Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
All of a sudden, the classroom was quiet. The sound of everyone’s breathing was seemingly amplified many times.
Seeing that her words attracted the attention of many, Zhao Yu smiled proudly.
Since the fiasco of the matter regarding the change of dormitory, Zhao Yu had been trying to find an opportunity to teach Qiao Nan a lesson. She finally found a chance today after enduring for so long. Zhao Yu remembered that during the first two years of junior high school, everyone except for Qiao Nan came to school wearing new clothes during the Lunar New Year period. However, Qiao Nan wore clothes that Qiao Zijin had worn before instead.
At that time, based on her recollection, Qiao Nan never seemed confident. She was always gloomy and did not like to talk in class. She also did not interact with anyone. She did not even have any close friends of the same gender.
Qiao Nan was also very quiet now. However, she got along very well with the five girls in her dormitory and had become more cheerful.
This was the fourth year that Zhao Yu was classmates with Qiao Nan. Of course, she was the one most emotionally impacted by Qiao Nan’s change.
Qiao Nan now looked bright, well-clothed, and seemingly in the limelight. However, she was in fact, very pitiful two years ago. She must let their classmates know how Qiao Nan was like in the past.
“Nan Nan…” The silence in the classroom made everyone uneasy. Qiao Dongliang felt most embarrassed, his face extremely red. He did not know how he should react. After all, Zhao Yu was telling the truth. Even Qiao Dongliang felt that he had owed Qiao Nan too much and was too unfair to her in the past.
“Dad, have some water.” Qiao Nan was indifferent. It was as if she did not hear what Zhao Yu said. “Dad, this is Teacher Liu, our form teacher.”
“Aye.” Qiao Dongliang was holding the cup of water as his hands stiffened.
At the sight of Qiao Nan who was sitting by his side looking unaffected, Qiao Dongliang nearly posed the question that he did not dare to do so for a long time. He wanted to know whether Nan Nan had ever hated him as her father all these years.
However, as he moved his lips, he felt that it was inappropriate to do so at this moment. Qiao Dongliang was also afraid to receive a certain answer. As such, he did not put forth that question.
Teacher Liu cleared his throat. He had not expected to hear such gossip during the parent-teacher conference. It was no wonder Teacher Chen told him that it was not easy for Qiao Nan to continue with her studies when he called him the last time.
Having been a teacher for so many years, he had, of course, seen students who never wore any new clothes to school.
Typically, those students came from poor families that had financial difficulties. Then, similar to Qiao Nan, they were able to enter the school because of their good results and had their school and miscellaneous fees waived.
When he encountered students who were in the same situation as Qiao Nan, those whose parents were biased toward their sibling, he came to learn that the parents and children were definitely not on good terms. Thus, there would be minimal interaction between them.
However, Qiao Nan seemed close to her father. It was as if she was the one favored by her parents. Teacher Liu encountered this for the first time and felt that it had widened his horizons.
“First and foremost, I would like to thank all the parents for taking the time to attend the parent-teacher conference. Students, you may leave the classroom now for your own activities.” After Teacher Liu said that, the students stood up and left for the field to carry out other activities.
After his daughter left, Qiao Dongliang found Zhu Chengqi sitting beside him. Qiao Dongliang felt even more stressed. The earlier stress came from his daughter, and now it was due to Zhu Chengqi.
“Hello.” Zhu Chengqi had observed Qiao Dongliang for a while. He, of course, knew that Qiao Dongliang was once a soldier. Nevertheless, no one was perfect. It did not mean that Qiao Dongliang would not make a mistake if he was a soldier. On the contrary, Qiao Dongliang was in fact, a very muddle-headed person.
Zhu Chengqi was puzzled as to why Qiao Dongliang could have such an outstanding child like Qiao Nan.
Contrariwise, Xiao Shu and he were both so outstanding, but why did they have a child who was so foolish and a good-for-nothing?
Zhu Chengqi clearly remembered. When Lee Shu was pregnant with Zhu Baoguo, putting aside the elders’ wish, both Zhu Chengqi and Lee Shu actually wanted a daughter, an obedient, adorable, and sensible daughter.
In real life, Qiao Nan completely matched Zhu Chengqi and Lee Shu’s imagination of their daughter at that time. This was simply the perfect daughter.
Qiao Nan was not aware of Zhu Chengqi’s thoughts at all. Although she was badly despised by her mother, she was actually the daughter that a prominent figure like Zhu Chengqi wished to have. She also did not know that although she had not been as perfect in her previous life, she had made Zhu Chengqi reminisce the fantasy of Lee Shu and him in the past.
It was because of this fantasy that brought her a disaster like Chen Jun.
“H-Hello.” Qiao Dongliang dared not ignore Zhu Chengqi since the latter had already greeted him first. However, as it was not appropriate to point out Zhu Chenqi’s identity, he could only say, “Hello, Baoguo’s father.”
Zhu Chengqi felt that the greeting was a novelty.
Most of the time, people said that his son was Zhu Baoguo. No one had ever greeted him as Zhu Baoguo’s father.
“Nan Nan is a very outstanding child. She helped our Baoguo so much. Baoguo can continue with his studies and have today’s results all because of Nan Nan. However, I have been really busy. I must really say thank you for some matters. As the father, I should pay a personal visit to your house to show my sincerity. Next time, our families should find a chance to have a meal together.”
“No, no need. Chief—no, I mean, Baoguo’s father. You’re too polite. To put it honestly, you don’t need to thank me or Nan Nan. I’m grateful to Uncle Lee. After my dad is gone, Uncle Lee took good care of me. In fact, I allowed Nan Nan to help Baoguo in his studies to repay Uncle Lee’s kindness.” Qiao Dongliang was an honest man. This was unlike Ding Jiayi who wanted to conjure up some connection although there was none to begin with.
Even if Zhu Chengqi took the initiative to extend an olive branch, Qiao Dongliang not only did not conveniently take it but also moved further away.
If he was still a soldier, he would definitely not miss such a good opportunity. However, he was no soldier at the moment, but a father.
Nan Nan did not mind and he should not live in the past too. He had to move forward and focus on the present and the future. He could not make Nan Nan lose face in front of Chief Zhu. If that happened, then he would be no different from Ding Jiayi.
Seeing that Qiao Dongliang’s eyes were determined and had no sense of reluctance, Zhu Chengqi felt much better. Qiao Dongliang had some good qualities and was not totally unworthy of a child like Qiao Nan.
“Now, we’d like to invite the parents to take a look at the academic report given to you. This is the result of our midterm examination for class one. Initially, the parent-teacher conference should be held after the first monthly examination but this was delayed until today due to some circumstances. The scores are not absolute. I hope that you will not give your child too much pressure when you find out about their academic performance. This will only be counter-productive and widen the problem in their learning.”
