The Stepmother’s Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era
Chapter 268 - 267: Losing Face

Chapter 268: Chapter 267: Losing Face

The male colleagues were relatively calm, but the female colleagues, hearing Ou Liya was treating them to pastries from Mingzhu Restaurant, became super excited.

"Liya, the stuff from Mingzhu Restaurant isn’t cheap, with all of us here, even one bite each will have you bleeding money."

Ou Liya smiled softly, "It’s just a few pastries, not like I can’t afford them, tell me, what do you all want to eat?"

"Liya is truly the flower of our office, always so generous when she offers."

So everyone started listing what they wanted, and Ou Liya took down each one with a pen in her notebook.

...

After class, Ou Liya called Pei Ziheng outside the classroom and handed him a note.

"Give this to your mother, and ask her to have the items delivered to the office before school lets out tomorrow afternoon."

Pei Ziheng silently took the note.

"Remember, don’t forget."

Opening the note and seeing its contents, Pei Ziheng looked up, his gaze following Ou Liya’s swaying figure as she walked away, a thick sneer surfacing in his eyes.

The next day, after school in the afternoon, no one in the entire office had left; they were all waiting for Ou Liya to treat them to the pastries.

They waited and waited, and ten minutes after school was out, the pastries still hadn’t arrived.

Some used the excuse of having other things to do and left first, while those who stayed were growing a bit impatient.

"Miss Ou, is it happening or not? I still need to go buy groceries."

Seeing everyone looking at her, Ou Liya felt both embarrassed and awkward, and couldn’t help but feel annoyed with Shen Mingzhu for not handling things well.

Running a business without any credibility, it’s bound to fail sooner or later.

"I’ll go out and take a look, maybe there’s a delay on the road."

Upon leaving the office, Ou Liya went straight to the classroom in a huff, wanting to ask Pei Ziheng about the situation.

But when she arrived at the classroom, Pei Ziheng had already gone.

Ou Liya had no choice but to wait at the school gate instead.

Before she knew it, another ten minutes or so had passed.

She didn’t see a trace of Shen Mingzhu, but instead, her colleagues from the office began to leave work one after another.

"This is just great, such a waste of time. I was planning to buy some ribs to cook with radishes at home, but now I probably won’t be able to get any."

"Without the diamond, don’t take on porcelain work. Who can’t brag? Just makes me laugh."

Listening to the veiled complaints and mockery from two of her female colleagues in the office, Ou Liya’s face turned from red to white, then pale to green.

After returning to the office and grabbing her bag, she rushed off to the food factory in a fury.

The food factory was just one street away from the school.

By this time, Shen Mingzhu had already finished work and gone home, leaving Ou Liya catching air and her rage hitting an all-time high.

...

"Mama, I did something wrong today."

As soon as he got home, Pei Ziheng took the initiative to admit his mistake to Shen Mingzhu and took out the note Ou Liya had given him the day before, "Miss Ou gave me this yesterday for you, I forgot, she must be very angry, right?"

After looking at the note, Shen Mingzhu pretended to be angry and flicked her son’s forehead, "Don’t let it happen again, just think, what if it were an emergency, wouldn’t this cause a delay?"

Pei Ziheng nodded obediently, "I won’t forget next time."

Shen Mingzhu gently rubbed the spot she flicked, "Alright, I’ll go explain things to Miss Ou, and tomorrow you should apologize to her again."

"Oh."

Just as Shen Mingzhu was about to call the Ou family, Ou Liya had already called first, launching into an accusation-laden tirade.

Shen Mingzhu, with great patience, explained and apologized profusely, promising to deliver the items the next day, which finally appeased Ou Liya.

At dinner, seeing the gloom hanging over Shen Mingzhu’s brow, Pei Yang said, "In the future, let me handle any school matters. Tomorrow, I’ll personally deliver the items and apologize to Teacher Ou."

"There’s no need, just have Hongmei send the items over tomorrow."

Shen Mingzhu’s tone was cold, clearly still upset, and while Pei Yang felt sorry for her, he also harbored some dissatisfaction against Ou Liya. However, out of consideration for his son, it wasn’t proper to say much more.

Pei Ziheng suppressed the frost in his eyes and lifted his pale, handsome face to Shen Mingzhu, "Mom, I ranked first in the mid-term exams."

With that, he dashed to his backpack to retrieve his report card.

Seeing the two 100s on the report, the gloom on Shen Mingzhu’s face was instantly swept away.

"My Erza is amazing!"

Seeing Shen Mingzhu’s mood visibly improve, both father and son couldn’t help but sigh in relief.

...

"Teacher Ou, I’m sorry, it was my fault for forgetting to give the note to my mom, causing her to not deliver the pastries you wanted in time, I’m sorry."

"Teacher Ou, these pastries were just made. As soon as they came out of the oven, President Shen had me bring them over to you, they’re still warm."

In front of the entire office, Pei Ziheng and Shen Hongmei both apologized and explained, finally allowing Ou Liya to regain the face she’d lost the day before.

She smiled genuinely, appearing understanding, "I know now, it’s really not a big deal, just be careful next time."

Pei Ziheng crisply said, "Teacher Ou, next time I make a mistake, can you scold me directly?"

"My mom is pregnant, and after you scolded her over the phone yesterday, she felt very guilty and remorseful, and she had a bad night’s sleep."

After these words, the looks from the people in the office suddenly took on a significant depth.

Ou Liya’s smile froze on her face, and before she could think of how to explain or clear her name, Pei Ziheng and Shen Hongmei had already left.

Ou Liya pressed down her embarrassment, stood up, and beckoned as if nothing were amiss, "The pastries are all here, everyone help yourselves."

Hearing her words, the two colleagues who had a good relationship with her stood up, ready to take some, but noticing everyone else remained seated, they awkwardly sat back down.

An uncomfortable silence permeated the office.

"Nevermind, Teacher Ou, such a treat is too much for us. You can take it home and enjoy it slowly."

"Yeah, bullying a pregnant woman over some snacks, it would be rather shameful if word got out."

As the class preparation bell rang, people in the office gradually took their lesson plans and left. Soon, the office was left with only Ou Liya and three or four teachers who didn’t have a class.

Several teachers were busy with their own work, not commenting on her actions, but their silence and indifference made Ou Liya feel all the more out of place.

Looking at the exquisite pastry box on the desk, Ou Liya clenched her hand tightly.

...

After the mid-terms, the class seating and the duty group chart were rearranged.

Although Pei Ziheng had scored first place, his seat hadn’t changed, remaining towards the back, but the composition of his duty group had changed significantly.

Each duty group consisted of five students, responsible not only for the classroom’s cleanliness for the week but also tasked with rotating chores such as wiping the blackboard and cleaning the lectern daily.

The willingness, sense of responsibility, and sense of honor of group members were very important.

Whether by coincidence or not, the members of Pei Ziheng’s duty group were all the ill-behaved underachievers of the class, including the class bully, Qi Gang.

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