DCBS: Chapter 51

The surrounding air seemed to fall quiet at Bai Shuqiao’s gentle and kind voice. Many students showed incredulous expressions on their faces before they quickly controlled them. Even so, their eyes lingered on this inconspicuous life teacher.

There was no surprise on Xiao Jianping’s face as he reached out with a smile to shake Bai Shuqiao’s hand. “It has been two or three years, right? My white hair is coming out but you haven’t changed at all.”

Hearing this, Bai Shuqiao couldn’t help glancing at Xiao Xinchen standing beside him. “Xinchen is about to take the college entrance examination, right? You have grown a lot taller and you are a handsome guy. Say hello to your mother for me.”

“Hello, Aunt Bai.” Xiao Xinchen was well-versed in business communication. “You are really getting younger and younger. Once I go to college, I should call you Sister.”

Bai Shuqiao was amused by him and the atmosphere became more relaxed. She asked Xiao Jianping curiously. “Are you bringing students here?”

The first lecture of the afternoon was on the topic of artificial intelligence and she had a vague impression of the keynote speaker, Qi Shao. She remembered that he should be Xiao Jianping’s proud protege.

Xiao Jianping nodded. “Forget it. I will look at the demeanor of young people.”

The two of them talked very happily, but it had a different meaning when it fell into other people’s eyes.

The few people who had been mocking others just now all stopped at this time. Then they heard Bai Shuqiao talk about bringing students and said in a low, disdainful voice, “It is really a life teacher…”

“He just has a small friendship with Teacher Bai in private, as if he is so powerful.”

In particular, their expressions were even uglier when they saw Xiao Jianping start to introduce Pei Qingyuan and the others to Bai Shuqiao.

“Teacher Bai, let me introduce you to a few children I have met recently. This is Qingyuan and a few of his classmates…”

They found that Bai Shuqiao seemed to be giving this life teacher a lot of face. Not only did she greet the exchange students from the 2nd High School one by one, but she also asked with a smile if they had any opinions and suggestions about this lecture.

Lin Zihai and Shen Yiming came into contact with an unattainable famous scholar in the blink of an eye and looked dreamy. They pinched each other to make sure that this wasn’t a dream.

“Teacher Bai, I’ve been watching your show since middle school.” Lin Zihai was a bit incoherent with excitement. “My parents also watched it with me and they like you very much. They definitely won’t believe that I shook hands with you today!”

“Thank you,” Bai Shuqiao responded with a smile. Then she suggested in a brisk tone, “ It just so happens that Old Xiao brought a camera. Do you want to take a photo now? In this way, there will be evidence when you go back to tell your parents.”

The leaders and reporters of Chengde High School, who wanted to communicate more with Bai Shuqiao, were left aside. The other students who wanted autographs held books, paper and pens in their hands and could only watch as Bai Shuqiao chatted with these students of the 2nd High School and took photos.

For a time, countless envious eyes were cast on them.

Pei Qingyuan’s expression remained calm. It wasn’t until the second lecture in the morning was about to start and Xiao Jianping and Bai Shuqiao were preparing to leave the venue one after another that he thanked the two people very seriously.

Before today, Xiao Jianping only knew him and not Shen Yiming and the others. Even so, he took the initiative to introduce Bai Shuqiao just now. It was obviously to comfort these high school students he had never met before.

Bai Shuqiao was also very cooperative. Maybe she had heard those discordant voices when she walked over, so she chose to use such a quiet way to help the unfamiliar child who was ridiculed.

Professor Xiao’s old friends all had similar temperaments to him.

After Bai Shuqiao left, the excitement of Lin Zihai and the others was completely different. The boys in the front row were full of resentment. A group of unknowledgeable students was being ridiculed by them one second, only to be cordially greeted by a famous scholar the next second. This sudden sense of gap upset them.

“There is just a small personal friendship but they are going on endlessly…”

“Others are giving them face and they still think of themselves as some type of character.”

In the end, it was a public place and this group of people didn’t dare shout it loudly. They just vented their grievances in low voices and Pei Qingyuan and Shen Yiming didn’t hear them.

But Ji Tong heard them.

Not only did he hear it but he happily opened the album of Black History of Ruthless Words.

It would be a precious piece of material again.

