Chapter Ten (7)
Lin Yuxiang is still plagued by bad luck, and he himself isn't a piece of clothing that can be sprayed with anti-mold agents. A month after taking the exam, there's still no news, and the school's work is as meticulous as picking sesame seeds from sand - or rather, picking sand from sesame seeds. This morning, the school finally revealed in a roundabout way that the list of accepted students might possibly be announced on the radio, which was like a constipated person taking a dump - extremely unsatisfying, but at least it gave Yuxiang some confidence, thinking that his moment to break free from bad luck had finally arrived. With his crowd-pleasing phrase "Silence is golden", getting into the broadcasting station shouldn't be a problem, and entering the press conference is also a given. Imagining hearing his name "Lin Yuxiang" one by one on the radio, he's overjoyed.
The school finally fulfilled its promise. During the class meeting, someone was tuning the radio. The school leaders were committed to protecting the classical beauty of the school, and even the radio was not willing to be replaced. Although the shape of the radio was classic, but the sound inside was surreal - a person listened to their own recorded voice again, and even they themselves felt embarrassed and unrecognizable, as if Han Yu looked at his own examination papers after becoming an official. The rough voice in the radio could become fine, the most magical thing is that it also had a reversible reaction, and the fine voice could also become rough, which cannot be explained by science. But despite all the changes, Lin Yuxiang was able to tell with one ear that the female voice on the radio was definitely Principal Qian's, who said:
To promote the development of quality education, improve students' ability to compete and survive in the future, enrich students' extracurricular life, further increase students' interest in learning, and make students go from classroom to outside the classroom, and improve school teaching achievements. It is also convenient for teachers to grasp students' extracurricular interests and personal strengths, and let students understand their own potential, better explore, and respond to the city government's education committee's call to transform from exam-oriented education to quality education. The school has innovated boldly, opened up a vast sky belonging to students in extracurricular activities, allowing students to fly freely, exercise their wings, hone their minds, enrich their lives, consolidate and develop their strengths, and make students have the competitive strength to compete with others after leaving school and entering society, better building the motherland. The school has organized some interest groups.
Yu Xiang was amazed, thinking that Principal Qian's lengthy speech could make people feel like they hadn't heard anything at all, it was truly not simple. The rest of the students all shook their heads in admiration, praising "Listening to your one speech is better than reading ten years of parallel prose".
Luckily, Principal Qian was kind-hearted and began to announce the list of admitted students, but it would be too damaging to his style if he just announced it like that, so he had to add some empty words, as if a shy woman accepting her admirer's confession would insist on being coy for a while:
"After school teachers assessed students' overall quality in various aspects and comprehensive evaluation of students' performance in all aspects, we finally decided on the following list:"
Math Interest Group... TV Station... Qian Rong
The classroom was in an uproar. The boys were all staring at Qian Rong, while the girls were all gazing at Yao Shuqin. Qian Rong smiled and nodded, and Yao Shuqin, who had risen to fame overnight, also smiled proudly. Lin Yuxiang almost blurted out "Save some of your smiles for me," but then waited quietly for his own name to be called. After a long time, Principal Qian finally announced the third member of the reporting team, and Lin Yuxiang immediately got ready, adjusting his body to its best posture, waiting to receive congratulations. When the third person was announced, Lin Yuxiang finally heard a familiar name - Yu Xiong - and thought that he would become colleagues with him. Principal Qian then announced three more names, but still didn't mention Lin Yuxiang. Lin Yuxiang's heart suddenly started racing wildly, convinced that his own name must be among the remaining few. Two more names were announced, but still no Lin Yuxiang. Lin Yuxiang became even more certain that one of the last two spots must belong to him, just like a dying person who refuses to believe they will die. Principal Qian then slowly announced another name, shattering Lin Yuxiang's hopes once again. Only one spot remained. Lin Yuxiang's body and heart were racing together, his mouth opening involuntarily. Just as the principal was about to speak, Lin Yuxiang's ears perked up, and his mind seemed to have transcended worldly concerns.
"The last one is Dong Zhuo."
A round of applause erupted, and Lin Yuxiang mechanically joined in, his face a mixture of disappointment and frustration, like the moon hiding behind dark clouds. To avoid drawing attention to himself, he smiled wryly at Xie Jingyuan: "There are all sorts of people at Municipal Third Middle School; even someone who's read 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' has come to report for the school paper - I'm afraid the next one will be Zhang Heng." He finished with a pained smile. Xie Jingyuan's serious expression was as unchanging as the Party's general line, and he coldly told Yuxiang: "We're in class now; please don't talk."
It was another long wait. This wait was almost suspenseless for Yu Xiang, as he deeply believed that "silence is golden", and simply sat there leisurely. He turned his head to look at Qian Rong, who smiled at him, then turned back to continue waiting.
