Chapter 5

"Mr. Huang, this is your dormitory."

"Thank you."

...

After the new principal took office, Huang Jingyao finally applied for a dormitory. The teachers' dormitories were in the dormitory building area, with dozens of rooms on each floor, mostly for single teachers or for the duty rooms of grade heads and vice-principals. The second floor and above were student dormitories.

When Huang Jingyao arrived at his dormitory with his luggage and opened the door with the key, a young man lying on the bed playing with his phone was startled. Huang Jingyao smiled and said, "I'm the new teacher, Huang Jingyao. I was assigned this dormitory when I applied."

"Tan Weiming, I started last year, now teaching English to Class 16 of Grade 2. What about you?" The young man on the bed got up, greeted him with a warm smile, and offered to help with the luggage, "Let me help you."

"Grade 3, Class 35, Chinese teacher." Huang Jingyao politely declined, but Tan Weiming enthusiastically took the luggage and smiled back.

Tan Weiming was taken aback again, "Grade 3? Not bad, not bad. You don't look much older than me, and you even started in late September. Career advancement? Some people just have it easy."

Tan Weiming's enthusiasm clearly waned, and his words took on a hint of bitterness.

A look of awkwardness flashed across Huang Jingyao's face, but he couldn't explain much. They moved on to unpacking the luggage. The two roommates, one teaching Grade 2 and the other starting in Grade 3, suddenly fell silent.

Is there a difference between teaching Grade 1, Grade 2, and Grade 3?

To many students, there isn't much difference. Many high school teachers follow the same grade of students, so when a new batch of students enters, the teachers take them over, and as the students move up to Grade 2, the teachers also move up to Grade 2, and so on for Grade 3.

For students, it's hard to tell the difference.

But for teachers, the most obvious difference is the salary!

Huang Jingyao's title is a secondary-level teacher, with a monthly salary of 860 yuan for his title, 1000 yuan for performance, and 300 to 400 yuan for tutoring, which is privately distributed by the school and officially called a class hour subsidy.

All in all, he earns a little over 2000 yuan a month, but he doesn't get the full amount. For the first six months, 30% of his performance pay is deducted, leaving him with about 1600 to 1700 yuan.

This was the salary agreed upon when he joined Luoquan No. 1 High School.

As for the city's No. 1 High School, he wasn't even a secondary-level teacher then, and even with more tutoring pay, the salary was about the same.

Teaching Grade 1 and Grade 3 nominally has similar income, but schools often have other internal rewards, such as exam performance bonuses. If a Grade 3 class produces a student who gets into Tsinghua or Peking University, the school privately rewards the homeroom teacher with 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and the Chinese, Math, and English teachers with 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. If two students get in, the rewards double.

These rewards vary by school, and the targets for rewards differ. Some only reward Tsinghua and Peking University, while others also reward students who get into Fudan and Renmin University.

Each mid-term and final exam also has performance bonuses, and Grade 3 always gets the most.

If you're lucky, even if you're not a homeroom teacher, you can earn 40% to 50% more than a Grade 1 or Grade 2 teacher. Homeroom teachers earn several times more.

In the 2010s, the housing price in Luoquan County was about 3,000 yuan per square meter. Huang Jingyao's monthly salary, if he didn't eat or drink, could only buy half a square meter. In a year, he could probably only afford a toilet.

With various exam performance and effect bonuses, how many teachers wouldn't want to teach Grade 3? If there's an opportunity, they all fight for it, fearing they won't get the chance. When the grades rotate, even some senior-level teachers have to wait their turn, as a school can't have only one or two senior-level teachers.

This was why Huang Jingyao was surprised when he first heard he would teach Grade 3, and why Tan Weiming was cold. Tan Weiming felt he was the senior, and he was still in Grade 2 while the other was already in Grade 3.

Huang Jingyao silently organized his luggage, not knowing what to say. He had no choice but to start preparing for his classes, as he needed to fully commit to face this challenge.

