Chapter 151: Dorm Inspection
During the evening self-study session, Tong Yao brought a camera from home.
To be precise, it wasn’t an evening self-study session, but an evening drill. The students, who had been tired all day, did not get any rest at night and were called out by the instructor to march in unison. Fortunately, there was no scorching sun at night, and the instructor was not as strict as during the day, so there were fewer complaints.
However, some people were not so happy to see Xia Zhi resting on the side—even though the reduction in training was due to Xia Zhi’s heatstroke.
“It’s very simple to use. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know how to focus,” Tong Yao was introducing the use of the camera to Xia Zhi. “As long as you take clear pictures.”
“Mhm…” Xia Zhi carefully took it with both hands. The camera was very heavy, and it was a lot of pressure to hang it around her neck. It was the first time she had held such a delicate and valuable thing. It was heavy, and it seemed to be more than just the weight of the camera.
“Alright, then go take pictures. Go take a few pictures of each class,” Tong Yao curled her lips and then went to watch her own class’s drill.
The night was a good time to slack off. No matter how sharp the instructor’s eyes were, there were opportunities for those lazy little movements.
At ten o’clock, they were dismissed to their dorms.
Tong Yao stood on the sports field, facing a huge problem.
Dorm inspection.
First-rate schools focus on academics, second-rate schools focus on discipline, and third-rate schools… focus on hygiene.
The branch campus was between second-rate and third-rate, so they had to focus on both.
Although she didn’t really want to inspect the boys’ dorms, she still had to. In a school like this, if you don’t inspect the dorms, this group of children can fly off the handle at night. Fortunately, the school stipulated that the dorm inspection was after lights out, so she didn’t have to worry about seeing anything she shouldn’t.
She just waited, in the office, until 11 o’clock.
Being a homeroom teacher is really not a job for humans.
She walked to the dorm building and recalled the location of the Class 9 dorms. The hallway at night was very quiet, but when she passed by some dorms, she could also hear the laughter inside. The dorms were for eight people, with a private bathroom. The conditions were not good or bad in the south. And the people in the dorms were divided according to their entrance exam scores, which meant that some dorms might have good discipline, and some might be particularly bad.
Dorm 417.
She passed by quietly. From the window, the people inside should all be asleep. She glanced at the name list at the door. Sure enough, it was the group with better grades.
Next door, 418.
As soon as she reached the door, she heard laughter from inside. From the window, she could see the light from the phones inside—the phones were not confiscated during military training, which made this group of students overjoyed.
She frowned, knocked on the door, and then pushed it open directly. The dorm doors were not locked, and you could only use toilet paper to jam them shut.
The dorm instantly became quiet.
“It’s so late and you’re not sleeping. Weren’t you tired enough during the day?” she said coldly. “Do you want me to ask Instructor Wang to add some more for you?”
“Teacher, don’t, don’t,” Li Minghe from the upper bunk poked his head out and said with a grin. “We’ll go to sleep right away.”
Tong Yao ignored him, walked inside, and the bed in front of her had a curtain. She didn’t know what was going on inside.
“Teacher, don’t go over,” a boy said with a sly smile. “Wu Zhiyun sleeps naked.”
Tong Yao’s expression froze.
But, the curtain in front was suddenly pulled open, and Wu Zhiyun, in his pajamas, said with annoyance, “You’re the one who sleeps naked!”
“…” Tong Yao held her forehead. “Be quiet, go to sleep early, and don’t play on your phones.”
The dorm was quiet again.
Tong Yao stood for a while, sniffed, and silently turned around. Before closing the door, she sighed and said, “Li Minghe, put on your clothes and come out for a second.”
She went out and stood in the hallway, enjoying the summer night breeze.
Not long after, Li Minghe came out, followed by the laughter and encouragement of the boys.
“You were smoking, right?”
Tong Yao got straight to the point, looking up at this 1.8-meter-tall boy. “I can smell the smoke on your clothes even from here.”
Li Minghe was taken aback for a moment, turned his face away, and did not admit it.
“No.”
He was an old hand. For something like smoking, as long as you weren’t caught on the spot, it was hard to be punished. Teacher Tong wouldn’t go into their bathroom, so he could smoke freely in the dorm, and he only had to watch out for the student affairs office director’s surprise inspection when he smoked in the school building’s bathroom.
“You’re only 15. I think you should know how much damage smoking does to your body,” Tong Yao said calmly. “I’ve heard of students who smoke before, and their parents took them to the hospital to have their lungs washed. That’s a kind of torture. You’re not living for others, but you also have to consider the people who love you, and consider yourself. Don’t ruin your body and make your future self regret it, and make the people who love you sad.”
Li Minghe lowered his head, suddenly feeling a wave of annoyance.
This woman…
He had thought that she would use the school rules and his parents to pressure him, so he had thought of a thousand ways to retort in his heart.
But, in his most rebellious period, he had encountered the type he hated the most, the “reason with them and move them with emotion” type.
Tong Yao softened her voice. “The breakfast stall at the school gate is run by your parents, right?”
Li Minghe suddenly paused, his pupils out of focus for a moment.
It was called a breakfast stall, but it was actually just a mobile stall selling cold noodles. Who knows when the school would call the city management to chase them away.
“They get up early and work late for you. You must have seen it.
“You should be more sensible.”
Tong Yao looked at the time. Seeing that Li Minghe was not saying a word, she sighed. “Go back and rest.”
Li Minghe returned to his bed, somewhat dejected.
When his roommates asked with a lewd smile, “What did Teacher Tong say to you?” he became even more annoyed and roared in a low voice, “She didn’t say anything,” and then fell silent.
Seeing that he was in a bad mood, the others also gradually fell silent.
