Witty Wife, Better Life
Chapter 358 - 348 Class Meeting

Chapter 358: Chapter 348 Class Meeting

The day of formal school opening had finally come, and Shen Yunfang got herself and the children ready early in the morning, dropping her two kids off at Ma Huilan’s place before heading to the university.

After some discussions, Shen Yunfang had decided that she would take on the daily hardship of taking the kids to the Chen Family’s home, so that Ma Huilan wouldn’t have to worry about Chen Cheng’s lunch.

Upon entering the school, Shen Yunfang quickly found the Agronomy Department in the teaching building and her class, Agronomy Class Two, on the second floor.

Shen Yunfang originally thought she had arrived quite early (the notice said the class meeting would start at seven-thirty, and she had made a point of arriving at the school by just seven), only to find upon entering the classroom that she was actually the last to arrive, as the classroom was already full of people.

As Shen Yunfang pushed the door open and entered, the previously noisy classroom suddenly fell quiet, and everyone’s eyes shot towards Shen Yunfang at the doorway.

Shen Yunfang felt quite uneasy, her large eyes sweeping back and forth across the classroom several times from left to right, right to left, with no visible change in expression, but inside, she was in tears. She desperately hoped not to embarrass herself in front of everyone, wishing for a wonderful beginning to her university life.

"You’re Shen Yunfang, right?" asked a little old man standing at the lectern, glancing at the roll call list in his hand before raising his head.

His words broke the silence in the classroom and also provided Shen Yunfang with a graceful way out.

With a gentle smile toward the teacher, Shen Yunfang replied, "Yes, I am Shen Yunfang."

Seeing the student’s smile, the little old man frowned slightly, muttering to himself how such a delicate girl had ended up studying agronomy.

"Alright, go ahead and find a seat to sit down." In fact, except for one spot in the farthest corner, every other seat was taken.

Of course, Shen Yunfang saw it too, and she was quite satisfied with the spot. Maintaining a slight smile on her face, she walked to the back of the room serenely and then sat down, with everyone’s gaze following her all the way.

"Okay, now that all our classmates are here, let’s start the class meeting." The little old man’s statement made everyone turn their heads back to the front.

Shen Yunfang quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Being the center of attention wasn’t as wonderful as she had thought.

Whether it’s primary school or university, the content of the first day’s class meeting is basically the same: self-introductions.

For Agronomy Class Two’s meeting, it began with the little old man introducing himself, followed by the students taking turns standing up to talk about their basic information.

The little old man’s surname was Zhu, named Zhu Zhengqi, the deputy director of the Agronomy Department, and a professor of plant pathology, the major they were all studying.

Shen Yunfang thought that the old man’s name was truly distinctive and that, as a person, he should be as full of integrity as his name suggested.

Afterward, the students in the class began to stand up, one by one, from the front to the back, introducing themselves. That’s when Shen Yunfang discovered a few characteristics of this class. First, Teacher Zhu’s name could only be considered ordinary; many of the students had names that were more reflective of the era, such as Wu Geming, Wang Wenge, Cao Hongwei, and so on. Second, there was a clear gender imbalance in the class; out of the fifty-six students seated, only eight were girls, with the rest being boys. Third, the girls looked no different from the boys.

Aside from Shen Yunfang, the other seven girls all sat in the first three rows. It was only when they stood up to introduce themselves that Yunfang realized these girls all had their hair cut as short as the boys, their exposed skin was dark and yellowish, and they lacked any notable curves. In short, if they didn’t speak up, they could stand among the boys and go completely unnoticed.

Shen Yunfang ruefully thought, no wonder she had caught so much attention when she entered; against the backdrop of these people, she was truly like a white swan.

The fourth observation was that, according to everyone’s introductions, the majority of the class came from rural areas. Indeed, even if Shen Yunfang counted herself seriously, she was from the countryside too.

It made sense why those sent-down youths went crazy when they heard the news of the reinstatement of college entrance exams; it was because they had finally found a way out of the countryside, a chance to avoid toiling the land. Indeed, the intense labor of the countryside drove many urbanites sent to rural areas to the brink of madness. Not to mention the rural folks themselves, weren’t they also desperate to head to the cities? They too wanted to escape the arduous life characterized by facing the loess and turning their backs to the sky every day, handling hoe and sickle incessantly.

So, those who came to the agricultural college either truly possessed grand aspirations and wanted to make contributions to the country in the future, or they were part of the group who wanted to attend college but lacked confidence in their own academic performance. Of course, there were also many who chose to submit to the adjustment process during the application and were assigned to the agricultural college.

Shen Yunfang was the last to stand. With a smile on her face, following the routine of the previous students, she introduced herself succinctly.

"I come from the countryside, am twenty-one years old, already married, and have two kids. What follows are some pleasantries. I might trouble my classmates in the future and hope for everyone’s understanding."

Yunfang followed the routine, and when everyone heard that she was married and already had two children, their eyes bulged as wide as bells, a look of disbelief on their faces.

After everyone had finished introducing themselves, Teacher Zhu added two more sentences.

"The student with the highest score in our school is in our class, and that is Shen Yunfang. Ordinarily, she should serve as our class president, but given her special circumstances, family reasons, and the fact that she cannot stay in the dorm because her husband is an active-duty military man, she alone needs to take care of the children at home. This makes it inconvenient for her to serve her classmates effectively, so I’ve decided that Xu Qiangguo will serve as the class president, with Shen Yunfang as vice president, assisting Xu Guoqiang in his work." Whether intentionally or not, Teacher Zhu highlighted her status as a military spouse.

Shen Yunfang had no objections to Teacher Zhu’s decision. According to her own thoughts, she didn’t even want to be vice president, but she also understood that claiming she wouldn’t participate now would be asking for trouble. Thinking that with the class president taking the lead, vice president would likely just be an honorary title.

Xu Guoqiang, who had been called upon, stood up. He was a tall and robust man who had mentioned during his introduction that he was already twenty-eight years old. He was one of the older students in the class and seemed to be an appropriate choice for the position of president.

Xu Guoqiang turned and nodded toward Shen Yunfang before facing the class to start his acceptance speech, which was essentially a pledge to do his utmost to serve his classmates.

Seeing the class president making his pledge, Shen Yunfang, as the vice president, also had to follow suit. Thus, after Xu Guoqiang had spoken, she also stood up and asked everyone to support their work in the future.

After that, Teacher Zhu appointed several other class officers, and the class meeting was drawing to a close.

Then Teacher Zhu led them to the school auditorium to listen to a speech by the school leaders. The vast auditorium was packed with three to four thousand people, both seated and standing.