Chapter 190 So Outstanding That It Makes One Despair
In the headmaster’s office... “An Xinhui, during these few days, teachers and students are complaining to me that Sun Mo only draws spirit gathering runes during his classes. This is basically skimping. Some people even mention that you are using your position for personal gain. How are you preparing to explain this?” questioned Zhang Hanfu.
He was preparing to endure this for a while. After all, after Sun Mo headed to the Darkness Continent, there was an 80%-90% chance that he wouldn’t come back. But today when he was patrolling the school, he would occasionally hear people discussing Sun Mo, and their comments were all positive ones. In fact, quite a lot of people were saying that Zhou Yong hadn’t been expelled even after such a long time was due to him, Zhang Hanfu, protecting Zhou Yong. After hearing all these nasty words cursing at him, how could Zhang Hanfu continue to endure it? He immediately came to find An Xinhui. No matter what, he had to teach Sun Mo a lesson first.
If not, that brat would really assume that he was a vegetarian.*
In truth, this matter wasn’t done by Sun Mo. It was done privately by Li Gong after trying to fathom Sun Mo’s attitude. Li Gong specially found a few people to spread these words around.
Li Gong was very lucky. After he had reported Yang Cai, before Yang Cai could expose him, that unlucky person was already finished off by Zhang Hanfu. So, Li Gong was still working as the supervisor in the logistics department. When he knew that a new department head had arrived, he was very disappointed. Why wasn’t the department head Sun Mo?
He knew that Sun Mo was too young, and it was impossible for him to take such an important position. But a few days later, the school issued an announcement saying that Sun Mo would become the new vice department head of the logistics department.
Since the department head had been transferred away, in the future, Sun Mo’s words were the sole source of authority in the logistics department.
Sun Mo had become his direct supervisor, and this filled the lackey Li Gong with joy. He naturally took the chance to ‘bootlick’ Sun Mo.
Li Gong felt that Sun Mo must have convinced An Xinhui through ‘sleeping’ with her. If not, how would he be able to take on this important role?
In any case, Li Gong’s tricks ensured that Zhang Hanfu’s reputation fell by half.
Given An Xinhui and Wang Su’s characters, they absolutely wouldn’t do something like this. Hence, Zhang Hanfu felt that this whole thing must be masterminded by Sun Mo.
“Has the number of students attending Sun Mo’s classes fallen below 10? If it is so, I will cancel his lessons!’
An Xinhui counter-asked.
“I want to bring up this point precisely. Sun Mo publicly gifts students who attended his class spirit gathering runes. Isn’t this the same as using material benefits to attract more people to his lessons? This isn’t a fair competition!”
Zhang Hanfu angrily spoke, “There are already many teachers complaining to me about this.”
“Are those spirit gathering runes he gifted out not drawn by him?”
An Xinhui interrupted Zhang Hanfu.
“Eh!”
He had no way to refute that because the gifts were truly drawn by Sun Mo. It was even said that the grade of the spirit gathering runes wasn’t low.
“There’s no problem then. That’s something personally drawn by a teacher. Gifting them to students would only encourage them to work harder in learning. How can there be any problem?”
An Xinhui’s eloquence was also pretty good.
“Alright, let’s temporarily shelve this. You said that Sun Mo has resolved the school’s financial problem? How did he do that?”
Zhang Hanfu was very curious. Sun Mo couldn’t have sold his ass, right?
“Vice-headmaster Zhang has a host of problems to deal with every day. There’s no need for you to worry about this.”
An Xinhui would never tell him in case he planned something bad.
“You also know that I’m a vice-headmaster? I didn’t sign Sun Mo’s letter of appointment for the logistics department!”
Zhang Hanfu was very angry.
“Teacher Wang signed it!”
An Xinhui strongly rebutted, causing Zhang Hanfu to almost explode.
Zhang Hanfu was cursing in his heart. (That crazy Wang Su, why does he admire Sun Mo that much?)
Wang Su was treating him so well to the extent where others would truly feel jealous.
