Chapter 553 A big conflict!.
Some distance away.
There were some students noisily playing basketball. As there was no basketball court where they were at, the few Peking University freshmen were just casually passing the ball around. A girl’s voice could also be heard laughing cheerfully as they played.
“Pass it to me.”
“Haha.”
“Watch out for the lake, don’t throw it over there.”
The birds were chirping and students were enjoying themselves, playing around.
This kind of a setting made Zhang Ye feel very relaxed. He did not use the memory search capsule for this as he managed to memorize most of the script after reading it a few times. The script basically did not carry any substantive information and was just a simple report of results to showcase the Chinese mathematics world’s strengths while also touching on the Japanese university delegation’s arrival and cooperation. It also talked of what they could work on together in the field of mathematics. There weren’t too many words and it was easy to memorize too.
Suddenly, behind him, something happened.
“Hey!”
“The ball is getting away!”
“Watch out, there’s a car!”
A few people shouted, not too loudly!
Then, the sound of a vehicle braking could be heard. Even though it was not too screeching, the sound still came from out of the nowhere and shocked Zhang Ye. He turned around to where the sounds had come from and saw three tourist buses stopped in the middle of the road. A basketball slowly rolled across the road in front of the bus ahead before bouncing several times down the staircase and ending up in the garden where a willow tree stood.
A female student of Peking University quickly went over to pick it up.
The other male student said, “Oh, sorry, I’m sorry!”
Meanwhile another university freshman looked at the bus driver apologetically and said, “We’re sorry, the ball slipped out of my hands. It’s my fault.”
Around them, some students who were just passing by also stopped in their tracks and looked over to them before quickly turning back to carry on to where they were heading.
But at this moment, a window on the left side of the second bus opened up and a young person, probably a student, put his head out and said, “%^&*(@.”
He obviously did not speak Chinese, saying what sounded like Japanese.
Another student on the bus looked out and appeared to utter a few words as well.
The Peking University freshman looked up. “Japanese?”
Inside the bus, the Japanese students all looked at him. “%^&*(@.”
The second and third buses were also full with Japanese students. All of them suddenly seemed to be exchanging words in Japanese, not only pointing at the person who was playing with the basketball earlier but also the surrounding Peking University students and even teachers, seemingly talking about them. Seeing how these Japanese students looked at them without much respect, they knew for sure that whatever they were talking about right now was definitely not good.
Suddenly, a year 3 female senior who was with her boyfriend at the garden area stared hard at them and stood up, shouting, “Those people are saying that students from Peking University have such low standards!”
When a year 2 male student heard this, he swore and said, “Damn! Did they really say that?”
The female senior said, “Of course! I majored in Japanese! They’re all students from Tokyo University!”
We have low standards?
We, students of Peking University, had low standards?
With this, all of the Peking University students who were present at the scene could not take it any longer!
“How can they say such things!”
“Who are you all referring to as having low standards!”
“Isn’t this just a simple matter of the basketball causing a small delay! Those students have already apologized, so what does that have to do with standards? Even stereotyping all of us at Peking University?”
The surrounding Peking University personnel were now blocking the 3 buses.
The female freshman who went to pick the ball up was furious now. You could have insulted just me, but how dare you insult all of us at Peking University? That’s unacceptable! “Is this the delegation from the Japanese university? Why does our school bother holding a welcome party for people like them? What kind of standards do they have! To talk in such a manner! How dare they insult us when they’re in our Peking University’s campus? Saying that we have low standards? What about yourselves! Look at the standards you have by saying such things about us!”
There was a translator who had come along with the Tokyo University entourage and also students who knew how to speak Chinese in the group. They translated to their fellow schoolmates in the buses and some Peking University students probably went too far with their words as well, thus leaving the Tokyo University group unhappy with what was said as well. A war of words began!
The two sides were arguing noisily!
The first bus ahead impatiently honked its horn continuously. Di, di, di, di, di, di,di, di! In this bus, there weren’t too many young people on it. Most of the passengers onboard were people in their thirties or forties, quite obviously the important heads of this Japanese university delegation. For example, a principal, a head of department, a member of the Japanese education world, or a Japanese journalist.
Finally, the doors on the first bus opened and a middle-aged man got off. He had a dark expression as he waved his hands like he was swatting flies and said hostilely, “Get out of the way! What are you all doing!?”
“Teacher Bai?”
“Teacher Bai!”
Many Peking University students knew him as Teacher Bai Yi, a teacher of the Japanese Department in Peking University. He specialized in the study of Japanese culture and was assigned as one of the persons-in-charge of the receiving party for the Japanese university delegation. He was also one of the people who spearheaded this project for the cooperation and exchange between the Chinese and Japanese universities. As Bai Yi’s wife was Japanese and also a well-known teacher in Tokyo University, Bai Yi had enjoyed good relations with Tokyo University. In the language of the Chinese people, this meant that he was the son-in-law of Tokyo University. The rare exchange and cooperation between Peking University and Tokyo University could only have been possible with him as the matchmaker.
