Chapter 9: Struggle for Dominance

  However, with the mentality of "we resolutely oppose what the enemy supports and resolutely support what the enemy opposes", no matter what Chen Wenchu's thoughts and intentions are, Gao Yulan will not let him succeed. So she hurriedly stood out and said decisively: "This won't do, Leng Binghan is already assigned to our class 2, he is a student of our class 2."

  Yuan Youcai heard that and thought to himself, "Ah, you're a sly one, Gao Yulan! Just now I was trying to persuade you not to take on this student, but as soon as Chen Wencheng expressed interest, you changed your tune. You really can't stand losing out, can you? But Yuan Youcai was delighted to see this scene unfold. If the class advisors and subject teachers didn't have a competitive spirit, the whole school would be dull and lifeless. As long as it's managed properly, competition will drive progress."

  Chen Wenzhi is not an easy person to deal with, the two are old opponents who have openly and secretly fought each other many times before. As soon as he heard Gao Yulan's words, he immediately retorted: "What? Has it been assigned to your class? How come I don't know about this? The student's official name list doesn't have it either. I haven't seen the school's stamped notice either."

  "This..." Gao Yulan was suddenly choked up.

  According to the regulations, the student allocation of the school is generally first announced by the teaching affairs office to each class teacher, and only after no objection is raised will the final formal notice and name list be issued. However, with Yuan Youcai's strong influence, even if teachers have objections, they usually won't change, so everyone generally considers the student list in their hands as the final confirmation. That's why Gao Yulan saw the list and came to find Yuan Youcai afterwards. But after all, it wasn't an official notice stamped with a bright red seal from the school, and some things were not quite right. Now that Chen Wencheng has grasped this issue, Gao Yulan really can't say anything.

  But Gao Yulan was indeed an excellent teacher, and she quickly said: "If you don't believe me, ask the principal if he has already assigned Leng Binghan to my class? Moreover, this is a strong request from the student's parents. Who made me an excellent teacher? The child's parents insist on it, and I have no choice. If you have the ability, go and talk to the student's parents. As long as they agree, I have no opinion."

  This move is quite clever, not only did it implicate the principal, but also mentioned the attitude of the students' parents, thinking: Now you're in a dilemma, aren't you?

  Who would have thought that she didn't mention the excellent teacher, but as soon as she mentioned Chen Wenxi, he became furious, his face sank like water, and he glared at her, saying: "Fine, as long as you don't object and the principal agrees, I can go communicate with the students' parents."

  Two people were arguing, and Yuan Youcai was also stunned. The student who had been a headache to push away originally suddenly became a hot commodity. What's going on here?

  Just then, the phone on the table rang. Gao Yulan and Chen Wenchu also closed their mouths consciously.

  "Hello, I'm Yuan Youcai." Principal Yuan solemnly picked up the phone, but immediately bent down, with a smile on his face, and said in a flattering tone: "Ah, it's Director Liu, it's rare to hear your instructions. What? Okay, okay, no problem, I'll handle it well, please rest assured..."

  Gao Yulan and Chen Wenxi watched as the principal's expression changed, until he confirmed that it was another call from a high-ranking official, and couldn't help but feel a few points of sympathy. Although the principal usually seemed very powerful, it wasn't actually an easy job to do.

  Yuan Youcai put down the phone, his expression turned solemn, and he looked at the two teachers under him. After a while, he said to them: "You two don't argue anymore. That student named Leng Binghan is going to skip a grade, not entering first year of junior high school, but second year."

  "Ah, another jump?" Chen Wenji couldn't help but exclaim, but seeing the principal and Gao Yulan staring at him in surprise, he immediately covered his mouth.

  "It seems that Chen Wenchu must know something." Both Yuan Youcai and Gao Yulan thought so.

  "Alright, Teacher Gao, your problem has been solved, you can go back first, and Teacher Chen, please stay for a moment." Yuan Youcai waved his hand and said.

