Chapter 11 Like raising a child
Chapter Eleven: Like Raising a Child
Lin Su went to the dormitory where Qingjie, a worker at the farm, lived and borrowed the third-grade textbooks.
Sister Qing and her husband were both farm workers with three children. They lived in a studio apartment allocated to them by the farm. Their eldest son boarded at the commune middle school. During holidays, when there was not enough room at home, he would sleep in a large dormitory with several male educated youths.
They usually eat at the school cafeteria, but on weekends they buy meat, eggs, and other foods to supplement the children's nutrition.
As Lin Su was leaving, Sister Qing asked, "If it works out, will you be assigned to the central primary school or some village primary school?"
Lin Su replied, "I don't know yet."
Sister Qing added, "Most of them are in the central primary school. Village primary schools don't have dedicated teachers for art classes; the language and math teachers usually take over, and the students just draw whatever they want. It would be great if you were assigned to Bamei Village Primary School. You could walk to school and take the farm kids with you to and from school."
Lin Su smiled and said, "I also want to teach at a village school."
If I teach at a nearby village school for one semester, I can leave next spring.
As for being assigned to the central primary school, it would be more than ten kilometers round trip. If she lived at the school, she would have to cook for herself and buy all the necessary household items, which would be quite troublesome. And she wouldn't stay there for long anyway.
Lin Su walked back to her dormitory with her math textbook, then pulled out a few sheets of letter paper and a fountain pen that were still lying at the bottom of her box.
My roommate asked curiously, "Are you going to study math?"
"No, be careful with the interview at the center tomorrow. I'll be a substitute teacher."
My roommate exclaimed, "Wow! Such a good thing! How come I never get a chance?"
Lin Su knew that she had already enjoyed many benefits that other educated youth could not, and that all these opportunities were obtained for her by Zhou Yunqi. Everyone felt somewhat unbalanced.
He explained, "They say I'm going to be an art teacher, but they also need to assess my ability to teach regular subjects."
There is no doubt that she has artistic talent.
My roommate could only sigh, "Lucky, lucky, there's nothing I can do about it."
Lin Su took her textbooks, paper, pen, and thermos and went outside.
When she returned to the manager's office, he had already tidied up her desk: "Sit here and write. You can use the paper, pen, and ink."
Lin Su obediently sat down and saw two fountain pens on his desk. She said, "Let me try your fountain pen. Mine doesn't write well."
Her pen was very cheap, the nib was worn, and the ink flow was uneven, but Zhou Yunqi's pen looked to be of very good quality.
Lin Su picked up one pen, scribbled a couple of lines on the paper, tried another one, and finally said, "Then I'll use this one."
Seeing her amusing expression, Zhou Yunqi smiled and shook his head: "You keep writing, I'm going to catch up on some sleep."
Lin Su asked curiously, "You went to bed very late last night?"
"It's not that late, and I just had nothing else to do." His tone was very relaxed.
Lin Su nodded, seemingly agreeing.
As he was about to leave, he glanced at her thermos again: "Do you need me to add water?"
"Yes." Lin Su unscrewed the cap; there was no water inside, only medicinal herbs.
Zhou Yunqi looked at the contents of the cup and frowned: "Why is there only one piece of codonopsis? Are you out of them?"
Lin Su replied, "No, there's still half left."
“One slice won’t have much effect. The old Chinese medicine doctor said you can take three to five slices at a time. Codonopsis pilosula is produced here, so it’s not expensive. I’ll buy you more when you finish this.”
"No, no, there's still plenty left. I just felt that eating too much in this hot weather would cause me to get a sore throat, so I reduced the amount."
He then nodded and said, "If you feel hot and bothered, stop drinking it for two days. Your body needs time to recover."
"knew."
Zhou Yunqi poured her some water, then went into the inner room, closed the door, while the main door remained open.
Lin Su first flipped through the textbook, which contained content on mixed operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, which was very simple for her. However, for the twenty-minute trial lesson, she needed to design the opening, content, blackboard writing, and so on, so that the elementary school students could understand it.
She is a student who was admitted to a 985 university through proper means, so there shouldn't be any problem.
She randomly picked a section from the book, intending to write down all the parts she would say during her trial lecture and then practice them several times.
Just as he picked up his pen to start writing, Xu Yaodong shouted, "Boss, boss!"
But then he saw Lin Su sitting at his desk and exclaimed in surprise, "Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I have a job interview tomorrow, and I need to write a lesson plan."
"Where's the boss?"
"Sleep inside."
Xu Yaodong leaned closer to take a look and asked curiously, "So how do you plan to write it?"
Lin Su said, "I'm still working on it."
"How do you come up with the idea?"
“For example, the first sentence should be—” Lin Su cleared her throat, stood up, and said, “Hello, students. We’ve learned addition and subtraction before. Now let’s improve our skills and learn how to combine addition and subtraction…”
Xu Yaodong stood aside and laughed heartily: "You really do look convincing."
Lin Su said, "Of course, I'm an elementary school teacher, Teacher Lin."
She lectured him in a serious tone: "Xu Yaodong, you better be quiet and don't daydream, or I'll spank your hand."
These words tickled Xu Yaodong's funny bone, and he burst into uncontrollable laughter, pounding the table as he exclaimed, "Teacher Lin, you're so fierce!"
Lin Su: "Where's my pointer...?"
No sooner had they finished speaking than the room door suddenly opened, and the man stood in the doorway, glaring at them.
She had never been so lively in front of him before. She was stunned for a moment, then calmed down and obediently sat down.
Xu Yaodong then called out, "Boss."
