It's the students' fault if they are too popular.

She reached out, stroked Dongyang's hair, and coaxed:

"Good boy, go to sleep soon."

Her voice was like a lullaby, gradually soothing the child's brows.

A smile slowly appeared in her eyes.

In the morning, she got up first. Dongyang's primary school didn't start until 8 o'clock, so there was no need to get up as early as she did. But the child still got up after her. It seemed that he had slept well last night and was full of energy in the morning.

Tong Yao made a cup of milk for Dong Yang to eat with bread. After eating, she asked Dong Yang to come to the wall and record his height.

"Yeah, 1.21 meters." She smiled.

"So short." Dong Yang pouted, "There are boys in our class who are 1.7 meters tall."

"A first grader is 1.7 meters tall?" Tong Yao was surprised, "That's quite tall."

"Also, there are twins in our class who look exactly alike. They are so amazing..."

Dongyang kept talking about interesting things at school, and Tongyao listened while braiding her hair.

"Okay, let's go to school."

"Hurry up, Auntie. I need to open the door, or someone will have to wait at the door."

Dongyang is the monitor of the class and is responsible for opening the classroom door every morning, so he must not be late. Children have nothing else to do, so they think this is very important and gives them a sense of accomplishment.

"Aunt," Dong Yang held Tong Yao's hand and said, "There are a few kids in our class who are crying and making a fuss because their parents are going to have a second child. But I can understand. If you want to have a child, I will definitely support you."

After hearing the nursery rhyme, I was stunned for a long time. I was surprised and moved at the same time.

"Silly boy," she squatted down and pinched Dong Yang's face, "Having you is enough for your aunt."

The child's face was so clean that water could be pinched out of it. Then, she kissed Dongyang on the forehead again.

Dongyang squinted his eyes, like a cat whose chin was touched.

"Go quickly and open the door for your classmate." She smiled and patted Dongyang's little butt.

"Well, goodbye, auntie!"

-

-

Class nine, morning reading.

"Everyone, please pay the 100 yuan materials fee I mentioned last week," Tong Yao said on the podium, "You don't have to pay if parents transfer it to me on WeChat."

This was assigned by the school. Each grade bought a set of materials. In Tong Yao's eyes, the quality was average and not as good as the popular reference books on the market, but he had to buy it.

In name, participation is voluntary, but few students refuse to pay.

She felt guilty for taking this money from students.

When she received the money from Xia Zhi, she felt particularly guilty, so she didn't put it with the other money, but put it in her pocket.

There were also a few people in the class who didn't buy it, such as Li Minghe and his younger brother.

When the class was over, she called Xia Zhi out and returned the 100 yuan to her:

"This material is not very useful. The questions are average and the answers are not detailed. I don't recommend you to buy it. It's enough for you to use Wu San and Wang Hou Xiong for now."

However, the questions for the monthly exam may be taken from above.

She has told all these to the students in her class, and most of them still choose to buy it.

Xia Zhi didn't have Wu San and Wang Hou Xiong, but many people in the class did and were willing to lend them to her, which saved her a lot of money.

“Yeah.” The girl bit her lip, still feeling a little uneasy about the knowledge that she used one less book than other people.

"Oh, right," Tong Yao suddenly thought of something, "I have a few teacher's edition reference books. I think they're good. Come and get them later."

Xia Zhi was stunned, lowered his head, and his lips trembled: "...Thank you."

"There are answers to the homework on it, but I believe you will make good use of it, right?" She smiled.

"Yeah!" The girl nodded vigorously, her eyes slightly red.

Back in the office, Tong Yao took out her own reference books, but then she realized that she only had math reference books, and she had to borrow other subjects from other teachers. However, most teachers at the branch school relied on reference books for lesson preparation and teaching, and it was unlikely that they would lend them to other students, so she could only borrow them and make copies first.

The school provides free copying and printing services for teachers. She thought that this should not cause Xia Zhi too much psychological pressure or sense of guilt, right?

During the break, when Xia Zhi came to get the reference books, he saw that there were seven of them. He was surprised at first, and then his heart was pounding.

"Is it... very expensive?" she stammered.

"The school prints it for free." Tong Yao explained, "Oh, sorry, I forgot the one for arts. I assumed you were a science student. Do you still want the one for arts?

Xia Zhi shook his head, sniffed, and said softly, "I will definitely choose science in my second year of high school."

She knew that Teacher Tong used to be a science and mathematics teacher.

And her vague, terrible life, which she wanted to escape from but had nowhere to go, suddenly found a brief direction.

There was only gratitude in her heart.

In the afternoon, Tong Yao deposited money at the CRS machine at the school gate. She put the information fee in, and finally a warning popped up and the machine spit out a sheet for her.

Counterfeit money?

She was a little confused.

Ever since WeChat and Alipay became popular, she thought she would never encounter counterfeit money again in her life. However, due to carelessness, she actually received one, and it was a hundred-dollar denomination.

