Was she... nervous?
Shen Heng quietly watched the girl before him.
Although her reply just now had sounded normal, his ears had still picked up the slight fluctuation hidden beneath her words.
Neither said anything more. Le Gu Nan walked outside with small steps, while Shen Heng quietly watched her retreating figure.
"All right, if there's nothing else, go do whatever you need to do! I'll report this mission to the higher-ups. The points will be distributed according to your contributions!" Wang Hai glanced at the few people remaining in the hall.
"We should be able to relax for several more days!" Han Ling said, sounding rather happy.
Beside her, Wu Cheng nodded in wholehearted agreement.
"Don't relax too much. Calamity Beasts could appear at any moment!" Wang Hai gave the two of them a stern look.
"Ah, I know, I know!" Han Ling replied perfunctorily.
Seeing her reaction, Wang Hai could only shake his head helplessly.
Everyone headed off to their respective destinations.
The next day, at school.
As Shen Heng slept, he suddenly felt someone shaking him. He frowned slightly, opened his bleary eyes, and looked to his side.
"Yan Sheng, why are you pushing me?" Shen Heng asked.
"Brother Heng, when I went to the bathroom just now, our homeroom teacher told me to ask you to come see him," Yan Sheng said.
"Our homeroom teacher? What does he want with me?" Shen Heng frowned slightly.
Their homeroom teacher taught mathematics to Shen Heng's class. His name was Zhou Hong.
He certainly was responsible. When the original owner's debt crisis had erupted, he had considered not coming to school anymore, and Zhou Hong had kept reaching out to talk things through. He was the teacher the original owner respected most.
"No idea. He didn't say. He just told me to ask you to come over!" Yan Sheng shook his head.
Seeing this, Shen Heng could only straighten up helplessly and shake his head. Once his mind had cleared a little, he headed toward the teachers' office.
Shen Heng stood at the office door and looked inside.
Several large desks stood in the office, each piled with books, documents, and stationery, with the occasional potted plant adding a touch of green.
Some teachers had their heads down grading assignments, while others chatted quietly with nothing to do. One or two students stood beside teachers, talking about something.
Shen Heng swept his gaze around the office before finally settling on a spot farther inside, by a window.
There, a man who looked to be in his forties was buried in a pile of graded assignments and lesson plans. The glasses on his nose occasionally slipped as he lowered his head, and he would free a hand to gently push them back up.
He was Shen Heng's homeroom teacher, Zhou Hong.
Shen Heng slowly approached Zhou Hong and, following the original owner's memories, said, "Sir, did you want to see me about something?"
Zhou Hong looked up. Seeing Shen Heng, he put down his pen and pushed a chair over.
"Sit!"
Shen Heng sat down without standing on ceremony.
"I've heard from the other teachers that you've stopped paying attention in class entirely lately and spend the whole day sleeping. Is that true?" Zhou Hong asked, looking at Shen Heng.
"Yes!" Shen Heng nodded.
"So it really is true. I thought you were only sleeping a little in my class!" Zhou Hong's brow furrowed.
The original owner's respect for Zhou Hong was one thing, but when it was time to sleep, he still had to sleep. Zhou Hong was simply too conscientious, making his math lessons far too boring.
Of all his classes, the original owner had liked history relatively well, because the history teacher liked to start shooting the breeze halfway through his lessons.
"Have you run into some difficulty again lately?"
Shen Heng looked at Zhou Hong. To keep him from bothering him again when he was sleeping later, he decided to tell the truth.
"I found a night-shift job last week. I've been working at night these past few days, so I can only sleep at school during the day!"
"Why would you suddenly go looking for a job when you were doing fine? Are you giving up on your studies?" Zhou Hong asked, somewhat angrily.
"With my grades, is there any point in continuing to study?" Shen Heng asked in return.
"You..."
Shen Heng's words left Zhou Hong speechless for a moment, but he quickly recovered and said, frustrated that iron would not turn to steel:
"You're being foolish! Even if your grades are bad, you can still find some school to attend when the time comes. Your grades may not meet the cutoff for junior college, but plenty of worse schools recruit students to make money. Their teaching might not be good, but you could at least coast through and get a diploma! Do you know how many jobs out there now require a junior college diploma just to get your foot in the door?"
Shen Heng's expression turned slightly odd. He kept feeling that Zhou Hong's words sounded a little like what he had said to Yan Sheng a few days ago.
He composed his expression and said, "You said it yourself. Those worse schools are out to make money. Where would my family get the money for me to attend one now?"
Zhou Hong's expression froze at Shen Heng's words, and he sat there in silence.
A long while later, just as Shen Heng thought he was about to give up, Zhou Hong suddenly said with a grave expression, "Don't worry about the money. I'll help you figure something out when the time comes!"
Shen Heng froze briefly and looked at Zhou Hong in disbelief.
The original owner's mother could say that, because blood was thicker than water. Wang Hai could say it too, because even ordinary members of the Supervision Bureau would not be short of money after working there for a while. But Zhou Hong was just an ordinary teacher, and Shen Heng was neither family nor kin to him. What gave him the confidence to say that?
Shen Heng looked Zhou Hong over carefully, then suddenly smiled. "There's no need, sir. You're not exactly living comfortably yourself. How could I make you shoulder my tuition too?"
"That's my business. You don't need to worry about it!" Zhou Hong said irritably.
"Heh..." Shen Heng chuckled and stood up. "There really is no need. I'll make my own arrangements for my own affairs. But I still want to thank you!"
"Hey, you..."
Zhou Hong froze. He opened his mouth but did not know what to say, and could only watch Shen Heng walk away, step by step. Only once Shen Heng had vanished completely did he come to his senses.
"That brat! I hadn't even said we were finished talking!"
Zhou Hong cursed with a laugh. His conversation with Shen Heng surfaced unbidden in his mind, and he shook his head with some gratification.
"Heh... looks like the kid really has grown up this time!"
Saturday.
At the Supervision Bureau, in Wang Hai's office.
Shen Heng sat across the desk from Wang Hai and watched him take three things out of a drawer.
One was a little black booklet Shen Heng had seen once before, another was a black handgun, and the last was a pair of loaded magazines.
"Your credentials have been issued. If you run into anything later, you can show them to civilians or people from other departments when necessary!" Wang Hai first handed over the little black booklet.
Shen Heng nodded, took the little black booklet, and opened it to read.
It was much the same as Wang Hai's credentials, which he had seen at the hospital, except for the personal information.
Shen Heng's photo was at the top of the identification, with his personal information below.
Name: Shen Heng Position: Staff member Department: Public Security Supervision Bureau