Chapter 131: Make a Bet
"Don’t talk nonsense..." Zhou Chengguo had lost all of his initial bravado.
He couldn’t help but avert his gaze. This girl looked so delicate and frail, but she spoke with such force.
Her eyes, in particular, were beautiful, but also very cold.
When she looked at him, it was as if she could see right through him, exposing all the darkness hidden in his heart.
"Did I say something wrong? Zhou Chengguo, if you have the guts to do these things, don’t be afraid of being exposed. You’re just bullying Qiaoqi’s honest family. And you still have the nerve to cause a scene in front of me? Do you think I’m afraid of you?"
Su Zhaozhao wasn’t scared of Zhou Chengguo in the slightest. In fact, she walked toward him.
Under her gaze, however, Zhou Chengguo grew flustered and kept backing away.
"Stay back!" Zhou Chengguo couldn’t help but shout as Su Zhaozhao kept approaching.
"Zhou Chengguo, a man should be upright and honest. If it weren’t for the Wen Family, would you have been able to continue your studies? You probably would have dropped out and started working long ago. Your accomplishments today are inseparable from the Wen Family. Qiaoqi was good enough to you, asking for only half your income each month, and you still don’t want to pay? You even dare to hold a grudge? You’re so shameless, you don’t deserve to be a teacher!"
"Stop talking..." Zhou Chengguo’s face turned pale from Su Zhaozhao’s relentless tirade.
She was even attacking his profession, the thing he was most proud of. It was because of this job that he had shed his so-called "country bumpkin" status and become a respected teacher.
Even though this place was in the middle of nowhere, because it was the military region’s elementary school, the teachers were all excellent. Several of them were even from the city.
The girl he was pursuing, for example, was a city girl.
If he could be with her, he might be able to make it to the city in the future. The girl’s father even seemed to work for the Yun City Education Bureau...
Then, perhaps he could use that connection to climb even higher.
That was a height he could never reach in a lifetime with Wen Xiaoqi.
Just then, a cool male voice rang out. "He doesn’t deserve to be a teacher, but you do?"
Su Zhaozhao turned her head and saw a man who had appeared behind her at some unknown point.
He was wearing dark green training fatigues, looking as if he had just finished a training session.
His handsome face held a chilling, somber expression, and he stared at her as if she were his mortal enemy.
This man...
Su Zhaozhao had an impression of him. They had run into each other a few times. The first time, she had even thought he was quite handsome, no different from the male lead of a novel.
’He seems to be Zhou Chengguo’s friend?’
Based on her general understanding of this book, she knew that an unimportant character would never be this handsome.
’Could he also be a character in the novel who’s connected to the female lead?’
’But she really hadn’t heard of someone like him...’
In the novel, during the part set in the Northwest Military Region, the female lead only had contact with the male lead and Lin Shumo.
There were also some unimportant supporting characters who had a crush on the female lead.
’Could he be one of them?’
’So handsome. The author is really good to the female lead.’
But why did this man always stare at her like she was his enemy?
’Is it just because I hate Zhou Chengguo?’
’What’s the use of being good-looking? He’s still birds of a feather with Zhou Chengguo.’
"That’s not necessarily true. If I were a teacher, I’d definitely be better than Zhou Chengguo."
After all, she had graduated from a prestigious university. Although in her past life, the college entrance exams weren’t as rigorous as they were in this era, she had still placed in the top few hundred out of over a hundred thousand candidates in her province.
Teaching elementary school would be more than easy for her.
"You? You only have a middle school education, and you want to teach?" The man’s thin lips curled into a sneer.
’She took back her previous thought. What was the use of being handsome with such a foul temper?’
’This was only the third time she’d seen him, right?’
"How do you know I graduated from middle school? Who are you? Do I know you?" Su Zhaozhao stared at the man before her warily.
Upon hearing this, however, the man’s brow furrowed, and his gaze grew even colder.
"You really are..."
Xie Huaizhen paused, unable to continue.
He hadn’t expected that Su Zhaozhao came to the Northwest Military Region, but not for him.
Otherwise, she should have recognized him long ago.
He had thought she came to the Northwest Military Region because she heard he’d been promoted and had a promising future, and now she wanted to get back together with him.
But after waiting for so long, she had made no move.
And now that they met again, she actually claimed not to know him!
They had an arranged marriage from childhood and had indeed rarely met, but he would never forget her.
But she had forgotten him?
Back then, when her stepmother had said those cruel words, Xie Huaizhen knew that even if Su Zhaozhao hadn’t said them to his face...
...she must have tacitly approved of them!
In the days that followed, Xie Huaizhen suffered many blows. But instead of driving him to despair, they fueled his grief and anger into motivation, making him work even harder.
He had pushed his way up, holding in his resentment, vowing to make those who looked down on him eat their words.
But he never expected that Su Zhaozhao wouldn’t recognize him.
The man before her grew colder and more furious, and the atmosphere seemed to drop by several degrees.
Su Zhaozhao was confused. It was as if she had said something to anger him again.
"Comrade, why are you so angry? Look, even Zhou Chengguo isn’t as mad as you are."
Having been called out, Zhou Chengguo shot Su Zhaozhao a glare.
Xie Huaizhen took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
’Isn’t it better that she doesn’t recognize him?’
’That way, she won’t pester him.’
’But why is she here? If not for him, could it be for another man?’
The thought flashed through Xie Huaizhen’s mind, and right on cue, Zhou Chengguo spoke up.
"Exactly! You only graduated from middle school, and you’re acting so high and mighty? I don’t believe for a second you could be an elementary school teacher. I really don’t know what you’re so smug about."
Su Zhaozhao thought, ’This must be the earliest form of academic elitism.’
She fell silent for a moment before saying, "I can do it if I say I can."
"What can you do? As it happens, our elementary school is hiring an English teacher. If you really have the ability, then come and apply." Zhou Chengguo gave a sarcastic smile. "How about we make a bet?"
English... Even for a university graduate like him, his English wasn’t very good. He could write it but couldn’t really speak it.
In China at this time, English was basically only taught starting in middle school.
But their military region’s elementary school, in its pursuit of high-quality teaching, wanted to give parents more peace of mind about sending their children there.
So, they planned to start teaching English from the third grade.
The only problem was, an English teacher wasn’t so easy to find.
They had been searching for at least three months, but no English teacher was willing to come teach in the great Northwest.
The higher-ups were even considering assigning a recent university graduate to the post.
Hearing Zhou Chengguo’s words, Xie Huaizhen couldn’t help but frown at him.
’Zhou Chengguo’s bet seemed too outrageous.’
Even though he disliked Su Zhaozhao, he could clearly tell that Zhou Chengguo was deliberately making things difficult for her.