  Gao Yulan knew that Principal Yuan was definitely going to ask Chen Wenqi about the cold and icy matter, she was also curious, but since the principal had clearly expressed his attitude, she couldn't just stand there anymore, so she reluctantly turned around and left.

  "Tell me, what's going on with this cold and icy thing?" Yuan Youcai lit a cigarette, slowly leaned back in his chair, and scrutinized Chen Wencheng. When the other person spoke, staring at him had the effect of capturing the fluctuations in his mind; ordinary people generally wouldn't conceal their true thoughts too much.

  It's no wonder that Yuan Yucheng attaches so much importance to it. For students who are relatively special in their own school, if they don't figure out the situation, they might not even be able to eat well.

  Chen Wenqi also knew that if he didn't confess today, he would definitely not be able to leave the principal's office. Who made him rush over so hastily? He even had an air of knowing the truth, it would be strange if the principal didn't ask him. So he told everything he knew one by one.

  Chen Wenzhi had a university classmate who happened to be teaching at Changfu No. 1 Middle School and was looking for connections to try to get transferred to Shudu, so he would often call Chen Wenzhi to understand the situation in Shudu and see if there were any good opportunities.

  Yesterday evening, that classmate called again. In the midst of casual conversation, he inadvertently mentioned a genius student from his school who also transferred to Shu Du and is apparently at your Shi Shi Middle School.

  Chen Wenqi was skeptical as soon as he heard it. This Shishi Middle School is not a place where ordinary people can enter, let alone those who have transferred from Changfu. Hearing that his old classmate didn't believe him, the teacher became anxious and hastily argued that this was no ordinary student. So he told all the anecdotes about Leng Binghan that he had heard before.

  At the age of three, he started kindergarten and received a salary. At six years old, he directly skipped a grade when entering elementary school. At ten years old, he entered junior high school. The semester final exam results were astonishingly high with 691 points. Although the semester final exams in Shu Du and Chang Fu are not unified, Chen Wen Zhi, who is the class teacher of the first year of junior high school, also knows that among the seven subjects, including language, politics, history, geography, and other humanities courses that are almost impossible to get full marks, a score of 691 is how exaggerated and frightening.

  Listening to this old classmate speaking with such confidence, Chen Wencheng began to believe him a bit. But what made Chen Wencheng even more astonished was that the student's parent was actually the mayor of Changfu City, a prefecture-level city. Although Changfu is over 500 kilometers away from Shudu, and no matter how long one's arm is, it can't reach Shudu, but in official circles, who doesn't have some intricate network of relationships? The true power behind those who hold high positions is something that outsiders like us can hardly imagine.

  Chen Wenqi couldn't help but feel a little moved when he thought that he was just teaching first-year students. Even if his classmates were exaggerating, deducting some discounts would still be impressive. If this student could achieve good grades and have a strong relationship in his class, wouldn't he have a bright future ahead of him?

  In the evaluation of the past two years, Gaoyulan was rated as a first-class teacher, but he himself was only rated as a second-class teacher. When it came to evaluating excellent teachers, he didn't even get close to Gaoyulan's level. Chen Wencheng had been holding back his anger all this time! He always thought that he wasn't any worse than Gaoyulan, maybe just lacking her good luck and opportunities? If there was a student like Leng Bingxue in his class, things might be different. That's why he came to the principal's office, wanting to get this student into his own class before the final decision was made.

  This matter should be easy to handle, because almost all the head teachers are afraid of these high-ranking officials' children, who are difficult to manage and offend. Every time, in order to properly place these students in each class, the principal has to put in a lot of effort. Now that he is taking the initiative to take this student, will the principal disagree? Not only did he save the principal's face, but also seized the opportunity before others knew the truth, and let others regret it later.

  But who would have thought that human calculations are inferior to heavenly ones? Gao Yulan, upon hearing that it was her own student, insisted on competing. This wasn't anything out of the ordinary, at worst she could take the parent route, and with information provided by an old classmate, Chen Wenchang was confident he could persuade the parents to let Leng Bingxue join his class. But in the end, it still didn't go as planned, and a nameless anger arose in his heart: "You kid, starting high school at 10 is already frightening enough, why do you want to skip another grade? Do you not want others to live?"

