Chapter 30: Rectifying Class Morale (Part 2)

  Gu Xiang walked ahead and had just entered through the back door when she saw someone rummaging through her desk drawer.

  She looked ahead and saw Teacher Jiang standing at the front gate with a gloomy face and his hands behind his back.

  The one who was caught was a boy in the class named Cen Xiang, with average grades and not very noticeable in the class.

  Gu Xiang remembered him because his grades had declined significantly in the recent mid-term exams, so he was often called upon by the teacher to answer questions in class.

  Mr. Jiang took him away directly.

  Lin Jiahuan and Li Wei didn't see Xiang Xiang's actions because they were walking behind Gu Xiang, so when they came in, they only saw Teacher Jiang silently pulling away a classmate, and they didn't think much of it.

  Gu Xiang herself straightened out the books that had been messed up and chatted with them in a casual manner.

  After a while, Teacher Jiang called Gu Xiang over again.

  Gu Xiang followed Jiang teacher to the office and took a look, Cen Xiang was no longer inside.

  "Didn't you just see everything?" asked Teacher Jiang.

  Gu Xiang nodded.

  Mr. Jiang continued: "Actually, I had guessed it roughly before. Chen Xiang's mother was found to be ill recently, and their family is currently short of money. Moreover, I just asked him, he said that he met some hoodlums while picking up cans outside, and they taught him this way."

  Mr. Jiang stopped and looked at Gu Xiang, who didn't say anything, then continued: "Teacher hopes you can take care of this matter, okay?"

  Gu Xiang nodded without thinking.

  Mr. Jiang patted her shoulder with a pleased smile.

  During the sports meeting, everyone was relatively free, so Xiang's classmates, who were a bit introverted, didn't show up in class for the whole afternoon and no one noticed.

  Gu Xiang went back and told her mom about this matter.

  "Is your classmate's family particularly difficult? Why would they think of stealing from you?"

  Gu Xiang guessed, "Probably because the thing he took that day was the most expensive one of mine. Today's time is tighter than last time, and someone may return to the classroom at any moment. He must have picked the expensive one first."

  Gu Xiang suddenly thought of what happened at Cen Xiang's house, "Jiang teacher said that his mother was ill and also said that it was someone he met while picking up cans outside to sell who taught him."

  At this time, Gu's mother also sympathized with Cen Xiang: "This child is quite pitiful, I guess he was forced to have no choice."

  Gu Xiang recalled his past life and felt an indescribable taste in his heart.

  If this were to happen to her, when her mother was ill and short of money, how would she react if someone gave her such an idea?

  She doesn't know.

  At night, Gu Xiang called Lin Jiahuan to ask about this matter.

  Lin Jiahuan found it strange that Gu Xiang suddenly asked about a ordinary boy in the class, but she still agreed to help ask around.

  Gu Xiang originally thought that Lin Jiahuan would at least need until tomorrow to get a result.

  But Lin Jiahuan called back after a while.

  "My goodness! Gu Xiang, did you know that Cen Xiang was a thief all along?" Lin Jiahuan asked loudly over the phone.

  Gu Xiang held her phone a little further away from her ear: "I didn't know until just now, I only found out this afternoon."

  Lin Jiahuan said on the other end of the line, "If you hadn't asked me, I really wouldn't have known. Cen Xiang's family conditions were originally not good. His dad had a car accident two years ago and his leg was badly injured. His mom was just diagnosed with breast cancer. Alas, it's quite pitiful."

  Gu Xiang fell silent after hearing it.

  She had a sense of sympathy for those who suffered the same fate, but she was much luckier than Xiangxiang.

  The next afternoon, the sports meeting came to an end.

  The scores of Class 1 and Class 2 are neck and neck.

  Everyone's attention was focused on the 100m dash and 4x400 relay finals that morning.

  But Gu Xiang seemed a bit distracted.

  Today, Ceng Xiang didn't come to school. She had a premonition that perhaps Ceng Xiang would never come again from now on.

  Gu Xiang found an opportunity to go ask Jiang teacher about it.

  Mr. Jiang was quite surprised to see Gu Xiang coming to ask about Cen Xiang's situation, after all, in his mind, Gu Xiang had almost been stolen from twice before and should have hated Cen Xiang.

  "We have discussed Cen Xiang's situation with several other teachers and decided to let him take a year off. His current state is not suitable for him to continue staying in school."

  Gu Xiang finally let out a sigh of relief, dropping out was better than expulsion. Moreover, judging from Jiang teacher's tone, Cen Xiang's theft shouldn't have been exposed to the outside.

  She admired Teacher Jiang even more.

  So many classmates almost had their mobile phones stolen before, and after they went back and told their parents, the parents must have put pressure on the school.

  Mr. Jiang did this and took all the responsibility on himself.

  But Teacher Jiang also said: "A year later, Cen Xiang will definitely not be studying at our school anymore."

  Gu Xiang also understands.

  She tried again and wanted to organize a donation in the class.

  Mr. Jiang thought for a moment and agreed, then handed this matter over to Gu Xiang.