Ji Tong had already started to look forward to the wonderful faces of this group of people after they found out Xiao Jianping’s true identity.

For the second lecture, the keynote speaker was a gentle and refined philosophy teacher. Unlike Bai Shuqiao’s easy to understand style, he thought about things that would seem obscure to the average person but it was very charming.

Pei Qingyuan listened very seriously. Mushroom lying on his lap quietly closed his eyes and dozed off while Shen Yiming, who was sitting next to him, got up and left the scene very quietly.

“Where are you going?” Lin Zihai took time out of trying to understand the abstract philosophical world to ask him.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

But after Shen Yiming left the lecture hall, he didn’t go to the bathroom. He instead sat on a stone bench on the side of the road and stared blankly.

The approachable Bai Shuqiao had allowed him to experience some indescribable surprise but after this excitement faded, the sense of detachment became more and more obvious.

He wasn’t stupid. He could see that Bai Shuqiao had a good relationship with the unknown Teacher Xiao and he could also see that Teacher Xiao was very close to Pei Qingyuan. He could talk and communicate on an equal footing with a person previously seen only on TV due to the light of others, not because of how good he was.

Shen Yiming could feel the goodwill hidden in it and this made him more deeply aware of his own weakness.

The words of the Chengde students were hard to hear but they were right.

His world was indeed small. Apart from the thick stack of textbooks, everything else was blank.

He could memorize the regular knowledge printed in the textbook backwards. The philosophical theories that shimmered with the crystallization of the wisdom of countless famous masters were like heavenly books to him.

However, in the lecture hall just now, there were obviously many students who listened in an immersed manner.

Shen Yiming found it difficult to clarify his complicated mood at this moment. He could only hang his head and stare blankly at the ants crawling away silently from his feet.

After an unknown amount of time, a voice called out to him uncertainly.

“Shen Yiming?”

Shen Yiming raised his head in a daze and saw a familiar face. He realized after a while and responded, “Lin Yan?”

Shen Yiming had always been first in the year at the 2nd High School before. He had been in contact with several top students with similar grades. Therefore, he knew Lin Yan. However, Lin Yan transferred away after the summer vacation. He knew the story behind it seemed to be all the rage in school, but he never paid attention to it.

Hearing the name that had been abandoned a long time ago, Pei Yan was stunned and didn’t correct it.

He held a large stack of papers and had been walking toward a certain teaching building when he suddenly saw an old classmate he hadn’t seen for a long time. He wanted to turn and leave but he stopped for an unknown reason.

Shen Yiming exuded a sense of loss that he was familiar with.

“Why are you sitting here? Are you okay?”

Shen Yiming shook his head and tried to make his tone look normal. “It’s okay. I’m just a bit sleepy listening to the lecture and came out to breathe.”

“What about you?” Shen Yiming turned to ask him. “Why didn’t you come to the lecture? There are so many great teachers.”

“I really wanted to go. It is a pity that I am busy with club affairs these days.” Pei Yan smiled. “I will hold an event soon and I’m making preparations now.”

His seemingly bright smile was fleeting and he didn’t dare maintain it for too long, because he knew very well that he was lying.

He didn’t dare to appear in the various activities of this exchange week because Pei Qingyuan had come.

The fact that Pei Qingyuan returned to Chengde was initially caused by him but things subtly got out of control later. It was from the school leaders who became more persistent in inviting Pei Qingyuan due to some inherent arrogance or the fact that he wanted to follow Pei Qingyuan after finding out he was favored by experts in the field of artificial intelligence, only to find that he had no such talent at all… it was hard for Pei Yan to explain how all of this happened. He tried to escape as if deceiving himself.

He found that he lacked the courage to face Pei Qingyuan directly.

Hearing Pei Yan say this, Shen Yiming subconsciously glanced at the papers in Pei Yan’s hands. He saw the words string orchestra, music score, etc.

“It is amazing,” he said sincerely. “Are you newly learning it?”

At these unfamiliar words, Shen Yiming’s back, which hadn’t completely straightened, seemed to become more curved.

It was the side entrance of the lecture hall and no one else was walking around. The sound of the speaker was faintly heard from the closed door and the breeze was blowing the leaves that were about to wither. They wore completely different school uniforms and seemed to be in two words, at the intersection point that divided everything. Pei Yan inexplicably had this illusion as he heard a gentle, cracking sound in the air.

