During this period, Shuizhi was very confused. He hadn't done anything wrong, yet the Principal seemed to be distancing himself from him.
The Principal's attitude towards him remained as gentle as ever, but he no longer had the opportunity to get close to the Principal.
Every time he went to the office to find the Principal, he was either busy or not in a state to receive visitors.
In any case, since last Monday, Shuizhi hadn't seen the Principal.
He wasn't even qualified to attend the regular school meetings anymore.
He had asked the leadership more than once why he couldn't participate, but the explanation given by his immediate superior was flawless.
Yet it was obvious that he was being marginalized.
He wanted to go to the Principal's office to report the problem, but was repeatedly blocked by the secretary, with the central idea being that the Principal's office was off-limits.
There are too many people in the workplace who go with the flow. Many people, seeing him "fall out of favor," began to subtly target him.
They didn't openly trip him up, but he wasn't as valued as before, which made him particularly uncomfortable.
From being a popular figure in the school to becoming a marginalized figure sitting on the sidelines, one can imagine the gap.
Now it was just a small setback, and he couldn't bear it. He couldn't imagine that the worst was yet to come.
For him, it didn't matter if he couldn't see the Principal to report issues. Didn't they have their own people around the Principal?
So he contacted the Principal's Wife, hoping she could, as usual, put in a good word for him in the Principal's ear.
However, he couldn't get in touch with the Principal's Wife.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, he managed to contact her. She only had one sentence: "I've divorced your Principal."
A thunderbolt struck in Shuizhi's mind.
Before he could ask why, the Principal's Wife continued, "He seems to have discovered the relationship between us. Given our long-standing connection, I'll give you a warning. Be careful, after divorcing me, his next step might be to target you."
After saying this, the Principal's Wife hung up the phone on her own.
Shuizhi was left standing there, still holding the phone in the same position.
So all the targeting during this period was because the Principal had discovered the affair between him and the Principal's Wife?
Shuizhi felt ice-cold all over, simply unable to believe it.
When he was flirting with the Principal's Wife, he never thought about what would happen if they were exposed.
After all, no thief thinks about what will happen after being caught before even succeeding in the theft.
Shuizhi had always been very proud, thinking that the illicit relationship between him and the Principal's Wife would never be discovered by anyone because he was careful enough.
Sometimes, excessive pride can lead to a downfall.
Only now did Shuizhi consider the future.
The Principal was his superior, and the consequences of him discovering the affair with his wife were predictable.
But Shuizhi also thought, the Principal is an educated man, and educated people care about face. He wouldn't make such an embarrassing matter known to everyone, becoming a hot topic of discussion.
So things might not be that bad.
Being cold-shouldered like now was actually acceptable.
Shuizhi never dwelled on internal conflicts and quickly reconciled with himself.
The Monday afternoon ethics and law class had now become the Principal's nightmare class. In the first class, he learned about his wife's affair with Shuizhi, and in the second class, he found out that a video of Shuizhi and his wife doing that had been uploaded to a foreign website.
Two consecutive weeks of ethics and law classes had successfully left the Principal with psychological trauma.
Now, every Monday afternoon, he would start to feel particularly anxious.
When he was a student before, he was a studious one. Now as a teacher responsible for educating people, he began to fear teaching.
A true warrior must face dripping blood.
Whether you face it head-on or cower, the blow will come.
Let him see what other dirty business between Shuizhi and his wife he could learn about in today's class.
No, thanks to the civil affairs bureau, she was no longer his wife, but his ex-wife now.
Thinking that one of the parties involved was not his wife but his ex-wife, the Principal felt a bit more relaxed.
[It must be said that Shuizhi is quite something, particularly fond of getting involved with his teachers' wives. His high school homeroom teacher's wife, for instance.]
Everyone: Wow, he may not be much to look at, but he sure gets around.
Principal: Wait, Shuizhi's high school homeroom teacher, that old guy is an acquaintance of his!
The Principal was Shuizhi's high school politics teacher and grade supervisor.
Shuizhi's high school homeroom teacher was an old educator, already in his fifties when teaching Shuizhi, and now retired at home.
At that time, Shuizhi was only fifteen or sixteen, while his high school homeroom teacher was in his fifties. The homeroom teacher's wife was also a teacher at the school, teaching chemistry, and also in her fifties.
With an age difference of over thirty-five years, that chemistry teacher's son was even ten years older than Shuizhi.
When the Principal first heard about his wife's affair with Shuizhi, alongside his anger and feeling of being cuckolded, he was also quite shocked. His wife was more than twenty years older than Shuizhi, how could he stomach that?
Men generally understand their own situations; which man doesn't prefer younger, prettier women?
Shuizhi was different, he was unusual.
But now he realized that the age gap between Shuizhi and his wife wasn't even that big, considering there was a precedent with a thirty-five-year age difference.
The twenty-something age gap paled in comparison, instantly reduced to nothing.
For a moment, he didn't know whether to say Shuizhi was truly indiscriminate and bold, or that he had unique tastes, preferring older women.
Except for the Principal, who was an old-timer at Qianpu Middle School and familiar with the school's situation from many years ago, only Shi Li knew about the age difference between Shuizhi and that chemistry teacher. The other students just listened for the gossip, inwardly marveling at how impressive Shuizhi was.
The Principal came to teach the students with the mindset of attending a funeral, but he didn't expect to stumble upon this big piece of gossip.
One more victim made him that much happier.
The Principal now really wanted to share this information with Shuizhi's former homeroom teacher, but considering that old fellow was now nearly seventy, he probably couldn't handle the shock.
Hearing about this kind of thing might just send him to his grave.
The Principal now felt like he was privy to juicy gossip but had no one to share it with.
[There's also Shuizhi's graduate school advisor's wife, who also had an affair with him]
Principal: I wonder how old that old guy is now, and whether he can handle this kind of shock.
But then again, people in scientific research usually have strong hearts, so he should probably be able to accept this kind of thing.
It's just not clear if Shuizhi left any evidence of his relationship with his graduate school advisor's wife. We're in a society governed by law now, and whatever you do, you need evidence.
Mainly, without evidence, Shuizhi's graduate school advisor might not believe it.
[Who doesn't want to be an academic Lao Ai? With the advisor's wife whispering in his ear, even though the advisor wasn't a good person and wanted to delay his graduation to make him work longer, Shuizhi, relying on his skill of seducing the advisor's wife, not only graduated smoothly but also managed to get two top journal publications from his advisor's hands and graduate successfully]
Classmates: Impressive. Although the advisor treated you like a workhorse, you made him a cuckold.
Although neither of them are good people, it somehow feels a bit satisfying.
