School Beauty's Invincible Martial Expert

Chapter 162 Raising Eyebrows and Exhaling Qi

"If we're going to talk, let's talk here," Li Yunpeng said.

"Or...how about I treat you to afternoon tea? Let's find a place to sit and chat," Liu Huai Shan chuckled and then pulled Li Yunpeng into the car.

Li Yunpeng could hardly refuse, so he followed him into the car.

Liu Huai Shan drove to a café in the city.

"Old Li, to be honest, the school has treated you well during all these years, right?" Liu Huai Shan sighed and then continued, "Look, with the recent news coming out, it has had a huge impact on our school."

"I'm just telling the truth," Li Yunpeng glanced at Liu Huai Shan and said, "To be honest, there's still quite a bit I haven't revealed."

"Yes, yes!" Liu Huai Shan nodded and then said, "But the thing is, public opinion doesn't care about your reasons. You call it a chicken, and their imagination blows it up into an elephant. Now the public opinion is very unfavorable towards our school. Therefore, we hope you won't accept any more interviews from the media. Your next journey awaits at empire

Even if you do, please don't talk about what happened at school, what do you think?"

"I'm no longer a teacher at Fourth Middle School, so I don't need to follow your orders," Li Yunpeng said with a sneer, "You've managed me for over a decade, do you still plan to control me after I'm gone?"

"Uh..." Liu Huai Shan suddenly felt at a loss and awkwardly said, "That's not what I meant, I was just reminding you. By the way, you haven't received your salary from the school for years, right? It's around sixty or seventy thousand. What do you think...when will you have time to settle the accounts with the school?"

"No need," Li Yunpeng shook his head and said, "I never intended to take that money. Weren't you holding it back on purpose?"

"Oh, come on, we wouldn't dare," Liu Huai Shan hastened to shake his head.

Now, Liu Huai Shan just wanted to minimize the impact of the incident. The school owed Li Yunpeng two years' wages, and if that got out, it would be extremely damaging to Fourth Middle School and its leadership. So they were now planning to pay out the salary quickly. Not only could they shut Li Yunpeng up, but they could also reduce the impact of the incident.

But Li Yunpeng was not at all interested. Liu Huai Shan tapped his fingers on the table and said, "Old Li, you are also a party member. As a party member, you should have the consciousness of one. Now that Fourth Middle School has become the target of harsh criticism, don't you feel any heartache at all? After all, it's where you've worked for decades. Can you really bear it?"

Li Yunpeng smiled faintly, as if unaffected by the situation.

"Old Li," Liu Huai Shan took a drag on his cigarette and then said, "Look…any conditions you have, any requests, you can bring them to us. You can even return to the job you love."

"I've already returned," Li Yunpeng smiled.

"Right, right, we know!" Liu Huai Shan nodded, saying, "We know you're now a teacher at Hanmen Training Class. We also know you're the darling of the education bureau. But you can't just ignore your former unit, right?"

"That's your problem," Li Yunpeng shook his head and said, "What I can say, I will say. What I can't, I won't. You can be assured of that."

Having said that, Li Yunpeng got up and left.

"Hey, hey..." Liu Huai Shan hurriedly stood up and grabbed Li Yunpeng's arm, saying, "Old Li, consider it me begging you, isn't that enough?"

"My attitude is very clear," Li Yunpeng chuckled coldly and said, "Besides, after working together for so many years, don't you understand my temperament?"

Liu Huai Shan, hearing this, immediately let go of Li Yunpeng's hand, only to watch helplessly as Li Yunpeng left the scene.

"Sigh…" Liu Huai Shan sighed and said, "I knew this was a thankless task, a real burden."

A smile crept onto Li Yunpeng's face for the first time, feeling unusually elated.

Liu Huai Shan watched Li Yunpeng's leaving figure, realizing that this matter could only be suppressed. He would go to the Municipal Committee to appeal for help and use some connections to suppress the public opinion. It was supposed to be a simple issue, but it had accidentally escalated to this extent.

Unfortunately, Liu Huai Shan clearly underestimated today's society and the spread of public opinion.

Public opinion is like a fierce tiger, especially online opinion, which is the most ferocious of beasts. Meanwhile, in the Red Wall Compound in BJ city, a certain high-level official in charge of education was leisurely drinking tea when he happened to see this news report.

This official, having been a teacher himself, knew the hardships faced by the educators, the meagerness of their salaries, and the unspoken rules they had to deal with.

Now that the news about Li Yunpeng had come out, it hit the official in the Red Wall Compound like a thunderbolt. He hadn't expected, despite his efforts to improve teachers' treatment and work environment, that such shocking news would emerge.

