Soon, the news reached Wang Guangming's ears, and coupled with what Chen Xiangxiu had told him, he immediately lost all goodwill towards the new principal.
Having no other choice, he had to visit each of the families who hadn't paid their tuition and rice on time to inquire about their situation.
They didn't intentionally refuse to pay. Some had family members suddenly fall ill and ran out of money, while others had money saved up for a happy occasion and weren't in a hurry to pay.
Wang Guangming could only urge them to pay as soon as possible; if they really couldn't pay, he could pay for it in advance.
I heard that the school used to charge only three yuan for tuition, but this semester the tuition has increased to four yuan, and the rice has also increased from twenty jin to twenty-five jin.
Other teachers had no choice, since there was a policy basis for charging this much. In the past, the fees were lower because the old principal had tried every means to cut expenses in order to ensure the school could operate normally.
Qi Wei, on the other hand, collected tuition fees at the start of the semester and immediately had everyone take the money to buy a brand new lectern, along with the rulers and chalk they used for the whole year. He said he couldn't let the teachers have such difficult teaching conditions and tried to win them over.
In fact, Du Wenbing and the other teachers are all dedicated and don't care about those things. What they care more about is whether raising tuition fees will affect the children.
As soon as Qi Wei announced the policy that required tuition fees to be paid first, many children indeed stopped coming to school.
Especially for some girls, under the deep-rooted traditional thinking, they believe that studying too much is useless, since they still have to get married anyway, so their parents are even less willing to spend this money unnecessarily.
Wang Guangming helped solve the problem in the Shengli Brigade, but the other brigade leaders weren't so lucky. Not going to school was their family's choice, and even if they wanted to, they didn't have the energy to manage it.
Du Wenbing gets a headache whenever he sees the few empty desks in the classroom. He has no choice but to go to each child's home after school to explain the situation.
Qi Wei was still wondering in his office why the captain of the Victory Brigade hadn't come to see him. He asked An Jie and found out that it was the captain who had solved the problem.
The next day, Qi Wei strolled into the campus from his dormitory in the commune, and was immediately surrounded by a group of farmers dressed in homespun clothes.
"So you're the new principal? You're all dressed up like a proper person, but why are you so incompetent?" A middle-aged woman glared at him.
Others chimed in, "Yeah, didn't they know our brigade had a poor harvest last year? If it were the old principal, he would have waited until after the double harvest to pay the tuition and rice. But with this system, the kids have nothing to do at home all day. What if they become good-for-nothings in the future?"
"Don't waste your breath on him, just go and complain to the commune!"
Qi Wei realized that these were parents of children who couldn't afford to go to school who had come to cause trouble.
He straightened his clothes and said seriously, "What are you all making a fuss about here? I'm just following the policy. Schooling only costs a few dollars. If you're really worried that your kids will become street urchins, why don't you borrow some money?"
The women and men exchanged glances, almost furious. Last year, their rice harvest was poor, and they barely managed to avoid starvation thanks to the help of the neighboring brigade. If they hadn't been so desperate for food, who would have been willing to default on tuition fees?
The entire brigade is broke; who are they supposed to borrow from?
Seeing that they had nothing to say, Qi Wei waved to the teachers who came to work, "One of you come over here and handle this matter."
He couldn't be bothered to deal with these troublemakers.
But none of the teachers who heard him come over; they pretended not to hear him and quickly went up to their offices on the second floor.
When Du Wenbing saw Lin Ye, he greeted him with a smile and whispered, "Ah Ye, your idea was right. The Tiger Hill Brigade didn't have a good harvest last year, so naturally the tuition fees will be paid a little later. You're absolutely right to remind us."
Lin Ye raised an eyebrow at him, then walked out of the classroom, leaned on the concrete railing, and shouted down, "Principal Qi, your idea of having parents borrow tuition fees is great. Why don't we borrow from you? Your salary is the highest in our school, I heard it's fifty-four yuan. If we lend it all to the children, it can solve the schooling problem for more than a dozen kids!"
His words were like a pebble thrown into a lake, immediately stirring up the emotions of the group of parents, who all started asking Qi Wei for money.
Qi Wei glared at Lin Ye and then busied himself dealing with the parents.
Anjie arrived at work and, seeing this scene, immediately rushed over to block Qi Wei, yelling:
"Shut up! All of you, shut up! This is the new principal, how can you be so disrespectful to him!"
“He does inhuman things, how can we respect him! You are Teacher An, right? Last time my son was talking in class, you hit his hand with a ruler and broke it. I didn’t hold it against you because you are a teacher. I didn’t expect you to protect the new principal like this.”
The same woman who had spoken earlier immediately turned the attention to Anjie.
Don't let her gentle appearance fool you; she's a teacher of a minor subject, but she's incredibly strict with the children. If anyone makes a sound or stirs up a small movement during class, she'll hit their hand with a ruler.
At this time, teachers more or less used corporal punishment on students, but while other teachers mostly made students stand as punishment, she actually hit them.
The parents who came all mentioned that their children had been physically punished by Teacher An, but at the time they didn't think it was a big deal and none of them caused any trouble for An Jie.
Now that Anjie has walked right into the line of fire, she shouldn't blame them for being impolite.
Several women even shoved Anjie a few times; if Qi Wei hadn't been there to support her, she would have fallen to the ground.
Seeing that the visitor was becoming increasingly agitated, Qi Wei, adhering to the principle of "a wise man doesn't fight a losing battle," quickly stepped in to calm him down:
"Parents, I understand your difficulties. It was my oversight that led to that policy. How about this, you parents can postpone paying your tuition fees, and let your children come to school tomorrow!"
Hearing Qi Wei say this, everyone gradually calmed down, but before leaving, they did not forget to warn An Jie not to use a ruler to hit their child in the future.
Anjie was furious. After everyone left, she ran to Qi Wei's office and cried for a long time.
Seeing her sobbing, Qi Wei felt extremely annoyed, but remembering the situation just now, and how she was the only one who stood by his side, he couldn't help but gently comfort her:
"Why bother arguing with those scoundrels! Don't worry, from now on at school, I'll protect you, and no one will dare to do anything to you!"
Anjie then stopped crying and smiled, looking at him with a hint of shyness. "Principal, you're so kind. They all ostracize me, they won't let me teach core subjects or be a homeroom teacher."
"You're so righteous, how could they treat you like this? If I let you teach the core subject, what would you want to teach?"
"Really? I want to teach Chinese." Anjie was overjoyed. She herself didn't quite understand math, so teaching Chinese was a safer bet.
Qi Wei glanced at her with amusement and said, "I'm the principal. I can decide who teaches whom with just a word."
After Anjie returned to the teachers' office, she cast a disdainful glance at the two Chinese language teachers sitting in their seats.
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