January 25th, Friday.

Pei Qian arrived at Counselor Zhang Wei’s office.

It had been a long time since he last visited.

Generally speaking, as students entered their junior and senior years, counselors became increasingly busy. After all, they had to look after an entire grade—some students pursuing graduate study recommendations, others seeking employment, and others planning to study abroad. All these matters inevitably required the counselor’s involvement.

Naturally, students would visit their counselors more frequently.

But Pei Qian was different; he had absolutely no demands in this regard.

Zhang Wei had also been contacting Pei Qian less and less frequently.

Why? Probably because he felt a bit embarrassed…

Previously, when Tenda was smaller, Zhang Wei had asked Pei Qian to help solve employment problems for some older students. Later, Zhang Wei had served as an intermediary for matters like donating to financially disadvantaged students and recruiting graduate students to help grade Tenda’s recruitment exams.

But now, Tenda had grown to an absurd scale, becoming the most prominent enterprise in all of Jingzhou City, and was even subtly changing the city’s employment and living environment.

As a counselor, it felt awkward to keep calling on the boss of such a large company.

Zhang Wei was quite perceptive; anyone who still treated the current Pei Qian as an ordinary student definitely had something wrong with their brain.

Zhang Wei was even debating whether he should notify the university leadership to receive Pei Qian the next time he came to school.

If Pei Qian had already graduated, then considering Tenda’s current status in Jingzhou, it would be perfectly reasonable for university leadership to receive him. But the problem was that Pei Qian was still officially a student.

It was truly a vexing issue.

When Pei Qian arrived at the office door, he found that there were already visitors inside. He could vaguely hear conversations.

Outside was a student on duty, typically a staff member from the college student union who helped the counselor run errands and handle miscellaneous tasks.

Evidently, this student didn’t recognize Pei Qian and assumed he was just a senior coming to inquire about graduation or applying for graduate study recommendation, as these matters were common.

So he asked Pei Qian to sit on the sofa outside and wait for a while.

Pei Qian wasn’t in a hurry. He sat down on the sofa and casually picked up an internal university magazine to flip through.

After a while, Zhang Wei’s office door opened, and three people walked out, chatting amicably.

“The venue for the lecture has been arranged, Brothers. The time is set for three o’clock this afternoon. I’ve already had someone notify the college students. You can just go there directly when it’s time.”

“You don’t need to prepare too much in advance, just talk about your experiences joining Shenhua and working there.”

Zhang Wei said with a smile to two men who appeared to be in their early thirties.

The two men nodded: “Rest assured, Teacher Zhang, we’ll definitely hold nothing back and provide excellent employment guidance to answer any questions our juniors might have!”

Pei Qian immediately understood what these two were here for.

They were outstanding alumni, returning to give a lecture on employment guidance.

From Zhang Wei’s words, it seemed these two had graduated even earlier than Zhang Wei from the college. They appeared to have reached middle management positions at Shenhua Group and were giving a lecture at the college’s invitation to share experiences with juniors and improve employment rates.

Shenhua, as a top domestic company, was a goal for many graduating students. Hosting a lecture to share employment experiences was very normal.

These two men were at least four or five years older than Zhang Wei, which explained why Zhang Wei called them “Brothers.”

In their era, students liked to call each other “Brother” and “Sister,” while in Pei Qian’s era, they preferred “Senior.” Who knew what the pattern was behind this.

Just as the three walked out, Zhang Wei spotted Pei Qian sitting idly on the sofa.

Zhang Wei’s expression changed instantly: “Hey? Why didn’t you have the student tell me you were here? Why are you waiting outside?”

Pei Qian smiled: “It’s fine, I’m not in a hurry.”

“That’s not right. There’s no need to be so formal with me. Brothers, you two go rest first, I won’t see you out.”

After saying this, Zhang Wei quickly led Pei Qian into his office and closed the door.

Outside, the three people looked at each other, confused about what had just happened.

The two alumni quietly asked the student on duty: “Who is that?”

The student looked completely bewildered: “I don’t know. He said he’s a senior student.”

The two alumni clearly didn’t believe a word of it.

A senior student who could make Zhang Wei usher him in as if welcoming a deity? Something didn’t add up.

They glanced at each other and whispered: “I haven’t heard of any university leader having a child studying in our college.”

“Even a leader’s child wouldn’t need to personally visit the counselor’s office for something.”

“And from Zhang Wei’s attitude, it seems even more serious than that.”

The two remained completely puzzled.

…

In the office, Zhang Wei stood up to pour tea.

Pei Qian quickly waved his hand: “No need for that, Teacher Zhang. I just want to briefly discuss something and will leave soon.”

Zhang Wei was enthusiastic: “It’s no trouble to have some tea.”

