92. The Murmurs

First, there was this first matter.

For most people, a week's delay in getting paid might be a small thing, but for Li An it was absolutely major.

The week before, he had paid back 2,500 yuan to Liang Guang.

The week before that, he had cleared 2,400 yuan on his buy-now-pay-later account.

Li An had less than 1,200 yuan left to his name.

Tomorrow, he had to pay 1,850 yuan in rent.

The day after tomorrow, he had to repay 2,600 yuan on his loan app.

Most important of all, there were only four days left until the Double Seventh Festival on the twenty-fourth.

It was his first date, and on the Double Seventh Festival at that.

A gift was surely a must.

They had to have a proper meal.

After dinner, they had to see a movie.

After the movie...

At the very least, he had to take a taxi home.

Money was needed at every turn.

That morning, when he saw his salary of 5,150 yuan hit his account, Li An felt wonderfully content.

The summer exam-prep class really was different.

With only three students, it somehow felt like six or seven.

In any case, the money for the date was there.

Then there was the second matter.

Wang Jingya had submitted her resignation letter last night.

The whole thing had come rather suddenly. For a senior employee, one who had even served two years as head of the academic affairs team, to leave without any warning and without even a simple handover process was hard to justify anywhere.

Taken together with the third matter, it became all the more intriguing.

At first, Li An had not known that Wang Jingya and Tian Yu were so close in private. He only heard it later from Xu Hongxin.

With the concert and the elite assessment approaching, both of them had problems at the very same time, and on this particular morning at that, right after Qin Yong had met with Tian Yu the day before.

Once all of it was linked together, one could not help but let the imagination run wild.

Just as Li An was pondering this, a system prompt about an upgrade suddenly began flashing.

...

"Do you guys think Teacher Tian is really sick?"

Back in the office after the meeting, Ma Tao could not help discussing it with the others. He felt there was something fishy about the whole thing. Everyone had seen it in the corridor when work ended yesterday afternoon.

What principal would keep a teacher in the office and just let the parents make a scene outside?

"Could there be something hidden behind it?"

This time, Xu Hongxin did not snap back at Ma Tao for poking his nose where it did not belong. "Hard to say. What kind of illness would require half a month off? Don't forget there's still the performance and the elite assessment."

"If he takes leave like this, what happens to the program? Is he giving up the assessment too?"

Before the meeting ended, Old Dong had announced the points standings through last week. After Song Muzi's new enrollment and Wang Xiaohu's successful class renewal, Li An was leading in first place with a total score of 45.7. He should have had 45.9, but he had lost 0.2 attendance points for being late last Wednesday.

Xu Nana remained close behind with 45.5 points.

Tian Yu, though in third, had a total score of 44.3, and to surpass the two ahead of him he would only need one new enrollment.

By taking leave at this moment, was Tian Yu not the same as giving up the assessment?

So Xu Hongxin rather agreed with Ma Tao. This matter was not so simple.

"Brother An, what do you think?"

"Brother An."

Xu Hongxin turned slightly and called again toward Li An's back.

Li An responded, shut off the panel, and turned around. "What is it? I was not paying attention just now."

Ma Tao: ...

Wang Panpan: ...

Xu Hongxin repeated the issue he and Ma Tao had just been discussing.

After listening, Li An looked at Wang Panpan and smiled. "If the principal says one thing, we just do what the principal says. What do you think, Teacher Wang?"

Wang Panpan spread her hands. "My cousin has been talking to me less and less about work lately. But I do not like Teacher Tian. He is always smiling in that creepy, insincere way. He had better recover quickly and find another class to teach. He should not come back."

This immediately won the support of Xu Hongxin and Ma Tao.

Li An said nothing.

From the various measures Qin Yong had taken since taking over Yudong, the things that had happened today were not without warning.

Whether it was Wang Jingya's resignation letter or Tian Yu's sick leave, and if one dared to make a bolder guess, even the delayed wages.

First came the assessment plan, whose various rules were obviously designed with veteran teachers in mind.

Then came the reform of the academic affairs team, with Qin Yong stripping Wang Jingya of the authority she held as team leader.

Next, he issued new academic tasks to balance the private communication between main-subject teachers and parents.

Behind every one of these steps was the same word: reform.

What was being reformed? The teaching team.

Li An had already suspected that most of Yudong's student loss in the first half of the year came from current teachers poaching students.

And they had done it brazenly, right under the nose of the academic affairs team.

Now, with today added to the picture, it seemed Qin Yong had already found the biggest hoe in the east-side office: Tian Yu.

If that was true, then Wang Jingya's departure made perfect sense.

Qin Yong could never keep such a person in academic affairs.

As for Tian Yu... he was only on leave for now.

It all depended on Qin Yong's next move.

There were only two possibilities.

Either Tian Yu would be shown the door, or the two of them would reach some sort of agreement and Tian Yu would continue staying at Yudong.

The former was a scene Li An would be delighted to see.

If Tian Yu left, setting aside how the students he had at Yudong would be distributed, Li An could at least effectively lock down one promotion slot.

As for the latter, that was fine too.

At worst, he would just keep competing with Xu Nana and the others.

As always, elite teachers were very important to him at this stage, but they were not indispensable.

Viewed from another angle, even if he successfully obtained the qualification to be promoted to an elite teacher this time, all it would really do was speed up the repayment of his current debts.

His future could never be tied to Yudong.

The moment he left Yudong, the title of elite teacher would be nothing more than a memory.

"Senior, do you hope Teacher Tian leaves?"

What a question.

"Of course I do."

Li An was hardly a saint. He would never forget how this man had nearly poached Liu Fengrui from under his nose.

Back then, he had already fallen so low that he could barely bring himself to spend two and a half yuan on instant noodles.

Was Tian Yu even still human?

Suddenly, the office door was pushed open, and the four of them looked over.

Chen Xuan had returned.

Earlier, after the meeting ended, Qin Yong had specifically kept Chen Xuan behind.

"What was it, Sister Xuan?"

Wang Panpan asked, while Li An pricked up his ears.

"Something about a student."

Chen Xuan said it as she returned to her desk, picked up a score sheet, and quickly left the office again.

"Panpan."

"Hm?"

Li An hesitated. "Has Principal Qin still not gotten married?"

Hearing that, Wang Panpan let out a long sigh. "My uncle and aunt are practically worried sick over it. They nag him about it every day."

That was all she could say for now.

But to Li An, it did not sound like that at all.

His phone on the desk vibrated. He picked it up, glanced at it, and then left the office as well.

Ye Zi: Hurry, hurry.

...

In Classroom Five, Chen Xuan told Li An about how Qin Yong had just introduced her to a flute student.

"Private tutoring?"

Chen Xuan shook her head. "No, she'll be learning here. She's the daughter of one of his friends."

"Then how should that count? Does that count as your new enrollment?"

Li An glanced over the current rankings. If this student counted as Chen Xuan's new enrollment, then Chen Xuan would also be at 44 points. In that case...

"Probably. I'm not sure."

Seeing the other person's half-smiling expression, Chen Xuan tilted her face up and laughed softly.

"What is it? What are you thinking about?"

Li An rubbed his nose. "I want to ask you a question."

Chen Xuan: "Hm?"

"Generally speaking, the range of the flute is C1 to C4, right?"