Sound character, independent development, patriotic sentiment, global vision.
If one could become such a person, youth wouldn’t be wasted.
Sheng Xia silently recited these phrases, feeling a sudden surge of what could be called “awe” in her chest.
Or perhaps it should be called resonance.
“Wow, did Zhang Shu write this or did you write it, Xia Xia?” Xin Xiaohe marveled.
Sheng Xia recalled that line “someone told me…” and felt slightly embarrassed, but the main theme was his own. “He wrote it.”
“Really? Not copied?”
Um…
The initial version was, but later he wrote it himself, basically just referencing some speech logic and expression methods.
“It’s not copied.”
Xin Xiaohe was shocked: “Three days away makes one see anew – truly just three days, just these three days of break, and Zhang Shu could transform into a model youth? Please give us more breaks!”
After the flag-raising ceremony, the crowd moved from the plaza toward the teaching building. First and second-year students had to pass the senior building to return to class, and Class 6 was on the ground floor at the very edge. Other senior classes also had to pass Class 6 to go upstairs.
So Sheng Xia and the others in the classroom listened to passing students discussing Zhang Shu.
Especially the first and second years, their voices full of admiration and curiosity.
“Zhang Shu is so good-looking.”
“When that face appeared on the big screen, I thought they’d switched to some talent show…”
“Only lost three points in science, scary…”
“Do people like this exist? Which window did God close?”
“Hey, this is their class, look.”
“It’s a parallel class…”
Xin Xiaohe listened quietly, sighing: “Sharing in the glory, huh? Has Zhang Shu become famous now?”
Sheng Xia nodded: “Seems so.”
Classmates gradually returned, everyone seeming to be in good spirits, perhaps just as Xin Xiaohe said – sharing in the glory.
Zhang Shu was practically surrounded, arms around shoulders as they approached from afar.
Besides Class 6 students, some had been squatting by the window that day.
Reaching Class 6’s corridor, none of them left, just crowding onto the two tables in the hallway, joking and teasing, their laughter almost lifting the ceiling. Everyone passing by turned to look.
“Awesome, Brother Shu! Reading that kind of speech so naturally, who wrote it? Come clean, they’re talented!”
“It was written by Shu himself, I can testify.”
“Really? I don’t believe it. If he wrote this, I’ll walk on my hands!”
Zhang Shu’s mouth twitched, smiling triumphantly, “Even if you peed while walking on your hands, your Brother Shu still wrote this speech.”
“Hahahahaha! Shu, can you try to maintain your idol image?”
“Shu? Nice! Didn’t expect you to be so positive!”
Zhang Shu: “When have I ever been crooked?”
“I believe you’re straight, but why do I feel uneasy about you being this proper? Being useful to the country and world, marching forward with revolutionary spirit – a proper red youth, awesome!”
“Awesome, awesome! I’m uncultured, just awesome!”
“Hahaha!”
“Shu,” Liu Hui’an caught a loophole, “That stuff about being useful to the country and world, wasn’t that something someone told you? Who said it?”
“Yeah!” Wu Pengcheng also realized, “And that part about if ordinary, at least be a good person – isn’t that talking about me? Feeling targeted.”
Hou Junqi argued: “It’s ‘at least’, at least be a good person!”
“Right, right, right.”
Zhang Shu laughed, “How did I not know you all listened so carefully? Even parsing words now.”
“Of course, depends on whose brother is giving the speech up there.”
“I dare say this morning was the most attentively everyone’s ever listened to a flag-raising speech, not just us, right?”
Zhang Shu cut them off: “Alright, alright, enough praise, disperse now, you’re blocking the way.”
Their group was too eye-catching; many who would have passed through Class 6’s corridor took a detour across the lawn.
“Quick, tell us who said it!”
“Why keep it secret?”
“Made it up! Made it up, okay?” Zhang Shu continued shooing people away. “Quick, leave, don’t make trouble at our class. If you don’t go, want to demonstrate that handstand?”
“Tch~”
“Fame’s made his temper big, hard to serve now!”