71: Provocation

"That's great, then it's settled. Tomorrow evening, we'll have all the kids come to your place for lessons."

"No problem."

After Zhang Hong agreed, he turned to Su Hanyan and said, "Xiao Su, thank you for your hard work."

Su Hanyan smiled, "No trouble at all. See you tomorrow."

Back in the factory dormitory, Zhu Lin and Shao Yu had already covered everything they needed to learn and left some questions for Su Hanyan to help with.

She patiently answered their questions and spent some time doing additional exercises with them. When she looked up, it was already past ten o'clock.

Glancing out the window, Su Hanyan saw Shao Feng waiting downstairs, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting to take his sister Shao Yu home.

"Shao Yu, your brother is downstairs. Hurry up and go. Let's finish early tomorrow," she said.

"I'll stay in the dormitory tomorrow so I can study with you every day," Shao Yu decided decisively, seizing this opportunity to study.

"That would be great," Su Hanyan said happily. "Hurry and apply for it. Once it's approved, it'll be much more convenient for me."

"Okay."

The next day after work, Su Hanyan went to Zhang Changlong's house as usual to teach English. Tonight, there were several more children, all classmates of Zhang Tiancai.

The room was crowded with children, each with their English books ready, wearing a skeptical look on their faces, all curious to see what this young teacher could do to tame them.

Reading their expressions accurately, Su Hanyan's lips curled slightly. Without even looking at the books, she said directly, "Turn to page 57 of the textbook and read aloud the English content for this lesson. Zhang Tiancai, you go first!"

Inside the room, these rebellious children were in class. Outside, several parents took turns peeping through the crack of the door to see how the teacher was teaching, whether she could control these children, and whether she could teach them.

After all four of them read aloud, Su Hanyan was not satisfied with the results. "Zhang Tiancai, your reading was not fluent, you couldn't remember the words, your intonation was inaccurate, and your tone was too harsh. Chen Miaomiao, your intonation was inaccurate. Zhang Ning, you couldn't read it through, and Liu Lu, your English is unintelligible to both Chinese and foreigners. Your readings are poor and need improvement."

"You only know how to make us read. If you're so capable, why don't you read to us?"

"Yeah, if you're so amazing, why don't you teach the whole class in English? If you're as proficient as a foreigner, I'll respect you!"

"Exactly!"

"Heh." Su Hanyan chuckled. "Alright. You make a fair point. From today onwards, I'll teach the whole class in English. I hope you losers can understand."

"Loser? What's a loser?" Zhang Tiancai asked.

"Do you know what a scumbag is?" Su Hanyan smiled, lips curling. "Once you understand what a scumbag is, understanding a loser won't be difficult."

"Oh my god! You look down on people!"

"And you need to prove yourselves worthy of my respect. Listen up, I'm starting!" Su Hanyan glanced at the contents of the book and began reciting.

Her intonation was natural, needless to say, densely packed with content. She recited it very fluently, directly explaining in English, questioning, and explaining grammar.

That night, these group of losers almost didn't understand anything, but everyone was truly shocked by Su Hanyan.

"I graduated from high school. I completely self-studied English! If even I can't defeat you, then there's nothing more to say." Su Hanyan boasted shamelessly here.

72: Impressive Skills

In any case, no one knew her true level, so let this master enjoy the pleasure of dominating the rookie village.

"Genius! Zhang Tiancai, your father named you wrong! I think Teacher Su should be called Genius! Su Genius!"

"Yeah, yeah! She's even better than our old English teacher Jiang."

"I'm in awe of you! From now on, I need to study hard too."

Su Hanyan smiled proudly, "Good to know. There's a saying that the heavens reward diligence! As long as you work hard, you'll reap the rewards! Starting today, every morning, read English for thirty minutes, listen for thirty minutes, memorize vocabulary for thirty minutes, and study grammar for thirty minutes! Stick to this for a month and then see the results!"

"Okay!"

"I've been convinced!"

"......"

Su Hanyan frowned. These little brats, always using crude language, it was quite annoying.

"From now on, use proper language and be civilized! Otherwise, I can't guarantee I won't start cursing you out in English one day! You won't understand, but you'll still have to endure it."

"Hehehe. Okay!"

"Got it."

"Alright, lastly, I'll explain today's grammar lesson in Chinese. Listen carefully, ponder it, and practice with exercises at home. I'll check your progress tomorrow! Those who do well will be rewarded, and those who don't will be punished!"

The kids nodded hurriedly.

Outside the door, several parents were peeking in, covering their mouths to stifle their laughter. They watched for a while, and once the kids started listening seriously, they gathered in the living room.

"This Teacher Su really has some skills!"

"Yeah, my kid always gets a headache during English class! Never heard him read or write any words! We don't understand it ourselves and can't help him."

"My kid, Lulu, is as unruly as Sun Wukong*, no one can control him! But Teacher Su managed to get him in line! I think it's great! What do you all think? Should they learn together?"

