Chapter 554 Troublemaker Zhang Ye!
The conflict was gradually getting bigger and bigger.
The number of people who were blockading the road kept increasing!
Yao Mi, Li Li, and Li Ying, along with a few other classmates who were supposed to be headed to the hall to get seats, had also been called over by their friends. When they understood the situation here, what else could they say but to also start their scolding those people!
“So numbing!” Li Ying said.
Li Li said angrily, “They came to our house and bullied our family?”
Yao Mi pointed at the buses and said, “You are the ones with truly low standards! Your whole family is low quality!”
The straight-A student, Senior Song from Zhang Ye’s elective course last semester, was here as well. She did not scold anyone but there was a dark expression on her face. She said, “In the past, it has always been a crossing of swords on a diplomatic level. No matter how ruffian or shameless they are, at most there would be an argument over the internet. Now that we’re holding a ceremony to welcome them, these people are still the same and even scolded and looked down on us on such an occasion. What is the meaning of that? They even walked right up to our doorstep to scold us?”
The class troublemaker, Senior Zhou, led the protests, “Get out! Peking University does not welcome you all!”
“Right!”
“Get out!”
“Get the hell out of here!”
Everyone protested loudly!
The Japanese students in the second and third buses did not show any signs of weakness either. Although they had less people, they also had their pride. When they were faced with this situation, they scolded the protesters back in Japanese!
Bai Yi anxiously said, “Get back, all of you! Get back now!”
At the beginning when there were less people, Bai Yi could hold back the students with just his voice. But when the number of people protesting increased, Bai Yi could no longer do much. No one bothered with him anymore. He had lost his position when he did not stand up for the Peking University students after they had been insulted by the Japanese students. He even apologized to the Japanese delegates? Putting our status beneath theirs? Are you a teacher of Peking University or Tokyo University! And so, the Peking University students had their trust in Bai Yi plummet!
The three buses were blocked by the people and could not move.
Zhang Ye, sitting cross-legged at the long bench in the garden, was observing all of the goings-on but did not go forward to do anything. Since the Peking University students did not suffer any loss and were already surrounding the Japanese, if he were to go forward now, should he be calming the situation down or joining in the scolding as well? Both were not viable options, so he might as well just stay where he was.
In this conflict, it was difficult to assign blame to either side. The Peking University students should have been more careful and not caused the incident of the basketball slipping from their hands. But after having apologized for their wrong, the Japanese students should also have not insulted them. Both sides had their fair share of the fault, together with Bai Yi not effectively doing his duty as a Peking University teacher. And the most obvious problem was the existence of nationalistic differences—all of these were the contributing factors that inspired this conflict!
There were over a thousand students by now, so the teachers and heads of the school were naturally alarmed as well. As a large portion of the teachers were in meetings or had already proceeded to the hall, most of them arrived late!
The first one to turn up was a leader of Peking University who shouted out from a far distance away upon reaching the lake, “Make way!”
A big group of teachers following behind also rushed over angrily, with Professor Yan from the Chinese Department being one of them. Looking at their expressions, it could be seen that the situation here was giving them all a headache. Before all this, the chancellor’s office had specially instructed each faculty’s teachers to perform their duties diligently. They were to ensure that everything would go smoothly during this Sino-Japanese University Exchange program, but who knew that such a big incident had already occurred when the guest had just arrived!
Su Na had keen eyes and spotted someone familiar. “Teacher Zhang?”
Professor Yan also saw Zhang Ye and got even angrier. “Zhang Ye, the students are making such a mess here! Why are you still not doing anything and just sitting around over here!”
Zhang Ye replied in a serious tone, “I was waiting for a chance to make my move.”
Professor Zeng, “………”
Professor Yan, “……..”
Waiting for a chance my ass! He definitely did not intend on getting involved. Since no one got hurt and there was no fighting, with the Peking University students scolding so passionately and happily, he wanted them to enjoy themselves a little longer. A chance to scold the Japanese in a face-to-face encounter was so rare. Yes, that was what Zhang Ye thought to himself, but as a teacher of the people, he definitely could not say that out loud.
Su Na, who understood Zhang Ye better than any of their colleagues, also thought to herself that with Zhang Ye’s temperament, you all are still expecting him to go stop the protest? Hur, you won’t even know which side he will stand on!
A Peking University teacher said, “Stand back! Everyone, quiet!”
Yao Mi was still scolding with her hands out, pointing to the bus window, “You! You shorty! What are you looking at! That’s right, I’m scolding you! This is infuriating! How dare you spit at me!”
Professor Yan halted the protest by saying, “Who dares to continue shouting!”
With that intervention by him, many of the protesters immediately quieted down. As there were a lot of Peking University teachers present now and many of them were even the main subject teachers of these students, most of them did not dare go further than what they did already.
The school’s head teachers said, “What is this nonsense! This is absolute nonsense!”
Su Na also pulled a student back, “Zhao Mian, stop it!”
Professor Zeng looked over to his own students and signaled for them to stop it.
