She knew Jiang Tian’s academic record was very poor; back in university, he had relied on her to pass him the answers just to get through exams. If he taught poorly, wouldn’t he end up making a huge fool of himself?
The next moment, she secretly scorned herself again. Hmph, he was such a detestable person, yet she was worried about him. She really must be sick.
A moment later, Jiang Tian walked into the classroom and stepped up to the podium. The first thing he noticed was a wave of spiritual energy.
With a sweep of his spiritual sense, he took in everything.
His deep gaze fell on Huang Linger’s wrist.
There were layers of scars there, now covered by a silk handkerchief. And that protective jade amulet… was wrapped inside the handkerchief.
A trace of relief stirred in Jiang Tian’s heart.
He had never intended to rekindle their old flame, but at least this way, she wouldn’t come to harm.
But just then, a murmur rose from the audience.
“So this is our visiting professor? He looks even younger than in the photos!”
“Yeah, he’s way too young!”
“Tsk, what can someone this young possibly teach? I regret signing up for this course!”
Students whispered among themselves, the noise level rising, threatening to get out of hand.
“I was in his graduating class, you know. I know how terrible his grades were. He failed exams all the time!”
Ding Jiabi whispered to a few classmates.
She worked in the Student Affairs Office, so many students recognized her. Hearing this, their disdain only grew. Someone even slammed the table and shouted, “What kind of visiting professor is this? He’s practically a fraud!”
“Ding Jiabi, what are you doing?” Huang Linger tugged at her, displeased with her remarks.
“Dean Luo, aren’t you going to do something?”
Lin Monong couldn’t bear it any longer and looked at Luo Wen.
“After this class, let’s have a teaching evaluation meeting!”
Luo Wen pretended not to hear and turned to the faculty members, saying, “Everyone must attend! I will be offering serious criticism to teachers with particularly poor performance.”
He harbored deep resentment toward Jiang Tian but didn’t dare offend him, so he had resorted to this strategy of “praise to the point of destruction.”
“Class is starting!”
The words were simple, the voice not loud, but Jiang Tian subtly infused them with the secret Dragon’s Roar Demonic Sound technique.
Instantly, a wave of immense pressure swept through the hall. Everyone’s mind trembled violently, and they involuntarily fell silent.
In that brief moment, the students and teachers were struck silent as cicadas in winter.
The entire lecture hall fell into a dead silence, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
“My name is Jiang Tian. You can call me Professor Jiang. This course is called ‘Life Sciences and Futurology.’ Now, I will begin by explaining what life sciences are.”
Jiang Tian wrote his name on the blackboard with bold, spirited strokes, stunning quite a few people.
His years of carving talismans had given him excellent calligraphy. The moment his name appeared, it was quite striking.
The class settled down and proceeded quietly. Some students took notes, while others frowned in concentration.
Jiang Tian’s thinking spanned vast concepts, and sometimes they struggled to keep up.
Halfway through the class,
suddenly, someone stood up and sneered coldly, “Professor Jiang, is this your so-called life science? It’s complete nonsense!”
Everyone turned to look. A refined, handsome young man had risen to his feet. Gasps erupted.
“Associate Professor Li Linxuan, from the Traditional Chinese Medicine department!” someone exclaimed.
“Wow, he’s so handsome! Truly elegant, with long legs and nice hands!” a starry-eyed girl gushed.
“Yes, now that’s scholarly demeanor. Compared to him, Professor Jiang just looks tacky, like a laborer!” another chimed in.
“He’s the youngest associate professor at our university. He holds dual PhDs in Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine from Huaxia Medical University. The citation rates for his three papers rank among the top in the country. In terms of academic depth, he could even rival Dean Luo!”
A graduate student, a self-proclaimed academic, adjusted his glasses and spoke with evident admiration.
“It looks like Professor Li isn’t buying it. He’s going to take on this fake Professor Jiang! I can’t wait!”
Many students in the audience wore expressions of schadenfreude.
The main campus of Jinling Pharmaceutical University was completely different from Rende College. Its comprehensive professional strength ranked in the top three in China.
Naturally, the admission scores were also very high. The students here were all high achievers and looked down on someone like Jiang Tian, whom they saw as a charlatan seeking undeserved fame.
“It’s over, it’s over. Jiang Tian is going to be exposed. I prepared a lesson plan for him earlier. Why isn’t he following it!”
Lin Monong was tense and incredibly frustrated.
Luo Wen, on the other hand, shot Li Linxuan an appreciative glance, then pretended to look down and make a phone call, content to let things play out.
“Go ahead.”
Facing the rising tide of opposition, Jiang Tian’s expression didn’t change. He was sparing with his words.
“That talk of yours about walking through walls, silicon-based life, the human body being composed of vital energy, essentially a void… it’s all complete nonsense!”
Li Linxuan looked at Jiang Tian with disdain and sneered, “What you’re talking about isn’t life science; it’s witchcraft, superstition, science fiction! You don’t understand life science at all!”
“Yes, Professor Li hit the nail on the head!”
The crowd felt he made a lot of sense.
Some curled their lips in disdain, saying, “Yeah, it sounded kind of mysterious before, but thinking about it now, it’s total nonsense!”
Others slammed the table angrily, demanding, “How did the school administration mess up so badly, bringing in a fraud like this as our visiting professor? If he leads us astray in our studies and research, who’s going to take responsibility?”
