1994: From a young man from a small town to a second-generation resident of Shanghai

in the afternoon.

All the students from the 94 Finance class sat in the classroom.

On the podium stands their counselor, Yuan Hua.

This person speaks eloquently and methodically, and looks to be in his thirties.

It has some flaws that are quite annoying.

"Today is a nice day. The weather is cool and not hot, and seeing the new students every year makes me feel great..."

A boy in the audience became impatient and said, "Teacher Yuan, could you speak a little faster?"

Yuan Hua immediately called out to the boy from earlier, "Excuse me, what's your name?"

"My name is Yuan Chenhao."

"You also have the surname Yuan? That's good, very unique. I'm very satisfied with this year's students; they're even better than the last year."

"Then I'll get straight to the point. A class is a small organization, and as such, it needs a structure and leaders to be elected..."

The students below were practically in despair. How could there be such a long-winded counselor who could ramble on for so long just to organize a class meeting!

Some students have already considered filing a complaint against Yuan Hua!

Another half hour passed before Yuan Hua finally got down to business.

"Next, we will hold the election for class officers! This is a democratic election."

You may not have experienced this before; these were all candidates selected by your former high school teachers.

Things are different in college; there are elections!

You need to gain recognition for your abilities.

Class officer elections will be held annually from now on!

"It might be a bit difficult to ask you to elect class officers on the first day of school, but there's no other way. That's the situation. We have to elect them even if we don't have the necessary conditions. Back then, our Party..."

Another ten minutes passed.

"Okay, let's start with the class monitor. Students who wish to run, please come up to the stage to give your self-introduction and presentation, with a five-minute time limit."

Liu Cong whispered in Chen Yong's ear, "Yuan Hua talked nonsense for over an hour, but now we have to put a time limit on him. That bastard, he's inhuman!"

Chen Yong thought to himself, "Only Trump dares to fire the first shot!"

This could easily offend the counselor, but Chuanye didn't care.

Yuan Hua knew that some people below were unhappy with him, so he pretended not to hear them.

The first person to go up was a girl.

Yuan Hua immediately said, "You boys, why aren't you proactive at all! Look at the girls, they take the initiative to shoulder class responsibilities. The boys these days are getting worse and worse."

These words really made the boys in the class furious!

Everyone's still figuring things out! You don't know anything!

The earlier someone takes office, the less people will remember them.

Once there are many people running for class monitor, who will remember what the person in front said?

Unless that person is good-looking!

However, the first girl who came up was indeed beautiful, with long, straight black hair and a delicate, bright face.

She is 1.7 meters tall, which makes her stand out among many girls.

Wearing a floral dress, she was easily recognizable to boys.

She has the feel of a first love goddess.

After the girl went on stage, she introduced herself.

"Hello everyone, I am Zhang Xiting, from Chengdu, Sichuan Province."

Liu Cong got excited, "Chen Yong, did you hear that? Zhang Xiting is also from Sichuan Province! She's my fellow townsman!"

Liu Cong's fellow villager is much better than him. He may not have scored as high on the college entrance exam, but his overall abilities must be very strong.

A fluent Mandarin accent would put most people in the class to shame.

Liu Cong spoke with a strong accent. If Chen Yong hadn't been from Yunnan Province, where the accents of Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, and Guangxi are similar and people could understand each other, Liu Cong would have been much better able to understand him.

Moreover, the girl speaks very gently and delicately, with a slow and deliberate tone, which is very pleasant to listen to.

In a place teeming with female tyrannosaurus rex, Zhang Xiting may have embodied all the gentleness of girls from Sichuan Province.

The girl's introduction was also very interesting.

"I want to run for class monitor because I have a heart to serve everyone. In high school, I was the class monitor and helped the teacher maintain class order and resolve conflicts among classmates for three consecutive years. We won the honorary titles of advanced class collective and excellent class collective. Moreover, I have been influenced by my parents since I was a child and have developed a heart to serve others."

My mother worked diligently as the director of the Academic Affairs Office at Sichuan University, earning unanimous praise from leaders, teachers, and students. She taught me to always think of others, and that helping others can also bring me happiness.

My father was a leader in Sichuan Province, and his influence on me was even more profound…”

Well, this girl is seriously trying to show off.

However, bringing up her parents' status did have some effect. Whether the people below were impressed by her looks or genuinely believed Zhang Xiting could handle the service, they all applauded her.

Yuan Hua, that guy, didn't forget to stick his head out and offer some praise, which could easily affect the fairness of the election.

After hearing this, Liu Cong felt only deep despair.

"It's over, Chen Yong. I was planning to go up and give a speech, but now it's all over. In high school, although I was the class monitor, it was only because I had good grades and always ranked first in the grade. In reality, I didn't do anything. The teachers didn't let me do anything either, and told me to focus on studying. I never expected that I would see such a big gap between myself and people from the same province when I got to university."

Zhang Xiting had so many things to do in high school, yet it didn't interfere with her studies, and her parents were so capable.

Chen Yong sensed a deep despair from Liu Cong's words; he was overwhelmed by his classmate's words on the very first day of school.

He patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't be discouraged. It's not too late to try. Go up and give it a shot later. Even if you don't get elected as class monitor, consider it an experience. If you don't get elected this year, there's always next year. You have a year to prove yourself."

Hearing Chen Yong's encouragement, Liu Cong's eyes lit up again. "Brother Chen, you're right. Even if I don't get selected, I'll still give it a try!"