“I still have a lot of work to do. If you have nothing else to say, please go out!”
An Xinhui issued the guest expulsion order.
Zhang Hanfu’s face turned black. Upon seeing An Xinhui ignoring him, he felt a surge of anger, but he had nowhere to vent it. He could only snort coldly and push the door open to leave.
No way, he couldn’t allow things to be settled like this!
Zhang Hanfu decided to find a few teachers and students to complain about Sun Mo. Even if he couldn’t cancel Sun Mo’s classes, he had to disgust Sun Mo to death.
In the campus, as Zhang Hanfu walked past a bed of flowers, he saw his son sitting on a bench nearby.
“Qianlin, why are you in a daze?”
Upon seeing the son whom he regarded heavily, Zhang Hanfu involuntarily smiled. But his smile vanished and was soon replaced by a frown after that.
What was going on with the depressed look on his son’s face?
“Did you go to see An Xinhui?”
From Zhang Hanfu’s point of view, his son must have asked An Xinhui out for dinner and got rejected. (Sigh, I’ve already told you that it’s impossible between the two of you.)
“No!”
Zhang Qianlin shook his head.
“Eh? What’s wrong with you?”
Zhang Hanfu felt a little taken aback.
“Nothing.”
Zhang Qianlin furrowed his brows and stood up with impatience, preparing to leave. However, after he took a few steps, he stopped and asked, “Father, is my talent considered high in the study of spirit runes?”
“That’s definite. If not, why would I go all-out to beg for favors and send you abroad for higher education? It’s naturally because He Yuanjin isn’t worthy enough to guide
you!”
Zhang Hanfu walked over with a smile on his face as he patted his son’s shoulder. “Don’t indulge in nonsensical thoughts, you are the very best. That Sun Mo who only knows how to draw spirit gathering runes is trash when compared to you.” After saying this, Zhang Hanfu’s face was filled with disdain. He felt that Sun Mo was only proficient in drawing spirit gathering runes. If not, why didn’t he talk about other runes during his classes?
One couldn’t help but say that Zhang Hanfu’s judgment was tempered through his long years of experience in society. It was quite accurate. If he had launched ‘attacks’ earlier based on this ‘weakness’, Sun Mo’s class might have been canceled long ago.
“Alright, go and relax, don’t feel too nervous. You have just returned to school, and everyone is not familiar with you, right? After a month or two, all the teachers and students in the school would know that my son is the most impressive spirit rune master here.” Zhang Hanfu consoled. “Mn!”
Zhang Qianlin picked himself up. “Oh, what are you planning to do? Do you need my help?”
“I need to find people to deal with Sun Mo!”
Zhang Hanfu spoke bluntly.
IL11
When Zhang Qianlin heard that, his expression turned unnatural. He hesitated, appearing as though he wanted to say something but was unsure how he should say it.
“What’s wrong?” Zhang Hanfu frowned. “Just speak your mind.” “Father, it’s better not to do so.” “Why?”
Zhang Hanfu didn’t understand. (Why has the heart of my son grown so soft? Also, isn’t Sun Mo your love rival? By rights, you shouldn’t give up any chance to disgust him.) Zhang Qianlin didn’t really want to say it. But when he thought that his father would surely suffer a disadvantage if he made trouble for Sun Mo in his class, he decided to grit his teeth and tell the truth. “He’s really very impressive!”
“Who? What are you talking about?”
Zhang Hanfu felt a little unhappy. “As a true man, stop acting so wishy-washy. Even your demeanor would become shameless.”
“It’s Sun Mo. He’s very impressive in the field of spirit runes. We should not start trouble with him in this field.”
Zhang Qianlin said everything in a breath and actually felt more relaxed now. “What?”
Zhang Hanfu thought he heard it wrongly. This son of his had extremely high talent in the study of spirit runes. Since he was young up until now, his son was extremely confident and proud of his own ability. His son was never willing to concede to others. But now, he actually said that Sun Mo was very impressive?
“You best abolish this thought in your mind, or it would surely end in a case of self-humiliation,” said Zhang Qianlin.
