The Headmaster's Office of Ivy Primary School.
The old headmaster with grizzled hair placed his hand on my shoulder earnestly.
I knew that this was a gesture that elders in the Asian region would only make when they had important instructions for their juniors.
Just as I was feeling overwhelmed with delight and honored to be so highly regarded on my first day at work, the old headmaster's next words left me completely stunned.
"Frank, from now on, you'll be the new headmaster of Ivy Primary School. We're all getting old, and from now on, Ivy Primary School will be relying on you."
I was stunned, rooted to the spot, and completely dumbfounded.
"What the hell is this situation?"
My name is Frank. I was born into a white family in California. Since I didn't like studying when I was a child, I finally chose to take up a job as a foreign teacher and went to a country in the Asian region to engage in English teaching work.
Not long ago, I accidentally came across an advertisement online that a primary school named Ivy located in Asia was recruiting English teachers. So, I traveled all the way from California to this small town.
What the heck!
I came here to be a teacher, and you want me to be the headmaster?
Frank of course chose to refuse and walked out of the office without looking back.
Because Frank came to this remote and shabby rural town in order to apply for the position of an English foreign teacher.
If he was not satisfied with the job here, Frank could leave at any time. But once he became the headmaster of this primary school, it would be far from easy for him to walk away.
After leaving the headmaster's office, Frank didn't leave the primary school immediately. Since he had already come all the way here, he thought he might as well treat it as a trip. Not to mention other things, the primary school was nestled among mountains and beside a body of water. Although the campus environment couldn't compare with that of the real Ivy League schools, it was still worthy of the name "Ivy" to some extent.
As Frank walked on the campus, a sudden sense of doubt welled up in him during his stroll.
"Why aren't there any students in sight in this primary school?"
Coincidentally, while Frank was still wondering, a petite figure emerged from nowhere and suddenly crashed into Frank's arms, bumping into him full force.
Upon realizing that she had bumped into someone, the girl immediately lowered her head and apologized to Frank repeatedly.
"sorry, sorry, sorry."
Watching the girl repeatedly uttering those clumsy English words, the anger in Frank's heart was instantly dispelled by the girl's comical and adorable behavior.
Frank squatted down and ruffled the girl's hair. "Did you get hurt from the bump? It's my fault. I should have been more aware of my surroundings."
Having said this, Frank realized that the girl might not understand English, so he repeated the sentence in Chinese.
When the girl heard the fluent Chinese coming out of Frank's mouth, her large, bright eyes revealed an extremely strong sense of admiration, just like how a believer would look at a deity.
This kind of reaction really intrigued Frank. Just as Frank was about to continue his conversation with the girl, a standard British accent reached his ears.
"Hello, Mr. Frank. I'm Yueyue's elder sister. My younger sister didn't bump into you on purpose. Please allow me to apologize to you on her behalf."
Frank turned his head and saw a twin girl who was slightly older than the girl in front of him and looked exactly the same standing not far away from him, wearing an apologetic expression on her face.
"Do you know me?"
The girl responded in English, "My name is Su Qianqian. My grandmother once showed you the way to Ivy Primary School before."
Su Qianqian's words reminded Frank of that kind and amiable old granny, and his favorable impression of the girl in front of him suddenly increased a lot.
"So you're Grandma May's granddaughter. I'm really grateful to Grandma May for finding a cozy house for me in this small town."
"Are you a student of this primary school?"
Su Qianqian replied, "Yes, my sister and I are fifth-grade students at Ivy Primary School. Unfortunately..."
As she said this, a look of regret appeared on Su Qianqian's face, and there seemed to be tears in the corners of her eyes.
Frank couldn't bear to see the lovely girl crying in front of him, and he quickly asked in a gentle tone.
"I'm sorry for bringing up something that makes you sad. May I know what happened?"
Frank led the twin girls to an empty classroom and sat down. After a series of questions, he finally learned the reason for what had happened.
It turned out that due to the poor transportation in the small town, no new teachers had come to take up their posts for five consecutive years. As the school's veteran teachers retired one after another, now the only teachers on duty in the school were a 30-year-old Chinese teacher and Frank who had just arrived.
In addition, the 30-year-old Chinese teacher successfully passed the interview at a private tutoring institution a month ago. At present, she is only nominally working at this school. Once the relevant resignation procedures are completed, she will officially leave Ivy Primary School.
Therefore, strictly speaking, there is only Mr. Frank left as a teacher in this school now.
Since there were no teachers left, the students, of course, all transferred to other schools one after another.
The twin girls were originally supposed to transfer to a primary school in the neighboring town. However, due to family circumstances, their family couldn't afford the educational expenses for the twin girls. So the girls had to stay at Ivy Primary School and spent every day in the library, completing the remaining two years of their primary school studies through self-study.
In Su Qianqian's words, everything would get better as long as they were admitted to a middle school.
"Poor girls."
Frank had seen many underprivileged children online who lacked access to learning resources and opportunities. However, he had never imagined that one day, he would personally come across such pitiful children.
Frank asked himself in his heart, "Can I give them some help within my power?"
Suddenly!
A mechanical voice rang out in Frank's mind.
"Ding! The Principal System is starting up. Binding requirement: The host is requested to obtain the position of principal within one hour! Otherwise, the relevant memories will be erased, and the host will permanently lose the ability to speak!"