Chapter 432: Chapter 406: Huh? Xiao Qiang (Thanks to Akatris for the He’s Jade Pendant and the additional update)

Watching the serious teacher lose her composure like this, even choking on her coffee, Boss Qian felt a little thrill of mischief.

In her past life, the teacher hadn’t spared her from suffering, so this was her small way of getting back at her, and it was quite satisfying.

“Who did you see?”

“Major Shareholder Liu, a very handsome uncle— Teacher, do you know him?”

“I don’t know him! Who would want to know such a stubborn man?”

Xiao Qian stifled a laugh. Teachers like this, high-level intellectuals, occasionally had such adorable behavior. Wasn’t this just burying their heads in the sand?

“I think Major Shareholder Liu is a good person. He, um…” Xiao Qian glanced at Liu Linlin and shook her head. “You don’t like hearing about him, do you? Let’s not talk about him. Let me tell you about the working environment at Gangdan’s company. There are no miscellaneous trees in the middle, fragrant grass is fresh, and falling petals are colorful—”

“Are you reciting ‘The Peach Blossom Spring’ to me? Where did you get the fragrant grass in winter? Speak seriously!”

“Teacher, what is serious?”

“Talk about Gangdan’s major shareholder. How did you meet him?”

“I went to Gangdan’s company and met this major shareholder who took care of him a lot. He said he wanted to meet me, so I went. We’ve met before. We had a good talk, and he is an elder worthy of respect.”

“Yet he’s the most irresponsible father in the world!”

“Actually, that’s not really true… I think Uncle Liu is a man with a great capacity for love. His feelings are not narrow. He treats Gangdan as his own child and has the authority of a senior.”

Xiao Qian’s words provoked a strong reaction from Professor Liu, who slammed her coffee cup down on the table, not caring that it overflowed.

“He went to be a father to someone else’s children, but what about his own children? When his own son died, he was abroad, and he didn’t even come back for the funeral. By the time he flew back, it was too late… What kind of father is he?! He had two children at home and didn’t educate either of them properly. Useless old man!”

When Professor Liu brought this up, her emotions became somewhat uncontrollable. Realizing her own outburst, she waved her hand irritably.

“You go back, I want to be alone.”

Xiao Qian’s first attempt at probing failed. It seemed that the teacher’s emotional burden was much heavier than she had anticipated. Although the teacher usually had a bad temper, she still maintained some pride as an intellectual. But when discussing her master, she became even more enraged than she had been in her past life.

Upon reflection, the teacher had only been divorced from her master for a few years, and the pain oflosing her son combined with her divorce had left her emotionally devastated. Her reaction was understandable.

Xiao Qian walked to the door and hesitated, but decided to stay.

“Teacher, I don’t know what grievances you have with Uncle Liu, which is what led to your prejudice against him. But from my perspective, he is an outstanding leader. He was worried that my presence might affect Yu Minglang’s development, so he talked to me. He also showed me the pictures of the young people who had sacrificed themselves. I will never forget the look in his eyes when he looked at those pictures.”

“Sacrificed… young people?”

“Yes, I believe that a person’s eyes cannot lie. The way he looked at those pictures, it was as if he was a regretful father who had failed to protect his children. It’s because he has lost something before that he doesn’t want to lose anyone else. His magnanimity made me feel inferior.”

Professor Liu suddenly looked much older. She waved her hand weakly, telling Xiao Qian to leave.

After Xiao Qian left, Professor Liu got up slowly and walked into her room. The layout of the barracks-style building was small; the bedroom had a bed, and a small altar under the photos on the wall took up most of the space.

Looking at the photo of her son on the wall, Professor Liu felt a wave of sadness and muttered to herself, “Now he knows regret, but what was he doing back then? I told you many times not to do such dangerous work, but he kept encouraging you, and eventually you got so encouraged that you died… This dead old man went to be a father to a group of stinky kids and didn’t take care of his own son. Your brother is becoming more and more unruly…”

In the empty room, a grieving mother spoke to the photo on the wall, never having believed in the existence of souls. But after losing her child, she began to believe and talked to the photo every day, as if the child had never left.

When Xiao Qian left the barracks-style building, she felt a heav.weight in her heart. The teacher’s sad eyes made her regret mentioning her master in front of the teacher.

She had confused the present with her past life.

In her past life, the teacher had experienced many years of suffering, and her hatred for her master was not as deep as it was now. She seemed to have touched the teacher’s pain point.

Because of this incident, Xiao Qian was distracted all afternoon, and her learning efficiency hit an all-time low. She didn’t listen to any of her classes, studying on her own with headphones. All the teachers in her department knew of this female prodigy who would self-study other subjects during her classes. When roll call was taken, she would be present for her self-study; when attendance wasn’t required, she would simply not show up.

Xiao Qian packed up her things and walked out. As she passed the lectern, a teacher stopped her. Xiao Qian also recognized this person; she was a student of Professor Liu, a doctoral student from the same school who was substituting for a junior class.

“This is from Boss Liu.”

Doctoral students usually call their supervisors “Boss,” and this substitute teacher was no exception.

Xiao Qian took the file folder, which seemed to contain documents.

“People who are watched by Boss Liu are all quite pitiful. Junior sister, you’d better pray for yourself.”

“Those who aren’t favored by her are even more pitiful, senior sister. You don’t even realize how fortunate you are.” Xiao Qian waved her hand and left with the file folder.

“Strange people attract strange people. I bet Boss Liu is attracted to this weird girl.” The senior sister shrugged. It would be great if Boss Liu were attracted to someone else, so she wouldn’t have to exploit them every day. Being both a substitute and working other jobs was like being an exploited laborer, but who could afford to offend their supervisor?

Xiao Qian returned to her dormitory. No one else had come back yet. Some were settling accounts, others were on dates. She poured herself a cup of hot milk, opened the file folder, and found a stack of documents.

This was the challenge Liu Linlin had given Xiao Qian: to treat a patient with manic disorder.

“Just give me 20 yuan?” Xiao Qian incredulously pulled two ten-yuan bills out of the bag. The teacher shouldn’t be called Boss Liu, but rather Liu Skinflint. Was she trying to get rid of a beggar?

Which psychological counseling clinic charges so little? But Xiao Qian also knew that her teacher wasn’t like those who exploited their students. Other supervisors would take on projects and let their students do the work, only giving them a little money and keeping the bulk of the earnings for themselves. But her supervisor took on projects that didn’t require payment, and this small amount of money was probably just for her transportation expenses.

“Let’s see who this patient is… Huh, Xiao Qiang?”