lian smiled and started playing the next part on his guitar. "First, you do the G chord… Good, yes you can already play that one… Next, you do the A chord… This one's a little tricky…"
After working for a few years, Xie Lian suggested that the kids be given time to dedicate to their hobbies, and Jian Lan initially refused. These kids don't know what they want to do, or if they do they won't tell you because they don't trust you, Jian Lan had argued. And how are we supposed to get all the kids to do the same thing at the same time? We've tried to get the kids to play basketball together once, and the kids good at playing it never gave the ball to the kids who weren't as good, and eventually a fight broke out!
Xie Lian had initially backed off since Jian Lan had a lot more experience than him, and he thought that she had a good point anyway. He then saw how empty these kids' eyes looked, though, so he tried to think of a way again. He then suggested, Then don't have the kids do things together. Let them do what they want.
At the end of the day, have the kids write down two or three things they want to do, and Xie Lian will organize the kids into groups, each group dedicated to a single activity and supervised by one or two house parents for the next day. One hour of hobby time, after homework time but before bedtime. Since they were staffed two kids to one house parent, this setup should be possible.
Even Jian Lan hesitatingly agreed that it might work, and gave Xie Lian the go-ahead to give it a try one week. Right after one seminar over the weekend—this one was on teaching the kids how to open up a bank account and set up a credit card—Xie Lian announced to the kids about this new setup. The children perked up and seemed interested. They were given until before bedtime to give Xie Lian their list of activities they were interested in doing, and Xie Lian told them that if they did know what they wanted to do, that was all right, they can do quiet reading time at the local library with Xiao Ying.
Thankfully, most kids were interested in doing something —some of the boys wanted to play a popular video game, some girls wanted to practice makeup and hair, the boys—and one girl—good at basketball wanted to do basketball. Some simply wanted to watch a specific TV show or movie. The extra quiet ones actually wanted to hang out at the library, anyway. Xie Lian split the kids into a basketball group, a makeup and hair group, a video game group, a certain popular TV drama group (Xie Lian thanked that there were streaming services these days so these shows could be watched any time), and a library group, and assigned them to the house parents. The next day, while the kids were in school, Xie Lian went over the plan with the house parents, and once the time came they executed the plan.
The kids seemed to like it.
It was just one hour a day, but it was one hour that was mostly in their control. The kids and house parents had something to do together, so it created a better bonding opportunity than from the house parents asking the kids how their day went. It was a bonding opportunity between the kids as well—a chance to build friendship that would hopefully continue into adulthood, so that they can have at least one more person they can ask for help, if they ever needed it.
Granted, some problems still occurred, but for the most part it seemed to be working. Most of the kids seemed to like their scheduled hobby time, so they kept the system going.
That day, Lang Ying had requested to learn to play the guitar during his hobby time, and of course Xie Lian obliged. Lang Ying was the only child in the home with a guitar, so he was Xie Lian's only student so far. Xie Lian suspected that the other kids will start saving their allowances for a guitar, though, since a lot of them looked interested when Jian Lan announced what the different groups were going to do after dinner time.
"Yes! You got this part, too, good job!" Xie Lian said to Lang Ying enthusiastically. "Can you play from the start one more time?"
Lang Ying started from the beginning again, this time smoother than before. It was smooth enough that Xie Lian couldn't help but start singing to it. Hearing Xie Lian's voice, Lang Ying's eyes widened, but he continued playing until he finished the part that he learned.
"... You sound really good," Lang Ying said after a pause.
Xie Lian widened his eyes, then smiled a big, toothy grin. "You finally spoke to me! I was worried if I should try to find a speech therapist or someone like that for you."
Lang Ying looked down shyly, then Xie Lian regretted saying anything. He said something that made him go back in his shell, didn't he?
Then Lang Ying said, "You… you and Xiao Ying, aren't… too bad…"
Xie Lian was initially caught off guard, but internally he felt amazing. He felt like he could start dancing on the spot!
"I'm glad that you're off to a good start here," Xie Lian responded kindly. "You've made great progress today. It's time to go to sleep now, though—let's take you back to your room, hmm?"
Lang Ying nodded, and followed after Xie Lian.
The house parents had made sure that all the kids were back in their rooms after bed time—or alone in their rooms doing whatever until they fall asleep time, especially for the older kids—and house parents working second shifts went home for the day. There used to be one or two house parents working third shift to make sure no children were trying to run away from the house, but in trying to raise the wage for the first and second shift workers, Xie Lian volunteered to do the third shift himself most days of the week, except for a few weekdays. Xie Lian did not have his own family he needed to take care of anyway, so he did not mind. Jian Lan had thought that Xie Lian was crazy for this suggestion, but she was not about to turn down willing free labor. She knew that he was relatively wealthy, so it wasn't like he was desperate for housing or anything like that that forced him into this arrangement. If Xie Lian ever stopped working at the group home, they'll have to figure out hiring third shift staff again, but that seemed a long way away. Jian Lan knew first hand how passionate Xie Lian was about helping these kids. Well, it's good that he's capable of doing that since he's so rich, Jian Lan thought. He's sacrificing having a personal life for it, but if he's willing, why not?
