DBTHDCAR Chapter 40

The Third Shoe Factory had officially closed not long ago. After all the machinery was auctioned off, a heavy iron lock shut the gate tight.

Nearby cotton and wool factories, along with other large state-owned factories, had also gradually shut down. The few that survived had no choice but to relocate to suburban districts like Baoshan or Minhang.

The once-bustling scene, hundreds or even thousands of workers in blue uniforms riding bicycles to and from work, had completely vanished from the city.

Ning Jianguo was now busy running the cafeteria for the textile school, occasionally taking time to visit the old factory with a few former colleagues. In the huge facility, only Old Liu in the gatehouse remained, but even he was just a temp, waiting for the next owner.

At that time, along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai’s old industrial district, empty factories stretched endlessly. Some were taken over by private enterprises, some by foreign companies, but most simply sat idle, awaiting municipal redevelopment.

Ning Jianguo, Zhao Jingwen, and a few apprentices and protégés stood under the white sign with black letters reading 【Shanghai Third Shoe Factory,】 asking old Liu to take a group photo, a final testament to their youth.

After leaving the shoe factory, Ning Jianguo’s mood had been grim; he looked visibly thinner and more worn.

In the real world, Ning Jianguo had suffered a serious illness at this time, nearly sending Grandma Ning into a panic. Thankfully, in this second chance, even though the factory had closed, Ning Jianguo at least still had work and an official position, he hadn’t completely fallen.

Ning Jianguo was in a bad mood, and Ning Xiaobei wasn’t feeling much better.

That day at the Zhao house had shaken him badly, making him realize just how ignorant and self-righteous his younger self had been.

He had thought that, given a second chance, he could look at things from an adult’s perspective, be considerate toward his father, and give him the happiness he deserved.

But in the end, he had almost made a mistake he couldn’t undo, if his father had actually listened to him and married Aunt Wang, he would have ended up delaying happiness for three people, maybe more!

He wanted to tell his father that he understood him, that he respected his choices, and that he wished him well with Uncle Zhao.

But those words might be fine coming from a college student; coming from a middle schooler, they sounded utterly shocking.

So, to avoid scaring Ning Jianguo, he buried all those tangled thoughts deep in his heart. He decided never to bring up a new mother or little sister again.

Time quickly moved into the first half of seventh grade, and through persistent effort, Fan Xia steadily got closer to Ning Xiaobei’s level.

By now, he could consistently keep his grades around the top fifteen in the class, and occasionally, when he really outdid himself, he even snuck into the bottom of the top ten. The progress was undeniable.

After every ranking test, he would come sit at Lin Ziying’s desk, tap on the tabletop, grit his teeth, and swear he would reach this spot next time. Lin Ziying would shove him away with a laugh, telling him to stop dreaming, and then the three of them would laugh together, jostling around.

By contrast, Ding Zheyang, who had served as class monitor for half a semester, had fallen into obscurity, barely managing to keep his grades from dropping into Class 2.

Without excellent grades to back him up, Yan Bingru couldn’t give him honors, other students and parents wouldn’t allow it. Now he was just an ordinary student, stripped of even minor roles like team representative or subject committee member.

Ding Zheyang, always taciturn, had grown even gloomier, like a moldy mushroom pressed silently against the wall.

If a teacher didn’t call on him all day, he could go the entire day without saying a word. Even his deskmate avoided him, chatting loudly with students in front and behind, deliberately leaving him out.

“Ning Xiaobei, Fan Xia, come out here.”

Fan Xia was still playing the seat-stealing game with Lin Ziying when Ning Xiaobei looked up and saw Yan Bingru standing at the classroom door, her face as dark as iron, waving at them.

Ning Xiaobei frowned and, with a puzzled Fan Xia beside him, walked out.

To Ning Xiaobei’s surprise, Teacher Yan didn’t lead them toward her office. Instead, she headed to the small garden just a short distance from the teaching building.

