I was reborn after my cousin stole my life.

Chapter 226: Not Allowing Senior Students to Join

"Wei Dong, how many people did you contact?" After being turned away by Yuan Xiu, Ding Xuewen went to the restroom and returned to the classroom to ask a classmate he was on good terms with from Class 2.

This person was also a member of the poetry society.

"Only two people agreed to participate." Wei Dong looked ahead absentmindedly, his gaze fixed on the female classmate with her hair half-tied up.

"Why are there only two people?" Ding Xuewen was dissatisfied; the poetry club's recruitment was far from ideal.

The school doesn't organize any cultural or sports activities now; everyone is focusing all their energy on studying. As a cultural and sports clerk, he has no opportunity to use his talents. Only if he can run the poetry club well can he demonstrate his abilities.

"Two is already pretty good." Wei Dong looked away. "I had a lot of trouble convincing him to agree to these two."

Ding Xuewen frowned. "I really don't understand. They're all cultured people, how can they not be interested in the poetry club?"

"It might not be that we're not interested, but rather that the timing of our poetry club is wrong." Wei Dong thought for a moment, "Why don't you write a couple of poems and let them circulate in the school? If they're popular, maybe we won't have to beg people here; they'll come on their own."

Ding Xuewen nodded. "This is the only way for now."

Wei Dong looked ahead again and asked in a low voice, "Is that girl with the half-up hairstyle in front of you in your class?"

"Who?" Ding Xuewen didn't react. They were having a good chat about the poetry club, why did they suddenly bring up female classmates?

"That's the one," Wei Dong pointed.

Ding Xuewen looked over and said, "Oh, she's in our class. I already approached her, but she rejected me."

Ding Xuewen thought Wei Dong was asking about the poetry club.

"What's her name?"

"Yuan Xiu is the only day student in our class. She doesn't participate in any class activities. She comes and leaves right on time every day and doesn't even attend evening self-study. I don't know if she can understand anything. I think she's going to fail the final exam."

"So her name is Yuan Xiu, what a lovely name." Wei Dong grinned, his face beaming with romantic excitement.

Unfortunately, his infatuation lasted less than three seconds before being ruthlessly shattered by Ding Xuewen.

"Is it nice? It's just so-so, considering she's already a mother of two."

Wei Dong's face froze.

……

Just a few days after Ding Xuewen invited her to join the poetry club, Ding Xuewen's poems began to circulate in the classroom.

Yuan Xiu glanced at it twice, but couldn't understand it. She could understand "The great river flows eastward, its waves sweeping away the past" and "A thousand miles of ice, ten thousand miles of snow."

I really don't understand the line, "I open the window in the early morning, the world is white, snowflakes fall gently, falling into my heart."

They also don't understand the saying, "The snow falls quietly, covering the rooftops and the paths; the wind is a little cold, but the heart is warm."

She doesn't have that cell.

She didn't understand, but others did. In fact, some people in the class joined his poetry club because of his two poems.

Gradually, Ding Xuewen actually established a poetry club, which gained some recognition at the school.

The school also provided a dedicated classroom for members of the poetry club to exchange ideas.

Yuan Xiu didn't pay much attention to these things, but she couldn't stop Liu Yazhi, who sat at the same table, from telling her about them.

"Ding Xuewen is so popular! People talk to him all the time when he walks down the street. But he's weird, he only accepts freshmen from the class of '77 into the poetry club, he doesn't want anyone else."

Why?

Zheng Yuemei turned her head and said, "What else could it be? Of course, it's because I don't like it."

Yuan Xiu understood.

This is a conflict between new students and returning students.

On one hand, there are those who get in based on their scores, have a solid academic foundation, and rely on their genuine abilities.

On one hand, students are admitted through recommendations, and their academic backgrounds vary widely, with a strong emphasis on political background.

At first, the relationship between senior students and junior students was harmonious. However, when the courses offered by the school were taken together by the worker-peasant-soldier students who were recommended to enroll in the second half of last year and the freshmen, the advantages and disadvantages became apparent.

The differences are immediately apparent in classroom questioning and experimental operations, and even the teachers clearly show a preference for freshmen.

Ding Xuewen's rejection of older students is a sign that he thinks older students have a low level of education.

"It's true that he organized the poetry club, but this is a school poetry club, open to all teachers and students. It's not right for him to so blatantly reject senior students," Yuan Xiu said.

Zheng Yuemei curled her lip: "Their education level is low. Even if Ding Xuewen recruits them into the poetry club, do they understand poetry? Do they know what modern poetry is?"

"Yueming, do you have a prejudice against worker-peasant-soldier college students?" Her expression was too obvious.

Zheng Yuemei frowned: "It's not so much prejudice as I would say. Anyway, I didn't have high expectations for their education level. When I went to the countryside, one year our educated youth team had a quota for worker-peasant-soldier college students. In the end, the quota didn't go to the hardworking educated youth, nor to the educated youth with a high level of education. The educated youth who went to college hadn't even finished junior high school. He got the quota just because his family background was good."

Zheng Yuemei looked indignant. "Someone like him, even if he goes to university, he'll just be getting a degree for nothing. In other industries, he might get by, but in a school like our medical school, if his skills aren't up to par, he could be killing people!"

"Fortunately, the college entrance examination has been reinstated, and a new era has arrived. Now, we talk about ability, not background. If they don't work hard, they will be marginalized one day."

Yuan Xiu agreed with the last sentence: "There are also hardworking senior students; we can't generalize and condemn all students."

Liu Yazhi nodded: "My neighbor's older sister is a worker-peasant-soldier college student. She works very hard. During her holidays, she studies until the early hours of the morning every day."

"A small portion of them work hard, but most have weak foundations and lack motivation. I even heard someone talking about 'blank paper heroes' in the last big class, praising them to the extreme." Zheng Yuemei shook her head. "They're still spouting the same old 'studying is useless' theory."

As the three were chatting, a commotion broke out outside, and Liu Yazhi quickly ran out to see what was going on.

She returned in less than a minute. "Yuan Xiu, Yue Mei, come quick! Ding Xuewen is surrounded by the older students!"

Yuan Xiu and Zheng Yuemei exchanged a glance, then got up and ran out.

In the corridor, Ding Xuewen and his friends were surrounded by more than a dozen senior students.

The two sides are arguing.

"...We are of impeccable revolutionary lineage, going to university for the people! Why won't you let us into the poetry club!" a worker-peasant-soldier student shouted.

Ding Xuewen stood at the front, saying, "The poetry club is a platform for everyone to exchange and learn together. If the skill levels are too different, there's nothing to talk about even if we sit together."

"Exactly, college students who even need extra tutoring in high school, how can you join a poetry club? Do you even know what poetry is?" Wei Dong stood next to Ding Xuewen and scoffed.

Their words were like a spark igniting an oil lamp, enraging the worker-peasant-soldier students!

One person said one sentence:

"Poor skill level? Who's worse?"

"While we were writing poems for the people, you were still working in the fields!"

"Exactly! After just two days of school, they don't know who's who anymore!"

"Poetry is about literary talent, not slogans," Ding Xuewen said calmly. "What you're writing are slogans, not poems."

"Say that again!"

"Say it a hundred times and it'll be the same!"