My Daoist Life - Chapter 4

New Teacher

The incident I caused this time almost made my studies come to an end, it was only due to Grandpa’s unrelenting persuasion, that Mr. Han finally relented.

It was reportedly said that, at that time Mr. Han had steeled his heart and was bent on kicking me out of Ba Jiao Primary School. Grandpa only said this one line to him, “In this village, there is no one who doesn’t know what my grandson is like, if anything happens, don’t regret it.

At that time Mr Han felt a chill down his spine and immediately changed his mind, allowing me to continue studying at Ba Jiao Primary School.

The students in class were all apparently fine. Unexpectedly, after being teacher-in-charge for less than a month, Gao Dao Ying applied for leave and from then on, the language and literature class was taught by the Headmaster Mr Han himself.

I was informed by Mr Han that during class, if i wanted to come just come, if i wanted to leave just leave, the only request he had was that there were no strange things happening in the classroom.

I understood the gravity of the situation, so from then on, every day during class, i would concentrate intently. The fact that my Grandpa had always wished for me to be just like a normal child, without getting picked on or making troubles, made me promise him that i wouldn’t do any strange things within the school again, so i had to keep my word. As a result, I became even quieter. If it weren’t for the fact that I read along when the teacher was reading out text, others would’ve thought that I had turned into an idiot again. It wasn’t that I couldn’t speak, it was that I chose not to speak. The things i had on my mind, weren’t understandable by my classmates, and what they had to say was simply not interesting to me.

There was a shortage of qualified teachers in the village. In Ba Jiao Primary School, there were six grades and only six teachers. Every teacher had to play more than one role. For example, Mr Han was both the headmaster and the teacher-in-charge of the language and literature class for grade six and now he was also the teacher for grade one. Mr Han also taught science, and at times, he even had to take on the role of a physical education teacher(sports instructor / PE teacher whichever is better) or even teach music. If you said that I was being taught language and literature by the PE teacher you would be right, because Mr Han was substituting as the PE teacher for our class. Now that Guo Daoying was on leave, the Ba Jiao Primary School teachers were unable to handle the load.

After Guo Daoying applied for leave, he contacted his relations and transferred away. The Ministry of Education sent over a female teacher that had just recently graduated from the teacher-training school.

The new teacher was called Lin Jing and she was very pretty. Having just graduated as a secondary school student from the teacher-training school she was also quite young. At the time that Lin Jing took over as our teacher-in-charge, she wasn’t even 18. Although these bunch of brats hadn’t yet matured, their love of beauty had already developed.

Except for me, the other 50 or so children in the class had all fallen for her. Even though I also had a love for beauty, I disliked the aura emitting from her body. The aura seemed to regard me as its mortal enemy.

“My name is Lin Jing, I graduated from Huang Yan Teacher-training School. I was also born in Qiu Mountain County so please do not treat me as a stranger.” Lin Jing’s voice was very pleasant, once she opened her mouth, the class of fifty plus mouths were immediately silenced.

“Do you guys have any questions?” Lin Jing gave the group of brats a chance to talk.

The always fearless fatty Huang Shulang who was always last in class reflexively blurted out, “Do you have a boyfriend?”

A little brat like you asking this sort of question, what meaning does it have? No matter how young she is, she’s still from a different generation.

Except for me, once again, the class of more than 50 students all burst out laughing. This kind of vulgar topic, for someone as prideful as me, was not worth a chuckle – for I am a Daoist.

Lin Jing gave a lovable laugh and her chest heaving unceasingly, made me unconsciously take a few more glances. As a result of that, I discovered that around Lin Jing’s neck hung an object, just like me. Only that I couldn’t see what that object was. I took out the bronze medal that was hidden within my clothes and started to play with it.

“Teacher Lin. Huang Jingyang is playing with toys in class!” The big fatty Huang Shulang immediately reported to Teacher Lin.

Lin Jing immediately walked to my side, a trace of an unusually sickening and gloomy qi rushed forth towards me.

This trace of gloomy qi caused triggered the resistance of primordial qi within my body. That trace of gloomy qi gave me a feeling of discomfort, before immediately disappearing without a trace.

Lin Jing asked me in an extremely strict tone: “Why are you playing with toys during class?”

“This is not a toy. You also have one on your neck.”

I was calmly facing Lin Jing’s questioning, it would be natural for Lin Jing to add a label of mischievous in addition to troublemaker.

“Stay back after school.”

Originally, the big fatty Huang Shulang would have been satisfied with me receiving a scolding, he would rather be the person asked to stay back. It would have been good to monopolize Teacher Lin during that time. But now, that person had become me.

In order to make Teacher Lin change her mind, Huang Shulang after class was over, promptly went to teacher Lin to inform her about all the rumors about me. However, it didn’t go in accordance to Huang Shulang’s expectations. Since tender age, Teacher Lin had received an atheist upbringing. As far as Huang Shulang’s words were concerned, it could all be summed up as feudalistic superstitions. Huang Shulang’s wishful thinking did not succeed, and instead made Lin Jing become even more interested in me.

The children in the class took every opportunity to encircle Lin Jing completely, even when Lin Jing went to the toilet, a big group followed after in pursuit. With no other option left, she could only ask for help from Headmaster Han.

