tenth year of teaching

Chapter 36
In the second week of school, Zhang Yan took sick leave and did not come to school for three days in a row.

During the morning meeting, Chu Xia looked at the last empty seat in Bank of China and felt a little uneasy.After the first class, she returned to the office and called Zhang Yan's mother. There were continuous busy signals of "beep-beep-". The call was not connected until noon, and she became more and more uneasy.

Three days ago, Zhang Yan's mother just sent a message saying that she was on sick leave, and did not tell how many days it would take.She thought about opening the text message and confirming again that the number was consistent with the one in the class address book, but she felt flustered for some reason.

After lunch, the phone still couldn't be connected. Chu Xia was a little restless, so after thinking about it, she grabbed her bag and went out.She checked the class information and found that Zhang Yan's family moved to a new home at the beginning of the semester, and the address was less than half an hour's drive from the school.I rode my bicycle to find the community and walked all the way to the innermost side before I found Building 21.This is a 6-story old-fashioned building, with walls that are mottled and dark yellow washed away by rain.Walked north to Unit 4, locked the car, turned around and entered the building.

Zhang Yan's family lives on the top floor. In early summer, I was a little anxious while riding a bicycle. When I climbed to the corner of the 5th floor, I felt out of breath, so I stopped to rest.At this moment, the door clicked open upstairs, and a middle-aged man staggered and fell out.

"Go away, don't let me see you again!" a sharp female voice roared, and then the door was slammed with a bang.

Chu Xia straightened her neck and poked her head to look. There was a man squatting at the door of 602. His hair was messy, and he was wearing a wrinkled suit in his hand. His leather shoes were covered with dust, as if he hadn't taken care of him for a long time.He lowered his head and said nothing, nor did he move.

Chu Xia looked at him and looked at the house number, isn't this Zhang Yan's house?I was hesitating whether to go up.The door was opened again, and Zhang Yan came out with a bag in his hand. He squatted beside the man and said to him, "Dad, I still have the two clothes you used to wear, and there is some lucky money I saved in it. Take it with you." Don't blame my mother, she has been heartbroken for the past two years after you left. Don't come, she said goodbye and jumped off the building when you entered the house, it's not a joke, really." After finishing speaking, he put the bag in his hand on the man Beside him, he got up and went into the house and closed the door.

After a long time, the man picked up the bag, dug out a thermal underwear inside, lowered his head and pressed his face against it to feel the warmth.An envelope tucked in his clothes fell to the ground. The man picked it up and opened it. He saw that they were all brand-new hundred-dollar bills, about two thousand dollars.He couldn't bear it anymore, hugging the bag and crying.

Chu Xia quietly turned around and went downstairs, sighing softly.

Zhang Yan came to school a week later. He sat in his seat, became even more silent, and his expression was not very good.I don’t know if it was an illusion in early summer, but Zhang Yan seemed to have lost a lot of weight.During class, she stood at the back door and looked at Zhang Yan's back through the door mirror, feeling like a stone was weighing on her heart.

When get out of class was over, Sun Xiaolei surrounded Zhang Yan asking questions, and he regained some vitality.Chu Xia thought to herself that she still needed to go home and have another look.After catching up with the students' self-study time in the evening, she went out on her bicycle again.

In Unit 21, Building 602, Tanxi Community, Wang Shaohua also looked very haggard when he opened the door, with thick black bags under his eyes.Seeing Chu Xia standing outside the door, she was a little surprised, and then asked uneasily: "Teacher Chu, is Yan Yan causing trouble again?"

"No, I'm just doing a regular home visit every school year." Chu Xia smiled politely.

Wang Shaohua finally regained his composure and invited her to come in and sit down.

She sat on the sofa and looked at the furnishings in the room. They were all white, simple and clean, and had all the necessary furniture.While looking at it, Wang Shaohua went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and handed it over.

"Teacher Chu, you have tea."

"Thank you." Chu Xia put the tea cup on the coffee table and took Wang Shaohua's arm to motion her to sit down. "Mother Zhang Yan, I came a little unexpectedly today. I'm really sorry that I didn't call you in advance."

"No, teacher, you are so busy and still come to visit, I should thank you."

"I actually have something to ask you. Didn't Zhang Yan take a week's leave last week?" Chu Xia paused and continued: "Actually, I came here once last Wednesday and couldn't get through on the phone. I'm a little worried."

Wang Shaohua was stunned and looked straight at her.

Chu Xia added: "Wednesday at noon."

After what seemed like three or four minutes, Wang Shaohua swallowed her saliva and spoke with difficulty: "Teacher Chu, this is all a family scandal. I really have no shame to say it." She lowered her head and covered her face with tears.

Chu Xia raised her hand and touched her back, patting her comfortingly without saying a word.

Wang Shaohua cried quietly for a while, slowly calmed down, got up and went to the bathroom to wipe his face.When I came back and sat down, I had already adjusted my emotions.She sighed and said to Chu Xia: "Teacher Chu, you have always been very kind to Yanyan. Yanyan is also a good child, but his father and I did not live up to expectations and did not create good conditions for the child, but instead held him back. ."

"I know that Zhang Yan is very good at nature and has strong thinking ability. I really don't want to see him just hang around like this. In fact, he had made progress by the end of last semester. I don't know what happened to him recently. He started not listening to classes again. I really have no idea how to do my homework, so I came to you to find out the situation." Chu Xia opened her mouth and said softly: "We all wish him well, right?"

"Thank you, Teacher Chu." Wang Shaohua raised his head, bit his lip, and finally looked at her firmly. "We moved to a new home in a hurry. In fact, I didn't like this community, but it was far away from where I lived before, and there were no acquaintances nearby. I actually wanted to avoid Zhang Yan's father. Just after the Chinese New Year, he contacted me and said it was The woman had an ectopic pregnancy and had a miscarriage long ago. Later, they never had children together, and she refused to get married. She just coaxed him to slowly take all the company's money into her own hands. When he disappeared, Only then did Zhang Yan’s father find out that the company’s accounts were in a mess and he could no longer pay wages to his employees. It was a small company with 50 to [-] people, but it collapsed. He regretted it and called me to tell me that he wanted to go home.”

When she said this, she paused, her face began to turn red, and she continued with great anger: "You bastard, you refused to look back no matter how much you begged, you were obsessed with it. Now that they have dumped him, you think of our kindness." , there was no way. I hid it from Yan Yan, saying that I wanted to change my environment, so I found a house and moved in three days. But that bastard rushed Yan Yan to start school and blocked the school entrance, begging him to persuade me. Let's go I've been beaten and argued about this for a week. Yanyan only said that this is his biological father who gave birth to him and raised him, and that shameless guy stayed at the door of the house." As he said this, Wang Shaohua shed tears again. Come. "I know Yanyan misses his father, but I can't accept him anymore. How did I get through these two years? I know it myself. I just want to live a good life with my son."

Chu Xia was really speechless. How uncomfortable it must be for a 15-year-old boy to deal with such unbearable but dear parents.She could only ask the matter between Mr. Wang Shaohua to try not to affect the children, or it would be best for the three of them to sit down and talk and resolve it calmly.

After saying goodbye, it was completely dark. There was no moon tonight, only a little bit of starlight accompanied by street lamps quietly shining on the roadside.Chu Xia was pushing the bicycle, thinking about what to say to Zhang Yan while walking.

What teachers do is people's work. People are not complicated, but the environment they live in is more complicated.Sometimes, the environment around us always pushes us in the opposite direction from what we expect.

'I hope every one of my students is good, just like Lao Geng. 'Chu Xia was firm in her thoughts, although she didn't know what to do.

(End of this chapter)