Chapter 162: Monthly Exam Results And Award Ceremony
On the day the monthly exam ended, Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi saw the brilliant smile on their eldest daughter’s face, and their hearts skipped a beat hard, but after probing indirectly and learning that her scores this time were probably still disastrously bad, they quietly breathed a sigh of relief, while at the same time developing new doubts in their hearts: What was their daughter so happy about? Had she finally given up on the oven and was preparing to focus on new foods?
Thinking that new foods could be developed, Xiang Weiguo became a bit impatient. Although less than half the time remained until the soy sauce was ready, and after mastering a major seasoning raw material mentioned by his daughter, the Yue Xiang Group’s financial report would look very good in the future, as a businessman, Xiang Weiguo naturally felt that no amount of money earned was enough, and moreover, good-tasting things were naturally better the more there were.
“Give up the oven? Haha, Father, you’re really joking. How could I give it up?” Xiang Chuan chuckled. “Since you and the government won’t let me use it, I’ll make my own oven!”
As soon as these words came out, not only did Xiang Weiguo and Lin Minzhi turn pale with fright, but Xiang Qi, who was watching the drama on the side, was so shocked that his jaw dropped, preparing to come over and join his parents in persuading Xiang Chuan to abandon this outrageous “bright idea.”
But upon hearing that it was an ancient-style oven heated externally, the three finally breathed a slight sigh of relief: As long as it wasn’t an electric oven, otherwise they would really have to send their underage daughter/sister to permanent imprisonment.
After hearing Xiang Chuan’s simple introduction and learning that this was an ancient device used even in the eras of The Count of Monte Cristo and Don Quixote, Lin Minzhi instantly became interested. She pondered in her heart that if her daughter confirmed this brick stove worked, then after fully authorizing public reading of these three books for the Third Fleet’s citizens, she could have the Cultural Affairs Bureau conduct related promotions and activities to enhance the cultural atmosphere.
Xiang Weiguo also began thinking about the possibility of mass-producing food using the ancient brick stove form.
The day after the exam.
While the A Bite of China Club members’ brick stove plan was still at the talking-on-paper stage, they soon welcomed the highly anticipated school anniversary exhibition project selection award ceremony and the release of the monthly exam scores that Xiang Chuan didn’t want to face.
Although Xiang Chuan herself didn’t care about passing or failing each subject because she had the brick stove as PLAN B, she still really disliked facing this kind of scene that felt like public execution, especially given that her own class had a good chance of winning the school anniversary exhibition project award.
“So why hold the award ceremony on the day the scores are announced?” Xiang Chuan wrinkled her face, scaring Chou Manman into quickly helping to block for her.
“There are media coming to take photos today, so watch your expression.” Chou Manman smiled wryly. “Our class was on the official news report before, and many media are paying attention to our class and your A Bite of China Club. If they capture some weird pictures, who knows what others will make fun of us for.”
“Okay, okay, fine. Really, we’re not public figures or anything…” Xiang Chuan muttered, but put on a serious expression, making the surrounding classmates laugh.
“Even if we’re not public figures, we still need to be careful, at least don’t show anything in front of those people that they can use against us.” Nancy raised an eyebrow and looked toward the opposite team.
After the media learned that the joint school anniversary award ceremony between Nongda Affiliated High School and Caida Affiliated High School would be held today, they applied to both sides for live stream reporting. The principals naturally agreed gladly and creatively arranged for the cooperating classes to stand face-to-face on either side of the sports field award platform.
Standing opposite Class 1-8 of Nongda Affiliated High School were the students of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School.
Xiang Chuan blinked and glanced over there. Honestly, if not for this award ceremony, she would have completely forgotten about this group.
Honestly, rumors at their level probably wouldn’t even catch the eye of elementary school students in the 21st Century. 21st Century elementary students were all level-ten internet surfing experts—what storms hadn’t they seen? It was just baseless gossip about her and her classmates. After Xiang Chuan’s own review post-school anniversary, she found that aside from some tension at the time, it hadn’t caused any real harm to her or the Class Eight crowd before or after.
