Call Me Daddy

That afternoon, Wang Fangfang didn’t go to school. When the Wang family saw her come back angrily and she locked herself in her room, they thought she was bullied at school and prepared to help her vent her anger. However, Wang Fangfang hesitated and refused to explain the reason, probably feeling guilty herself. Because if this matter were revealed, others would think she was in the wrong.

After enduring a sleepless night like that, early the next morning, Wang Fangfang barely ate a few mouthfuls of porridge to fill her stomach, then grabbed a roasted sweet potato and hurried off to school.

“Hey, this girl!”

Mother Wang sighed as she watched her daughter’s figure. Which girl in the neighborhood was like her, getting up every day just to eat, and after eating, not even bothering to help clean the dirty dishes? Didn’t she see that several of her sisters-in-law had complaints about her?

Now that she was in charge, she could still suppress her daughters-in-law, and with her daughter teaching in elementary school, she could bring home a salary every month. But in a few years, when her grandson had to take over her daughter’s position and her daughters-in-law started taking charge, would she still have such a good life?

Because she had tossed and turned until the wee hours of the night the night before, she woke up late this morning. By the time she reached the school, the national flag had already been raised, and standing in the empty space in front of the school, she could hear the students reading aloud.

On the playground, a few second-grade students were playing, but they seemed somewhat distracted, their eyes constantly looking towards the direction of the classrooms.

“Chu Jiabao, why haven’t you gone back to the classroom?” Wang Fangfang approached the chubby boy as she saw the closed door of the second-grade classroom.

“Teacher Su is teaching. He said if you don’t want to attend class, you can go out and play.”

Chu Jiabao felt as if he had ants biting him.

After returning home yesterday evening, he had been thinking about whether the Monkey had successfully become a disciple. Now the students in the classroom must be happily listening to the teacher telling stories. He wondered if Chu Ni could remember the story.

He felt that even if Chu Ni could remember, it wouldn’t be as exciting as the dormitory teacher’s storytelling.

“What?” Wang Fangfang’s face turned slightly blue. She hadn’t expected the Principal to hand the second-grade students back to Su Aobai without asking her opinion.

Previously, Wang Fangfang still had some infatuation with Su Aobai, but after yesterday’s humiliation, that infatuation had long turned into resentment.

“How can he ignore you like this? What kind of teacher is he!”

Wang Fangfang stepped forward and grabbed Chu Jiabao’s hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to find the Principal. We can’t let Su Aobai treat students differently.”

Unfortunately, she hadn’t taken two steps before Chu Jiabao shook her hand away.

“What does it have to do with Su Aobai? When you used to teach, didn’t you let us play by ourselves?”

Chu Jiabao felt Teacher Wang was inexplicable. When she used to teach, the whole class played together, and she didn’t tell stories either, it was especially boring.

Wang Fangfang’s hand was shaken off, and after hearing Chu Jiabao’s straightforward words, her face alternated between pale and blue. Then, covering her face, she rushed towards the teacher’s office.

***

In the office, the old Principal was holding up his broken glasses with one hand, correcting students’ homework.

He was over 70 years old, and often lacked energy. Therefore, starting from 2 or 3 years ago, he rarely taught students himself, but rather prepared teaching plans in the office and helped other teachers correct homework.

If it weren’t for his attachment to the school he founded, the old Principal would have moved to the city to enjoy his twilight years long ago.

“Principal!”

Wang Fangfang burst into the room like a raging lioness, slamming the desk in front of the old Principal.

“Why was my class handed over to Su Aobai to manage?” Her tone was both fierce and urgent due to her anger.

“Look at how he manages the students, letting some students play during class!”

The old principal lifted his head, then took off his glasses from his nose and neatly placed them on the desk, speaking calmly. “Teacher Su at least only lets some students play during class. When you were teaching, most of the students were left unattended. I thought there was no teacher for the second grade.”

The old Principal’s words were as infuriating as Chu Jiabao’s, indeed managing to silence Wang Fangfang.

In fact, yesterday afternoon, when he saw the children playing on the grounds, the old Principal was also very angry and went to find Su Aobai, intending to question him about starting such irresponsible practices.

After school that day, Su Aobai stayed in the office and communicated some of his ideas with him and Teacher Wu. At that time, he was still somewhat hesitant, feeling that it might not yield good results.

But during class this morning, when he saw the expressions of those playing children and their occasional glances towards the classroom, only then did the old Principal truly put his mind at ease.

Su Aobai, who had been away for thr3ee months, had undergone significant changes. Previously, his heart was wandering, and the old Principal felt he could leave at any moment. But this time, he became steadfast. The old Principal glanced at his thick notebooks and was glad that the children had a serious and responsible teacher back.

