Hearing Gao Xiulian's cry, Feng Ying almost reached out to help her, and in a trance he thought he was on the stage. But she finally held it back, coughed lightly, looked at the little girl beside her with red eyes and biting lips and asked: "What's wrong with your daughter?"
"My daughter was beaten!" Gao Xiu Lian said loudly, turned around and tried to pull her daughter's hand, but failed.
Not only did she fail to pull it, Zhao Mei even wanted to put her hands behind her back. Gao Xiulian was furious and scolded, "What's wrong with you? You went home and kept silent after getting hurt, but now your mother has brought you here to seek justice, and you are still cowering! Take your hands out now!"
After saying that, he directly pressed Zhao Mei's shoulders, clamped her body, and forcefully pulled her hands out from behind her back, and spread her fingers one by one to show Feng Ying: "Principal Feng, you don't know, when my daughter came home last Saturday, there was really not a single piece of good meat on her hands. If it weren't for my wife's persuasion, I would have wanted to come to your house to find you."
Listening to Gao Xiulian's words, Feng Ying lowered his head and looked at Zhao Mei's hand.
After a day and two nights, the red marks on Zhao Mei's hands disappeared, leaving only two scabbed scars.
Feng Ying reached out and touched the little girl's hand and asked, "Does it hurt?"
Zhao Mei pursed her lips and shook her head: "No..." Before she could finish her words, her mother pinched her lower back, "It hurts!"
Gao Xiulian wiped her tears and said, "I know it's natural for teachers to discipline children, but my daughter has always been obedient and has always had good grades. Why did she beat her like this?"
Feng Ying asked: "Do you mean that the wound on Zhao Mei's hand was caused by a beating from the teacher?"
Gao Xiulian was prepared. She immediately pulled her daughter's hand and said, "Look at this scar, it's right on the palm. It must have been caused by someone hitting my daughter with a bamboo stick when she stretched out her hand. But my daughter is not stupid. If someone wanted to hit her, would she be so stupid as to stretch out her hand? It must have been done by the teacher!"
Feng Ying looked at Zhao Mei who was lowering her head and asked, "Student Zhao Mei, was the injury on your hand caused by the teacher?"
"Hey, Principal Feng, what's the point of asking her? She is a fool. The injury on her hand was discovered by us as her parents. After questioning her for a long time, she finally said that the teacher beat her. How could she dare to say anything if you asked her directly like that?" Gao Xiu Lian yelled while blocking Zhao Mei with her body. She didn't want the little girl to talk nonsense and hold her back.
As a parent said so, Feng Ying couldn't continue to ask the little girl. She just looked at Gao Xiulian and said, "Did you find out which teacher hit her?"
"Who else could it be other than the new teacher Lin?"
Gao Xiulian said without hesitation: "My daughter is in the second grade and has never been beaten by a teacher before. Now the substitute teacher has been here for less than half a month and her hands are already bleeding. Principal Feng, you have to take care of my daughter!"
If it were anyone else, whether it was the teacher who was being complained about or the parent who came to complain, Feng Ying might have believed this, but Gao Xiu Lian was suing Lin Wei... Feng Ying felt that the credibility of this statement had to be discounted.
It's not that she favors the school teachers, but Gao Xiu Lian and Lin Wei are well-known for their discord in the family quarters. In addition, Gao Xiu Lian was the one who did all the talking from beginning to end, and the person who was beaten only cried out in pain.
Seeing Feng Ying didn't say anything, Gao Xiulian wiped her tears and said, "Principal Feng, you are the most fair person in our family quarters. You can't be partial to substitute teacher Lin!"
"Don't worry, if it was really Teacher Lin who beat her, I will definitely not favor her." Feng Ying said in a deep voice, leaving room for maneuver in his words.
Gao Xiulian was dissatisfied, but due to Commander Feng Ying's identity as his wife, she did not dare to accuse him. She just held her daughter's thin wrist and said, "My daughter's hand was fine on Friday night, but it was covered in blood when she came home on Saturday. All other teachers took leave that day, except for Lin Wei's class. If it wasn't her who beat her, who else could it be?"