Therefore, he immediately phoned his subordinates working at Central Television, requesting them to follow up on this matter so they could report back to him at any time.

Upon receiving the message, the head of Central Television instantly deemed that the official from the Red Wall Compound wanted a thorough investigation. While the higher-ups might have one interpretation of the directive, the subordinates often saw it as having an entirely different meaning.

Soon, the leadership at Central Television personally established a reporting team to track this story. They sent one team of reporters to LJ city to conduct an exclusive interview with Li Yunpeng and another team to investigate at Fourth Middle School.

It was Friday morning.

Li Yunpeng had woken up early, these days he had grown accustomed to the various media coming to interview him. Most were local media, local newspapers. There were even some well-known tire magazines that had sent reporters to interview him.

The Residents' Committee, to accommodate Li Yunpeng's interviews, had specifically cleared out an office for his use.

Auntie Zhou from the Residents' Committee was a warm-hearted person; with Fuxing Community having produced such a newsworthy individual, she naturally wanted to do a thorough feature. Auntie Zhou had arrived early to clean the office spotlessly, and although she was the director of the Residents' Committee, most of the work fell on her shoulders.

She arrived at the office early in the morning, tidied it up, and then wiped down the tables.

"Hello, may I ask..." Outside, several journalists she recognized stood waiting, a camera crew and an assistant in tow.

"Oh, you must be the reporters here to interview Li Yunpeng, right?" Auntie Zhou surmised as soon as she saw them, toting their camera. However, today's camera seemed somewhat more imposing than usual. In the past, they were quite small, and some even brought portable cameras.

The camera they had today looked significant, probably quite expensive, right? Auntie Zhou completely overlooked the overalls they were wearing, which bore the words: Central Television.

"Ah, yes!" the female journalist quickly nodded and said, "Sister, where is Mr. Li right now? Do you know where his home is?"

"You want to go to his home?" Auntie Zhou asked curiously.

"Yes!" the female journalist nodded, "We want to do an interview at his place!"

"Then it's better not to go there," Auntie Zhou chuckled and said, "We've specially arranged this place for him to accept interviews. His family is poor, there isn't much noteworthy stuff at his home. So… he generally doesn't like people going to his place for interviews!"

"No, we need to visit his home," the female journalist insisted. "Sister, could you take us there?"

"Sure!" Auntie Zhou agreed, "Just wait until I finish this bit of work."

Auntie Zhou didn't regard the visitors as some major media, assuming they were just local journalists, so she proceeded at a leisurely pace. She kept working while sharing some anecdotes about Li Yunpeng. Meanwhile, the CCTV journalists had started filming. Little did Auntie Zhou know that her casual actions would get her on the Central Television broadcast—and even turn her into a celebrity.

She even later became a National Model Worker.

"All done!" Having finished her chores, Auntie Zhou set her things down, patted the dust off herself, and led the group towards Li Yunpeng's home.

Li Yunpeng's house was about a ten-minute walk from the Residents' Committee. Upon arriving downstairs at his building, the CCTV journalists began filming, capturing the environment in which Li Yunpeng lived, before heading upstairs to continue shooting.

Knock, knock, knock...

Auntie Zhou knocked vigorously on the door, shouting, "Old Li, there are reporters looking for you."

Li Yunpeng opened the door and peeked out, asking, "Which reporters are you?""

"Teacher Li, hello, we are reporters from BJ!" the lead female journalist greeted him politely.

Li Yunpeng was surprised at the mention of "BJ."

"Yes," the female journalist immediately nodded and said, "We are from CCTV!"

"CCTV!" Li Yunpeng was taken aback.

"What?!" Auntie Zhou exclaimed in shock, "Heavens, you… you're reporters sent by Central Television? My goodness."

Meeting journalists from Central Television was a rarity for most; no wonder Auntie Zhou exclaimed in surprise. She was almost paralyzed with shock. The female journalist quickly nodded and said, "Auntie, we are indeed."

"Quickly, let's… let's go back and sit at the Residents' Committee," Auntie Zhou quickly suggested.

"No, we still need to do an interview with Teacher Li," the female journalist said with a smile, then turned to Li Yunpeng, "Teacher Li, do you mind if we come in for the interview?"

"Why not!" Li Yunpeng opened the door wider and let the journalists in.

The cameraman carrying the equipment immediately began filming.

The room was dim as it was unrenovated, and it was filled with old furniture. There was no couch, just a few chairs lined up together. A small twenty-one inch color television sat on a wooden stool. Beside it was a round dining table, its red paint long marred, revealing the black wood underneath. There was a dish of leftovers on the table, and a jar of fermented tofu.

The sight of the leftovers was heart-wrenching and the tofu jar, covered in fuzzy spots, was even more chilling.