Blue sky and white clouds, red flags fluttering.
September 6th, Friday.
Today is the last day of military training.
It is also time to demonstrate results. Puxian Playground is surrounded by more people in the stands, and there are quite a few leading teachers on the main stage in the middle.
Xiao Qi and the others came over after breakfast and found their place very consciously. Then they lined up in neat rows.
Each class has a student selected to hold up the class sign.
Because of her meticulous performance and outstanding singing during the military training, Xiao Qi was unanimously voted by her classmates and instructor to hold up the sign.
That is, one person holds up a signboard and walks in front of the class. When passing by the main stage, the signboard needs to be turned towards the main stage, so that the leading teachers on it can see clearly which class is approaching.
To be honest, Xiao Qi was very obedient during training because she had experienced social education and knew that being obedient was the right thing to do at this age.
However, when walking in front holding the signboard, she kept thinking of her parents' words that the protruding nail gets hammered down first...she was now at the very front.
Fortunately, she did not slack off at all during the military training. Because for every move, whether it’s lifting her legs or turning back and forth, there would be immediate feedback on her interface, +0.8, +0.8, +0.8...
She did every move very carefully.
In addition, she always kept her head high and chest out, because she was following the fitness coach's requirement to not always bow her head, hunch her shoulders or cave in her chest. Bowing head and caving chest would make one look lacking in confidence.
The buff effect of Xiao Qi’s confident temperament had disappeared. Now everything relied on her own efforts.
Temperament was something that took more than ten years to develop. It was deeply ingrained and hard to change. Therefore, the initial change could start from her external form.
The inside was an indescribable and incomprehensible thing. Personality charm was also not something discernible at first sight. The external form was the first thing a person conveyed to others.
Every class had someone holding up the sign, and Xiao Qi was not very tall among them, but she looked very spirited, giving people the feeling of being very neat and upright, like a pine tree.
Wu Xinyue from the English program class 1 was their internet celebrity. It was already spread that Wu Xinyue was the most beautiful freshman, and many seniors had come to see her. With waist-length hair and wearing camouflage training uniform, she did have a special style.
Xiao Qi didn't look at others. She listened to the coach’s commands as usual during training, marching steadily.
It was only when she turned the class signboard in front of the main stage that she realized her palms were full of sweat. The stick of the signboard was probably all wet and slippery held by her.
So she was still a little nervous. Everyone marched in unison, and they even marched in goose steps. That short section in front of the main stage seemed to be infinitely stretched. When she finally passed it and arrived at the designated rest area at the front, Xiao Qi realized her legs were shaking.
Finally she could relax. The instructor even came up to praise her for doing well.
Zhang Tianwei truly felt this student performed very good - meticulous, as could be seen from the rows behind.
There were people who stepped the wrong foot when marching in goose steps, and some even kicked their shoes out in exaggeration. There were also people who did not shout the slogan in unison.
Because the lead student was nervous and did not march rightly, the whole class behind also became skewed.
In short, there was not a single lapse in their business administration class 1. Not making any mistakes was already perfect and excellent.
Indeed, their business class 1 finally got a best performance award, plus a silk banner in the end. After the presentation, they also took pictures with the instructor.
Many students added the instructor’s WeChat. Their instructor was indeed very handsome in an uncouth hero northern China guy way, with five rugged features, plus high nose bridge and deep-set eyes. Wearing military uniform, he appeared even more charming. In the late night roommate chats, their instructor was often discussed.
Xiao Qi also added the instructor, whose WeChat name was Zhang Tianwei. The profile picture was surprisingly him in white military uniform, which was very eye-catching.
Upon finishing military training, there was an inexplicable feeling of reluctance to part. It was very strange. On the first day they wailed and complained about the brutal and inhumane instructor, but slowly they got used to it. And now they were actually reluctant to see the instructor leave. Also because of the military training, everyone in the class got to know each other, and suddenly became close as if they belonged together, different from other classes. It was truly baffling.
However, the focus of everyone’s chat was actually on the two classmates who never showed up, since they could talk about them together.
Li Weijin and Su Li who transferred from preparatory class still had not appeared. They probably would appear in class. Li Weijin had not shown up in the men’s dorm these days. The male students said they had never seen him. But he was said to come from a wealthy family, the really rich kind, who seemed to be preparing to study overseas or do something. Anyway he had quite a deep background.
There were even more gossips about Su Li. It was said her family had some relations with the founder of the university.
The founder of Enhua University was an overseas Chinese who had two wives. The first wife had two daughters. The second wife had no children, but had a nephew. And Su Li was the daughter of this nephew.
It was said the second wife was managing the school. Though called second wife, she was already a 70 year old granny. And she was fluent in eight languages, supposedly the original secretary of the founder.
Such a matter of having two wives no longer existed domestically now, so it sounded rather magical when talked about.
