Insufficient balance

  The old principal walked up to the stage with a slight limp, and the noisy crowd also fell silent, all looking at the old man who had suddenly rushed onto the stage with curiosity, not knowing what his identity was, they all stopped their movements.

  The people on the stage immediately stood up as soon as they saw this scene, and the host had no idea what was happening. This scene had not been rehearsed at all, and no one expected the old principal to appear suddenly. The host was stunned on the spot until a leader walked over to him and poked him, and he finally reacted, picked up the microphone and said: "Next, please invite our respected old principal to say a few words."

  Old principal?

  Apart from Ye Yizhe, who had already guessed it, everyone else was covering their mouths in shock. The old man was dressed very plainly and would be taken for a retired old man buying vegetables on the street by anyone. His pants were patched up in several places, and his clothes were made of fabric that could be bought anywhere on the streets, probably picked up from some alleyway.

  Looking at the noisy crowd, the host on the stage looked a bit ugly, picked up the microphone and wanted to speak out to stop being blocked by the old principal.

  "Hello everyone." The old principal waved his hand at the crowd, "My name is Jiang Shiyu, and the world is our friend, isn't it?"

  Everyone burst into laughter after listening to the old principal's explanation, and Ye Yizhe couldn't help but laugh too. He looked at the podium, wanting to hear more about this highly respected old principal.

  "Just as the host introduced, I am your old principal. When you graduate this year, I will also retire. Originally, today's arrangement did not include me, so they didn't consider that I would come. However, after chatting with a young friend earlier, I felt it necessary to speak as an old man who is about to retire, as an old man who has been at Fudan for almost 40 years. If you don't want to listen, you can just let it go in one ear and out the other. As Lin Yutang said, a speech is like a woman's pants - the shorter the better. I deeply understand this. Every time there are some leaders who are not very senior but have big bellies, reading from scripts prepared by others. You may feel disgusted, and so do I."

  Upon hearing this, the commotion from below grew even louder, while the leaders on stage were as still as cicadas in winter, not daring to make a single move or breathe.

  "This is Fudan, I suppose many of you have heard of this name since childhood. In China, it's considered a prestigious school, and in the world, it has some reputation too. Although there's still a long way to go before becoming a world-class university, this is Fudan, where you've finally arrived after more than a decade of hard studying."

  "Perhaps many of you are now rejoicing, congratulating yourselves on defeating many people and emerging from the crowd to arrive here. This already puts you at a higher starting point than others. Those classmates who are inferior to you, in your eyes, have already been eliminated from this point on. Maybe there are also some people who are regretful, because of a temporary mistake, you didn't make it to a more prestigious school like Yanjing Huqing, and in your opinion, Fudan is not worthy of your abilities. However, history does not offer a second chance, and you can only reluctantly come here. To be honest, I understand your thoughts, if I were you, I would think the same way."

  The murmurs died down, and most people quieted down to listen to the old principal's speech: "I've been in this school for decades, I can say it's been a lifetime. I've sent off batch after batch of graduates, so I can say I've seen all sorts of students. So I truly understand you."

  "I originally had a question I wanted to ask you all before coming here today, one that I've been wanting to ask your generation but never have. Have you really thought about why you want to attend university, or are you just going through the motions for the sake of the ivory tower dream that your teachers and elders have told you about? But now I don't think I need to ask anymore. I can see that all of you have dreams, maybe even ones that you yourselves haven't discovered yet, but they exist deep within your hearts. These dreams are being suppressed by years of education into a small space in the depths of your heart, but they won't be extinguished. Fudan University is not an ivory tower, and just entering it doesn't mean you'll enter a bright future. Every year, there are many graduates who can't find jobs, and when they first entered university, they were just like you, with beautiful prospects and their families' expectations. But in the end, they're trampled by those they used to look down on - not many, but not few either. It's ironic, but it's a fact."

  "What makes those who are not as good as you now end up much better than you? A toad that is full of itself for ten years will eventually crawl out of the pond and eat swan meat one day. You may say that many of them rely on their parents, but if given the same conditions, you can definitely do better than them. Let's change our comparison method then. How about comparing your 20-year-old self with theirs? They didn't have a good environment back in their day, working hard from dawn till dusk, relying on themselves to get to where they are today. And now you're here at Fudan University, with buildings that are more magnificent than over 90% of universities, with professors who are better than over 99% of universities, with a deep historical foundation and policy support. Can you give me one reason why you will end up not as good as them in the future? Are you willing to give this reason?"

  The whole audience was silent, and after a while, it erupted into thunderous applause. The old principal stretched out his hand to calm the crowd, smiling and saying: "Maybe this old man has too much of a generation gap with you all, and many things can't be expressed very clearly. Earlier, I met a very interesting classmate who is also one of your freshmen in the first year. Like me, he didn't want to listen to nonsense, so he went aside to rest. He said many things that made this old man feel deeply sympathetic."

  Yi Zhe Ye heard this and knew something was wrong, turned around and prepared to run away. The old principal's voice rang out again: "The student under that tree over there, come here and say a few words."

  The whole audience looked over in the direction of the old principal's pointing finger, and Ye Yizhe could only walk up with a stiff upper lip. "Principal, hello." The word "hello" was bitten very hard by Ye Yizhe, but the principal seemed to have not heard it, handing the microphone into his hand.

  When they saw Ye Yizhe's appearance, many leaders on the stage recognized him at first glance and exchanged eye contact with each other. The Philosophy Department burst into a loud shout, they did not expect that the little guy who was shy in front of them would actually call the old principal to the stage. Seeing the state of the Philosophy Department, even a fool could guess the identity of this person on the stage. Originally curious, the crowd now shouted and cheered.

  The one with the worst expression was Luo Jinfeng. Originally, she didn't plan to let him show off and had even maliciously reported him to the leader, but now she felt like she was riding a tiger and couldn't get off. She never thought that Ye Yizhe would have this move up his sleeve. In her heart, she couldn't help but feel a little regretful. She had been at the school for many years and knew the old principal's personality - he was absolutely not someone who fawned on those in power. Could it be that Ye Yizhe wasn't what she thought? Although Luo Jinfeng didn't want to admit it, deep down, she still had a thread of expectation.

  Ye Yizhe hastily grabbed the microphone, glanced around at everyone, cleared his throat twice, and after a quick reorganization of what he wanted to say in his mind, began: "All along we've been the best students, now we have the best university environment too. But what I want to say is that if nothing unexpected happens, we'll become the worst university students because at the same time as having the best environment, we also have the worst university."

  The whole audience was in an uproar.

  Many leaders who were present at the scene stood up immediately after hearing Ye Yizhe's first sentence, opened their mouths to speak, but saw the old principal turn his head and glare at them, so they sat back down. The old principal did not expect Ye Yizhe to be so sharp-tongued from the start, and he was also stunned for a moment, but after thinking about it, he felt relieved. A young man who could say such things shouldn't be too surprising anyway.

  Yi Zhe, who noticed the movement behind him and sneered, didn't notice that in the sea of people, there was a beautiful figure, ignoring the gaze of the boys around her, with a slight smile on her lips, looking at him in the center of the stage, humming: "Hmph, let's see how you'll deceive."