Chapter 8
A paradise on earth, a high-end private club that provides a range of entertainment services exclusively for the wealthy, offering unparalleled privacy.
The owner behind the scenes is said to have powerful connections, which is why this club is making a fortune every day. It's incredibly popular and has been a mainstay in the capital for many years.
Unlike other vulgar entertainment venues, the Paradise on Earth is built with extreme elegance.
The hall was filled with landscape paintings and porcelain depicting flowers and birds, with wisps of white smoke rising from it. If you didn't know better, you would think you had truly entered a fairyland.
Of course, these are only superficial.
On the top floor of the celestial realm, a man with a cold and aloof demeanor sat on a leather sofa, leaning back lazily and twirling a wine glass in his hand.
The red liquid swayed and rippled, reflecting an eerie light.
A slightly overweight man stood bowing in front of the coffee table and said obsequiously, "Mr. Xiao, you are now the largest shareholder of our Immortal Realm. Congratulations!"
The speaker was the former owner of the Immortal Realm. He clapped his hands, and a row of sexy girls walked in, each one beautiful and tall.
Xiao Mingzhu gazed at these charming women, his eyes remaining completely unmoved.
Seeing that the man didn't react, the original boss assumed he was dissatisfied, so he said to the waiter next to him, "Go and show the goods that just arrived today to General Manager Xiao."
Upon hearing this, the waiter immediately went out and returned shortly with a girl who looked pure and innocent.
The girl was timid and looked to be only a teenager. She was wearing ill-fitting, loose-fitting clothes.
"Little cat, what are you standing there for! Hurry up and go serve President Xiao!" Boss Yuan shouted at the girl.
The girl didn't dare to look Xiao Mingzhu in the eye and hesitantly walked towards the man on the sofa.
Just as she was a meter away from the man, Xiao Mingzhu suddenly threw his wine glass onto the coffee table and said impatiently, "Get lost—"
The girl was stunned and stood there. Seeing this, the original boss quickly ordered someone to pull her down and began to smile apologetically at Xiao Mingzhu.
Looking at the former boss's greasy face, Xiao Mingzhu felt a wave of disgust. If it weren't for the need to curry favor with the higher-ups, he wouldn't have been willing to take over this run-down place.
Yanyuan No.1 Middle School.
In an office.
The pen tip scratches across the paper, making a soft, rustling sound.
Lu Dachuan has already graded a whole stack of papers, and Zhou's mother is still crying and complaining; it's been going on for over an hour.
He now understood why her son wanted to jump off the building. If he had such a resentful mother and a bastard father, he would have wanted to jump off the building too!
Although Zhou's mother's words didn't get to the point, Jiang Wanwan still managed to glean some clues from her description.
Zhou Yuhe's current extreme behavior is inseparable from his family background.
His father was traditional and disciplined his child by hitting him. His mother was weak-willed and dared not provoke her husband, so she poured all her negative emotions into the child.
As a mother, she often complained to her child about her unhappy marriage, telling her son how awful his father was, having affairs with other women...
In a normal family, even if the parents have a bad relationship, they will try their best to restrain themselves in front of their children.
Instead of venting her own pain and to make herself feel better, Zhou's mother chose to transfer her suffering onto her son.
Under this kind of daily indoctrination, even a positive and optimistic child can be tormented into becoming pessimistic.
Thinking of this, Jiang Wanwan couldn't help but feel sympathy for Zhou Yuhe.
But as Zhou's mother said at the beginning, this is their family matter, and as a teacher, even if she is the child's homeroom teacher, it is not appropriate for her to interfere.
So, Jiang Wanwan organized her thoughts and said tactfully, "Aunt Zhou, the child's father is indeed very irresponsible, but now that Yuhe is with you, if you continue to neglect him, he will truly not feel any warmth from his family."
"Also, the child is going through puberty now, which is quite sensitive. Try not to talk to the child about things between you and the child's father. Children can't interfere in our adult affairs, right?"
Jiang Wanwan spoke earnestly to Zhou's mother, treating her as if she were her best friend, and always thinking of her and her child's best interests.
Looking at Jiang Wanwan's concerned face, tears gradually welled up in Zhou's mother's eyes.
She gripped Jiang Wanwan's hand tightly, choking back tears, and said, "Teacher Jiang, thank you, thank you for saving Yuhe, and thank you for listening to my useless words."
Zhou's mother wasn't stupid; she knew that what she was saying was all trivial matters.
But since the divorce, she has had to work and take care of her child at the same time, which is really exhausting.
Perhaps unintentionally, Zhou Yuhe became her confidant and her emotional dumping ground.
She hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem before, but now that Jiang Wanwan had reminded her, she instantly understood.
Seeing that Zhou's mother had truly listened, Jiang Wanwan finally felt relieved.
Finally, to take care of Zhou Yuhe's feelings, she asked Zhou's mother to take him home first, let him rest and adjust for a while, and then he could come back to class.
As soon as she left the office, Zhou's mother regained her dignified demeanor, even surprising Jiang Wanwan with how quickly she changed her expression.
She dropped the mother and son off at the school gate, then prepared to go home.
At this moment, Zhou's mother stopped Jiang Wanwan and said, "Teacher Jiang, if you need to take a plane in the future, just come to me, and I'll make sure you have everything arranged perfectly."
Zhou's mother works for an airline, where she trains flight attendants. She's now a junior manager.
