Chapter 335 - This Semester’s Last Class! (1/2)

One day.

Three days.

Five days.

In a few days time, Zhang Ye held his lessons as usual. The students got more and more addicted listening to him. Zhang Ye also became more and more excited about lecturing. Every time, only after someone reminded him that he had exceeded the cla.s.s’ given time would he stop the cla.s.s.

These few days, with strong urging from the students, Peking University had approved another of Zhang Ye’s lectures to be held as a public lecture. What was different this time was that it would be held at night instead to avoid affecting other cla.s.ses. The grand auditorium could not always be reserved for Zhang Ye, there were still other teachers who used it as well as activities held in it. Zhang Ye couldn’t get reservation slots, so he just held the lectures at the 1200 seater auditorium. The night time public lectures were always full, even if you were early to cla.s.s, you might not be able to get a seat, let alone if you were late for cla.s.s.

You might have heard of queuing up to buy groceries.

You might have heard of queuing up to buy property.

But you definitely have never heard of queuing up to attend cla.s.ses!

When other inst.i.tutes of higher learning heard this, they were speechless. If anyone told them that this situation would happen for an elective cla.s.s, the people from Peking University would never believe it, ever, but all of this was now happening right before their eyes! Zhang Ye had done it, no one could be unconvinced by it!

Today was Zhang Ye’s last lesson.

In the auditorium, there were especially many people. A lot of the students were packed into the auditorium as even some seats were shared by two people.

Of course, what was more worthy to note was the seats at the side of the auditorium. There were many unfamiliar older faces. There were men and women, of at least 30 years old. Before the cla.s.s started, Zhang Ye had heard Chang Kaige mention that some of these people were Redologists or from the community. Some of them were also from other inst.i.tutes of higher learning or the education system. They had all applied to attend this last lecture beforehand. Some of them might have been hoping to find mistakes to pick on, while others were here with the hope of learning more.

On stage.

Zhang Ye spoke seriously, “The t.i.tle of the 108th chapter might have been called ‘The Divine Luminescent understands the meaning of letting go at a precipice, the stone returns, with a listing revealed’. Why do I say so? Because when the beggar couple encounters the large snowstorm at the end, there was no way for them to survive in the open. They might have gone into the wilderness and discovered a farmhouse. They wished the farmhouse would open the door to provide them with some warmth, and they eventually discovered that the master and mistress of the farmhouse were very kind to them…”

The lectures of these past few days had already left everyone unable to speak.

Senior Song, Senior Zhou, and some others who were usually very active no longer questioned anything.

Outsiders who came to listen into the cla.s.s did not manage to interject a single word. Even those who came to cause trouble could not keep up with Zhang Ye’s pace. They were completely brought into a new realm of knowledge that they did not understand — Vestige Forensics. All they could do was listen to it in a daze!

Beforehand, no one had expected Zhang Ye’s research to be so detailed.

From the 81st to the 108th chapter, Zhang Ye had logically guessed the chapter t.i.tles of each of them. He presented to them what he thought would have been the original plot of the story in such detail that he even included all the plot foreshadowing from the first 80 chapters!

It was too amazing!

It was really too awesome!

Just what sort of knowledge capacity did he have?

Throughout the course of this lecture, it had left many people believing more and more that someone else had continued the writing after the first 80 chapters. They felt that Zhang Ye’s a.n.a.lysis of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’ was the original plot development of the novel instead! According to the plot described by Zhang Ye, it was a more logical and suitable ending! Many of the logical errors that had left the Redology world frustrated were solved perfectly by the way Zhang Ye spoke about it!

A Redologist even lowered his head to take notes. He listened with an open mind and did not dare to put on airs in front of Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye carried on speaking. “This character was also foreshadowed. He is one of the characters that would partic.i.p.ate in the finale. They should be received by the Second Maid’s parents. It was too late to save s.h.i.+ Xiangyun. She was already frozen to death at the Second Maid’s house. As it was Winter, even the ground was frozen, so they buried her with great efforts. That night, the farming couple let Baoyu enjoy a good rest, but Baoyu was filled with thoughts. Finally, he heard a summoning from the sky. It was a monk and a priest. The immortals from the heavenly realm summoned him. He realized he was just a Divine Luminescent Page-in-waiting that descended to the mortal world for a trip. He was to return to the heavenly realm. When he returned to the heavenly realm, he received his final enlightenment. He understood that heading to heaven by becoming a monk was all superficial. The real point was to let go at a precipice and understand that all splendor and riches were ephemeral. And just knowing this bit was not enough, because the ancients had already figured this out a long time ago. In the midst of that fleeting cloud, a soul not corrupted by society’s bad politics, economics, or culture… this was compa.s.sion for the weak. It was a relentless pursuit for beauty, and was the most valuable thing.”

Heavenly realm?

Divine Luminescent Page-in-waiting?

The crowd was surprised!

Zhang Ye said, “He was a Divine Luminescent Page-in-waiting who returned to the heavenly realm. The enlightened Baoyu was the stone lying at the foot of Greensickness Peak. With the stone returning to the heavenly realm, it was filled with words. These words would be the 108 chapters of “The Story of the Stone”, which is also known as ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’. After the 108 chapters, there would be a “Love Ranking”, which was a meaningful list for Baoyu, called the King of the Flowers. Then it would be a list of the 108 girls listed in groups. Each group had 12 people, creating a total of nine groups.

At this point, Zhang Ye gave a light smile. “This, is my personal dissection of the content in the last 40 chapters of Cao Xueqin’s 108 chapters of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’. I think this is the true storyline of Cao Xueqin’s ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’!” Finis.h.i.+ng the lecture with his usual high standards, Zhang Ye closed his lecture doc.u.ments and exhaled. He smiled and said, “Alright, this semester’s cla.s.ses will end here!”