No. 1 High School was huge. It had several gardens, the largest being the central courtyard garden by the high school building, which changed its seasonal flowers every term. For school anniversaries or major festivals, they even arranged potted plants on the ground to spell words, a display everyone would call a grand gesture.

But Ning Xiaobei liked the small garden at the corner of their building best. There weren’t any flowers, just a dozen or so tall banana trees with enormous leaves that could cover a whole person. Boys sometimes picked up fallen banana leaves that the janitors hadn’t cleared yet and had a blast pretending the leaves were the Iron Mountain Princess’s magical fan from 《Journey to the West.》

Fan Xia had once tried to take a leaf home but was stopped by the guard, Uncle Dou, who said he couldn’t take government property home, even trash on the ground was off-limits.

Ning Xiaobei, of course, never wasted time playing with leaves. In autumn, when it rained, he loved sitting by the window listening to the rain hitting the banana leaves, sometimes he could just sit there and listen all day.

Beside the small garden was a faux-rock fountain, with water trickling all year. They had built it to cover a garbage room behind it; to throw out trash, one had to walk around the back of the faux rock.

Whenever Fan Xia was on cleaning duty, he would carry two bags of trash and, pretending to be a Shaolin monk, vault over the faux rocks like a kung fu master before jumping back down.

Unfortunately, in the real world, when Ning Xiaobei had walked past here with Chang Leyun, the fountain was gone. Apparently, many parents had complained that their kids got soaked while taking out trash, so the current principal had simply removed the fountain to silence complaints once and for all.

Since it wasn’t cleaning time now, almost no students passed through this spot, hence Yan Bingru had called them here for a talk.

“What’s your relationship with Chang Leyun?”

Yan Bingru crossed her arms and looked up at the two students.

She was only about 1.55 meters tall, and now both Ning Xiaobei and Fan Xia were taller than her.

“What do you mean?”

Fan Xia scratched the back of his head, utterly confused. “Aren’t we just classmates?”

Ning Xiaobei remembered he had told Fan Xia he didn’t want Aunt Wang as his new mom, so there was no family connection at all.

“Don’t give me that! Fan Xia, don’t think that just because your grades are a little better now, you can put on airs in front of the teachers.”

For these two students, the only ones who had never brought her gifts, Yan Bingru had no intention of giving any special treatment.

Ning Xiaobei was fine; always the top student, the grade leaders and even the principal treated him like a treasure, so there was nothing she could do to him. But this Fan Xia? He wasn’t going to pull any fast ones in her presence.

Yan Bingru pushed up the black-rimmed glasses on her nose and frowned, displeased. “I’ve heard you two always come and go together. Your relationship isn’t exactly ordinary, is it?”

“We’re neighbors. Coming and going together was at her mother’s request. Something happened before, and she wanted us to keep her safe.”

Ning Xiaobei calmly pulled the still-confused Fan Xia behind him and answered evenly.

It seemed that someone must have tattled to the homeroom teacher today; otherwise, why else would she suddenly remember to question them about going to and from school together after all this time?

“What happened?”

“That’s someone else’s private matter. It’s not convenient for me to say.”

Ning Xiaobei replied.

In fact, not long ago, another major incident had happened in Chang Leyun’s family. Somehow, her father found out that Wang Yihong had quit her job at the clothing export company and started a business with others, making quite a bit of money. He actually tried to come back and harass the mother and daughter again.

Completely enraged, Aunt Wang turned into a ferocious beast, waving two kitchen knives, she chased her ex-husband all the way from the second floor down to the main road. If the neighbors hadn’t stopped her, no one knew what might have happened that day.

After that incident, Chang Weiqiang never came back to bother them again.

From Ning Xiaobei’s guess, it was probably that unremarkable-looking Uncle Zhao on the fourth floor who stepped in afterward to help Aunt Wang, only then did he manage to steal the proud beauty’s heart.

“Ning Xiaobei, what kind of attitude is that when you’re speaking to a teacher?”

