Lu Zheng is a legendary figure in Huacheng's education circle. He was called the "Prime Minister of the Academic Circle" by the former Prime Minister and was received by national leaders at home and abroad many times. This shows his high status and deep qualifications.
Decades ago, Guangnan, China was an educationally weak province. Compared with some provinces in the north with a large number of college entrance examination candidates, only a handful of students could be admitted to prestigious universities, and the rate of admission was extremely unsatisfactory.
After returning from overseas, Lu Zheng immediately devoted himself to strengthening education in the South. He reformed the education method, led the government to raise funds through various channels such as government investment and private donations to increase investment in the education industry, and invited outstanding talents from all over the country and even the world to take up important positions here.
He served as the principal of nine schools, including Huacheng High School, Huacheng No. 2 High School, No. 3 High School, No. 9 High School, Guangnan No. 1 High School, and East China Normal University High School. He did not seek wealth or power, and would immediately step down when he found someone more suitable for the position of principal.
The predecessor of Zhuque Middle School was Huacheng No. 29 Middle School, which was also the school he served as the last principal. No. 29 Middle School was the worst school in Huacheng, ranking last in terms of both school environment and student performance.
He proposed to reform the school and introduce private funds to set up an elite school. The government accepted Lu Zheng's proposal, and No. 29 Middle School was renamed Suzaku High School. After receiving external funds, the school's hard environment was transformed, and generous salaries were offered to recruit outstanding teachers from the society. After more than ten years of hard work by countless people, it was finally built into a leading school in Huacheng and even in the whole of China.
Over the past few decades, the education industry in the south has also been greatly improved. Every year, countless students are admitted to the top ten universities in the country, and there are also many students who are directly recruited by famous foreign universities.
Lu Zheng was old and tired. After resigning as the principal of Suzaku High School, he stayed in his old house by the Que River to live out his days.
Zhuque Middle School later rebuilt a number of teaching staff housing, and prepared a dedicated single-family courtyard for school leaders. Lu Zheng was unwilling to move into these new houses and still lived in the small building he had lived in before.
Fang Yan followed his grandfather into the courtyard. A kind-looking old lady came out to greet him. She said with a smile on her face, "Fang Yan, you two have been out for a while. You didn't have breakfast, did you?"
"I drank a lot of tea." Lu Zheng said. "Do you have any sweet potato porridge?"
"It's still hot in the pot. Shall I cook you two more side dishes?"
"No. Just rice porridge will do." Lu Zheng said. "Fang Yan, you should have one bowl too."
"Okay." Fang Yan agreed readily.
"Let's cook two dishes." The old lady insisted. She missed her grandson before, but Fang Yan had been living in the north, and they rarely had the chance to see him. Now that her grandson came to work near them, she naturally had to take care of Fang Yan's daily life.
"Whatever." Lu Zheng waved his hand and said.
The old lady happily went to cook the side dishes. Fang Yan and Lu Zheng sat in front of the dining table and each served themselves a bowl of sweet potato porridge and started eating.
"Grandma's porridge is really good." Fang Yan praised.
Lu Zheng raised his head and glanced at Fang Yan, chewing the food in his mouth carefully without saying a word.
Fang Yan understood what his grandfather meant and tactfully shut up.
He knew that his grandfather kept the habit of not talking while eating or sleeping. When eating, he didn't like to talk or listen to others talking.
Grandma was very quick and quickly served two side dishes: one was lettuce with oyster sauce, and the other was stir-fried green beans with meat.
Fang Yan was so full that he went to get another bowl of porridge. However, Lu Zheng put down his bowl and chopsticks, indicating that he was full.
Fang Yan ate another bowl of side dishes before putting down his chopsticks in satisfaction.
"Come with me to the study." Lu Zheng said, and then he stood up and left.
"Okay." Fang Yan agreed.
"Just now you threw the bowl away and didn't even let people sit down and rest-----" Grandma complained as she cleaned the table.
Lu Zheng did not respond and took Fang Yan to the study on the second floor.
Lu Zheng's study is a full 200 square meters, occupying more than half of the second floor. The other half is a terrace, where you can sit down and drink tea, smoke, or practice the Five Animals Exercises.
In the study, there was a wooden table and wooden chairs, and all were bookshelves, which were filled with books of various colors and sizes.
There are unique books from the Ming and Qing dynasties, handwritten copies of unofficial histories, biographies of famous people, a general history of China and the world, Tang poetry and Song lyrics, philosophy, education, music and art. It is more like a small library than a study room.
What impressed Fang Yan the most was that Lu Zheng was not the kind of person who pretended to be cultured and deliberately bought so many books and hid them at home in order to show off his knowledge to others. He was a true book lover. He had read most of these books and even made a lot of annotations in them and wrote dozens of reading notes.
The reason why Lu Zheng retired early was because he felt that he had neglected these "old friends".
