During the first week of school, there was a lot of coordination between the school and teachers. Serena Li usually didn’t bring her phone to class. Twice , Victor Mo called, but she didn’t see the calls and didn’t call back even after she noticed. She secretly thought that doing so would make it clear to him her attitude.
In the new semester, the school assigned Serena Li to teach the first-year high school students. This academic year, she will not be serving as a homeroom teacher. She expects to have plenty of time and plans to complete the two teaching papers she has prepared.
On Friday afternoon, after the grade-level meeting, the grade director told her to go to Vice Principal Liu’s office, saying that the principal wanted to see her.
Vice Principal Liu is about 50 years old, a local of Pengcheng, and has been teaching at Z Middle School for 10 years. He is also a math teacher, but for a different grade; this year he is teaching the graduating class.
Serena Li had little contact with him before, not only because they taught different grades, but also because they rarely worked together, so they naturally had little communication.
As she walked toward the principal’s office, she couldn’t figure out what Vice Principal Liu wanted to see her about.
With doubts in mind, I went to the vice principal’s office in the administration building.
As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, she saw the office with the sign “Vice Principal Liu,” but the door was closed. Serena Li knocked, and after hearing a “Come in,” she pushed the door open and went inside.
“Hello, Principal Liu.” Serena Li greeted the principal from the doorway.
“Little Li is here, come in and sit down.” Principal Liu immediately put on a formal smile when he saw Serena Li , his well-maintained face showing no wrinkles.
Serena Li walked over and sat down in the chair opposite his desk, smiled, and said, “The director told me to come over and hear Principal Liu’s instructions.”
“Xiao Li, the graduating class you taught last year had excellent math results. You’ve been with Z Middle School for three years now. The school always values mentoring and training young teachers, and I have high hopes for you. Keep up the good work,” Principal Liu said with a smile, then changed the subject, “I heard from your director that you’re currently writing a teaching paper and are preparing to submit it to the National Journal Network, is that right?”
“Yes, but these are just some of my own shallow insights. I don’t know if they will be accepted by the journal website.” Serena Li was taken aback, not expecting that the principal would pay attention to such a small matter as writing a teaching paper.
“Last semester, I attended the summary meeting of the graduating class’s mathematics group. Your insights were very accurate, and Principal Su praised your summary to the school last year. You truly deserve to be a top student from Z University. Now that you’re writing a thesis, I happen to have some materials here. Take them back for reference.” As he spoke, Principal Liu patted the file folder on the table.
Serena Li noticed a yellow bag containing documents on his desk, but a red A4 sheet of paper next to the bag stood out more.
It is an application form for the “Outstanding Teacher Candidate List”.
She glanced at it and then looked away.
Principal Liu stared intently at Serena Li the whole time, not missing the glance she made at the A4 paper. He smiled slightly and said, “The district is selecting outstanding teachers at the end of the year. I’m currently preparing to evaluate a few teachers and submit their names.”
Serena Li smiled but remained silent, wondering why, given her qualifications and educational achievements, she had no chance of being recommended. What was Principal Liu’s purpose in specifically bringing this up with her at this moment?
Just as Principal Liu was about to say something, his phone rang. He took out his phone, glanced at the caller ID, and said to Serena Li , “Li, take the documents and go back first. I have the phone number of a leader in the bureau.”
Serena Li picked up the documents, said “thank you,” nodded to Principal Liu, and left. Before closing the office door, she heard the principal’s respectful voice:
“Director Wang, hello… No problem, what are you talking about… Okay, okay, no problem, I’ll arrange it for you… about that matter we discussed last week, what do you think…”
He closed the door and left the administration building without stopping.
As I walked back to the first-year high school office, it was just after school.
“Teacher Li!”
Students kept walking by and greeting her. Serena Li smiled and responded to each one.
Serena Li walked into the first-year high school office, and before she even returned to her seat, a female teacher wearing black-rimmed glasses slid her chair closer to Serena Li and asked , “What does Principal Liu want with you?”
The female teacher who spoke was surnamed Xu, a Chinese language teacher. They had taught the graduating class together last year, but she later became pregnant and went on maternity leave, so Serena Li filled in as her homeroom teacher. Now that the new semester has started, she has returned from her leave and they are teaching the same class again.
“He asked me if I was writing a teaching paper, and then gave me a bag of materials,” Serena Li said, putting down the materials and sitting down in a chair.
“What materials?” Teacher Xu asked curiously.
“Open it and take a look.” With that, Serena Li handed the file folder to Teacher Xu, and then picked up the water glass on the table to get some water.
Teacher Xu took the books, opened them, and pulled out several books: “Modern Vocational Education”, “New Curriculum Research”, “Mathematics Education Research”, and “Mathematical Thinking and Methods”.
Serena Li opened the file folder and looked at the materials inside when she was going up the stairs. They were all very ordinary books, and had little to do with writing papers.
