NOVPUB
Chapter 538: 528
Shen Yunfang, though not a particularly smart person, was one who could adapt to circumstances easily, as well as someone who, once she set her sights on a target, would persistently strive towards it.
The matter of staying at the school was already set in stone, and she thought that if she raised her arms and shouted at this moment that she didn’t want to stay at the school, preferring to slack off in a workplace closer to home, she would surely be beaten up by a crowd.
Nowadays, people’s spiritual ambitions run high, everyone thinking about how to contribute to the construction of the "Four Modernizations" and is rolling up their sleeves, ready to work hard. There were few people like Shen Yunfang who were selfish, only thinking about their own well-being.
Of course, there had to be people like that, but even for someone like that, being assigned to stay at the school for an internship was considered the best path available.
Shen Yunfang was someone who could adapt to situations and was also grateful for her blessings, so she only hesitated for a moment. By Monday, she was spiritedly immersed in her internship work.
Professor Cai was a notably famous teacher at Agricultural University, first because he was a "surgeon" professor, teaching plant morphology to students of the Agronomy Department, with plant anatomy being his forte. Second, he was known for his explosive temper; it was said that someone had offended him and ended up chased around the campus with a scalpel in hand. Third, he was a professor who stubbornly adhered to his principles, in his life there was only black and white, good and bad, and he straight-out ignored any underhanded dealings, so nobody should even think about pulling strings with him—not to mention backdoor favors, there wasn’t even a window for that.
Agricultural University, from top to bottom, treated this teacher with great respect. Students dared not offend him; he was known to fail students on a whim. Faculty and staff were also reluctant to provoke him; he neither catered to the leadership nor was he sycophantic. If he really got into a dispute, he would not hesitate to give chase around the campus.
Assigning Shen Yunfang to such a teacher as an intern was clearly Vice Chancellor Tao’s way of giving her a hard time.
At the beginning, Shen Yunfang was quite apprehensive. She had, of course, attended Professor Cai’s classes, but back then all she needed to do was listen attentively in class and complete her homework afterwards. She did not have much direct interaction with Professor Cai. But now, as an intern closely working with him, she was basically tasked with all sorts of errands exclusive to him.
However, Professor Cai never treated her like someone running errands. He was always very serious about teaching her every time he lectured or when he had research to do, ensuring Yunfang was learning along with him.
After a week, Yunfang gradually adapted to Professor Cai’s style of learning. All she had to do was diligently and punctually finish the tasks assigned by him, and he didn’t fuss about anything else.
The nature of internship work was fundamentally different from attending school, especially in terms of time availability. As long as she followed Professor Cai’s schedule of classes, that was fine. With sixteen classes a week, whatever time was left was hers to use as she wished, with no one to supervise.
Shen Yunfang slowly savored this new experience and thought to herself that an internship at the school was indeed better than one at the Agricultural Bureau.
"Mom, Mom, hurry up, hurry! If you dawdle any longer, my sister and I will be late for school," Pangpang, the little child, anxiously roamed around the house in the morning. With class time rapidly approaching, their mother hadn’t even finished dressing, which was taking far too long.
"Yeah, Mom, hurry up, or we won’t get any little red flowers for attendance," Manman said, eyes wide as she supervised their mother getting dressed.
"Is it that time already? Then I’d better hurry," Yunfang emerged from the bedroom, taking the shoes her son offered and putting them on. Just as she stood up and was about to head out the door, she suddenly remembered something, "Oh dear, wait for me, I think I forgot my watch." She touched her bare wrist and started heading back to the bedroom.
"Mom, your watch is here. Here, take it, let’s get going quickly," Pangpang urgently tugged at his mother, reaching up to the shoe rack to hand her the watch and then shook his head and heaved a sigh. Being her son was such hard work.
Last year, every morning his mother would chase after them, urging them to hurry up, but this year the roles had reversed, and now it was his turn to prod his mother every day.
"Oh, my Dabao is the sweetest, come here and give me a kiss." Shen Yunfang planted a kiss on her son’s cheek with abandon. And of course, after her son’s, her daughter’s turn was a must, "Manman, come here, Mommy wants to kiss you too."
Manman was happy to be kissed and seemed eager to continue playing with her mother, but Pangpang scratched his head, "No more kissing, we’re going to be late for school. Let’s hurry downstairs."
"Yes, Mommy is teaching you to be conscious of time in everything you do." Shen Yunfang felt her education had been a tremendous success; look at her once dawdling son and daughter—not dragging their feet anymore.
With Pangpang’s insistent urging, the family finally headed downstairs. Shen Yunfang, riding her newly purchased bicycle, dropped her two children off at the nursery before she casually headed off to school.
She had no classes for the first two periods today; it was the third and fourth periods that she had scheduled.
"Xiaoshen, why have you come so early today? Don’t you have the third and fourth periods?" An office colleague saw Shen Yunfang entering and casually asked.
"Yeah, I dropped the kids off at the nursery this morning, so I came straight here." After placing her bag on her desk, Shen Yunfang picked up a broom and began to clean the office.
"Xiaoshen, leave that, I’ll do it, I’ll do it." A professor in his fifties saw Shen Yunfang about to clean and hurriedly offered to take the broom from her—it was his turn for duty today.
There were six people in the office, each taking turns for duty one day at a time, a schedule that had been arranged previously. Although they hadn’t suggested adding Shen Yunfang to the roster after she joined the office, she was quite observant. Aside from the days when teacher Cai was on duty, which she took upon herself, she would always volunteer to clean whenever she arrived at school early.
Shen Yunfang didn’t hand it over but smiled and said, "Professor Wang, you have a class later on, you should be busy with that. I have nothing going on; it’ll be done in a few sweeps."
"Ah, youth is wonderful," exclaimed a female teacher in her thirties.
Shen Yunfang, who continued sweeping the floor with her head down, simply smiled in response. In this office, most people were quite friendly, except this thirty-something teacher who seemed to feel some jealousy towards the younger Shen Yunfang. She always spoke with an undertone, seizing any chance to sting Shen Yunfang with her words.
"Teacher Yu, that seems like a backhanded compliment," Professor Wang joked, "Saying that youth is great in front of a man over fifty like me must mean you’re finding fault with my age." With that, Professor Wang had smoothly extricated Shen Yunfang from any awkwardness. The old guard didn’t appreciate Teacher Yu using her status to bully the young, but since everyone was colleagues, such matters weren’t openly discussed, and it was just a way to give Shen Yunfang a little support.
"Professor Wang, you must be joking. I have such respect for you, how could I possibly be talking about you?" Teacher Yu was quite bubbly, and before Shen Yunfang’s arrival, she had been a young and gentle teacher herself.
"Haha, just kidding, just kidding. Let’s all not take it seriously, okay?" Professor Wang successfully diffused the little awkward moment in the office.
