Chapter 36: Parents watching their children die
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Since Ren Xiaosu had explicitly told them to come back, would the students dare to disobey him?
The students had gone home and complained about Ren Xiaosu’s misdeeds to their parents, but their parents’ reactions were all identical. “It’s good that the teacher is teaching you more things. You should be grateful for it rather than complain, understand? You mustn’t complain, especially not to your substitute teacher.”
The students could not understand this. In the past, the parents would side with them. But this time, they were all siding with Ren Xiaosu?
Furthermore, why did their parents’ tone sound a little strange?
The students felt that there was something wrong with their parents’ tone, so they kept at it and continued complaining. Li Youqian’s father, Li Facai, said in a heartfelt manner to her, “Stop asking, dearie, and concentrate on your studies. You mustn’t trouble your teacher, Ren Xiaosu, anymore, understand? Dad doesn’t want you to leave this world before he does.”
The strapping girl, Li Youqian, was shocked when she heard that. What did her father mean by “Dad doesn’t want you to leave this world before he does”?!
Hence, the students now behaved exceptionally well in front of Ren Xiaosu. The moment he called them back, the students all rushed back to their seats like scared fledglings.
Once he started teaching again, he lectured until it turned dark.
As the sky darkened, the students stared blankly at Ren Xiaosu as he got more and more enthusiastic with his teaching. Finally, Li Youqian could no longer stand it. She said meekly, “Teacher, it’s getting dark. It won’t be safe for us if we don’t go home now.”
When the students previously said something similar, Ren Xiaosu would dismiss the class immediately. As such, when Li Youqian finished saying that, all the students looked at Ren Xiaosu in anticipation.
However, Ren Xiaosu said kindly, “Don’t worry, y’all’ll be fine.”
On this day, Ren Xiaosu lectured all the way until 8 PM before he finally dismissed the class. Night had fallen by this point. Ren Xiaosu did not receive any gratitude tokens at the end of the lesson, but he did not mind.
The “Stockholm Syndrome effect” said that if there was no cruelty, how could there be gratitude?
“Let’s go, Teacher will send all of you home,” Ren Xiaosu said even more kindly.
The students looked at one another. They suddenly felt that the substitute teacher, Ren Xiaosu, seemed to possess some kind of remarkable skill.
In the past, Ren Xiaosu would definitely let the students return home before the sky darkened because it wouldn’t be safe if they went back home any later than that.
But this time, Ren Xiaosu didn’t find it much of an issue to waste a bit of time, as long as the students could learn something useful! They had to understand how cruel society could be!
Although it might be a little unsafe for ordinary people to lead a large group of children, it was not so for Ren Xiaosu. He was nearly twice as strong as the average adult in town, so the issue of safety was negligible.
As long as someone didn’t have a gun, Ren Xiaosu had nothing to be afraid of.
Ren Xiaosu personally handed the students over to their parents one by one in order of the distance they lived from school. When some of the neighbors saw Ren Xiaosu sparing no effort to impart knowledge to the students and even sending them home personally for their safety, they felt that he was a great teacher!
The parents did not know why Ren Xiaosu was doing this and simply considered him a kind and generous person. Thus, just this act of sending the students home had earned Ren Xiaosu six gratitudes from the parents.
Ren Xiaosu felt that he had not fully taken the initiative before. After working so hard to heal people and save their lives, he had only received 12 gratitude tokens. But ever since changing his mindset and way of doing things, his gratitude tokens shot up to 50.
And the only price to pay was that Yan Liuyuan refused to talk to him for the entire night...
To be honest, the total duration of the daytime classes was only about five hours. Before Ren Xiaosu took over as the substitute teacher, the students could never have expected that the survival lesson would last for a full five hours!
The next day, Ren Xiaosu could not wait to go to school. However, the schoolteacher, Mr. Zhang Jinglin, was the first to voice his opinion. He pulled Ren Xiaosu aside and said, “In the future, you mustn’t dismiss the class so late. There should be a proper balance between work and rest when it comes to learning, and it has to be done gradually as well. Even if you want to impart unto them all your knowledge, you still have to do it slowly!”
Ren Xiaosu humbly accepted Zhang Jinglin’s suggestion. “Teacher, you can rest assured that I will definitely not make the class stay late today.”
Yan Liuyuan was indifferent when he heard the conversation between the two of them. Of course he knew that Ren Xiaosu would not make the class stay behind today. His purpose for doing so yesterday was just so that he could harvest a wave of gratitudes from the students today!
Yan Liuyuan knew Ren Xiaosu too well!
As Yan Liuyuan predicted, the moment the stronghold’s clock rang to signal 4 PM in the afternoon, Ren Xiaosu smiled and said amiably, “Shall we end the class here, everyone?”
Everyone in the classroom was silent. No one knew why Ren Xiaosu would ask such a question. If they answered yes, wouldn’t it mean that Ren Xiaosu was bad at teaching? But if they answered no, they were afraid that Ren Xiaosu would grant their wish of not wanting to end the class.
So they simply kept their mouths shut.
Ren Xiaosu said with a smile, “There should be a proper balance between work and rest when it comes to learning. I imparted so much knowledge to everyone yesterday, so I’ll not make y’all stay late today. On one hand, this is so that everyone can process the knowledge you’ve learned. On the other hand, it’s so that everyone can relax a little and have some fun today.”
The students were so touched that they nearly cried.
“Class dismissed!” Ren Xiaosu said.
“All rise!”
“Thank you, Teacher!”
“Gratitude received from Li Youqian, +1!
“Gratitude received from Wang Dalong...
“Gratitude received from...”
Like the day before yesterday, Ren Xiaosu reaped another 23 gratitude tokens, with the exception of Yan Liuyuan’s. In just three days, he was close to maxing out on the 100 gratitude tokens that he needed!
Now with 73 tokens, he was super close to unlocking the weapon!
Through the open classroom door, Ren Xiaosu saw Wang Fugui trotting towards the school.
“Old Wang, what are you doing here?” Ren Xiaosu asked. He wondered if something had happened to Xiaoyu at the clinic. Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu was about to hurry home with Yan Liuyuan.
However, Wang Fugui said, “Please get ready. The band will be coming out of the stronghold again. Someone just delivered a letter to me from Boss Luo, and I don’t know how they did it, but he actually gave his permission for you to be their guide!”
Ren Xiaosu froze. His first reaction was one of relief when he knew that Xiaoyu wasn’t in trouble. But right after, he got worried because he realized that the band must have had a more obscure and important purpose in venturing into the mountains. How else could they have successfully persuaded Boss Luo into allowing him to go with them?
Was it because they had given Boss Luo enough kickbacks? Or could it be that Boss Luo was involved in the band’s plan to venture into the Jing Mountains?
Either way, it seemed like Ren Xiaosu would have to make this trip.
Ren Xiaosu turned around and walked to the school’s backyard. Wang Fugui asked anxiously, “Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna look for Mr. Zhang to discuss rooming Yan Liuyuan and Big Sister Xiaoyu at the school or at least living here until I get back,” Ren Xiaosu said firmly.
Only then would Ren Xiaosu not have any worries.
However, it would be a huge mistake if this group of people thought that Ren Xiaosu could be easily pushed around once they reached the wilderness.