Chapter 288 - 208: Fulfilling Her Mother’s Duty?

Hearing this, Yang Hui couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat. ’Does Du’Er really have that kind of destructive streak?’ This clearly wasn’t a coincidence. Her showing up there at just the right time, that "Out of Order" sign... It was obvious she’d anticipated Feng Yan would run to the bathroom. ’How did she pull that off?’

Sure enough, Yang Bing continued, "Later, I asked Wenren Du’Er about it. She admitted to putting a laxative in her classmate’s cup."

"...Teacher Yang, did Du’Er say why she did it?"

It wasn’t that he was trying to shield the little girl. While Wenren Du’Er could be a bit of a mischievous imp, she was still very sensible. She didn’t seem like the kind of child who would deliberately bully a classmate.

Yang Bing gave him a meaningful look. "Feng Yan has been using a toy spider to prank Wenren Du’Er repeatedly. I’ve already criticized Feng Yan for that. I heard this particular incident started because Feng Yan drew a little caricature. She claimed it was Tian Boguang from ’The Smiling, Proud Wanderer’ and then told Wenren Du’Er that the drawing looked like her father. That’s why Wenren Du’Er planned this whole prank against Feng Yan during the sports meet that day."

Yang Hui stroked his chin. ’Where do I look like Tian Boguang? Is he even as handsome as me?’

Little did he know, Yang Bing’s beautiful eyes were fixed on him as a thought crossed her mind—’Could Feng Yan have met Wenren Du’Er’s father before? Otherwise, how would she know he bore a resemblance to the lecher Tian Boguang?’

Yang Hui fell into thought. Regardless of what started it, his little girl’s actions were definitely not permissible. To put it mildly, it was a prank. But if you took it to an extreme, it could be considered school bullying. Schools nowadays are extremely serious about bullying. Minor cases result in disciplinary action, while serious ones can even lead to expulsion.

The most important thing now was to appease Feng Yan and her family to keep them from making trouble for the school. That would be the best outcome for his little girl.

"Teacher Yang, the root of this problem is a lack of discipline at home. I’ll be sure to work on Du’Er’s education more in the future."

Before he could finish, Yang Bing anxiously cut him off. "Mr. Yang, I think Du’Er’s mother should be the one to educate her more. That’s a mother’s duty, after all."

’Wenren Du’Er is such a wonderful child, a practically perfect little girl. The only ’bad’ streak in her probably comes from this unreliable father of hers. And he wants to ’work on her education’ more? Good heavens, just leave the poor child alone!’

Yang Bing added, "Men are the pillars of the family. You should be busy with your career. It’s best if you don’t get involved in your child’s matters."

Yang Hui thought she was being quite considerate, completely unaware that Yang Bing was actually afraid he would be a bad influence on his daughter.

"Her mother is away year-round, so I’m afraid there’s no way for her to fulfill her motherly duties—"

"That’s fine. I’ll fulfill her mother’s duties for her."

Yang Bing was genuinely afraid Yang Hui would corrupt Wenren Du’Er, so the words just tumbled out. It was only when she saw him staring at her strangely that she realized her slip of the tongue. ’A mother’s duties... Doesn’t that include sleeping with the father?’

She rushed to explain, "Mr. Yang, please don’t get the wrong idea. I didn’t mean anything by it."

Yang Hui truly didn’t understand how such an intelligent, gentle, and beautiful woman could seem so clumsy. He just shook his head. "I wasn’t thinking anything at all."

"Yes, yes. What I meant was, you can leave the duty of guiding Du’Er to me from now on. I’m especially fond of her."

He could see that, of course. Du’Er had also mentioned that her homeroom teacher, Teacher Yang, was especially good to her at school. He smiled and continued, "Teacher Yang, could you give me the contact information for Feng Yan’s family? I’ll prepare a gift and go to their home to apologize. We still need to get their forgiveness for this to be resolved."

Yang Bing felt this was the first decent thing she’d seen him do since they met.

"Feng Yan’s parents are also out of town year-round. She lives with her older sister, but her sister has classes and couldn’t make it to the parent-teacher conference today. Otherwise, I would have had her come over so you could speak with her directly."

That was fine by him. It was actually better if they didn’t have time to meet. His goal was just to smooth things over; all he needed was their forgiveness. After getting the contact information for Feng Yan’s family, Yang Hui stood up. "Thank you, Teacher Yang."

Yang Bing put on a professional smile. "It’s all part of my job."

"I was referring to you fulfilling her mother’s duties for her."

Yang Hui returned to the classroom to continue with the conference, while Yang Bing sighed. It was obvious he’d been teasing her with that last remark, but she had no proof.

’Sigh... I’ll really have to pay more attention to Du’Er from now on, to keep her from being corrupted by her father. But still, how on earth does this Mr. Yang stay looking so young?’

’It seems like nothing good ever happens when I run into him. Educating Du’Er is going to take up so much of my energy now. Honestly, this man... If only he were as well-mannered and polite as the Mr. Yang who found my ID card, then at least that handsome face of his wouldn’t be going to waste.’

After the parent-teacher conference ended and all the other parents had left, Yang Bing tidied up, then took the parent sign-in sheet back to her office. On a whim, she found the signature line for Wenren Du’Er’s guardian and froze. The two words "Yang Hui" were written with a flamboyant flourish.

’Yang Hui? He’s the Yang Hui who found my ID card? But why was he so polite and refined on the phone, yet acts like a total lecher in person? Good heavens, how can a person be so completely different? He was one person on the phone and a totally different one face-to-face.’

It never occurred to her that they might be two different people, because the time she lost her ID card coincided with when she had first met Yang Hui.