Chapter 32: The 1990s Teacher Supporting Character Who Despises the Poor and Favors the Rich (9)

Fang Yuwei and Lin Yan stayed in the village with their two children for four days.

The two children were lively and mischievous. They were full of energy during the day and loved running and squeezing through places all over the village. Fang Yuwei and Lin Yan followed them everywhere, afraid they would hide again if not watched closely.

Mother Lin had planted a lot of vegetables at the edge of a field near the village entrance. That day, she picked a few tomatoes and gave one to each of the children.

Since then, the two children ran to the village entrance whenever they had nothing to do, wanting to pick the sweet and sour tomatoes. They even brought some back for Father Lin to eat.

It moved Father Lin deeply.

After Qingming Festival, Mother Lin followed Lin Yan and the others back to town. She diligently helped out at the shop, cooked in the teachers’ dorm during her free time, cleaned up, and took care of the two kids…

The two kids were very clever. When Fang Yuwei wasn’t around, they would pull Mother Lin to the nearby supermarket, acting cute and begging for toys and snacks.

They wanted this and that.

Mother Lin had lived frugally all her life. She had hardly bought any toys or snacks even for her own son Lin Yan. In just a few days, her two grandsons had spent dozens of yuan.

And she willingly let them.

If Fang Yuwei hadn’t found out and stopped it, in a few more days, those two little rascals would have swindled all her money away.

When Fang Yuwei scolded them, Mother Lin looked heartbroken and held the two grandsons tightly. She softly took all the blame. “I was the one who wanted to buy it for them.”

“Grandma bought it herself.” Xiao Yangyang hugged his toy car, speaking with confidence.

Fang Yuwei looked at him coldly. He hugged the toy car tighter and guiltily hid behind Mother Lin.

Mother Lin hugged her grandsons, hesitated for a moment, and then softly said, “This isn’t right either. I won’t buy them next time.”

When the daughter-in-law is scolding the grandsons, she should stay out of it. Otherwise, she might be disliked.

Fang Yuwei looked at her two clever sons and sighed. “If you’re like this, they’ll just take advantage of you. There are so many toys in the store. They’re always looking for something new. How many would you have to buy?”

Seeing that she wasn’t angry, Mother Lin lowered her head and lovingly patted her grandsons’ heads. She said softly, “When Ah Yan was little, there weren’t any toys as nice as these.”

Fang Yuwei’s heart felt complicated when she heard this.

Lin Yan said that the Lin family used to be very poor. The elderly couple were honest and simple people. Their land was taken by their sisters-in-law. They had nothing and even had trouble having enough to eat.

Perhaps all elderly people are like this. When they are young and poor, they feel they owe their sons too much. When they have grandchildren, they try their best to make up for it.

They love their grandchildren, but they also love the “son” they couldn’t properly care for.

Fang Yuwei didn’t say anything more about Mother Lin, but privately warned her two sons, “You are not allowed to let grandma buy toys again, do you understand?”

“Then Mom will buy them,” said Xiao Chaochao.

Xiao Yangyang immediately echoed, “Mm, Mom will buy them!”

Fang Yuwei sighed, “Alright, Mom will buy them. Don’t let Grandma buy them. Grandma doesn’t have money.”

As she spoke, Lin Yan could hear her clearly. He looked over this way with a slight fluctuation of emotion in his eyes.

“Okay—” the two little ones answered in unison with their childish voices.

After getting her sons’ promise, Fang Yuwei felt at ease. She turned to ask Lin Yan, “Did you get the electric bike?”

After Mother Lin came to town, Father Lin was left alone at home. It wasn’t a good situation over time. The old man would be lonely with no one to look after him, and it was worrisome.

Fang Yuwei suggested buying them a second-hand electric bike. It would cost less than a thousand yuan and Father Lin could learn to ride it himself.

From the village to the town was just ten kilometers. Even riding slowly, they could get there in half an hour and make a round trip in one day.

This way, if Mother Lin wanted to return, Father Lin could take her back and forth at any time. It would also be more convenient for him to come to town.

“They said the store has it. I’ll go check tomorrow. If it’s suitable, I’ll ride it back directly and let Dad practice for a few days,” said Lin Yan.

“Mm.”

Lin Yan saw her playing with the children. His gaze stayed on her, and his mind was filled with the scenes from those few nights. She had no memory of it, had no idea who she had taken him for, but hugged and rubbed and kissed all the same.