Xu Shijie nodded inwardly at Chen Yong; this was the kind of vision a leader should have. Chen Yong's family must be quite prominent. He also wanted to run for class monitor; being the class monitor at a prestigious university offered tangible benefits, both visible and invisible.

The competition was fierce. I didn't expect that the first girl to come up would not only be beautiful, but also come from a good family.

There is only one class monitor, but their class has forty students, all of whom are elites who have been admitted from various places.

After Zhang Xiting set the precedent, other students would also proactively mention their parents' positions when they came up to run for office.

Of course, there aren't many children of high-ranking officials. Among the women, there's Zhang Xiting, and another rumored to be a "princeling" (child of high-ranking officials), a short-haired girl whose family background wasn't mentioned. The girl's name is Ye Linghuan, from Guangzhou. Her looks are comparable to Zhang Xiting's; they each have their own strengths and different styles.

Some boys privately have already compared the two of them to the two golden flowers of the 1994 Finance class.

Marrying just any one of them would be enough to make this life worthwhile!

After everyone had spoken, Xu Shijie, Zhu Tianliang, Wang Shouheng, Liu Cong, Guo Wei, and most of the boys went on stage to give a campaign speech.

Everyone was tired of listening. Those who went up to speak simply talked about how to better serve everyone, or, if they were more assertive, how to emphasize fairness. For example, they talked about things like performance evaluations and awards that affect everyone's future.

"Chen Yong, almost everyone who's supposed to go has gone, why aren't you going yet?" Xu Shijie asked him. Did Chen Yong not care about being the squad leader?

Yuan Hua went on stage again and asked, "Is anyone else here?"

Yuan Hua glanced at the classmates, then suddenly pointed at Chen Yong, "Hey, you're tall and good-looking, why are you huddled at the back! No sense of responsibility! A man should take responsibility! Standing at the back, what kind of man are you!"

Chen Yong hadn't expected Yuan Hua to call him out on his own initiative. Could it be that his aunt had put in a good word for him? He had to admit, Yuan Hua was quite sharp-tongued! Chen Yong was already mentally preparing to make a few sarcastic remarks about him.

"Teacher Yuan, I was just about to come up. Let me give you all a little time to rest. Otherwise, no matter how wonderful my lecture is, you won't be in the mood to listen."

As soon as Chen Yong opened his mouth, everyone felt a sense of goodwill towards him; they were indeed exhausted.

Zhang Xiting also noticed Chen Yong; this boy was more noticeable than the others.

Of all those boys, she could only remember a few, but Chen Yong was one of them.

"Hello everyone, my name is Chen Yong. I am from Yunnan Province."

You may have seen me this morning; I need to explain.

When Chen Yong introduced himself as being from Yunnan Province, everyone was surprised.

Someone below said, "You came to school in a Mercedes; I thought you were from Shanghai."

"It's normal for people to have this misunderstanding. People from Shanghai are rich, after all. Although I came here in a Mercedes, my family wasn't well-off when I was young. My parents were both teachers in the county town. I'm from Xina County. Those who know should know that twenty years ago, a group of educated youth from Shanghai were sent there. That's when I was born."

Everyone immediately understood: he was the child of an educated youth sent to the countryside. His parents must have returned to the city later, leaving him there, while his biological parents made a fortune in Shanghai and bought a Mercedes. That made sense.

Chen Yong didn't talk about his entrepreneurial ventures, which made it easy for people to ask him questions.

He mainly talked about the future of his major, hoping to gain the support of students from lower and middle levels.

Although many classmates are very capable, most of them come from ordinary families. Their families are not from the provincial capital, and none of them hold high-ranking official positions, so they are not considered very capable in the class.

Even if a county magistrate's daughter like Ye Huiling came, she wouldn't be able to hold her head up high.

"I believe that many people only heard that they could make money in the future before choosing this major, but they didn't have any specific understanding of how to spend their university life, and no one guided them."

I can tell you all, it's impossible for universities to expect professors to provide one-on-one guidance anymore!

Many students who were feeling uncertain turned pale. They were indeed confused, but they had a strange sense of confidence, which had just been completely shattered by their classmates.

You might be in the same class, but you might go to completely different universities.

They have a clear plan, while they have nothing.

"If I were the class monitor, I would definitely do my best to help everyone make up for the deficiencies in information and give everyone a fair chance to compete."

Furthermore, if I were the class monitor, the class's interests would be protected. When everyone is vying for awards and honors, there's no need to damage relationships.

In the early days, class monitors did have some power, unlike later when they were simply messengers. For example, if there were one or two spots for international exchange programs, the method of selection depended on the class monitor.

Chen Yong needs the position of class monitor to help him with some things, and later he will join the student council to access more resources.

After Chen Yong finished speaking, many students below were very optimistic about him and gave him a loud round of applause, especially the boys.

Chen Yonggan took the initiative to explain his identity, which won the approval of many boys. It turned out that he was not a rich second-generation heir who flaunted his wealth, but a poor boy from a remote province. This sense of identity is what wins people's hearts the most.

Yuan Hua came up again. "Is anyone else here?"

After waiting for about ten seconds,

"If no one is there, we will now begin the voting and vote counting process."

"Zhang Xiting and Chen Yong, please come up and help. One of you will count the votes, and the other will read them out. The other class officers will be rotated according to the number of votes received. There will be no further elections."