A self-proclaimed academic wagged his head, declaring, “Professor Jiang’s lecture is all pseudoscience, completely pseudoscience, just like those academic frauds pushing perpetual motion machines!”
Some teachers snorted coldly, “What is this lecture even supposed to be? It’s a complete waste of the students’ time!”
Lin Monong just held her forehead, trying to hide her embarrassment. What Jiang Tian was teaching was so unorthodox, even she, his teaching assistant, was losing face.
Jiang Tian remained perfectly composed and offered a faint smile. “In 1910, astronomers predicted the Earth would collide with a comet, causing worldwide panic as people thought doomsday was coming. The prediction did come true—a massive comet swept past Earth, yet the Earth remained unharmed. Why? Because…”
Professor Huang Zhihui, sitting in the front row, picked up the thread, “The comet’s tail is composed of extremely thin material, with a density as low as 10⁻²² grams per cubic centimeter—even more ’empty’ than the vacuums we can create on Earth!”
Jiang Tian nodded, his eyes sharp. “But who knew that before the Earth passed through the comet’s tail?”
“People tend to view the world with fixed perspectives, deeming new concepts unbelievable. Centuries ago, people stubbornly rejected the heliocentric theory because they could ‘see’ the sun rise in the east and set in the west around the Earth. They also refused to accept that the Earth was round because they ‘knew’ people couldn’t stand upside down on a ceiling, so naturally, people couldn’t live on the underside of the Earth. Thus, starting from once-correct concepts, they drew seemingly correct conclusions and rashly dismissed new ideas. We laugh at their stubbornness now, but will future generations laugh at us?”
Jiang Tian scanned the room and spoke earnestly:
“Students, even something as seemingly obvious as ‘people cannot walk through walls’ should not be accepted as an absolute, final truth.”
“Stop trying to twist the argument!”
Li Linxuan sneered dismissively. “That theory of yours about the human body being a warped space that allows invisibility and wall-passing—I’d like to accept it, but how do you eliminate the spatial distortion? Chanting spells and focusing energy in your lower abdomen? Do you know how many electron volts are needed to break apart an atomic nucleus? Do you know that scientists, despite their best efforts, still cannot release quarks from their confinement within hadrons? And that’s not even getting into deeper levels!”
Facing the challenge, Jiang Tian said calmly, “The tree of practice is ever green; theory is always gray. If a possible fact cannot be explained by existing theories at all, the best approach is to forget the theory and not waste time on it. Focus all your energy on verifying the fact, because such contradictions often herald a theoretical revolution.”
“The tree of practice is ever green? Hahaha, then demonstrate it for us right now! Show us!”
“Perform your wall-walking trick for us!”
Li Linxuan laughed loudly, then his expression darkened, a sharp glint in his eyes. “Nonsense! Pure rubbish! You’re nothing but a fraud seeking undeserved fame! Your level of knowledge might be enough to deceive ignorant villagers, but to think you’d dare to lecture so brazenly in an institution of higher learning! Do you take these eager students for fools? Do you take us, teachers and professors with master’s and doctoral degrees, for idiots? May I ask what degree you hold? What papers have you published?”
“A bachelor’s degree. I haven’t published any papers…”
As Jiang Tian’s words fell, the entire hall erupted in an uproar.
“A person like this isn’t fit to be our teacher! Get out!”
Suddenly, Ding Jiabi slammed the table and shouted, her voice sharp.
She was pretty and had many admirers and supporters among both students and young faculty.
With her taking the lead, many quickly joined in. A wave of jeers and mockery filled the air, the noise deafening.
As Jiang Tian looked over, Huang Linger lowered her head and tugged at Ding Jiabi’s sleeve, pleading, “Please, stop saying that!”
Lin Monong sighed and shook her head.
Despite her personal fondness for Jiang Tian and reluctance to see him humiliated, her reason told her that Li Linxuan was right.
“This is the biggest joke since Jinling Pharmaceutical University was founded!”
A lecturer stood up, apparently unwilling to watch any longer.
“A charlatan like you, posing as our visiting professor? This is an insult to our university, an insult to our college, and an insult to the faculty and students alike!”
Li Linxuan sneered repeatedly.
“Yes! Let’s file a complaint with the Ministry of Education! We have to get rid of him!”
“What is this nonsense! How dare he have the nerve to be our professor? It’s ridiculous!”
“There must be some conspiracy, some corrupt deal behind this!”
Many students were stirred up by Li Linxuan’s words.
Each one was indignant, practically wanting to tear Jiang Tian apart to defend the inviolable dignity of Jinling Pharmaceutical University.
“Did you bring me here just to see this?”
Huang Linger’s eyes were rimmed red, tears welling up. She looked at Ding Jiabi with a complex expression.
“Linger, are you awake now?”
Ding Jiabi curled her red lips, her eyebrows arching as if ready to fly off her face, her expression full of disdain.
“He’s just a fraud dressed up like a professor! Always using sweet talk to chase fame, cheating people from college until now. Don’t have anything more to do with him!”
“He’s been deceiving me all along…”
A wave of sorrow washed over Huang Linger. Her body felt weak, crystalline tears shimmering in her beautiful eyes.
On the podium, Jiang Tian’s expression remained calm. His gaze swept slowly across the faces of those he remembered from his previous life.