[sun wukong is a popular character from the story 'journey to the west'. he is the monkey king and is very known for being a menace and not really liking to study, not even the most highest god could control him. simply put, he's A-grade menace to society]

"Yes, definitely!"

"Let's have the kids learn together?"

"Sure!"

When the clock struck nine, Su Hanyan ended the class on time and assigned homework.

As she walked out of the room, several parents surrounded her.

"Teacher Su, our kids want to study with you too!"

"Yes! Could you take on all these kids together?"

Su Hanyan didn't mind, after all, teaching one child or four children was still teaching. The key was how Zhang Changlong planned to arrange it.

She looked at Zhang Changlong, her eyes questioning.

Zhang Hong originally wanted to hire a private tutor for his son because his son's English was really dragging him down. He didn't expect that a casual conversation would lead to all these kids wanting to learn English from Su Hanyan.

With more students, it would be harder for the teacher to manage.

"It's like this, my son's foundation is very poor, so I wanted him to have individual tutoring. If your kids want to learn, they can form their own class," he said.

"That works."

"Sure, sure." For the sake of their kids, the parents were accommodating. "We'll each pay Teacher Su ten yuan and start another course!"

Su Hanyan said with difficulty, "I don't think I have the time."

She already taught from seven to nine every evening. Adding another two-hour course would mean teaching until eleven o'clock.

73: New Harvest

Shaoyu and Zhu Lin were still waiting for her.

She didn't want to let her two roommates wait in vain. Although making money was important, what was even more important to her was the commitment she had made to her friends. She didn't want to break her promise.

"This is..." Director Zhang was also in a dilemma.

"Dad, I want to study with them," Zhang Tiancai came out of the room and said to his father, "It's more motivating to study with others. Don't worry, I promise to study hard."

Seeing the eager eyes of the children, Zhang Hong thought for a moment and reluctantly agreed, "Alright then! You all can study together!"

"Teacher Su, can we each pay you ten yuan, making it forty in total?" Zhang Lu's mother asked.

"Sure." Su Hanyan smiled.

After all, the class would go on as usual, and there wasn't much difference between teaching one child and teaching four.

"Let's do it that way," Director Zhang also agreed, but he added an extra condition for the children, "Remember, if your scores don't improve in next month's exam, you won't be allowed to study together anymore."

"Got it!" The four children replied in unison.

In just two days, Su Hanyan's students increased from one to four, and her monthly tutoring income went from thirty yuan to forty yuan, a ten yuan increase.

Su Hanyan was overjoyed. A monthly salary of seventy yuan was quite a significant amount for her.

With over a month left until the New Year, she planned to use this money to get herself some new clothes by the year's end.

Su Hanyan continued tutoring for a week. Every evening she would leave at around six but hadn't encountered Jin Chen on the bus again.

After the weekend, Monday came around once more.

At nine in the morning, Section Chief Niu, having returned from a work meeting at the factory, gathered the entire department for a morning meeting.

Although it was called a department meeting, it felt quite meager. Originally, the department had five employees in addition to Section Chief Niu. With two on maternity leave and one having retired early due to illness, only Su Hanyan, Lin Qingyu, and Jiang Kuo, three young employees, were left.

"Let's have a meeting. I have an important announcement," Section Chief Niu said, pulling up a chair and opening his notebook. "Since two of our department's employees took leave, our factory newspaper has been suspended. During the meeting, the leaders emphasized that the factory newspaper is the cultural soul of our factory and the spiritual sustenance of our workers. It must continue."

"Chief, but it was Sister Qi who wrote the articles before! She was our department's news officer," Lin Qingyu said.

"Just because Officer Qi is not here, doesn't mean you can't write? Didn't you all go to school?" Section Chief Niu glanced at her and said, "The factory places great importance on the workers' spiritual life! The broadcast station hasn't received any articles for over a month; it's been playing songs non-stop!"

"But the broadcast station isn't under our jurisdiction," Jiang Kuo mumbled softly.

"Who said it's not? The broadcast station is now under our publicity department. We need content for the daily broadcasts. How do you plan to resolve this?"

"Chief, publishing the factory newspaper alone is already exhausting. If we have to write daily scripts for the broadcast station as well, it's too... too difficult!" Lin Qingyu wasn't good at writing articles and felt a headache coming on just thinking about it.

Moreover, she was a publicity officer, and writing articles wasn't usually her responsibility.

74: Publishing the Factory Newspaper

"Currently, we're short-staffed, but the factory will soon be assigning more people here. In the meantime, don't be too strict with job descriptions. Whether you're a publicity officer or a news officer, let's all pitch in together," Niu Hongxia said.

"Oh." Lin Qingyu, realizing she couldn't avoid writing articles, reluctantly agreed.

"Do you have any suggestions on how to handle the broadcast station?" Niu Hongxia asked, glancing at the three of them.

After a brief thought, Su Hanyan said, "In my opinion, the broadcast station can be divided into three sections. The first section is the daily music broadcast. The second section can feature selected essays. We can borrow magazines from the factory's reading room and choose some articles to read every day. The third section can encourage employees to submit their own articles. If there are no submissions, we can prepare a weekly piece to highlight outstanding employees, covering various aspects of their work and life."