**
The dorm inspection was quick, and it was only 11:15. Tong Yao walked into the girls’ dorm and found that there were other homeroom teachers from other classes in the hallway. It was a male teacher, holding a flashlight and waving it around, almost blinding her.
Isn’t this deliberately disturbing the students?
She couldn’t say anything and just focused on her own class’s students, checking them quietly.
The girls were not one bit more well-behaved than the boys. The first dorm was talking. She knocked on the door, went in, gave a warning, and was about to go out when she caught a glimpse of Xia Zhi, who was sleeping in the lower bunk by the door.
“Why aren’t you covering yourself with a blanket?” Her gaze quickly moved away from the girl’s smooth thighs under her camouflage shirt and found that several girls were not covered. Not only were they not covered, but they were also sticking to the wall because of the heat.
No one in the room was asleep. Xia Zhi was a little embarrassed for some reason and covered her thighs with a pillow.
“The blanket is in the cabinet… it has to be pressed into a tofu block.”
The training intensity had decreased, but the requirements for daily life had become stricter. Tong Yao noticed that even the cups on the desk were placed in the same direction.
“Alright,” she found it strangely cute. “It might still be a little cold at night. Stay warm.”
“Teacher, it’s not cold at all,” a girl complained. “There’s no air conditioning or fan. It’s so hot… and there are mosquitoes. I can’t sleep at all.”
After all, it was summer in Changsha.
Tong Yao was also very helpless and could only comfort them. “Try to overcome the difficulties. A calm mind will naturally cool you down.”
She knew that saying this was useless, but she had no other way. She thought for a moment and added before leaving, “I’ll report to the school and see if they can install air conditioning.”
“Mhm, thank you, teacher,” the girl thanked her, but she had no hope.
The students knew very well what the school was like.
Tong Yao left this dorm. The chirping of cicadas came from the trees outside the hallway, which was even more noisy on a stuffy night.
Indeed.
With this temperature, how could you sleep without an air conditioner or a fan?
She turned to the next room. There was probably a lookout who had tipped them off, and the other dorms were all very quiet. She was about to leave when the door of the dorm behind her suddenly opened.
“Teacher Tong.”
Tong Yao turned her head and looked at Song Zhifei with surprise. “What’s wrong?”
Song Zhifei was wearing a nightgown. With her light yellow curly hair, she had a kind of Korean girl’s beauty.
“Can you tell that male teacher not to inspect the dorms like that?”
“Huh?” She was slightly taken aback.
“In summer, we don’t wear much. It’s too hot and we don’t want to cover ourselves with a blanket. He’s always shining his flashlight inside, and he even goes into the girls’ dorms of his class. I feel…” Song Zhifei wanted to say a more direct word, but after thinking about it, she held it in. “It’s not right.”
She was just short of directly saying that the teacher had ulterior motives.
Tong Yao was silent for a while, then said, “I know. I’ll talk to him. He won’t be like that tomorrow.”
Song Zhifei was a little surprised. She had thought that these teachers would be unwilling to do such an offensive thing, but she hadn’t expected this homeroom teacher to agree at once.
“What are you standing there for?” Tong Yao looked at her and urged softly. “Go back and rest.”
“Oh… take care, Teacher Tong.”
Song Zhifei walked back to the dorm, and the sisters immediately started their night talk.
“How did it go, how did it go?”
“She said she’ll take care of it, and it will be fine tomorrow.”
“Really? I’m so annoyed with that pervert. It’s so disgusting. He’s apparently an outstanding teacher, ugh.”
“It’s normal if she can’t handle it,” Song Zhifei lay down and said casually. “After all, she’s new.”
“Sigh, never mind. Let’s continue. Zhifei, who do you think is handsome in the class?”
“They’re all ugly.”
Downstairs from the dorm building.
Tong Yao caught up to the man with the flashlight, recognized that he was the homeroom teacher of Class 8, Zhang He, and called out, “Teacher Zhang.”
The man turned his head. Seeing that it was her, his face wrinkled up in a smile.
“Teacher Tong, what’s the matter?”
“It’s like this,” she hated his gaze and was too lazy to beat around the bush. She said, word by word, “I think you can change your way of inspecting the dorms. The girls live here, and they need privacy and respect. And you are a man. It’s not appropriate to inspect the dorms like that.”
Zhang He’s expression became stiff.
Upstairs, Song Zhifei, who had come out to get a drink of water, looked down. The two people seemed to be arguing. She tried to listen for a long time, but she couldn’t hear clearly. Then, she narrowed her eyes, aimed, and poured the cold water from her cup.
“Teacher Tong, I have my own set of…”
Splash—
Tong Yao was dazed. She stood far away and watched the man in front of her get drenched in water.
Zhang He was furious—although his soaked hair couldn’t stand up anymore—he looked up angrily, but saw no one.
There was no surveillance in the dorms.
And he couldn’t shout, to disturb the other students.
He could only grit his teeth and swallow this silent loss.
Tong Yao was a little afraid that she would get a basin of water too, so she stood under the eaves and looked at Zhang He again.
“If Teacher Zhang still plans to inspect the dorms like that, I will report it.”
**
Military training base.
Gathered were students from several universities. The base was located in a remote mountain, and besides the army and university vehicles, few people came and went.
In the morning, the students had just finished their drill and were chatting in the dorm. Ruan Xi came back with a large box, attracting many gazes.
“Can this package be delivered here?” someone asked curiously.
“I didn’t know it could be delivered here either…” The young girl said with a sweat. She opened the box, and inside were several power banks and a pile of snacks.
Then, she instantly became the fat meat in everyone’s eyes.
“Lend me your power bank, please!”
“Who sent it to you? Ahhh, I’m so jealous!”
“Is it the one you call every night?”
“Mhm, it’s her,” Ruan Xi looked up, her eyes like a crescent moon. “My wife.”
