Chapter 206: Chapter 205: A False Alarm (Part 1)
Shi Yang looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, whose smile was as radiant as a flower. A flash of surprise crossed his face, and he reached out proactively to greet her with a smile: "Zhang Jiahui! What are you doing here? Long time no see."
Zhang Jiahui looked even more beautiful than she did in high school. She smiled faintly, dimples etched deeply on both sides of her mouth, with a gentle and delicate demeanor, speaking softly.
She smiled and said, "I’m bringing my niece over to play. How about you? What brings you here?"
Shi Yang said indifferently, "Oh, I run this place."
Zhang Jiahui widened her eyes, "Didn’t you go to college in the provincial capital?"
Just then, a customer came over to buy a ticket. Shi Yang and Zhang Jiahui moved aside, choosing a spot out of the way to stand and chat.
Shi Yang: "I came back to develop my career after graduation."
He wasn’t too keen on talking about himself, so he asked, "And you? Where are you working now?"
Zhang Jiahui smiled shyly, "After completing my graduate studies, I got a job as a teacher."
Shi Yang nodded, complimenting her, "Graduate school, huh? You always did study well back then."
Zhang Jiahui was about to speak when a staff member came over to call someone: "Hey! Is this your child calling over there, are they thirsty?"
Zhang Jiahui quickly turned to look and saw her niece leaning at the entrance of Naughty Castle.
Zhang Jiahui quickly responded and said to Shi Yang, "I’ll go over for a bit."
Shi Yang agreed, and once she had left, he turned back to the cashier.
Liu Xiue had been observing Shi Yang’s and Zhang Jiahui’s warm conversation from start to finish. When Shi Yang came over, she asked with a radiant smile, "Is she your high school classmate?"
Shi Yang replied with a smile, "Yeah, she was the class monitor back then. I didn’t expect to run into her here."
Liu Xiue nodded, "Well, that is quite the coincidence. I’ll refund her ticket money later and give her a few free vouchers."
After saying that, Liu Xiue asked, "Is she married?"
Shi Yang was momentarily confused, "I don’t know, I didn’t ask. She only said she brought her niece over to play."
"Oh, she seems quite nice," Liu Xiue said, turning to glance at Zhang Jiahui, "Were you close in high school?"
Shi Yang’s smile paused, vaguely sensing something amiss, so he answered cautiously, "In high school, I lived with my teacher, and the studies were too intensive, so I wasn’t very close with classmates."
Upon hearing Shi Yang’s tone, Liu Xiue pondered over the words "not very close," and, with her keen intuition, did not detect any special affection from Shi Yang towards his beautiful former high school classmate.
Liu Xiue uttered an "oh" with understanding, nodded, and thought to herself that Shi Yang was great in every aspect except he was too focused on his career. He spent all day busy making money and didn’t pay much attention to his lifelong matters. Currently, he’s young, but in two more years, Shi Yang’s parents will likely start worrying.
Shi Yang, accustomed to dealing with various experienced individuals, was particularly skilled at reading people. He deftly shifted the conversation without involving himself, seizing the opportunity to change the topic: "By the way, Auntie, where’s Uncle?"
Liu Xiue replied with a smile, "He went to the restroom. I guess there’s a crowd, so he’s not back yet."
Shi Yang glanced at the time, "Auntie, I’ll go to the school to pick up Meimei first, then come to get you. It’s five o’clock now; I should arrive by six. Get ready and meet me at the parking lot downstairs. Leave the work here to the staff."
Liu Xiue agreed, "Alright."
After instructing her, Shi Yang didn’t deliberately bid farewell to Zhang Jiahui. To him, Zhang Jiahui was a Chapter long turned; it was a coincidence to bump into her and no need to deliberately re-engage.
Shi Yang first went to pick up the cake, placed it on the back seat, then turned the car around and rushed to Initiative High School to pick up Zhao Meimei.
Robber Hao seemed to be experiencing earlier-than-expected menopause these days, perpetually in a state of thunderous anger, always ready to erupt.
The entire class studied quietly with their heads down, not daring to confront him during these times.
The last class of the afternoon was self-study. Robber Hao went to the classroom to patrol, assigned a lot of homework, and instructed Zhao Meimei and other class leaders to oversee their classmates while he returned to the office to arrange the next batch of exercises for printing.
The final exams were just over a month away, and the scores from this exam would be part of the city’s ranking. Teachers with students ranking in the top ten citywide would be commended by the education bureau, while the school would give corresponding rewards.
Robber Hao was the head teacher responsible for graduating classes at the city’s best high school and also head of the academic year group. For him, bonuses no longer had any appeal—they were dispensable. What mattered to him was reputation.
If his students had excellent scores, he could hold his head high in front of peers and the students’ parents alike.
In previous years, Robber Hao did not feel as much pressure, but this year was different. In the big citywide rankings earlier in the semester, Initiative High School had four students in the top ten, while Excellence High School had three. The students under his guidance only managed three slots, one less than Initiative High School.
This pressure was unprecedented. From the education bureau to the school, pressures were mounting, leading Robber Hao, who was in his prime, to feel like entering menopause early.
The immense pressure left him anxious, irritable, suffering insomnia and vivid dreams, and prone to explosive anger over trivial matters.
Robber Hao continued flipping through a worn-down booklet of test questions, selecting suitable problems for the students at their current stage. He adjusted numbers and requirements, meticulously copying them onto blank pages.
After finishing three major questions, he was precisely drawing diagrams with a ruler when suddenly someone rushed in from outside the office, yelling sharply before arriving: "Teacher! Zhang Zhao’s in trouble! Blood! There’s blood!"
Robber Hao’s pen, having slipped, drew a straight line down the paper. Shocked, he looked at the sweaty student who ran in, standing up so forcefully that he knocked over his chair.
Robber Hao hurriedly ran to the informant, asking urgently, "What did you say?"
The student, speaking incoherently, reported, "Teacher, Zhang Zhao’s in trouble! He’s ... he’s bled a lot."
Boom! Robber Hao’s mind buzzed at the mention of Zhang Zhao and blood; there was no further need to ask to know something serious had happened.
In an instant, Robber Hao’s legs weakened. He roared, "Where is he? Where is he now?"
The student quickly replied, "In the classroom."