Chapter 50: The Campus Top Ten Singers

The calendar was flipped to its final page, and the days of this year were also nearing their end.

Today is Monday, December fifth.

The average temperature this month is even lower than last month. Even at noon, when the temperature peaks, it does not reach double digits. The nights are close to freezing, and on a few mornings, a thin layer of white frost can be seen condensing on the tree leaves.

When the bell for the third period in the afternoon rang, Lu You packed up his desk, preparing for class.

The third period on Monday afternoons is always the class meeting, followed by cleaning duties. This week's cleaning schedule didn't fall on Lu You, so he could leave as soon as class ended, prompting him to tidy up his desk in advance.

Teacher Zeng walked up to the podium from the front door and clapped his hands.

"Class, please pay attention. The class meeting is starting."

Then, he turned around, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote five characters on the blackboard:

Our Youth.

Afterward, he pulled his phone out of his breast pocket.

"Class monitor, take my phone and take a picture. Stand at the back of the classroom and make sure to capture both me and the theme on the blackboard."

The class monitor walked up to the podium, took the phone, went to the back door of the classroom, aimed at the podium, pressed the shutter button, and returned the phone. The entire sequence of actions flowed as smoothly as running water, as if it had been done countless times before.

Teacher Zeng took the phone, made sure the photo was correct, and put it away.

"Alright, the class meeting concludes here. Now let's summarize last week's class situation."

The expressions of the students in the audience did not change in the slightest; they were already accustomed to it. Their class meetings were never conducted seriously.

The first class meeting was for electing class officials and rearranging seats. The second class meeting summarized the previous week's situation. All subsequent class meetings were simply summaries of the situation. Writing a theme on the blackboard and taking a picture was merely a task assigned by the head of guidance.

"First, let's talk about hygiene. Last week, our class won the civilized class award. The public area hygiene, the classroom, and the dormitories of the boarding students were all well-kept, with basically no points deducted. Later, the class monitor will go hang the brocade banner at the front door."

With that, Teacher Zeng placed a rolled-up dark-colored banner on the side of the podium.

"Next, let's talk about our studies."

Teacher Zeng lowered his head to look at the feedback from the subject teachers, immediately wearing a conflicted expression and letting out a sigh.

"Sigh. Lu You and Yuan Wenliang, I don't even want to talk about both of you anymore. Your names are on the list every single week; can you save me some trouble? Can you spend some time on your weak subjects? At least do the homework?

One of you refuses to do politics, history, and geography, while the other refuses to do physics, chemistry, and biology. Over the span of a week, six subject teachers came to me to complain. They even asked me if the two of you have a personal grudge against them. It's like this every week, it's driving me crazy."

Lu You and Yuan Wenliang exchanged glances and shared a knowing smile.

With a silent understanding of each other's eyes, they decided they still wouldn't do it in the future.

Seeing them still grinning, Teacher Zeng felt an urge to give each of them a kick.

However, good students couldn't simply be beaten. They were the number ones in their respective subjects. Aside from neglecting their weak subjects' homework, they had no other disciplinary infractions, were polite to others, maintained harmonious relationships with classmates, and occasionally explained problems to the class.

As their head teacher, Teacher Zeng felt a mixture of deep affection and utter exasperation toward them.

"Forget it, you two can fend for yourselves; do whatever you want.

First is math. Last week's math unit test results were pretty good. Lu You got a perfect score as usual, and most of the others scored in the nineties, except for a few individuals who made calculation errors and scored in the eighties, along with two habitual anchors dragging down the average in the seventies."

The unit test still consisted of relatively simple questions with a small volume, and since seats weren't separated, getting a high score wasn't difficult.

"Then comes English. Her feedback is that recently, your voices during morning and evening readings have been exceptionally quiet, as if you haven't eaten, and many people are slacking off, either chatting or doing homework for other subjects.

