Chapter 303 - An extremely packed public class! (1/2)

The next day.

Winter had arrived, so it was a little cold.

It looked like the sun was still doing its job, so the skies were still clear.

On this important day, Zhang Ye had gotten up very early. It was his first day as a teacher and also his first day conducting a lesson, so of course he had to make preparations. He showered and made himself up a little before selecting a few clothes. In the end, he chose a very basic suit of a neutral color. He did not wear something that would make him stand out too much. After all he was not recording a program, or appearing on TV, but rather giving lessons to his students instead. It was not wrong for a teacher to dress modestly, otherwise people might start saying things and that would affect his teaching quality.

“Dad, how is this?” Zhang Ye asked his father.

His father took a look, then nodded, “OK, this is fine.”

“What do you think, Mum?” Zhang Ye adjust his suit.

His mother who was just preparing breakfast, glanced over, “Good, my son will look good in whatever he wears.”

“Hur Hur, then this will be it.” Zhang Ye sat down and began to eat, “Dad, Mum, I won’t wash the dishes later. I need to go after I’m done here. The department just informed me that my cla.s.s will begin at 9:30AM. I will be late if I don’t leave on time, there’s always a traffic jam over at Zhongguancun.”

His mother threw another 2 dumplings into his bowl, “Alright, it’s not like I need you to wash the dishes anyway. Eat more, eat more. You’ve got to perform well today, so you can do your father and I proud!”

Zhang Ye smiled, “Sure.”

His father looked at him and asked, “Have you prepared your lesson already?”

“It’s ready. I worked till the wee hours last night.” Zhang Ye answered.

Although he did not sleep early last night, he was in good spirits as he still had enough sleep. He had already completed all the things he needed to do. The game ring’s reputation points had all been spent on buying “Memory Search Capsules”, which he used to retrieve knowledge of “Dream of the Red Chamber”. Of course, the main resources he used were w.a.n.g Xinwu’s novel version and his ‘Lecture Room’ episodes, in which he spoke about “Dream of the Red Chamber”. Old w.a.n.g was an authority in the world of Redologists. Although there were many disputes about his views, his way of presenting could be said as a novelty as his perspectives were very unexpected. This was why when Zhang Ye listened to others speak at length about “Dream of the Red Chamber” in his previous world, he felt very uninterested or even sleepy, but when he heard Old w.a.n.g speak about it, he would listen to it with relish. As a host, Zhang Ye placed a lot of importance on the word “relish”. As a teacher, Zhang Ye felt the same. He has always thought that education and entertainment were inseparable. Entertainment was used to better education, to spread education in a better way. To this idea, he was going to put it to the test today.

Peking University.

8:30AM.

As he drove to the school and upon pa.s.sing the school’s main entrance, Zhang Ye noticed many people at Peking University today. He did not know whether they were here to visit, but a lot of people were walking in. Zhang Ye was not bothered by this and he drove directly to the grounds of the Chinese department. He parked his car at the designated spot for teaching staff, even though he had not applied for a pa.s.s yet, but it should be fine since everyone was friends now, so he just found an empty lot and squeezed his BMW in.

Upon getting off, he saw some familiar faces.

The doors of low-end car brand, that was of this world’s, opened. He saw Professor Zeng and another Chinese department male teacher getting out of it. Maybe it was along the way, so they came to school together.

“Little Zhang.”

“Teacher Little Zhang, you’ve come?

The two of them smiled and greet Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye also walked closer, “Professor Zeng, Teacher Yan.”

Professor Zeng asked with concern, “How are your preparations?”

Zhang Ye said, “It’s OK, I’m ready for cla.s.s.”

Professor Zeng laughed heartily, “I’m rather looking forward to it. I don’t have a cla.s.s later, so Teacher Yan and I will go over to listen in to your cla.s.s, are we welcomed?”

“That is my honor.” Zhang Ye smiled, “But don’t say that you will be there to listen, it’s making me nervous. If you join my cla.s.s, it will be to invigilate my teaching methods. If I don’t do well in anyway, I hope you two can point it out to me.”

