Chapter 703: I Can Do It with Chanxi and Senior Xu

September 11, morning.

Li Luo and the other two woke up punctually at six as usual, washed up quickly, then bid farewell to Xu Youyu, who was still sleeping in bed.

Xu Youyu had no morning class; today being Monday, she only had one class starting at 10:30 a. m., so she could sleep straight through until ten.

But Li Luo and the other two all had early eight o'clock classes, and after finishing their morning run and eating breakfast, they had to rush off to class.

Still, after the thirty-minute morning run, Li Luo took the two girls to eat breakfast first, then returned to pick up a meal for Xu Youyu before driving off.

Sitting in the driver's seat of the Audi, Li Luo fastened his seatbelt, pulled out his phone, and sent Cheng Xin a message asking him to bring his modern and contemporary literature textbook.

He then started the car, carrying Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng, first dropped off Ying Chanxi at the East Gate, then drove Yan Zhusheng to the entrance of the Music College across the river.

But when they reached the underground parking lot beneath the Music College's teaching building, Yan Zhusheng made no move to get out—instead, she kept climbing onto Li Luo.

Li Luo, expressionless, pressed down on her little head and said with a sigh, "How did you turn into such a greedy little cat? Stop thinking about sneaking snacks all day."

"But don't you like this too?" Yan Zhusheng leaned against Li Luo's chest, rubbing against him, "Do you find it disgusting?"

"Not exactly…" Li Luo said, immediately grabbing her mischievous hands, "but you can't do this every day. You need to rein yourself in."

"Why not?"

"I'm afraid you'll drain me dry." Li Luo's lip twitched, "At least consider my health."

"Does doing this affect your health?" Yan Zhusheng tilted her head, as if hearing this for the first time.

"There's a saying: too much is as bad as too little." Li Luo pinched her cheek, "Too much in a short time definitely has an effect—just like if you sang at high intensity every day, your voice wouldn't hold up."

"Then how many times a day is healthy?" Yan Zhusheng asked curiously.

"... You should be asking how many times a week."

"So few?"

"You're practically provoking me." Li Luo grumbled, "Normally, three or four times a week is considered healthy."

"So if we split it evenly, that's just once a week?" Yan Zhusheng thought for a moment, then came up with a brilliant solution, "But I can do it with Chanxi and Senior Xu—wouldn't that still count as just one time?"

Li Luo: "... You're surprisingly clever."

"Then should we try it next time?" Yan Zhusheng looked eager.

After all, she'd only heard Xu Youyu's verbal accounts of practical experience, and wasn't sure if she'd done it right herself.

If she could observe a live demonstration, it would be far more effective than practicing alone.

Besides, Li Luo was too cruel—he always left her limp and weak when she was alone with him.

If she had a teammate to share the burden, she could surely last longer.

Thinking this, Yan Zhusheng silently praised her own cleverness, looking at Li Luo with hopeful anticipation.

"Go to class right now." Li Luo opened the door, pressed her head, and pushed her out, "It's already 7:40—I still have to rush to my class across the river."

"Oh…"

Yan Zhusheng was reluctantly shoved out of the car, watching Li Luo drive away, then slung her small backpack over her shoulder and walked toward the classroom to meet her roommate.

…

Meanwhile, Li Luo drove back to Ningshan Campus, parked in the underground lot of the Eastern Teaching Building, then walked up to Classroom 303 on the third floor.

It was already 7:55 a. m. —five minutes before class started.

Since it was their first class in university, almost no one skipped; in fact, apart from Li Luo, most had arrived early.

Bai Haoran, who arrived first, had thoughtfully secured the three front-center seats for his three roommates.

So when Li Luo sat down in the empty front-center seat, he couldn't help but say, "Did you guys come late? Why did you grab the front row?"

Cheng Xin: "... Hao Ge was the first here—he specifically picked these seats."

"You come to university to study, not to slack off." Bai Haoran adjusted his glasses, speaking seriously, "Besides, Wen Zexuan said our teacher is someone important—we should study harder."

"What's so special about him?"

Li Luo feigned ignorance and asked the others.

"You weren't in the dorm yesterday, so you didn't hear me." Wen Zexuan chuckled, "I specifically researched all our professors and analyzed the risk of skipping class."

Li Luo: "... It's only the first day, and you're already planning to skip? Can't you show a little scholar's shame?"

"You don't understand." Wen Zexuan wagged his finger, "Even Bai Haoran admits my system has some merit."

"You want to skip too?" Li Luo glanced at Bai Haoran in surprise, "Didn't expect that."

"I'm not planning to skip." Bai Haoran smirked, "Some watered-down courses just aren't worth attending—I can prepare other things in advance and use those classes to do something else."

"Like skipping." Wen Zexuan grinned.

"So what's so special about today's professor?"

"He's a big deal." Wen Zexuan perked up, "Guess what I found out while researching our courses?"

"What?"

"Our modern and contemporary literature professor isn't the same as the one teaching classes two, three, and four." Wen Zexuan whispered mysteriously, "Our class is special."

"Really?"

"And I heard our professor isn't ordinary." Wen Zexuan continued in a low voice, "Professor Xu is a full professor in the College of Literature—and our Vice Dean!"

"So impressive?" Li Luo played along, "Then why is someone like him teaching us?"

"I don't know." Wen Zexuan shook his head, "But there's a rumor that originally, all four humanities classes had the same professor."

"But when finalizing the teaching assignments, Professor Xu suddenly decided to teach our class instead."

"Supposedly to try adding new teaching elements or something… I don't know if we're being used as guinea pigs." "Don't put it so crudely," Bai Haoran corrected, "Xu Rongsheng still holds great standing in literary criticism, especially in contemporary literature research—he's one of the leading figures in Qianjiang Province."