What I want to say is that at any given time, you should be doing the corresponding tasks. If you use the reading time to catch up on other subjects, then when are you going to make up for the actual reading? I hope you can realize this and put some energy into morning and evening readings from now on, reading with focus."

"As for the other subjects, the subject teachers had no complaints, so keep up the good work.

Finally, the school plans to hold a campus Top Ten Singers competition, hosting a New Year's Eve party on the evening of the 31st to select the Top Ten Singers. There will be one first-place prize with a reward of 300 yuan, three second-place prizes with 100 yuan each, and the rest will be third-place prizes with 50 yuan each.

Every class must have at least one student participating, up to a maximum of five. You can participate as groups, such as a band or something similar. Does anyone in our class want to volunteer?"

In an instant, the gaze of the entire class converged on Lu You.

Students from other classes might not know clearly, but they still remembered that during military training, Lu You had gone up on stage to sing, and he sang exceptionally well.

Lu You felt as if countless needles were pricking his body, wearing an unhappy expression.

"Why are you looking at me? Do I look like the type who would participate?"

As soon as his voice fell, several people in the class responded.

"Yes."

"You sing the best in the class, who else is going to go if not you?"

"That's right!"

"With pearls and jade already presented, tiles and stones are hard to match; you are the most suitable person to go on stage."

……

Teacher Zeng also spoke up.

"How about this, Lu You, why don't you try the preliminary auditions? It doesn't matter if you don't pass later, just treat it as practice."

Practice? Practice my foot! I've already published several academic papers, what else do I need to practice for?

Lu You was speechless internally, but he didn't completely refuse. If truly no one else in the class stepped up later, he would register himself then.

The calendar was flipped to its final page...

"Alright teacher, let me think about it."

"Then think fast, give me a definitive answer before tonight. The first round of preliminary auditions starts the night after next."

……

Dinner time.

Lu You and Li瑜 got their food and looked for seats. Just in time, they saw Xu Nian waving at them.

The four of them sat facing each other.

Lu You noticed the simple dishes on Tang Wan's tray: a modest fried egg, two vegetable dishes, and an uncommon bowl of hot chicken soup.

Thinking of today's date, he roughly understood the situation.

"Are you feeling very uncomfortable?"

"Huh?"

It took Tang Wan a moment to realize what he was talking about.

"No, I haven't eaten anything messy lately, nor have I caught a chill. And my own physical constitution is quite good; as long as I mind my diet, there won't be any issues. Don't worry."

"As long as there are no issues, that's good. By the way, I'm making red bean milk tea tomorrow morning, do you want some?"

At this moment, Li Yu chimed in.

"I want some! Save some for me!"

What an oblivious blockhead!

Xu Nian was so angry she gave him a kick under the table.

"Hiss!" Li Yu gasped sharply. Although Xu Nian didn't use excessive force, the kick still packed a punch.

"Eat, eat, eat! You only know how to eat! Do you want a portion of everything?"

Li Yu reached out to rub the spot where he had been kicked and started his counter-offensive.

"Holy shit! You female tiger! It really is true that being flat-chested makes people vicious."

Xu Nian caught the subtext in his words, her face flushing with anger, and she proceeded to kick him a few more times.

Li Yu nimbly dodged.

"Heh, triggered, triggered."

Lu You and Tang Wan were already used to their dynamic, finding it unsurprising, and continued with their own topic.

"Can you drink milk tea during your period?"

"You can drink it if it's hot."

Lu You recalled the scene of Lu Jianyan taking care of Shen Youyin.

"When my mom is on her period, if she wants milk tea, my dad will make red bean milk tea for her."

"Then... I'll have a little?"

For some reason, the closer it got to these days, the more Tang Wan craved fried, high-fat, high-calorie foods, and milk tea counted as one of her absolute favorites.

"Extra sugar or less sugar?"

Tang Wan: (ﾟ⊿ﾟ)ﾂ

"You can even control that?"

"Of course."

