Chapter 604 - 278: Witchcraft

Donating to a school is unlikely to lead to any losses.

Whether for future children’s education or for convenient medical treatment at King’s College’s affiliated medical school, there are many tangible and intangible returns.

"Lady Elina, thank you for your selfless support of the education sector..."

Just ten minutes later, a warm voice came through the phone from Vice Principal Hunter.

His tone even had a hint of flattery.

Logically, King’s College is also a prestigious top university known worldwide, and its affiliated medical school was established during the Wanli Period in Dongxia, over 200 years before North America’s independence.

The executive vice principal is a prominent figure even outside.

However, facing a wealthy philanthropist capable of writing a hefty check for donation without hesitation, Hunter was still somewhat nervous.

King’s College annually receives several millions of euros from alumni donations.

However, most donations are those giving ten or twenty thousand euros, aiming to secure preferential admissions for their children as transactional donations.

Typically, these donations earn a name on the gratitude plaque in the campus hall and a special admission quota for one’s son or daughter.

Five hundred thousand euros is already sufficient.

A 5 million euro donation is quite rare.

All foreign wealthy donors who can afford this kind of money to support education usually choose more famous institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, or the London School of Economics, Imperial College.

King’s College is relatively less popular.

Vice Principal Hunter entered "Elena Charity Foundation" into Google and immediately discovered it’s a privately-held charity foundation with substantial assets that generously funds the education sector.

This has been reported in the news.

In 2012, this Elena Foundation donated 11 artworks, including three Matisse prints and one Edvard Munch oil painting, to the campus art gallery of the Royal Academy of Arts.

At auction, their conservative estimated value would be over 12 million pounds, ranking among the top five donations in Britain’s education sector that year.

For their school to be noticed by such wealthy individuals.

Vice Principal Hunter felt incredibly fortunate.

"The project on [The correlation between Autism Spectrum Disorder and visual reflexes of the cerebral cortex, and brain miniaturized 3D model testing] you wished to know about earlier, I’ve already reached out to the professor in charge at our medical school. May I ask, do you have any family members wanting to participate in this experiment?"

Vice Principal Hunter tentatively asked.

"This is easy to arrange, but since it is still in the exploratory phase, we cannot guarantee the final outcome."

Wealthy donors naturally have the right to put forward all sorts of reasonable or unreasonable requests.

Apart from renaming a George V-era old library on campus to Elina Library.

The principal also personally called to invite Lady Elina to visit their beautiful campus and give a speech.

However, the person declined all of these.

The only request from this lady was to inquire about the internal progress of a research project by the medical school.

This inevitably led the vice principal to have other associations.

"Hmm... you may understand it that way, but there’s no need to participate in the experiment. I just need to ask a few questions," Anna calmly instructed, "Is it convenient?"

"Of course, of course, it’s fine. In fact, the professor responsible for the project is right here with me. I’ll have him speak to you personally."

The vice principal immediately said.

An elderly scholar with graying hair was sitting in the executive vice principal’s office, impatiently filling out a Sudoku puzzle in the newspaper.

After the school’s external affairs department received Miss Elina’s call, he had his secretary summon the medical school’s professor over.

A 5 million euro check not only earns a plaque at the library entrance but also qualifies for an obscure professor to personally explain the research progress.

Hunter held the phone.

His smile faded slightly, as he spoke to the old man before him with the dignity of the executive vice principal.

"The other party just donated 5 million euros to our school, so... you know, answer whatever they ask."

Painting a rosy picture for investors and securing external research funding for the school.

It is originally a very important aspect of university research life.

"What does she want to know? I already sent her an email with all publicly available information included, can’t she just read it herself? It’s a waste of time."

The old scholar put down his pencil, his tone not very friendly.

He was quite annoyed by the social routine of flattering affluent individuals.

Hunter knocked on the table, and under his threatening gaze, the professor, like a ram with a rope around its neck, obediently took the phone, bowed his head, and said weakly: "Hello, I’m the project leader. I emailed you before to get in touch."

"I received your research outline, but I personally don’t have a medical background and can’t understand those complex charts and research data. You conclude that during the process of reading ’Little Prince’ and for the following half hour, compared to the control group, the MRI scans of autism patients showed a significant increase in the mOFC (medial orbitofrontal cortex) stimulation level of the cerebral cortex."

Miss Elina opened a file on her computer.

The girl flipped straight to the conclusion on the last page, where the researchers’ preliminary conclusions were written, frowning as she inquired: "Can I consider this as good news?"

"Consider it? If this doesn’t count as good news, what does?"