She summed it up as modern youth lacking imagination. If it were 21st Century teens who browsed short videos all day, wouldn’t they stir up the rhythm, take sides, jump in to act, and escalate it to conflicts over gender, class, and more in minutes?
Modern youth were still too simple. Xiang Chuan inwardly complained using a dead language (note: a dead language means a word no longer used by anyone today).
But for the Class Eight Grade One students with no such experiences, this rumor incident was quite a big deal for them.
This was being rumored about! The Class Eight Grade One classmates had vented hundreds of messages in the class group chat the night before the award ceremony, which was why they could now stand face-to-face with the Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School students without changing expression.
[—Next to be awarded is the Best Exhibition Project Award for the First Year High School grade. Please have the representatives from Agricultural University Affiliated High School Class 1-8 and Finance University Affiliated High School Class 1-3 come on stage.]
Hearing the broadcast, all the hover cameras in the air simultaneously turned toward Class Eight Grade One, making even the thick-skinned Xiang Chuan involuntarily take a deep breath and stand as straight as in military stance.
Even the usually composed Class President Lu Daiqing was a bit nervous now, gripping his right hand tightly. Nancy, seeing him like this, sighed inwardly and prepared to step forward. Being in the spotlight in public was already routine for her as a noble’s child. She usually slacked off as vice class president, but now planned to help this class president who seemed very calculating but was actually still quite green.
But Lu Daiqing next to her stepped forward faster. Nancy was stunned. Lu Daiqing slightly turned his head and nodded to her in thanks. She shrugged.
The representative sent by Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School was Sasha. When she saw Lu Daiqing step right in front of her, she froze, then couldn’t help looking at the conspicuous brown-haired boy in Nongda Affiliated High School Class 1-8 behind him, pursing her lips with undisguised disappointment in her eyes.
Seeing her like this, Lu Daiqing nearly switched his prepared standard template speech to the sarcastic Don Quixote-style speech he had studied and mastered over weeks (junior version). Behind him, out of his sight, Nancy near the award platform had twitching eye corners.
—So you guys haven’t repented at all and are still thinking about these boy-girl things!!
After the award ceremony.
When Ainuo was dragged by Nancy and Lu Daiqing to the territory of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School, they were completely dazed: What happened? What occurred? Why bring me here?
The Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School crowd was also dazed seeing the three: What are they here for? Settling scores after the event? But hadn’t they already discussed it before?
“Sorry to disturb you all again.” Class President Lu Daiqing showed a standard business smile. “After various considerations, we think eliminating potential hidden dangers between us in the future might be more conducive to communication between our two classes and even the two schools, so, Sasha Delta—”
Whoosh— the students of Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School all turned to Sasha standing at the front of the group.
Sasha herself was pale one moment and flushed the next: What are they planning? She hadn’t said anything wrong during the award speech just now, right?
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing major, just want to take this opportunity to clear some things up.” Nancy smiled at her, but this smile gave Sasha a bad premonition. Sure enough, she immediately turned to Ainuo: “Ainuo, this female classmate likes you. Do you like her? Or would you consider accepting her pursuit?”
Whoa—
Nancy’s words were like pouring a basin of cold water into boiling oil, instantly exploding the Class 1-3 of Caida Affiliated High School crowd into whispering right there. As the person involved, Sasha was pale-faced, but her gaze toward Ainuo couldn’t help carrying some expectation.
“Oh, it’s this. Indeed, better to clear it up.” Ainuo nodded to Nancy, then looked at Sasha’s face—which could be called pretty even among genetically superior noble families— and said impassively: “Sorry, I don’t like you. I don’t plan to establish a partner relationship with anyone in the next few years, so I won’t accept your pursuit. Please don’t bother us with these things.”
Sasha turned pale at his words “I don’t like you,” and at the final “bother,” felt her vision go black, nearly collapsing, but was supported by An Su Chun beside her.
An Su Chun was initially stunned by Nancy’s blunt words, only coming back to senses when Ainuo spoke, and now was shocked by this person’s otherworldly emotional intelligence in his speech, almost failing to catch Sasha in time.