When Xiao Qi listened, it sounded just like those school trustees or big shots portrayed in TV dramas. It had a bit of sense of Meteor Garden and F4 of some sort. Fortunately there was no such case of scenario noted in or heard of from their class yet. They just gossiped a little bit about the classmates who had not shown up.
Today, as military training came to an end and there was only morning session, Xiao Qi actually discovered that the instructor had sent her a message after she had gone back to the dorm and had lunch. She thought it would only be a routine casual exchange and there would be no follow up.
The instructor sent her an expression of a lively dancing goose...
Xiao Qi also sent back an expression upon seeing it. It was probably just emoji friending.
She soon put this out of mind. Back in the dorm, the first thing was still to practice handwriting.
There was half a day free in the afternoon. Tomorrow and the day after were weekends with two days off too. Chen Mier was very excited and intended to invite everyone to hang out downtown.
Xiao Qi practiced writing for half an hour and did not feel restless anymore before putting down the brush.
She still had several things to get done next. She needed to go to the driving school to sign up. She had consulted in advance, it was over 40,000 RMB for students to sign up at the driving school which was near the New District, so very close too.
Wei Cheng in the dorm was quite interested, as she was from the countryside where it was very inconvenient to get into town without a vehicle. However it was still more convenient than Xiao Qi’s case, as the roads there in Mushroom Hometown were better built, with lots of vehicles transporting mushrooms in and out every year. But she had no money at the moment and did not dare to sign up, also being worried to be scammed.
Chen Mier and Gu Yunshu’s families had cars. Gu Yunshu’s family even had a chauffeur, while Chen Mier’s family was a truck driver in a factory. Smaller cars were driven by family members. They were just not interested in driving.
Then Xiao Qi needed to go sign up for a Japanese language class. It was said there were also elective Japanese courses offered by the English department. Perhaps she could sit in the classes later. Chen Mier was also interested in going to learn Japanese together.
Moreover, over the weekend a few people wanted to check out the school’s clubs and student union to see what those were like, feeling that perhaps they should join a club or the student union. It seemed every student had some other identity, like member of certain club, or executive of student union and the like.
Xiao Qi installed a few small hooks in front of her desk to hang several small notebooks. Some were exclusively for taking notes, others for recording vocabulary to recite every day, and one was for bookkeeping.
Since there was nothing to do in the afternoon, she planned to get the driving school and Japanese class settled.
Blue sky and white clouds, red flags fluttering.
September 6th, Friday.
Today is the last day of military training.
It is also time to demonstrate results. Puxian Playground is surrounded by more people in the stands, and there are quite a few leading teachers on the main stage in the middle.
Xiao Qi and the others came over after breakfast and found their place very consciously. Then they lined up in neat rows.
Each class has a student selected to hold up the class sign.
Because of her meticulous performance and outstanding singing during the military training, Xiao Qi was unanimously voted by her classmates and instructor to hold up the sign.
That is, one person holds up a signboard and walks in front of the class. When passing by the main stage, the signboard needs to be turned towards the main stage, so that the leading teachers on it can see clearly which class is approaching.
To be honest, Xiao Qi was very obedient during training because she had experienced social education and knew that being obedient was the right thing to do at this age.
However, when walking in front holding the signboard, she kept thinking of her parents' words that the protruding nail gets hammered down first...she was now at the very front.
Fortunately, she did not slack off at all during the military training. Because for every move, whether it’s lifting her legs or turning back and forth, there would be immediate feedback on her interface, +0.8, +0.8, +0.8...
She did every move very carefully.
In addition, she always kept her head high and chest out, because she was following the fitness coach's requirement to not always bow her head, hunch her shoulders or cave in her chest. Bowing head and caving chest would make one look lacking in confidence.
The buff effect of Xiao Qi’s confident temperament had disappeared. Now everything relied on her own efforts.
Temperament was something that took more than ten years to develop. It was deeply ingrained and hard to change. Therefore, the initial change could start from her external form.
The inside was an indescribable and incomprehensible thing. Personality charm was also not something discernible at first sight. The external form was the first thing a person conveyed to others.
Every class had someone holding up the sign, and Xiao Qi was not very tall among them, but she looked very spirited, giving people the feeling of being very neat and upright, like a pine tree.
Wu Xinyue from the English program class 1 was their internet celebrity. It was already spread that Wu Xinyue was the most beautiful freshman, and many seniors had come to see her. With waist-length hair and wearing camouflage training uniform, she did have a special style.
Xiao Qi didn't look at others. She listened to the coach’s commands as usual during training, marching steadily.
It was only when she turned the class signboard in front of the main stage that she realized her palms were full of sweat. The stick of the signboard was probably all wet and slippery held by her.
