Entrance Ceremony 2

When Lin Yuan arrived, as soon as he walked into the large conference hall, he felt that the voice coming from the speakers sounded somewhat familiar.

Upon closer inspection, the guy on stage prattling endlessly was Gu Xuan.

Lin Yuan then found a seat in the back and settled in, curiously listening to what Gu Xuan was talking about.

"The future belongs to the era of AI. ChatGPT has already shown us the power of AI, and our Dragon Kingdom should also have our own large language model."

"The advancement of technology and the development of the times place higher demands on us young people. For this, we should..."

...

After listening for a while, a thought popped into Lin Yuan's head: 'Two B!'

'It's fine to hype up ChatGPT, but you're even concerned about technological progress and the development of the times. Why don't the President just give his position to you?'

'A future academic rogue who only thinks about publishing papers to stack buffs, why are you talking about such lofty values?'

While Lin Yuan was complaining, his phone rang again.

It was his mentor's call again.

"You little rascal, have you arrived yet?"

"I'm here."

"Then where are you?"

"I'm in the back, I just told you on WeChat."

"Get over here, quickly."

Lin Yuan quickly saw his mentor standing in the first row, waving, so Lin Yuan had no choice but to walk over.

"Sit here."

"Huh?" Because his mentor told Lin Yuan to sit next to him, and everyone in the first row was a leader. 'Is my mentor getting old and confused?'

"Just sit when I tell you to."

Just as Lin Yuan hesitated, the person on the other side of his mentor also spoke, "Quickly, sit down, sit down. What are you standing there for?"

Only then did Lin Yuan sit down, and upon closer inspection, he realized that this person was Vice President Li. The one who had disgusted him during the entrance interview.

As soon as Lin Yuan saw that old geezer, he felt a surge of anger.

The old geezer seemed restless, muttering, "Gu Xuan... this... how can he talk so much?"

At this moment, Gu Xuan on the stage was still prattling endlessly.

Dean Li then said to Professor Zhang, "He's your student, you go talk to him."

"Hmph, I can't control him," Professor Zhang replied.

Lin Yuan sat beside them, hearing their conversation clearly. It seemed his mentor was truly angry because Gu Xuan was rushing to publish papers.

"You're at least a Vice President, you go try."

Dean Li had no choice but to go up himself.

Gu Xuan saw Dean Li gesturing from the side of the podium, and being emotionally intelligent, he quickly concluded his speech.

Gu Xuan naturally assumed Dean Li wanted to speak. If a leader wanted to speak, he was very sensible.

"You weren't here just now, so Old Li came up with a plan to let Gu Xuan extend his speech time as the freshman representative for a while."

"Ah?" Lin Yuan suddenly understood, "Gu Xuan is the freshman representative?"

"After all, he came from Zijin University, and his overall grades are first in his major, so it wouldn't make sense not to let him be the freshman representative. We were worried he wouldn't have anything to say, but once he got up there, he just kept talking endlessly."

Lin Yuan seemed to understand something.

It seemed Gu Xuan was indeed supposed to speak, but his speech was allowed to drag on for so long because Lin Yuan was late?

"Teacher, what does the length of Gu Xuan's speech have to do with my being late?"

"Look."

His mentor pointed to the podium.

On the podium, Dean Li had already picked up the microphone, "It is a great honor that our Computer Science Department has achieved good results in this year's admissions work. Therefore, with the unanimous agreement of the leaders, an additional freshman representative has been exceptionally added..."

Not only graduate students from the Computer Science Department participated in the matriculation ceremony, but also students from other majors of this year's cohort. Therefore, according to custom, each major only had one student representative slot. Otherwise, the speech segment alone would take more than three hours.

"Teachers and students from other departments, please don't have any objections. Our Computer Science Department is not trying to be special; it's because this student today is very special himself. That's why he has such a privilege. Next, please welcome Student Lin Yuan, a master's student from the Computer Science Department's 2024 cohort, to the stage to speak."

"Me?" Student Lin Yuan, sitting below the stage, exclaimed in surprise.

He felt a wave of unease, 'What is this old geezer trying to do? The last time he almost got me killed, what kind of trick is he playing this time?'

"It's all because your teacher is old and didn't pay attention to such a minor matter, forgetting to inform you," his mentor explained to Lin Yuan.

'A minor matter?' Lin Yuan was very embarrassed, 'Walking onto the stage unprepared in front of thousands of eyes, is that a minor matter? Am I going to contribute the biggest joke of this semester at the matriculation ceremony?'

Lin Yuan couldn't help but speculate, 'Is that old geezer surnamed Li deliberately messing with me?'

"Why are you such a coward about such a minor thing?" His mentor also noticed Lin Yuan's apprehension, stood up, and pulled him up, almost kicking him in the butt in front of everyone. "It's not an academic conference; just say whatever you want."

"Alright."

So Lin Yuan had no choice but to bite the bullet and go up.

What should he say?

Should he boast like Gu Xuan? Lin Yuan couldn't do that. Talk about his undergraduate career? Save it, he almost didn't get admitted because of that. Talk about his future ideals? Can 'making money and marrying a wife' be said on such an occasion?

"Oh, I remember. Li Youcai told me to just speak naturally. Just talk about your personal experience, from graduating last year, to delivering food, and then to getting admitted here. Just honestly recount that experience. It's rare for him and I to agree. I also think the most important thing for a student is to be down-to-earth and diligent in both life and academics."

Lin Yuan felt that the atmosphere today was a bit strange. Even Dean Li was starting to emphasize being down-to-earth? Not pursuing a rich undergraduate resume anymore?

In confusion, Lin Yuan walked towards the podium.

Gu Xuan, who had returned to his seat below the stage, felt a myriad of unpleasant emotions when he heard that Lin Yuan would be speaking next.

He hadn't seen Lin Yuan before going on stage, not because he and Lin Yuan had such a good relationship that he needed to pay attention to the other person. Rather, his mentor had specifically instructed him to help Lin Yuan, so on the surface, he had to appear closer to Lin Yuan. So he thought about calling the other party over to sit with him, and incidentally, let the other party witness his demeanor as a student representative, so that the other party would willingly become his subordinate in future project collaborations.

But who knew, Lin Yuan was also a freshman representative.

And, after Lin Yuan suddenly appeared, his speech would be terminated.

So Gu Xuan had to start wondering, 'What was Dean Li's purpose in asking me to delay the time just now? Lin Yuan is waiting to speak after me, so the purpose of my delay couldn't be... to buy time for the late Lin Yuan?'

In an instant, Gu Xuan recalled Dean Li's gestures and expression by the side of the podium just now.

The other party's body language seemed to convey a hint of impatience, as if sending a message - 'You extra, stop rambling, the protagonist is here, hurry up and come down.'

Gu Xuan's heart was filled with mixed emotions for a moment. He had thought that his extended speech time was a sign of the leaders' special regard, but it turned out he was just a tool...

At once, his gaze towards Lin Yuan became increasingly unfriendly.