Xiao Qi returned to the dormitory, and there was already a phone call.
Yun Shu had changed into comfortable white princess-style pajamas and was leaning against the bed reading a novel.
In the dormitory, flowers were blooming beautifully. She had spent a whole afternoon on flower arranging, and it turned out she did have some talent for it, although she had trimmed quite a few stems. But the flowers looked even more vibrant without them.
Mei Er was taking a shower. Xiao Qi put down her school bag just as Mei Er finished showering and came out.
She said excitedly: “This Friday is Mid-Autumn Festival. Our student union is responsible for organizing the Mid-Autumn Festival party at the new stadium. I also got quite a few mooncake vouchers and we can go redeem mooncakes at the bakery on the student street tomorrow.”
When Xiao Qi heard about the Mid-Autumn Festival party, she suddenly remembered something she seemed to have forgotten.
She had signed up for the Campus Top Ten Singers competition. The organizer notified her to submit a demo recording before midnight tonight.
Xiao Qi checked the date and realized she almost missed it.
“Are you free now? Can you help me record a video?” Xiao Qi asked Mei Er.
"I'm free, I'm free!"
With Mei Er in the dorm, there was always liveliness. When she heard Xiao Qi was going to record a video, even Yun Shu put down her novel.
The roommates all came to help set up the background for Xiao Qi's video recording.
"No need to go through so much trouble. I think Yun Shu's vase background looks quite nice. I'll just casually sing a song, that's good enough." When it comes to singing, Xiao Qi now had some confidence.
Since this was just a demo submission for evaluation, Xiao Qi felt it would be best to play it safe and chose a very popular song "Invisible Wings" that was easy for female singers. It could be sung a cappella without much accompaniment.
The roommates were very cooperative. They closed all the doors and windows to block outside noises. Then Xiao Qi started singing.
"Every time, wandering in perseverance; every time, even when deeply hurt, no tears in sight... Now I'm finally soaring, gazing ahead fearlessly. Wherever there are winds, I'll fly as far as I can. Invisible wings let my dreams last eternally, leaving behind a wish, letting myself imagine."
This was a very familiar song, and Xiao Qi felt the lyrics were also very good, very suited for a female vocal. She sang it effortlessly from start to finish.
After Mei Er finished recording, she hit save, and then regretfully said: "Oh no, I forgot to turn on the beauty filter! It would look better with the beauty filter on. Should we record it one more time?"
Xiao Qi took the phone and looked at the video. Mei Er had used an iPhone camera, so with the dorm lighting being rather dark, the color tone looked a bit black even though she was sitting by the window and the dorm was clean. But the singing voice sounded quite good without much distortion.
"No need, this will do. If the format gets messed up with the beauty filter, we'd have to re-record again." Xiao Qi edited the video with the required name, class, student ID details and submitted it to the contact person for the Top Ten Singers competition.
She quickly opened the windows since Meng City was still stifling hot. Just that short recording and she was sweating already.
Xiao Qi looked at her phone and the recipient had quickly replied: Received.
Finally something was done. This time it really was her own fault for forgetting. After coming to university there were quite a lot of things going on, she had actually forgotten even though she had noted it down in her planner. If not for Mei Er's reminder, she would have completely forgotten. This was bad. She probably subconsciously felt it was a simple thing so she didn't pay much attention.
She had prepared competition songs all along, listening and singing them the past few days when walking or taking the bus to get the feel. Yet she managed to forget about recording the demo itself, which could have directly disqualified her from the competition.
Xiao Qi felt she was a bit full of herself recently... Not good, not good.
While Xiao Qi was reflecting on herself, Wei Cheng had already excitedly said: "We're going to English Corner tonight. The foreign teacher Grace invited Xiao Qi to go to her apartment on Sunday and said to bring us along."
"Really? I also want to meet a foreign teacher so much! Is she pretty?"
"Very pretty. She's really tall, when standing it felt like she was a head taller than me. Very beautiful. She speaks English impeccably. She said she is from Greece originally."
"Yun Shu you'll go too right?"
Although Yun Shu was an indoor introvert by nature, since her roommates were going, she also nodded: "We can bring a bouquet when we go."
When Yun Shu talked about bringing gifts, Wei Cheng was stumped.
It seemed like on TV, when going to a foreigner's home, it was customary to bring some gifts, although inexpensive, but it appeared to be an etiquette.
Mei Er immediately said: "My family factory makes many Chinese style silk scarves. I brought loads of them. We can take those as gifts."
She rumbled through her things until she actually dug out piles of silk scarves, packaged quite nicely in those fabric box casings, almost like jewelry boxes, with a copper clasp on the cover.
Opening the boxes revealed a neatly folded silk scarf inside, probably real silk since there were many silk products from their native Qinjiang Province quite famous, sold nationally and exported overseas.
