When Yan Fei heard that his teacher was coming for a home visit, he was initially shocked. But then he calmed down. He was alone here, what could the teacher do? It’s not like he hadn’t had home visits before.
"Scram, scram, scram. Go mind your own business, why do you care about my home visit..." While shooing Heizi away, he hastily peered outside through the small window of his liquor shop. He took a quick look and immediately retracted his head.
As expected, it was his class teacher, Guan Yue. However, she didn’t directly come to the cattle farm, but was across the road, pushing a bicycle and observing this way.
"Hehe, I told you you’re unlucky! You skip class every day and you still have the audacity to call yourself a student!" To gloat, Heizi, risking getting beaten up, stubbornly stayed outside the door, his joy was beyond description.
"Get lost. You have no place to talk when you didn’t even finish middle school. By the way, since you don’t attend school, how do you know she’s our class teacher?" Yan Fei was annoyed by his smug expression.
"Heh, let me tell you something, I know every beautiful teacher in every school in the town. Whenever a new beauty arrives, we make sure to check out her background first. Although I don’t go to school, at the very least, I have a middle school diploma. This is just me caring about the education business in Sancha River town!" Heizi arrogantly declared.
This is what shamelessness looks like!
This ’caring about the educational business’ is nothing but a group of guys with excessive hormones, idling around, and having nothing better to do. They pry about which beautiful teacher has newly arrived at the school, stare at them at the school gate, and feel elated, they can’t wait to brag and fantasize when they get home.
This kind of shamelessness has its own levels, and with the likes of Heizi, it has reached a considerably high level, something an average person truly cannot compete with.
Yan Fei didn’t bother responding. He peeked outside again and saw that his teacher was still standing on the roadside, looking rather hesitant.
Yan Fei thought for a moment and finally decided to go out. The moment he went out, Heizi swiftly scurried to the gate and sat there with his eyes straight ahead. Without guessing, one would know that he was laughing his head off inside.
"Teacher Guan, what brought you here?" Yan Fei walked up to her, greeting his teacher from afar. At this time, he must not show an ounce of guilt; he was very busy, very busy, very busy. If he didn’t have time to attend school, there was a reason for that, it was definitely not because he deliberately skipped his classes.
"Ah, Yan Fei..." Teacher Guan was lost in her thoughts when he came out. Hearing him speak, she finally reacted. "Actually, I have nothing in particular, just, just came to have a look..."
There must be something!
Yan Fei mumbled to himself, smiling outwardly. "Teacher, come in and have a seat! I’m not very busy at this moment. Why don’t you take a look at my cattle farm?"
I am actually very busy, I’m just ’not very busy’ only at this moment. So, teacher, you should stop talking about my skipping classes. I have my reasons.
"Hmm, alright!" Guan Yue hesitated for a second and then followed him in.
At this time, no children were coming in at the gate, they were all playing in the courtyard. As soon as Guan Yue stepped in, she frowned and asked, "Yan Fei, what exactly do you do here? What are they looking at?"
Yan Fei awkwardly replied, "This is just something to amuse children, catching wild chickens and rabbits, as well as some centipedes, scorpions, and snakes, to show them something exotic."
As soon as Guan Yue heard about centipedes and snakes, she fell silent. When they entered the house, she began to praise how vast Yan Fei’s cattle farm was and how he cared enough to let the children play there, and so on. She strayed off topic, and didn’t mention why she came.
Yan Fei was getting impatient. He decided to ask directly: "Teacher Guan, if you have any business with me, please tell me straightaway. I’ve been really busy these few days. Otherwise, I’d have gone to school. After these few days, I’ll diligently attend school..."
Guan Yue hesitated for a moment, then stuttered, "Yan Fei, I want to ask you something, you have so many cattle here, do you need to hire someone to help?"
"Sure! As long as they can work, that would be great. In fact, I was planning to diversify, and wouldn’t have enough hands on the cattle farm soon." Yan Fei thought for a moment before agreeing. Since he would be needing more labor in the future, one or two idle hands now wouldn’t be a problem; it’s better than finding people later.
Guan Yue seemed to hesitate, "Well, this person has a special situation. If you don’t lack help, then nevermind. But if you could hire another person, could you consider him? Could you think of it as doing a good act of helping others? I know this is imposing, but you can think it over then give me your answer."
The person Guan Yue talked about was indeed quite special.
He was from a village in the west. Last year, he was a student in the same grade as Yan Fei, but in a different class; the student’s name was Gong Hanqing. His academic results were excellent, and this year, he was placed in the same class as Yan Fei.
Not only were the student’s grades good, but his parents were also quite capable and were in a good financial position. They could not only pay the excessive birth fines, but they also had spare money take their family on vacation to Liudang Mountain during the summer holidays.
On the way back, Gong hanqing’s parents, with his younger brother and grandmother, took an early seat on a vehicle, while he and his grandpa, who had cataracts, were a bit delayed and did not catch the first vehicle. They decided to take the following one instead.
Either way, both vehicles were from a single group; they planned to switch at lunch after getting down the mountain.
Then, something highly shocking to the common folks of Tanghe County occurred that year.
The first vehicle had plunged off the cliff.
Guan Yue had had a home visit to Gong Hanqing’s home at noon, to ask why he hadn’t reported to school for the semester. That’s when she found out that four of his family members were gone at once. They had just completed the funeral procedures and only a grandson and his half-blind grandfather remained.
The elderly man had some problems with vision but could do physical chores. It’s a bit difficult, however, for him to cultivate a few acres of land to earn money for his grandson’s schooling.
Guan Yue had this idea when she was passing Yan Fei’s cattle farm on her way back at noon.
She thought Gong Hanqing could rent out his farmland and instead come to Yan Fei’s cattle farm bringing along his half-blind grandfather. He could attend school in the morning and work here during his spare time. Even though his grandfather had cataracts, his eyesight was functional to a certain extent, and he could do some physical chores.
To be honest, this idea didn’t seem very reliable. But if you consider Guan Yue’s age, it might make sense. These teachers are usually graduates from Normal University and started teaching right after graduation. They are not very old themselves.
Perhaps out of a sense of responsibility, Guan might have felt it was a pity for a top-performing student like Gong Hanqing to stop schooling and start farming at home. Therefore, she came up with this unconventional method.
She too knew that her idea was quite unreliable. That’s probably why, even though she had arrived, she stood on the road not daring to come in!
Now, this put Yan Fei in a difficult situation.
Honestly, many students were dropping out of middle school these days. By the end of the year, it was common for only seventy or eighty percent of the initial students in a class to take the High School Entrance Examination.
Moreover, Yan Fei did not know this student, and he would not only be bringing himself, but also his grandfather to work. What would his cattle farm turn into? A nursing home?