It was the first time that Qin Sheng had seen someone cottoning up to others in such a way. Could it be that he was not afraid that he would be beaten when he would go outside?
Qin Sheng eyed the fellow in front of him up and down and finally understood why that person had initiated such a weird opening remark. He was exactly a weirdo among all the people in the entire classroom.
On their way here, Fang Huawei had already informed Qin Sheng about the situation of the study program in detail. It was not a traditional EMBA gold-plated class. Otherwise, it would be the same as all other business schools, which were flooding everywhere now. This distinction could be seen from the lists of the instructors this time, who were all the top ones of Tsinghua University. Besides, many of them were members of the advisory board, including the business leaders at home and abroad, as well as senior officials of Ministries and Commissions.
Firstly, people could not apply for the study program on their own. Instead, a voluntary invitation system had been adopted. Speaking of those who were selected, they were not ordinary ones, whose elder generations, at least, held leading positions in the respective industries, as well as the relative municipalities. Secondly, they were all young people who were no more than 35 years old. They aimed to train future business leaders for China.
Therefore, when the class officially started today, almost everyone dressed formally. As for Qin Sheng, even if he took off his down jacket, he was dressed in sophisticated suits internally. However, this guy next to him was completely different, not to mention his grandpa-styled-gray hair and his earrings. His fancy dressing style was already eye-catching. He was dressed in a loose hip-hop coat and wore a cap, as well as a large golden chain. The T-shirt in his chest was embroidered with a big skull sketch. His weighty jeans were matched with the sneakers of the Jordan brand.
No wonder others knew each other in twos and threes. That fellow sat there without anybody paying attention to him, looking extremely embarrassed. Probably he did not know others at all. It was not until Qin Sheng, who was his deskmate, went over there that he took the initiative to greet him.
The man dressed in hip-hop clothes patted Qin Sheng on his shoulders and laughed as he said, “Hahaha, brother, you’re humorous.” However, he hit Qn Sheng somewhat forcibly. If Qin Sheng had not ever practiced martial arts, he would have been beaten.
Qin Sheng was rendered speechless. “I think that it is a miracle that you are alive till now,” he said.
The man dressed in hip-hop clothes was good-looking. However, he grew a beard that did not fit his age. He looked somewhat cynical. The look in his eyes was slightly contemptuous. It seemed that he felt ashamed of being together with other students.
The man dressed in hip-hop clothes didn’t give a damn about Qin Sheng’s sarcasm at all. Instead, he replied straightforwardly, “What you said fits the reality well. I often fought when I was a kid. As for those issues, which can be solved by fighting, I won’t turn to words to get them solved. As the saying goes, men should be tough and stand out to fight back if they are not convinced. I also suffered from a lot of losses. Fortunately, I have an amazing father. Otherwise, I would not be alive now.” It seemed that he intended to light up a cigarette and say a sentence quietly, namely, “You don’t understand my world at all.” After that, he would do freestyle rapping.
Qin Sheng did not bother to pay attention to him. Although he majored in philosophy and was accustomed to trying to figure out the spiritual world of others, he couldn’t even take care of himself well. He couldn’t care about others. Besides, speaking of the people, whom he had met in recent days, nobody had shown up accidentally. He was afraid that Qin Changan may have also sent this fellow.
Qin Sheng packed things up and pulled out the manual, which had been given to him by Fang Huawei. Inside the manual were detailed schedules and the names of the teachers, as well as other extra-curricular activities, and so on. He was more interested in the contents of the manual instead of the man dressed in hip-hop clothes. After all, he was dying to learn something. Since he was not that powerful or experienced as others, he should exert more effort than others did.
Though Qin Sheng ignored that fellow, the latter approached Qin Sheng cheekily as he said, “Brother, my name is Han Xu, and I come from Tianjin. How should I address you? I think you are different from others. We can make friends with each other. After all, we have to spend months getting along with each other, and it is good to have company. Look at other people. They all look assuming, which is not interesting at all.”
As Qin Sheng heard the man’s name, he almost burst out laughing. Han Xu, who was not reserved at all, replied casually, “Qin Sheng. I come from Xi’an”
Han Xu murmured to himself as he said, “People from the northwestern province are bold and loyal. I also like Xi’an, the famous historical and cultural city, where the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Tang Dynasties prospered. However, I haven’t been there yet. I have to look around there in the future if I have a chance. At that time, don’t blame me for being noisy.”
