Dong Jiang University's annual opening ceremony was set to be held on the field at 9 A.M. It was not yet 8:30 A.M. and there was already a huge crowd at the field. The field was divided into sections for each department and the students were on the lookout for the section of their department.
8.55 A.M. Lecturers and students were at their respective spots, but He Yu and Mo Xian had just arrived at the field at this moment. They were more or less in the spotlight, garnering attention from all the lecturers and students as they scampered down the spectator's seating beside the field.
He Yu could not help himself and wanted to speed up his pace. However, even when they were in the spotlight of the whole school, Mo Xian looked as calm as ever and told He Yu: “We will arrive in time.”
“Alright,” He Yu replied helplessly.
His conversation with his roommate continued with yesterday's short and simple style, where they basically finished conversing in three lines. Mo Xian seemed to be uninterested with casual chatting and had the extraordinary ability to shut down any conversation with two lines. When he thought about having to live through four years of university life with this guy, He Yu felt a tingling sensation on his scalp. He did not know if his mentality might implode someday.
Both of them found the freshman group of their own academic faculty. It was the freshmen's first time in an a.s.sembly. Some people managed to make new friends yesterday by visiting their dormmates, but since both He Yu and Mo Xian had come back late, everyone was quite unfamiliar with them. Some students did not even know which faculty they were from until they lined up at the end of the queue.
Both of them did not manage to meet and make friends with their cla.s.smates as the opening ceremony initiated less than a minute after they took their position in standing. The itinerary was nothing novel. In opening speeches, the phrase, “During the autumn, the aroma of the orange osmanthus lingers around the air”, had been repeated countless times in Dong Jiang city that bloomed and flourished with osmanthus. The local students were absent-minded to the speech as if they had only transitioned into the next year in high school and hadn't entered a tertiary inst.i.tution—university.
The end of the speech by the chancellor was met with a not-so-warm round of applause.
“Please welcome the student body representative, student Su Ge from the Faculty of Economics, to give a speech.”
The next programme in the ceremony unexpectedly received enthusiastic feedback. Roaring applause could be heard from the direction of the seniors' standing position. The puzzled freshmen instantly understood Su Ge's position among the students as they heard the cheers and were asking around about him among themselves.
It's him.
He Yu thought to himself. He had only caught a glimpse of Su Ge from afar before, but now he finally saw the most influential figure in the “The King's Glory” circle in Dong Jiang University. However, being good in games would not necessarily translate into being outstanding in the student circle. It signified that Su Ge could also “hard carry” in all aspects and was not the type of “coward farmer” in becoming the representative of the student body and giving a speech on the stage.
“Good morning to fellow lecturers and friends……”
“……thank you, everyone.”
After a few interruptions by applause, Su Ge finally completed his speech, which was met with another long round of applause as he walked down the stage. As the ceremony moved to the next programme in the list, the freshmen were starting to actively look around. Everyone was aware that the freshmen representative would be giving a speech after the student body representative, but they were curious as to who could become the representative for thousands of freshmen when they had just been admitted into the school.
“Next, please welcome the freshmen representative, Mo Xian from the Faculty of Science to give his speech.”
“Ah?” The students were still looking around, but He Yu was already turning his head to look at Mo Xian in astonishment. He realised that he had still underestimated his roommate. A smart student? Seeing as he became the representative for thousands of students when they had just started school, he must have been the crème de la crème among the smart students.
Under He Yu's shocked gaze, Mo Xian's expression appeared the same as usual. Mo Xian walked out of line and did not care too much about the thousand gazes on him. Rather, he walked up to the stage unhurriedly and started his speech in a state of composure, like how he did when he said thank you to He Yu.
Mo Xian did not receive applause as enthusiastic as Su Ge's when he finished his speech, but it left a deep impression on the students.
Not because he had any outstanding content in his speech, but because of admiration of his confidence in front of thousands when he stood on stage.
Hang in there, we can win this.
He Yu could not figure out why he suddenly thought of the sentence. He felt that it matched Mo Xian's temperament on stage.
After the opening ceremony, most of the cla.s.ses had organised a cla.s.s gathering, especially the freshmen. He Yu and the others were brought to the science building of the Faculty of Science, and they entered their respective cla.s.srooms.
The freshmen in the Physics stream that He Yu was in totaled 112 students and were divided into four cla.s.ses, which occupied a whole floor. Any student could feel the unenthusiastic ambience if they walked into any cla.s.sroom now. The rather apathetic applause exuded an unexciting and perfunctory aura.
The students sharing a cla.s.s with He Yu in Cla.s.s 3 were looking around earnestly but they could not find the trace of a female student in their cla.s.s.
Yeah, it seemed that the phenomena of the number of boys overwhelming that of girls had peaked in their year. According to a freshman that knew his way around happenings on campus, there were only two females in their year of 112 students. The male-to-female ratio had reached an unprecedented 56 to 1, hitting a record high. It was disappointing that the only two female students were not a.s.signed to Cla.s.s 3. The 28 eighteen-year-old male students were uninterested in any of the self-introductions made by each other. Even Mo Xian as the freshmen representative that appeared in front of the whole student body and lecturers received a slightly warm round of applause because he kept his self-introduction short and simple, and did not waste everyone's time.
He Yu's form teacher was Mr. Ren. Mr. Ren was a postgraduate student at a young age, and also a guy like the rest of the cla.s.s. He was not bothered by the students' perfunctory self-introduction, rather he had an “I knew this would happen” grin on his face. He waited for the 28 students to finish their brief self-introductions and stepped up onto the podium with a smirk.
“You should've expected this when you registered for the Physics stream,” Mr. Ren shrugged and had a sympathetic expression as he spoke. The whole cla.s.s booed at once.
“Alright, I hope that today will be your most disheartening day as you start your academic term. Hope that your next four years will be exciting. Student Mo Xian, you will be our temporary cla.s.s monitor until we hold a cla.s.s election to elect cla.s.s representatives. We are done for today, you all can leave!” Mr Ren knew of the students' antic.i.p.ation and spoke succinctly. He went straight to the point and ended the cla.s.s. Rather, he noticed no one was looking at him, but everyone had their eyes at the entrance of the cla.s.sroom.
The freshmen that were dejected from not having even a single female cla.s.smate had just seen a charming girl suddenly appearing at their cla.s.s entrance. Who else would pay attention to the form teacher's speech anymore?
Instead, the girl was the first to respond to Mr Ren's speech.
“Are you done?” She spoke while waving her hands in the direction of the cla.s.sroom, “Come out, He Yu.”
Waaa!
The whole cla.s.s was in chaos. They had just finished self-introducing themselves so they had vague impressions of each other. Everyone gazed at He Yu with all kinds of expressions. Only Mo Xian appeared as he did normally. Mo Xian stood up and gave way to He Yu that was sitting inside.