Yan Bingru’s brows shot up.

She hadn’t interacted much with this top student before, but seeing the dissatisfaction and defiance in Ning Xiaobei’s eyes, she felt her authority as the homeroom teacher was being challenged.

“I respect you, Teacher Yan, but I also hope you can respect other people’s privacy.”

Just then, the first class bell rang. Ning Xiaobei gave Yan Bingru a bow, then grabbed Fan Xia and ran back toward the classroom.

The next period happened to be Yan Bingru’s class as well. She stamped her foot and hurried back to the office to get her teaching materials and lesson plan.

As soon as the two of them entered the classroom, they immediately sensed something was off.

Most of the boys were laughing and joking around, while the girls all looked serious. Chang Leyun was sitting at her desk, crying loudly, while Zhuang Li, who sat right in front of her, kept turning around to comfort her.

“What’s going on, class monitor?”

Ning Xiaobei walked over to his seat and nudged Lin Ziying’s desk with his foot.

Ever since last semester, this guy had dropped the vice- from his title and was now the official class monitor. Of course, as Ning Xiaobei’s number one die-hard fan Fan Xia liked to say, that was only because his boss hadn’t even bothered to run for class monitor; otherwise, how could small fry like them ever have had a chance to take the position?

“Um… just now, Geng Enhua picked up something that fell out of Chang Leyun’s desk drawer. Other classmates saw it… and then they started arguing.”

Lin Ziying pulled a long face and spoke vaguely, not really explaining things clearly.

“What fell out? Just give it back, right? What’s there to argue about, and why is she crying?”

After hearing that, Fan Xia looked confused. He walked back to his seat and sat down casually, sprawled out without a care.

Ning Xiaobei turned his head and saw the boy sitting next to Chang Leyun grinning in a sleazy way. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind, and he quickly walked over to her side.

“What did you lose?”

“I didn’t lose it. He dug through my bag and took it out on purpose.”

When Chang Leyun saw Ning Xiaobei, she cried even harder, pointing at her deskmate Geng Enhua as she sobbed. “He did it on purpose. He wanted to embarrass me.”

“What are you talking about? You brought something embarrassing yourself. I just saw it and took it out to show everyone. What’s wrong with that? Right?”

The chubby Geng Enhua deliberately let out an exaggerated shout, and several boys close to him loudly chimed in.

“Zhuang Li, what exactly is it?”

Ning Xiaobei asked Chang Leyun several times, but she just blushed and refused to speak. Left with no choice, he turned to Zhuang Li in the front row.

“It’s… it’s…”

“It’s this!”

Seeing this, Geng Enhua simply reached straight into Chang Leyun’s desk, pulled something out, and slapped a pink plastic package onto the desk.

“Ugh, that’s so disgusting!”

He shrieked on purpose.

Ning Xiaobei took a closer look. It was a single, individually wrapped sanitary pad.

“What are you all doing? Didn’t you hear the bell?”

Just then, Yan Bingru walked in carrying her books. The moment she entered, she saw Ning Xiaobei standing stiffly in the back like a pole.

“Ning Xiaobei, why are you standing there? Go back to your seat!”

Still angry from being contradicted by him earlier in the small garden, Yan Bingru saw that Ning Xiaobei didn’t move and simply walked over herself.

“Teacher Yan, Geng Enhua is bullying Chang Leyun.”

Ning Xiaobei pressed his lips together and said with a frown.

“What are you talking about? Her thing fell on the floor. I helped pick it up. How is that bullying? That’s just unreasonable.”

Seeing the teacher arrive, Geng Enhua’s eyes flickered a bit, but he still refused to admit fault. like a duck with a stiff beak.

“That’s not true. I clearly put that pack in my bag. I only realized after I came back from the restroom that it had been completely taken apart— some pieces were thrown into the desk, and some… some were taken by those boys and passed around to play with… sob…”

As Chang Leyun spoke, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and covered her face, bursting into tears.