  After listening to Chen Wenji's introduction, Yuan Youcai hesitated for a moment and said: "Hmm, I understand. You go ahead and take care of things first. Remember to keep the matter of Leng Bingxing confidential, don't tell anyone."

  Chen Wenji's heart tightened as he listened, this was the first time the principal had spoken to him so seriously about this matter. Although he didn't understand, he still didn't dare to slack off and repeatedly responded in agreement.

  When he was about to leave, Yuan Youcai said again: "Let that classmate of yours prepare a resume for me to take a look."

  Chen Wen was overjoyed, knowing that this was the principal's way of repaying him for providing information. It wasn't a guarantee of success in the end, but he had invested his personal connections and his old classmate should be grateful to him! At this moment, his originally disheartened heart suddenly burst into bloom. The feeling was even more refreshing than drinking iced water on a summer day or eating hot pot on a winter night. As he walked down the street, he couldn't help but laugh out loud with excitement.

  The office returned to its usual quietness, and Yuan Youcai couldn't help but think about the child Ling Bing.

  Years ago, I received a call from Director Liu of the Municipal Party Committee Office, saying that he wanted to transfer a child to Shishi Middle School. Such situations are too numerous to count, which year doesn't have over ten? Moreover, Director Liu personally made the call, although he didn't explain the relationship between the student and him, I still didn't dare be careless. The Municipal Party Committee Office is after all the core department of the Municipal Party Committee, and Director Liu naturally has a high status, usually even if I want to get close to him, it's hard to get close.

  As for how the student's character and grades are, I didn't think much about it, but in my heart, I basically positioned him as a spoiled son of a cadre. Otherwise, why would Director Liu personally make a phone call and specify that he should be placed in Gao Yulan's class?

  But now that Chen Wenji has said this, it seems that this cold and icy person actually has some meaning. Putting aside his identity as the mayor's son, a 10-year-old first-year student can still score an unbelievable high score of 691 points in the final exam, which is really not ordinary. Although I haven't seen the test papers for the first-year students in Changfu City, it's unlikely that the teacher who set the questions would make them so easy that many people could get high scores, right? Yuan Youcai heard that this time the questions for the final exam in Changfu were generally quite difficult.

  What was the relationship between Leng Bingxue's father, who was the mayor of Changfu City, and the director of the municipal party committee office? Yuan Youcai didn't dare to make any guesses, but he couldn't understand why Director Liu repeatedly emphasized the need to keep Leng Bingxue's identity a secret, and did so with great solemnity. Changfu City had developed rapidly over the past few years, with its economy advancing by leaps and bounds every year, all thanks to the mayor's efforts. Could it be that the mayor's family was very strict and had a long-term vision, deliberately letting their child have an equal and good learning and living environment, not wanting them to enjoy special treatment?

  If possible, Yuan Youcai would rather have all the high-ranking officials' children conceal their identities on campus, so that the campus would be peaceful and calm. But some kids can't wait to pick up a loudspeaker to let the whole world know about their identity, and they often bring up their parents at every turn. And some parents are also extremely protective of their children, getting involved in every little thing, and even bringing out various connections to fight it out, really giving themselves and teachers a headache.

  But since Director Liu has entrusted me with this, I don't dare to slack off. Let me think about which class in the first year of junior high school to put this child in. Class 1's Huang teacher's family is from the Municipal Traffic Police Corps, so it can be considered for special care; however, Class 4's Du teacher also has a strong background, and it's said that he's from the Provincial Public Security Department. Who should I give this favor to? It's really a headache.

  His hand hurt, but it was the cigarette butt that had burned between his fingers. Yuan Youcai hastily threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray on the table and let out a soft sigh. As for this cold, icy beauty who hadn't even arrived yet but already gave him a headache, he actually felt a few sparks of anticipation in his heart.