62: Chapter 65 Redemption from the Podium

Fang Jiming sat behind the podium, raising his thermos to his lips, but paused for a long time without drinking.

He couldn't quite describe the feeling in his heart.

This kind of experience was even more satisfying than having a hundred million deposited by the system.

Qian Duoduo leaned over to Zhao Dazhuang's ear and started whispering.

"I suspect Teacher Fang did something big behind the scenes to make Su Xiaoxiao a completely different person today."

Zhao Dazhuang rolled his eyes at him.

"Why do you care so much? Let's not pry into what Brother Fang does, or be careful he'll increase the volume of your derivative problems."

Qian Duoduo immediately shut his mouth.

After morning reading ended, Xia Rui pulled Liu Ya along and blocked Fang Jiming in the hallway.

Fang Jiming sized them up.

"What is it? The class bell hasn't rung yet, speak quickly if you have something to say."

Xia Rui bit her lip, revealing a bewildered expression of someone still processing a shock.

"Teacher Fang, what exactly did Su Xiaoxiao go through before?"

Fang Jiming's movement of unscrewing the thermos paused.

"Who told you?"

"Last night, Zhao Dazhuang said a few things in the group chat, mentioning that someone bullied Su Xiaoxiao, and it was something outside of school."

Fang Jiming cursed Zhao Dazhuang's big mouth in his heart, but remained calm on the surface.

"Don't ask about the specifics; you only need to know one thing."

Xia Rui pricked up her ears to listen.

"This girl has had a harder time than any of you."

"Just being able to appear in the classroom on time every day is her giving it her all."

Fang Jiming scanned Xia Rui and Liu Ya.

"The things you did before—stepping on homework books, mocking her accent, isolating and excluding her—might have just been casual little actions to you."

"But to her, that was pushing her one step closer to the edge of a cliff."

Xia Rui twisted her fingers together, letting her nails dig into her palms.

"Teacher Fang, I will never do it again."

Liu Ya, standing next to her with red eyes, nodded vigorously.

"We will look out for her from now on."

Fang Jiming looked at these two faces, serious to the point of looking slightly disheveled, and most of his anger dissipated.

"Alright, stop acting out a melodrama here, hurry back to class."

As the two girls turned to leave, Xia Rui looked back at him.

"Teacher Fang."

"Hm?"

"You really are different from other teachers."

Fang Jiming picked up his thermos.

"Stop buttering me up, you still owe three pages of math homework."

Xia Rui stuck out her tongue and ran off, pulling Liu Ya along.

Fang Jiming leaned against the hallway wall to drink, letting the corners of his mouth lift.

At the other end of the hallway, Director Su Nianwei walked out from the stairwell corner, holding a tablet.

She stood ten meters away from Fang Jiming, having heard the entire conversation from start to finish.

She looked down to check the evaluation report on her tablet that was still in a pending state.

Her fingers swiped along the edge of the screen twice.

Everything she had witnessed in the shantytown yesterday flashed through her mind.

Fang Jiming's rage when he kicked over the wooden table, his trembling fingers when untying the hemp rope, and his reddened eyes in profile as he took off his suit jacket to wrap around Su Xiaoxiao.

That image didn't match the lazy, rascally air he usually displayed on the podium at all.

Director Su Nianwei closed the tablet, tucked it under her arm, and walked toward Fang Jiming.

"Teacher Fang."

Fang Jiming turned his head to look at her.

"Is Director Su here to audit the accounts again today?"

Director Su Nianwei stood still in front of him and looked down to adjust her cuffs.

When she raised her face, her expression was still that standard, strictly business look.

But her eyes were a little different.

"You did well regarding yesterday's matter."

Fang Jiming blinked, almost thinking he had misheard.

"Director Su, did you forget to bring your tablet today? You're actually speaking like a human."

The expression on Director Su Nianwei's face froze for a moment.

"I'm complimenting you, can't you respond normally?"

"Fine, fine, fine, thank you for your leniency, Director Su."

Fang Jiming tucked the thermos under his arm, preparing to leave.

"Fang Jiming."

