Chapter 783: Chaotic Classroom

Li Xu stepped steadily onto the podium, causing the already noisy lecture hall to grow even rowdier.

The students below whispered among themselves, their hushed voices converging into a massive wave of sound.

“Look, look! Is that the legendary Divine Physician Li? He’s way too young.”

“Huh? Is he the rumored boyfriend of Wang Xue that everyone’s been gossiping about lately?”

“He looks pretty average to me. Other than being a bit pale, it’s not like he has superpowers or anything.”

“Yeah, yeah. He’s not even that handsome. He’s miles behind our campus idol.”

“Damn, with those looks, he’s not even as handsome as me! How did he manage to score a girl like Wang Xue? This is rigged!” a boy with a face full of acne complained indignantly.

“My goddess… how could she fall for a guy like that? My youth is over.”

“Alright, alright, stop being so bitter. Look closely—he has an actual girlfriend. That gorgeous woman who came in just now and sat next to Director Liang? I heard she’s his fiancée. She’s far more beautiful than Wang Xue, so stop spreading useless gossip.”

With so many people crammed into the large classroom today, only a small fraction had genuinely come out of admiration to learn some real traditional Chinese medicine. More than half of them, especially the boys, were just there for the gossip and the spectacle surrounding Wang Xue’s rumor.

Since they were here with the mindset of watching a show and picking a fight, they naturally had no genuine respect or awe for Li Xu on the stage. The classroom remained quite chaotic, filled with a constant buzzing noise. Seeing Li Xu standing at the podium, someone in the back row even let out a frivolous whistle, while others struck exaggerated poses to grab attention.

Facing this group of hot-blooded, slightly restless underclassmen, Li Xu didn’t show the slightest hint of panic.

AHEM.

Li Xu reached out and gently tapped the microphone on the lectern, producing a dull TAP TAP that echoed through the room. Then, he cleared his throat. As the sound amplified across the hall through the speakers, the classroom quieted down a little, though some were still whispering among themselves.

“Hello, everyone. I am Li Xu, a doctor at the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Like many of you, I graduated from our very own Feng City Medical College.” Li Xu’s calm gaze swept across the room, his voice resonating with strength. “Today, it is an honor to return to my alma mater, stand here, and share some of my clinical experiences and insights with all of my fellow students and alumni.”

As soon as his voice faded, the briefly quieted classroom immediately erupted into a cacophony of noise again. From the crowd came several distinct jeers of disdain and provocation—sounds of TCH, PFFT, and mocking remarks like, “Is that it?”

Clearly, many weren’t buying his opening remarks, feeling he was acting far too pretentious.

Li Xu paused for a moment, not at all angered by the jeers. The smile on his face slowly faded, and his gaze sharpened. Sweeping his eyes over the directions where the boos originated, his tone suddenly deepened as he spoke slowly, enunciating every single word.

“I have always believed that Feng City Medical College is the cream of the crop among traditional Chinese medicine universities, a sacred hall dedicated to cultivating Great Physicians.

“I also believe that the students who make it into Feng City Medical College are the most qualified and skilled elites in the country—the very people who will one day shoulder the heavy responsibility of human lives.

“And ‘mutual respect,'” Li Xu’s voice echoed through the lecture hall, “is the most fundamental principle that every highly educated student, and especially every future doctor, must understand and engrave into their very bones.”

His words landed with resounding force.

In the classroom, the people who had been jeering were instantly silenced, as if someone had grabbed them by the throat. All noise came to an abrupt halt. The entire lecture hall fell completely silent.

Li Xu had elevated the conversation to the level of the school’s honor, the caliber of medical students, and professional ethics. If anyone dared to continue making a fuss now, they would prove themselves completely classless and bring shame upon the entire college. No matter their original motives for coming, this was, after all, a serious academic setting. The students of Feng City Medical College still possessed that basic sense of decency and pride.

“What’s going on here?”

Associate Professor Zhang, who had initially planned to leave after class, was now standing in a corner by the back door. He stared at the massive lecture hall, where the atmosphere had grown extremely subtle, and asked the teachers beside him in bewilderment. There were so many students that even the aisles were completely packed. Such popularity! What a spectacle!

However, it all seemed a bit eerie. The person standing on the stage wasn’t a respected elder of Xinglin, nor was he an expert director. He was an absurdly young man—reportedly, a mere undergraduate who had only graduated a few years ago.

“No idea.” A teacher next to him shook his head, looking just as puzzled. “The young man’s aura isn’t weak, though. He managed to subdue this unruly bunch of students with just a few words. I wonder if he actually has the skills to back it up.”

Meanwhile, in a corner of the back row, Dean Ai Rong had quietly claimed a seat at some unknown point in time. Aside from Director Liang, several other college leaders were sitting beside him.

“Is that the Li Xu we’ve been hearing about?” a vice dean in charge of teaching asked.

“What about him?” Dean Ai asked in return, smiling as he watched Li Xu on the stage.

“He does seem to carry a certain presence,” the vice dean evaluated. “Facing such a massive crowd with hundreds of critical eyes locked on him, he doesn’t suffer from stage fright at all. And instead of immediately showing off his academic knowledge, he started by establishing the rules, delivering a speech that was neither haughty nor humble. His psychological fortitude is much stronger than that of many young teachers who just started lecturing.”

“Heh, if you interact with Li Xu long enough, you’ll understand,” Dean Ai spoke plainly, though a hint of admiration colored his tone. “His confidence stems from his unfathomable capabilities.”

With Li Xu’s level of expertise, how could he possibly get stage fright in a setting like this? When someone’s skills reached a certain height, their perspective and caliber were fundamentally different. It was like a Martial Arts master facing a group of beginner apprentices—why would they ever be nervous?

Although Li Xu’s actual age wasn’t much older than some of the students in the classroom—in fact, a few of the delayed doctoral students present were even older than him—when it came to medical proficiency and clinical realm, the Li Xu on stage was a towering mountain. The people below him, no matter how high their academic qualifications were, were merely “students” fumbling around at the foot of that mountain.

In the front row near the aisle, Wang Xue had also arrived early. She sat there quietly.

Seeing the undisguised contempt on the faces of some of her peers, she didn’t feel angry. She had witnessed Li Xu’s methods with her own eyes. She knew that these top students, who prided themselves as heaven’s favored children, would soon be thoroughly schooled by him. By the end of it, they would be utterly convinced.