"Great idea, let's do that," Niu Hongxia agreed immediately. "Currently, there's only one person handling the broadcasts, and everyone is getting tired of it. From now on, you three will take turns at the broadcast station. We'll see who reads the best, and take turns accordingly. Also, we need to hire someone new; the factory is already arranging that."

"Yes," the three replied in unison.

"The factory newspaper should be published before the holiday. The leadership emphasized that the city's officials highly value the spiritual and educational lives of state-owned enterprise workers and will visit our factory before the holiday. So, this issue of the newspaper is very important. You need to decide on the theme for this issue!"

"Since it's close to the New Year, why not make the theme about various commendations and how the factory leaders provide humanistic care to the workers?" Su Hanyan suggested.

"Yes, that's easier to write," Lin Qingyu agreed.

"Let's do that. If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to come to me for coordination," Niu Hongxia said.

"Alright."

As soon as Section Chief Niu left, Lin Qingyu reverted to her old habit of complaining behind the chief's back, "Seriously, we do all the work, and what does she do?"

Jiang Kuo, noticing Su Hanyan was still there, hurriedly signaled Lin Qingyu to stop.

Lin Qingyu quickly fell silent, not daring to continue.

"The chief is working on the factory's history," Su Hanyan said. "Now that we have our tasks, let's split up and get to work. Each of us will visit the workshops to gather material."

"Okay," Lin Qingyu replied weakly.

She had thought the days leading up to the New Year would be leisurely, but now it seemed they were burdened with a huge task, giving her a headache.

For seven or eight days straight, the publicity department was busy. The three of them barely had time to stay in the office, spending most of their time visiting various professional workshops to gather material and organize it.

Employees who were featured in the publicity department's reports often became candidates for advanced selection, so the workers were very enthusiastic about reporting good deeds to Su Hanyan. Sometimes they praised themselves, and sometimes they reported on friends or workshop leaders.

To avoid monotonous repetition, Su Hanyan decided to visit all the factory's departments, gathering material from each to make future article writing easier.

She visited the professional workshops, the medical station, the union, the reading room, the security office, the finance department, and many other places.

Finally, she arrived at the factory's design department.

Most of the employees in the design department were senior engineers who had been interviewed many times. This year, the factory had a new university graduate, Zhou Ningkai. The senior engineers respected his diligent work and suggested he be the one interviewed.

75: Subtle Feelings

Zhou Ningkai, having heard that someone from the publicity department would interview him in the afternoon for the factory newspaper, took extra care in his appearance. After all, as a young man, he cared about his image.

What he didn't expect was that the person coming to interview him would be Su Hanyan, who had hosted the program at the factory last time.

Since her hosting appearance, Su Hanyan had become a hot topic of discussion within the factory. Many young people talked about her privately, calling her the factory flower. Previously unnoticed, her stage presence had stunned everyone.

When Zhou Ningkai and his colleagues ate in the cafeteria, they often talked about writing love letters to Su Hanyan, pursuing her.

He had also thought about getting closer to her, but her cold attitude last time made him hesitant.

Now, with Su Hanyan coming to interview him, he saw this as a golden opportunity.

Su Hanyan had forgotten about Zhou Ningkai working in the design department. When she saw that he was the one she was supposed to interview, she was surprised.

But since she was already there, she decided to go through with the interview.

"Officer Su, please sit! I'll make you some tea!" Zhou Ningkai was glad he had shaved carefully that afternoon, applied some face cream, and wore a new work uniform. He looked clean and neat.

"No need, Engineer Zhou. I'll just interview you about your recent work and product design," Su Hanyan said, opening her notebook and asking the prepared questions.

Zhou Ningkai placed the tea in front of Su Hanyan, then sat up straight, answering her questions clearly. Su Hanyan recorded everything, even the professional terms she didn't fully understand, knowing they were important for the article.

"Is my record accurate?" Su Hanyan handed her notebook to Zhou Ningkai. "Please check it."

Zhou Ningkai, seeing the neat, elegant handwriting, felt more favorably towards her. "Yes, it's correct. Some parts aren't very professional, but that's understandable since you didn't study this field."

"Okay." Su Hanyan thought for a moment and asked, "Can I come to you for proofreading after I write the article? Will you have time, Engineer Zhou?"

"Of course! I'll be happy to help. I'm free from Monday to Thursday, in the afternoons. Come between four and five," Zhou Ningkai replied eagerly.

Su Hanyan noted his availability in her notebook. Her long, thick eyelashes fluttered slightly as she wrote, casting a delicate shadow on her nose in the sunlight.

Zhou Ningkai found himself staring; he had never seen such a beautiful girl throughout his years of study.

Her outstanding talent and beauty during the New Year's Eve party were like a divine painting etched in his mind.

"All done." Su Hanyan closed her notebook, took the camera hanging around her neck, and said, "Engineer Zhou, I'll take some work photos of you for the newspaper."