Call Me Daddy [Quick Transmigration]

That afternoon, Wang Fangfang didn’t go to school. When she came home fuming and locked herself in her room, the Wang family assumed she’d been bullied at school and were ready to go defend her. But Wang Fangfang kept stammering and wouldn’t explain what had happened. She probably felt guilty deep down—because if the truth came out, everyone would know she was in the wrong.

She tossed and turned all night, barely catching any sleep until the early morning. The next day, she had a couple spoonfuls of thin porridge to line her stomach, grabbed a roasted sweet potato, and rushed to school.
“Ay, that girl…”
Mother Wang sighed as she watched her daughter’s retreating figure. What kind of girl acts like that? Wakes up, eats, and doesn’t even help clear the dishes afterward. Didn’t she notice her sisters-in-law were already fed up with her?

Right now, as the matriarch, she still had authority and could keep the daughters-in-law in line. Plus, her daughter was a teacher at the elementary school and brought home a monthly salary. But give it a few years—once her grandsons started taking over their aunt’s job and the daughters-in-law began running their own households, would she still get to enjoy this kind of life?
Since she’d been up so late the night before, she overslept and arrived at school after the flag had already been raised. From the open field in front of the school, she could hear the loud, clear voices of students reading in unison. On the playground, a few second-grade kids were fooling around—but they looked distracted, constantly glancing toward the classrooms.
“Chu Jiabao, why aren’t you back in class?”

Wang Fangfang noticed that the second-grade classroom door was shut tight, so she walked over to the chubby, dark-skinned boy and asked.
“Mr. Su is teaching. He said if we didn’t want to attend class, we could come out here and play.”
Chu Jiabao felt like an ant was crawling around in his chest. Ever since last night, he couldn’t stop thinking about whether the monkey in the story found a master or not. The kids in class were probably having a blast listening to the rest of the tale. He wasn’t sure if Chu Ni would remember the details well enough to retell it.

Even if she did, it wouldn’t be as exciting as hearing it from Mr. Su himself.
“What?!”
Wang Fangfang’s face turned a bit green. She hadn’t expected the old principal to hand the second-grade /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ class back over to Su Aobai without even consulting her.

She used to feel a bit of infatuation toward Su Aobai—but after the way he humiliated her yesterday, that little crush had completely soured into resentment.
“He just lets you run around during class? What kind of teacher is that!”
Wang Fangfang stepped forward and grabbed Chu Jiabao’s hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to the principal. We can’t let Mr. Su get away with treating students differently.”

Too bad she didn’t get far—Chu Jiabao yanked his hand away almost immediately.
“What’s it got to do with Mr. Su? You used to let us play during class too.”
Chu Jiabao thought Ms. Wang was being ridiculous. When she was teaching, the whole class used to goof off together. She never told stories, and her lessons were boring.

Wang Fangfang’s hand was left hanging, and after hearing Chu Jiabao’s brutally honest words, her face flushed pale and red by turns. She clutched her face and stormed off toward the teacher’s office.
Inside, the old principal was hunched over a student’s notebook, grading assignments while holding together the broken frame of his glasses with one hand.
He was already over seventy years old and didn’t have much energy these days. For the past couple of years, he rarely taught classes himself. Instead, he stayed in the office drafting lesson plans and helping other teachers grade work.
If it weren’t for his attachment to the school he had personally founded, he would’ve retired to the city long ago to enjoy his old age with his children.

“Principal!”
Wang Fangfang barged in like a mad lioness and slammed her hand down hard on the principal’s desk.
“Why did you give my class to Su Aobai?!”

Her voice was sharp and angry, shaking with indignation.
“Do you know how he’s treating the students? He actually lets them run wild during class!”
The old principal slowly raised his head, took off his glasses, and set them carefully on the desk. Then, in a calm and deliberate voice, he said:

“At least when Mr. Su teaches, it’s only some of the students who aren’t in class. When you were teaching, most of them were left to their own devices. Honestly, I thought second grade didn’t even have a teacher.”
His words hit just as hard as Chu Jiabao’s. And sure enough, they left Wang Fangfang speechless.
Truth be told, yesterday afternoon when the principal saw a few kids playing on the field during class time, he had stormed off to confront Mr. Su—ready to accuse him of slacking off.

But after school, Mr. Su stayed behind to discuss his ideas with the principal and Mr. Wu. The principal had been skeptical at the time, unsure if Su Aobai’s approach would actually work.
But this morning, as he watched the kids playing yet constantly glancing toward the classroom—eager but hesitant—he finally felt reassured.
Su Aobai had changed a lot during his three-month absence. Before, he always seemed to have one foot out the door. The principal used to worry he’d leave at any moment. But now? He seemed grounded. Serious.