“Bastards! If you again dare to chase Lin Jing to the toilet, I will immediately cut off your JJ and feed it to the dogs!” Even though Mr. Hang acted as the Headmaster, he actually wasn’t ‘that’ educated.

JJ possessing boys dispersed instantly, and Girls without JJs also got scared and disappeared, leaving behind no trace.

I tried to maintain as much distance as possible from Teacher Lin, that cold aura on her body had from the very beginning made me feel disgusted.

“Did you really manage to attract almost a hundred thousand butterflies?” Lin Jing after returning from the toilet, approached me from  behind.

I didn’t even need to turn back, I already knew that Lin Jing had come over. Originally I was thinking of escaping, however the brats all around had blocked my way.

I nodded, there is nobody in the Ba Jiao Primary School who doesn’t know about this. So why would i deny it?

“How is it possible? Making mischief in the classroom is of course wrong, but it has nothing to do with butterflies. Butterflies are a natural phenomenon of the natural world. No matter what kind of chaotic dance you did that day, the flock of butterflies were here for some kind of a reason.” Lin Jing said with a smile.

“It’s true, Teacher, on that day he suddenly shouted and jumped. It was as if an earthquake had happened in the classroom, everybody in the classroom fell to the ground. Then the butterflies from the outside began rushing like crazy into the classroom.” Huang Shulang said anxiously.

“Everyone listen to what I say, butterflies are a kind of natural phenomenon. Such meeting of butterflies has occurred in many places. We all must cultivate scientific knowledge from childhood and reject superstition.” Lin Jing explained to the students very patiently.

Huang Shulang in order to prove his standpoint, also had an idea: “Teacher Lin, you can make Huang Jingyang jump once more to know. See whether he can attract butterflies or not!”

Unexpectedly, Lin Jing approved of Huang Shulang’s approach: “En. student Huang Shulang said it right. To put into practice is the sole method of determining the truth. Student Huang Jingyang, can you again try to jump like you did on that day to see if you are able to attract butterflies?”

I firmly shook my head: “No!”

Seeing me reject so firmly, Lin Jing was very surprised: “Why not?”

“Teacher Lin, Headmaster Han said, that if Huang Jingyang dares to jump again, he would have him expelled at once. The previous time Huang Jingyang managed to scare off Teacher Guo, and originally he was going to be expelled. Afterwards, Huang Jingyang’s Grandpa came to plead, and Headmaster Han allowed Huang Jingyang to stay. However, Huang Jingyang wrote a letter of guarantee.” The big fatty Huang Shulang definitely wasn’t capable of speaking for so long. The words spoken just now were by a girl in the class called Li Lijuan.

“Just because of this matter, Headmaster Han would expel Huang Jingyang? Isn’t this a bit too ridiculous?” Lin Jing opened her eyes wide.

“You don’t need to worry, I will take all responsibility. Whatever happens, I will persuade Headmaster Han.” Lin Jing said after a bit of thought.

I shook my head. I didn’t dare to jump, it was not because I feared Headmaster Han, but because I had promised Grandpa.

“Why?” Lin Jing didn’t expect that it would still be possible for a first grader to not listen to his teacher. However, I did not relent.

Huang Shulang secretly ran off and called Mr. Han to come over.

“Teacher Lin, you cannot let this child jump. It would lead to a mishap.” Mr. Han came over in a hurry.

“Headmaster Han, how can you be so superstitious. Butterflies are a natural phenomenon, they won’t come over because of some strange jumping and dance of Huang Jingyang. This point, you must all clearly understand.” Lin Jing said frowning.
“Teacher Lin, you believe in science right. However, aren’t there some supernatural phenomena? This student Huang Jingyang is a supernatural phenomenon. You have been here for only a short time, you don’t know much about student Huang Jingyang. As time goes on, you will also slowly come to know. This strange dance, he cannot be allowed to jump at any cost. Huang Jinyang, do you remember the guarantee you gave me? If you dare to do the strange jumping dance, I will expel you immediately!”

In face of Mr. Han’s resolute opposition, Lin Jing’s scientific experiment came to nothing.

Lin Jing was not a person of Chang Mountain village, but rather belonged to another village in the Qiu Mountain county. So far away from home, she was forced to live in the school.

In a village school like Ba Jiao Primary School, naturally the teachers’ dormitories were not that up to par. Within each classroom was a separate room, it acted as both an office and as the teacher’s living quarters. Ba Jiao Primary’s previous teachers were all from Ba Jiao village. After school they would return to their own homes. Headmaster Han cleared out a room and gave it to Lin Jing as her living quarters.

The primary school was built on Ba Jiao village’s communal ground, and was a distance away from the village. Moreover, it was built on the hillside, when night came it became extremely eerie.

Headmaster Han was worried about Lin Jing living on her own so he allowed the students from her class to take turns and stay behind at night to keep her company. In any case they were only in the first grade, there was no need to worry about the differences in gender.

Huang Shulang was beside himself with joy, everyday he counted down the number of days till it became his turn. To Huang Shulang, who consistently scored a zero for maths, this was basically a mathematical olympiad question.

I really disliked the aura coming from Lin Jing’s body and was extremely afraid of the day that it would be my turn.