Chapter 238

On the first day of the new school term, Shi Tingyu dropped Shen Shen off at the daycare and then headed to her classroom.

There were still a few minutes before class started, and many students were already in the classroom. She sat in a corner in the first row and looked over the attendance list, trying to familiarize herself with the students’ names.

After a short while, a woman around twenty-five years old sat down next to her. The woman turned her head and smiled, saying, “Hello, classmate. My name is Liu Wenjuan. What’s your name?”

Shi Tingyu looked up in surprise and replied, “My name is Shi Tingyu, but I’m not a stud—” Before she could finish saying “student,” the bell signaling the start of class rang.

Liu Wenjuan quickly turned around, and the other students hurried to find their seats.

Shi Tingyu put away the attendance list on the desk, stood up, and walked towards the podium. Liu Wenjuan glanced at her in astonishment and tugged at her sleeve, giving her a significant look. “Classmate, class is starting. Where are you going?”

Shi Tingyu smiled, turned back, and waved the attendance list in her hand. “I’m getting ready to teach you.”

Liu Wenjuan nodded dumbly and instinctively loosened her grip. When Shi Tingyu stood in front of the podium, Liu Wenjuan belatedly covered her mouth to stifle a gasp.

No way! The girl from before is actually the teacher?

Liu Wenjuan wasn’t the only one shocked. Some students who had been paying attention to Shi Tingyu because of her appearance were also surprised.

Shi Tingyu placed the attendance list on the podium and smiled at the varied expressions of the students in the classroom. “Hello, everyone. My name is Shi Tingyu. I’m your oil painting teacher. Now, I’ll take attendance.”

At the start of the term, the homeroom teacher had already held a class meeting and selected class officers. The attendance list had the class officers’ positions marked next to their names.

Shi Tingyu started with the class monitor’s name. The first name she called was Liu Wenjuan. Due to her excellent college entrance exam scores, Liu Wenjuan had been appointed as the class monitor by the homeroom teacher.

Liu Wenjuan stood up, her face flushed, still embarrassed from mistaking the teacher for a student earlier.

Seeing this, Shi Tingyu smiled and said, “As the class monitor, Liu Wenjuan is quite caring towards her classmates.”

Liu Wenjuan awkwardly smiled, “It’s my duty, teacher.”

After letting Liu Wenjuan sit down, Shi Tingyu continued with the roll call. It went smoothly until she called a particular name, and the student didn’t respond immediately, seemingly lost in thought.

“He Linghui.”

Shi Tingyu called the name again, and the student finally stood up. The girl was wearing a gray-blue jacket, her hair braided into two pigtails hanging in front of her chest, and her eyes looked a bit evasive.

Shi Tingyu frowned slightly, sensing something was off. “Alright, you may sit down.”

Since it was the first class, Shi Tingyu didn’t say much. After He Linghui sat down, she glanced around and, seeing no one was paying attention to her, quietly sighed in relief.

After finishing the roll call, Shi Tingyu started the lecture. The first oil painting class was a theory lesson, introducing some basic knowledge. Among the students, some had never been exposed to oil painting before and needed to be taught from scratch.

Fortunately, the students were very eager to learn, paying close attention during the class, which gave Shi Tingyu a sense of accomplishment. There was no need to overly manage discipline.

As soon as the class ended, Shi Tingyu almost immediately left the classroom. She had another class in the afternoon, so her tasks for the day were nearly complete.

After Shi Tingyu left, the classroom buzzed with activity. The students, hailing from various places, were still getting to know each other, making for an exciting time.

As they continued to talk, the conversation shifted to their teacher, Shi Tingyu.

A male student excitedly said, “Our teacher is quite something! Has anyone seen the comic book ‘Loyal Dog’?”

“I have! I even bought the collector’s edition!” a student responded.

The male student continued, “Did you notice that the author of ‘Loyal Dog’ has the same name as our teacher?”

There was a brief moment of silence.

The boy’s cheeks flushed with excitement. “Our teacher is the author of ‘Loyal Dog’!”

This revelation instantly sparked enthusiasm among the group.

Many people don’t pay much attention to the author’s name when reading comic books, and since ‘Loyal Dog’ had been released a while ago, no one had connected their new teacher with the comic book author.

“Could it be a coincidence?” someone asked.

The boy replied, “Impossible! The name Shi Tingyu is quite unique, and there can’t be many people with that name who are also skilled artists. Plus, I’ve heard from some senior students that Teacher Shi’s husband is in the military. You know that the dog ‘Zhuifeng’ in ‘Loyal Dog’ is a military dog!”

This excited everyone even more.

Having a celebrity in their midst was thrilling.

Students who hadn’t read ‘Loyal Dog’ expressed their interest in checking out the teacher’s book.

Those who had the comic book with them offered to share it.

Because of Shi Tingyu’s secret, the students in the oil painting class quickly became familiar with each other.

Meanwhile, after leaving the classroom, Shi Tingyu put her books in the office and rushed to the daycare.

As soon as she arrived at the door, she heard her son’s excited voice, babbling happily.

Aunt Qi was the first to notice Shi Tingyu.

She smiled and said, “No need to rush. Shen Shen is having a great time here.”

Shi Tingyu saw that her son was indeed having fun, holding a toy and playing with his little friends.

Shen Shen quickly noticed his name being mentioned. He turned around and saw his mother, who had been gone for a while.

He tossed the toy aside and tried to crawl toward her.

Fortunately, a nearby teacher quickly scooped him up.

Shi Tingyu hurried over and took her son. She gently patted his bottom. “You need to be careful when you crawl. If you fall, you’ll be in trouble.”

Shi Tingyu’s actions were gentle, and Shen Shen was well-padded. He looked at his mother with a face full of excitement, as if inviting her to play.

Shi Tingyu couldn’t stay mad at him.

Since there were many children here and Shen Shen was happy, Shi Tingyu decided to let him continue playing instead of taking him back to the dormitory.

With his mother nearby, Shen Shen played even more joyfully.

It was almost mealtime when Shi Tingyu finally took him back to the dormitory to breastfeed. Then she placed him in a small bamboo cart and headed to the cafeteria.

After feeding Shen Shen, it was her turn to eat.

The daycare provided some rice porridge, egg custard, and meat puree for the children, so Shi Tingyu just needed to make sure Shen Shen got enough breast milk.

Bringing her child along drew a lot of attention.

Some students from the oil painting class saw her and eagerly offered to help her get food and watch her child.

Shi Tingyu looked at the students surrounding her son and asked them to keep an eye on him while she went to get food herself.

Meals required meal tickets, and if she let the students help her get food, they might have to pay for it, so she preferred to do it herself.

Many students had children of their own, so she wasn’t worried about anything happening to her son.