Before Feng Ying could answer, Gao Xiulian widened her eyes and asked in disbelief, "You don't think I beat the child and deliberately targeted Lin Wei, do you?"
After Gao Xiulian asked this question, she was ready to swear and say that she definitely did not beat her daughter.
Before she could finish her words, Feng Ying asked in surprise, "Comrade Gao, why do you think so? You have no grudge against Comrade Lin, so why do I think you are targeting her on purpose?"
Gao Xiulian felt guilty when she asked this question.
Doesn't she have a grudge against Lin Wei, so she is deliberately targeting her?
Gao Xiulian originally wanted to gloss over the issue, but when the words came to her lips she remembered that she had a bad relationship with Lin Wei and that she had made accusations behind her back and ruined her job, and everyone in the family quarters knew about it.
Now she is using her daughter's excuse to disrupt Lin Wei's work again... If she doesn't get herself out now and the news spreads, people will definitely think she did it on purpose.
Although she did do it on purpose, she was not afraid of others thinking so. After all, the matter was a foregone conclusion, and no matter how much they whispered behind her back, it would not change anything.
But if she was vague about it today, Feng Ying kicked Lin Wei out, and then she heard from others that they were not on good terms, and heard other people's speculations, what would she think?
Will you feel like you lied and bring this up again?
Thinking of this, Gao Xiulian explained, "Lin Wei and I have a conflict. I asked this because I'm afraid you might have heard gossip and misunderstood that I was targeting her on purpose."
Feng Ying groaned: "That's it."
"Yes!" Seeing Feng Ying's attitude softened, Gao Xiulian pulled Zhao Mei into her arms and said, "Principal Feng, think about it, Xiaomei is my own daughter. I gave birth to her after ten months of pregnancy and worked hard to raise her to this age. I have never been willing to touch her. Even if I deal with Lin Linwei, I can't deliberately beat her to put the blame on others!"
There are seven or eight hundred students in the military primary school. Feng Ying doesn’t dare to say that she knows all of them, but she is familiar with the children in the family quarters.
Zhao Mei's usual dress was not the best among the children in the family quarters, but it was not bad either. Her clothes were a little white from washing, but there were no patches on them and they looked clean.
She is not fat, but there are not many fat people at the end of the year, especially children aged seven or eight, who are in the growth period. As long as they don't look obviously malnourished, it's not a big deal. What's more, Zhao Mei is far from being pale and thin and malnourished.
Although in this era, many parents believe that beatings make good sons, it is common for children to be beaten when they get into trouble. But how many people would be willing to beat their own children to death? When they get angry, they will just make them kneel down and be beaten with a stick. It looks like a big scene, but it actually doesn't hurt much.
If the wound on Zhao Mei's hand was caused by a beating, the person who used that beating must have been ruthless. But even if it was a thin branch, to leave such a deep scar, the beating must have been very cruel.
Although Gao Xiu Lian had a bad reputation, Feng Ying had never heard of her having the habit of beating children.
But Feng Ying felt it was too arbitrary to conclude that Lin Wei was the one who beat him.
Firstly, after Lin Wei became a substitute teacher, although she quickly made the children in the two classes obedient, Feng Ying knew that it was mainly because she taught well. The children all liked her very much and no one had ever heard that she beat any students.
Secondly, although the school does not forbid teachers from hitting students with a stick, they are provided with a ruler. The wide wooden board will hurt when hit, but it will heal after a while and will not leave such fine scars.
If the wound on Zhao Mei's hand was really caused by Lin Wei, then why did she abandon the ready-made ruler and specifically look for a thin branch?
Feng Ying looked at the little girl who had been lowering her head since she entered the office and asked, "Student Zhao Mei, was the injury on your hand really caused by Teacher Lin?"
Zhao Mei's shoulders moved when she heard this, but before she could fully raise her head, Gao Xiulian rushed to say, "Principal Feng, what do you mean by asking this? My daughter is still a child. Can she lie and wrongly accuse Lin Wei?"
Feng Ying was not a young wife who had just joined the army. She would not be intimidated by Gao Xiulian's words. She frowned and said, "Comrade Gao Xiulian, I know that as a mother, you must be very worried about your child being beaten. But since we entered this office, you have been talking all the time. Zhao Mei, who was beaten, has not said a word until now. I want to ask her one more question to confirm the situation. Is there any problem?"