The wait finally had a result. Principal Qian began to announce the admitted students on the radio, and Yu Xiang waited lightly, time also passed lightly, until he didn't hear Principal Qian announcing again, only then did he realize that he hadn't been admitted. Yu Xiang had tempered his will just a few minutes ago, this time there was no great joy or sorrow, unexpectedly letting out a sigh, thinking nothing.
Qian Rong became a celebrity overnight, but since he hadn't appeared on TV yet, he was only a "pre-celebrity" for now. He would often look at the 25-inch color TV hanging on the wall, which had been exaggerated by the principal to be 29 inches. The school's TV station was newly established this year and received much attention. Qian Rong was the first male host and also received a lot of attention.
The reporter team decided to interview Qian Rong first, as they were internally united. Qian Rong talked about the connection between literature and media, saying things like "TV mass-media and human thinking are inseparable, especially with culture." The reporters listened, feeling regretful that they hadn't brought a dictionary with them, and sighed at their own lack of knowledge, unable to compare with the great master in front of them.
After the interview, the reporter team naturally wanted to publish it on the "media" platform. However, since the school newspaper was only published once a month, which wasn't as frequent as the literary society's weekly publication, they had to temporarily put the interview in the literary society's "_Initial Exposure" newspaper, titled "His Ideal His Heart - Remembering Qian Rong, the First Male Host of the School TV Station".
The literary society initially disagreed, saying that they had already arranged the layout, but unfortunately, the TV station was favored by the school leadership, and the literary society couldn't protect its chastity. They reluctantly inserted "His Ideal His Heart" into the second edition.
The original five-point font was all changed to six-point font, and the computer room worked overtime to prepare for a grand release, which would cause a sensation throughout the school. Unfortunately, they made an error in their haste. Originally, they had left a blank space to insert a picture, but forgot about it later. The proofreaders also missed it, and only discovered the mistake after the newspaper was printed.
The blank space was surrounded by dense six-point font, making it look like someone with long hair had a bald spot on their head, which was very unsightly. In their haste, they looked for the editor-in-chief, but he was also newly appointed and had committed a grave error this time. He intentionally hid away, adopting the attitude of a successful literary figure who had retired from the world.
The society members then looked for the school leadership, but whenever they encountered something serious, the management's attitude towards the Beethoven Building would change. They said that since they had entrusted the students with managing it, they should trust them to handle this kind of thing themselves, in order to cultivate their adaptability.
The wise man always appears when life and death are at stake. At this time, a member of the literary society suddenly became clever and said that Qian Rong should be brought over to sign his name in the blank spaces of the printed newspaper. The members of the society thought it was an ingenious idea, but they didn't want to admit it out loud, saying: "At this point, there's no other way." Qian Rong didn't know the inside story and happily agreed, signing for a whole afternoon. When he returned to the classroom, he said it five times or more, often waving his hand and saying that signing was exhausting him to death: "Being a celebrity is really hard work." Yu Xiang wished that his hand would cramp up.
Afternoon, the "Initial Exposure" came out, and students exclaimed, "The draft paper is here!" When they saw the draft paper, there were still wet ink marks on it. They hated the ink stains for ruining the only qualification of being a draft paper. Finally, someone carefully examined the ink stains, and that person had incredible eyesight. After recognizing the characters horizontally and vertically for half a day, they read out "Qian Rong". The crowd was in an uproar as everyone went to look at the article "His Ideal His Heart". In the report, Qian Rong's words were interspersed with English, even the country name was not spared, all saying "China this" and "Chinese that", as if there was no word for "Chinese" in Chinese. The Chinese have always been relatively modest, thinking that just because they can understand something doesn't mean it's good, but when they come across something they don't understand, they definitely won't think it's bad. The students stared at "His Ideal His Heart" in a daze, and after staring for a while, they were all intimidated, praising Qian Rong as a language genius. Adding to that was Qian Rong's signature, making him seem even more mysterious, as if he was a famous author writing a book, with praise pouring in before it was even published. Many girls from the first year would stop in front of Class 3's door and point inside: "Which one is Qian Rong?" "That one, that one, the quiet one — look, now he's taking notes, just him." "It's him, wow, so cool!" Qian Rong deliberately didn't look. Yao Shuqin secretly felt jealous, thinking to herself: "Go ahead, you few people have the qualifications to admire Qian Rong." But deep down, she hid a sense of crisis — originally, girls all hoped that their idol would become famous and renowned, making them proud. However, once their idol really became famous, they would discover that in reality, they still had the same amount of pride as before. Unfortunately, more and more people were coming to admire this idol, at which point she would rather he was just an unknown person. Qian Rong didn't notice, every time he showed off in front of Yao Shuqin how many girls from the whole school were chasing him, implying to Yao Shuqin: "Despite all this, I still magnanimously chose you, you're so lucky."