Xie Lian settled down in his room and made sure that his smart phone was plugged in for the night. The group home had several security cameras—not in private areas, of course, but in public areas and hallways and on sides of the building and such—and if the cameras detected anything it would notify his phone. Unfortunately, this group home worked like a prison that way, but kids running away or, even worse, the kids trying to steal things from other kids or from the home, or even trying to harm other kids, staff, or the home, was a real concern. The third shift people used to have to watch the security cameras on their laptops overnight, but thankfully that was no longer necessary thanks to modern technology. Now, a single staff member could simply relax and wait until their phone got notifications from the security camera app. When kids joined the group home, the staff introducing the home to the kids would usually explain the security cameras. Some kids hated it, some kids didn't mind, some kids had experience getting abused by other kids, staff, or foster parents or their relatives, so those ones seemed to feel relieved. Xie Lian was not entirely sure how he himself felt about these cameras, but Jian Lan insisted on them, and it was true that they made the third shift job much easier. Even during the daytime, if some kind of conflict arose between the kids or even staff, they could check the cameras to see what actually happened.
Then, Xie Lian's phone rang. Obviously, this was a phone call, not a notification of the cameras detecting something, but Xie Lian jumped a little bit regardless. He quickly picked up the phone and answered.
"Hello?"
"Gege!" Hua Cheng had answered. "Sorry to bother you rather late."
"Hua Cheng! It's good to hear from you!" Xie Lian answered.
There was a pause on the other end, then a chuckle. "You found me out! It was only a matter of time, gege is so sharp."
Xie Lian leaned back in his office chair, swiveling a little bit. "No no, you have to fill out your legal information on your volunteer forms for background checking, I'm hardly sharp for figuring that information out." Xie Lian stopped swiveling, and leaned forward a bit. "So is it true? Are you the Hua Cheng?"
"Yours truly," Hua Cheng answered. "I got extremely lucky with my career. Now I more or less get to retire early!"
Xie Lian chuckled. "You truly are a role model foster child, we'd love it if you could give a seminar on what your career was like to the kids here. Maybe they'll be inspired that a foster like yourself could become so successful?"
"Ha!" Hua Cheng laughed out loud. "No, if I heard of a former foster child bragging about their success during my youth, I would have resented them. I wouldn't have thought that I would have been able to become like them."
Xie Lian did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I bet a lot of kids would react that way, yes… That was an awful idea, wasn't it? I'm sorry."
"No, no, maybe some of them would have felt inspired? I can only speak for myself, gege."
Xie Lian smiled. "So what can I help you with, Hua Cheng? Why did you give me an alias, anyway?"
"I didn't want strangers around us to hear my name," Hua Cheng responded sheepishly. "I like to keep a low profile, but I know that some people might overhear my name and know that I'm Hua Cheng, and cause trouble for us."
Xie Lian remembered having to have security plans to go anywhere to avoid the paparazzi and even some crazy intrusive fans back in the day. Those people managed to find out where Xie Lian was at all times of the day somehow, even though Xie Lian constantly changed where he went day to day just to avoid them. Some of the paparazzi were so desperate for a picture that they gave Xie Lian and his driver a car chase that made Xie Lian fear getting into an accident from time to time, for himself and for the people around him. "That makes total sense, I hear you."
"I'm sure gege had it much worse than I've ever had," Hua Cheng replied. "Could you keep calling me San Lang? I understand Jian Lan needs to know that I'm Hua Cheng, but I would like to keep my identity a secret."
Xie Lian nodded. "Absolutely, I value privacy as well."
"And I've called because—I heard from Jian Lan that you practically live at the group home? That you hardly ever go home?"
Xie Lian gulped. For some reason, Xie Lian felt like his parents found out something naughty and he was about to get punished for it. Or more like Mu Qing rather than his parents, he supposed.
Yes, Xie Lian wasn't just working third shift, he worked first and second shift most days as well.
"That's right," Xie Lian responded. "I don't have children, so I treat these kids like my own. I'm fine doing this, since I already have enough money to retire comfortably any time. I don't really have anything better to do either, anyway."
"There's no need for gege to try to defend himself," Hua Cheng answered. "It sounded like the kids were well taken care of already, so I volunteered to take over your third shift. I hear that this shift is uneventful most days. Jian Lan told me to call you to make an arrangement."
Xie Lian took a moment to process this information. "...San Lang, that is entirely too generous of you!"
