Twenty-fourth, Busy December

  On the evening of December 1st, the whole grade held a memorial evening for "December 9th" in the empty hall on the second floor of the cafeteria. In fact, each class presented one or two literary and artistic programs with anti-Japanese patriotic colors, and then evaluated them, selecting several high-quality programs to participate in the college-level celebration activities.

  At that time, the Medical University was not as wealthy and arrogant as it is now. The teaching buildings were all old buildings, so there was a lack of venues for large gatherings. Therefore, year-end parties were basically held in the cafeteria. Occasionally, if we were lucky, we could use the largest lecture hall on campus, which was the only classroom that could accommodate the entire grade.

  The first canteen originally had two floors, but later because the second and third canteens were opened one after another, the second floor of the first canteen was idle. Every time everyone gathered, they brought their own small stools and cleared a piece of empty space in front to use as a stage.

  Doctors often give people a calm and elegant impression, but that is also the result of many years of grinding. Now these medical students are still in their prime, like all young people, love to sing and play. When studying hard, when playing, they can also let go. Soon, the atmosphere of the party became lively, with applause, cheers, and shouts of joy ringing in the ears.

  The evening party was hosted by the president of this year's student union, Cui Wei from Grade 7 and Qian Yunrui, the second "Golden Flower". One was elegant and witty, while the other was warm and gracious. They complemented each other well. During the performances, they also carefully prepared some fun games to mobilize their classmates' enthusiasm for participating in the evening party.

  There was a guessing game of music, the host played a piano piece and let the students guess. The beautiful pop song style, everyone heard that it was Clyde's work that swept the mainland a few years ago, but the students guessed several of Clyde's representative works in a row - what "Adriana by the Water", "Autumn Private Words", "To Alice" etc., no one guessed correctly. For a while, no student went up to guess again.

  Maybe everyone is not a professional music researcher, usually listening to Klaidman's piano songs, just think they all sound good, but didn't pay attention to the name of the song. Lin Fanghua was different, she was a die-hard fan of Klaidman, and bought all three albums he published in mainland China at that time. Moreover, she repeatedly listened to them in her free time, never getting tired of them. Even after breaking one, she spent money again to buy a new tape. At this moment, she had already figured out what song it was, but because she thought it was too simple and someone would definitely guess it, she didn't think about answering. Unexpectedly, no classmates guessed correctly after guessing for half a day, and she couldn't help but mutter: "Memories of Love, don't you know this?"

  Jiang sat next to Wang Ju and heard this, her eyes lit up: "Are you sure?"

  "Yes, I've heard it many times, it can't be wrong."

  Sitting in the back but also hearing them talking, Zhou Yu pushed her and said: "Then why don't you go up to answer? There's a prize!"

  Lin Fanghua still didn't move. Zhou Yu looked around and saw another classmate go up to answer, but they answered incorrectly again. Getting a bit anxious, she said: "You're not going, I'll go! You say it one more time, what's the name?"

  Lin Fanghua whispered the name, and Zhou Yu immediately stood up and ran forward, telling the host the answer. Seeing that no one had answered correctly and worried about the cold field, the host Qian Yunlei also let out a big sigh of relief: "This student got it right!" And gave her a beautiful notebook.

  When Zhou Yu returned, all the classmates in Class 3 applauded for her. She sat down and handed the notebook to Fang Hua, who didn't take it: "You answered, you should keep it!" Zhou Yu still pushed the notebook into her arms and leaned close to her, whispering: "After all, it was you who told me! I've already basked in your glory, got some fame, so it wouldn't be good for me to want your benefits too, right?"

  Lin Fanghua smiled and no longer declined. She suddenly thought to herself, why did she instinctively not want to show off earlier? It seems that the shy and timid personality factor from her past life is still there! Always instinctively unwilling to take the lead! To put it nicely, it's low-key and humble, but perhaps it's because she lacks confidence in herself! This time, this kind of game is fine, but if there's a chance to perform at work, she should stand out confidently! Maybe she was like that before too, clearly capable of handling a task but unwilling to take it on, or looking down on it, and therefore couldn't gain the trust of her leaders. In fact, when it's time to show off, one should show off, this way they'll win more opportunities and have better development!

  Not to mention Lin Fanghua's epiphany in her heart, which made her mental state more mature; on the other hand, the grade celebration party was still going on like a raging fire.

  The third class's dance "Embroidering the Red Flag" is based on the plot of "Red Rock": After the founding of New China, the revolutionary women who were still imprisoned in the Jiujiang Cave Prison found materials and sewed the national flag of New China with their own hands. To be fair, Guo Ling and Bai Yun put in a lot of effort to find videos, find tapes, learn and teach other girls to dance. Everyone's performance on the spot was not bad, but unfortunately, the song "Embroidering the Red Flag" is not very familiar to young students, so the response was not enthusiastic, and finally only won the third prize.