At first, Father Lin didn’t want to learn to ride an electric bike. He said he was too old to fuss with it.

He could just ride a bicycle to town.

But it was so far away. How tiring would it be to ride a bicycle? Lin Yan naturally disagreed.

When Father Lin saw that he had already bought the electric bike, he thought about how much he wanted to see his grandchildren. If he could help out at the shop in town, that would be good too.

After just two days of practice, Father Lin learned how to ride it, although he wasn’t ready to go on the road yet. He still needed to practice more in the village.

When the villagers saw that Father Lin had an electric bike, they all looked at him with envy. “Your son Lin Yan is really good to you. He even bought you an electric bike. Now you can go to town on your own.”

In the village, it was common for parents to buy motorcycles for their children. But a son buying a vehicle for his parents? That was rare. Lin Yan was the first.

Father Lin was an introverted person. He looked a bit embarrassed and explained for once, “Xiuzhen went to town to help. They said that if I can ride, it’ll be easier to bring her back and forth. It’s also a good chance to see the two kids.”

When the villagers heard that, they thought—so Mother Lin was going to be traveling to town often now?

In their opinion, Fang Yuwei as a daughter-in-law wasn’t bad at all. She even bought them an electric bike.

When Mother Lin came back after Qingming, she had a big smile on her face. Even Father Lin now looked like he was in high spirits. How could they be living a bad life?

With the bike, it really became easier for Father Lin to go to town. He got up early. Sometimes he picked vegetables from the field that they couldn’t finish and rode to town to sell them, earning a few yuan.

After selling, he would go help out at the shop.

Lin Yan set up a small kitchen area in the store, since the dorm was still small. Father Lin could eat and rest there, then take Mother Lin home in the evening.

Gradually, Mother Lin stopped staying at the shop. She and Father Lin would go out early in the morning and return home in the evening.

Fang Yuwei was worried the two of them might be too tired from all the back-and-forth travel, but they didn’t feel it was any trouble at all. Mother Lin even said, “We used to walk to town all the time. We could be back by noon.”

Living this way now, being able to do some farm work when they return, they were very content.

Mid-April.

The school’s public lessons officially began.

Fang Yuwei was extremely busy because when not teaching, she had to attend open classes and also rehearse her own.

After finishing two Chinese lessons, Fang Yuwei returned to the office to grab her notebook and headed straight to the sixth-grade classroom. When she arrived, the back row of the classroom was already filled with many teachers from different grades.

Fang Yuwei took a chair from the side and sat off to one side.

She didn’t have deep connections with the school’s teachers. They merely exchanged polite smiles as greetings.

Not long after, Wang Guohai arrived.

“Teacher Wang is here.”

“Teacher Wang.”

Several teachers raised their hands in greeting, thinking that since Wang Guohai was a veteran teacher, maintaining good relations was important.

Just as Fang Yuwei silently hoped he wouldn’t sit next to her, he came over and sat right beside her.

“……” Fang Yuwei had no choice but to greet him. “Teacher Wang.”

“Mm,” Wang Guohai replied, still acting rather formal.

Fang Yuwei didn’t mind. She just noted the time and location in her notebook when Su Yue arrived.

As soon as she entered, the other teachers immediately became enthusiastic. “Teacher Su is here?”

“Mm, just finished class,” Su Yue replied with a smile.

“We just finished class too,” said Teacher Li next to her, taking the opportunity to compliment her, “Your skirt looks really nice today. Where did you buy it? I want one too.”

“I got it in the city. Next time, let’s go together.” Su Yue wasn’t the least bit modest when receiving praise.

Her sense of style was ahead of its time. She had just gotten a perm recently and among all the teachers, she was definitely on the cutting edge. Especially since she wore light makeup today, she felt very confident.

“Sit here,” Teacher Li invited her warmly to sit beside her.

Su Yue was one of only two English teachers at this primary school in town. She had a college degree. The other one was an older teacher who didn’t teach well and was just biding time until retirement.

Everyone thought that their children would have to learn English in the future, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a good relationship with Su Yue.

“I’ll just sit here,” Su Yue said and took a chair, then sat next to Fang Yuwei. She even greeted her, “Teacher Fang.”

Fang Yuwei looked up from her notebook and gave a slight smile. “Teacher Su.”