Gradually, the Peking University students all calmed down but many of them were still staring at the people on board the buses.
Sensing the situation under control, Bai Yi walked over to the teachers in a rage. “This bunch of students! Do they even know the graveness of the situation? Find the protest leaders! Those guilty will be severely punished!”
The teachers who had just arrived also understood the situation. One middle-aged woman who taught sociology and felt sorry for her students said, “It’s just a small misunderstanding. I don’t think there’s a need to mete out severe punishment for this. We should just criticize them and let them learn from this instead.”
However, Professor Yan disagreed, “The effects of today’s behavior are grave. We need to teach them a lesson and give them an ideological education, so punishment is definitely necessary!”
Another teacher said, “Indeed, this is not acceptable!”
A deputy director from the Office of School Leadership said, “If we hadn’t stopped this in time, it would have gone out of hand for sure!”
The Sino-Japanese cooperation at this time was prioritized as very important by Peking University. The Japanese Prime Minister was also making a visit to China and heavily emphasized the new developments between the two countries in the media. With such heavyweight backing behind this matter, what they were most afraid of was precisely anti-Japanese sentiments like that. The news of students blockading a bus full of Japanese students greatly highlighted such sentiments and was taken very seriously. At a sensitive time like this, this could even be implicated as a diplomatic issue and become a complicated matter.
As a result, a Peking University leader immediately looked for the Japanese delegation’s person-in-charge on the first bus to explain the situation, resolving the matter privately. A few other Peking University staff members also communicated with the Japanese reporters to persuade them to not report on this matter.
With the incident over.
The rest was only rehabilitation work.
After Bai Yi sought the approval of the school’s head teachers, he was ready to mete out the punishment to those involved. But it was impossible to do so on so many people. There were thousands of them, so he decided to only find those leaders of the protest or those who had scolded most fiercely to set an example for punishment!
“You!” Bai Yi looked around and picked out a freshman out of the crowd, “Were you the one who threw the ball onto the road?”
The freshman was frightened by this singling out. As he was from a poor family in a small county of the city, him making it to Peking University had already been a difficult task. When he heard that he would be punished, his face turned pale.
Bai Yi looked at him and said, “It was you, wasn’t it? I remember that it was you!”
The freshman was about to falter.
Zhang Ye looked at him and said, “It wasn’t him.”
Bai Yi looked over. “Eh?”
“I was seating at the garden all this time and I saw everything very clearly,” Zhang Ye said frankly.
Bai Yi frowned. “I remember that it was him. He was wearing a baseball cap.”
Zhang Ye shook his head. “The one who was playing basketball was indeed wearing a baseball cap, but it’s a blue cap.”
“Really? Uh.” As there were too many people there, students of similar ages, all with a nose and two eyes, so it was normal that they couldn’t differentiate the students apart too easily. It would be more of a shock if someone could really remember what or who they saw in that crowd.
Not far away.
No matter how Yao Mi looked at him, she still found Bai Yi irritating. She whispered in a low voice, “He can’t even remember a face, how lousy. This Bai Yi only knows how to make things difficult for Peking University students. So what if he has a Japanese wife. Does that make him truly Japanese? He’s just working for them!”
But Li Li voiced some doubts, “That can’t be.”
The elder brother of the twins, Li Ying, said, “Why?”
Li Li explained, “When Dongzi called us just now, she mentioned that it was Chen Dahai from her class who caused the basketball incident Isn’t that person Chen Dahai?”
Yao Mi was stunned. “Do you mean…”
Li Li nodded. “Yes.”
Yao Mi slapped one of her legs. “So even Uncle Zhang remembered it incorrectly!”
“Ah?” Li Li nearly fainted when he heard that. “Don’t you get it? Teacher was here since the beginning. How could he have gotten it wrong?”
Yao Mi still couldn’t react well. “What do you mean?”
Li Ying thought it through and then took a deep breath before explaining, “Mimi, do you remember that when Teacher Zhang spoke about Dream of the Red Chamber, he did so without the help of a script? He just closed his eyes and could describe the chapter and passage of Dream of the Red Chamber without getting it wrong, right down to the punctuation. With a memory like that, do you think that Teacher Zhang would get it wrong when the person is standing right in front of him?”
Hearing that, Yao Mi finally understood what he meant. She said loudly, “You’re saying that…”
“Shh.” Li Li quickly covered her mouth. “My grandaunt! Don’t say it so loudly!”
Yao Mi immediately nodded and looked at Zhang Ye with stars shining in her eyes.
When the freshman heard Zhang Ye defending him, he was also stunned. Not me? How could it not be me? It was me! I was the one who accidentally threw the basketball out! Why is Teacher Zhang Ye…thinking up to there, the freshman suddenly understood. He stared at Zhang Ye and thought that he saw him surreptitiously winking him. At this moment, his heart was warmed and his eyes turned red!
Teacher Zhang was lying!
He knew very well that it was him! But blatantly said that it wasn’t!
A teacher was actually lying so that he could defend him!
Other than being moved, the freshman did not know how to react or feel!