Hua Cheng chuckled. "Gege, I could say the same about your contribution to the home and all the children in it."
Xie Lian could not argue back. Jian Lan must be happy that there was another rich man willing to offer free labor, Xie Lian thought wryly. It was also true that this shift was fairly uneventful most of the time at this group home with all the security cameras—there were a few times when new kids coming in would be so desperate to run away that they would break some of the security cameras and run away, but once they got used to the home they tended to cause less trouble. Still, there were eventful nights from time to time, and though Hua Cheng used to live in this group home, situations would likely come up that he would not be equipped to handle at some point.
As Xie Lian kept thinking, Xie Lian's phone vibrated and gave a rather loud fire alarm noise, which was the sound Xie Lian assigned specifically to notifications from the security cameras.
"Hold on, San Lang, let me check the security cameras—they detected something."
"Of course, gege," San Lang said. "I hope it's nothing serious."
"It's usually just someone going to the bathroom," Xie Lian responded as he checked the app for the security cameras. Sure enough, it showed Banyue walking toward and entering the bathroom from her room.
Banyue was one of the children Xie Lian was the main house parent for. She was a quiet girl who liked to keep to herself and read books, but she surprised everyone when it turned out that she was very good at basketball despite her height. She opted to play basketball during her hobby time on some nights, and made it on the girl's basketball team at her high school. She tended to play together with a boy from the same group home named Pei Xiu—she seemed to get along with him very well. Pei Xiu was also a quiet high school boy who kept to himself most of the time to read books, or played basketball from time to time. They seemed to work on homework together fairly frequently as well. Xie Lian wondered if they became friends through their shared hobbies.
This would normally have been sweet, but since there are too many foster teenage mothers out there, the staff were on edge about these two. They've done extensive sex education seminars, they hoped that these kids took them seriously. The staff are pretty much constantly supervising the kids, anyway, but who knew what they did at school?
Banyue was orphaned when her father left her and her mother committed suicide at a fairly young age. She was one of the unlucky ones who did not get along with any of the foster parents she was placed with, or the foster parents did not like her for one reason or the other, and ended up bouncing from home to home until she ended up in this group home about five years ago. She seemed like she liked being at this group home, and she generally seemed to like Xie Lian in particular.
Pei Xiu's family, on the other hand, recently became too poor to regularly afford food, electricity, water, and such, and the his school nurse alerted the government about this and the government took him away. Pei Xiu was supposed to be at the group home temporarily while his social worker worked to find relatives who might be willing to take him, but it turned out that his parents had a horrible relationship with their family and no one wanted to take him. His parents then committed suicide in the meantime, and of course poor Pei Xiu was devastated. Banyue and Xie Lian had taken their time to attend his parents' funeral with him about a year ago. Then about half a year ago, his social worker finally found a distant relative named Pei Ming who was willing to foster him and potentially adopt him, but Pei Xiu refused and even tried to emancipate himself to prevent getting moved to Pei Ming's home. Pei Ming was insulted, but since that was what Pei Xiu wanted so badly, Pei Ming backed off, and Pei Xiu had stayed at the group home ever since.
You know, they say that foster kids usually turn out better if they stay at a foster home gather than a group home, Xie Lian remembered Pei Ming grumbling to him when he came to visit the group home to see Pei Xiu. Pei Ming stared at Pei Xiu working on his homework together with Banyue. Hmph! I hope that girl was worth giving up my home for!
Xie Lian agreed that what Pei Xiu did would usually be considered incredibly foolish, but since Xie Lian promised to financially help these kids if they age out of the home, he supposed that the major reason why older foster kids might be desperate to be adopted did not apply to Pei Xiu. Besides, Pei Ming's home was far away, so Pei Xiu would have had to change his school as well. Now now, Xie Lian had consoled, You're absolutely welcome to come visit any time. Maybe he'll warm up to you?
Pei Ming had pursed his lips, and left. He did come visit from time to time, trying to play basketball with Pei Xiu, but Pei Xiu had yet to warm up to him.
"It was someone going to the bathroom, San Lang!" Xie Lian said while chuckling.
"That's great to hear, gege!"
Then, Xie Lian's phone vibrated and a fire alarm sound went off again. Xie Lian checked the security camera app again, and saw that Pei Xiu was heading for the same bathroom.
Banyue hadn't come out yet.
Xie Lian certainly was no prude, and though Pei Xiu and Banyue seemed to get along really well with each other, the possibility of sexual assault or one of the kids simply not fully understanding consent was a real possibility. There was also the possibility of them having unprotected sex that might lead to a pregnancy, and if Banyue did get pregnant they would need to separate the two into different homes.
Xie Lian sighed. "On second thought, it looks like I do need to take care of something. I'll call you back, San Lang."
San Lang responded with general pleasantries, and hung up. Xie Lian headed toward Pei Xiu.