Even with the magical treasure to enhance students' talent, talent is just a condition. If a student with enhanced talent doesn't study, doesn't look at the textbook, or doesn't understand what the teacher is saying, the talent will be wasted.

Time passed quickly, and when Huang Jingyao returned from lunch, he stopped just outside the dormitory door.

"Damn, I don't know where this guy came from, looks younger than me. Probably just graduated from a teacher's college, and he's teaching Grade 3 right away? What a joke, no wonder our county's No. 1 High School is so bad. It can't even compare to the city's No. 1 High School or other county high schools."

This was Tan Weiming's voice. After a low curse, another voice chimed in, "So what if you're not happy? Who asked you to have no connections?"

"So what if I have no connections? I was hired through a proper teacher recruitment exam, a standard fiscal position! Not like he got in through backdoor connections."

...

Huang Jingyao heard a few sentences and didn't know whether to open the door. After a few seconds, he turned and left.

A few more days passed, and when Huang Jingyao was sitting in the large office for the Grade 3 liberal arts classes, a middle-aged man with a square face walked in amidst the bustling crowd. As soon as he entered, the entire office of twenty to thirty people fell silent, followed by various greetings.

"Who is Huang Jingyao?" The square-faced man asked politely, scanning the room. Huang Jingyao stood up, and the man's eyes flashed with surprise but he still smiled, "Old Li finally showed some humanity and found someone to share the load. From today, the Chinese class for Class 35 is yours. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready." Huang Jingyao smiled politely. Luoquan No. 1 High School had 24 Grade 3 classes, with 60 to 70 students in each class, 18 science classes, and 6 liberal arts classes.

All these were regular classes, while the review classes were in the old campus.

Class 6 of the 6 liberal arts classes was the smallest, a gathering of top students.

Among the six classes, there were only three Chinese teachers. One for Classes 1 and 2, one for Classes 3, 4, and 5, and the square-faced man in front of him. Class 6 was an exception, with a separate Chinese teacher for the top students.

Huang Jingyao had also heard some things during this time. Apart from Class 6, the top students' class, Class 1 was a small class, better than Class 6 but worse than Classes 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Classes 2, 3, 4, and 5 were all regular classes, with Class 5 being the worst!

Perhaps because Class 5 was so bad, the square-faced man was too lazy to handle it and found an excuse to pass it off. For some reason, perhaps because Vice-Principal Yang's brother-in-law was very influential, Huang Jingyao was exceptionally made a Grade 3 teacher.

"Work hard. I'm getting old and can't handle such a heavy load. After all, I'm still the homeroom teacher for Class 4, and I can't be everywhere. So, I'm passing Class 5 to you." The square-faced man's eyes flashed with a hint of disdain, but he put on a very friendly act, patting Huang Jingyao encouragingly.

"Mr. Song, don't worry, I'll do my best." Huang Jingyao responded politely.

Mr. Song, the square-faced man, also seemed pleased, his eyes flashing with a hint of mockery, "Go ahead, first talk to Mr. Wen to understand the situation. He's the homeroom teacher for Class 5."

Mr. Wen Jingsheng, the homeroom teacher for Class 5, was an elderly man close to sixty. When Huang Jingyao introduced himself as the new Chinese teacher, Mr. Wen casually nodded, his attitude neither warm nor cold, and tossed him a score sheet, smiling, "Little Huang, this is the monthly exam results for Class 5. Take a look, so you have an idea."

Huang Jingyao was soon speechless.

Class 5 had 64 students. The Chinese test was out of 150 points, with 4 students scoring over 120, 13 students between 90 and 120, and the remaining 47 students scoring below 90, failing. The most shocking was that Huang Jingyao found over ten students scoring below 60, with the most glaring being Wang Hao, who scored a whopping 17 in Chinese. How could someone score 17 in Chinese, even if they wrote a 60-point essay carelessly?