However the drawings on them looked rather loud and garish to Xiao Qi and her roommates. They didn't really wear silk scarves themselves, nor did they have outfits to match such scarves, unless for formal attire.
"Why did you bring so many silk scarves here?" Wei Cheng curiously asked.
"My mom said, when seeking help from others, gifts are useful." Mei Er righteously said. "I gave one to the student union executive in our grade. She quite liked it too. These sell for over 300 RMB outside, actual production cost is very low."
Xiao Qi: ......
Her parents would definitely not teach her this. Looks like upbringings truly differed between families. Mei Er's family started from a small business, quite flexible mindset, family education drilled in from young.
Speaking of local specialty products from home, Wei Cheng also went digging through native goods.
She dug out a bag of dried mushroom slices...
Xiao Qi gave it a sniff. It really did smell nice, different from those sold at supermarkets. The fragrance was particularly strong, and the mushrooms were very uniform in size, all slightly larger than a thumb, chubby. They looked rather cute.
"My family makes these ourselves. We package them ourselves too. Can't buy these outside. Not dried by large machines, we dry them using traditional way at home that's why the aroma is so intense. Is it okay to gift this?"
"Of course it's fine!" With Xiao Qi's senses of smell, taste and culinary skills, she felt this pack of dried mushroom slices was truly superb, premium ingredient.
Yet looking at her roommates all preparing something, it turned out she was the only one without a gift.
It seemed on TV when foreigners visited each other, they loved to bring food items, but with current dorm conditions she couldn't make anything food related. The dorms imposed strict checks on items like electric stoves and rice cookers, afraid students would use them improperly and burn down the dorm.
For folk crafts, Xiao Qi knew bamboo weaving, but it would be difficult to find bamboo here, might have to go into town to look for it. Anyway there was still time before Sunday to prepare.
The roommates felt rather thrilled to have gifts readied.
And so lights out time came.
In the darkness after lights off, each took out their emergency lamps again.
Xiao Qi sat practicing writing for a while more before crawling into bed.
She re-organized her planner again, recording all the things she needed to do but hadn't gotten to yet. Felt like there were too many things losing track of priorities. As a student her studies should still come first, everything else was secondary, just assisting her learning and improvement.
Xiao Qi took a photo of the two words she had practiced writing that night: "Self-urging", to post on her social media as a reminder for herself.
Then she turned off her lights and went to bed.
Xiao Qi returned to the dormitory, and there was already a phone call.
Yun Shu had changed into comfortable white princess-style pajamas and was leaning against the bed reading a novel.
In the dormitory, flowers were blooming beautifully. She had spent a whole afternoon on flower arranging, and it turned out she did have some talent for it, although she had trimmed quite a few stems. But the flowers looked even more vibrant without them.
Mei Er was taking a shower. Xiao Qi put down her school bag just as Mei Er finished showering and came out.
She said excitedly: “This Friday is Mid-Autumn Festival. Our student union is responsible for organizing the Mid-Autumn Festival party at the new stadium. I also got quite a few mooncake vouchers and we can go redeem mooncakes at the bakery on the student street tomorrow.”
When Xiao Qi heard about the Mid-Autumn Festival party, she suddenly remembered something she seemed to have forgotten.
She had signed up for the Campus Top Ten Singers competition. The organizer notified her to submit a demo recording before midnight tonight.
Xiao Qi checked the date and realized she almost missed it.
“Are you free now? Can you help me record a video?” Xiao Qi asked Mei Er.
"I'm free, I'm free!"
With Mei Er in the dorm, there was always liveliness. When she heard Xiao Qi was going to record a video, even Yun Shu put down her novel.
The roommates all came to help set up the background for Xiao Qi's video recording.
"No need to go through so much trouble. I think Yun Shu's vase background looks quite nice. I'll just casually sing a song, that's good enough." When it comes to singing, Xiao Qi now had some confidence.
Since this was just a demo submission for evaluation, Xiao Qi felt it would be best to play it safe and chose a very popular song "Invisible Wings" that was easy for female singers. It could be sung a cappella without much accompaniment.
The roommates were very cooperative. They closed all the doors and windows to block outside noises. Then Xiao Qi started singing.
"Every time, wandering in perseverance; every time, even when deeply hurt, no tears in sight... Now I'm finally soaring, gazing ahead fearlessly. Wherever there are winds, I'll fly as far as I can. Invisible wings let my dreams last eternally, leaving behind a wish, letting myself imagine."
This was a very familiar song, and Xiao Qi felt the lyrics were also very good, very suited for a female vocal. She sang it effortlessly from start to finish.
After Mei Er finished recording, she hit save, and then regretfully said: "Oh no, I forgot to turn on the beauty filter! It would look better with the beauty filter on. Should we record it one more time?"
