Chapter 244 - Sophomore Exchange

“Don’t they always exchange sophomores? Surely it has nothing to do with us.”

Sophomores are unlike freshmen. Sophomores have already taken some of the core classes, and they have a certain level of understanding of the subjects, although they still have a lot to learn.

And they are unlike juniors. Juniors are about to graduate, and most are already planning for work or for graduate school.

The difference between sophomores and seniors are even more obvious.

Exchanging sophomores is the most productive thing to do, because a lot of discussion takes place, and the discussion helps in securing the fundamentals.

Of course, the exchange program is also meant as a sort of competition.

Tsinghua University and Beijing University have been longtime competitors in all fields. Their rivalry has never ceased.

“But we have Tan Mo and they don’t,” Professor Zhao said with confidence. “Tan Mo, I’ve put your name on the exchange list. Tomorrow, you attend the exchange group and go with the other second-year students as part of the exchange.”

“Another competition?” Tan Mo wanted to ask because she was a peaceful person and disliked competition.

“Not a competition.” Professor Zhao laughed. “Just an exchange to discuss and share ideas about the subject of history. You will be able to discuss one on one, or you can also discuss in small teams. Of course, everyone will, in their own minds, compare what you know to what they know. So in an inconspicuous sort of way, you will be competing with students from the other school.”

She knew it before he said it. Tan Mo thought to herself, otherwise the professor wouldn’t have asked her to attend the program.

“Professor, I am after all a student from the school of finance, so is it proper for me to join an activity like this from the school of history?” Tan Mo chimed in again, in an attempt to change his mind.

“So what? You are in the Finance Department, but you attended the Ancient Text Competition last year.” The professor wanted to flick Tan Mo on the forehead out of frustration. “What do you mean by that? In your heart, am I not as important as Professor Guo?”

“Of course. Of course.” Tan Mo waved her hands hurriedly and said, “I’m just afraid the Tsinghua students will jabber about it. That for an exchange between students of the school of history, you all had to find help from a student from the school of finance.”

Professor Zhao caught his breath for a moment.

What a thing! She sure was good at saying things that angered him.

“Then transfer to the school of history, and everything will be fine. Isn’t that a good idea?” Professor Zhao wanted her to transfer to the school of history, but Tan Mo wouldn’t.

Tan Mo wasn’t sure how to respond. “……”

…

Last time they had to travel to Tsinghua for the exchange, but this year the exchange was happening on their own campus, which was a lot more convenient.

The time of the exchange happened to coincide with Tan Mo’s finance classes, so she had to request an absence.

Professor Zhao took her to the exchange location himself.

There weren’t a lot of students. Including Tan Mo, there was only 15 students.

After just a little bit, the Tsinghua exchange students arrived at Beijing University, brought to the exchange location by Professor Hu of Beijing’s History Department.

As they were walking, the Tsinghua students chatted without lowering their voices, as if they weren’t afraid that others might hear what they said.

“Last time, during the Ancient Text Competition, our school lost badly. This time we are just discussing and exchanging ideas, but it is a sort of competition,” said Yang Guangyuan, a young man with some white hair. He continued, “This time, we’ve got to get back at them no matter what.”

“That’s right, we’ve got to make up for that loss this time. Last time, we lost by such a huge amount, and it was so embarrassing,” said a girl with a high ponytail. She wore a pair of round glasses, and her name was written on a name tag around her neck: Hao Yidan.

“How could their school of language compare with our school of history? Our school of history has always been ranked number one. Our school of history is unlike our school of language. Sometimes it’s first, and sometimes it’s second. They are always changing rankings,” said a boy named Qu Yuanqi.

On the road, they discussed all of this without lowering their voices, as if they weren’t afraid that others might hear what they said.

Professor Hu listened as they discussed all of that without lowering their voices, without heeding those around them, and she frowned. These students seemed to be very full of themselves, and they seemed confident that they would win against Beijing University.

Those Tsinghua students are excessively proud, Professor Hu thought to herself, every single one of them.

So I guess it’s not only Tsinghua students from the school of language, but also from the school of history, she thought.

“I heard that one of Professor Zhao’s students was hired as the historical consultant for ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’. Who was it? Is that student here today?” said a boy next to Yang Guangyuan. The boy’s name was Luo Xiangwei, and he continued nonchalantly, “It’s so boring to exchange with Beijing University’s second-year students. They aren’t good enough to exchange with us. Discussing history with them will have no benefit for us because they hardly know anything. But I am interested in that historical consultant of ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’. If there is an opportunity, I’d like to discuss history with that student.”

Professor Hu looked toward the Tsinghua professor leading these exchange students.

Wasn’t he going to say something to his students? Professor Hu thought to herself again, those Tsinghua students are so full of themselves!

Beijing University and Tsinghua University had been competitors for a long time, and their students were also very competitive with one another. In private, a lot of them said bad things about the other. That is understandable.

But that is in private. It’s fine to gossip like that in private, but right now they are on the campus of Beijing University. Isn’t it too much for them to gossip about Beijing University students on the Beijing University campus?

These students have no character.

So what if they had good grades? Professor Hu thought to herself, good character and judgment were more important than good grades. Was it really okay for them to talk like that?

She thought it was so weird…for some reason, Tsinghua students all seemed to be of poor character and judgment.

Confidence was different from being impolite. The two are completely different.

The Tsinghua professor saw the look on Professor Hu’s face, but pretended not to see anything and continued walking as if he had heard nothing from his students.

Professor Hu’s face sank and she made a quiet HMPH.

Then she heard Yang Guangyuan say, “What you said was right. I also want to see that student. That historical consultant is pretty darn good. I’ve also watched ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’, and I paid particular attention to the details. Everything was done according to the right historical context.

“Seeing how refined the tv series was, I guess the historical consultant is from Professor Zhao’s team. I heard that he is a mentor to all his research students, so maybe that student got help from him.”

Qu Yuanqi raised his voice and asked, “Professor Hu, do you know who was the historical consultant for ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’? If that student has time today, could you invite her to come to the exchange event? I’d like to discuss ideas with her.”

Professor Hu is a teacher from the school of history, so of course she knew who he was referring to.

Tan Mo got the two highest scholarships partly because of her work on “Legend of Wei and Jin”.

Once she had been hired as a historical consultant, word spread around film circles by Director Liu, so everyone knew that Tan Mo was from Beijing University. This was even featured on headline news…although the article didn’t specify who she was, everyone knew that she was one of Professor Zhao’s research students.

Beijing University was very proud of her.

It took an entire two weeks for “Legend of Wei and Jin” to finish airing, and every single day of that two weeks, Principle Mu had a big smile on his face, and now his face was even more wrinkly than before.

Professor Hu was surprised. Those Tsinghua students were rude, but they still wanted to exchange ideas with Tan Mo. If they knew that Tan Mo was one of the exchange students, she wondered what expression they would make.

She was already anticipating it.

Professor Hu had a devious look on her face. She said, “I’m not so sure. Professor Zhao likes to keep things to himself, so he doesn’t go around talking about this much. He doesn’t say, and we don’t ask.”

The Tsinghua students were suspicious.

“Professor Hu, you are a history teacher at Beijing University, and you don’t even know who the historical consultant of ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’ is?”

“It isn’t such a big deal anyway.” Professor Hu smiled nonchalantly.

“Beijing University and its students and staff are rather modest. Besides, students at Beijing University are used to getting honors like this. For others, this would probably be a big deal, and they would brag about it wherever they went, but we are used to it already, so we didn’t make a big deal out of it.”