She walked up to her and grabbed Rucheng by the arm, yanking her out of her seat.

Rucheng didn’t expect her to pull her. She raised her hand, smacked Rucheng across the face and it was so hard that Rucheng flew back against the wall, causing a gust of wind in the classroom that pushed the tables and chairs.

The crying had stopped because the children couldn’t believe what they had seen. When the wind dissipated and they could see, not only were the children shocked, but so were Lady Hong and Lady Yang, who had witnessed the whole scene.

Rucheng was sitting against the wall with her eyes closed, head hung to the side and blood was dripping down her head.

The other three teachers had arrived just after Lady Yuanji did and witnessed the scene unfold. Between the five teachers, the head of the Scholar Village teachers, Lady Fa Qing Kui, was present.

She pushed past the other two teachers and rushed to Rucheng’s side and shook her. “Rucheng?”

But there was no answer.

Sang Chul went up to his teacher and shook her. “Teacher, wake up.”

“Teacher, wake up!” He urged her as he shook her but she didn’t move.

Fa Qing Kui turned to Yuanji and asked, “What did you do that for?”

“She, she started all of this!” Yuanji said as she pointed a finger at Rucheng. When she smacked her, she didn’t expect Rucheng to just take it.

Qing Kui looked at Lady Hong and said, “You were put in charge here. Why was she here and what happened?”

Lady Hong didn’t dare offend Fa Qing Kui with her status and background by taking Yuanji’s part and lying, even though she didn’t like Rucheng, “I had started teaching when Lady Qin came in. All she said was that she was going to sit in the back of the classroom while I continued my lesson. We were working on the children’s handwriting when one of the girls started crying. She wouldn’t answer me when I asked what was the matter and then the rest of the class started crying. Lady Song arrived and you know the rest.”

Qing Kui looked at Lady Yang and said, “Call the elders to come and help us. Song Yuanji go to the headmaster’s office immediately. You are not to use violence in front of the children and you know that!”

After the elders arrived, they moved Rucheng to the medical centre and not a single detail was spoken to the outside because the elders were very upset about this.

Lady Hong was left with the class who cried themselves to sleep from being worried and scared for their teacher. It even looked like their teacher had died and Lady Hong had to assure the children that she wasn’t dead.

*

Sang Chul came running into the army base crying, making everyone worried. He ran around looking for his father but couldn’t find him. His mother had heard that he was running around the base crying and no one could stop him and when she finally found him, his face was red and so were his eyes. 

Sang Chul rushed into his mother’s arms and one of the other wives walked up to her, asking, “What happened to him?”

Mrs Jung shook her head. How would she know when she just got her son? 

“Mama, where’s father?” He asked in between the hiccupping.

They went to the training ground where General Kim was watching Juimin and his friends spar.

When Sang Chul saw his father, he wiggled out of his mother’s arms and ran to his father, disrupting the fight that was happening.

“Papa!” Sang Chul cried as he hugged his father’s leg.

General Kim looked at his wife, but she shook her head, worried. He picked Sang Chul up and he was crying his heart out, almost as if he witnessed something heartbreaking.

General Kim hated when his children cried. He hated it even more when someone hurt his children, so what could’ve happened to make his son cry like this?

Trying to calm his son down, he asked, “There, there, stop crying now and tell papa what happened.”

The training ground was deathly silent and you could barely hear the people breathing. Everyone was waiting to hear who was going to die by the General’s hands.

*

General Kim, his five wives, Juimin and his group of friends, appeared in front of the Silent and Wise pavilion and it looked like Sang Chul’s words were true. All the parents were here with their children and their children were crying as terrifyingly as Sang Chul was.

Juimin’s body was visibly trembling. He hadn’t stopped thinking about Rucheng since they parted and even fantasised about her a few times. What in the hell happened to the woman he was thinking of?

Juimin’s saw Wol Ryeong in the crowd and walked up to him. “Wol Ryeong,” he called as he placed his hand on his shoulder.

Wol Ryeong turned to look at him and over his shoulder, he saw Sang Chul clinging to the general.

He frowned as he turned his attention back to Juimin and said, “If you’re about to ask me about Rucheng, I know as much as you do. The headmaster will be here to address us soon.”

“Didn’t you ask around if she’s okay?” He asked.

Wol Ryeong stared at Juimin blankly. He had heard about what happened and you could say that he wasn’t happy. He saw Juimin as competition and the girl who loved him and was always after him suddenly stopped having interest him turned out to be his lover. 

He didn’t know if Rucheng was a whore or crazy. All he knew that was that he missed having her fuss over him.

He shook his head. “Look, I don’t want to get on your bad side, so I stayed out of it. I don’t really care about what happened to her, but all I know is that my brother isn’t happy about all of this. Rucheng has caused a mess after returning and even if it’s true, it just means that these teachers had bigger problems than we know and I don’t want my brother around it any longer.”

*

Juimin arrived outside Rucheng’s assigned room in the medical centre and heard talking on the other end.

He knocked on the door and when it opened, an elderly woman stood there staring at him, confused.

Bowing in greeting, he said, “You must be Mrs Qin. I’m Kim Juimin.”

Mrs Qin smirked. “Oh, you can tell. That means I’m beautiful.”

He chuckled and nodded his head. “Yes, I can see where Rucheng gets her beauty from.”

Mrs Qin smirked and looked back into the room, saying, “I like this one. Are you keeping him?”

“Ma~” Rucheng complained but her head hurt.

She looked at Juimin, saying, “Don’t mind her, come in.”

Walking in, he saw Rucheng sitting on the bed in a red robe and a bandage wrapped around her head. He could tell that she must’ve looked impressive, but her hair had to be taken down and on the side of her face was a palm print.

Seeing how she looked made him upset, but he didn’t say anything.

Walking up to the bed, he sat down and stared at her.

Rucheng crossed her eyes at him, making him laugh. “What are you looking at?”

“I came to see if you’re dead,” he said.

She shook her head amused, “Those kids must’ve exaggerated the whole situation.”

“But it wasn’t right. I’m glad she is suspended. The parents were asking the headmaster to terminate her job at the college,” he said.

Rucheng sighed.

Mrs Qin was furious and said, “I don’t care what they say. I think you should really leave. You shouldn’t have listened to that old man and stayed.”

“Ma, we’ve spoken about this. I was wrong too before,” she said.

“That was before and this is now! Why don’t you leave like you wanted to and teach the civilians like you planned to, you would be appreciated more,” Mrs Qin said.

Juimin looked at Mrs Qin and only now he noticed that she had been crying.

“So, running away from this shit is a solution?” Rucheng asked. 

Juimin looked at Rucheng crazily, saying, “She’s your mother. How can you speak like that to her?”

“My manners got hit into the wall!” She growled at him.

“Is he your lover?” Mrs Qin asked.

Rucheng looked at her mother with a death glare, “No, he isn’t.”

When Juimin looked at her, she smirked, “But he likes you. He’s handsome and your babies would look beautiful. Ah~ my grandbabies.”

“This woman…”