Professor Zeng pointed at him, “You’re being too modest. In this area, you are the real master. Old Yan and me are not qualified to find fault with you. And you? Nervous? You look quite relaxed to me now.”

Teacher Yan also said joyfully, “Teacher Little Zhang, you have already been doing television for so long and even done a number of live broadcasts before. You didn’t even get nervous on those occasions, so how could holding a cla.s.s be any pressure for you? Looking at you, I think you already have it all planned out. This is the look of confidence.”

They continued chatting as they made their way to the teacher’s office.

There were a few offices. Zhang Ye and Professor Zeng were located in the same office area, but being a professor, he had his own independent room. Zhang Ye, being a new teacher, had his work desk in the cubicle area. The department had given him a table by the window. Of course, the office cubicles here were different from those in a company. Every teacher’s work desk was much larger, up to 7 or 8 meters, and the part.i.tioned areas were not too small. This was also due to the fact that there were not many lecturers in Peking University. Whoever could take a seat in here, even if they were just ordinary lecturers, whether or not they looked outstanding, were still the crème de la crème of the educational world.

“Good morning, teachers.” Zhang Ye greeted.

There were 8 or 9 teachers in this office area. When they heard him, they all looked over to him curiously.

Professor Zeng helped to introduce Zhang Ye to everyone, “This is Teacher Zhang Ye. He will be joining us officially today at Peking University.” Then he pointed out for Zhang Ye, “This is Teacher Sun, he teaches Modern Literature cla.s.s. This is Teacher Liu, he teaches Cla.s.sical Literature. That is….the soon-to-be Professor Wu, he teaches the Chinese language.”

“How are you, Teacher Sun?”

“h.e.l.lo, how are you.”

“Professor Wu, how are you? Please give me your guidance.”

“Welcome.”

Zhang Ye said h.e.l.lo to everyone politely.

The teachers from the Chinese department also returned his pleasantries.

It could be seen that only a few people were interested in Zhang Ye. Most of them might not have known Zhang Ye well, so they just exchanged some words before going back to ignoring him. There were others who obviously did not think much of Zhang Ye. Their eyes s.h.i.+fted around with doubts and distrust and they did not make any attempt to speak with him. After the basic pleasantries, they busied themselves again. Someone even quietly shook their head while in their seat, but even though they had doubts about Zhang Ye’s teaching capabilities, due to the school’s recruitment, they did not say too much. After all, he was the appointed by President Wu to be a lecturer and Zhang Ye was already now a member of their staff. This fact was cast in stone now.

After some time, the pleasantries were done. Zhang Ye went back to his desk to put down his belongings. He looked at his watch and stood up again, for he was prepared to begin cla.s.s.

When he stepped out of the office area, he was met with the oldest Professor in the Chinese department — Yan Jiantao.

Zhang Ye quickly greeted, “Professor Yan, good morning.”

Yan Jiantao did not even look at Zhang Ye and just gave a cursory answer before walking away..

Zhang Ye shrugged, but was not bothered by it. It’s not the first time he was being doubted and taken lightly, he had gotten used to it, so he did not put it to heart. As for the denouncement from the netizens and newspapers, Zhang Ye had already seen them all yesterday. He felt the same way towards that. He had already been through so many storms, so he was becoming more and more ambivalent to the nasty words of others about him. He was also too lazy to bring it up to them, at least not now. All of this would be meaningless and he would use his actions to prove himself. Zhang Ye only cared about his lesson today, so that was what was most important to him.

Along the way through the teacher’s building, many people cast weird glances at Zhang Ye. Their eyes exuded mixed feelings and they were looking at him in all sorts of ways. Some even felt like they were looking at him with contempt.

Almost no one in society felt that Zhang Ye was a good appointment for Peking University.

Even amongst Peking University’s professors, almost none of them thought Zhang Ye was any good. They even felt that Zhang Ye would probably only last 2 or 3 lectures before being asked to leave. The university would not let him finish the semester. This was because teaching depended on experience and skills, everyone felt that Zhang Ye, as an outsider, would not have these points. Some of them even believed that if an industry outsider was giving lectures, the students would not even be interested to listen!

But yet, that was far from the truth!

When Zhang Ye made his way to the lecture theater, he was stunned!