The Bumpy Road of Marriage: Divorce Now, Daddy

Professor Zhou found it unbearable when he heard about it and went straight to the dean’s office.

The dean was talking on the phone in his office. The person on the other end of the line must have said something, because he nodded submissively, looking unusually grave.

Professor Zhou had taught for many decades in the university and was known for his patience, but he was really angry this time.

“Mr. Fang, didn’t you tell me not to worry about this? What is going on now? How can I not be worried and what am I going to say to my student?” Professor Zhou demanded the moment the dean ended the call.

“Calm down, Mr. Zhou.” The dean sighed and poured a glass of water for Professor Zhou. “What could possibly happen to that little monkey with If around?”

“What could happen? Look at what has happened to that poor child because of that old man,” Professor Zhou growled, his eyes wide in rage. “I wouldn’t have assigned that little monkey to that old man if it weren’t for you promising to get rid of him.”

“Did I not get rid of him?” The dean asked cynically.

“He took credit for that little monkey’s work and put the blame on her, how is that getting rid of him?” Professor Zhou snarled, uncaring that he was talking to his superior.

“Please calm down, Professor Zhou,” the dean said again, gesturing for Professor Zhou who was getting increasingly frustrated to sit down. He then started to tell him about what Nalan Chunbo had been doing lately. Towards the end of the conversation, he assured Professor Zhou that the little monkey’s name would be cleared, and that she would be retained as an assisting teacher as soon as she graduated.

Professor Zhou began to calm down and was surprised at the information that he received.

“He was able to get so many of them?” Professor Zhou asked in disbelief.

“That is a matter of his capability. Do you think that I spent that long to recruit someone who is not capable of such things? Plus, that little monkey is the apple of his eye. He came up with the idea of the instant attendance record when Yin Zhengdao wanted her to record his name for classes that she taught, and then suggested to cut down the budget for professors’ claims when that little monkey was taken advantage of while submitting his claims. Don’t you see that he had been doing things to help that little monkey?”

Professor Zhou thought about it carefully and couldn’t disagree.

“But that is jobbery! No wonder Yin Zhengdao was so confident when he accused him of that!” Professor Zhou realized and shouted.

“And so what if it was jobbery? Look at the culture in this university. The kids come here to learn about culture, knowledge, and how to be a better person. How are they going to learn those things when their teacher is not a good person himself? I am too old to be changing the style of teaching in this university, but think about it: is what Wen Shan is going through not what others have gone through? So it is not strictly jobbery,” the dean reasoned.

Professor Zhou was convinced.

“You can’t blame the university’s culture on a student. Not to mention that students who got affected by the bad culture are still kinder than the teachers who had been doing such wicked things,” the dean sighed.

Professor Zhou couldn’t ease his mind completely even after the dean assured him, and left only after confirming again that If really had a way to save the situation.

Meanwhile, Wen Shan who had stayed back to talk to the dean overheard the conversation when she was standing outside the office. She was so stunned that she left without going into the office at all.

Did the dean say that If did all those things for her?

If did things because of her?

Wen Shan found the information unbelievable and for a moment she stopped caring about the comments from the people around her. All that was on her mind was to get home quickly and talk to Nalan Chunbo about what she overhead today.

On the bus back home, Wen Shan couldn’t help but think about what the dean said about If doing things for her.