Chapter 16 - Picking Up The Kids (1)
Shu Jianyang’s house was located near the clubs. The area back in ’92 was nowhere near what it was in 2019. This was not a good area, and fights broke out here all the time. Shu Yan felt that her look was very safe and that nothing bad would happen to her.
“This area is unsafe. Let’s have Xiao Fei and another guy be with you.” Shu Jianyang was worried. Rape was not the only thing to worry about here. Most of the time they were after money. One couldn’t be too safe.
Xiao Fei was the young man who ran to get her last time. The other man was a well-known muscle under Shu Jianyang. They were both the left- and right-hand man of Shu Jianyang.
“Thank you.” Shu Yan was only tough on the outside. She was a single woman who had just transmigrated into a character in a book. She hasn’t even had a chance to adjust herself before she had to clean up after the original owner’s mess. Facing off a mean character like Ye Zhiqiang, it’d be lying to say she wasn’t scared. She had only done so well so far because she was backed by Shu Jianyang.
“Third Brother, I have another favor to ask.” Shu Yan really had nobody else that she could turn to, so she had to shamelessly ask Shu Jianyang for help again.
“Go ahead.” Shu Jianyang had already given her his words that he’d help her out. He wasn’t going to stop now.
“My two kids are still back in the village. I worry that Ye Zhiqiang will use them as bartering chips when push comes to shove.” She wasn’t as worried for Ye Tianbao; she was worried more for her daughter Ye Jingjing. Who knew what Ye Zhiqiang could do to her?
There was certainly that possibility. Shu Yan has asked Ye Zhiqiang to leave everything behind. Who knew what he would do when he was pushed too far?
“You want the kids with you?” Shu Jianyang thought about it for a little bit and said, “Okay. School hasn’t started just yet and Second Brother should still be home. I’ll have him bring the kids to town. I have a very close brother who has his own car. It won’t be too much of a problem.”
Just like Shu Jianyang, her second cousin Shu Jianbo was also quite well known. But, their reputation was quite the opposite. Shu Jianyang was known for being a character, while Shu Jianbo, on the other hand, was known to be a well-respected man and the principal of a grade school.
He was the only college graduate of the Shu’s and also the only college graduate in the village. He could have chosen to stay in the capital city. Even at the province level, he could have any jobs that he wanted, but he chose to return to his hometown to be a teacher.
Lingan Township wasn’t too poor of a village, but it wasn’t great either. No teachers really wanted to teach there. An entire township with several hundred of students had a total of eight teachers, four of them were junior high graduates. One could gather the quality of the teachers there. When the township learned that a college student wanted to come back to teach, they’ve made him the model and the vice principal directly. As soon as the old principal retired, he became the principal.
Under Shu Jianbo’s hard work, Lingan Grade School now has a new building and also a few more teachers. At least, they now have a different teacher for each grade.
Academic was the easiest and fastest path to success for someone in poverty. Everybody wants to go to college and get assigned to a good unit and live off of the government.
So everybody, regardless if they have a school-age child, has deep respect for Shu Jianbo.