Chapter 8: 8

 Chapter 8 - Pitfalls

When the two people arrived, several other class teachers were also in the office. Although they appeared to be buried in their work, their attention was all on Shen Shao. Who was it who let Li Lu have the number one student in the grade? The highest-ranked student was just called to the office because of a conflict with a classmate. It was natural to feel curious.

Although teachers are like gardeners who cultivate flowers, gardeners like to gossip too.

Li Lu sat down behind his desk with a teacup in his hand. “Shen Shao, I heard you had an argument with Shen ZhengYang of Class 5. What’s that all about?” He trusted his student, so his voice was kind. “You’re classmates in the same school. It’s no good to have quarrels that might affect your studies. Mr. Mao, do you agree?”

Mr. Mao was the class teacher of Class 5. He nodded and said, “Mr. Li is right. Shen ZhengYang, why don’t you tell us what happened?” His attitude might appear neutral, but in fact he was protecting his own student. After all, if Shen ZhengYang was the one who told the story, it would naturally be slanted with his own subjective opinion. There were several other teachers in the office. After they heard Shen ZhengYang’s explanation, they’d inevitably side with him.

Shen ZhengYang didn’t appreciate his class teacher’s helpful intentions. He actually thought his teacher was afraid of the teachers from the experimental class, and only asked him to talk in the hopes he’d make a fool out of himself. Shen ZhengYang was a good student, the teacher always treated him well, and his family spoiled him. Since he didn’t want to talk about something that aggravated him, he ducked his head and refused to speak.

The atmosphere froze over. Mr. Mao’s face was embarrassed. If it weren’t for Shen ZhengYang’s good grades, he might have started lecturing him again.

“Mr. Li, Mr. Mao, I’m from the same village as Shen ZhengYang. We didn’t really say much during physical education class. We were just talking about our relatives back home.” Shen Shao scratched his head with an awkward expression on his face. “Sometimes back in the village we used to bicker. That’s why we weren’t paying attention during class.”

After hearing these words, Shen ZhengYang breathed an inward sigh of relief. Thank goodness Shen Shao hadn’t said anything about Zhao XiaoXue. If the teacher found out he was in puppy love, Mr. Mao would definitely call his parents.

However, several teachers in the office came to their own conclusions. They all knew about Shen Shao’s family, and Shen Shao mentioned the word “relatives”. All of these adults could guess what Shen ZhengYang must have said.

Li Lu felt a little upset. His top student was bullied by a boy from another class. It would be strange if he, a teacher, would be happy about it. He put the large tea cup in his hand on the desk. In a joking tone, he said, “Mr. Mao, how do you think we should deal with this?”

What could Mr. Mao do now? He gave Shen ZhengYang a dressing-down in front of Shen Shao and made him apologize before allowing them to leave the office.

Shen ZhengYang was angry. He couldn’t figure out what just happened. Why did the teacher yell at him without even asking both of them for details? Wasn’t it because Shen Shao had better grades, or because Shen Shao was in the experimental class while he was in the general class?

The more he thought about it, the more indignant he felt. Shen ZhengYang glared resentfully at Shen Shao. When he got to the corner of the corridor, he couldn’t help but want to kick the other boy. But Shen Shao seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. The instant Shen ZhengYang’s foot jabbed out, Shen Shao dodged to the side. Instead of kicking him, Shen ZhengYang twisted his own ankle and returned to his classroom with a sore foot.

With a slight smile, Shen Shao watched the frustrated Shen ZhengYang hobble away. He’d lived on his own since the age of fifteen—no money and no background. What kind of scumbags hadn’t he seen? Kids like Shen ZhengYang were slags with a combat effectiveness of minus five.

When the students of Class 1 saw Shen Shao return, they surrounded him and asked what happened. After they heard Shen ZhengYang was criticized by the teacher and forced to apologize, they immediately said with some pleasure, “Serves him right!”

As for Shen Shao, he didn’t say anything more from beginning to end. There was a polite smile on his face, and in the eyes of his classmates, he was once again an innocent victim, shot while lying down.

The incident, having reached this point, wasn’t over yet. Who would have thought that Shen ZhengYang’s parents would come to the experimental junior high the next day. They said their son was bullied by another student and they wanted the teacher to give them an explanation.

During the past few years, Shen FuDong made some money and even bought a house in the city. He’d always been a respected, well-to-do man in the village. He couldn’t sit still when he heard his son was bullied by Shen Shao, who had a father but no mother to raise him. He drove his brand new car to the school early the next morning and waited in the teachers’ office, giving a strong impression that he wouldn’t leave until the teacher gave him what he wanted.

It wasn’t like the teachers in the experimental junior high had never met similar people. Although there weren’t a huge number of parents like Shen FuDong and Zhang ChunLan, they certainly existed. When the teaching director saw that the two parents were unhappy, he tried to persuade them with soft words, but finally he had to be a little strict. “If the two of you feel that our school’s way of handling things is unfair, you can go through the transfer procedures and remove your child from the school. We support parents’ freedom of choice.”

When Zhang ChunLan heard this, she felt nervous. She looked at her husband uneasily. What if they made too much trouble and the school really asked their family’s ZhengYang to transfer somewhere else? They’d gone through a lot of effort to get ZhengYang into the experimental junior high in the first place, not to mention he was a third year student. Transferring now would affect his studies.

Shen FuDong had been in business a long time, and his psychological quality was better than Zhang ChunLan’s. However, he immediately improved his tone of voice. “Director, we don’t have a problem with the school. We’re just parents who love our child. Who wants to see their child being wronged?” With that, he pulled a cigarette packet from his pocket, took out a cigarette, and handed it to the teaching director. “Go on, please help yourself.”

