Chapter 63: Freshman Report

Zhuo Jiyu and Yang Qian had mentioned finding Chen Jin to be a bridesmaid. Yang Qian thought it was unlikely but still called to ask. Chen Jin said she was too busy and had no time, especially since Yang Qian’s wedding was the day after the new students’ orientation. Chen Jin could only rush over after work, hoping to arrive before their evening Western-style wedding.

Just as she got off work, Chen Jin changed her clothes at the school and headed straight to the Century Hotel in Dongcheng District. It was a close call; she almost missed the start of the event.

Lin Xinran had been attending since the first morning ceremony and stayed for the second evening one. Sitting at the same table were Chen Lu and another student who was applying for graduate school, Feng Cunzhen, a boy who was even less noticeable than Liang Xiaoyu.

“Teacher Chen, are you busy at work right now?”

“Not too busy at the moment,” Chen Jin replied, pressing her protesting stomach and grabbing a few candies and cookies from the table to snack on. She asked Lin Xinran, “Did anyone take photos during the day?”

Lin Xinran shook her head. “No photos were taken; there was a professional photographer. Yang Qian said they would show us the pictures once they got them.”

Chen Jin nodded. They probably didn’t want random photos getting circulated.

As she just entered, she noticed quite a few well-dressed people. Yang Qian mentioned that her family and Zhuo Jiyu’s family were “doing okay,” which was a conservative way to put it.

It was during the toasting that Chen Jin unexpectedly saw Shen Baichuan—he was even serving as a groomsman!

In other weddings, the groomsman helps the groom by blocking alcohol, but Shen Baichuan was boldly pouring drinks for the groom without hesitation. Chen Jin noticed that Zhuo Jiyu was glaring at Shen Baichuan with a look that seemed sharp enough to cut.

Chen Jin sympathetically glanced at Zhuo Jiyu: what bad luck to have such a clueless friend helping out.

When Yang Qian saw Chen Jin, her eyes brightened. She thought Chen Jin wouldn’t make it. However, since there were many guests today, they couldn’t sit down together to eat and talk. This table was filled with her college classmates and friends, and she introduced everyone around, finally saying, “Lin Xinran and Chen Jin, you’ve met them before.”

Zhuo Jiyu shot a meaningful glance at Shen Baichuan, then raised his glass towards Lin Xinran and Chen Jin, saying, “We’ve met a few times, so I won’t be polite. Enjoy your meal and drinks.”

After toasting, they had to move on to the next table.

As Shen Baichuan passed by Chen Jin, he said, “Teacher Chen, could you wait for me later? I’ve had some drinks and can’t drive back. Would you mind if I ride in your car?”

“Uh, that’s fine,” she replied. “But are you sure you’ve had enough to drink?”

“Alright, you take your time eating, and I’ll come find you later,” Shen Baichuan said cheerfully as he followed along.

When they reached the next table, Zhuo Jiyu bit his lip and quietly reminded him, “You’d better not fall into my hands later.”

Shen Baichuan gave him a casual glance and proceeded to help block most of the drinks for him. Since Zhuo Jiyu’s wife was Chen Jin’s friend, he decided not to hold a grudge about Zhuo Jiyu’s trickery in getting him to be a groomsman.

Lin Xinran knew that Shen Baichuan was a teacher in the School of Computer Science and also Chen Jin’s neighbor, so it wasn’t surprising that he asked to ride back with her.

Chen Lu, however, was curious. “He’s also from our school, right? I’ve seen him several times on campus.”

“Yeah, he’s from the School of Computer Science and is Chen Jin’s neighbor,” Lin Xinran replied before offering Chen Jin a piece of rib, “Try this; I think it’s better than the food at that restaurant we went to last time.”

If it weren’t good, then Century Hotel should close its doors. It was said to be the most luxurious hotel in Rong City, much more expensive than sovereign Hotel.

Chen Jin treated this as an ordinary wedding banquet, focusing on eating and drinking. Clearly, most of the relatives from the Yang and Zhuo families were either rich or influential; they came not just for the wedding but also to enhance their social networks. If it were just her alone, she would have felt awkward, but since these were old classmates, she actually felt quite at ease.

Suddenly, Chen Lu sighed, “No matter how hard we work our whole lives, we might not even be able to step into this circle.”

Chen Jin glanced at her. Was she feeling overwhelmed by attending the wedding banquet?

“You have your own circle too. The future female PhD in Chinese literature? Most people work their entire lives and still can’t reach your level.”

Chen Lu’s face turned warm. “What female PhD? I haven’t even started my master’s program yet.”

“Aren’t you the one who said you’d continue your studies and stay at NTU as a professor?”