Yan Bingru looked at the sanitary pad on the desk, then glanced around. Sure enough, several boys nearby were holding pieces as well. Her face darkened with anger. “Too much idle energy on your hands, of all things to play with, you pick this? Hand them all over, right now!”

Including Geng Enhua, the group of mischievous boys had no choice but to hand over the sanitary pads they were holding and place them into Teacher Yan’s hands.

Seeing this, Ning Xiaobei thought she was here to handle things fairly and said nothing more.

“Hey, what is it? What exactly is it? I can’t see.”

Fan Xia craned his neck over two rows of desks, trying to peek at the back.

“Chang Leyun, this is all because of you, making such a mess of things. Go stand outside in the hallway. You’re punished to stand for the entire class.”

Yan Bingru dumped the sanitary pads she had collected back onto Chang Leyun’s desk and pointed toward the door.

“What?”

Chang Leyun’s eyes widened, thinking she must have misheard.

Ning Xiaobei, who had been about to return to his seat, also turned back around.

“Don’t you understand? Go stand outside! Look at you, what kind of thing is this? Leaving it around for boys to see. I think you’re just shameless.”

Yan Bingru spoke with obvious disgust.

The moment she turned around, she saw Ning Xiaobei standing there with his fists clenched, his face full of anger as he stared at her.

“What are you doing? Go back to your seat!”

“Teacher Yan, who is actually in the wrong here?”

Ning Xiaobei pointed at the smug-looking Geng Enhua, then at the boys sitting around him. “They’re clearly the ones at fault. They went through someone else’s bag without permission, so why is Chang Leyun the one being punished?”

“What do you understand? Didn’t you see… this thing is dirty.”

Yan Bingru pointed at the sanitary pad on the desk, her face full of distaste. “She’s a girl. She should have kept things like this properly. Boys don’t understand this; it’s normal for them to look out of curiosity. In any case, let this be a warning to all the girls in our class, keep your things in order. Don’t let me see something so embarrassing again.”

Zhuang Li and the other girls who felt wronged on Chang Leyun’s behalf all showed aggrieved expressions.

“Teacher Yan, you’re a female teacher yourself. How can you say something like that? Isn’t this turning right and wrong upside down?”

As someone with a mature mindset, Ning Xiaobei found it hard to understand how Yan Bingru, also a woman, could shame a girl who had just entered puberty over something like menstruation.

And in the end, wasn’t it Geng Enhua and the others who went through Chang Leyun’s bag without permission?

“Ning Xiaobei, is this the attitude you use when speaking to your homeroom teacher? If you don’t want to attend class, then go stand in the hallway as well!”

Yan Bingru shouted angrily out of embarrassment and frustration.

It was already class time, and the whole campus was quiet. Her sudden raised voice startled teachers and students in the nearby classrooms.

The homeroom teacher of Class 2 next door, Teacher Sui, curiously opened the door, only to see the well-known Ning Xiaobei, famous throughout the school, striding out of Class 1 and standing against the wall.

Before Teacher Sui could even wonder how this favored child of heaven had ended up being punished to stand in the hallway, several more students followed one after another.

One was Chang Leyun, who had originally been in Class 2 but had now been promoted to Class 1; another was the dark-skinned, clearly mischievous boy Fan Xia; and the last was Lin Ziying, the son of the parent committee chairman, dressed head to toe in brand names.

“What’s going on? What’s Class 1 doing?”

Several teachers from other classes also leaned out, watching this absurd and unruly scene, all showing puzzled expressions.

The students inside the classrooms were in an uproar as well. Those sitting by the windows craned their heads out, witnessing something never seen before; students from the top Class 1, including the first- and second-ranked in the entire grade, being made to stand in the hallway!

“Who else! Anyone else who doesn’t want to stay in Class 1. Get out! Get out right now!”

Yan Bingru’s furious shouting came from inside the classroom, almost lifting the roof.

………………

Author’s Note:

Teacher Yan offline countdown~

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