Chapter Thirty-Two: 18,100 Catties of Tea

  At the entrance of the principal's office, Director Li adjusted his collar and knocked on the door with a "cuckoo" sound. There was no response inside. Director Li opened the door with a puzzled expression and muttered to himself: "Come in, wait a minute, the principal was just here."

  A few people, including Pang Da Hu, followed Director Li into the large office and only then discovered that the principal was inside. At this moment, he was holding his mobile phone and talking on the phone: "Oh! Dongcheng Daily reporter, welcome, welcome, waiting for you at any time."

  The principal hung up the phone, lifted his head, and saw Director Li leading a group of people including Pang Datou. His face froze for a moment, but immediately relaxed again, and he walked over to Pang with a warm smile, shaking his right hand enthusiastically: "Hello, you must be Director Pang from the East City Public Security Bureau. I've heard so much about you, it's great to finally meet you in person. Please, come on in."

  Pang Da Hu originally came prepared to be scolded, but unexpectedly the principal was enthusiastic and treated him like a grandson, making him feel uneasy: "Hello, hello... Ah, my kid has caused you trouble, I'm really sorry."

  "It's nothing, kids will be kids, we parents should understand more." The principal treated Pang Datou like a honored guest and invited him to sit on the sofa. He took out a small package of individually wrapped tea leaves from the cabinet: "Don't mention those things for now, try my top-grade Jinjunmei tea that I just had someone bring over from Wuyi Mountain in Fujian."

  Pang Da Hu furrowed his brow, unsure what the principal was getting at, and stiffly said "good", then sat down to watch the principal prepare tea.

  Liu Xiang, who was standing by, saw such a good opportunity to curry favor and quickly came up with a flattering attitude: "Principal, you rest, I'll do it."

  "Classmate, please sit down. Brewing this tea is a bit particular, the water temperature and steeping time need to be controlled well. Ordinary people won't brew it." The principal said while tearing open the tea packaging bag and pouring the tea leaves into the cylindrical teapot, not knowing whether he was showing off that he wasn't an ordinary person or personally brewing tea for Pang Dahu.

  Taking advantage of the time it took to boil water, Pang Dahu carefully asked: "Principal, my family's Pang Guang doesn't understand things, but he is still very kind by nature. Last night's matter was a complete misunderstanding. Can you please be lenient...?"

  "Hehe, no rush, let's have some tea first." The water had already boiled, and the principal began to wash the cup slowly: "Director Pang, this tea was given by an old classmate of mine. I heard that its retail price outside has been driven up to 18,000 yuan. You must savor it carefully later."

  "Good, I'm Pong Datou, no hobbies, but have a special fondness for tea. Now that I finally have the chance to taste this 18,000-yuan good tea, I'll definitely savor it carefully." Pong Datou followed with a "heh heh", but in his heart, he had already cursed eighteen times. As the principal of a key middle school, how dare you bring out 18,000-yuan per kilogram tea leaves to show off? If this 18,000 yuan was used to give welfare to the school teachers, each person could at least get three boxes of ice red tea. However, he didn't dare say these things out loud, and still hoped that the principal would be lenient and give Pong Guang another chance to continue studying here.

  "Good tea, good tea!" Pong Datou hastily drained the cup of tea in one gulp, his mouth still savoring the aftertaste.

  The principal smiled silently, not saying a word, and poured tea into Pang Dahu's cup. The mysterious and unpredictable demeanor made Pang Dahu's heart beat nervously, unsure if he had said something wrong or done something incorrect. The principal remained silent, and Pang Dahu didn't know what to say either. Since Pang Dahu wasn't speaking, the others were even more reluctant to speak. The principal continued to refill their tea cups, and the others could only continue drinking. Everyone except the principal and Director Li felt bloated and wanted to vomit. A small packet of tea leaves had been steeped in five large pots of water, and they had all been completely consumed.

  Just as everyone was complaining, Lin Junyue's mother Kong Yue Mei suddenly rushed in from the door: "Is this the principal's office? I'm Lin Junyue's mother, sorry about that, something came up and I'm late."

  "Oh, Mrs. Lin?!" The principal looked up and was immediately dazzled by the sparkling eyes of Kong Yue's mother, who quickly forced a smile: "Mrs. Lin, you're well-preserved! If you didn't say so yourself, I wouldn't have dared to believe that you had such a big daughter! Come, sit down and try some of this good tea that my friend brought for me."

  "Oh." Kong Yue Mei took a look and saw that everyone was there, thinking fortunately she had arrived on time. Now they should be discussing the matter of Lin Jun Yun and Pang Guang sleeping together last night, so she sat down to join in.

  "Auntie, this tea is really good, 18,000 yuan per kilogram!" Liu Mao seized another opportunity to flatter, seeing the principal pouring a full cup of tea and hastily interjecting.

  "Really?" Kong Yue Mei picked up her teacup, took a sip, and immediately furrowed her brow: "The principal wasn't cheated, was he? It's not much different from plain water!" Seeing everyone else looking at her with narrowed eyes, Kong Yue Mei quickly added: "Don't misunderstand, I didn't mean it that way. The tea is definitely good tea, it's just that I don't know how to drink it. A while ago, a friend gave me a bottle of plum wine and said it was worth 34,000 yuan where they were from, so I treasured it like a precious thing. But then Lin Jun Yun drank it all, and later when I asked someone about it, I found out that the '34,000' was actually referring to the date March 4th."

  "Haha……" The principal laughed so hard that he was out of breath, and with a "pu" sound, he started coughing, spitting out the tea he had just sucked into his mouth but hadn't had time to savor yet. It happened to spray all over Liu Xiang's body who was sitting across from him.

  "Principal, take care of your body." Liu Meng hurried over and patted the principal's back: "Look, my clothes can't even drink tea, this good Jinjunmei is wasted on him."

  The principal's temper had calmed down a bit, and he hadn't coughed much either. Upon hearing Liu's teasing, he suddenly rolled his eyes again, choked once more, and this time tears even came out.

  "Has everyone finished drinking?" The principal finally stopped coughing, pulled out a white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the corner of his mouth: "Now that we've had enough to drink, let's talk about something serious!"

  "Alright, alright." Everyone nodded hastily. The host was too enthusiastic, and it's ridiculous to describe drinking a bellyful of water as "alright", all I can say is that I'm stuffed.

  "Hmm, that's good, that's good." The principal nodded in satisfaction and said to Liu Xiang: "Liu Xiang, you go out for a while, we'll talk about something. Close the door on your way out."

  "Oh!" Liu Miao stood up with curiosity and turned around to leave the office.