He suddenly felt an indescribable sadness and it caused the smile on his face to disappear in an instant.

“There are some things… don’t take it too seriously.”

Pei Yan spoke quickly. Perhaps he didn’t want others to hear him or perhaps he didn’t want himself to hear him.

However, Shen Yiming heard him and seemed encouraged a bit by this endless sentence. He tried to cheer up. “Yes, I’ll sit here for a while before going back to the lecture.”

“I should go too,” Pei Yan said goodbye to the old classmate in front of him who seemed unfamiliar. “There are still people waiting for me.”

“Goodbye, Lin Yan. It was nice to see you.” Shen Yiming waved at him. “See you next time.”

“Goodbye.” Pei Yan couldn’t free his hand, so he could only turn around with a hasty smile.

Out of the corner of his eye, someone sat down again in the vacant seat next to Pei Qingyuan. This person’s mood seemed better than the moment when he left.

Therefore, Pei Qingyuan didn’t turn his head and continued to listen to the lecture as if he didn’t know it. The cat on his lap was sleeping soundly, furry head nestled against his palm.

In the huge lecture hall, countless immature faces with different expressions were illuminated by the bright lights.

At noon, Pei Qingyuan’s packing plan was once again ruined.

Xiao Jianping came over as an assistant. However, Qi Shao definitely didn’t dare to really let him be an assistant to do miscellaneous things. This directly led to Xiao Jianping having nothing to do. He simply carried a camera on his back and followed his son step by step. He took photos when he had nothing to do and chatted with the students. He was more like a life teacher than a life teacher.

At this time, Xiao Jianping followed the exchange students to eat. Bai Shuqiao also declined the school’s party in order to chat with her old friends. She ate with everyone very casually.

There was a bigshot present and the students were a bit cautious at first. Then all caution disappeared when Xiao Mei appeared.

“Old Xiao, aren’t you studying in a particularly powerful project this time?”

Xiao Jianping’s recent obsession with an artificial intelligence had long been spread in their circle of friends. Bai Shuqiao mentioned it curiously during the meal.

“Yes, but it isn’t my project.” Halfway through Xiao Jianping’s words, he looked at Pei Qingyuan and asked for his opinion with his eyes.

Pei Qingyuan asked Ji Tong in his heart if Ji Tong wanted to appear. Ji Tong, who hadn’t talked to anyone other than the host for two days, had long been feeling suffocated and he immediately agreed.

The cat fell silent and the black watch on Pei Qingyuan’s wrist lit up, attracting everyone’s attention.

Xiao Jianping put down his chopsticks with a nervous look. This was the first time he had an opportunity to communicate with Xiao Mei in person.

Under these eager eyes, a small, bean green robot appeared on the dial. It waved its hand and waved to everyone, immediately causing people to exclaim.

Ji Tong was very satisfied with this reaction, cleared his throat and was about to speak. Then he saw Xiao Jianping take out a notebook and quickly recorded something while looking at him.

Ji Tong’s heart skipped a beat.

He belatedly realized a serious problem.

He seemed to have dug a big hole for himself.

Ji Tong was an artificial intelligence on the surface but this wasn’t the case. In front of an expert specializing in artificial intelligence, he must pretend to be artificially stupid.

However, his level of artificial stupidity was actually still very intelligent. If he really deliberately pretended to be stupid, it was easier to show flaws. In other words, he had to grasp the scale of intelligence and stupidity. He had to play a just right Ai that was both intelligent and stupid.

Ji Tong was almost fainted by himself.

…Was this a challenge that humans could accomplish?

Seeing the little robot freezing in place after saying hello, Xiao Jianping was briefly stunned. Then he suddenly realized. “I know! This is the standby mode. The expression animation is very natural. This dazed emotion is very vivid and appropriate. So interesting!”

The onlookers next to him also realized and nodded sharply. They stared intently at the bewildered Xiao Mei.

Xiao Jianping became more and more excited. He pinched his notebook and greeted the little robot in standby mode in a very soft tone. “Hello, Xiao Mei.”

“Uh…” Xiao Mei struggled to maintain his composure, big eyes flickering. “Hello, human.”