So she was still a little nervous. Everyone marched in unison, and they even marched in goose steps. That short section in front of the main stage seemed to be infinitely stretched. When she finally passed it and arrived at the designated rest area at the front, Xiao Qi realized her legs were shaking.
Finally she could relax. The instructor even came up to praise her for doing well.
Zhang Tianwei truly felt this student performed very good - meticulous, as could be seen from the rows behind.
There were people who stepped the wrong foot when marching in goose steps, and some even kicked their shoes out in exaggeration. There were also people who did not shout the slogan in unison.
Because the lead student was nervous and did not march rightly, the whole class behind also became skewed.
In short, there was not a single lapse in their business administration class 1. Not making any mistakes was already perfect and excellent.
Indeed, their business class 1 finally got a best performance award, plus a silk banner in the end. After the presentation, they also took pictures with the instructor.
Many students added the instructor’s WeChat. Their instructor was indeed very handsome in an uncouth hero northern China guy way, with five rugged features, plus high nose bridge and deep-set eyes. Wearing military uniform, he appeared even more charming. In the late night roommate chats, their instructor was often discussed.
Xiao Qi also added the instructor, whose WeChat name was Zhang Tianwei. The profile picture was surprisingly him in white military uniform, which was very eye-catching.
Upon finishing military training, there was an inexplicable feeling of reluctance to part. It was very strange. On the first day they wailed and complained about the brutal and inhumane instructor, but slowly they got used to it. And now they were actually reluctant to see the instructor leave. Also because of the military training, everyone in the class got to know each other, and suddenly became close as if they belonged together, different from other classes. It was truly baffling.
However, the focus of everyone’s chat was actually on the two classmates who never showed up, since they could talk about them together.
Li Weijin and Su Li who transferred from preparatory class still had not appeared. They probably would appear in class. Li Weijin had not shown up in the men’s dorm these days. The male students said they had never seen him. But he was said to come from a wealthy family, the really rich kind, who seemed to be preparing to study overseas or do something. Anyway he had quite a deep background.
There were even more gossips about Su Li. It was said her family had some relations with the founder of the university.
The founder of Enhua University was an overseas Chinese who had two wives. The first wife had two daughters. The second wife had no children, but had a nephew. And Su Li was the daughter of this nephew.
It was said the second wife was managing the school. Though called second wife, she was already a 70 year old granny. And she was fluent in eight languages, supposedly the original secretary of the founder.
Such a matter of having two wives no longer existed domestically now, so it sounded rather magical when talked about.
When Xiao Qi listened, it sounded just like those school trustees or big shots portrayed in TV dramas. It had a bit of sense of Meteor Garden and F4 of some sort. Fortunately there was no such case of scenario noted in or heard of from their class yet. They just gossiped a little bit about the classmates who had not shown up.
Today, as military training came to an end and there was only morning session, Xiao Qi actually discovered that the instructor had sent her a message after she had gone back to the dorm and had lunch. She thought it would only be a routine casual exchange and there would be no follow up.
The instructor sent her an expression of a lively dancing goose...
Xiao Qi also sent back an expression upon seeing it. It was probably just emoji friending.
She soon put this out of mind. Back in the dorm, the first thing was still to practice handwriting.
There was half a day free in the afternoon. Tomorrow and the day after were weekends with two days off too. Chen Mier was very excited and intended to invite everyone to hang out downtown.
Xiao Qi practiced writing for half an hour and did not feel restless anymore before putting down the brush.
She still had several things to get done next. She needed to go to the driving school to sign up. She had consulted in advance, it was over 40,000 RMB for students to sign up at the driving school which was near the New District, so very close too.
Wei Cheng in the dorm was quite interested, as she was from the countryside where it was very inconvenient to get into town without a vehicle. However it was still more convenient than Xiao Qi’s case, as the roads there in Mushroom Hometown were better built, with lots of vehicles transporting mushrooms in and out every year. But she had no money at the moment and did not dare to sign up, also being worried to be scammed.
Chen Mier and Gu Yunshu’s families had cars. Gu Yunshu’s family even had a chauffeur, while Chen Mier’s family was a truck driver in a factory. Smaller cars were driven by family members. They were just not interested in driving.
Then Xiao Qi needed to go sign up for a Japanese language class. It was said there were also elective Japanese courses offered by the English department. Perhaps she could sit in the classes later. Chen Mier was also interested in going to learn Japanese together.
Moreover, over the weekend a few people wanted to check out the school’s clubs and student union to see what those were like, feeling that perhaps they should join a club or the student union. It seemed every student had some other identity, like member of certain club, or executive of student union and the like.
Xiao Qi installed a few small hooks in front of her desk to hang several small notebooks. Some were exclusively for taking notes, others for recording vocabulary to recite every day, and one was for bookkeeping.
Since there was nothing to do in the afternoon, she planned to get the driving school and Japanese class settled.
