Chapter 333: What to talk about for the third lecture?
Dong dong.
There was a knock on his door.
“Son!”
“Hmm? Yes!?”
“It’s time to wake up. I got you tofu pudding.”
“Got it Mom. I’m getting up now.”
“Hurry. You have a cla.s.s this afternoon. Eat it while it’s still hot.”
Zhang Ye stretched his lazy a.s.s. It was getting cold in the house and he did not feel like getting out of his blanket. He wrapped it around himself and searched for the clothes that he was going to wear today, pulled them into his blanket and got dressed piece by piece. Then he got off his bed to wash up and have his breakfast. He did not sleep well last night. He had a dream in which Water Lotus Moon appeared. Her very large b.r.e.a.s.t.s, which he saw in her photos, were bouncing about in his dream had tormented him for the whole night. It was very alluring. This big sis’ photos were really too coquettish.
After the meal.
His parents went to work.
Zhang Ye noticed the time. It was also time for him to leave.
When he went downstairs, he took out his cell phone and took a look at the avatar of Water Lotus Moon. It was darkened, probably not because she was on invisible mode, but rather because she was not online. He gave up and took another glance at the photos that she sent to him later on. He clenched his teethed. Even though it was so pitiful, he still deleted them as promised. After all, Water Lotus Moon had specifically requested him to do so as this was a matter of her privacy. If she had trusted him so much, then he would respect her request. What if he had really accidentally lost his cellphone or they got leaked out. This was not an outcome that Zhang Ye would want to witness.
Even though network security in this world was very strong, there was no guarantee that something like that wouldn’t happen. Thinking back of his previous world, didn’t those foreign celebrities cause an uproar and commotion when their cell phone photos were leaked out. No matter how secure it was, there were always some hackers who could outsmart the system.
He gathered up his mind.
Off to work.
Zhang Ye drove to Peking University. On the way, Zhang Ye’s phone rang.
Wu Zeqing had called. “Little Zhang, come to my office in a while.”
Zhang Ye said, “Alright President Wu. I’ll be there in 20 minutes.”
Then he drove faster and arrived at the entrance of Peking University. He parked his car at the building behind the man-made lake and walked up the stairs in large strides. This side of the building was newly constructed and not older than a few years. Compared to the Chinese department where Zhang Ye worked, this place was much newer and the decorations were much more exquisite.
When he went upstairs and turned around the corridor, he heard many voices chattering away.
The Vice President’s office was open. There were about eight people inside.
“President Wu, this has affected cla.s.ses for our other departments.”
“President Wu, the Chinese department is Peking University’s symbol, we understand that. Now that Zhang Ye’s cla.s.s is doing well and has attracted a lot of good attention from the public, it has raised the name of our Chinese department and would help in this year’s department ranking selection, but you cannot let this affect the other departments. It’s not that we don’t care about the overall situation, but every time Zhang Ye holds a public lecture, our students play truant and skip cla.s.ses to attend his lecture. They did not sign up for the ‘Appreciation of the Cla.s.sics’ elective, but still go to his lecture over their main cla.s.ses. In the end, the ones to suffer will be the students themselves, it would still affect the reputation of our university!”
“Our department’s teachers also have our views, President Wu. Don’t be biased, there are still other departments in Peking University.”
“You really cannot have any more public lectures.”
“Right, if that won’t do, holding it at night would be fine.”
When Zhang Ye heard this, he stood in the corridor and did not enter. He understood that these department leaders and lecturers had all come to President Wu to make their cases known. Zhang Ye’s contributions had fired up their Chinese department and given them something to cheer about, but the other departments were unable to compete with his popularity. Students from their departments had all gone over to the Chinese department to listen in on his lectures and those department leaders and teachers were not happy about it.
With a helpless laugh, Zhang Ye walked in. “President Wu.” After saying that, he nodded to the other teachers and professors. He did not know the people from the other departments well, so he could not name them. He could only give a simple greeting.
Upon seeing the person in question arrive, Teacher Zhou said, “Teacher Zhang, you are here. Did you hear what we said? Don’t put it to heart. We aren’t targeting you. The reason is that too many students are playing truant.” Saying that, he pointed to the doc.u.ments on the table. “Take a look. When you hold a public lecture, the cla.s.s attendance in our departments dropped by 30%! This is the lowest in all these years!”
