Two more days before the New Year celebration, or a day since Yuqi's incident in the office.
"Darling, please let me in. I am just going to do work inside, okay?" Xiaoyun pleaded, standing right outside Yuqi's office.
"Go away! I'm giving you a break for today. Go do something else with your time," Yuqi yelled out from the inside.
As Xiaoyun turned around in defeat, he saw everyone in the office looking towards him, some seemingly holding the urge to laugh.
"What are you all looking at? Stop being so noisy and go back to work."
Xiaoyun quickly took a seat at one of the empty cubicles as everyone sat back down and went back to work.
After sitting in the cubicle with nothing to do, one of the office workers who sat next to Xiaoyun's cubicle suddenly decided to speak up.
"Hey, boss, did you and Mrs.Yuqi really d-do it inside the office?" A middle-aged woman nervously asked.
"Yeah, what about it? You got a problem with it?" Xiaoyun grumpily responded as he raised his voice.
"N-no, boss."
As the middle-aged woman went back to work, Xiaoyun couldn't handle the awkwardness any longer, getting up from his seat before leaving.
The moment he headed downstairs, all of the office workers immediately got up and started gossiping.
"Oh my god, I can't believe they actually did it in the office! Yesterday's moaning really was from them."
"B-But isn't she already pregnant for several months now? Her belly looks so big... Can they still do it?"
"I-I think so. A friend of mine who's a nurse told me that it's perfectly fine... It's even encouraged since pregnancy causes women to have a higher libido."
"Still can't believe the boss is married to his adopted mother and sisters."
As the three female office workers gossiped more and more with each other, some of the men couldn't resist joining in.
"Not to mention all three of them being pregnant at the same time." A male office worker pointed out.
"Man, I wish I had a wife like that, just one would make me the happiest man alive..." The second male office worker murmured.
"And I wish I had a husband like that, I wouldn't even care if he had multiple wives." One of the female office workers murmured, with the other two nodding.
"Everyone, stop daydreaming, get back to work before I report you guys for gossiping about the boss."
As soon as the department head gave out her warning, everyone immediately went back to work in their own cubicle.
---
The bored Xiaoyun was walking in the streets until he happened to walk near the grocery store where Nami was working.
"Hey Nami, how is it going?"
Xiaoyun curiously asked as he walked towards the checkout register, only to see a few customers walking in and out of the store.
"The usual... Anyway, why are you here? Shouldn't you be in the office right now?" Nami questioned.
"Yuqi just got a little mad... Ahem, does the store need any improvement?" Xiaoyun quietly murmured the first part out loud.
"It will be great if there are more stores. There are way too many people here during peak hours," Nami complained.
"Okay, I'll tell Yuqi about that tomorrow. Oh, looks like you have work to do now."
As one of the customers headed towards the register, Xiaoyun quickly left the store before going back out onto the street.
With nothing much to do, he decided to go check out the school that had been built recently.
A few minutes later...
When Xiaoyun saw the school before him, it didn't have much. It was a two-rectangle building with a sand playground on the left side.
Once inside, he was instantly stopped by a security guard the moment he tried to walk past the entrance.
"Sir, you can't enter beyond—Oh my goodness, good morning, Mr.Mayor." The security immediately withdrew his hand, letting him go.
"Good morning."
As Xiaoyun entered one of the long hallways, he could finally see the students inside the classrooms.
It was a kindergarten. No, a daycare to be exact. Children ranging from as young as three years old to five years old, all chattering and running around with each other.
The teacher struggled to calm down one of the kids who was crying, as another kid seemed to have gotten away with taking his toy.
"Geez, kids are brutal these days..." Xiaoyun mumbled as he waved back to the teacher after she noticed him standing outside.
After walking through all the classrooms in the left hallway, Xiaoyun took a little turn at the intersection to go towards the right.
This time, it was much quieter. The noise level drastically dropped to the point that Xiaoyun could hear his own footsteps.
The right side of the buildings themselves was much bigger, as he could see way more students in each of the classrooms.
As he walked past a few of the classes, he could see kids of different ages. Some looked to be in first grade, while one looked like they belonged in the fifth grade.
They were all oddly in the same class despite their clear age differences. A few of the students even had a small beard growing out.
"Everyone, please flip to page ten and start independent reading."
As everyone in the classroom started reading out loud, the teacher quickly headed outside the classroom to talk with Xiaoyun.
"Mr.Mayor, is there something I can help you with?"
"I'm just curious, why do they look so different? Are these students really supposed to be in the same classroom?" Xiaoyun curiously asked.
"Well, they aren't supposed to be in the same classroom. But we don't have spare classes to put them into separate grades.
We are forced to put the First and Second grades in the first class, and the Third and Fourth grades in the next class, and so on."
The teacher paused for a second, then continued.
"Sometimes we just don't have the space, so we are forced to put Fifth graders with First graders like this."
"How would they learn? Wouldn't the material for Fifth graders be way too complicated for First graders?" Xiaoyun questioned.
"Well, their book is actually different. That Fifth grader is reading a different book than the third grader over there.
We had also adjusted the textbook after a few weeks of discussion to tweak the modern textbooks we had." The teacher explained.
"Why tweak? Why not just use the original?"