Director Su Nianwei called him back, lowering her voice by half a tone, adding a layer of rarely seen seriousness.

Fang Jiming turned back.

"But my audit of you will not stop because of this matter."

Fang Jiming looked at her.

Director Su Nianwei met his gaze, refusing to back down.

"I acknowledge that you have genuine care for the students."

"But until the suspicious financial points regarding you are clearly explained, I won't write any definitive conclusions in the report."

After looking at her for three seconds, Fang Jiming laughed out loud.

"Director Su, people like you are actually quite rare."

"What do you mean?"

"Even when your heart softens, you don't forget to do your job."

The tips of Director Su Nianwei's ears burned slightly.

She quickly raised the tablet in front of her, blocking half her face.

"Stop spouting nonsense with me; my auditing standards won't be lowered for anyone."

"Then please take your time auditing."

Fang Jiming raised his thermos and waved it at her, then turned and strode toward the classroom.

"Anyway, I can withstand an investigation."

Director Su Nianwei stood in place, watching his loose-fitting back disappear around the corner of the hallway.

Her fingers tapped three times on the tablet's protective case, and she opened her notebook to the latest page.

Below the line she had recorded yesterday about him truly having heart for the students, she added another sentence.

"This person's logic of action is contradictory, and despite a monthly salary of three thousand, he can mobilize resources in the millions. His audit data is impeccable, yet it shows signs of careful design everywhere. Continued in-depth tracking is still required."

After writing it, she took another look, and on a whim, added twelve characters at the end.

"I hope what is finally uncovered is clean."

She closed the notebook and stuffed it back into the bottom of her briefcase.

She turned and walked toward the Principals Office, preparing to request the funding approval ledgers for this semester.

Aside from Fang Jiming's issues, other things that needed to be audited still had to be checked.

In the Class 18 classroom.

Su Xiaoxiao sat at her seat, looking at the new homework book Liu Ya had given her at the corner of the desk.

Next to it was an extra carton of strawberry milk that Xia Rui had slipped over at some point.

The two girls who used to bully her were squatting on either side of her desk, chatting away.

"Su Xiaoxiao, your hair looks so much better tied up like this than let down."

"Can you lend me your homework to look at for a second? Your handwriting is really beautiful."

Su Xiaoxiao's cheeks flushed from their words, and she responded in a low voice.

The corners of her mouth lifted, and her fingers unconsciously stroked the two neatly folded notes tucked into the last page of her Chinese Language textbook.

Zhao Dazhuang poked his head over from the back row to join the fun.

"Xia Rui, you used to hate Su Xiaoxiao the most, why are you like a different person now?"

Xia Rui turned back and glared at him.

"Shut up, the past is the past. If anyone dares to bully Su Xiaoxiao again in the future, I'll be the first one to object."

Zhao Dazhuang retracted his head.

Qian Duoduo muttered from the side.

"What kind of love potion did Teacher Fang feed you all to make you become his number one fan girls?"

Xia Rui lifted her head with righteous indignation.

"Teacher Fang is simply the best teacher in all of No. 19 Middle School, I won't accept any counterarguments."

Liu Ya nodded frantically beside her.

"Teacher Fang has such great character."

Qian Duoduo rolled his eyes.

"Oh give me a break, just last week you were all in the group chat complaining that Teacher Fang assigned too much homework."

Xia Rui pursed her lips.

"That was last week, times change, you know?"

When Fang Jiming pushed the door open to enter the classroom, he was met with the worshipful gazes of Xia Rui and Liu Ya, who turned in unison.

He stopped in his tracks.

"What are you looking at? Turn to page forty-nine."

"Hello, Teacher Fang!"

The two girls said in unison, their voices so loud that they even woke up Wu Hao, who was dozing in the back row.

He held his forehead, set his thermos on the podium, and opened his lesson plan.

In the corner, Su Xiaoxiao kept her head down, writing stroke by stroke in her new homework book.

Sunlight slanted in through the window, illuminating her upright shoulders.

Fang Jiming glanced in that direction, then withdrew his gaze.

He picked up a piece of chalk and drew an upward-opening parabola on the blackboard.

"Class begins."