“Same for the Mathematics department.”
“Same on our side.”
“The students don’t want to come to cla.s.s.”
The chattering increased. Some of their att.i.tudes were alright, while some teachers and professors did not give a good att.i.tude towards Zhang Ye. Their dissatisfaction was written on their faces.
Zhang Ye felt sorry and had nothing to say. “About that…”
Wu Zeqing knocked on the table and gently smiled. “Alright, I’ve heard what everyone has said. Go back now, I will handle this matter from here and will definitely give everyone a satisfactory answer.”
“Teacher Zhou said, “Alright, then we will be leaving.”
Since President Wu had already give her promise, there was nothing left for them to say. Wu Zeqing’s reputation and authority in Peking University was very high. Everyone knew they could trust her.
The people left.
The door was closed.
Only Zhang Ye and Wu Zeqing were left in the office.
“Do you want tea or water?” Wu Zeqing stood up with a smile and got a paper cup.
“No, no. You take a seat. I will get it myself.” Zhang Ye took the paper cup not wanting to trouble President Wu. He went over to the water dispenser and poured himself a cup of hot water, sat down and drank.
Wu Zeqing took a sip of her tea courteously, “Are you tired from these past 2 days?”
Zhang Ye smiled, “No, this workload isn’t much compared to being a host. It’s almost the semester break and there’s not many days left for lessons.”
Everytime he saw Wu Zeqing, she was always very gentle and beautiful!
Her dressing was never outstanding, but it would slowly eat into you!
Today, President Wu wore a traditional cla.s.sical long dress. It was white based with black flowers on it. It belonged to a more Chinese style with the dress covering the full length of her legs. She was wearing plain colored high heels with ethnic prints on it. It was also Chinese styled. She wore a knitted black sweater without b.u.t.tons for her top, but it did not reveal much of her chest area, so needless to say, there was no cleavage shown either. The top edge of the full length dress was very high, so anything that needed to be covered was covered. She dressed very conservatively, and very elegantly. If this were ancient times, she would definitely be a scion of a large n.o.ble family, and from her bearing, one would immediately know she was a beauty who was gifted in poetry, painting, chess, and music.
It was really nice!
She was so beautiful beyond words!
As Zhang Ye drank the water, he kept glancing at her.
Wu Zeqing placed the teacup down. “You might have heard from just now. Actually the teachers from the other departments are quite displeased. Let’s do it this way. Today’s public lecture will be changed into an ordinary cla.s.s. It will be held in a small lecture theater.”
Zhang Ye did not have any problems with that. “Alright. It’s your choice. I’m fine with anything.”
“There’s quite a number of people who will probably be here today, but just the reporters are a little troublesome to handle.” After saying that, Wu Zeqing picked up her desk phone and made a call to delegate some instructions, “h.e.l.lo, Little Liu, go arrange. Teacher Zhang Ye will not be holding a public lecture, but will be holding the cla.s.s in a lecture theater instead. Only the students enrolled in ‘Appreciation of the Cla.s.sics’ will be allowed to enter the cla.s.s. Let the reporters know early and that there will be no interviews allowed…yes, I know the reporters are already here. Communicate with them a little. At most, promise them an interview after the cla.s.s…right, do what you need to regarding the students. If it really does not work out, go and get their relevant department teachers to bring them away.”
After she hung up the phone.
Zhang Ye was a bit embarra.s.sed. “Sorry President Wu for causing you so much trouble, causing everyone to do all this extra work.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.” Wu Zeqing smiled warmly. She did not laugh very loudly, but always held back a little, “This shows that your teaching level is recognized by everyone. It’s a good thing. Looks like I did not recruit the wrong guy. I know that regarding this course, you’d be the best person to teach it.”
Zhang Ye said with grat.i.tude, “Thank you for your trust.”
Wu Zeqing ran her fingers down the hair that hung down her left side. “In fact, from the beginning, I had never thought of you, but when I saw you on the flight returning to Beijing, I had a feeling that you would be very suitable. Not only did I believe that you’d lecture well, I also felt that you would open new doors for this elective cla.s.s and bring about change. Honestly, your performance really surprised me and everyone else. Do you know about the university rankings?”
