The students received their phones and discovered that they had received a text message from their Class Teacher in the early hours of the morning, warning them to be careful these days. She must have heard some rumors at that time.
However, because everyone had been working hard during the day and then enthusiastically playing board games together in the evening, they all slept deeply at night. Even though they received the text message, no one saw it.
Upon seeing the Class Teacher's warning message, everyone looked at her with tears in their eyes, knowing that she must have been under great pressure to give them this heads-up.
The class monitor, who tended to worry more, asked, "Won't the school have any objections to you bringing us all back together like this?"
As students, they weren't afraid of the school causing trouble, but they were concerned that the School Leaders might blame the Class Teacher.
Of course, the Class Teacher cared for these students as if they were her own children.
She strongly disagreed with the School Leader who came up with that ridiculous idea. If the students from other classes had been causing trouble after entering the village, she wouldn't have minded sending them on a jungle adventure or something similar.
The problem was that our children had always been obedient, so why target them just because they were well-behaved?
That's not how things should be done.
The Class Teacher snorted, "Whatever objections the school has, I brought you out using my own abilities." There was no one stopping them outside the village at the time, so how could it be her fault? It was clearly an issue with the Staff.
As she dropped each student off at home, the Class Teacher advised them caringly, "Rest well when you get home, consider this a vacation for yourselves."
"The spring tour for other classes won't end for another week, so you can all relax at home during this time."
This was truly wonderful news. They were happy to leave that miserable place, but even happier knowing that while they were enjoying themselves, other students were suffering.
Just thinking about it made them feel delighted.
Not long after the Class Teacher had taken all the students from Class 1, Grade 1 away, the school Staff who were keeping watch also discovered the situation.
They were absolutely terrified. On one hand, they had failed in their duty and would face criticism or warnings. But if any students had been injured or something had happened without their knowledge, their offense would be much more serious.
How could they explain this to the Parents?
The Staff quickly reported the situation up the chain of command, and the Leader who had come up with the idea was already preparing to resign.
However, the watchful Staff soon discovered that these children had actually gone home while they were hanging from the trees.
Based on the timing, they estimated that the students had probably already arrived home.
So they quickly contacted the Class Teacher, asking her to get in touch with the group of children and find out where they were.
Since it was the Class Teacher who had sent these children home, she naturally knew that the students had long since returned. However, she didn't tell them that the students were safely home.
She only asked what the situation was and why they were asking.
The Leader, of course, couldn't say that the students had disappeared right under the Staff's noses, fearing that the Class Teacher might leak this information to the Parents.
Without giving a reason, they just urged the Class Teacher to quickly inquire about the students' whereabouts.
The Class Teacher thought to herself, since you won't tell me why, I don't need to rush either.
Despite the Leader's urgent tone, she leisurely put down the phone.
She also didn't call the students as the School Leaders had hoped.
Why bother calling when she knew the students were at home?
Did they think China Mobile or China Unicom was their family business, and phone calls were free?
Ten minutes later, the Class Teacher was leisurely flipping through a book when she received a call from the Leader.
"How did it go? Did you get through to them?"
"No, I didn't."
Of course, she hadn't even made the call, so there was no question of getting through or not.
The person on the other end thought, oh no, this could be bad.
The Class Teacher kindly explained, "They're in a mountainous area, so the signal is poor. It's normal not to get through."
The other party thought, it's normal not to get through in the mountains, but what if they were even deeper in the mountains?
They hurriedly hung up the phone, only instructing the Class Teacher to keep trying until she got through.
Her response was always that she was still trying, but hadn't gotten through.
This back-and-forth continued two or three times until the Class Teacher estimated that the school might have to come clean with the Parents. Only then did she say she had gotten through.
For the School Leaders, there had never been such a sweet sentence.
At this point, they no longer cared whether the spring tour had ended or not, or that other classes were still being tormented. According to the principle of fairness, this class should have been suffering together with the others.
The students' safety was more important than anything else; everything else was inconsequential.
Not having classes for a whole week was absolutely fantastic.
The students had prepared themselves to laze around at home for a week, but they didn't expect the Class Teacher to change her tune faster than turning a page.
The day before, she had told the students to rest well at home with a face full of concern, but the next day she notified everyone to return to school. They were to study hard and get ahead while others were out playing.
Others: Do you call what we're going through "playing"? You consider suffering as playing?
Class 1 students: That's not what you said yesterday. You told us to rest at home.
Although everyone questioned the Class Teacher's words, they all obediently came to school the next day as told.
Thus, a strange phenomenon occurred at Qianpu High School. While all other classrooms were empty, the students of Class 1, Grade 1 were attending school as usual.
The other classrooms were empty because everyone else was on the spring tour.
What was the situation with Class 1, Grade 1? Their spring tour hadn't ended either.
The Leader in charge at this time had naturally heard about it, and had also heard many so-called rumors, but they just pretended to be deaf, knowing nothing.
The return of Class 1 students triggered a chain reaction: the Subject Teachers who were on vacation had to end their holidays and return to school to teach the Class 1 students.
Although staying at home felt more like a vacation and seemed more comfortable, just thinking about the students from other classes fighting with monkeys for bananas in the primitive forest made going to school seem not so bad.
When Shi's Grandmother heard that Shi Li had disappeared earlier to go on a spring tour, the old lady felt sorry for her granddaughter and asked Shi Li to visit her when she had time.
Shi Li received her grandmother's text message and returned to the Shi Family's Old Residence with Song Ying that evening.
Shi's Grandmother was delighted to see her little granddaughter and kept holding Shi Li's hand, murmuring that she had gotten darker and thinner.
Shi Li couldn't tell if she had gotten darker, but she certainly hadn't gotten thinner.
Although they did farm work every day in the village and the food wasn't as good as at home, there was certainly enough to eat.
After a day of farm work, sitting at the dinner table, even ordinary dishes seemed to have some magical power, becoming delicious. Shi Li would eat two big bowls of rice at every meal.
Moreover, when everyone was scrambling to eat, the food tasted especially good.
"Grandma, you're actually mistaken. Not only did I not lose weight, I gained two pounds."
Elders love to see children plump and healthy, so hearing that her granddaughter had gained weight made Shi's Grandmother especially happy. "Our Shi Li is really capable. Your older brother lost seven or eight pounds when he came back from his spring tour back then."
The old lady shook her head, "And he's a boy, too. Even a little spring tour was too much for him."
Shi Quan, coming down the stairs, said with some resignation, "Grandma, that's ancient history from how many years ago? Do you still have to bring it up?"
Shi's Grandmother, childlike, replied, "Our Shi Li isn't an outsider, what's wrong with letting her know?"
"Brother, you just got home, why are you going out again?" Shi Li asked.
Her older cousin Shi Quan shrugged, "Fu Zhanyang was deceived by his girlfriend and has been making a fuss every day. Uncle Fu called us, his old friends, to take him out for drinks to cheer him up."
