Chapter 96: A Touching Misunderstanding
Hearing Li Wenzhong's words, Liu Shang laughed along with him. "How could that be? Am I really that bad?"
"Ms. Li, teachers, I truly came here this time to apologize."
Li Wenzhong and the other teachers couldn't help but snort softly. "You don't look very repentant to me."
"On the contrary, you're smiling rather brightly for someone who's here to apologize!"
"Well, I couldn't very well come into the teachers' office crying, could I?"
Liu Shang smiled wryly and took the lecture notes he had prepared from his bag.
"Ms. Li, teachers, the truth is, I was only able to achieve such results because of the high quality of your teaching."
"And I'm really not as arrogant as you might imagine, nor was I ignoring your courses."
"I wasn't frequently absent from class because I wanted to be."
"This semester, I've been working part-time at a private oil company off-campus, so I've had to come back at night to transcribe the class notes."
"Almost every night, I've fallen asleep studying these very notes."
Hearing Liu Shang's words, Li Wenzhong and the other teachers frowned skeptically, then took the notebooks from him to have a look.
To their surprise, the notes were indeed neat, and the pages were obviously well-worn, as if they had been used for several years.
Of course, these notes weren't actually recorded by Liu Shang; they were all written by Cheng Meng.
Cheng Meng was a relatively low-key student who always sat in the back row of the classroom, so the teachers didn't pay much attention to him.
As for the level of wear on these notes, it could only be considered average for a student like Cheng Meng.
It was easy to imagine how grueling this semester must have been for all the first-year students of the School of Chemistry.
"An oil service company? A part-time job?"
"You're a student. Instead of focusing on your studies, you're working part-time every day?" Li Wenzhong was the first to express his doubts.
Liu Shang offered a sad, emotional smile.
"Ms. Li, this is a university campus—an ivory tower of youthful freedom. Who would choose to go work at a private company if they had another choice?"
"That company isn't a charity; they don't tolerate slackers."
"I have to work hard there, and then come back to school and study day and night."
"But I really had no other choice. If there were any other option, I wouldn't choose such a life, not even if I closed my eyes and picked."
"However, for me now, I am very satisfied just to be able to attend this university and have the opportunity to learn from all of you."
At that moment, Liu Shang's expressive performance reached its peak.
Li Wenzhong and the other teachers who were watching couldn't help but frown.
"Liu Shang, are your family's finances tight?"
"Do you have to work part-time to pay for your tuition and living expenses?"
"If that's the case, why didn't you say so sooner?"
Liu Shang gave a pure, sunny smile, looking quite calm. "It's just like my attitude when I first walked into your office."
"If life is a choice between optimism and pessimism, I choose the former."
"I have a healthy body and a sound mind, so I don't want to rely on the sympathy of my teachers and classmates."
"As for these hardships and difficulties, I choose to face them optimistically."
"The only regret is that I've missed out on a lot of the good times in college."
"Perhaps you teachers don't realize it, but I truly envy the students who can sit in the classroom and listen to your lectures during quiet, leisurely afternoons."
"As for me, I can only study in secret, reading by flashlight under my bed in the middle of the night or out in the dormitory corridor."
After hearing Liu Shang's words, Li Wenzhong and the other teachers fell into a quiet, emotional silence.
At that moment, Chen Hongsheng, a senior mathematics teacher for the freshmen from another college, walked in quickly.
When he saw Liu Shang was there, he was obviously taken aback. "Oh, Liu Shang, you're here too?"
"Perfect timing! Let me ask you, do you know Xu Tiande, the former vice dean of your School of Chemistry?"
Liu Shang nodded with a smile. "Yes, Professor Chen. I work part-time at the company where Professor Xu is."
"I often get to learn technical knowledge from him, but I didn't know he used to be the vice dean of the School of Chemistry."
Upon hearing the conversation between them, many of the teachers present were shocked.
"Liu Shang?"
"You work with Dean Xu?"
"Speaking of which, Professor Xu taught many of us here."
"And Professor Chen, what's going on?"
At this point, Chen Hongsheng, who already understood the situation, smiled and explained.
"Over the past couple of days, many of us teachers in other colleges received calls from Dean Xu, asking us to go easy on this kid."
"Dean Xu said that Liu Shang's family situation isn't very good and that he's been working under him at his company all semester."
"However, he said the boy works extremely hard, both at his job and in his studies."
"He asked that we not give him a hard time, if possible."
"It wasn't just me; many other teachers received calls from Dean Xu as well."
"As you know, Dean Xu has always been a good man, and his former students are everywhere. This is the first time I've ever seen him personally step in to vouch for someone."
"Liu Shang, you must be very important to him!"
With that, the whole story became clear, and the teachers of the School of Chemistry were suddenly enlightened.
Now that even the ever-reserved Xu Tiande had personally interceded for Liu Shang, it showed how highly he thought of the young man.
How could a student that Xu Tiande thought so highly of be the slacker they had all imagined him to be?
It seemed there were far, far too many misunderstandings about Liu Shang!
Thinking about it, for a freshman like Liu Shang to be able to submit such exam papers in every one of his professional courses, he must have put in an unimaginable amount of hard work.
A boy his age was working hard for tuition and living expenses during the day, then staying up late at night to study.
And all the while, he had to silently endure the misunderstandings and judgmental looks from his teachers and classmates.
Just thinking about what he must have gone through was heartbreaking.
Such hardship was far more than a boy his age should have to bear.
Teachers are truly the kindest and most emotional group of people in the world.
As they imagined his situation, his difficulties, and his positive outlook on life, several of the female teachers were so touched and distressed that their eyes turned red.
Their glasses began to fog up.
At this time, Li Wenzhong and the other teachers also felt a deep sense of guilt for having made things so difficult for Liu Shang, a fine young man of good character and academic ability.
"Sigh!"
"You foolish boy!"
"No matter how positive you are, if you're having difficulties, you should have told us, or at least your counselor."
"If we had known your situation, your freshman year wouldn't have been, and shouldn't have been, so stressful."
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