[This volume is only meant to make Su Bai feel more like a living person. It is a brief real-world interlude, does not affect the plot, and can be skipped.]
In the faculty office for the third-year teachers at Honghuai City First Senior High School, Class Two's homeroom teacher walked over to the desk of Teacher Xu, the homeroom teacher of Class One, and asked curiously-
"Teacher Xu, I heard that prized pupil of yours is coming back to school?"
"What prized pupil?" Teacher Xu was a middle-aged woman whose hair had begun to gray from overwork. She was busy attending to her own tasks.
"Su Bai, the boy in your class who was planning to suspend his studies. If he's coming back now, does that mean everything at home has been sorted out?" Class Two's teacher looked hungry for gossip.
"Su Bai was simply unwell and took some sick leave. Whatever may or may not be happening in his family is none of our business." Teacher Xu looked up at the teacher from the neighboring class. "His most important task now is to prepare for the college entrance exam and get into the best university possible."
"How is it none of our business?" The other teacher looked unconvinced. "Before he suspended... took leave, you and I were on duty at the school gate when that scruffy older brother of his showed up reeking of booze. He actually planted himself at the gate and tried to borrow a hundred thousand yuan from you, his brother's homeroom teacher. In the end, you and I had to scrape together a thousand yuan to get rid of him."
"I was the one who borrowed that money from you. Didn't I pay you back ages ago?" Teacher Xu waved the other teacher away.
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