  The "Red Plum Blossom" dance led by Jiang Lu won the first prize. The "Red Plum Blossom" they chose is a classic and well-known song - "Red plum blossoms on the red rock, thousands of miles of ice and snow underfoot. What's to fear in the severe cold of the third month? A piece of crimson heart opens towards the sun, towards the sun. Red plum blossoms open, each one shining brightly, proudly blooming with millions of flowers, fragrance wafting outside the sky..." The familiar lyrics and melody immediately capture people's hearts. Jiang Lu, the lead dancer, wore a cheongsam with a red sweater over it, looking beautiful and elegant, exactly like the revolutionary martyr Jiang Jie. Compared to when she was dancing the Dai ethnic dance during military training, she seemed like a different person. Her dance skills were also on par with professional performers. This program naturally represented our grade in the school-level performance, and was widely expected to do so.

  A few days later, the "December 9th" school-level cultural and artistic evening party was held in the school's cinema. As the largest college of the medical university, the Clinical Medical College could not let all students watch the program, so only the 89-grade classmates did it as representatives. Lin Fanghua naturally couldn't see the performance, but heard that "Red Plum Praise" also participated in the evening party and won a second prize. Luo Manli's "Yan'an Ode" also represented the Pharmaceutical College to participate in the evening party and won a second prize. She not only had poetry recitation but also participated in hosting and reporting as one of the four hosts.

  The day after the art show, Roman and Lin Fanghua started their final sprint to review English. Mainly, they strengthened their English listening skills every day, did ten comprehension exercises every day, and recited some commonly used sentence patterns and phrases in English writing every day. Fanghua really achieved "fist not leaving hand, song not leaving mouth", walking and eating while listening to the radio, and memorizing words and phrases during political class. Two weeks later, on Sunday afternoon, the two walked into the college English six-level exam room. After the exam, Roman was relatively confident about passing, while Lin Fanghua was uncertain about the result due to the short preparation time. She estimated that the possibility of passing was only fifty-fifty. However, regardless of whether they did well or not, the results would only be known after the start of next semester.

  The Saturday of the week after the CET6 exam was December 29, which happened to be between Christmas and New Year's Day. Under the initiative of Tuanzhi Shu Baiyun, Class 3 organized another class gathering, with the theme of celebrating the two festivals. The format was similar to that of the Mid-Autumn Festival, still in the mode of everyone chatting and having fun together.

  At that time, everyone was still relatively unfamiliar with Christmas. In order to get into the holiday spirit, Bai Yun designed a segment where classmates would exchange Christmas gifts with each other. She notified everyone in advance to prepare a small gift, which didn't have to be expensive, just a token of thoughtfulness. To make it more interesting than simply exchanging gifts, she divided the boys and girls into two groups at the party, and then had them draw names from the other group. According to the name they drew, they would give their prepared gift to that person. This way, the person who gave the gift and the person who received it weren't necessarily the same.

  The name Fang Hua drew was Zhang Yong. This boy came to the class after military training, because he was admitted last year, but due to tuberculosis, he dropped out of school and rested at home for about a year before being demoted to this grade. The small gift prepared by Lin Fang Hua was two self-made bookmarks made from hard calendar paper, with serrated edges cut with scissors, and a small hole at the top, decorated with colorful coarse wool thread. Finally, on the back, she wrote some festive words like "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" with watercolor pens. Simple, practical, and not tacky. When Fang Hua handed the bookmark to Zhang Yong, she said "Happy New Year", and Zhang Yong happily accepted it, thanking her repeatedly.

  After the boys' group drew lots, the girls all sat and waited for them to come over and give gifts. Lin Fanghua couldn't help but feel a little curious, wondering who would be giving her a gift and what it would be. Just as she was thinking about this, someone stood in front of her, blocking out more than half the light.

  Fang Hua raised her head, and it was Liang Jiahui. He had his hands in his pockets, his body slightly tilted, and the side light clearly illuminated the smile lines at the corners of his mouth. Fang Hua also smiled politely and stood up: "You drew me?" The tone was actually affirmative.

  Liang Jiahui nodded at her and took out a small thing from his right pocket and handed it over.

  Fang Hua took it and found it was a keychain with a pink plastic shoe hanging below. It's pretty and has a bit of childishness, a cheap but practical little gift.

  "Very pretty, thank you!"

  "Ah," Liang Jiahui seemed to have a slightly itchy throat, he cleared his throat before saying: "Cough cough, no need to be polite. Happy New Year!" After that, he walked back to his seat.

  The students around were exchanging and admiring the small gifts they had just received. Most of them were New Year's cards, postcards, as well as stationery and notebooks.

  The most laughable and tear-jerking gift was given by Ning Yi, the smallest boy in the class. He gave away his favorite comic book "Doraemon", but the one who received this gift was Zhou Yu, the eldest among the girls. Lin Fanghua saw that Eldest seemed to read all kinds of books, but just didn't read comics. This gift for Eldest was really a bit... childish!

  Everyone thought the best gift was a white scarf woven by Zhou Yu himself. Class monitor Dai Ping was lucky enough to receive this gift, making other classmates envy him.

  Anyway, through this New Year's party activity, the relationship between classmates in Class 3 has become more intimate and united.

  Busy December has also passed.