Unlike the No. 3 Middle School in the city, the town's middle school doesn't charge students extra fees for tutoring on Saturdays, Sundays, and during summer vacations. Parents also give gifts to teachers.
The number of students in this lousy place is decreasing year by year. They'd rather you come here and study for free than spend any money, and you still want tutoring fees? It's a miracle if you can even collect the tuition fees.
There were no more gifts being given, and the teachers' salaries were being delayed again and again. Wang Xia relied on her husband's decent income at the newspaper, otherwise she would have been ruined long ago. The capable teachers here had all transferred to other jobs, and the rest were all trying to sneak away to transfer.
When Zhang Cai invited them to dinner, they outwardly refused, but inwardly they were overjoyed. A table was set up under the big poplar tree, and the wine was Gujing Gongjiu, which Xu Guozhong liked. Liu Haiyan flirtatiously urged them to drink, and even the principal got hard. They started eating and drinking heartily, and in less than an hour, they were all slurring their words.
This is a problem; there's no one to replace him for the lectures.
When Zhang Cai parked his car, he couldn't hold his urine and went to the toilet. When he came back, he found that Xu Guozhong was gone. He asked him and found out that Xu Guozhong had gone to give a lecture.
Sweat beaded on Zhang Cai's forehead. This was just asking for trouble! Now the teacher didn't understand, but she was thinking, "Liu Haiyan, why didn't you grab her?"
Besides, you damn Xu Guozhong, don't you know how much you've got to eat? Why are you so annoying? He's going to ruin my plans again today.
Zhang Cai hurriedly said to Principal Liu, "No, even if Lao Xu is skilled, his education is too shallow. He can't give lectures, or he'll make a fool of himself!"
Principal Liu scratched his head and hiccuped. "Sigh, there's no other way. Look at all the teachers now, they're so drunk they don't even know who they are. It's too late to find someone else now. They can tell if we use students. We'll just have to try anything. I thought Director Xu was quite eloquent when he was urging us to drink. Besides, I think he can teach a simple Chinese lesson. And look at him, he looks like a teacher."
Zhang Cai sighed. Just then, the school bell rang, and Xu Guozhong staggered into the classroom. Chen Chu had already told the classmates about the last-minute teacher change. Unexpectedly, it was none other than Xu Guozhong who came in. Chen Chu couldn't help but chuckle softly.
Zhang Cai and his friends rushed to the classroom window and saw that the education bureau officials were already seated. They stood outside the window with awkward smiles.
Xu Guozhong had a grin on his face as he stared intently at the woman with short, brown hair sitting next to the deputy director of the Education Bureau.
Looking at the woman's fair and tender thighs, sitting in a chair with her legs crossed, Xu Guozhong almost drooled.
"Old Xu!" Zhang Cai called out in a low voice, admiring the guy's lack of stage fright.
Xu Guozhong grunted and went over. Zhang Cai whispered, "What did you say?"
Xu Guozhong handed over the Chinese textbook, at which point Principal Liu hurriedly pointed to a text and said, "This one, let's talk about this one, this one is simple."
Liu Haiyan nodded upon seeing it; it was indeed the true story of Ah Q.
One of Lu Xun's articles wasn't too difficult, but Liu Haiyan still quietly pointed to the character "茴" in "茴香豆" and asked, "What's the pronunciation of this character?"
Xu Guozhong didn't recognize the character "茴" at all, but he did recognize "回", so he quickly said, "hui, back".
Liu Haiyan breathed a sigh of relief.
Since Xu Guozhong has already come in, there's no choice but to force him into it.
The character 茴 (huí) in this article is a bit difficult to distinguish, but the others are relatively easy to understand.
It's normal for the education bureau staff to murmur among themselves when they saw them, since they hadn't been notified beforehand. They were just suddenly showing up to observe the class, so they needed some time to prepare.
The deputy director who came was a bit balding. He chuckled and said in a loud voice, "Teacher, don't be nervous. We're just here to listen to your class. It's nothing. Just teach the class the way you usually do. I can tell you're an experienced teacher just by looking at your age."