Bai Yi shouted, “Get back, all of you! Do you all even know what situation this is! What day is it today? Such an important exchange and cooperation event is being held! Why are you all causing trouble over here!”
A Peking University freshman stubbornly said, “It was they who started to insult us first!”
Bai Yi stared at him. “Which faculty are you from? Which class?”
When the freshman heard this, he turned timid and stopped talking!
Seeing that many of them no longer said much, Bai Yi pointed at the girl holding the basketball. “If you are playing basketball, go to the basketball courts. Why were you playing over here for! The ball nearly got under the bus! What if the bus overturned because of that? Are you going to be responsible? Go back, all of you! This is ridiculous!”
Another two people got out of the first bus. A man and a woman who had journalist tags hanging from around their necks came forward, and without a word, started snapping pictures of the Peking University students who were blocking the front of the bus. They even exchanged a few whispers in Japanese, talking about something similar sounding to what those Japanese students had said before about standards!
Bai Yi was taken aback when he saw this. He looked at the Peking University students with a cold stare but was more worried about what had just happened. He quickly went to the two and spoke in Chinese, “Reporter Honda, I think it was unnecessary to take those pictures, right?
The reporter named Honda also replied in fluent Chinese, probably because they were the kind of reporters who were foreign correspondents. He said, “We were just taking some photos in case we needed them. Don’t worry about it.”
Bai Yi was indeed getting a little worried. “You mustn’t use that. This was just a one-off case, our Peking University students still have very high standards of behavior.”
The two reporters merely acknowledged him but continued taking photos.
A year 2 student got angry and raged at them, “What the f**k are you taking our pictures for!”
Bai Yi was getting even more annoyed than him. “You’d better shut up!”
“Teacher Bai!” said that Peking University student pointing his fingers at the Japanese. “Those people keep saying that we have low standards and continue to insult us, so why can’t we say a few words ourselves?”
“Right!”
“Why!”
“They are even photographing us! What is the meaning of that!”
More and more people had gathered as many other Peking University students, who had received news of what was happening here, made their way over. Peking University’s personnel were very united. Without even finding out what the situation was about, they followed along with the others who were here before them to surround the buses!
Bai Yi angrily said, “You all threw the basketball into the path of the bus first! Does this even make any sense now?!”
A female Peking University student cleared her throat and said, “What makes you think that was on purpose? It was just an accidental slip of hand and we also came forward to apologize immediately. We even apologized more than once! So why did they have to insult us? Not only that, they even insulted Peking University? They’ve basically insulted everyone from here! If they just insulted me alone, I could bear it! But they shouldn’t have insulted our whole school!”
People from Peking University were very proud of their alma mater and this was a very difficult thing to explain in words!
Those Peking University students who had just arrived on the scene finally understood the situation when they heard that. One by one, they became agitated and started trading insults as well!
“These bunch of Japanese!”
“Coming to our school and insulting us?”
“I would rather welcome a fart than welcome them! Let them go back to where they came from!”
“Coming to Peking University to insult Peking University? Just who are the ones with the low standards here!”
“Get lost! Go back to your country! It’s not like we begged you to come anyway!”
With the history of hatred between the two countries, many people already did not harbor any good feelings in the first place for the Japanese. Furthermore, these were all youths who were hot-blooded, and angry youths in their twenties who were forced to take part in some welcoming ceremony for the Japanese guests. When these guests arrived, they still showed disrespect for their school and insulted them, so naturally tempers flared and many of these those who were there informed their friends to come over to the scene!
“Hello? Wang’er, come quickly!”
“The foreigners are looking for trouble in our territory!”
“Come over quickly! Something’s happened over here! At the garden on the west side of the artificial lake!”
Phone call after phone call. Soon the lakeside was surrounded by over a thousand students. As this area was not far from the student dormitories, everyone made their way here very quickly and a crowd had formed!
Finally, a middle-aged Japanese person stepped out of the first bus. He looked to be the person-in-charge of the delegation and had an expression of displeasure. He looked at Bai Yi and obviously had a lot of questions for him, but who could have expected such a situation to have happened.
Bai Yi was about to explode from his anger as well. He had pushed hard for the exchange program to happen this time. But something so unhappy had occurred even before the exchange could officially kick off. Although this wasn’t likely to affect the cooperation and exchange of both sides, it had still stained all the effort they had put in so far. Bai Yi explained to the Japanese side quickly and offered them his apologies, “It is our negligence that this is happening and have caused you, our guests, to be frightened unnecessarily. I will handle this promptly!”
The middle-aged Japanese man nodded before getting back onto the bus unhappily.