Pei Qian: “…I’m not used to ordinary tea.”

Zhang Wei: “…”

Pei Qian felt that his comment might have been a bit hurtful and quickly added: “I’ll bring some tea from my office for you to try later.”

Zhang Wei reluctantly abandoned the tea-pouring effort: “That works too.”

Pei Qian didn’t want to make small talk and got straight to the point: “Teacher Zhang, I’m here mainly about the graduation thesis. Could you recommend an advisor for me? Also, how should I choose a topic?”

Zhang Wei was also an outstanding graduate of the college and had been a top student, otherwise he wouldn’t have had the opportunity to stay at the university as a counselor.

Asking him about such matters was definitely the right move.

Zhang Wei nodded: “Oh, I was actually planning to talk to you about this too.”

“The college has already arranged for Professor Kong to supervise your thesis. Don’t worry, Professor Kong is quite approachable and has a good impression of you because of the APP affair. Just write your thesis normally, and as long as it passes the plagiarism check, the professors in our college won’t hold you back.”

Pei Qian was stunned: “Professor Kong Zhemin?”

Zhang Wei nodded: “Yes, do we have a second Professor Kong in our college?”

Pei Qian was shocked: “Teacher Zhang, this really isn’t necessary!”

This was no joke!

What level of figure was Professor Kong to be supervising the graduation thesis of an undergraduate like himself?

Did he deserve this?

No, he didn’t!

Professor Kong Zhemin was a Level One Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at Handong University, a doctoral supervisor, and also served as the Director of Handong University’s Chinese Language Education Research Institute, Chief Editor of primary and secondary school Chinese textbooks, a member of the Basic Education Expert Committee, and the convener of the Chinese Curriculum Standards Revision Expert Group…

This long list of titles essentially represented the highest level of academic research in Handong University’s humanities department.

Professor Kong’s status would rank among the top nationally in any university.

Theoretically, an undergraduate could choose any professional course teacher who had taught them as their graduation thesis advisor.

And Professor Kong Zhemin had once given Pei Qian’s class a lecture.

Although it was just one lecture, according to the rules, it was indeed theoretically possible to choose Professor Kong as a thesis advisor.

But generally, no one did this; students were self-aware.

Professor Kong supervised only the most elite doctoral students. Having him supervise an undergraduate thesis? That was ridiculous!

How could one have the nerve to trouble the old professor?

Pei Qian had never thought of asking Professor Kong to supervise his thesis, partly because he felt embarrassed and partly because he was afraid of making a fool of himself.

What was Professor Kong’s academic level?

Pei Qian knew his own capabilities; he was merely a “pay-to-win warrior” who barely passed by donating money to the college. Submitting an undergraduate thesis to Professor Kong would be the epitome of embarrassment, like opening the door to embarrassment’s mother and inviting embarrassment home.

It was like asking someone who knew nothing to perform a dance in front of a dance master—who wouldn’t feel awkward?

If you were going to do something like that, you might as well do it by the sea, where you could at least awkwardly dig out a beachfront villa.

Pei Qian had originally planned to find a relatively young lecturer. He would write something casual, the lecturer would take a cursory look, and as long as the thesis passed, that would be fine. It would save him trouble, save the college trouble—a win-win for everyone.

But unexpectedly, he had arrived one step too late. Zhang Wei and the college had already invited Professor Kong to supervise him!

This was extremely awkward.

Pei Qian hurriedly said: “Teacher Zhang, you know my level. It’s just a graduation thesis. Is it necessary to disturb Professor Kong? The college isn’t helping me; it’s putting me on the hot seat!”

“In my opinion, you should just assign me some young lecturer to review it. As long as I can graduate smoothly, that’s enough.”

Zhang Wei immediately objected: “How can that work?”

“I know you’re busy with work and don’t have time for academic matters, but your graduation thesis isn’t just about you—it concerns our entire college!”

“Even undergraduate theses are uploaded to the CNKI database. Later, all students across the country, including your juniors, will be able to search for your thesis on CNKI.”

“You’re keeping a low profile now, but after graduation, someone will eventually dig up your identity. When they search CNKI and find your graduation thesis and see that the esteemed President of Tenda Group, an outstanding graduate and famous alumnus of Handong University, produced a thesis of such quality?”

“And then they look at the supervising professor and see it’s just an ordinary lecturer. Wouldn’t that suggest our college was blind and failed to properly nurture talent?”

“That doesn’t sound good!”

“If you were just an ordinary student, it wouldn’t matter because nobody would pay attention. But the key is that you’re not! If something like this happened, it wouldn’t just affect Tenda’s image but also the image of our college and the entire university. How could we take this lightly?”