When Li Mei first graduated from teacher's college, she had genuinely wanted to be a good teacher.
However, after working with great enthusiasm for a while, she encountered the first parent to give her a gift.
It was a box of imported fruit, a kind rarely seen in stores. Li Mei had never even tried it before, and her first instinct was to refuse.
But the parent insisted it was just a small snack and wouldn't be any trouble for the teacher. All they asked was that she keep an extra eye on their child.
'Treating students well is a teacher's duty, and it's just a bit of food. It should be fine, right?'
And so, Li Mei accepted her first gift.
After accepting food, she began accepting other items. Eventually, she was taking cash directly from parents and no longer saw anything wrong with it.
Her audacity and greed had both grown.