“The second-grade students were originally brought up by Teacher Su. He only took a leave before, so I temporarily let you handle it. Moreover, Teacher Wang, haven’t you been complaining about having a heavy workload? This way, you can also loosen up. Oh, not only for the second grade, but you also don’t need to handle the Chinese and math classes for the first grade anymore. Teacher Su will take care of math, and Teacher Wu will handle Chinese with a bit more pressure. In the future, you can just be in charge of agricultural classes for the first and second graders.”

What the old Principal meant was that Wang Fangfang wouldn’t need to teach academic subjects to the students anymore.

Wang Fangfang was both angry and embarrassed, wanting to argue a few more points.

“Teacher Wang, do you have anything else?” The old Principal picked up his glasses but didn’t put them on. Instead, he stared at her with those deep eyes, leaving Wang Fangfang speechless.

The color drained from her face, and there was a bitter taste in her mouth.

She had forgotten in her emotional outburst earlier that the current old Principal was quite influential in the commune, and the commune director also respected him. The reason her father could use his connections to get her into the school was because a few years ago, teachers weren’t in a strong position, and many intellectuals were sent down to reform in the farms.

In these 2 years, the atmosphere had gradually changed. The high school that had been disrupted had long since resumed classes. She didn’t have the qualifications to bang on the old Principal’s desk and shout at him.

But Wang Fangfang couldn’t let out her frustration, which made her liver ache.

If she didn’t want to teach, then she wouldn’t. She was happy to sit in the office all day, whether those annoying brats had class or not. Besides, she still got paid even if she didn’t teach.

So, Wang Fangfang returned to her seat in a huff.

***

During the break, Chu Jiabao, who was guarding the door, couldn’t wait and rushed in.

“Hurry, hurry, what did Teacher Su say? Did the Monkey become his disciple? Is he very powerful now?”

Chu Jiabao urged his sister to quickly recount the story. He didn’t even notice the thin booklet placed on Chu Ni’s desk. When he barged in, Chu Ni was carefully looking at the notes and examples inside.

Seemingly afraid that Chu Jiabao would damage the booklet, Chu Ni quickly closed it and placed it in her desk drawer.

These were notes copied by Teacher Su. Today, the teacher praised her, saying she had a talent for math. The teacher thought she could increase the difficulty for her based on her classmates’ level. To accommodate her younger brother’s schooling, she was older than most students in her class. In fact, she should have been in the fourth or fifth grade.

In the future, the teacher would assign her additional homework according to her progress, and if she didn’t understand anything, she could go to the office and ask him.

Chu Ni planned to copy these notes after finishing her chores, then return the booklet the teacher wrote. There would definitely be other classmates who would need it later. If the teacher had to rewrite it every time, it would be too much trouble.

Such an important thing, she couldn’t bear to let her brother destroy it.

Chu Jiabao didn’t care about these troublesome assignments at all. He just wanted to know what stories were told today.

“He succeeded! The teacher gave the Monkey King a name, Sun Wukong, and taught him somersault cloud and seventy-two transformations.” Chu Ni spoke softly.

“Is that all?” Chu Jiabao’s eyes widened, and he scratched his head in frustration.

“How did the Monkey King become a disciple? What kind of magic are the somersault cloud and seventy-two transformations? Are they powerful?”

Clearly, the stories told by Teacher Su were so exciting, especially the part where the Monkey King burst out of the stone, which made Chu Jiabao almost want to go home and ask his mom if he also sprang from a stone.

But after his sister’s retelling, the story turned into plain water, tasteless and bland. This made him even more curious about how Teacher Su told the story.

“I don’t remember.” Chu Ni lowered her head, her eyes downcast, looking weak and aggrieved.

Chu Jiabao hated it when his sister acted like that, as if she couldn’t do anything right. No wonder Mom and Dad always said my seventh sister wasn’t clever.

In fact, Chu Ni remembered. She had a good memory. But she felt that Teacher Su wanted to use this method to make those classmates who didn’t like to study pay attention in class. She couldn’t disrupt Teacher Su’s plan.

Anyway, at most, she would go home and be tattled on by her brother, then get scolded by her parents. She was used to it.

“Humph, you’re useless. Don’t follow me to school anymore in the future!”

Chu Jiabao returned to his seat angrily.

Chu Ni’s face instantly turned pale. She opened her mouth, clutching the handwritten booklet in the drawer, but in the end, she didn’t say anything to salvage the situation.

***

After school in the afternoon, Su Aobai rode his bicycle and left the school with his son. However, he didn’t take the road home; instead, he went to Chuwawan Brigade in Hongqi Commune.

Most of the members of Chuwawan Brigade were surnamed Chu, stemming from an ancestor thousands of years ago.

Chu Ni’s family lived in Chuwawan Brigade. Their family’s situation wasn’t bad in the village. The Chu couple had seven daughters in total, and Chu Jiabao was their precious son. Despite being mocked by others in the brigade in the past due to the seven daughters, the comfortable conditions at home now were all thanks to the first few daughters.

