Xue Rui was stunned at first. He didn't understand why the teacher was looking at him that way.
It was only then that he remembered he was a student now. He dropped the cigarette butt, stamped it out with his foot, and gave the male teacher a slight smile. "Hello, Teacher," he said with a nod.
Qiu Mengze also spotted the male teacher immediately. His mind went blank, and he instinctively wanted to hide the cigarette. But how do you hide a lit cigarette?
He quickly put his hand behind his back, but that didn't feel right. 'Stuff it under the covers?' No, that wouldn't work either. In the end, he just threw the cigarette butt under the bed.
He lowered his head nervously, not daring to meet the teacher's gaze, and prayed internally, 'Please leave, please leave...'
Xue Rui had the soul of an older man. He didn't think it was a big deal. 'So a teacher caught me smoking? What's the worst that could happen?'
Qiu Mengze, on the other hand, had a typical student mentality. Being caught red-handed by a teacher felt like the end of the world, and his first instinct was to run away from the problem.
The balding male teacher saw Xue Rui calmly stamp out his cigarette and even greet him with a smile.
He was a bit surprised. He'd never seen a student this composed, acting just like one of those seasoned old hands from the real world.
Then he saw Qiu Mengze, also smoking, looking as terrified as a panicked rabbit.
He nodded in satisfaction. This was a normal reaction; his authority was not to be questioned.
But when he saw Qiu Mengze throw the butt under the bed, his expression suddenly turned grave.
Xue Rui also frowned when he saw Qiu Mengze hide the cigarette butt under the bed.
As a veteran smoker, Xue Rui knew the absolute bottom line for any smoker was fire safety.
A cigarette butt had to be extinguished within one's line of sight to complete the smoking process, and Qiu Mengze had clearly failed to follow this procedure.
Xue Rui grabbed a broom, fished the still-burning cigarette butt out from under the bed, and stamped on it a few times until it was completely extinguished.
The male teacher glanced at Xue Rui with a slight nod, then barked at Qiu Mengze, "Get out here!"
Qiu Mengze kept his head down, shuffling to stand behind Xue Rui.
He was secretly relieved. 'Good thing I lit one for Xue Rui, too,' he thought. 'Otherwise, I really wouldn't know what to do.' Having Xue Rui to share the punishment with made Qiu Mengze feel much more at ease.
"What are you doing hiding behind him? I was calling you!" the male teacher repeated.
Qiu Mengze's mind went fuzzy when he heard that.
'Why? Both Xue Rui and I had cigarettes, so why is he only calling me out and not Xue Rui?'
'Is it because Xue Rui's aunt is a teacher? Because he's so well-known at school?'
In an instant, a flurry of guesses flashed through Qiu Mengze's mind. He didn't understand why Xue Rui always seemed to get special treatment.
In reality, all of Qiu Mengze's guesses were wrong. The reason for the different treatment was simply due to how they each handled their cigarette butts.
"Who told you you could smoke in the dorms? Does the school allow smoking? What if you started a fire?..." The male teacher laid into him with a thorough scolding.
Qiu Mengze kept his head down, shoulders hunched as he took the verbal lashing, thinking that once the lecture was over, it would all be fine. By tomorrow, the whole thing would blow over.
Many students had gathered in the hallway to watch, some looking surprised, others gloating.
The teacher saw that Qiu Mengze clearly hadn't realized his mistake, making him feel he had wasted his breath. He pulled out his phone and said coldly, "Who's your homeroom teacher? Call him. Tell him Li Jianfeng sent you. And while you're at it, call your parents, too!"
Did the school's teachers not know students were smoking?
Wrong. The school had known for a long time; they just didn't want to deal with it, or rather, felt no need to.
Student smoking was quite common in this day and age. It was impossible to completely prohibit.
As long as you weren't smoking in broad daylight and tarnishing the school's image, it was fine to turn a blind eye.
So, being caught by a teacher wasn't a major offense. As long as you were sincere and quickly admitted your mistake, it was usually fine.
