Zheng Jiahe’s motive for poisoning turned out to be precisely what Jiang Tang had guessed. As her eldest brother had said, Regiment Commander Cui and Sister Lin Xue truly shared a deeply loving relationship.
The original book had mentioned the madwoman of the military post; even if Sister Lin Xue had been driven to insanity, Regiment Commander Cui would still have kept her by his side to care for her.
With Zheng Jiahe’s poisoning attempt failing this time and Cui Xiangyang escaping unharmed, Regiment Commander Cui and Lin Xue’s family of three would finally be able to live in peace.
As Jiang Sijie spoke, he glanced at Xiao Xun standing beside him: “I don’t care about anything else, but my sister must never be harmed by anyone. Xiao Xun, I know there are quite a few people who fancy you, but you’d better guarantee my sister’s safety, or else I won’t let you off no matter what.”
“Don’t worry, Big Brother. I won’t let Comrade Jiang Tang fall into any danger.”
Meeting Xiao Xun’s gaze, Jiang Tang felt a wave of sweetness rise in her heart.
Her fiancé seemed reliable after all, and he certainly possessed looks that attracted a lot of unwanted attention; she wondered how he planned to handle that.
At present, only Yin Tiantian had explicitly shown hostility toward Jiang Tang, but Jiang Tang simply viewed Yin Tiantian as a child and hadn’t sensed any truly malicious intent from her.
As for whether anyone else might emerge in the future, it was hard to say.
Jiang Sijie had originally intended to lecture Xiao Xun about being too attractive to female comrades, but when he looked back at his sister—well, she was easily a match for Xiao Xun.
With her looks, there was no telling how many people’s hearts and souls she would haunt, just like that thoroughly obnoxious Song Chenchuan who had come sniffing around to pester her.
When a few of his fellow soldiers learned that Jiang Tang was his sister, they had all come to inquire about her, only backing down once they heard she was getting married to Xiao Xun.
After all, that was Xiao Xun they were talking about! Whether in physical training, stature, or appearance, he left them all far behind in the dust. How could any of them hope to compare to him?
Even so, Jiang Sijie still offered Xiao Xun a few more parting admonitions, making him promise by all means not to let his sister come to any harm.
After enduring a fair share of her big brother’s nagging, Jiang Tang finally managed to send her brother and Xiao Xun on their way.
The feeling of having someone care about you was truly wonderful.
The next day, when Jiang Tang went to the cafeteria for lunch, she heard that Yin Tiantian had been reassigned to the warehouse.
The director of the logistics department had even personally sought out Jiang Tang to apologize for Yin Tiantian’s refusal to serve her food the other day.
Jiang Tang hadn’t mentioned the incident to anyone, yet Yin Tiantian had been pulled straight from the serving window—she didn’t even need to guess who had intervened.
And that was for the best. While Yin Tiantian’s nature was essentially kind and childlike, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t do something foolish out of a loss of emotional control.
Pulling her away from the cafeteria serving window meant she would no longer be given the opportunity.
Treating the whole affair as a mere minor interlude, Jiang Tang had grown fiercely enamored with her role as an English teacher ever since arriving at the post.
Being able to teach the children English and help them secure a bright, promising future brought Jiang Tang immense happiness.
Soldiers came to the military post to build up the motherland, and as a teacher diligently educating the soldiers’ children, how was she not also contributing her own share of strength toward building the country?
While Jiang Tang was busy in the office preparing her lessons, Director Sun of the Academic Affairs Office dropped by the teachers’ office.
Jiang Tang’s workplace was a spacious office where off-duty teachers of the garrison school prepared their lessons.
Thus, seeing Director Sun enter, Jiang Tang hadn’t suspected he was looking for her and simply kept her head down, continuing her lesson prep.
It wasn’t until Director Sun walked straight up to her desk that Jiang Tang finally looked up, meeting his gaze.
“Director Sun, are you looking for me?”
A warm smile spreading across his face, Director Sun pulled up a chair and sat down beside Jiang Tang.
“It’s nothing major. It’s just that Zheng Jiahe, our school’s music teacher, made a serious mistake and can no longer continue teaching music to the children. The post doesn’t have a new music teacher coming in for the time being. Word is that you’re quite good at singing—if you have any spare energy, how about teaching the children a music class every two weeks?”
Hearing Director Sun’s request, Jiang Tang was quite surprised.
She had only been teaching the children her own created English alphabet song; she had never expected Director Sun to think of having her teach music as well.
Jiang Tang was decent at singing, but when it came to teaching a whole class of children, she wasn’t certain she could pull it off.
Sensing Jiang Tang’s hesitation, Director Sun reassured her, “The garrison school only goes up through elementary and junior high; the music classes don’t need to be too advanced—just teaching them to sing some songs will do. You won’t even need to prepare separate lesson plans; you can teach the exact same material to students across all grade levels. Don’t worry, you won’t be doing it for free—your salary and ration coupons will be properly adjusted. And it won’t tire you out for long either; I’ll coordinate with higher-ups as quickly as possible to get a music teacher transferred over.”
Jiang Tang was genuinely tempted. At present, she only taught one English class a week to the fifth-grade elementary students, and two classes a week to each of the three junior high grades, adding up to a total of just seven classes a week.
Though the students were of different ages, their foundation was roughly the same, practically starting from the English alphabet, meaning Jiang Tang didn’t need to juggle separate lesson preparations.
Compared to other teachers, Jiang Tang truly had plenty of spare time, and squeezing in a music class for the children wasn’t out of the question.
Besides, counting all eight grades plus the preschool class made nine groups in total, but having a music class only once every two weeks wouldn’t be overly exhausting.
She could just view it as contributing to the flowers of the motherland—plus, she wouldn’t be working pro bono.
Without further hesitation, Jiang Tang agreed.
Director Sun let out a sigh of relief, glad that the children’s music classes wouldn’t be left hanging.
Even though there hadn’t been any official music classes before Zheng Jiahe arrived, a few sessions had already been held, so abruptly canceling them wouldn’t look good.
Besides, replacing her with a substitute music teacher from elsewhere might not sit well with the students right away.
After all, flawed as her character was, Zheng Jiahe was genuinely talented at singing and knew how to guide the students well.
Reflecting on this, Director Sun couldn’t help but feel it was a terrible pity.
Once Jiang Tang gave her consent, Director Sun handed over the music lesson plans left behind by Zheng Jiahe.
“These are the songs Zheng Jiahe intended to teach the children. Take a look and see if you know them. If there are any you don’t know, you can check with some of the comrades on the post to learn them beforehand.”
Flipping through the lesson plan, Jiang Tang saw that the pages were filled with revolutionary songs—all of which she was already familiar with, saving her the trouble of studying them specially.
Director Sun added, “Once you’ve taught these few songs, a new music teacher should be able to report for duty. You’ll only have to bear with it for a short while; we won’t let you stay overworked for long.”
Jiang Tang didn’t mind at all; teaching the children brought her genuine joy, and besides, being young and full of stamina meant she was right in her prime to shine brightly at her post.
Patting Jiang Tang on the shoulder, Director Sun encouraged, “Keep up the good work. I reckon you’re capable of far more than just being an English teacher—your future prospects are boundless.”
Jiang Tang hadn’t given the distant future much thought. Her only goals were to protect her brother, mother, and father; as for whether she would continue working as an English teacher down the road, she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
Everything she did was in service of the revolutionary struggle—as long as she could shine and radiate warmth at her post, that was more than enough.
The moment Director Sun walked away, Chang Hong scurried over with a cheeky grin. “Xiaotang, you’re going to be teaching music to the kids? Can I tag along and sit in to audit?”