Chapter 96

June 3rd.

Four days left until the college entrance exam.

In the classroom of Class 8, Senior Year, the number of people increased today; some classmates who had disappeared for many days returned to campus.

But it still hadn't returned to a full state. Listening to their small talk, they learned that some people had already gone to work in other places.

The last day of campus life came so suddenly, and so naturally.

Today, there was no morning self-study where one dozed off, no teacher coming to class early, and even less someone walking in the aisle collecting homework.

Everyone was waiting for the "mobilization meeting" starting at ten o'clock, or rather, the "graduation ceremony."

High schools in some big cities might let students wear formal clothes, giving boys and girls a chance to experience the discomfort of ties and the pinching of leather shoes for the first time, but in a small county, this was clearly not realistic; forcing it would only result in some strange outfits.

However, many boys got haircuts and shaved their beards, and many girls wore hair accessories. Even if they put on a little light makeup, the security guards at the school gate didn't care anymore.

Zhai Da sat in his seat, filling out something called a "classmate record." In elementary school, this thing was the most common; in middle school, it was already not common. By high school, only two girls had prepared it.

Zhai Da wrote down his name and contact information, and found that there were also "hobbies" and "specialties" to fill in below, which were embarrassing enough to make one's toes curl.

He couldn't help but think about what would happen if he wrote "like thin legs"...

But in the end, he honestly wrote down "magic" and "writing."

As for the last largest blank space, "classmate message," Zhai Da looked up at Liu Meng, who was full of expectation, and wrote in neat handwriting:

"Wish you early success, great achievements, profit and currency, and a sudden jump at twenty-three!"

Actually, classmate records were indeed a bit outdated these days. Phones, QQ... there were too many ways to maintain contact.

Losing contact wouldn't really be because of not having contact information.

Didn't you have any self-awareness if the relationship wasn't good?

Just consider it the little girl's sense of ritual.

Liu Meng happily took back the classmate record and admired it for a long time: "Zhai Da, your handwriting is really good."

Zhai Da smiled. His handwriting in his past life was just normal, because he wrote and drew more due to work, better than the average office worker.

But the biggest credit for his current handwriting was the set effect "Dexterous Hands," both steady and accurate.

There were really too many places where this ability was helpful.

"Right, Zhai Da, where is your exam room? Is it at this school? Third Middle? Or First Middle?"

"Third Middle."

Yesterday, the school issued the college entrance exam admission tickets. Judging from the fact that Lu Wei received the admission ticket from the post office even earlier than him, the school should have held it for a few days.

This time the luck was not bad; the two of them were in the same exam room, "Third Middle." However, there were only three exam rooms in Dongyang in total, so the probability wasn't small.

"You're also at Third Middle? I made an appointment with a few classmates in the Third Middle exam room to go and scout the location. Zhai Da, do you want to come?"

Lin Shuyao, who was on the side, pricked up her ears. Today, this little girl had dressed up a bit and put on light makeup. It could be seen that her technique was very inexperienced, but fortunately, it didn't become the extreme state of plastering, just applying a layer of the most popular BB cream at the moment.

Her foundation was good, and plus she had become much quieter after becoming Zhai Da's deskmate, which was indeed eye-catching. Many boys in the class came to find her for group photos. Lin Shuyao didn't take a single duo photo, but she didn't refuse group photos anymore.

She was also in the Third Middle exam room. If Zhai Da also went to scout the exam room together, she could also appear logically, and she could wear her regular clothes.

But unfortunately, after Zhai Da thought about it, he still shook his head: "Forget it. I already scouted Third Middle when I took the subject level test. It's better to honestly review for the last three days."

"Subject level test? Weren't you taking the exam at this school then?"

"Taking a friend to scout the location."

During the small talk, the homeroom teacher Ding Rong walked in. Seeing the liveliness in the class, she rarely didn't scold them.

"In the whole corridor, our class is the noisiest!" Such a catchphrase would never have a chance to be said to this batch of students again.

Looking at the countdown at the back of the classroom.

From today on, it would forever stop at "Distance to College Entrance Exam: (4) days." She couldn't help but think about whether she should have counted the last three days of leave when calculating the date.

Now, this number that had accompanied everyone for more than half a year could never truly count down to "0."

That's fine...

Writing to the last page of a notebook always makes people uncomfortable.

Ding Rong clapped her hands: "Prepare to go downstairs. Assemble on the playground."

Arriving at the playground, all high school seniors had already arrived, lined up in long rows by class.

A platform was temporarily set up on one side of the playground. It was somewhat crude, with steel frames raised by one meter, and the color-sprayed cloth behind it wasn't magnificent. Several tables for leaders had already been set up.

It seemed they intentionally left some time for everyone to take group photos on the playground, so it wasn't until half an hour later that it officially started in such a messy way.

During this period, Zhai Da was pulled to take more than a dozen photos with people—duo photos, trio photos, ten-person photos, all of them. His face was stiff from smiling.