"That's right."
Xu Guozhong agreed, and the leaders from the Education Bureau chuckled, thinking that this teacher had good mental fortitude. They had just come from No. 3 Middle School, and during their random checks, none of the teachers there had his mental fortitude.
At this moment, Chen Chu noticed that among the group of five, two were taking notes, while the woman next to Deputy Director Sun was just smiling and listening quietly. His first impression was that this woman was promiscuous.
On the other side of Deputy Director Sun sat an old man, over fifty years old, wearing what was that thing on such a hot day?
The dark-colored outfit resembled a cheongsam, but no, it was a late Qing Dynasty garment. She wore a black melon-shaped hat, revealing gray hair, and large black-rimmed glasses. She had a sour and pedantic look on her face.
Deputy Director Sun chuckled and said to him, "Mr. Yan, what do you think of this teacher?"
"Yes, I'll listen to his lectures."
Deputy Director Sun smiled again.
Chen Chu was taken aback. What exactly did this old guy do? The deputy director of the Education Bureau even took the initiative to talk to him, but he acted like he didn't care. Was he just putting on airs?
At this moment, Liu Haiyan had already entered the classroom with a thermos and poured water for each of the leaders from the Education Bureau, since they were there to observe the class.
This is all in the past. Attending classes isn't actually important; what's important is taking good care of people.
When they reached the old man surnamed Yan, he waved his hand and said sternly, "Let me smell your tea? Hmm... Luodi Dahong tea, too ordinary. This tea is roasted, not air-dried. Where is the flavor? It's undrinkable... Use mine..."
As he spoke, the old man pulled out a flat little iron box from his pocket, then poured some for Deputy Director Sun, saying, "This is Biluochun tea..." He then explained the tea ceremony before letting Liu Haiyan pour the water.
Chen Chu let out a sigh of relief, thinking that it was only because Liu Haiyan had been in officialdom for so long that he didn't serve him anymore. If it were someone else, he might have slapped him across the face long ago. Who's pretending to be a father figure here? Damn it! What a load of crap!
The old man had to filter the water twice before making tea. Luckily, Liu Haiyan brought two kettles of boiling water, otherwise it wouldn't have been enough. Although the town's middle school didn't have much else, it did have a boiler room with boiling water.
This period was also a good time to prepare for Xu Guozhong. Principal Liu asked him if there were any characters he didn't recognize, and Xu Guozhong actually glanced at them and said no.
Principal Liu was relieved, but Zhang Cai was not.
Liu Haiyan deliberately slowed down to serve him tea, and Principal Liu took the opportunity to say through the window, "Remember, when you call for class, you just need to introduce the text and summarize the main idea."
Xu Guozhong nodded hurriedly.
After Liu Haiyan finished her tinkering, the class officially began.
Liu Haiyan, Zhang Cai, and Principal Liu were all standing outside the window listening when Xu Guozhong picked up the blackboard eraser, slammed it onto the desk, and said, "Class begins!"
"Boom!" The students burst into laughter.
Zhang Cai felt a chill run down his spine, thinking to himself, "Xu Guozhong, are you trying to tell a story?!" Principal Liu was also stunned, and quickly looked at the expressions of the education bureau leaders.
The woman burst out laughing. Director Sun paused for a moment and then said to the person next to him, "Look at the teacher, I said it's good. It has its own unique style, and this kind of teaching is not rigid."
All thirty students in the class stood up in unison and bowed to Xu Guozhong.
Hello, teacher!
Xu Guozhong was startled, his legs went weak, and he almost sat down on the ground. He quickly grabbed the table for support, thinking to himself, "Wow, that was so loud!"
He touched the table and it made a 'thud'.
Zhang Cai rubbed his head, thinking to himself, "It's over."
"Sit down, let the students sit down..." Liu Haiyan whispered from outside the window.
Xu Guozhong realized what was happening and waved his hands to both sides as if shooing away flies, saying, "Sit down, everyone sit down!"
The woman next to Deputy Director Sun was smiling broadly.