After reading through the thick notebooks Su Aobai had written by hand, the principal felt grateful that the kids finally had a responsible and dedicated teacher.
“Those second-grade students were Mr. Su’s from the start. He only left temporarily because he was on leave, and we had you fill in. And didn’t you always complain about being overworked, Teacher Wang? Well, this works out then. You can lighten your load.”
He paused, then added, “Oh, and not just second grade. You won’t need to handle first-grade language or math either. Mr. Su will take over math, and we’ll add a bit more to Mr. Wu’s workload—he’ll handle language. From now on, you’ll just be responsible for the agricultural labor classes for first and second grade.”

What the old principal meant was simple: Wang Fangfang wouldn’t be teaching academic classes anymore.
Wang Fangfang was fuming, humiliated, and still wanted to argue her case.
“Teacher Wang, is there anything else?”

The principal picked up his glasses—but didn’t put them on. He simply looked at her with those deep, steady eyes, and somehow, that alone was enough to shut her up.
All the blood drained from her face, and her mouth tasted faintly bitter.
In her outburst, she’d forgotten—this old principal was still a respected figure in the commune. Even the commune director treated him with some degree of deference. The only reason her father had been able to pull strings and get her into the school in the first place was because back then, teachers were keeping their heads down, and many intellectuals were still undergoing “re-education” on the farms.

But times were changing. The high schools that had been shut down during the turmoil had already reopened, and she had no right to bang on the principal’s desk or shout in his face.
Still, the anger had nowhere to go. It gnawed at Wang Fangfang, leaving her liver aching with frustration.
Fine—if they didn’t want her teaching, so be it. Like she wanted to teach those annoying little brats anyway. She’d still get paid just sitting in the office all day.

So, with a face like thunder, Wang Fangfang stomped back to her desk.
During recess, Chu Jiabao, who had been lurking near the door, couldn’t hold it in any longer—he burst into the classroom.
“Come on, come on, come on! What did Mr. Su say? Did the monkey get a master? Did he become super powerful?”

He rushed his sister, demanding the next part of the story. In his excitement, he didn’t notice the slim booklet sitting on Chu Ni’s desk. She had been staring at it with the utmost care—scribbled notes and example problems covered the pages. The moment he barreled in, Chu Ni quickly closed the booklet and stuffed it into her desk drawer, afraid he might crumple or tear it.
It was a handwritten notebook from Mr. Su. Today, the teacher had praised her for her talent in math and said she could handle a more advanced level than the rest of the class. Because she’d delayed school for her brother’s sake, she was actually older than most of her classmates. She should have been in fourth or fifth grade by now.
From now on, the teacher said he’d give her extra assignments based on her progress, and she was welcome to come ask him questions after class anytime.

Chu Ni planned to copy the notes by hand once she finished her chores, then return the booklet. Surely other students would need it in the future—and asking Mr. Su to rewrite it from scratch every time would be too much. She couldn’t bear the thought of her brother damaging something so precious.
Chu Jiabao didn’t care about any of that homework nonsense. He only wanted to know what story had been told today.
“He did it! The monkey got a name—Sun Wukong—and the teacher taught him the Somersault Cloud and the Seventy-Two Transformations.”

Chu Ni answered softly.
“That’s it?!”
Chu Jiabao’s eyes went wide, and he scratched his head in frustration.

“How did he get the master? What kind of spells are the Somersault Cloud and Seventy-Two Transformations? Are they really powerful?”
The way Mr. Su told stories was thrilling—especially the part where the monkey broke out of the rock. It had made Chu Jiabao want to go home and ask his mom if he had come from a rock too.
But hearing it retold by his sister felt like drinking plain water. Bland. Dull. It only made him more curious about how the story had originally been told.

“I don’t remember.”
Chu Ni lowered her head, eyes cast down, her posture small and full of silent apology.
Chu Jiabao hated when his sister acted like this. All that cowering, barely saying a word—no wonder their parents always said “Seventh Girl isn’t sharp.”

But in truth, Chu Ni remembered everything. Her memory was excellent. She just believed that Mr. Su’s method—using stories to encourage students to pay attention—was working. If she gave away the full story outside of class, it might ruin his plan.
At worst, her brother would tell on her and she’d get a beating. She was used to it by now.
“Hmph! What good are you? Don’t come to school with me anymore!”

Chu Jiabao huffed and stomped back to his seat.
Chu Ni’s face went pale. She opened her mouth, clutching the edge of the drawer where the notebook was tucked away—but in the end, she didn’t say anything to try and make it right.
After school that afternoon, Su Aobai rode his bicycle with his son seated behind him. But instead of heading home, he turned down the road to Chujiawan Brigade, part of the Hongqi Commune.

Most of the commune members in Chujiawan shared the surname Chu—tracing back to a common ancestor centuries ago.
Chu Ni’s family lived there. They weren’t poor, by village standards. The Chu couple had seven daughters before finally getting their precious son, Chu Jiabao. For years, other families in the team had mocked them for raising “Seven Golden Flowers.” But the family’s comfortable life today? It was all thanks to those seven girls.
Funny thing—both parents looked pretty average, but somehow, their daughters had inherited all the best features. The first few were stunning; then, as if they’d run out of good genes, the younger girls grew more ordinary.