Qin Sheng replied with a “Hum” and continued browsing the manual.
Though Qin Sheng was not interested in him, Han Xu didn’t mind it at all. Anyway, he did so to kill time. Upon thinking of the fact that he would study here for four months, he felt extremely grieved. If it had not been for the Aston Madin, whose price was at tens of millions of dollars, he would not have come here to be engaged in studies.
“Qin Sheng, did you choose to come here on your own, or did your family force you to do so? I was forced by my family. My dad said that if I didn’t come here, my allowance would be cut off. The way you see it, though we are at a new age, these old men still insist on forcing us to inherit the so-called family business. Nowadays, talents are abundant in this society. It will do if we just find a competent and professional manager as long as we hold the equity firmly at our hands, If they don’t perform well, let’s replace them.” Han Xu started elaborating on his philosophies and didn’t care about whether Qin Sheng was listening to him or not.
Originally, Qin Sheng had not intended to bother with him. However, he couldn’t help replying as he said, “You will learn in the future that our elder generations are in a difficult position.”
Han Xu continued mumbling as he said, “You don’t have to tell me about these philosophies. I like to enjoy life and pursue freedom. My dad has been weird recently. Previously, he just left me alone. His education philosophy of me could be summarized into one sentence, namely, “As long as I do not make big trouble, I can do whatever I like to make myself feel happy.” However, he changed his norm all of a sudden this month, insisting on asking me to study in the company. After that, he asked me to join this study program. I feel depressed.”
Qin Sheng indeed didn’t want to bother with him.
Fortunately, at that moment, the side door next to the lecture platform opened. There came an elegant and vigorous man from the outside. The man was not an old man with gray hair. On the contrary, he looked pretty young and was less than forty years old. Wearing glasses, he was not tall. With a smile on his face, he walked stably. There were two young men behind him, who turned out to be a man and a woman.
Qin Sheng saw the information about this man from the manual—he was the dean of the School of Economics and Management, as well as the headteacher of this study program for advanced studies. It was simply amazingly capable of him to become the dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University at less than forty years old. People would fall in admiration in front of his resume.
When everyone saw the man walking in, they quieted down immediately and returned to their seats, waiting for the headteacher’s speech solemnly.
The opening ceremony for the study program was simple, as it did not go through complicated procedures or leaders’ speech, and so on. After Dean Xu introduced himself briefly, he introduced some specific things about this study program for the advanced studies class in detail. These specially privileged people, who were sitting on their seats, all retrieved their arrogance on the usual days and listened attentively to Dean Xu’s speech. Only Han Xu, who sat next to Qin Sheng, looked bored and pulled out his cell phone to play the game of “The Glory of the King”. Qin Sheng admired this man now. However hard many people had tried, they could not even step into the door of this classroom. He acted differently from others. Though he had been enrolled in the study program easily, he didn’t cherish the kind of opportunity like this at all. The kind of people like him were authentic rich playboys.
After Dean Xu finished his speech, everyone applauded. After that, Dean Xu began to arrange for everyone to introduce themselves, which enabled the students to know each other so that they could get along well in the future.
If Qin Sheng was counted in, there were a total of 31 students in this classroom, including 12 female students. The ratio of male students and female ones was in proportion. Besides, there were many beauties. Most of these students already worked for their family businesses. A minority of them had started their own business and achieved some success by relying on their background and resources.
Consequently, when the students introduced themselves, most of them introduced their name, age, where they came from, where they worked, and their positions. After that, they illustrated their hobbies and favorites. Some even introduced their personalities, and so on.
Qin Sheng listened to every self-introduction attentively. Though the self-introductions looked seemingly simple, there lay a complicated world behind each person. At the same time, he also observed the details of his classmates and found that they all had one thing in common, namely, they got a sense of confidence, which was from within. That was where the difference between children from powerful and influential families and those of ordinary ones lay. The kind of confidence was not inherently born but cultivated and developed gradually by postnatal families and the educational environment. Most of the ordinary people felt quite inferior.