As for Su Yue, she couldn’t quite say how she felt. After all, this woman was to be the future “stepmother” of her two sons, Lin Yan’s “second wife.”

According to how things were supposed to unfold, Su Yue was the one who came to save Lin Yan and the children. But why did she find her so hard to tolerate?

Fang Yuwei’s approach toward Su Yue was simple—keep a distance, don’t get close.

But Su Yue just had to come up and stick to her.

“Teacher Fang, just finished class?” Su Yue asked again.

“Mm.” Fang Yuwei nodded and smiled as she spoke. “Didn’t we just run into each other downstairs? I just finished two Chinese lessons.”

She had just come out of the classroom when she ran into Su Yue. Wasn’t that question redundant?

Wait a moment.

Su Yue trying to cozy up to her like this—could it be that she was already eyeing her husband and kids?

Hearing this, Su Yue’s expression froze for a second. “I totally forgot. There are so many classes that I lost track.”

“It’s fine.” Fang Yuwei wore a forgiving expression, then lowered her head again to look at her notebook and said nothing more.

She did seem a bit arrogant.

Wang Guohai was Su Yue’s uncle. Su Yue had come to this school through his connection. He was an old teacher, and even Principal Wang had to give him some face.

“Teacher Fang.” Wang Guohai turned his head and said with hidden meaning, “Tomorrow is your open class. Today’s two sessions are both Chinese. You should listen closely to how the upper-grade teachers teach. There’s still time to learn.”

As soon as he said that, everyone was reminded of Fang Yuwei’s open class last year.

Actually, many teachers hadn’t paid much attention since they had listened to too many classes. But Fang Yuwei was a bit of a special case—mainly because her husband was handsome and the two sons she gave birth to were truly good-looking.

With such family conditions, Fang Yuwei still wasn’t satisfied and often argued with her husband. She wasn’t very good to her students either and seemed perfunctory in class.

Everyone envied her family. Her husband was caring, and she was good-looking. But her poor relationship with her husband and lackluster teaching gave them a bit of psychological balance.

Fang Yuwei half-joked. “Teacher Wang, please don’t keep picking on me. The principal already reminded me.”

The underlying meaning in her words clearly reminded Wang Guohai not to meddle too much. He wasn’t a school leader, so he should mind his own business.

As expected, Wang Guohai’s face darkened at once. “Last year your open class was the only one I couldn’t sit through. Isn’t that a problem with our Chinese group?”

“I’ll go over the details again with Group Leader Zhang.”

Fang Yuwei responded in a good-natured tone but made the atmosphere tense again. Seeing Wang Guohai’s face turn ashen, she ignored it and still had a slight smile on her lips.

Group Leader Zhang was the head of all the school’s Chinese teachers.

As for Wang Guohai—what was he?

Seeing the atmosphere grow too awkward, Su Yue quickly spoke up. “Class is about to start. Are all the teachers here?”

“Almost.” Teacher Li smiled and tried to shift the topic. “I’ll go take another look.”

Wang Guohai was fuming and didn’t hear a thing throughout the entire class. On the other hand, Fang Yuwei had even taken notes.

As soon as class ended, Wang Guohai wanted to argue a few words to vent his anger, but Fang Yuwei folded her chair and left without looking back.

His eyes bulged in fury again and he said heavily, “Look at her attitude. Her teaching’s awful and her attitude’s even worse. What can she possibly accomplish?”

“Teacher Wang, don’t be mad. That’s just how Teacher Fang is. You know that.” Teacher Li stepped up to comfort him.

“Exactly, exactly.” Everyone chimed in.

Su Yue also stepped forward. “Uncle, don’t be angry. She didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I think she did. So aggressive—who knows what she’ll teach in that open class.”

At the same time.

Fang Yuwei returned to the dormitory. There was a wedding in the village today, so Father Lin and Mother Lin didn’t come. Lin Yan had already picked up the children and was cooking in the kitchen.

When she came back, the two kids ran up happily and called out, “Mom.”

Fang Yuwei was not in high spirits. Looking at the two children, she thought of Su Yue and her expression sagged.

“Hungry? It’ll be ready soon.” Lin Yan poked his head out from the kitchen and said softly.

“Hmph!” Fang Yuwei looked at his face and then at the two miniature versions, and huffed heavily. “You three little rascals!”She added sharply, “One big pervert with two little brats!”