Even Lin Shuyao's duo photo wasn't refused. At the final moment, small frictions didn't matter anymore.

Finally, the "mobilization meeting" and "graduation ceremony" officially began.

Considering the time was very late, the meaning of the latter might be stronger.

In terms of the process, it wasn't much different from most school activities. First, the ear-piercing sound system played passionate music whose name couldn't be said, then the small leader spoke, the big leader spoke, the even bigger leader spoke...

The whole process lasted for an hour. To tell the truth, the students below indicated they hadn't been "mobilized."

Their quietness and focus were just immersed in their own sense of loss.

My youth is just gone like that?

Until... the stage of the excellent student representative speaking, many people came back to their senses.

The dean of students stood straight and said loudly with a drawn-out tone: "Now, please invite the excellent student representative of the 08 batch: Zhai Da, to the stage."

Zhai Da in the queue took a step across and, under everyone's gaze, walked to the stage with big strides and took the microphone.

Pausing slightly, he smiled:

"Hello everyone, I am Zhai Da from Class 8, Senior Year."

"Because time is tight, I can only read the manuscript. Please forgive me."

Although he said that, his expression was relaxed, not at all like a student pulled to the stage to speak.

Zhai Da's emotions were too stable, even stable to the point of being abrupt.

Most people at this age, standing on the stage, would have their adrenaline skyrocketing, their vocal cords shrinking, and breaking their voice directly when opening their mouths was the norm.

In front of everyone, Zhai Da took out the prepared manuscript from his pocket, and after unfolding it, it became an A4 sheet of paper.

Because there was no microphone stand, he seemed to only be able to hold the microphone in one hand and the manuscript in the other, gesturing left and right, seeming not to be comfortable no matter what.

So Zhai Da simply threw the manuscript paper away.

The unexpected move attracted the attention of many people, but the even more unexpected thing was still to come: this manuscript paper didn't land, but floated in front of Zhai Da.

Just like that, without any support, as if it were a floating magic.

Zhai Da even deliberately swiped his hand above, below, left, and right of the manuscript paper, indicating there were no threads hanging.

And then even commanded the manuscript paper to keep flying on the stage! As if it had lost control and couldn't be grabbed back.

A brief silence, followed by exclamations and continuous applause.

Much stronger than the principal's speech just now!

Zhai Da knew a magical magic trick, which was something the whole grade knew, but this special occasion still made people's hands red from clapping.

Zhai Da waited for the applause to gradually subside, and with a snap of his fingers, he recalled the manuscript paper. The "little guy" that hadn't listened just now honestly returned to Zhai Da's front.

"Do you think it's magical? Actually, if you decrypt it, this is just a very simple little magic trick... but few people will take action because of curiosity; only a small part of people will really get to the bottom of it."

He naturally wouldn't just be purely showing off his skills.

Instead, he used this lead-in to start his own speech.

However, compared to the opening with magic, the subsequent speech was somewhat lackluster. This top student in the grade seemed to have treated this speech as an opportunity to show off his writing style, using gorgeous rhetoric and allusions to pile up a five-minute speech manuscript.

Several thousand words...

Almost every sentence was a "golden sentence," and every paragraph was an allusion, with parallelism and rhyming...

But such a density of brilliant text, squeezed together, actually fell into a lower grade... even Ding Rong at the back shook her head slightly.

The manuscript had been reviewed by her, and she had also persuaded Zhai Da that it wasn't necessary, just to encourage everyone in a stylized way, such as "time flies, years pass like a shuttle," and so on.

Zhai Da, like an essay, even set a theme, which was weird.

Forget it, who let him be the first place?

However, unexpectedly, the students below listened very seriously, seeming to be truly stunned.

Five minutes later, Zhai Da finished his speech, put away the manuscript paper that looked like it was floating but was actually constrained by transparent silk threads, and subconsciously patted the [Youth Straight Stick] in his pocket again.

Finally, he looked at this special perspective and the hundreds of young faces below.

In the future, he might have countless opportunities to speak in public, but it would never be this batch of people again.

Among these people, those he truly cared about might not be more than five fingers; it could be said that 99% were passersby.

But when they stood together, they became the deepest path walked in youth.

Today, the path named high school reached its end.

Zhai Da nodded slightly again and walked off the stage amidst countless applause.

Until he returned to the team, it didn't end for a long time.

Regardless of the content of the speech, as the only "high school student" speaking in the "high school student graduation ceremony."

He made the final farewell for all classmates.

Outside the campus, separated by an iron fence.

Wu Yue was wearing a school uniform, looking inside.

He ultimately didn't walk into the campus again. When he was one step away, he retreated out by a whim.

However, he was still behind the railing, watching Zhai Da's speech from beginning to end.

Hmm... didn't understand most of it.

Clap clap clap...

Wu Yue subconsciously clapped his hands.

"You're amazing... brother!"