The others also had smiles on their faces.
Seeing that so many people were listening to him, Xu Guozhong was no longer nervous. While he wasn't nervous, Principal Liu, Liu Haiyan, and Zhang Cai were all sweating profusely with nervousness.
"Class, today we will study one of Mr. Lu Xun's essays..."
"The text! It's the text...the article..."
Principal Liu clenched his fists into a megaphone shape and wrote his message through the window. He didn't care about anything else now; he had already embarrassed himself.
"Mosquito net? Summer's over, there aren't any mosquitoes anymore? Why would you need a mosquito net?"
The whole class gasped in surprise, then burst into laughter.
Someone tried to interrupt Xu Guozhong, but Deputy Director Sun waved his hand, signaling him to continue.
Xu Guozhong wrote the three characters for "fennel beans" crookedly on the blackboard, copying from the book. Principal Liu felt like crying and gave him a hint.
Xu Guozhong looked at the book and realized he had made a mistake. He wanted to correct it, but he couldn't find the blackboard eraser. It had flown away when he dropped it earlier. So he stretched out his big hand and started rubbing it on the blackboard. The three characters "茴香豆" (fennel beans) were scribbled and blurred, but the chalk writing was still there. At this moment, Lu Xiaoqiao kicked the blackboard eraser with her foot.
He quickly picked it up and handed it over, saying, "New teacher, here's your blackboard eraser."
Xu Guozhong laughed: "Oh my, whose daughter is so pretty! Hehe..."
Lu Xiaoqiao was stunned. She put down the blackboard eraser, her face flushed red, and the laughter below was even more suppressed.
Xu Guozhong quickly said, "No need, I can use my sleeve." As he spoke, he flicked his sleeve and wiped the three words away.
The woman listening to the lecture below, whose face was originally fair, had now turned a deep purplish-red. She covered her face with both hands, leaned on her raised thighs, and started laughing uncontrollably.
Xu Guozhong finally wrote the four characters "The True Story of Ah Q" crookedly on the blackboard.
Then he turned around and said, "Class, repeat after me, 'The True Story of Ah Quan'!"
...
"Cough cough cough..." The woman coughed violently for a while, and the director of the education bureau couldn't help but laugh. He thought to himself that he had been listening to lectures all his life and this was the first time he had heard someone say "Ah Quan's True Story".
This time, Principal Liu didn't need to prompt them; the students below burst into laughter and started reciting "The True Story of Ah Q."
Lu Xiaoqiao then said, "New teacher, we shouldn't be learning this lesson today. We haven't finished the last lesson yet!"
"Huh? We haven't finished the last lesson yet? Okay, let's go through the next one, uh..." Xu Guozhong turned to the previous page and frowned, saying, "This is outrageous! How can you swear in a book!"
The crowd was stunned by the laughter. Xu Guozhong, pointing indignantly at the image of Kuafu chasing the sun, raised his arm and shouted, "What kind of nonsense is this! A widow chasing the sun? Even if a widow is desperate, she can't chase after someone to seduce her..."
Some in the class laughed, some slapped their thighs, some shed tears, and some wiped their snotty noses.
Xu Guozhong continued rambling on, "That's why we have to say our classic novels are so good. We should all learn them. When I was a kid, the older generation always said things like 'Dream of the Red Chamber,' 'Dream of the Red Chamber is great, it's a classic...'"
Damn! "Dream of the Red Chamber" is a classic, and so is "The Brothel"—I don't know who said that, but everyone laughed even harder.
Xu Guozhong continued, grinning, "What Three Kingdoms? Zhao Fei, Zhang Yun, and Li Kui..."
The whole class laughed, except for Lu Xiaoqiao. She blinked her big eyes and said, "The new teacher is Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei, and Li Kui is from Water Margin..."
Xu Guozhong said impatiently, "You little girl, pay attention in class. I know he's from the kettle..."
"Teacher, it's Water Margin."
"Huh? What tiger? A water tiger? And a white tiger at that! It's clearly a kettle! I'm not arguing with you!"