Chapter 176

Although Yang Yuyan insisted on not making the Japanese flag, there was nothing she could do to stop the Japanese flag from being hung in the school. There were Japanese flags flying in front of the school gate and in the school square.

It has been a month since the Japanese teachers and students entered the school, and that Yamamoto came again, bringing several reporters with him.

He and the principal took a group photo together in front of the Japanese building, and the Japanese students and Japanese teachers, as well as some Chinese students and professors had to attend and were forced to take photos together.

After the photo was taken, it would surely be published in the newspaper.

Yang Yuyan, as a student who is good at Japanese, stood in the front row and had a bitter face when the photo was taken.

Prof. Dai and Zhu Yanshu were also there, standing beside the principal and with the Japanese students.

After the group photo, the principal smiled a springy smile and said to everyone, “There will be a banquet in a while, dedicated to welcoming Mr. Yamamoto! Don’t miss it, everyone, be sure to come!”

Yang Yuyan smiled, being held back by Professor Dai and Zhu Yanshu.

The students dispersed, and the professors who were forced to come left.

Yamamoto returned to the Japanese building with the Japanese teachers, and in the narrow Japanese room, he changed his smiling face in front of the Chinese and said to the Japanese teachers, “You have disappointed me! What have you achieved in all this time? Why have I not seen any Japanese temperament in this school!”

All four Japanese teachers took their proper seats and apologized.

Yamamoto said to Ms. Sakai, “Ms. Sakai, I had high hopes for you. Did your learning and gentleness fail to conquer the Chinese schoolgirls? Did those young girls not listen to you? I saw that Chinese schoolgirl you put by your side today, and she didn’t look happy at all.”

Sakai said, “Mr. Yamamoto, you are mistaken, if you are looking at the Chinese schoolgirl in the third seat, I have to tell you that she is very fond of Japan.”

Yamamoto: “Oh? Then why isn’t she smiling?”

Sakai: “Mr. Yamamoto, I think this is the result of your mission’s dereliction of duty during the investigation. After I came here, I realized that in Chinese schools, the female students all come from families. Their status is much higher than that of the male students, and their families are far superior to the male students in the school.”

Yamamoto was amazed, “That’s strange. My investigation team surveyed many cities in China, large and small, and in China, it is the males who are the most important in the family, and even the daughters of the emperor are not as important as their brothers, or even more important than the boys of the heavy ministers’ families.”

Sakai: “Because of that, the families of the female students who are able to attend the school are even better!”

Yamamoto rubbed his chin and said, “You have a point. It’s true that if the family isn’t excellent, then they won’t be given the same conditions as males to attend the school.”

Sakai: “Exactly. These schoolgirls are so proud and complacent about their status and family that even a teacher is not worthy of respect in their lives.”

Yamamoto: “So that’s how it is. Teachers are like underlings. Those without status don’t gain their respect.”

Sakai nodded, “Yes.”

Kobayashi-sensei said, “If you’re referring to the girl with the two braids, Yang Yuyan, Mr. Yamamoto, I have to tell you that she’s a very smart, very cunning female student. She takes pleasure in picking on me in class, and I have been teased by her many times.”

Yamamoto immediately asked, “Is she hostile to Japan?”

Mr. Kobayashi said pertinently, “She has no respect for the Emperor. But I’d say that’s normal. She was, however, interested in Japanese samurai, especially those in the Meiji Restoration, and she did a few samurai paintings, which were oddly drawn, but no less complimentary.”

Yamamoto frowned when he heard the first part, but was pleased when he heard the second, “Any more paintings? Please be sure to let me see them.”

Mr. Kobayashi then went to get the doodle cartoons that Yang Yuyan had drawn in her textbook and workbook when she wasn’t listening in class.

Yamamoto laughed when he saw it was the textbook and workbook, “That’s a naughty student. Didn’t you punish her?”

Mr. Kobayashi said, “I talked to the other teachers and tried not to punish her, but to give her more tolerance and kindness. She is rarely disruptive in class now, and as we have been talking about The Tale of Genji recently, she may have heard the story and been very touched by the love between Genji and Shiori above.”

Yamamoto understood what these teachers were saying, “This is a student who knows something about Japan, we should try to win her over.”

Sakai said, “She’s also very popular among the students, a good trouble maker, but both the boys and girls love her.”

Yamamoto hmmm’d and looked over the drawings in his textbook and workbook, pointing and asking, “Who’s this one? Who’s this one? Hm? What are they doing?” He saw a drawing of what looked like two people with broken necks leaning their mouths together.

Mr. Kobayashi explained, “This student wrote many love stories for these samurai; this one is Takasugi Jinsuke and this one is Okita Sogo. She thinks love happened between them, Okita was a handsome man who toyed with Takasugi’s feelings, but Takasugi was a belly ……” Kobayashi-sensei painstakingly retold the complex and tangled line of emotions he had heard from Yang Yuyan at the time.

Yamamoto listened quietly, and when he was done, he said, “She thinks there’s true love between the True Chosen Group and the Hustler Party?”

Kobayashi-sensei sighed, “She made up a romance for everyone. All between samurai.”

Yamamoto: “Samurai do have genuine feelings for each other. Do you think she was writing these love stories with the intent to insult?”

Mr. Kobayashi shook his head and said, “No. On the contrary, Mr. Yamamoto, it is because she wrote these stories that I believe she truly loves Japan. She wanted these characters to have love because she loved them so much, and although these are all stories she made up, there is never a hint of insult in them.”

Yamamoto thought for a moment and said, “Is that what you all think? Sakai-sensei, you also seem to be very fond of this student?”

Sakai said, “I like intelligent women. This student, Yang Yuyan, is very bold even though she is a Chinese woman. She is also one of the female students in my class who did not have the slightest hesitation about wearing a kimono and combing her Japanese hair style. I can tell that she loves kimonos.” She tried to hesitate to say anything about the Japanese flag.

Mr. Yamamoto was already angry, and she didn’t want him to think she hadn’t gained a single student in the classroom. If he felt she was incompetent, then he would punish her in turn.

Yamamoto took these teachers at their word: “It seems that this is a student who is extremely popular with the students and also has a good feeling about Japan. Then let’s win her over as soon as possible. As long as more and more of the students aspire to Japan, only then can we, Japan, finally take over this country. “