Chapter 812 - 808: Chen Jie Teaches His Sister a Lesson

"Come on, don’t keep us in suspense! Hurry up and tell us!"

"Exactly! Out of everyone in the village, you always have your ear to the ground."

This older woman had a relative who washed vegetables in the commune’s kitchen, so she always knew a thing or two about what was going on over there. Today, that relative had come to visit her, and the woman had casually asked about Gu Jiaojiao. Her relative had immediately relayed everything she had heard, her tone clearly unfavorable.

Figuring that Gu Jiaojiao definitely wasn’t coming back, the older woman had rushed out to share the gossip. She deliberately started with only half the story, whetting everyone’s appetite and basking in their flattery for a good while before finally speaking up.

"I heard that Gu Zhiqing didn’t get that teaching job fair and square. Leng Yuan pulled strings for her!" she announced. "I mean, getting in through the back door is one thing! It shows you have connections. But she shouldn’t have fooled everyone into taking the exam with her when she was already... pre, pre-what was the word again?"

"Preselected," someone who knew the term immediately chimed in.

The woman nodded emphatically. "Right! You were already preselected, so wasn’t that just playing us for fools?"

This was huge news. Many people from the Qingshan Team had taken the teaching exam and failed. They had originally assumed their knowledge simply couldn’t compare to Gu Jiaojiao’s, but they never expected her to get the job by cheating. Well, that did it. The crowd instantly went into an uproar.

Naturally, Chen Jie’s mother refused to take this lying down.

Chen Jie had a sister, Chen Yu, who was three years younger than him. She had attended high school but dropped out before graduating. She had also taken that teaching exam. Originally, she thought she had a good chance, only to lose to Gu Jiaojiao. At the time, she had accepted the defeat, believing she just wasn’t skilled enough. But now that she knew Gu Jiaojiao had cheated, there was no way she was going to let it slide.

When Chen Jie returned home, he saw his mother storming toward the door with a cold expression, his younger sister standing to the side looking equally indignant. He quickly rushed forward to hold her back.

"Mother, what’s wrong?"

"What’s wrong? I’m going to find the team captain! Leng Yuan pulled strings for Gu Jiaojiao, and we can’t just let this go."

Chen Jie immediately shot a look at his sister. Chen Yu averted her eyes. Her older brother had specifically warned her not to tell their mother about this, but she simply couldn’t swallow her anger. Getting in through the back door was always despised.

Chen Jie’s mother kept her face set in a fierce scowl, determined to charge outside.

Chen Jie reached out and slammed the door shut. "Enough. Mother, you can’t just blindly believe whatever people outside are saying, especially not Xiaoyu’s words," he said. "Just think about it! If Gu Zhiqing didn’t have real talent, how could she have invented that water pump? You think Xiaoyu is better than her? Then why didn’t Xiaoyu invent a water pump?"

His mother was left speechless. "Th-This..."

She was just an old woman who had never attended school or read a book. She had no real worldly knowledge. Hearing her daughter claim that Gu Jiaojiao had cheated to get in through the back door had enraged her in the heat of the moment; she hadn’t thought about it that deeply.

Chen Yu was unconvinced. "That’s not the same thing at all! The school didn’t teach anyone how to make a water pump."

Chen Jie gave her a look of utter disdain. "If she can learn things that weren’t even taught in school, then the actual school curriculum is obviously a piece of cake for her. But look at you! You were always at the bottom of your class when you were in school. How do you even have the nerve to think about ruining those poor students? Even if Gu Zhiqing wasn’t a teacher, it absolutely wouldn’t be your turn to be one. Do you know why you can’t get married? You’re too jealous and too bitter. It’s best for a girl not to be so mean."

Chen Yu almost died of anger. At twenty years old, she hadn’t yet settled on a marriage prospect, making her an ’old maid’ in everyone’s eyes. She was already miserable enough, but having her own flesh-and-blood brother attack her like this was the final straw. Bursting into furious tears, she began to cry.