Zhang Qianlin was preparing to head to the library. He definitely wanted to find the origin of that mysterious rune.
“Wait a minute, you were sitting here with a depressed look on your face earlier. Did you suffer a psychological impact after attending Sun Mo’s class?”
Zhang Hanfu was badly shocked. (How could this be possible? That Sun Mo is actually more talented than my genius son?)
“Sigh, I’ll tell you honestly. In our Central Province Academy, Sun Mo’s achievement in the field of spirit runes is probably ranked within the top five.”
After that, he clenched his fists. (But I won’t admit defeat!)
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Zhang Hanfu’s lips twitched. He knew in his heart that his son didn’t praise people easily. But once someone was praised by him, that person was definitely someone with true capabilities. Zhang Qianlin didn’t reply, he simply turned and departed. After standing for a while, Zhang Hanfu cursed, “DAMN IT!”.
He then launched a fierce kick at a tree next to him.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Many leaves fell because of the impact.
After that, he started to envy An Xinhui’s good luck. (Your judgment in selecting a fiance is so good. With just a Sun Mo, you actually managed to turn the situation around!)
(Wait a minute, this has nothing to do with An Xinhui. The one with good judgment was the old headmaster!) “Sigh, what a pity. If the old headmaster had succeeded in breaking through to the saint realm, there was an 80% to 90% chance that the school could return to the ranks of the Nine greats.”
Zhang Hanfu sighed. After that, a depressed look appeared on his face. (How good would it be if I was a 4-star great teacher!)
Since Zhang Qianlin had said that Sun Mo was outstanding, one could see how good Wang Su was at assessing people. As a 2-star great teacher, Zhang Hanfu’s judgment ability was truly much inferior compared to Wang Su’s. “Should I give up on seizing the headmaster position and focus on research and teaching students? No, I can’t do that. If I did so, Prince Li would definitely kill me.”
When this thought appeared in his mind, Zhang Hanfu hurriedly cast it out. He was in no position to make a decision.
“Elder Zheng, why are you here?”
When Sun Mo saw Zheng Qingfang, he immediately hurried over to welcome him. He had a very favorable impression of this old man whose interests aligned with him.
“I can’t wait any longer. Where is the second part of (Journey to the West)? It’s almost two months now. You should have finished writing it, right?” Zheng Qingfang looked straight at Sun Mo as though he was a pet waiting for Sun Mo to give him food.
“Eh?!”
Sun Mo scratched his hair. “I didn’t write it!”
“What?”
Zheng Qingfang clutched his heart. It felt so painful that he almost suffocated. This answer was actually the worst-case scenario. If Sun Mo had written even a little, he could at least read a bit to ease his itch.
Now, he couldn’t even ‘quench his thirst by thinking of plums’. “Elder Zheng!”
Sun Mo wanted to explain. “Call me uncle!” Zheng Qingfang interrupted Sun Mo. “Uncle Zheng, I’ve been very busy recently!”
In the past, Sun Mo wrote a novel because he needed to earn some living expenses. But now, there was no longer a need for him to do
so.
Even if he randomly drew a few spirit runes, he would be able to earn a few thousand taels easily. Why would he need to work so hard and write a novel?
II
Zheng Qingfang’s lips moved. He wanted to say, ‘As an intern teacher, what can you possibly be busy about? At most, you could only run errands or assist a teacher, right?’.
(Hmph, he must have been busy chasing girls. I heard that the campus queen of the Myriad Daos Academy has joined the Central Province Academy.)
Sun Mo immediately knew what Zheng Qingfang was thinking of just by looking at his expression. Hence, he hurriedly sought to clear things up.
“About a month ago, I officially joined the school. I’m currently a teacher in the Central Province Academy.”
Sun Mo explained. “Ah? Are you Zhang Hanfu’s godson?”
Zheng Qingfang was taken aback.
[1] In chinese culture, the term ‘being a vegetarian’, can also be used to refer to someone that’s weak. An example: If I don’t teach him a lesson, would he think that I’m a vegetarian?