“Well, the future is uncertain…”

“It’s certain. With your determination to study, if you don’t pursue a PhD, who will?”

With Chen Jin diverting the topic, Chen Lu forgot about her earlier thoughts. Lin Xinran subtly gave Chen Jin a thumbs up: you really know how to comfort people.

Chen Jin smiled, “I wouldn’t say I’m comforting anyone.”

After completing his duties as a groomsman, Shen Baichuan made his rounds to his grandfather’s table to greet everyone, then headed straight for Chen Jin’s table.

He was interrupted by his younger brother Cheng Yanxi, who blocked his path. Without waiting for him to speak, Shen Baichuan said coolly, “If you want to be sent back to Hong Kong tomorrow, just say the word.”

Cheng Yanxi held back a retort. He wanted to say something but was afraid of his half-brother. He had never had a good experience in front of Shen Baichuan. From his memories, every time he provoked him, he got a beating in return. Shen Baichuan truly didn’t care what their elders thought; once, when Cheng Yanxi had made him mad, even his own father got caught in the crossfire…

It was better not to say anything. This unreasonable older brother treated all relatives the same way, giving them disdainful looks. It wasn’t like he had damaged his car only twice! Each time, it had somehow turned into him being the one who caused the damage, resulting in all his share of profits being taken by Shen Baichuan.

Cheng Yanxi muttered, “I didn’t damage your car last time; that Santana was my last car…” He was too intimidated to say more.

Shen Baichuan expressionlessly responded with an “oh.” “Did I ever tell you not to touch my car?” Just because he didn’t frequently return to the Nanshan villa didn’t mean Cheng Yanxi could secretly drive his car!

“…” Cheng Yanxi wanted to throw a tantrum on the spot. Why was he so unfortunate to have such an older brother?

Shen Baichuan hoped to take this opportunity to talk more with Chen Jin.

But the reality was: he sat in the back seat with one of Chen Jin’s male classmates, while Chen Jin’s female classmate occupied the front passenger seat.

The entire way, Chen Jin was chatting with her female classmate. After dropping her off at home, it was a quiet ride to NTU’s East Gate. In the last short stretch of the journey, without him even having to start a conversation, Chen Jin accelerated, and a few minutes later, they were home.

On the last day of the reporting date, all 154 freshmen arrived at school. The student files that Chen Jin had gathered were also being completed one after another, giving her a general understanding of the student situation in each class.

From the start of the freshmen’s reporting until the two-week military training ended, the class advisor led them to familiarize themselves with the school. On the first official day of school, Chen Jin held a grade meeting for the freshmen, where she discussed the school’s history and the development of various majors within the college, emphasizing campus discipline and other important rules. After that, each class advisor took their students to hold class meetings, elect class officers, and so on. Chen Jin only needed to meet with the class officers once the final list was compiled, to get to know them and ensure she recognized the key class leaders.

When it came to remembering names, Chen Jin could do it quite quickly if she put her mind to it. Within less than three days of school starting, she had already memorized the class officers for each major and a few notably active students.

Seeing that she had everything organized so well, Teacher Chang had no additional pointers for her. If any unexpected situations arose, they would assess the situation as it came, but Chen Jin had already reviewed numerous cases from previous years, so theoretically, she felt sufficiently prepared.

Zhou Ding, who was in charge of the junior year, was busier than Chen Jin, almost like a freshman advisor. This was due to a certain male dormitory misusing electricity and even attempting to cook in their dorm, nearly causing a fire.

When Chen Jin first received the news, she was also alarmed because the psychology major class president called to say there was a fire in the boys’ dormitory. Assuming it was the freshman boys’ dorm, she quickly grabbed her car keys and rushed over.

Though it turned out to be the junior boys’ dormitory downstairs, when Chen Jin stood below and saw the thick black smoke rising, her heart sank.

What a way to kick off the school year!

Because of this incident, Chen Jin held another grade meeting the next day to emphasize electrical safety and proper evacuation procedures in case of a fire. While discussing electrical safety, she also mentioned that certain areas of the school were under construction, and students were prohibited from going to remote parts of the campus alone at night, regardless of whether they were boys or girls.

As for the upcoming military training, students were not allowed to pretend to be sick, but if they genuinely felt unwell, they could come to her for leave…

After saying this, Chen Jin glanced at the time. Well, she had initially planned to hold the grade meeting for only half an hour, but it ended up lasting a full hour. She only realized how dry her throat had become once she stopped speaking.

It seemed that when she used to complain about Teacher Chang dragging out meetings, she hadn’t appreciated that some things couldn’t be rushed until she became an advisor herself.

