Chapter 31

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Protagonist:

Lin Hao

Although Mi Tao did very well on this exam, it also exposed an obvious weakness of hers — her English is too poor; her foundation, listening comprehension, and oral speaking are all relatively weak.

As Mi Tao's teacher, Zhang Xue'er saw this and felt anxious. She knew well that Mi Tao was a diligent and studious child; she simply lacked systematic guidance and sufficient practice in English learning. So Zhang Xue'er would often call Mi Tao to the office during the Little Guardian Class to have her do some targeted exercises.

"Mi Tao, your Mathematics grades are excellent, but English can't be neglected either. Let's do these listening comprehension questions together; only with more practice can you improve." Zhang Xue'er said gently to Mi Tao.

Mi Tao looked at Zhang Xue'er with gratitude and nodded seriously: "Teacher Zhang, I understand. I will work hard."

Regarding this situation, Zhong Yi, as the Class Teacher, had reminded her twice.

After all, in his view, Zhang Xue'er's situation counted as giving Mi Tao private tutoring; although it came from good intentions, it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Zhong Yi found Zhang Xue'er and said seriously: "Teacher Zhang, you giving Mi Tao private English tutoring — although your starting point is good — this may cause some unnecessary trouble. The school has regulations against privately giving students extra lessons; you doing this might be misunderstood by parents."

Zhang Xue'er, however, did not understand Zhong Yi's reminder. She frowned and replied: "Teacher Zhong, I just want to help Mi Tao improve her English grades; what's wrong with that? Mi Tao is such a hardworking child; she shouldn't have her future affected because of weak English. And I'm just having Mi Tao do some more exercises at school; it's not a big deal. How did it become tutoring? You can explain problems to students, so why can't I? Are you afraid Mi Tao will divert her energy to English and affect her Mathematics grades?"

Zhong Yi was so angry he couldn't help but curse this XXXX inwardly.

On top of that, with Song Jie fanning the flames from the side, Zhang Xue'er would listen to Zhong Yi even less.

Song Jie said in a yin-yang sarcastic tone: "Teacher Zhong, don't be so serious. Teacher Zhang is doing this for the student's good. Besides, why do you care so much? Maybe the parents will even be grateful to Teacher Zhang."

Song Jie has been riding high recently; in this midterm exam, his class's Chinese grades weren't bad either.

And after the exam, he immediately organized a re-election of class cadres for Grade 5 Class 2.

Under Song Jie's "efforts", Yan Ziyou successfully became Vice Monitor.

Originally Song Jie planned to arrange for Yan Ziyou to become Monitor in one step, but Tian Yulan did not agree.

She only wanted Yan Ziyou to hold the title in name; she didn't want Yan Ziyou to go "serve" other students — that would be a pure waste of time.

Afterwards, Tian Yulan expressed "gratitude" to Song Jie once again, even more heavily than last time.

Tian Yulan smiled and said to Song Jie: "Teacher Song, thank you so much. In the future, I'll have to trouble you to look after Zi You more."

Song Jie said proudly: "Rest assured, Zi You is in my class; I'll definitely pay her extra attention. Just wait and see Zi You become more and more outstanding."

This day, Zhang Xinde's mother called Tian Yulan and said: "Major discovery, major discovery!"

Tian Yulan immediately asked with surprised delight: "Is there evidence of Zhong Yi tutoring?"

Tian Yulan seemed to see the pitiful sight of Zhong Yi being punished.

But Zhang Xinde's mother said no, which made Tian Yulan disappointed to the extreme. She asked: "Then what's there to be happy about?"

Zhang Xinde's mother said: "Although we didn't find evidence of Zhong Yi tutoring, we did find evidence of Zhang Xue'er tutoring Mi Tao." Hearing it was Zhang Xue'er tutoring Mi Tao, Tian Yulan hurriedly asked what the situation was.

Zhang Xinde's mother explained the situation she had discovered, then asked Tian Yulan to go with her to the school to file a report/complaint, to see what the school would say.

Zhang Xinde's mother said urgently: "Zi You's mom, we can't let this kind of unfair thing happen. We have to go to the school and reflect on it. Teacher Zhang giving Mi Tao private tutoring — this is too unfair to our children."

Tian Yulan hesitated a bit. It wasn't that she didn't want to report; rather, after the last report, she had gotten smarter. She said: "Zhang Mom, don't be anxious. Let's make an appointment with a few parents tomorrow to talk it over; with more people, things are easier to handle."

Zhang Xinde's mother said: "Alright then. Tomorrow morning after dropping off the kids, we'll find a few parents to discuss together."

The next morning, sunlight softly sprinkled over the earth, draping the entire city in a warm golden coat.