She was quite a good match for Zhou Yuhe's pilot father, but unfortunately, she met the wrong person.
Jiang Wanwan understood what Zhou's mother meant, but she immediately declined politely, as she was not the kind of person who liked to take advantage of others.
Everything she did stemmed from her own conscience and sense of duty.
But to reject someone so directly is somewhat disrespectful.
"No wonder you have such an elegant demeanor." Jiang Wanwan, afraid of spoiling Zhou's mother's mood, changed the subject and praised her with a smile.
Upon hearing this, Zhou's mother immediately beamed with joy, "Hahaha, I'm already middle-aged, Teacher Jiang is the real beauty."
Although Zhou's mother said that, a hint of pride showed in her eyes, and she even straightened her back more.
The mother and son, hand in hand, gradually disappeared from Jiang Wanwan's sight.
She watched this scene quietly, a slight smile playing on her lips.
"Xiao Liu, on duty."
"Hey Teacher Jiang, good morning."
Before leaving, Jiang Wanwan greeted the security guard with a smile, and he immediately flashed eight big white teeth and responded enthusiastically.
Back in the office, everyone stared intently at her, their eyes filled with admiration.
Jiang Wanwan felt a little uneasy under his gaze. "Wha...what's wrong?"
Lu Meng chuckled and said, "You handled this matter well. Keep up the good work in the future."
"Please, let me go! I don't want to experience this again!"
Jiang Wanwan felt a headache coming on just thinking about what would happen again.
At that moment, a head emerged from among the green plants; it was Ren Jie, who always claimed to be a Buddhist.
He said casually, "This is nothing. We old folks have seen it all."
Ren Jie smiled, but his eyes held a calm composure born of experience, like a wise hermit.
Lu Meng chimed in, "Indeed, it's better to meet sooner rather than later, so you'll have some experience by then."
Listening to the conversation of his seniors, Lu Dachuan looked very curious and asked, "Is this kind of thing common?"
Upon hearing this, Hu Lingling, who was sitting opposite him, gave a cold snort for no apparent reason, "Not common, but not rare either. Whoever comes along is whoever comes along."
Upon hearing this, the older teachers in the office all tacitly fell silent and changed the subject.
Later, Jiang Wanwan learned from her mother that a suicide had also occurred in Hu Lingling's class one year.
Although the student was eventually persuaded to stop, Hu Lingling lost the city's award for outstanding head teacher because of this incident.
This was a huge humiliation for Hu Lingling, who was extremely career-oriented, so she became even stricter with her students after that.
As the sky fell into a dark curtain, people who had been busy all day went home.
Jiang Wanwan sat in the convenience store, gazing at the myriad lights shining from the high-rise buildings outside the window, lost in thought.
“I knew you’d be here.”
Two boxes of chocolate milk suddenly appeared in front of her, and Lu Dachuan's familiar face appeared beside Jiang Wanwan.
Jiang Wanwan looked at the other person in surprise and said, "Why did you come down here too?"
The convenience store is located in the residential area, neither too close nor too far from their building.
Lu Dachuan stuck the straw into the milk and handed it to Jiang Wanwan, saying, "I am a fortune teller."
In fact, Lu Dachuan knew that whenever Jiang Wanwan had something on her mind, she liked to sit in a convenience store, order a bowl of oden, and just sit there lost in thought.
Today, Tie Shengnan brought them strawberries and told them that no one was in Jiang Wanwan's room. He immediately thought that she might be here.
Jiang Wanwan pushed the empty oden box aside, propped her head up with one hand, and held the straw in the other, obediently drinking her milk.
"Are you still thinking about what happened today?" Lu Dachuan asked tentatively, observing the woman's expression.
Then he added, "This isn't your fault. You handled it very well. But surprisingly, you didn't cry this time."
After saying that, he showed an extremely surprised expression, looking particularly irritating.
Jiang Wanwan knew he was implying something, so she raised her arm as if to hit him, threatening, "You still dare to talk?"
I remember when I first entered university, there was a girl on campus who was heartbroken and wanted to jump off a building. Jiang Wanwan was just passing by when she saw a group of people gathered together and went over. When she saw that someone was going to jump off the building, she was immediately scared and cried.
It's hard to imagine that such a timid girl could be so brave now, even saving someone from suicide.
Seeing that the other party had finally regained some energy, Lu Dachuan quickly took the opportunity to beg for mercy, grinning and making Jiang Wanwan laugh as well.
After a long silence, she slowly said, "I was just wondering why sometimes children have to bear the consequences of their parents' actions?"
Children born to mothers who are pregnant out of wedlock are called "bastards"; children unwanted by both parties after a divorce are called "burdens"... But children don't have the right to choose, do they?
Looking at the woman's melancholy face, Lu Dachuan felt a pang of emotion. Jiang Wanwan was always so kind, and he believed that everyone who truly knew her would be irresistibly drawn to her.
"Perhaps this is one of the meanings of our existence." Lu Dachuan looked at the woman with a gentle gaze, tinged with a certain restraint.
Since some children come from unhappy families or have parents who are not on good terms, then the teacher is responsible for warming them up, inspiring them, helping them break free from the shackles of their minds, get rid of worldly views, and find their own personal value and life pursuits.
Thinking of this, Lu Dachuan seemed to feel a pang of emotion, and took a deep sip of his chocolate milk.
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