Chapter 1098 - 822: Disgusting People (2)

"Has Bi Yanling been borrowing the laboratory recently?"

"No." Shi Qianqian shook her head.

"I see." Bai Qinghua sighed, "I’ll make a call, it’s not really a big deal."

Bai Qinghua took out his phone again, but it wasn’t the same target as before.

Before pressing the call button, Bai Qinghua looked up, "How many of us are evaluated by Bi Yanling?"

"Just one, Xiaowan." Shi Qianqian replied.

"That kid spent the whole summer busy with her article, very dedicated." In Bai Qinghua’s mind, a youthful and beautiful image of a bun head appeared.

Unwilling to see the student’s hard work harshly criticized by someone clueless, Bai Qinghua sighed and pressed the call button.

-----------------

Bai Qinghua and Shi Qianqian didn’t let the rest of the project group know about these behind-the-scenes matters.

This isn’t something suitable for publicizing.

The next morning, as per the college’s notice, the project proposal presentations began at 8:30 AM.

Nan Zhubin, Mo Kai, and others received the grouping list the night before, which listed all the second-year graduate students’ presentation times, classroom numbers, and sequence numbers.

All the classroom doors were wide open. Even during the presentations, they wouldn’t be closed—this was to facilitate first-year students who wanted to audit. Many first-year students wouldn’t sit through a session in one classroom but would move between classrooms to attend presentations they were interested in.

The college encouraged this behavior.

In addition to this interest-driven rotation method, Nan Zhubin and others specifically marked the presentation times of their senior and junior colleagues from the project group.

"You’re here."

As soon as they entered the classroom, familiar faces greeted Nan Zhubin and the others.

A youthful and beautiful bun head appeared in their view.

Everyone had a strong impression of Senior Sister Bun Head, after all, she was the only student who presented at the first group meeting of the semester, having completed the workload of a thesis at the beginning of the second year, and accumulated considerable internship experience, making her the epitome of an Outer Disciple.

Senior Sister Bun Head was also the first to present among all the seniors and juniors in the project group, so Nan Zhubin and the others chose the current classroom as their first stop.

Even though she felt prepared, Senior Sister Bun Head was still a bit nervous when it came time to present. She returned to her seat after a simple greeting, opened her laptop, and started organizing her presentation PPT.

The second-year students scheduled to report sat at the front of the classroom, while the auditing students sat at the back.

The first row of the classroom had several long tables combined to form the judges’ panel, marked with nameplates, scoring sheets, pens, and disposable cups. The seats behind were empty—the evaluating professors hadn’t arrived yet.

Nan Zhubin and Mo Kai chose seats on the side.

Nan Zhubin habitually surveyed his surroundings and, as expected, noticed that most second-year students had a repressed nervous expression on their faces.

A few people huddled together, whispering about something, their voices kept low, but occasionally a sentence or two escaped.

"...This group is especially strict."

"Mr. Chen, Teacher Bi are both here."

"And there’s Teacher Yan, I’ve heard she’s really particular. Last year, she was the only one to outright reject a research direction during her evaluation group, and didn’t let others pass without revisions..."

Nan Zhubin sat in the back row, quietly listening to the fragmented discussions.

It sounded like a death group.

He couldn’t help but look at Senior Sister Bun Head sitting in front, who was also affected by the atmosphere and started occasionally moving her fingers, but overall remained calm.

Time passed minute by minute. Another quarter past eight-thirty, and the judges’ seats were still empty.

At eight-fifty, still no one had arrived.

Students in the meeting room started looking down at their phones, some even left the room to go to other classrooms.

You could already hear the sound of student presentations starting next door.

Mo Kai glanced at Nan Zhubin and said softly, "The teachers for this group are all late."

Nan Zhubin didn’t respond.

It wasn’t until nine o’clock that footsteps were heard at the door.

Surprisingly, five teachers arrived together.

Leading the way was the oldest-looking teacher, with a balding head, wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt. He clutched an eye-catching, roughly two-liter transparent jug filled with tea leaves unknown to the students. He walked briskly to the main seat in the center, set down the jug with a dull "thud" on the table.

Following him was a tall, thin man who, despite the thirty-some-degree weather, wore a dark gray suit jacket with the collar buttoned tightly. If it weren’t for the central air conditioning in the college building, Nan Zhubin guessed this teacher would already be sweating profusely.

The third and fourth teachers who followed didn’t leave any special impression.

Bi Yanling, carrying a small thermos, was last.

She took her seat at the edge of the five-person panel. Instead of sitting down, she first adjusted the nameplate with "Bi Yanling" written on it before shaking her thermos.

A disposable water cup was placed at each judging seat, and each classroom had an assistant student volunteer responsible for sign-ins, records, and other odd tasks.

Seeing Bi Yanling’s actions, the assistant student instinctively glanced at the hot water bottle at his feet—serving each judge with water was also part of his duty.

He was about to say something when Bi Yanling’s eyes suddenly lit up.

"Hey, Xiaolan, you’re just the one I need!"

Blue Tie, who had just entered with Nan Zhubin and Mo Kai, was surprised upon hearing this.

"Could you get me a cup of water? The water dispenser is down the hallway." Bi Yanling smiled brightly.

Blue Tie silently stood up, took Bi Yanling’s thermos, and went out. The other teachers were reviewing the forms on the table, confirming attendance with the assistant student.

"Everyone’s here, let’s begin then."

The teacher in the center, known as Teacher Waterpot, used the lid of his jug as a teacup and poured a cup of hot tea.

"Time is a bit tight today, let’s try to finish early, everyone should present a bit faster."

A second-year female student sitting in the front row immediately stood up upon hearing this. She walked to the podium, displaying an expected nervousness on her face. The projector in the classroom had already been loaded with all the students’ presentations, and she opened hers directly.

"Hello, teachers, my opening topic is ’The Impact of Original Family Communication Patterns on College Students’ Intimate Relationship Quality—An Analysis Based on Longitudinal Tracking Data’..."

She was indeed very nervous. The first step of the presentation was supposed to introduce her name, major, and advisor, but she directly launched into the topic.

Nan Zhubin listened silently.

Blue Tie returned quickly, holding the thermos with both hands as he handed it to Bi Yanling amid the presentation. Just as he was about to turn and go back to his seat, Bi Yanling called out to him.

"Wait—Xiaolan, how are your classes recently? Any academic pressure?"

Bi Yanling asked with a smile, as if there was no student currently presenting on stage.

Blue Tie paused, lowered his voice, and hesitated for a moment, "...It’s okay."

"That’s good, you were the first to volunteer to be my class representative, so I knew you were an active student."

Bi Yanling smiled warmly, "I checked the last version of the PPT you sent, and it looks great. We’ll use it for tomorrow morning’s class."

Hearing this, Blue Tie breathed a slight sigh of relief.

"Since it’s ready, why don’t you lead today’s afternoon class?" But Bi Yanling continued, "You’ve reviewed so much literature for this PPT, and prepared a thorough overview. Don’t you want to share and showcase it with your classmates?"

The half-sigh of relief Blue Tie had exhaled got stuck in his throat.

"Don’t worry~" Seeing the student’s nervousness, Bi Yanling comforted him understandingly, "Just treat it like you’re presenting at a group meeting. I saw your framework, it’s very clear, and you can deliver it independently."

"I’ll add ten points to your usual score, prepare well and good luck!" Bi Yanling patted Blue Tie on the shoulder.

With that said, she turned away before Blue Tie could respond.

On stage, the first second-year student was switching her PPT.