Fang Yan didn't have many opportunities to come to the south, and he was able to enter his grandfather's study only a few times. He looked at the huge study with envy, and reached out to take a thread-bound copy of Zuo Zongtang's Anecdotes from the bookshelf.
"Stop." Lu Zheng shouted.
Fang Yan quickly retracted his hand and looked at Lu Zheng in confusion.
"Wash your hands first." Lu Zheng said, pointing to the corner.
"My hands are clean."
"That's what you thought."
Fang Yan smiled bitterly, and had to run to wash his hands, wiping them clean with a clean towel before he dared to touch these little treasures.
"Every book is the result of the author's hard work. You must have respect for words." Lu Zheng taught.
"I understand." Fang Yan looked at the book "The Romantic History of Liu Sanbian" in his hand and was immediately filled with respect.
Lu Zheng sat down at the desk, looked at Fang Yan and said, "Fang Yan, do you want to make friends with Du Qing?"
“It can’t be considered making friends.” Fang Yan smiled. He walked in front of Lu Zheng and explained, “It can be considered borrowing each other’s power. He wants to borrow your power, and I want to borrow his power-----”
"I want to teach and educate people properly, why do I need to rely on power?"
Fang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "Grandpa, I thought so too. But didn't you see the actual situation? I didn't ask anyone to be my Chinese teacher, but they treated me like this - two fists can't beat four hands, no matter how strong the boss is, he can't withstand a group fight. There must be a teammate to help at the critical moment. Even if they don't help, just stand aside and yell - that's fine -"
Lu Zheng pondered and said, "Has the person behind the scenes been found?"
"Finally found it." Fang Yan said.
"Who is it?" Lu Zhang said in a cold voice with sharp eyes.
Fang Yan knew his grandfather's stubborn temper. If he knew who his enemy was, he would fight to the death. He was strict with himself, but also quite doting on him.
"Grandpa, let me handle this matter myself." Fang Yan said with a smile. "If you let an old man take the lead in everything, doesn't it make your grandson look incompetent?"
"Be careful." Lu Zheng warned. "It's not like before."
"I understand." Fang Yan agreed.
"Teach well and educate more good students. I don't ask you to make all the students in your class be outstanding. I also know that this is unrealistic. However, if you can bring out more good students, you will make a great contribution to society." Lu Zheng advised earnestly. He has been engaged in education for his whole life, so whenever he has the opportunity, he will "educate" people.
This is also the reason why Fang Yan insisted on renting a house outside despite his grandmother's repeated requests. He is not afraid of his grandfather and father who are martial arts masters, but he is afraid of this weak scholar grandfather.
"I will try my best to learn from grandpa." Fang Yan took the opportunity to flatter him.
Lu Zheng's face looked better, and he said, "I didn't agree with you learning martial arts before. In peacetime, why do you learn those fighting skills all day long? Isn't it enough to practice the Five Animal Exercises and do a few rounds of Tai Chi every morning? Reading more is the right way. A person with knowledge will be elegant."
"Grandpa is right." Fang Yan thought of the burning sensation in his dantian again. He knew that he must have been triggered by something, otherwise this situation would not have occurred. He said, "Grandpa faced many powerful enemies today without avoiding or giving way. It made people's blood boil and admire him."
"Strong enemies? Just hooligans." Lu Zheng sneered. "They are afraid of me. I am not afraid of them. Du Qing worked his way up from the bottom, so he naturally knows that life is not easy. What good is it for them to break my old bones?"
"It would be nice if I could be as good as grandpa." Fang Yan said with a smile. This sentence was not entirely flattering, but also reflected his true thoughts. When he saw his grandpa proudly saying, "I know you have a lot of wealth and many followers, but today I want to see what you can do to me," his heart was really touched.
"Why can't you do it?" Lu Zheng asked back. "You have been well-informed since you were young, your kung fu is better than your peers, you can write beautifully, draw beautifully, you know how to play the zither, you can play the flute - you are smart, you have a good observation ability, you have much more than me and many other people, why can't you do it?"
"------" Fang Yan looked at his grandfather in surprise. Does this old man think so highly of him
"Because you lack spirit." Lu Zheng said seriously. "A person cannot be respected without words, and cannot stand without soul. The reason why Madam is a person is not because of her eight-foot body, but because of her spirit. Napoleon was five feet two inches tall, but he rode a horse and pointed his sword at the world and became a great man. Fang Yan, you have so many talents, why can't you get what you want?"
Spirit!
You lack spirit!
Fang Yan seemed to be possessed, with these words repeating over and over in his mind.
The burning sensation in Dantian became stronger again, as if a hole was burned in the flesh there.
His forehead was covered with sweat and his face became extremely embarrassed.
boom-----
There was a sharp pain in his head, like fireworks exploding and a galaxy exploding.
The sky is full of star rain, brilliant and dazzling. (To be continued)