"But reportedly, he's been shifting his research focus these past two years."

"I don't know the details."

"You know all this?" Li Luo glanced at Bai Haoran in surprise.

"My sister told me." Bai Haoran said calmly, "She's preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam, so she looked into the graduate supervisors in the Literature Department."

"So that's how it is." Li Luo nodded in understanding.

"In short, this class isn't a water class; unless you have an emergency, don't skip it—just attend properly," Wen Zexuan concluded. "Other courses like military theory, health education, or ideological and moral cultivation—you can skip those if you want."

"Remember to send me a copy of your skip-class risk guide," Li Luo said, spotting Xu Rongsheng entering through the door, then sat up straight, took his textbook from Cheng Xin's hands, and settled into focused mode.

As Xu Rongsheng stepped through the classroom front door, the class bell rang precisely.

Seeing the teacher enter, everyone immediately fell silent, the entire classroom quieting at once.

"Ahem, good morning, everyone," Xu Rongsheng said, carrying a briefcase to the podium, unzipping it to pull out a water cup and a textbook, then inserting a USB drive into the computer.

While waiting for the computer to boot, he looked down at the forty students and gave a brief self-introduction on the blackboard.

"My surname is Xu; you can call me Teacher Xu," Xu Rongsheng wrote his name and contact details on the board. "Here's my phone number and QQ—feel free to jot them down."

At that moment, the computer booted successfully, and Xu Rongsheng opened the USB drive to locate the lecture PPT.

While waiting for the PPT to load, Xu Rongsheng pretended to flip through the student roster in his hands, then stepped down from the podium and tossed the list to Li Luo in the first row.

"Hey, student, help me out," Xu Rongsheng said cheerfully to Li Luo. "Take attendance."

"Sure, Teacher Xu," Li Luo replied, smiling faintly at Xu Rongsheng's beaming face, then glanced at the roster and stood at the edge of the podium to begin calling names.

With the aid of his Memory Palace, he didn't even need to look at the list, so he called names quickly.

No one was late or absent in the first class; within roughly two minutes, the attendance task was easily completed.

"Hmm, good," Xu Rongsheng reached out to take the roster Li Luo handed him, then asked, "What's your name?"

"Teacher Xu, I'm Li Luo."

"I see," Xu Rongsheng nodded. "From now on, you'll be the class representative for this course. After the bell rings, you'll be responsible for taking attendance."

Li Luo: "…Alright."

You've got to admit, using family members is truly convenient.

And judging by Xu Rongsheng's expression, he clearly enjoyed ordering Li Luo around.

Li Luo even began to suspect that Xu Rongsheng had specifically come to teach their class just to have a legitimate excuse to boss him around.

"Alright, now that attendance is done, let's begin the lesson."

Xu Rongsheng opened the PPT, first displaying the course syllabus, then continued.

"This course, Contemporary Literature, is divided into (1) and (2); this semester we'll focus on (1), and next semester we'll cover (2)."

"Before that, I'll give you an overview from a broad perspective, tracing the timeline of our upcoming learning path."

As he spoke, Xu Rongsheng scrolled through the PPT, starting with literary schools and eras before the founding of the nation, then moving to differences in literature before and after the Reform and Opening, finally arriving at the development of new-century literature.

After laying out the entire lineage clearly, Xu Rongsheng's final focus landed on today's thriving online novels.

"In our current era, the literary schools mentioned earlier have gradually faded from public view; though they still maintain small circles, their public influence declines year by year."

"In contrast, online novels, fueled by the growth and spread of the internet, have gradually become the mainstream of mass literary entertainment."

"In the past, literature often reflected societal changes and intellectual trends of its time."

"Online novels are no different—we can still glimpse shifts in public thought during the internet age through them."

"In this regard, I believe analyzing and researching online novels holds certain value."

Here, Xu Rongsheng paused, then smiled and asked, "Do you guys read online novels regularly?"

At this question, many students' eyes instantly turned toward Li Luo in the front row.

Chi Lingfeng, the sports committee member sitting in the back row, excitedly raised his hand. "Teacher Xu, I've been reading Night Watch of Great Qian lately. Are you familiar with popular online novels today?"

"Oh, I've read that one too," Xu Rongsheng nodded lightly. "Qidian Chinese Network is a well-known paid platform for online novels right now; this book has gained considerable popularity recently."

"Then you probably didn't know," chuckled Chi Lingfeng, the pirated copy guy, pointing at Li Luo in the front row. "The author of this book is your class representative."

"Is that so?" Xu Rongsheng looked genuinely surprised.

Li Luo's eye twitched—he thought, Xu Rongsheng really knows how to act.

"Ahem…" Li Luo cleared his throat, cutting off Chi Lingfeng's outburst. "Teacher Xu, let's get to the main topic already."

"Heh," Xu Rongsheng found it amusing and wanted to tease him further, but he let it slide for now. "This semester, our focus will remain primarily on literature before the founding of the nation."

"When next semester's course covers content related to online novels, we can invite our Li Luo to come up and share industry insights with everyone."

Hearing this, Li Luo sighed.

His future father-in-law really knew how to use people.

But with those words, many classmates burst into laughter; Chi Lingfeng clapped enthusiastically, filling the classroom with a cheerful atmosphere.

Originally, Cheng Xin had worried, after hearing Wen Zexuan and Bai Haoran's remarks, that this Teacher Xu might be a stern, rigid old professor.

But now it was clear—he wasn't rigid at all; his spirit felt young, and he even read Li Luo's online novels.

"Luo Ge, you're amazing," Cheng Xin whispered. "Even the Vice Dean reads your books."

Yeah, yeah… Li Luo smirked, thinking, if you knew he was my future father-in-law, and his daughter is our class assistant Xu Youyu, and I've already slept with her, what would you think?

(End of Chapter)