"Miss Shuli said that some of the material is not needed, like learning chemistry or physics, which can be put in a later curriculum.
We don't have the necessary materials to experiment, nor do we have the experience in teaching those subjects."
Seeing the struggles the teachers faced, Xiaoyun quickly realized what the biggest hurdle was in the students' education.
"I see... I will allocate more funding to this, don't you worry. I will also try to find more teachers to help you guys."
Xiaoyun replied, noticing the student-to-teacher ratio was almost over fifty students per teacher.
"Thank you."
The teacher bowed down in gratitude before returning to the classroom, leaving Xiaoyun alone in the hallway.
"A lot of hidden issues..." Xiaoyun let out a sigh as he walked back to the intersection, heading towards the other building in the school.
After walking for a bit, Xiaoyun arrived at a different section of the classroom. One that is technically separated from the other classes completely.
It was all middle school and near high school students, as they all looked much older, and some even looked taller than him.
Just chatting with the teacher for a minute was enough, as he got the same feedback on the lack of funding and merging student problems.
"Mr.Mayor, I have one last request. Can you give a talk to them? They are all your biggest fans."
The middle school teacher pleaded, catching Xiaoyun a little off guard as he eventually nodded in agreement.
Walking into the classroom, the entire class burst into chattering as their faces were all filled with excitement.
"Oh my god, it's the mayor!"
"My idol!"
"He's the one who saved my parent!"
"You're my hero! I love you!"
"When can I join the military?"
As all the students yelled out their admiration and questions, the teacher immediately signaled everyone to quiet down.
"Everyone, be quiet!"
The class immediately turned dead silent as they all remained seated, waiting for the teacher and Xiaoyun to speak up again.
"Hello, everyone, I'm the mayor... Anyone who has a question for me, you can raise your hand."
Xiaoyun didn't know what to say, so he defaulted to a Q&A format as he noticed several of the students had questions.
Several of the kid immediately raised their hand.
"The kid at the front, what's your question?"
"Mr. Mayor, can I join the army?" The middle schooler asked.
"Um, you will have to go through being a militia first. But you have to be sixteen for that to happen."
Xiaoyun answered, then pointed at the other kid.
"Mr.mayor, d-do you r-really have t-three wives?" The second kid curiously asked, looking a little nervous.
"Um..."
"Not appropriate, next question." The teacher warned, holding a ruler in his hand as the student shyly stuck her tongue out a little.
With both students lowering their hands, there was now only one student who still had their hands up.
"You in the back."
"Mr. Mayor, can I ask what we are going to do for the New Year celebration? I heard every adult has been talking about it." The middle schooler curiously asked.
"You will see, it's going to be a lot of fun," Xiaoyun replied.
"Well, can everyone say thank you to Mr. Mayor?" The teacher asked, ending the Q&A before anyone could raise their hand again.
"Thank you, Mr. Mayor!"
---
As Xiaoyun continued walking towards the last room of the hallway, he finally saw the principal's office.
He knocked on the door and waited.
"Come in."
Opening the door, he sees Shuli working inside as she drops her pen to look up towards him.
"Oh Song——Ahem, Xiaoyun, long time no see. What brought you here?" Shuli curiously asked as she put her paperwork away.
"Just came here to check out the school... I had already talked to a few of the teachers, and they told me about the lack of funding."
"Yeah. We really need more funding and teachers. Some of the kids can't even get fed properly, and I sometimes have to sub in as a teacher." Shuli complained.
"I'll go talk to Yuqi about allocating more funding later tonight and ask Yezi to look for more teachers/."
Xiaoyun was reassured, realizing the issue was much more urgent than he had imagined, as none of the teachers told him about the lack of food.
"Thank you so much."
Just as Xiaoyun was about to leave the room to let Shuli focus back on her work, she suddenly made a little request.
"Ahem, sorry to ask this, Xiaoyun, but can I ask you for a personal favor?"
"Sure... As long as it's within my ability." Xiaoyun quickly added the last part as he had a bad feeling.
"Can you put Wuli in a safer combat duty? She recently joined the military and volunteered to be a soldier."
"I... I will tell Yezi to give her safer missions if that's what you want." Xiaoyun answered.
"Thank you! I can't thank you enough for what you have done for both of us!"
As Shuli bowed down in gratitude, Xiaoyun's eyes couldn't help but notice that her cleavage revealed her prize to be bigger than he had ever imagined.
"Ahem, no problem. I'm going to leave if you don't have any other requests."
Xiaoyun quickly turned around, bolting out of the room as he resisted the urge to make any moves he might regret.
"Was he staring at my chest? He is already married! I-I need to warn Leyan about this before it's too late."
As Shuli pulled out her phone, she suddenly stopped at the very last second as her mind realized something.
"Am I really going to call him out when he just did such a big favor for me? I shouldn't backstab someone like this."
Once again, she hesitated as she looked towards the phone in his hand, with Leyan's number just one button away.
"He left when he realized he was being disrespectful, right? Besides, he's a man. Who wouldn't look at it?
It's my fault for tempting him... I was the one who bowed down when I was wearing this dress... I should just let this slide."
In the end, Shuli put her phone away as she pulled up her dress a little, preventing her cleavage from revealing too much.