  Because they knew that Cen Xiang would no longer come back to school, Gu Xiang also didn't hide it anymore and told the class about this after the sports meeting.

  They won the relay race against Class 2 and took the grade championship with a total score one point higher than Class 2.

  The classmates were all excited.

  But after hearing what Gu Xiang said, the happy and excited mood of the classmates disappeared all at once.

  Two more girls listened and their eyes turned red.

  At this age, classmates' hearts are actually very soft and sensitive.

  Gu Xiang had previously taken a small cardboard box from Mr. Jiang's office, sealed the opening with wide adhesive tape, and cut a long rectangular slit on top to make a simple donation box.

  The donation box is placed on the podium.

  Gu Xiang allowed his classmates to write an encouraging note and also put in some money.

  It's all voluntary and anonymous, no need to compare or show off for the sake of face.

  This cardboard box has been kept by Gu Xiang all along.

  She discussed with her mother Gu over the weekend and took 500 yuan from the money given by her father Gu last time.

  Another week passed and it was the weekend again, Gu Xiang handed the cardboard box over to Teacher Jiang.

  Mr. Jiang said he will go to Xiangxiang's house over the weekend and hand over this cardboard box.

  Seeing Gu Xiang so enthusiastic, Jiang teacher asked her if she wanted to go together.

  Gu Xiang refused, she was afraid that if she saw Cen Xiang's home, she would think of past events and couldn't bear it.

  Mr. Jiang didn't open the box either, but directly handed it over to Xiangxiang.

  Mr. Jiang and Cen Xiang got in touch, feeling that the child was not bad at heart, but stubborn, so he didn't tell him that this was a donation from his classmates, only saying it was a blessing from his classmates to his mother.

  He also brought more than 50,000 yuan in donations from teachers and the school to go. The school also refunded Xiang's tuition for this semester.

  Qian's mother is in hospital, at home there is only Qian's father who has a lame leg.

  Mr. Cen reluctantly refused at first, but thinking that this was a lifesaving sum of money, he finally gritted his teeth and accepted it with tears in his eyes.

  Mr. Jiang never mentioned to him about what happened to Xiang in school, but only suggested to Xiang's father that it was not suitable for Xiang to study now and it would be better to take a year off and go back to school next year. By then, he could help with the admission process.

  After Mr. Jiang left, Cen Xiang opened the cardboard box and found a pile of money inside.

  There are 100-yuan bills and 1-yuan coins, but more are 5-yuan and 10-yuan bills. They seem to be the leftovers from daily savings.

  Unexpectedly, there were more than three thousand people.

  Among the piles of money were also notes of varying sizes with different handwriting on them.

  Later, everyone in the class linked Xiang's suspension with her mother's illness, and no one thought about it that way.

  In comparison, Gu Xiang couldn't help but feel that she was really too lucky!

  The money they donated plus the money borrowed from Uncle Xian's relatives is said to be enough for the surgery.

  I hope Mrs. Shen can recover soon.

  Gradually, this matter also gradually faded out of everyone's mind.

  But Gu Xiang occasionally thought about it and could only silently bless in her heart.

  Later, Cen Xiang also wrote a thank-you letter to the school, saying that his classmates, teachers and the school's money had helped him a lot.

  It wasn't until then that everyone realized how much money their classmates had donated!

  Although Gu Xiang hadn't opened the box and taken a look, she had a rough idea in her mind.

  She didn't mention it herself, but Zhao Lei, Tang Lulu, Chai Ziyu and Ning Peng all donated a lot, with each person donating two or three hundred.

  The other students and teachers were all frightened by this number.

  The school also organized donations for poor mountain children during normal times, with each person contributing about 3 to 5 yuan on average.

  And also needs the class teacher's supervision, otherwise most of the classmates are not very willing.

  This time, unexpectedly donated such a large sum of money without anyone's supervision.

  Every teacher who knew about this matter gave a thumbs up to Class 1 students behind their backs.

  After this incident, Class 1 also became more united.

  At first, because there were all top students in the class, they didn't get along with each other and had weak cohesion.

  After the sports meeting and donation, the atmosphere in the class has become much more harmonious.

  Even Lin Jiahuan, who did not participate in the sports meeting and only watched from the sidelines, became closer to Li Wei.

  Of course, it's not just the students who have changed. Teacher Jiang also feels that her previous idea of cultivating students' self-awareness by giving them a lot of freedom was inappropriate.

  Apart from studying, he also began to pay attention to the emotional changes of his classmates.

  Gu Xiang found that Teacher Jiang quite liked pulling her over to chat about family matters, often calling her into the office during self-study class to ask about things going on with their classmates.

  Although there were such situations in the past, Teacher Jiang mostly asked about class discipline and students' enthusiasm for learning. Now, however, she pays more attention to how classmates get along with each other and their emotions.

  Gu Xiang felt that Jiang Laoshi's educational ideas were already quite advanced.

  After all, in that era, junior high school teachers didn't have time to care about students' emotional changes during puberty. Most teachers' eyes were still focused on grades.

  It's only when your grades get worse that you'll be concerned about whether you're distracted or not.