As the students introduced themselves one by one, it was the last two students’ turn soon, namely, Han Xu and Qin Sheng. Han Xu was dedicated to playing the mobile game attentively. Qin Sheng, who didn’t notice that this man was still playing games at all, had no choice but to stand up hurriedly and speak first. Meanwhile, he kicked Han Xu with his feet.
Qin Sheng said briefly, “Qin Sheng. I am from Xi’an.” After that, he sat down. That was because he didn’t have anything else about himself to introduce to others. He was not as amazing as others.
Everyone stared at Qin Sheng with a different look on their faces. Some people were curious, some thought that Qin Sheng was a weirdo, and some others thought Qin Sheng had attracted people’s attention on purpose and found what Qin Sheng had done was contemptuous.
After Qin Sheng sat down, Han Xu stood up and said, “My name is Han Xu. I come from Tianjin, and I am constantly 18 years old.”
After Han Xu finished his self-introduction, he also sat down without saying any nonsense at all.
Everybody on the scene broke into laughter.
Everyone shifted their attention from Qin Sheng to Han Xu instantly. That was because compared with Qin Sheng, Han Xu was even more eye-catching. After all, this man had joined the study program while wearing a hip-hop attire for concerts.
Dean Xu, who was on the lecture platform, found the situation somewhat funny. It did not occur to him that he would run into the kind of weird students like Qin Sheng and Han Xu. However, he was not angry at all. Instead, he helped Qin Sheng and Han Xu out as he said, “Since everybody knows each other now, then, I will continue my speech…”
Dean Xu’s remark finally caught everybody’s attention once again. Only a minority were still observing Qin Sheng and Han Xu.
After Han Xu sat down, he whispered, “Brother, thanks. I will treat you with lunch later.”
Qin Sheng did not say yes to his invitation. After all, he had asked Fang Huawei to have lunch together, intending to ask Fang Huawei to help him find the curriculum schedule of the majors, which he was interested in, and lectures by some professors, etc. He thought Fang Huawei would not refuse to help him with such trivial things.
Dean Xu went on his speech for another half an hour and announced that the opening ceremony for the study program came to an end before noon. The first class would start at 2 o’clock this afternoon. A well-known Economist, who was also an old professor from Tsinghua University, would give a lecture on Economics courses.
Qin Sheng put away his things and went out straightly. Han Xu chased him out buoyantly and shouted, “Qin Sheng, let’s go and have lunch together. whatever you like to eat will be my treat.”
Qin Sheng refused politely. “I have other things to attend to.”
Han Xu muttered, “Dude, show respect for my feelings. Since you helped me a moment ago, It’s justifiable of me to treat you with lunch. Never will I, whose nickname is Lao Han, be indebted to others.”
Qin Sheng replied straightforwardly, “If you mean it sincerely, we can schedule on some other day. I am indeed not available today.”
Since Qin Sheng had said so, Han Xu thought it was true that Qin Sheng had other things to take care of. Consequently, he did not insist anymore. After all, one could not show excessive passion for cold people. He, Han Xu, could be counted as an influential figure in Tianjin City. If one went to the Binhai New Area to inquire about the Han family, one would find out that everybody there knew the Han family’s strength.
After Qin Sheng and Han Xu parted with each other, he sent a text message to Fang Huawei, saying the chores on his end were over, and he wondered whether Fang Huawei was available.
Within two minutes, Fang Huawei called, told Qin Sheng that he had finished his work, and asked Qin Sheng to wait downstairs for a while, saying he would go downstairs immediately.
Qin Sheng was waiting for Fang Huawei and Baidu-searching online about the information of the Deputy Dean Xu showing up today. Suddenly, a man, who was a classmate from Qin Sheng’s class, walked to the front of Qin Sheng slowly and said, “I know you.”
Qin Sheng looked up at the man in front of him surprisedly and recognized him to be one of his classmates. However, he couldn’t remember his name. After all, he was somewhat distracted at that time.
Before Qin Sheng spoke, the man said curtly, “You might not know me. But I do know you. Hangzhou, Xixi, and Yuerong Manor.”
When Qin Sheng heard this sentence, the look on his face was slightly changed…