National Guardian's Gone and We're Done

Chapter 327 - 326: Becoming an Instructor on the Empire’s Payroll

"Young man, they’re your new neighbors.

From your clothes and your bearing, I can tell you’re not from around here. You must be from a big city, right?

Here to experience the slow-paced life of our little third-tier city."

The old man was quite perceptive. He said, "Don’t be surprised. I rent this place out often, so I’ve seen plenty of young people like you.

Some band even rented this courtyard before,

said they were looking for some slow-paced inspiration in a small city.

But going forward, you’d better not bully that mother and daughter."

"Don’t worry, I won’t."

Chu He said with a wry smile, not expecting the old man’s sudden change of topic with that last sentence.

"What nonsense are you talking?

This young man is so handsome and well-mannered. A single look tells you he’s not that kind of person.

Young man, don’t pay any mind to this old coot.

But that mother and daughter... they’re truly in a pitiful situation.

The woman has been holding that whole family together by herself.

Her husband worked on a construction site when he was younger, but he fell and was paralyzed.

The construction site’s boss is rich and powerful here in our city.

Reporters even came to interview him at the time, and the boss promised in front of them that he would take care of everything.

He said he’d give the family a large sum of money,

and he even sent the little girl to the best private Martial Arts high school in town.

The tuition for that Martial Arts high school is nearly one hundred thousand yuan per semester.

But it has produced a lot of outstanding students over the years.

For the sake of her daughter’s future, or maybe because she couldn’t change the reality of her situation, the woman agreed.

But unexpectedly, less than a year after the girl started at the Martial Arts high school, the boss’s construction project finished, and he just packed up and left without a care in the world.

He didn’t give them a single penny for the husband’s subsequent medical treatments.

The family used to be pretty well-off.

The woman had no choice but to sell their house and rent this courtyard from us.

For one, it’s cheap. For another, she can park the little food cart she uses to make a living inside the yard."

The old woman sighed as she finished, shaking her head helplessly. "That’s just reality for you."

"That young girl must be close to her college entrance exams."

Chu He could tell with a single glance.

The high school girl’s Martial Arts foundation was extremely solid.

She should be considered one of the best among her peers.

To have reached this level, she had to be about the age to test into a Martial Arts Academy.

If she were still a first or second-year student, or even younger,

then that high school girl would be exceptionally talented.

"Yes, that’s right. But it seems their family has run into some trouble recently.

The girl’s name is Sun Canxing.

Sun Canxing’s father is not doing well.

The initial emergency care and follow-up treatments completely drained the family’s savings.

But the hospital said there was a chance her father could walk again.

And because of that ’chance’...

Sun Canxing’s mother, Li Ping, took her husband to several rehabilitation hospitals.

There was some improvement, but he was still a long, long way from being able to stand.

All of that, back and forth, cost a lot more money.

Eventually, Sun Canxing’s father started refusing treatment, thinking he was just a burden. He even tried to commit suicide once.

I was the one who called the ambulance that time."

The old man looked just as helpless as he recalled the event. "So Li Ping went back to that boss’s company,

wanting him to pay for the follow-up medical expenses as he had promised, but she was thrown out.

The boss even threatened her. He said if her family wanted to continue living peacefully in this city,

they’d better not go and bother him again.

But Li Ping was desperate, so she went one more time.

As a result, the boss used his connections to block Sun Canxing from receiving her diploma,

demanding that Sun Canxing find a guarantor from the Martial Arts world to participate in the graduation test.

He also sent a message to everyone who practices Martial Arts in all of Haitong City: anyone who dares to be Sun Canxing’s guarantor would be making an enemy of him.

That boss really throws his weight around in this town.

So now, not only might Sun Canxing fail to get into a Martial Arts Academy, she might not even be able to graduate from high school.

Didn’t you see her face? So full of misery."

"Old man, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, then stop spouting nonsense!

It’s not a ’guarantor’!

It’s an ’advisor,’ okay?"

the old woman said, annoyed.

"An advisor?" Chu He was rather puzzled,

as he wasn’t very familiar with this kind of basic Martial Arts college entrance exam.

The National Road Academy he was in charge of, despite being the most outstanding Martial Arts Academy in the entire Great Xia Empire,

after all, only admitted students who had already passed the college entrance exams.

"Actually, the policy is a pretty good one.

People who practice Martial Arts, if their proficiency reaches a certain standard, can go to the local education department,

pass a qualification review and multiple assessments, and become an advisor paid a salary by the Empire.

Then they can take on students, and they receive a certain subsidy for each one.

They also get rewarded based on the different scores their students achieve on the college entrance exams.

Some of the more outstanding advisors make a very good living.

It’s a good way to help children from ordinary or poor families who can’t afford an advisor.

Many advisors also go out of their way to find students."

the old woman explained.

But this also led to a problem: without an advisor’s signature on her graduation qualification,

Sun Canxing couldn’t graduate.

And if she couldn’t graduate, she wouldn’t have a chance to take the college entrance exams.

"Isn’t your daughter-in-law a lawyer?

Didn’t you consult her about this?"

Chu He asked, puzzled.

He could tell that the old man and woman were very warm-hearted people.

Just now, for example, even though he was just a tenant who had arrived that day,

they had immediately called him over to help when their neighbor’s food cart tipped over, not treating him like a stranger at all.

"We asked. Our son and daughter-in-law told us not to get involved.

They said the people they know in the big city are useless here in our third-tier city.

They have their own pressures in the big city and told us two old folks to just live our lives peacefully."

The old man chimed in, "Actually, our son and daughter-in-law are right. We’re living comfortably now, but we don’t have the power to solve this kind of problem."

Chu He nodded in understanding.

"Alright, young man,

we’ve burdened you with so many troubles on your first day here. Please don’t mind us.

We’re just a couple of old folks with nothing better to do. We tend to ramble on when we meet someone new."

the old woman said to Chu He, embarrassed.

Chu He waved his hand to show it was no problem. After the old couple left,

Chu He returned to his own courtyard.

There was a rocking chair in the courtyard. Chu He lay back in it, enjoying the sunlight.

When afternoon came, Chu He locked the courtyard gate, left the old district, and prepared to go for a stroll.

But there was one thing he had to do before his walk.

"Mr. Chu."

A man in a suit walked over hurriedly, his hands placed in front of him as he bowed respectfully.