Unless Lin Jin was blind, it was impossible for him to not know what had transpired.
He turned to Wang Xin, intending to ask if anything of this sort had happened in Heavenly Spiral Academy before. And if it did, how would they resolve the issue? Understanding Lin Jin’s intention, Wang Xin whispered to him, “Appraiser Lin, um, this rarely happens but there were such instances. Basically, such conflicts only exist between rivaling teachers. However, if one side decides to back down, there won’t be any major conflicts.”
So something of the sort did happen before.
Clearly, Lin Jin’s counterpart was provoking him. Perhaps he was trying to probe Lin Jin’s willingness to back down.
That made things easier.
Logically speaking, not only was Lin Jin new but he also just got his Rank 4 qualifications yesterday, so even if someone were to provoke him, he should be the one backing down.
There was, however, one other principle.
If he backed down once, he would keep backing down forever. If he wasn’t as competent as Appraiser Yang Ming, he didn’t mind retreating. However, Lin Jin didn’t think he was inferior to Appraiser Yang Ming. This incident merely confirmed Lin Jin’s suspicion that he was trying to make life hard for him.
Although Lin Jin had no idea how he offended this Appraiser Yang Ming, Lin Jin wasn’t a pushover who allowed just anyone to walk over him.
This was his first lecture they were talking about. It was inappropriate for the man to start challenging him so blatantly on day one.
So Lin Jin opted not to back down.
Why should he?
After making his decision, Lin Jin stepped forward.
The students arguing before the hall noticed Lin Jin and Wang Xin’s arrival. Most of them may not recognize Lin Jin but Wang Xin had served the academy much longer so the students recognized him immediately.
“Lecturer Wang!” the students greeted.
“This is our academy’s new teacher, Lecturer Lin Jin,” said Wang Xin to the new students.
Many people were stunned.
This guy was Lin Jin?
Tan Lin and Jiang Fengfeng had just been arguing about this. Like Wang Xin, most of the students were also aware that such incidents only occurred due to a rivalry between teachers.
In most cases, the weaker teacher would give way to the strong.
There was no doubt about it. To them, Lecturer Lin Jin being the newcomer around here was surely the weaker faction. Logically speaking, he should be the one to give way to Lecturer Yang Ming.
And yet, Lin Jin’s next words simply struck them dumb.
“I’ll be hosting the class later. Those who are interested can come in but you are to remain quiet and make no fuss while I speak.”
Having said that, Lin Jin approached the bulletin board. Following a brief glance at Yang Ming’s lecture post, he proceeded to tear it off the board.
The crowd was shocked, their hearts drumming at the sight.
Savage.
How savage!
This new teacher was refusing to show Lecturer Yang Ming any respect by tearing down the latter’s notice. Lin Jin’s character ended up leaving in many students a great impression.
Many students of the academy were young people. At the prime of their youth and full of vigor, they loved teachers with hot-blooded and passionate characters. After all, they weren’t fools. Everyone could tell that Lecturer Yang Ming was just using his veteran status to bully the new teacher.
To their surprise, Lin Jin was not going to let Yang Ming have his way.
‘This will be fun to watch,’ some of them mused with excited looks on their faces.
No matter which continent, humanity’s fondness for drama would never change. Large-scale dramas like this one, in particular, were what they hoped to see every day.
Lin Jin nodded at Tan Lin and Li Xinqi, then, with Senior Mo in tow, he entered the First Lecture Hall.
“How rude! He has no regard for the rules. Lecturer Yang Ming is his senior so how can he do that?” Jiang Fengfeng was the first to protest.
Of course, she only spoke under her breath. Still, it was loud enough for those around her to hear.
Tan Lin couldn’t be bothered with Jiang Fengfeng anymore. She simply pulled Li Xinqi into the lecture hall.
Jiang Fengfeng’s face turned pale from anger.
She suddenly thought of an idea to annoy Tan Lin and that new teacher.
“Everyone, I advise you against attending this new teacher’s class!” Jiang Fengfeng shouted at the crowd.
A confused student asked, “Why? It’s a public class open to everyone. Why can’t we go in?”
Jiang Fengfeng’s sudden exclamation was indeed baffling, but slightly smarter ones figured out why and silently nodded in agreement.
Jiang Fengfeng smirked. “You don’t even know that much? You’ve all seen it! Lecturer Yang Ming wanted to take over this new teacher’s slot to put him in his place. Lecturer Lin is clearly too hot-blooded to accept that. He could have reconciled properly with Lecturer Yang Ming or even apologized to him in private, but no! He had to tear down Lecturer Yang Ming’s lecture post! This is a blatant declaration of war. So pray tell, wouldn’t you be offending Lecturer Yang Ming if you attended this new lecturer’s class?”
Upon hearing this, most of the students who were about to enter the lecture hall froze in their tracks.
Admittedly, Jiang Fengfeng was making sense. One was a newcomer, a young teacher. The other was a veteran lecturer. Leaving aside who they supported, it was a fact that they could not afford to offend Yang Ming.
If they didn’t attend the class, they wouldn’t offend Lecturer Lin Jin. After all, attending classes wasn’t compulsory, and especially so for public classes. If they did attend his class they would definitely be offending Appraiser Yang Ming.
Many of the academy students already had a basic understanding of their lecturers’ characters. For example, Mr. Zhong was a formidable existence whose knowledge and experience were unrivaled. No one dared question him either. Character-wise, Mr. Zhong was composed, humorous, but was still able to maintain a certain degree of seriousness. Most students admired him most.
Other teachers all had special traits but Lecturer Yang Ming was a different kind of unique.
Arrogant and conceited, no student was allowed to question him.
These were Lecturer Yang Ming’s biggest traits.
Of course, he was qualified to possess such an inflated ego. As a veteran Rank 4 appraiser, he had written quite a few beast appraisal books and many of his theories and ideas gained even Mr. Zhong’s approval.
Hence, even if Lecturer Yang Ming had a strange temper, many people respected him.
If they had to choose between Lecturer Yang Ming and the new lecturer, Lin Jin, most students would pick the former. After all, the man’s experience and temper compelled them to make the decision.
Thanks to Jiang Fengfeng, the students who wanted to attend Lin Jin’s class backed away. A moment later, Jiang Fengfeng and a couple of other students who agreed with her started blocking the entrance to Lin Jin’s lecture.
After clarifying the situation, most students retreated and dared not attend Lin Jin’s class anymore.
After all, this new teacher wasn’t the only person hosting a public class. Even if they wanted to sit in on his lecture, it didn’t have to be today.
If they missed this class, they could opt for classes on other days instead.
Of course, not all students were frightened away. There were still some ‘stubborn’ students.
A somewhat scrawny Rank 1 student dressed in plain clothing considered his options for a moment before insisting that he had to enter the lecture hall.
“Hey you! You better consider the consequences of your actions!” Jiang Fengfeng frowned. She was surprised to discover that there were still such insensible students here.