Xiao Qi took the phone and looked at the video. Mei Er had used an iPhone camera, so with the dorm lighting being rather dark, the color tone looked a bit black even though she was sitting by the window and the dorm was clean. But the singing voice sounded quite good without much distortion.
"No need, this will do. If the format gets messed up with the beauty filter, we'd have to re-record again." Xiao Qi edited the video with the required name, class, student ID details and submitted it to the contact person for the Top Ten Singers competition.
She quickly opened the windows since Meng City was still stifling hot. Just that short recording and she was sweating already.
Xiao Qi looked at her phone and the recipient had quickly replied: Received.
Finally something was done. This time it really was her own fault for forgetting. After coming to university there were quite a lot of things going on, she had actually forgotten even though she had noted it down in her planner. If not for Mei Er's reminder, she would have completely forgotten. This was bad. She probably subconsciously felt it was a simple thing so she didn't pay much attention.
She had prepared competition songs all along, listening and singing them the past few days when walking or taking the bus to get the feel. Yet she managed to forget about recording the demo itself, which could have directly disqualified her from the competition.
Xiao Qi felt she was a bit full of herself recently... Not good, not good.
While Xiao Qi was reflecting on herself, Wei Cheng had already excitedly said: "We're going to English Corner tonight. The foreign teacher Grace invited Xiao Qi to go to her apartment on Sunday and said to bring us along."
"Really? I also want to meet a foreign teacher so much! Is she pretty?"
"Very pretty. She's really tall, when standing it felt like she was a head taller than me. Very beautiful. She speaks English impeccably. She said she is from Greece originally."
"Yun Shu you'll go too right?"
Although Yun Shu was an indoor introvert by nature, since her roommates were going, she also nodded: "We can bring a bouquet when we go."
When Yun Shu talked about bringing gifts, Wei Cheng was stumped.
It seemed like on TV, when going to a foreigner's home, it was customary to bring some gifts, although inexpensive, but it appeared to be an etiquette.
Mei Er immediately said: "My family factory makes many Chinese style silk scarves. I brought loads of them. We can take those as gifts."
She rumbled through her things until she actually dug out piles of silk scarves, packaged quite nicely in those fabric box casings, almost like jewelry boxes, with a copper clasp on the cover.
Opening the boxes revealed a neatly folded silk scarf inside, probably real silk since there were many silk products from their native Qinjiang Province quite famous, sold nationally and exported overseas.
However the drawings on them looked rather loud and garish to Xiao Qi and her roommates. They didn't really wear silk scarves themselves, nor did they have outfits to match such scarves, unless for formal attire.
"Why did you bring so many silk scarves here?" Wei Cheng curiously asked.
"My mom said, when seeking help from others, gifts are useful." Mei Er righteously said. "I gave one to the student union executive in our grade. She quite liked it too. These sell for over 300 RMB outside, actual production cost is very low."
Xiao Qi: ......
Her parents would definitely not teach her this. Looks like upbringings truly differed between families. Mei Er's family started from a small business, quite flexible mindset, family education drilled in from young.
Speaking of local specialty products from home, Wei Cheng also went digging through native goods.
She dug out a bag of dried mushroom slices...
Xiao Qi gave it a sniff. It really did smell nice, different from those sold at supermarkets. The fragrance was particularly strong, and the mushrooms were very uniform in size, all slightly larger than a thumb, chubby. They looked rather cute.
"My family makes these ourselves. We package them ourselves too. Can't buy these outside. Not dried by large machines, we dry them using traditional way at home that's why the aroma is so intense. Is it okay to gift this?"
"Of course it's fine!" With Xiao Qi's senses of smell, taste and culinary skills, she felt this pack of dried mushroom slices was truly superb, premium ingredient.
Yet looking at her roommates all preparing something, it turned out she was the only one without a gift.
It seemed on TV when foreigners visited each other, they loved to bring food items, but with current dorm conditions she couldn't make anything food related. The dorms imposed strict checks on items like electric stoves and rice cookers, afraid students would use them improperly and burn down the dorm.
For folk crafts, Xiao Qi knew bamboo weaving, but it would be difficult to find bamboo here, might have to go into town to look for it. Anyway there was still time before Sunday to prepare.
The roommates felt rather thrilled to have gifts readied.
And so lights out time came.
In the darkness after lights off, each took out their emergency lamps again.
Xiao Qi sat practicing writing for a while more before crawling into bed.
She re-organized her planner again, recording all the things she needed to do but hadn't gotten to yet. Felt like there were too many things losing track of priorities. As a student her studies should still come first, everything else was secondary, just assisting her learning and improvement.
Xiao Qi took a photo of the two words she had practiced writing that night: "Self-urging", to post on her social media as a reminder for herself.
Then she turned off her lights and went to bed.