But not only did Qiu Mengze fail to admit his mistake right away, he had also thrown the cigarette butt into an uncontrollable location. That act posed a genuine safety threat to the school, and that was what the male teacher could not tolerate.
As for calling his parents? Xue Rui believed Li Jianfeng hadn't intended to at first. But with too many students watching from the hallway and Qiu Mengze's failure to even apologize publicly, Li Jianfeng had no way to back down gracefully and could only resort to calling the parents.
In truth, this was the difference between teachers and students.
Li Jianfeng felt that Qiu Mengze had made him lose face.
But in reality? The students watching didn't realize that "someone had lost face" at all. Instead, they just thought the teacher was really fierce and someone not to be crossed in the future.
Li Jianfeng was thinking about his situation with an adult mindset, while Qiu Mengze didn't understand this "unspoken rule," which led to the current scene.
"Teacher Li, I really know I was wrong, please don't call my parents..." Qiu Mengze finally broke down, his psychological defenses crumbling as tears streamed down his face.
"Too late. Make the call!" Li Jianfeng showed no mercy.
Just then, Xue Rui sighed softly and shook his head with a wry smile.
He pulled out three packs of soft-pack Zhonghuas from under his pillow, stuffed them in his pocket, walked up behind Qiu Mengze, and gave him a hard kick.
"Director Li, he's always like this. Takes him forever to squeeze out a few words."
This middle-aged teacher clearly wasn't just a regular substitute; he had to hold a special position, and a high one at that.
Details like Li Jianfeng's jacket and the way he carried himself hinted at this, which was why Xue Rui changed his address to "Director."
In any case, when it came to things like this, it was never wrong to flatter someone by using a higher title.
"Director?"
"That teacher is a director?"
The surrounding students whispered among themselves, their voices filled with surprise. They had been watching for a while but still couldn't recognize which department head he was.
"Mm... What's your name?" Li Jianfeng looked at the reactions of the surrounding students, then shot Xue Rui an appreciative glance.
He was the Director of the Logistics Department, but that department had no direct contact with students. Only the tenured teachers at the school would understand what his position entailed and respectfully call him "Director Li."
The students, however, had no idea how high his position was. Most of the time they treated him like a regular teacher, sometimes even mistaking him for a plumber or the old man who worked as the dorm supervisor...
This was the first time a student had ever called him Director, and it gave Li Jianfeng an indescribable feeling of satisfaction.
"Xue Rui, from Class Two, Year Two," Xue Rui said with a grin, nudging Qiu Mengze a few more times. "Hurry up and apologize to Director Li."
"Director Li, I was wrong," Qiu Mengze said obediently.
Li Jianfeng shook his head helplessly. 'How can the gap between one student and another be so huge?'
"Director Li, his parents are actually migrant workers in another city. They're probably still at the factory on the night shift right now. He only has his grandparents at home, and they're so old, we shouldn't disturb them," Xue Rui spouted, lying through his teeth.
Qiu Mengze's parents actually sold fish right here in Hedong City, but Xue Rui had a purpose for saying this.
He deliberately emphasized "another city," "night shift," and "elderly" to make Li Jianfeng feel too guilty to call Qiu Mengze's parents.
Then, he smiled and shoved the packs of soft-pack Zhonghuas into Li Jianfeng's hands, saying earnestly, "We know we were wrong. We're proactively handing over these contraband items for Director Li to handle."
Xue Rui had noticed long ago that Li Jianfeng's index fingernail was slightly yellow, proof that Li Jianfeng himself was a smoker.
"I'll be confiscating these packs of cigarettes. Xue Rui... you're a good kid." Li Jianfeng nodded, completely ignoring Qiu Mengze. Instead, he gave Xue Rui's shoulder a few light pats.
Before leaving, he added, "I'm Li Jianfeng, the Director of the Logistics Department."
He had a way to back down, he'd saved face, and he'd even scored a few packs of soft-pack Zhonghuas. Li Jianfeng felt that covering Old Wang's shift today had been an excellent choice indeed.