Chapter 86: Terrible Environment

Though the first day at school wasn’t as good as Yu Jinli had imagined, he was still happy. After he was home, both Qiao Mulan and Jiang Zhentao asked him about school, concerned. Yu Jinli shared his experience about the lectures and classmates with them in detail. They could tell he was genuinely happy to attend school, which was a delight to them. However, they were anxious about the same thing as Jiang Mosheng, that Yu Jinli wasn’t going to learn anything in such a disorderly class and might be negatively influenced by his classmates instead. “Zhentao, can you switch little chestnut to another class?” said Qiao Mulan, worried. “With a low grade of inner focus as a latecomer, little chestnut won’t be able to catch up with the course and might be isolated in other classes, which would be worse news.” Clearly, Jiang Zhentao was more thoughtful. “Then what? We sent little chestnut to school in hope that he would have a good time. He is a studious child. If he couldn’t learn anything because of his classmates and teachers, how would he be happy?” At this point, Qiao Mulan wanted to blame students and teachers of Class F. What was the use of teachers if they didn’t solve a student’s question? Qiao Mulan thought angrily. “Well, I’m going to the academy tomorrow and having a talk with the principal,” said Qiao Mulan firmly. For the first time, she experienced what it was like to be a parent who was worried about her kid’s study environment. When Jiang Mosheng was admitted to the First Military Academy, there was nothing for her to worry about for he could take care of everything himself. That left her without a sense of achievement as a parent, which was something that she always regretted. Now with little chestnut in the family, he almost made up for all her regrets. That made her love Yu Jinli more. Jiang Zhentao didn’t object his wife because he knew she would go to the principal as a parent instead of the wife of a marshal. “Mom, there’s one thing I forgot to tell you.” Yu Jinli, who was practicing with energy cards a moment ago suddenly came downstairs as he recalled what the teacher had told him during the day. “What is that, little chestnut?” asked Qiao Mulan with a gentle smile. “Mom, the teacher said that I needed to live at school starting tomorrow,” answered Yu Jinli with his head tipped. He didn’t know why he must board at school but the teacher told him that all students needed to do so. In his previous world, there were a lot of students who boarded at school. It was a whole new experience for him which he accepted. Though neither Qiao Mulan nor Jiang Zhentao wanted little chestnut to board at school, they knew it was a rule of the academy. It was already a privilege that little chestnut was allowed home today. “Okay, I’ll help you with your luggage later and take you to school tomorrow. What do you say?” said Qiao Mulan smilingly. She finally got a chance to send her kid to school for once. In the past when her son went to school, she didn’t have a chance to take him to school even during his time at elementary school, not to mention college, which left her as a frustrated mother with no sense of accomplishment. “Yes, mom.” Yu Jinli had a big grin, which lifted everyone’s spirits. Eagerly, Qiao Mulan took Yu Jinli upstairs to pack up for tomorrow, leaving the father and son - Jiang Mosheng and Jiang Zhentao looking at each other blankly without a word. The second morning, Jiang Zhentao was going to send Yu Jinli to school as well. However, with affairs waiting to be taken care of at military headquarter, he left for military headquarter instead and told Jiang Mosheng to drive Qiao Mulan and Yu Jinli to school. The First Military Academy was closed-door management. No matter how close a student’s home was to the academy, even right across the street, he had to live in the school. So did teachers. Moreover, the First Military School, as the reserve base of the federal army, must teach all the spoiled young boys and girls of big families the collective life. Otherwise, they might be a big problem after they went to the army and became soldiers. The good news was that students had one day off every week when they were free to go back home. Therefore, living in a group was not particularly difficult for the students, especially not for the only child for it was a novel experience. Yu Jinli was also very excited about the upcoming dormitory life. Everything at school was new to him. Because he needed to move to the dormitory, Yu Jinli was allowed to stay there in the morning to put his room in order, so he didn’t have to go to class. In the afternoon, he would attend class. “Little chestnut, where’s your dormitory?” asked Qiao Mulan smilingly. “Teacher told me it was Room 707 at Card Forger Building.” answered Yu Jinli. Jiang Mosheng, who used to be a student at the academy, knew the location of dormitory buildings well. Although each school of the academy had separate teaching buildings and space, the dormitory buildings for all majors were built together in order to cultivate a sense of collective identity among students. Card Forger School, with the smallest number of students of all majors, had just one dormitory building, surrounded by dormitory buildings of other majors as if it was protected. He led Qiao Mulan and Yu Jinli directly to Card Forger Building. Since it was class time, there were few people in dormitory area. They arrived in front of the building by car. The dormitory administrator frowned at the sight of the car. At the academy, only on the day of orientation were private cars allowed in. During the rest of the time, students of any status had to take campus buses. So, when the administrator saw a private car, he wondered which young lord it was that was so reckless to ignore the school rules. He needed to teach that young man a lesson. However, when Jiang Mosheng stepped out of the car, the administrator thought he was having an illusion. Otherwise, why would he see Jiang Mosheng in front of the dormitory? Shocked, he rubbed his eyes hard when the sight of Major General Jiang became clearer, and closer, to him! “We are going to Room 707,” said Jiang Mosheng outright. “Ah? Right, okay.” The administrator quickly got the key to 707 and extended it to Jiang Mosheng with respect and excitement. He just talked with the federal hero! He even passed him a key. Though there was no direct contact, it was enough to have an indirect one! He was so lucky! Excitedly, the dormitory administrator had his eyes glued to Jiang Mosheng who unloaded one luggage after another from the car, followed by a graceful middle-aged woman and a lovely young man, the three of whom went into the building together. Not until they were about to disappear around the corner did the dormitory administrator return to his senses and ran over hurriedly as he called out: “Major General, please let me take the luggage for you.” “There’s no need for that,” said Jiang Mosheng. “Thank you for your kindness. Don’t worry about us. He can handle it,” said Qiao Mulan smilingly to the administrator. She wouldn’t stay or take care of little chestnut so she hoped that the dormitory administrator would be kind to him. Enchanted by Qiao Mulan’s word, the administrator didn’t recover from it until the three disappeared on the stairs. This dormitory building wasn’t high with seven floors. It looked like a pitiful creature among all the towering buildings with over ten floors.