Very unlucky.

-

-

office.

"This counterfeit money is really similar," a teacher held up the counterfeit money she received to the light, "half real and half fake, it must be spliced ​​together."

"The counterfeiters are cunning enough." Tong Yao sighed, "But if they want to deceive me, they don't need to be half true."

"Do you know who gave it to me?"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "No matter which student it is, I believe he has no ill intentions."

"Then you have to bear the consequences yourself."

"Well, it doesn't matter."

She took the counterfeit money back, tore at it, and felt a little discouraged.

One hundred yuan is a small amount of money for her, but... she felt very sad.

"Aren't you afraid of receiving counterfeit money?" she asked gloomily.

"Hey, I always let the Parent Committee or the class monitor do this kind of thing, and they will transfer the money directly to me through the bank." The teacher said, "Let me tell you, some parents are really bad and will deliberately take advantage of this opportunity to give fake money."

So the teacher simply stopped doing anything.

Risk transfer.

It's still cost-free.

She lay on the table, resting her head on her arms, and sighed weakly.

——Let her do it herself.

In the evening, she called the little girl and when she talked about what happened today, she sighed:

"Ruanruan, being a teacher is so tiring."

Especially the teachers in poor classes in poor schools.

Maybe she could choose to be a little more lenient, but she hoped that when she faced those children who wanted to make progress and her former students, she could say without hesitation that she did not sink with the environment she was in.

She is still the teacher Tong that they like.

"Rest if you're tired," Ruan Qian said, "I'll support you."

"You should take care of Yugi first." She rolled her eyes, "Dongyang called me mom last night."

"Really?"

"I shouted while I was sleeping."

"That's just talking in my sleep, not necessarily calling you."

"Dongyang was only a few months old when that woman ran away. If she had to call someone, she would definitely call me," Tong Yao said. "Dongyang is just overthinking. Did she think she was causing me trouble? Did she think I didn't want to adopt her and that's why she didn't dare to call me mom? This morning she even asked me to have a second child in the future."

"Pfft." The little girl couldn't help laughing.

Tong Yao puffed up her cheeks and said in a serious voice: "Ruan Ruan, I don't want any other children."

She wants to give Dongyang enough love, care and a sense of security.

Ruan Qian listened and answered solemnly: "Yes."

"Just the three of us."

Ruan Qian smiled: "Well, just the three of us, just right."

-

-

In November, autumn goes and winter comes.

The mid-term exam results came out, and Class 9 did not perform well. Mathematics ranked first among the parallel classes, but the overall results, especially physics, which had the most homework, were very bad.

She felt she needed to talk to her physics teacher.

As for personal performance, the knowledge learned in high school actually has little to do with that in junior high school. If one has poor grades in junior high school, one may be able to make a comeback in high school - for example, Song Zhifei, who ranked third in the class and 98th in the grade.

This is positive energy that makes people happy.

As for Li Minghe, there are less than 1,000 students in the school, but he ranked over 900. He alone can lower the average score of the whole class by a few points. The head teacher should hate this kind of student, because once he is there, your performance bonus will be gone, but Tong Yao is not short of money, so he can tolerate it for now.

Finally, there was another person who worried her, and that was Xia Zhi.

There are 210 students in the grade.

This is a branch campus, not the main campus. The 210th place in the main campus can get into a 985 university, but the 210th place in the branch campus can only get into a second-tier university.

Xia Zhi worked very hard, she knew it.

But Xia Zhi didn't have the same talent as Ruanruan, and she realized it.

When she returned to the classroom, Xia Zhi was standing in the corridor, holding her Pulse water bottle, staring at the tree beside the building in a daze.

She approached slowly.

“It’s sad, isn’t it?” she whispered. “To work so hard and get no reward.”

Xia Zhi bit his lip, leaving deep marks on his lips from his teeth.

"Do you know Tetris?" asked the nursery rhyme.

Xia Zhi nodded, but she didn't understand why this game was mentioned. She didn't have a mobile phone, but she saw others playing it in junior high school, and sometimes her classmates would lend it to her a few times.

“By manipulating those little cubes, your efforts will disappear and your failures will accumulate, don’t you think so?” Tong Yao made an “uh-huh” sound, encouraging her to speak out her thoughts.

After failing the exam, Xia Zhi lowered his head and said:

"Ah."

"But you can't think like that." Tong Yao shook her finger, "Your efforts haven't disappeared, they've become your score, displayed next to it.

“Your efforts will not be 100% converted into your returns, there will always be some loss.

“This is a process of enriching yourself. You have to go through it, but you also have to focus on efficiency and methods.”

There aren’t many things that pay off as long as you put in the effort—but luckily, learning is definitely one of them.

Chapter 161: Loss of Morality

Tong Yao and Xia Zhi chatted throughout the break.

When talking about Xia Zhi's terrible physics, the girl fell silent.

"Is there any knowledge point that you haven't mastered?" Tong Yao asked while holding the textbook.