Zhou Yunqi said coldly, "If you're so free, why don't you find somewhere to sleep in? How are people supposed to write if you disturb them?"
"I was wondering if we're going to the sugar factory this afternoon?"
Zhou Yunqi said, "I have to go. If you don't want to go, you can stay at the farm."
"Oh, then I'll find a place to sleep in."
As he left, he grinned at Lin Su and said, "Keep it up, Teacher Lin."
Lin Su tapped her chin, suppressing a laugh, and looked up to meet his serious expression. She could only pick up her pen and say, "I will prepare my lessons carefully."
The man leaned against the door, watching her silently.
Staring at her fair and clean face, I noticed that her face looked much smaller when she looked down, and her lips turned a bit pinker.
It's definitely much better than before.
But that's far from enough; a vibrant, rosy red would suit her better.
Lin Su caught a glimpse of him staring at her out of the corner of her eye, so she had no choice but to look up again at the man with the solemn expression.
Her eyes were like a clear pool of autumn water; the man could tell that she showed neither fear nor affection.
Finally, she murmured, "Look at me, I can't write."
Tsk, Zhou Yunqi curled his lip and turned to go into the room.
He didn't close the door again and lay down on the bed.
After taking a shower last night, I couldn't fall asleep. I tossed and turned until 2 a.m. before finally getting to sleep, and was woken up early this morning.
As I lay there, I drifted off to sleep...
When I woke up, the people outside had already left, the pen was put away, and the door was closed.
He sat down behind his desk and lit a cigarette.
Raising children must be like this, worrying about everything.
...
Lin Su prepared her lesson plan and practiced it many times by herself in the afternoon, revising it according to the actual situation.
The next morning, Zhou Yunqi took her to the central primary school, where she met the principal and a teacher.
Before she entered the classroom for her interview, Zhou Yunqi smiled and said, "Don't be nervous."
Lin Su said, "I'm not nervous."
"Okay, okay, I'm not nervous." A strange smile still lingered on his lips.
Lin Su snorted and waved at him, "I'm going in."
Zhou Yunqi waited for her in the car for more than half an hour before she came out.
The man got out of the car, the sunlight dazzling him. He asked, "How did the trial lecture go?"
Lin Su smiled and said, "Everything went smoothly. The principal said he wanted me to stay and teach at the central primary school, but I wanted to go to Bamei Village Primary School, but unfortunately they don't need any teachers there."
Zhou Yunqi nodded: "Then you can teach here. I'll pick you up and drop you off."
Lin Su: "Huh?"
"Huh what?"
"But it's not on your way."
“So what if it’s not on the way?” he said dismissively. “It’ll take you more than an hour to walk these five or six kilometers. Or do you want to live at the school? I’ve looked around, and it’s not as convenient as the farm.”
Lin Su fell silent, staring blankly at him.
"What, you're not happy about having someone pick you up and drop you off?"
Lin Su said dejectedly, "But you sometimes have your own things to do too."
“If I have something to do, you can walk back slowly, or if you happen to be lucky, you can take the bus, but the bus is hard to catch. At least I can guarantee to take you in the morning.” He smiled gently. “You can eat lunch at the commune. If you want to bring your own lunch, that’s fine too. I’ll tell the kitchen.”
He really did think of every single detail for her and smoothed out every bump in the road.
Lin Su sniffed, unable to bear it any longer, and looked up at him: "Director, why are you so good to me?"
Zhou Yunqi paused for half a second, then chuckled softly: "What else can I do but treat you well? Let you suffer and toil, how are you going to pass the exam and return to Beijing if you're sickly? You still have to treat me to a big meal, don't you remember?"
Tears welled up in Lin Su's eyes as she sniffled and said, "Of course I remember."
He really only wanted a fancy meal from her...
These are truly good comrades of our time, possessing noble character and integrity.
"Why are you crying?" The man's hand twitched, as if he couldn't hold back any longer. He raised his hand and touched her head. "Anyone who didn't know better would think I was criticizing you."
Lin Su stood in front of him and wiped away her tears with her hand.
The hand above his head quickly left, and Zhou Yunqi looked at the person walking over: "Principal Meng."
Seeing this, Lin Su composed herself and looked at Principal Meng.
Principal Meng looked her over and, noticing that her eyes were still moist, asked in confusion, "Why are you crying?"
Zhou Yunqi said, "I just criticized her, and she said I misunderstood her."
Principal Meng smiled and said, "There's something I'd like to discuss with Xiao Lin."
"What is it?" Lin Su asked.
"Both Director Zhang and I think that, apart from teaching art classes to older students, you are more suited to be a Chinese language teacher."
Lin Su: "..."
"The main thing is that your Mandarin is very standard. The Mandarin of us teachers is actually not standard. Teacher Lin, what do you think?"
Lin Su was taken aback for a moment, and Zhou Yunqi agreed on her behalf: "No problem, she's a brick in the revolution, we'll go wherever she's needed."
"That's good. We'll decide on the specific grade level you'll be teaching, but it will be lower grades." Principal Meng said kindly. "There will be a teachers' meeting on the 28th of this month to announce the start of the fall semester. Teacher Lin, please come to the meeting, and we'll finalize the details."
"Okay, Principal."
On the way back, Zhou Yunqi glanced at her while driving and asked, "Still want to teach math?"
"No, teaching Chinese or math is about the same to me."
Zhou Yunqi smirked and said, "But I think you're better suited to teach Chinese."
"Why."
The man looked at the road ahead: "After all, you can recite such obscure poems as 'Yun Zhi Qi Qi'." Then he laughed, "Don't you think so, Mr. Lin?"
Lin Su: "..."
A note from the author:
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