In the afternoon, Teacher Chang glanced at the large cup of ice-cold watermelon juice Chen Jin handed him and asked in surprise, “What made you suddenly think to treat everyone to watermelon juice?”

Chen Jin replied, “I mainly wanted to treat you. I’ve come to realize just how dedicated you were when you were our advisor.”

Teacher Chang chuckled, “This batch is pretty easy to manage; there are a few quirks, but not too many. I once had a batch that made me dread going back to be their advisor in my dreams.”

Zhou Ding, striding back to his office, saw the refreshing cup of watermelon juice on his desk. Confirming it was from Chen Jin, he thanked her and immediately inserted the straw, gulping down half of it. After finally feeling refreshed, he bitterly said, “I can’t believe I got such a huge challenge on my first day as an advisor. The boys’ dormitory almost started a fight; luckily, the security team responded quickly. I really can’t comprehend how they have so much time to cause trouble with such heavy academic loads in their junior year!”

“Not every student can settle down to study once they get into college. Some students were spoiled at home, and when they come out to experience collective life in college, they struggle with interpersonal relationships. That’s why college is a little society in itself,” Teacher He reflected. She then mentioned her sophomore students, saying that some were questioning the fairness of their grades from the previous semester and had gone to complain to the dean.

Teacher Chang added that he was specifically keeping an eye on a few students who usually didn’t perform well in class, fearing they might not earn enough credits to graduate on time in their final year.

Chen Jin began to feel that she might have been too optimistic early on. Over time, she wondered what kind of trouble those little rascals would bring her.

So far, they seemed pretty well-behaved.

But that was expected; they had just entered college. In a new environment, most people were relatively polite and cautious. After some time, their true colors would show.

The week before the freshmen officially started school was filled with meetings, introductions to teachers, getting to know classmates, and learning the school rules, regulations, and curriculum of their majors.

The Chinese department students spent two days getting to know their teachers and listening to each of them introduce their courses and research directions. During those two days, they repeatedly heard the teachers mention one person: “Your advisor, your senior, during her studies…”

After the professional teachers spoke, the class advisors gossiped about Chen Jin being very wealthy. For a moment, Chen Jin became a role model in the eyes of this cohort of freshmen, though whether they viewed her as a model of wealth or of academic success was unclear.

Perhaps due to the small age gap, a few particularly outgoing students affectionately called her “Sister Chen.” As they shouted it, it seemed everyone tacitly accepted the nickname. Chen Jin gradually grew accustomed to it, but when she suddenly heard a student call her “Rich Sister,” she momentarily didn’t react.

When she finally processed it, the student realized they had accidentally blurted out a private nickname and quickly ran away in embarrassment.

Zhou Ding nearly burst out laughing and said enviously, “New students are just so interesting.” He had taken over the junior year midway, and those students were like seasoned veterans, making them hard to manage. Just after a fire broke out due to improper electrical use in the dormitory, the college organized a dorm inspection for the advisors and found several high-powered appliances, most of which belonged to his junior class!

Chen Jin, however, remarked, “Freshmen are usually well-behaved; weren’t we the same back then?”

But it was probably too early to be overly optimistic.

Now that Chen Jin had a job, each day felt fulfilling. She was looking forward to the freshmen beginning their military training the next day, finally allowing her a chance to rest.

If it weren’t for her third uncle calling to ask if she wanted her rent for the month transferred to her account, she might have forgotten about her properties.

“Then just put it all in the bank; thank you, Third Uncle!” Chen Jin also inquired about the peach orchard in Qiaodong Village.

“I was just about to tell you about that. The developer wants to hold a meeting to discuss the terms soon, and I’ll notify you once it’s confirmed. By the way, in Qiaoxi Village, they’re now planning to contract out the village collective land to get dividends for the villagers. They’re currently discussing it, so you should check with Meng Chong for the situation. Your household registration is in Qiaoxi Village, so since you contributed to the public health expenses before, you should also be entitled to dividends now.”

“Okay, I understand.”

Chen Jin pondered for a while before calling her grandfather, directly asking about the village dividends.

“I was just thinking about you! I was going to call you,” Old man Liu said.

Chen Jin chuckled. If she hadn’t called, Old man Liu would probably have forgotten to notify her.

“The specific situation is still under discussion by the village committee. You should come back in a couple of days if you have time,” Old man Liu mentioned. He then asked about her work, adding, “If you have the chance, you should change jobs. Being an advisor isn’t…”

Earlier he said her job was good, and now he was dismissing it?

Chen Jin replied, “You should add less salt to your food from now on.”

He was really too idle.