Because they were beautiful and raised without being spoiled, all the girls had worked from an early age—tough, capable, running the house and working the fields. Plenty of decent families had come to ask for their hands in marriage. The dowries from the eldest daughters had built the family house and left enough savings to send their beloved son to school.
When Su Aobai said he was there for a home visit, the Chu family welcomed him with open arms.
They were eager to send their son to school—not just to learn, but in hopes that one day he might get into a technical secondary school and be assigned a job in the city. That way, he could change their family’s fate and become a city man.

“Jiabao’s a clever kid. As long as he’s willing to learn, his grades won’t be bad. But…”
The Chu couple was just starting to feel pleased with the first half of that sentence when the sudden twist in the second half made their hearts jump into their throats.
But what?

“But the problem is—he doesn’t want to learn.”
Su Aobai had his son wait for him in the Chu family’s courtyard. Chu Jiabao and Chu Ni had walked home, so he estimated he had about ten minutes—enough for a quick and clean strike.
“You two are willing to send your son to school, which shows you’ve got some foresight. Education is a good thing. A lot of commune members don’t take their children’s schooling seriously, but the benefits are enormous. Getting into a technical secondary school guarantees job placement, but even with just a junior high diploma, there are opportunities—like teaching at an elementary school, becoming the team’s cashier, or a secretary. Don’t all those jobs require some education? And no matter which one you choose, they’re all easier than laboring in the fields. Isn’t that the exact reason you first sent your son to school?”

The Chu couple nodded enthusiastically.
“Honestly, I think if Chu Jiabao wanted to study, with that brain of his, he’s got a real shot at technical school. He’s got the talent.”
Their faces flushed with excitement—they didn’t even know what to do with themselves.

Technical school!
And Mr. Su was a cultured man! If even he said their son was smart, then Jiabao really must be gifted. If he became a worker in the future, it would bring glory to the whole family.
“But what if he doesn’t want to learn?”
Father Chu asked anxiously, “If he won’t study, Teacher Su, just give him a beating!”

As much as he doted on his precious boy, this was nothing compared to the prospect of raising a future worker. That was more important than anything.
“Well, in that regard, Chu Ni’s been doing a good job—always pushing Jiabao to listen in class and study hard.”
Su Aobai spoke slowly and steadily.

“Well, that’s what she should be doing.”
The couple beamed with satisfaction. Hearing that their daughter was encouraging her little brother at school only made them more certain they’d done the right thing sending her.
“But it seems like Jiabao isn’t happy about it. Today at school, he said he’d tell on his sister and stop her from going to school anymore.”

Su Aobai looked at the couple with a deeply worried expression. “You both know I’ve got a lot of students to manage. I can’t keep an eye on Jiabao all the time. Without Chu Ni looking after him, I’m afraid his chances at technical school will be in serious jeopardy.”
“He doesn’t get to decide who goes to school!” Father Chu said firmly. “Don’t worry, Teacher Su—he’s not the one running this household. His sister is going to school, end of story. And she’ll keep an eye on him too. We can’t let him just play around and forget his studies.”
They were practically thumping their chests in assurance.

Everything was for technical school!
“That’s great. Honestly, Chu Ni’s grades are pretty good too. She’s got a solid chance of getting into technical school herself. Who knows—you might end up raising two workers.”
Su Aobai stood up, smiling. His mission had been accomplished.

But the couple’s hearts remained fixed on their son. No matter how successful a daughter was, she’d eventually marry out. She’d never be as important as a son.
When Su Aobai left, the Chu couple thanked him profusely. If he hadn’t come by to visit in person, they might’ve actually believed Jiabao’s nonsense and pulled Chu Ni out of school. And without her there to keep him in line, that boy would be completely out of control—wasting away his technical school potential.
Little did Chu Jiabao know that someone had beaten him to the punch—digging a trap for him before he even got home.

As soon as he walked through the door, he started complaining that Chu Ni didn’t take care of him at school and shouldn’t be allowed to come with him anymore.
“You little brat—if your teacher hadn’t come here for a home visit, I would have believed your damn lies!”
With that, Father Chu took off his rubber shoes and gave Jiabao a hard spanking right on the butt.

Chu Jiabao: ?
What followed was a chorus of howls and wails. The neighbors were stunned—what could have made the Chu couple lay hands on their precious baby boy?
Chu Ni stood silently at the doorway. As she listened to the words her parents said, color slowly returned to her pale cheeks. Her eyes filled with determination.

She absolutely couldn’t let down her teacher’s effort and expectations.
With that major task complete, Su Aobai was in a great mood.
On the bike ride back, Su Mingcheng sat on the back seat, arms wrapped around his dad’s waist, silently staring at the broad back in front of him.

Why did it feel like the way his dad had convinced Chu Ni’s parents today… was exactly the same as how he’d talked to him the other day?
QAQ
So much for being real men… turns out real men can lie too?