"Put more sugar in it then, I like sweet flavors."

"Okay, received. Tomorrow I'll have Li Yu bring it to you."

Tang Wan's eyes rolled around a circle, trying to push her luck.

"How about, you bring it to me personally tomorrow morning?"

"I could hear the wheels turning in your abacus from here."

"Can't I?"

"Um... probably not."

Tang Wan's eyes showed a trace of disappointment.

Lu You lowered his head in thought and came up with an idea.

"How about this, I'll make you some handmade chocolate for Christmas to make up for it?"

"Handmade chocolate?"

"Yes, starting right from the cacao pod stage. I can even edit the making process into a video and send it to you."

Tang Wan's eyes lit up.

"Okay, I'm looking forward to it."

The calendar was flipped to its final page...

"However, the video might have to wait until New Year's Day to be sent to you, because it needs time to edit."

Tang Wan secretly glanced at Xu Nian. Seeing that she and Li Yu were still bickering, she quietly said, "On New Year's Day, let's go out together to watch something?"

"Sure, where to?"

"I don't know, there are still twenty days left. I'll tell you when I figure it out."

"OK!"

The two of them thus settled their New Year's date.

Nearby.

It wasn't until Lu You and Tang Wan finished eating that the冤家 (frenemies) Li Yu and Xu Nian finally grew tired of fighting. Both of them were panting heavily, staring at each other with fierce glares.

They could lose the fight, but they couldn't lose their momentum.

Xu Nian wore a sarcastic smile and said, "What? Done already? Weakling!"

"Damn it, I can't take this anymore!"

"Come on then, why are you still sitting there?"

"Fine, don't expect a good time during self-study tonight!"

Seeing that they were about to brawl again, Lu You quickly interrupted.

"Hold on a second, I have something to say."

"Fine, I'll let this woman off for now. Speak, what's up?"

"Heh," Xu Nian sneered.

"My head teacher told me to participate in the Top Ten Singers competition. What do you guys think, should I go?"

"Your business is your own decision, I won't say much."

Xu Nian turned her head instead, looking at Tang Wan.

"Wanwan, what do you think?"

Tang Wan didn't answer the question directly, but instead looked at Lu You and asked, "Do you like singing?"

"I wouldn't say I like it, nor would I say I hate it. I picked up this skill naturally by growing up around my mom, there was no specific purpose behind it."

"My personal view is that I want to hear you sing on stage."

The sight and sound of Lu You singing during military training surfaced in Tang Wan's mind.

"You sing so well, and now there's a chance to hear it, so naturally I hope you'll go on stage."

Lu You was extremely pleased by her praise and made up his mind.

"Is that so? Then I'll go sign up with the head teacher tonight."

Li Yu seemed to remember something, slapped his forehead, and said, "Lu You, I remember you play a few instruments, right?"

"I play a little bit, piano is my highest proficiency level."

"Why don't you do a self-accompanied performance on stage that day?"

"Oh, I didn't expect you to have a brain after all. I'll adopt this suggestion."

……

In the evening, after the first period of self-study.

Lu You knocked on the door of the teachers' office.

"Please come in."

Teacher Zeng pulled his attention away from his lesson plans and looked up at him.

"Oh, it's you. Well, have you thought it over?"

"I've thought it out. Teacher, please help me register."

Teacher Zeng put on a gratified expression, looked him up and down, and joked, "With looks like yours, if you dress up a bit and go shine on stage, heaven knows how many people you'll end up bewitching."

"Haha, really?"

Lu You lowered his head shyly.

"Anything else? If not, head back to the classroom."

"Nothing else, teacher, goodbye."

Lu You politely greeted him and then turned to walk out of the teachers' office.

The moment he stepped outside, he switched back to a deadpan expression at lightning speed.

"Should I wear a balaclava on stage when the time comes? Nah, it's an evening singing event anyway, and the auditorium doesn't have an electronic screen, who's going to see what I look like clearly."