“You can buy all these books online, and you might even already have them yourself. What does he mean by this?” Teacher Xu asked, puzzled, as she flipped through the books.
“I guess he has extra, so he’ll give it to me.” Serena Li had a vague guess in her mind, but she wasn’t sure and didn’t want to tell her colleague too much.
Ms. Xu seemed to want to say something, but when she looked back at the office and saw that there were several other teachers there, she realized it wasn’t convenient to have a private conversation. So she turned to Serena Li and suggested that they go out for Thai food together that evening.
Serena Li usually gets along well with her personal trainer, who is also straightforward and easy to get along with, just like Joyce Wu . Seeing that she had something to say, she agreed, and the two of them went to a Thai restaurant in the CBD for dinner.
After arriving at the restaurant and ordering, Teacher Xu said, “Do you think Principal Liu might want to use your paper for his own purposes?”
Serena Li was taken aback and looked up. Although she had the same doubt in her mind, she hadn’t said it aloud. She didn’t expect that Teacher Xu thought so too.
Seeing her puzzled look, Teacher Xu said, “A few years ago, before you came to this school, he did something like this. He took a male teacher’s teaching achievements for himself, and then he was named an outstanding teacher in the city that year. That poor male teacher dared not speak out, and later he resigned and stopped teaching. I heard he went back to his hometown to do business.”
“Really?” Serena Li looked at her, her face full of doubt.
“Many people know about this privately, but it hasn’t spread. Principal Liu has powerful connections. Now that Principal Su is about to retire, Liu has definitely been eyeing the position of principal for a long time. To get that position, having a strong background is the main thing, but teaching achievements also need to be impressive.”
“A teaching paper can hardly be considered a teaching achievement!”
Teacher Xu chuckled twice and said, “You should know that little things add up, and he probably isn’t just targeting you. In short, you need to be careful.”
Serena Li nodded. Aside from the incident Ms. Xu had just mentioned from several years ago, which she was unaware of, she could roughly guess Principal Liu’s intentions.
I once heard a friend who was pursuing a PhD say that she had worked hard on her research, but her supervisor put her own name as the first author on her core paper. In order to graduate smoothly, my friend dared not speak out.
Serena Li isn’t thinking about what would happen if she wrote her paper and sent it directly to the National Academic Journals Network instead of showing it to Principal Liu. The result would definitely be bad, but she’s not dwelling on it right now.
After the food was served, the two stopped talking about the topic.
After dinner, Ms. Xu had to rush home to see her child. Serena Li, seeing that it was still early, went to the mall to look at men’s clothing, intending to buy a few clothes for her father.
After buying clothes, I stood under the glass at the entrance of the mall. The heavy rain was raging, as if it would flood the entire city, and showed no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Serena Li left school without rain gear in the afternoon. She looked around for a moment, then turned and went back into the mall. She took the elevator down to the basement level because she saw that the parking lot exit was facing a direction that seemed closer to the taxi stand on the street.
As she walked uphill in the parking lot, looking at the torrential rain at the exit and hearing the deafening sound of the rain, her pace gradually slowed down. Soon the rain intensified! No matter how close she got to the parking sign, she would be soaked to the bone by the time she stepped outside, especially since she was carrying her newly bought clothes.
As she hesitated, a car horn sounded behind her.
Serena Li didn’t turn around, but instinctively moved aside to make way, but the car stopped right next to her without warning.
The passenger window was already down. She tilted her head to look inside the car, first at his jawline, then at his well-defined face. It was Victor Mo. What a coincidence.
He leaned forward and said, “Get in the car, I’ll give you a ride.”
Serena Li paused for a moment, glanced at the bag of clothes in her hand, and then had an idea. She hesitated for a second, looked up and saw Victor Mo’s deep eyes, then straddled the seat. Just as she pulled on her seatbelt, the man next to her didn’t rush to drive, but instead handed her a box of tissues.
“Thank you.” Serena Li pulled out a few tissues and wiped the rainwater off her skirt and calves.
“Going home?” he asked.
Serena Li nodded, but the moment his eyes met hers , she would immediately look away.
Victor Mo glanced at her, then quickly looked away. His long, slender fingers expertly turned the steering wheel, and the car slowly drove out of the parking lot, smoothly over the yellow speed bumps, onto the road, and into the flow of traffic.
Serena Li was trying to figure out how to chat with him without feeling awkward when she heard him speak, “Have you eaten?”
“have eaten.”
Why didn’t you answer my calls later?
“I’ve been really busy since the start of the semester.” This isn’t an excuse; I really am busy, and I just don’t want to go back.
The light ahead turned red, and the car slowed down. Victor Mo stared at her, noticing the shopping bag she was holding, its opening open, revealing two men’s shirts inside. His brow furrowed.
Serena Li happened to look up and see him staring at the shopping bag in her hand. She paused, gave a slight smile, and said, “I bought clothes for my boyfriend.”