Tian Yulan got up early. She deliberately picked a simple and elegant professional attire set, applied exquisite makeup, looking capable and confident.

Today she specially requested half a day off, precisely to discuss the matter of Zhang Xue'er tutoring Mi Tao with a few parents.

Before long, Tian Yulan and Zhang Xinde's mother, leading a few parents from Class One and Class Two they ran into at the school gate, arrived at a coffee shop.

These parents all spared no expense for their children's education, enrolling them in more than one cram school outside. The moment they walked into the coffee shop, their faces carried obvious anger.

One parent sat down huffily and said: "Zi You's mom, you tell us — what kind of thing is this! We spent so much money sending our kids to cram schools, yet Teacher Zhang gives that rural little girl free tutoring. Isn't this blatantly unfair?"

Tian Yulan slightly furrowed her brows and said: "I also feel this matter is a bit improper, but we can't be too impulsive either. Maybe Teacher Zhang has her own hardships." Tian Yulan was feigning persuasion, precisely to provoke the parents' anger.

Another parent immediately retorted: "Whatever hardships, she can't violate regulations! The school has clear rules against privately tutoring students; her doing this is wrong. Our children also need teachers' attention and guidance; why should that Mi Tao get special treatment?"

Yet another parent chimed in: "Exactly. All our efforts have been in vain. We've poured so much into our children's education, yet we're still not as good as a rural little girl. How can we accept this?"

One by one they were filled with righteous indignation, vowing to go report to the school.

Tian Yulan sat to the side, listening to the parents' complaints, and felt quite happy inside.

She still harbored resentment over the class representative incident last time where Zhang Xue'er caused her and her son to lose face; being able to retaliate this time was naturally the best.

But on her lips Tian Yulan hesitated: "Would doing this be too impulsive? Maybe we can first find Teacher Zhang to talk, understand her thoughts. If she can recognize her mistake, we can also give her a chance."

One parent immediately shook their head: "Talk what talk? She's already done this; what's there to talk about? We must let the school know this matter and give us an explanation."

Another parent also said: "Right, Zi You's mom, you can't go soft-hearted. Our children can't suffer this kind of grievance. We must defend our rights and interests."

Tian Yulan pretended to fall into deep thought. She sighed and said: "Let me consider it a bit more."

Seeing Tian Yulan hesitate, the parents all urged her on.

"Zi You's mom, you can't hesitate! We must think of our children's future."

"Yeah, we can't let this unfair thing continue. If we don't report, there'll be more such things in the future."

"We have to make the school take this problem seriously and guarantee every child's fair rights."

Under the parents' persuasion, Tian Yulan's face gradually showed a resolute expression. She gritted her teeth and said: "Alright, we'll go report to the school. But we also have to pay attention to methods; we can't go too far."

The parents all nodded in agreement, asking Tian Yulan if she had any good methods.

Tian Yulan looked at the few parents before her, whose emotions she had successfully stirred up, and who clearly all centered on her. A trace of pride welled up in her heart.

She slightly raised her chin, her eyes rolling nimbly, then slowly opened her mouth, proposing the method she had deeply considered all last night: "Everyone, we can't act rashly. Going straight to report to the leadership isn't a wise move. We can first communicate with Class One's Class Teacher, Teacher Zhong. After all, even if Teacher Zhang gets fired, our children still have to study Mathematics under Teacher Zhong's teaching. We mustn't lightly offend the teacher."

One parent slightly furrowed their brows, face full of doubt, and asked: "Then why not find Class Two's Class Teacher, Teacher Song? Can't Teacher Song do it?"

Tian Yulan smiled faintly, a trace of hard-to-detect cunning flashing in her eyes, and said: "I'm not too familiar with Teacher Song. And Teacher Zhong has always had methods in teaching; if we find him to communicate, perhaps we can solve the problem better."

The true reason, only Tian Yulan herself knows clearly in her heart. She had learned some time ago that Zhong Yi and Zhang Xue'er had been boyfriend and girlfriend for several years. She precisely wants to drag Zhong Yi into the water too, to see how Zhong Yi will handle the matter of his own girlfriend tutoring.

She secretly schemed in her heart, and the corner of her mouth unconsciously revealed a hard-to-detect cold laugh.

However, what Tian Yulan didn't know was that her information was truly too outdated. Zhong Yi and Zhang Xue'er had already broken up. At this moment, Zhong Yi was concentrating fully on teaching matters, completely unaware that a storm was about to approach him.

The other parents also nodded one after another to express agreement. They felt Tian Yulan's method made a lot of sense, as it could both solve the problem and avoid offending the teacher. Thus, they decided to go find Zhong Yi together, to see what his opinion on this matter was.