A Young Woman's Heart

"Where's Dad?"

Li Wanyan didn't answer, she just shook her head gently.

Qiao Shishi seemed to understand something and nodded thoughtfully: "Teacher, let's go to the beach for a while and then go back."

Are you tired?

"No, but the teacher must have a lot of things to do, right?" She stuck out her tongue sheepishly. "Am I taking up too much of the teacher's time?"

"It's nothing." Li Wanyan gently picked her up. "If you're tired, I'll carry you."

"I'm not tired!" Qiao Shishi said shyly, but she didn't insist on getting off and walking by herself.

The beach is getting closer.

The sound of the waves seemed to be right next to my ears.

Qiao Shishi looked at the sea, and couldn't help but look in the direction of her home.

……

Chapter Thirty-One: Someone Didn't Come to Class

Monday, August 2001, 7.

If last Saturday morning was just a trial run of half a day of classes, then today is the official start.

On Sunday, Ye Wen and her colleagues also gathered everyone together for a meeting to share some of their experience in teaching and managing students.

Some teaching-related problems have also been resolved.

Li Wanyan is the busiest, teaching six out of eight classes a day.

Other main subject teachers only teach three classes.

Mo Xueyao's classes today are all concentrated in the morning.

Let's start from the second session.

These are the Chinese language classes for grades five, six, and four, respectively.

Just as she checked the time and stepped out of the classroom, she saw two men in simple work clothes coming down the stairwell.

They are the people who came today to test the school's public address system.

The broadcasting room at Yukong High School is equipped with computers.

However, this primary school clearly does not have this capability.

Therefore, it uses relatively outdated technology.

However, even with this technology, it is still in use in schools in many cities.

In this way, students no longer need to ring the bell manually to start and end classes; they can simply press the button on the tape recorder placed on the broadcasting station at specific times.

The problem with computers is that they're not automatic; someone has to watch them.

Fortunately, there were quite a few teachers who came this time, so this task was assigned to Taiyin, who usually didn't have much to do.

Qiu Yi and Ye Wen were walking beside the two technicians, chatting and laughing. Mo Xueyao was about to listen when the first school bell rang after the school reopened.

Yukong High School uses the same two songs as all high schools in Hangzhou.

However, the school bell used in this Hope Primary School is a soothing whistling tune.

It sounds familiar, but I can't remember its name.

Several students in the corridor were still a bit stunned, wondering what the bell meant.

"Back to the classroom! Back to the classroom! Class is starting!"

"Was that the school bell?" A student glanced at Mo Xueyao, then at his classmate, and muttered in confusion.

“Yes!” Mo Xueyao answered for her classmate, “Hurry back to the classroom!”

Fifth and sixth graders are on the same floor.

The students here are all older children, so the atmosphere seems a bit more mature.

—Of course, it's only an assumption.

When the bell stopped ringing, Mo Xueyao could clearly hear the noise inside.

Even after she went inside, the noise hadn't stopped.

"Cough!" She coughed loudly, but it seemed that no one paid any attention to her.

There were quite a few fifth-grade students, about ten or so. Although the classroom was still not full, it felt like dozens of ducks and geese crammed together.

Only one or two students looked up at her, then lowered their heads and continued chatting.

This arrogant attitude made her a little angry, after all, at this moment, her identity was that of a teacher!

"Stop!" She slammed her fist on the table and shouted angrily, "Quiet down, all of you! Don't get cocky just because I've given you a little respect! Don't you know the teacher is coming in?"

The noise subsided a little, but a few kids were still chatting enthusiastically, seemingly oblivious to the sounds around them.

Mo Xueyao raised her voice even higher, her roaring so loud that Li Wanyan, who was teaching a sixth-grade class on the same floor, could hear it clearly.

"You three, stand up!!"

The remaining whispers vanished instantly, and the three boys realized what had happened. They glanced at their companions in a panic, then stood up somewhat awkwardly.

"I already told you class has started, didn't you hear me? That was the class bell just now. It was the first time you heard it, so you didn't know, which is understandable, but the teacher..." Mo Xueyao coughed, swallowing back the swear word, "...we're all in the classroom, and I told you to be quiet, yet you're still chatting. Don't you respect the teacher?"

"Tch..." A boy pursed his lips and muttered something in a very low voice. Even if Mo Xueyao didn't hear it, she knew he definitely wasn't saying anything nice.

“You stand for class! The other two, sit down! While I don’t require you to sit up straight during class, and you can answer questions more casually, that doesn’t mean you can disrupt the class! If you don’t want to listen, there are others who do!”

After saying this, her anger subsided considerably, and she suddenly found herself somewhat amused. Weren't all these words just the ones her teachers used to recite in elementary and middle school?

"Okay," she said, lightening her tone again, "Pay attention in class, now we'll take attendance."

"Jiang Tao".

"arrive."

"Sun Hua?"

"arrive……"

"Qian Haibo".

"We've arrived, teacher!"

This guy just ran in from outside the classroom.

Mo Xueyao nodded, but didn't get angry: "Go sit down in your seat."

"Li Minxiong?"

She glanced at the entire class; everyone was looking at her, but no one reacted.

"Li Minxiong—? Has he arrived yet?"

The boy standing there curled his lip, his tone tinged with disdain: "That kid didn't come."

Why didn't you come?

The boy who had just run in, named Qian Haibo, immediately raised his hand.

Only after receiving Mo Xueyao's permission did he speak, "Teacher, he didn't come to class this morning! He said last night that he didn't want to come!"

Do you know why he doesn't want to come?

"It seems like they said they wanted to watch TV at home."

"Okay." Mo Xueyao glanced at the boy who seemed to be very dissatisfied with her with a hint of disdain, but she knew she shouldn't argue with a child. "Alright, sit down too."

"Tch." The latter turned his head away, seemingly quite reluctantly.

After the roll call, she confirmed that only this student was absent.

On the list, an 'X' was placed after his name.

After Chinese class, she had just stepped out of the classroom with the list of names when she ran into Li Wanyan, who was waiting for her outside.

"Yaoyao, what happened just now?"

"What?" After the entire class, Mo Xueyao had almost forgotten how angry she was when she first entered the classroom.

"The sound was very loud."

"Oh... these brats! If I don't raise my voice, they won't take me seriously!" she said indignantly. "You have to be a bit strict with kids."

Li Wanyan neither confirmed nor denied the claim.

"Oh, right, one student was absent from the first period this morning, and then he was absent from my last period as well. Is your third period fifth-grade math class?"

"Ah."

"You can check if they've come. If they haven't, you'll have to tell Awen."

"Now you should say it—who taught the first class this morning? Why didn't you say?"

"Fifth grade English...is that Lele?" Mo Xueyao had an "I knew it" look on her face. "Lele probably wasn't called on."

"Okay, go and talk to Teacher Ye Wen and the others."

"Okay, I wonder if Wen is here. I didn't see her this morning."

Mo Xueyao had another class in the third period, so she ran to Ye Wen's office during the break, but it was empty.

Qiu Yi, Ye Wen, and even Wang Qianyu were not there.

She had no choice but to run back into the broadcasting room, and sure enough, Taiyin was there.

"Taiyin... Teacher!" Faced with Taiyin's overly youthful appearance, Mo Xueyao hesitated slightly when calling out the word "Teacher".

"Hmm." Taiyin turned her head slightly. Although it was very hot on the roof, she didn't even turn the electric fan on full blast, and there was no sweat on her forehead.

"Where are Awen and the others?"

"out."