The teaching director saw “Furongwang” printed on the cigarette box. Although he didn’t like smoking, he knew the cigarettes weren’t cheap. No wonder this man was so confident. There were a lot of children from prosperous households enrolled in the experimental junior high. The children of the director of the Bureau of Education himself went to this school, and they never put on such a show. This man thought his own child was a treasure and everyone else’s child was trash. Wasn’t he just bullying this kid because he was poor and didn’t have parents?

“Sorry, I don’t smoke.” The teaching director smoothed his expression and refused the branded cigarette. “Mr. Shen, this was originally just a small conflict between two children. When we initially handled the problem, both students were present. There was no favoritism. After all, both children are exceptional students. As teachers, we don’t want to find fault with either one of them, but when children make mistakes, we have to correct them. This is our responsibility as teachers, don’t you agree?”

Shen FuDong opened his mouth, but before he could speak, the teaching director continued, “Education is never easy. If we discipline a child, I’m afraid the parents will say we’re too strict. But if we don’t take any action, I’m afraid the parents will say we haven’t done our jobs as teachers. Fortunately, most parents are supportive of our work. Well-educated parents like you have seen the world and understand how difficult things are for us.” Then he sighed.

Maybe Shen FuDong was happy to be praised by the teaching director’s words calling him “a well-educated parent who’s seen the world”. Shen FuDong’s tone relaxed further. In the end, he just asked his child and Shen Shao to come in and explain what happened.

The teaching director confirmed that Shen FuDong didn’t look like he was going to make more trouble, and then he asked a staff member to bring the students over. After all, the parents had come all the way to the school. If the teachers didn’t give them some kind of response, the parents wouldn’t be happy, and it wouldn’t be good for the school’s reputation.

Shen FuDong and Zhang ChunLan expected to see a boy in old clothes, covered in dirt. When Shen Shao walked into the office they didn’t recognize him at first.

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Shen Shao was wearing a simple plaid shirt and jeans. He was tall, long-legged and well-groomed. After he walked in, Shen FuDong thought he was a child from a good family.

When Shen Shao took the initiative to call him “Second Uncle Shen”, only then did Shen FuDong remember that he was the second oldest in the family, one generation older than Shen Shao. It was perfectly natural for Shen Shao to call him Second Uncle Shen.

But after hearing this greeting, the teaching director was even more disdainful of Shen FuDong. That fatherless, motherless boy had just called him “second uncle”. Shouldn’t the man be worried that if he bullied the child like this, his mother would climb out of her grave to find him?

“Oh, Shen Shao ah.” Shen FuDong’s voice was a little strange. After looking at Shen Shao for a while, he said, “I heard your eldest uncle mention you not long ago. He said you haven’t been home for several days. He’s very worried about you.”

Shen Shao seemed not to notice that Shen FuDong deliberately said this in front of the teaching director, implying that he was somehow running wild. “The high school entrance exam is in a few months, so now I only go home once a month on break. To study better I stay at home and read.”

“It’s good you study hard.” Shen FuDong was disappointed when Shen Shao didn’t fall into the hole he just dug. He lamented that Shen Shao’s mother was so good to him and even remembered to give the child her hidden savings when she died. The thought made him feel a little annoyed. Seeing that his son was fidgeting and kept his head down the whole time, Shen FuDong decided things might not be what his child told him when they were home. How did Shen Shao bully him? Maybe his son was the one who picked on someone else.

Zhang ChunLan still wanted to make trouble, but when she noticed her husband’s tone wasn’t right, she had to push down her dissatisfaction. Why was it so hard for their family to clean up a kid who didn’t even have a mother?

At that point, the teaching director knew there was nothing more to say. He called Shen ZhengYang and Shen Shao over, said a few words encouraging them to study hard, and let them go.

He saw from Shen FuDong’s and Zhang ChunLan’s faces that although they still wanted to complain, there was nothing else they could say. He personally escorted them out with a smile. As soon as they made it to the staircase outside, they saw Shen Shao fall down the steps to the ground floor. Shen ZhengYang was standing above him.

This building was full of classrooms and offices. Several teachers were outside on the landing to the second and third floors, talking. When they saw what happened, they frowned.

The teaching director looked at Shen FuDong and Zhang ChunLan and said nothing.

As for Shen FuDong and Zhang ChunLan, they were beyond embarrassed. Inside they were roaring, Son, no matter how much you dislike Shen Shao, you can’t do that here!

You dug a pit for your own parents. What are we going to do with you?!

 

TL Notes:

gardeners like to gossip too – from 但是园丁也是有八卦权的 – “gardeners have the right to gossip too” which sounds weird given privacy laws etc.

puppy love – 早恋 – puppy love; fall in love at an early age – Refers to romantic relationships between kids under the age of 18, typically viewed with a negative light (Baidu) The bane of parents who worry that dating will distract their kids from schoolwork and the all-important college entrance exam. It’s not uncommon for dating to be banned in junior and senior high school (by schools as well as parents) for this reason

a father but no mother – 有爹生没娘管 – This is an insult that means the person wasn’t raised right or taught to behave. It can also be a self-deprecating remark. In historical times, people believed the father “sows the seed” and the mother is the one who nurtures and raises the child. If you don’t have a mother, you weren’t educated properly (Zhihu)

Furongwang – 芙蓉王 – One of the three high-end cigarette brands in China. The cigarette packs have a picture of a gold-embossed hibiscus flower on the front (Baidu)

 

Transliterated names, places, and titles—new in this chapter:

Mr. Mao – 毛老师 – Máo lǎoshī

Shen FuDong – 沈福冬

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Zhang ChunLan – 张春兰

Mr. Shen – 沈先生 – Shěn xiānsheng

Second Uncle Shen – 沈二叔 – Shěn’èrshū 

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