It was strange that although the Chu couple looked ordinary, several daughters inherited both parents’ advantages. The first few were the most beautiful, and the later ones seemed to have exhausted the family’s essence, gradually becoming more average.

Because they looked good and the Chu family didn’t spoil their daughters, the girls had been doing chores since they were young. They were capable and competent, both inside and outside the home. Therefore, there were many families coming to ask for their hands in marriage, and most of them had good conditions.

With the dowry money from the first few daughters, the Chu family built a house and had leftover money to send their most beloved son to school.

Su Aobai said he was here for a home visit and was immediately welcomed by the Chu family.

They were willing to send their son to school, of course, hoping he would gain some education. If he could pass the entrance exam for a technical school and get a job, they could change their fortunes and become city dwellers.

“Jiabao is quite smart. As long as he’s willing to learn, his grades won’t be bad, but—”

The Chu family was happy about the first part of the sentence, but the sudden turn in the second half made their hearts race.

But what?

“But he’s not willing to learn.”

Su Aobai asked his son to wait for him in the Chu family’s yard. Chu Jiabao and Chu Ni were walking home. They probably had about 10 minutes left, and he was prepared to make it quick.

“You both are willing to send your child to school, which shows some foresight. Education is important. Many commune members don’t value their children’s education. But there are many benefits to education. Getting into a technical school is self-explanatory. Even if he only gets a junior high school diploma, he’ll have the opportunity to become an elementary school teacher in the future. There’s also the positions of cashier and secretary in the brigade. They all require some qualifications. No matter which job it is, it’s much easier than working in the fields. Didn’t you initially send your child to school with this idea in mind?”

The Chu couple nodded along as they listened.

“Actually, I think Jiabao has a good chance of getting into a technical school if he’s willing to study. He’s talented.”

The couple blushed, excited and unsure how to respond.

Getting into a technical school! Teacher Su was an educated man. If he said our son was smart, then Jiabao must truly have talent for studying. If he could really become a worker in the future, it would be a source of pride for the family.

“But what if he’s not willing to study?”

Father Chu asked anxiously. “If he doesn’t study, you can beat him, Teacher Su.”

Although they felt sorry for their precious son, compared to the future of having a worker in the family, it wasn’t much.

“Chu Ni has been doing well. She’s been urging Jiabao to listen and study hard at school.”

Su Aobai said calmly.

“That’s what she should do.” Hearing that their daughter was encouraging her brother to do better in school, the couple were very satisfied, feeling that sending her to study was the right decision.

“But Jiabao seems very unhappy about it. He said today at school that he would come back and report his sister, stopping her from coming to school.”

Su Aobai looked at the couple with concern. “You know, I have many students to look after. I can’t watch Jiabao all the time. If there’s no one like Chu Ni to watch over him, I’m afraid Jiabao’s chances of getting into a technical school might be in jeopardy.”

“How can he control whether his sister goes to school or not? Teacher Su, don’t worry. It’s not his turn to make decisions in this household. Don’t worry; his sister will definitely go to school. He needs to be supervised by her a bit. He can’t just play all the time and forget about studying.”

The Chu couple practically swore by it.

It was all for the sake of getting into the technical school!

“That’s good. Actually, Chu Ni’s grades are also good. She has a good chance of getting into the technical school too. In the future, your family might have two workers.”

Su Aobai stood up with a smile; his goal had been achieved.

However, the couple’s hearts still focused solely on their son. A daughter’s success was inevitably tied to marriage, but a son was important.

***

As Su Aobai left, the couple thanked him profusely. If he hadn’t come to visit them, they might have believed their son’s words and really stopped Chu Ni from going to school. With no one to supervise Jiabao, he might have gone astray and wasted his opportunity for technical school.

Innocent Jiabao didn’t realize someone was scheming against him, setting a trap before he even knew.

Once back home, he accused Chu Ni of neglecting him at school and demanded she not go to school with him anymore.

“You little rascal, if it weren’t for Teacher Su’s home visit, I would’ve believed your nonsense!”

With that, Father Chu took off his rubber shoes and gave Jiabao a spanking.

Jiabao: ??!

A series of cries ensued, leaving the neighbors wondering how the Chu couple could bear to punish their beloved son.

Chu Ni stood at the doorway, her face no longer pale but filled with determination after hearing the messages implied in her parents’ words.

She couldn’t let the teacher down after all the effort and hope he had invested in her.

*****

With one major issue resolved, Su Aobai was in a good mood.

Sitting in the back seat, Su Mingcheng hugged his father’s waist, his eyes gazing gently at his broad back.

Why did he feel like his Dad was deceiving Chu Ni’s parents, just like the day we had our conversation?

QAQ Where was the promised integrity? Turns out even tough guys can deceive people, huh?