Zhang Ye was stunned momentarily, “Of course I know it. Isn’t the ranking done yearly?”
Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “The ranking selection has already begun this year. The results should be released in a few more days. You have let many people in the Chinese department have hope, including me.”
Zhang Ye said in confusion, “That can’t be? Isn’t our Peking University Chinese department the best in its field? Although it can’t be compared to the Mathematics department or Sciences faculty’s dominance in the rankings, we would still be considered to be the top of our field, right?“ Peking University’s Science faculty was peerless in the country. Even though the Chinese department was not of that level, they were still a representation of Peking University.
Wu Zeqing said, “That’s old news.”
“Why so? It’s no longer good?” Zhang Ye asked.
“We can’t say it’s not good. It’s just that we have been stagnant for too long and have not made further achievements while others like Nanjing University and Tsinghua University and even Beijing Normal University have been catching up to us. Two years ago and last year, they had even tied or surpa.s.sed our Chinese department’s ranking. Everyone says that our Peking University’s Chinese department is in its decline. Even within Peking University, there are many people saying so. When I was a.s.signed to take charge of the Chinese department, I could feel the pressure over the past two years when I took over.” Wu Zeqing looked at him, “This is also one of the reasons why I invited you to join us. I wanted to bring change to Peking University’s Chinese department. And you have done what all of us could never imagine. You were outstanding.”
Zhang Ye finally understood.
Why did Chang Kaige and the others suddenly change their att.i.tude towards him?
They were hoping that Zhang Ye would bring them back to where the Chinese department belonged!
Peking University’s Chinese department was still a top ranked department throughout the country, but to Peking University’s Chinese department, top ranked wasn’t enough. They had to be ahead of everyone else, because in the past years, they had always been the top dog in their field. Number 2 or 3 wasn’t too bad either? That might be true for other universities, but to Peking University, only number 1 would be good enough!
Zhang Ye smiled bitterly, “With my little bit of ability, what can I do? I can only talk about some topics that I researched and a.n.a.lyzed before. It’s even too controversial. I don’t think that would be much help to the Chinese department?”
Wu Zeqing grinned, “That’s not necessarily true. The university ranking process has always been a very complex process consisting of many factors. This time, your ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ a.n.a.lysis might have already been put into consideration for the university rankings for our department. As usual, our department hasn’t had any new achievements this year and the previous professor for ‘Appreciation of the Cla.s.sics’ cla.s.s had also been forced to stop cla.s.ses because of his illness. If it had continued on like this, then it would have been likely that our ranking would remain the same as the previous two years. First place would have been out of reach, or we might even have been dropped to third place. That is without question, but after you joined us, you revealed the secret of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’. No matter how controversial that may be, you would have increased our scoring by quite a bit. This is because literature has always been controversial since ancient times. It’s not like Mathematics where 1 is always 1 and 2 will always be 2.”
Zhang Ye immediately felt the pressure. “President Wu, then what do you want me to do?”
Wu Zeqing smiled and said, “Just do your best and leave the rest to the heavens. As long as you continue to do well in your next few cla.s.ses, it will be fine. Don’t do anything purposefully. Oh, right. I saw that you have already brought all the important points in your first two lectures, so what will you be talking about today? Dean Chang had looked for me this morning to discuss about it. He said that if he knew you were so quick to point out all the arguments and a.n.a.lysis, then he would have let you spread it out over more cla.s.ses. That would have satisfied the cla.s.s hours too.”
Zhang Ye said happily, “Don’t worry about that. I’ve already thought about what to say. This tempo is just right. I will do well in the remaining cla.s.ses.”
Wu Zeqing nodded, “If you say so, then I am relieved. Alright, it’s almost time. Go and busy yourself with your work. Everyone’s looking forward to your performance.”
Zhang Ye said, “I’m also a staff of Peking University’s Chinese department. Contributing to the department is my duty. I cannot and do not dare to guarantee that our Chinese department would rise in the rankings because of me, but I can promise that my cla.s.s will not cause any more problems!”
What should he talk about in the third cla.s.s?
Zhang Ye had already thought of it. He planned to follow through with his point of view and main argument with a refres.h.i.+ng method of presentation. He would talk about something that did not exist in this world, something that no one had ever heard of.