Gao Xiulian has always been a bully. Before, Feng Ying's tone was soft, so she spoke without much scruples. Now that Feng Ying's attitude was tough, she softened and said with a smile, "No problem, no problem. It's just that you may not know that my daughter is quite introverted. It was only after we, as parents, discovered the injury on her hand and repeatedly questioned her that she confessed to it. I'm afraid you might scare her by asking me this."
Feng Ying's brows slightly raised when he heard this.
Although she believed that even a tiger would not eat its own cubs, and thought that Gao Xiu Lian would not do such a thing as deliberately beating the child and blaming Lin Wei, she asked Zhao Mei twice to confirm and asked her whether the wound on her hand was caused by Lin Wei. Gao Xiu Lian interrupted Zhao Mei's answer twice, which was really suspicious.
After thinking for a moment, Feng Ying said, "Although you are certain that Teacher Lin beat Zhao Mei, as the school principal, I cannot just listen to one side of the story. How about this, I will call Teacher Lin over, and we can face each other and make this matter clear, how about that?"
Gao Xiu Lian thought that the evidence was conclusive, so what was there to confront?
But when she met Feng Ying's serious gaze, she did not dare to say this out loud. Instead, she smiled ingratiatingly and said, "You are the principal, I will listen to you, but my daughter has always been honest, she will definitely not lie to me." The implication was that her daughter must have been beaten by Lin Wei.
Feng Ying did not respond to Gao Xiulian's words, but stood up and said, "You guys sit in the office for a while, I'll go call Teacher Lin."
Gao Xiulian quickly agreed and walked Feng Ying to the door of the office with a smile on her face. When she saw that Feng Ying was blocked by a row of houses in front of her, she changed her expression and turned to look at Zhao Mei: "Principal Feng will ask you later if the injury on your hand was caused by Lin Wei. Do you know what to say?"
Zhao Mei lowered her head, bit her lips and said nothing.
Seeing her silent appearance, Gao Xiu Lian became angry. She had clearly told her what to say at home, but when Principal Feng asked her if it hurt, she almost answered that it didn't hurt, and didn't take her words to heart at all. Fortunately, I reacted quickly and pinched her, which made her change her words and say it hurt.
If it weren't for this, Gao Xiu Lian wouldn't have been afraid to let Principal Feng speak when he asked her questions later, causing Principal Feng to become suspicious and want to confront Lin Wei.
Thinking of this, Gao Xiulian reached out to twist Zhao Mei's ears, but she thought that Principal Feng would be back soon and would definitely ask questions when he saw her ears were twisted red, so she pinched her lower back instead and asked, "Did you hear what I said?"
Although Gao Xiulian didn't pinch very hard, the flesh on her waist was softer than other parts of her body and less resistant to pain.
Zhao Mei screamed from being pinched and cried, "It hurts!"
Gao Xiulian didn't show any pain on her face. She just said, "If you know it hurts, just listen to me. Just say whatever I tell you to say. Got it?"
Zhao Mei sobbed and said, "I know."
Seeing her daughter give in, Gao Xiulian's expression softened. She rubbed her waist and said, "Be good, be obedient. When this is over, Mom will buy you delicious food and make you new clothes, okay?"
Zhao Mei wanted to say that she didn’t want delicious food or new clothes, she just wanted to continue studying and be an honest and good child. But seeing her mother's cold eyes, she choked and swallowed the words that were about to come out of her mouth, and slowly lowered her head.
…
Lin Wei was sitting on the podium, flipping through the lesson plan to review what she was going to teach today, when she suddenly heard someone calling her. She looked up at the classroom door and saw Feng Ying waving at her to go out.
Lin Wei was a little confused, so she quickly walked to the door and asked, "Principal Feng, why are you here?"
"I have something to talk to you about." Feng Ying said with a serious expression.
Seeing this, Lin Wei looked more serious: "What do you want to talk to me about?"
Feng Ying stared at Lin Wei and said, "Just now, Comrade Gao Xiulian came to my office and said that you physically punished a student and injured her daughter."
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