The door to the cram school was pushed open.
Outside, three or four students' parents stood waiting.
A woman poked her head in from outside. When she saw the classroom filled with cash, Flora Huang standing there dumbfounded, and Mr. Zhang lying on the floor, her expression turned hesitant.
She had just arrived, and after hearing commotion from inside while standing at the door, she waited outside for a while out of concern.
Now, as she pushed open the door, the other parents behind her followed in. All of them were stunned by the money scattered across the floor.
Flora Huang saw the newcomers, her expression paused for a moment, then she quickly forced out an awkward smile. She hurriedly squatted down, picked up the stack of cash from the floor, stuffed it into her pocket, and shot Evan Lin a fierce glare before rushing to greet the parents.
"Ah, you’re here! Sorry, we were just discussing something." Flora Huang stepped forward to welcome them.
"Yes, Ms. Huang, we’re mainly here on behalf of the students’ parents to check out the tutoring environment. We’ve confirmed that eighty parents and students agree to the classes. As for the tutoring fee you mentioned before—five hundred yuan per person—we’re fine with that." One of the parents walked in, smiling as he spoke.
Eighty students at five hundred yuan each—that’s forty thousand yuan a month!
Yolanda Fang and Lynn Chen were both stunned. This number was way beyond anything they’d imagined. Right now, there were about thirty students in the class, which meant Flora Huang’s monthly income was fifteen thousand yuan, yet she only gave Joy Zheng six hundred?
Thinking about this, Yolanda Fang and Lynn Chen looked at Flora Huang with even more disgust.
On the other side, Joy Zheng sighed. She hadn’t expected Flora Huang to be this greedy. Flora had always claimed it was only a hundred yuan per student, so Joy’s monthly share was less than fifteen hundred.
But Flora Huang showed no sign of embarrassment at being exposed. Hearing this, her face lit up with delight: "Oh wow, that’s really wonderful!"
"Come in, come in, everyone. This is our temporary classroom for the cram school. Once all the students arrive, we plan to move to a bigger place. Of course, the new location will be safer and have a better environment. To ensure teaching quality, we’ll split the students into two groups—Monday, Wednesday, Friday for one group, and Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday for the other." Flora Huang rattled on confidently.
Mr. Zhang had planned to keep lying on the floor for a while—Evan Lin’s kick had really hurt. But when he heard what the parents said as they entered, he forced himself to endure the pain and got up from the floor.
Forty thousand yuan a month—even if the split was seventy-thirty, he could still pocket twelve thousand!
In Whitewood County, that was already a huge sum!
When it came to money, Mr. Zhang never played coy. He forced a smile through his stomach pain, walked forward, deliberately kept some distance from Evan Lin, and finally spoke: "Welcome, welcome! We’re happy to have all you parents here."
"It was just a minor issue earlier, but it’s resolved now."
Mr. Zhang was terrified that the earlier commotion would make the parents dissatisfied. If they thought the place was badly managed and chaotic, and got angry enough to pull their kids out, he’d lose big time!
"Yes, yes, it’s all sorted out. Please, parents, feel free to look around!" Flora Huang instantly switched to at her most welcoming face.
"This place looks pretty nice. And look at the problems on the blackboard—the explanations are really thorough," one parent said, eyeing the board. The way each math problem was broken down, step by step, made everything crystal clear.
The parent representatives were mainly here to check the teaching quality—after all, five hundred yuan a month for tutoring wasn’t cheap.
"Of course! Everyone knows Teacher Zheng is the most responsible. Every time my kid comes home and I ask if math is hard, he always says it’s easy. He keeps saying Teacher Zheng is way better than the other math teachers and much more patient," another woman said with a smile.
"Yeah, my son said the same thing. Other teachers get impatient when kids don’t understand. My boy’s always been a bit slow—he could never figure out even simple math problems. We tried other tutors before, but he always came home crying because he got scolded. This time, he only agreed to come because I told him it would be Teacher Zheng teaching. Actually, when he heard it was Teacher Zheng, he even insisted on bringing her his favorite little bread rolls!" a father added, laughing.
"Oh, right!" The man slapped his forehead as if he’d just remembered something, quickly pulled a bag of small bread rolls from his briefcase, and pressed them into Joy Zheng’s hands, grinning. "Teacher Zheng, my kid made me bring these for you. You have to accept them—these are his favorites, and he never lets me or his mom have any!"
"That boy really guards his snacks—he must really like you!" the man laughed heartily.
"Thank you! Your son is actually quite smart. He just works a bit slowly, that’s all. If you help him build his confidence, his grades will definitely keep improving." Joy Zheng accepted the bread with a genuine smile.
"Teacher Zheng, do you know which kid is mine?" The man was a little surprised—he was always busy with work and rarely visited the school.
"Of course I remember. You’re Li Jiahao’s father, right? I remember you came to his first parent-teacher meeting in second grade." Joy Zheng nodded with a smile.
Hearing this, the man looked pleasantly surprised, then scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. "Wow, it’s rare for Teacher Zheng to still remember me. I’m always at work, so it’s my wife who goes to the school. From now on, I’ll definitely try to visit more and pay attention to my kid’s studies!"
"Told you—Teacher Zheng is truly a responsible teacher," another woman said to her friend, grinning.
Seeing Joy Zheng getting showered with praise by the parents, Flora Huang’s smile turned stiff, and Mr. Zhang looked awkward too. The two of them were basically left out in the cold!
"Whoa, Aunt Joy is really popular!" Yolanda Fang exclaimed, amazed by the scene.
"Of course. My mom always says Aunt Joy is super nice, but honestly, sometimes being too nice isn’t a good thing—it makes you easy to bully." Lynn Chen shot a glare at Flora Huang as she said this.
Listening to everyone, Evan Lin saw the genuine joy on his mother’s face and felt quietly moved.
Joy Zheng’s tutoring was partly to save money for him, but more importantly, it was because she truly wanted to help the kids.
"By the way, Teacher Zheng, who’s this?" A few parents turned to look at Mr. Zhang, puzzled.