The landlord has multiple personalities and wants everyone to pay him.

"A class reunion?"

Xia Qing was watching TV while leaning on Ye Shu's shoulder. Upon hearing this, she slowly looked up at Ye Shu's face and raised an eyebrow.

Ye Shu sat next to her, holding her phone, and also had a constipated expression on her face.

"Yeah, it's so annoying. My high school classmates' group chat suddenly came back to life, saying they're going to have a reunion, and they've even set the time and place."

"Didn't you go to high school in your hometown? Why did you come all the way to the south of the city for this get-together?"

Xia Qing got up from his shoulder, crossed one leg, propped up on the sofa with the other, and rested her arm on her knee.

"You know my hometown, it's a small, third-tier county town, it's poor, you can't make money there. Anyone with a bit of ambition goes to university and leaves. Those who don't go to university prefer to go to big cities like Nancheng to work. Over time, quite a few of my old classmates are in this area."

Ye Shu sighed and casually tossed her phone onto the sofa.

"It's quite a coincidence. The person who organized this gathering works in the south of the city, and since it was convenient, we decided to hold it here. You see..."

"What am I looking at?"

Xia Qing's eyes swept over Ye Shu's face, her expression wary.

Ye Shu grinned, his signature expression when asking for favors—you can't hit a smiling face, right?

"Um... how about... you come with me?"

Ye Shu knew perfectly well what was going on behind the scenes at this so-called class reunion.

It's been several years since we graduated from high school. Those who used to hang out together might not have much in common now, let alone someone I didn't get along with back then.

To this day, Ye Shu still keeps in touch with only a handful of high school classmates, and this "keeping in touch" is defined as being able to contact them when needed, not including casual conversations.

To put it simply, this means a large-scale trade fair.

Show off your job, income, partner, and car. Those who are doing well enjoy the praise, those who are doing averagely are responsible for the praise, and those who are doing poorly are responsible for the meals.

Ye Shu detested such occasions from the bottom of her heart; they were hypocritical, and going to one would shorten her lifespan by about twenty days.

But the reason for this gathering, or rather the only reason that could pique Ye Shu's interest, was that someone in the group said that their former homeroom teacher, Lao Jia, was also coming.

Ye Shu still felt a little nostalgic when he thought of Old Jia.

His homeroom teacher was quite a character.

Old Jia, whose full name is Jia Yu, is a very unusual name. I don't know what his parents were thinking when they gave him such an unlucky name.

Ye Shu and the others gave him a nickname in private: "Old Turtle."

This old bastard... no, this old Jia, is definitely a unique individual in their high school.

All year round, he always wears the same wrinkled pants, his belt is always clenched around his beer belly, and his striped shirt is always tucked into his waistband. He has a scraggly beard, and his eyes always look like he's drunk.

He also has a habit of never bringing his own textbooks to class. He usually walks into the classroom with his hands behind his back, holding a glass thermos, and then glances around before choosing a lucky audience member.

"Hey you, you and your deskmate can share a book."

Then he took the lucky audience member's textbook and began to teach.

If he encounters someone who doesn't cherish their textbooks, he'll scold them, "Look at the way you've made these textbooks, they look like urine rings, you don't know how to cherish them at all."

Old Jia isn't a local; he speaks a thick local dialect and can't speak Mandarin, yet he's a Chinese language teacher—it's quite ironic.

This meant that attending his classes required complete concentration, much like eavesdropping on enemy radio broadcasts, to decipher his teaching content.

Ye Shu dared not be distracted in his class, because if you were distracted, you might not even be able to react when he called your name.

As for the teaching quality... well, that's a matter of opinion.

However, Lao Jia has one advantage: he is extremely responsible. In Ye Shu's words, he is fiercely protective of his own.

What impressed Ye Shu the most was that there was a boy in their class who was short in stature, perhaps due to malnutrition or family genetics, and his personality was also the kind that was quiet and timid, and he didn't talk much.

Anyone who has been to school knows that these kinds of pushovers are usually the easiest to bully in school, and everyone will take the opportunity to bully them.

Once, I don't know how I offended someone from another class, and I was cornered in the toilet and bullied, ending up with a bruise on my forehead.

If this happened to some teachers, they would probably just say something like "it takes two to tango" or "why does he bully others instead of others" to smooth things over.

No, Lao Jia.

During break, he came to the classroom with his personal weapon, a glass thermos, and immediately noticed the bruise on the boy's forehead. His face fell instantly.

After finding out what happened, without saying a word of nonsense, she grabbed the boy and rushed into the classroom, making him identify the boy on the spot.

After the identification was completed, they didn't just offer a cheap apology and call it a day. They went directly to the other boy's homeroom teacher and asked him to bring the boy's parents in for a meeting.

The homeroom teacher of the class next door didn't want to make a big deal out of it, as it would affect the class's evaluation and his own chances of being recognized for excellence, so he tried to brush it off with a joke.

Old Jia raised an eyelid, sneered, and turned to go to the principal's office to have tea with the principal.

I don't know what he said to the principal, or whether he really is some kind of relative of the principal, as the rumors say.

In the end, the principal got angry, severely criticized the homeroom teacher of that class, and the student who caused the trouble was also given a demerit and had to be taken home by his parents for a week to reflect on his actions.

After this incident, Lao Jia became famous in the school. Everyone knew he had connections with the principal, and messing with him was like messing with the principal.

As for Ye Shu's class, with Lao Jia as their gatekeeper, although there were some minor conflicts during their high school years, there were almost no students who dared to cause trouble without any reason.

This is why Ye Shu has a very good impression of Lao Jia, and this is also why Ye Shu would attend this gathering.

It's always good to visit the teacher.

But when Xia Qing heard Ye Shu want her to accompany her, she shook her head like a helicopter, her hair flying everywhere:

"No, no, no, absolutely not. I don't know any of your classmates at the reunion, what would I do there? No, no."

Ye Shu opened her mouth, wanting to try again:

"That……"

"What?!"

Xia Qing rolled her eyes at him:

"Let me tell you, Ye Shu, don't even think about messing with me. If you want to join in the fun, go ahead. I'll just stay home and watch some shows. Isn't that better than going there and listening to a bunch of strangers bragging?"

Ye Shu was speechless.

He himself disliked those kinds of occasions, but he mainly went there because of Lao Jia, since Lao Jia had indeed treated him quite well.

Thinking that with Sister Xia Qing by my side, at least I had someone I could talk to.

But Xia Qing's attitude was so firm that he couldn't force her.

"Oh well."

Ye Shu picked up her phone and looked at the 99+ messages in the group chat. Many people couldn't contain themselves and had already started to subtly show off and inquire about each other's recent situations.

Ye Shu thought to himself that when he saw the teacher, he would greet him, sit for a while, and then make an excuse to slip away.