Chapter 158: I

"Respected teacher, dear classmates, hello everyone. I am Li Luo from Class 8, Grade 1."

"I am honored to stand beneath the national flag today and share my learning experience with you."

"..."

After enduring three minutes of motivational platitudes on the flag platform, Li Luo finished his speech, stepped down, and walked to the resting area beside the flagpole, finally exhaling in relief.

Ying Chanxi stood to his right, leaning close to his ear and whispering, "How did it feel giving your first speech on stage?"

"It felt hot," Li Luo tugged at his scarf, "Giving a speech beneath the national flag really gets your blood pumping."

"Not a single word of truth," Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes at him.

"What I mean is," Li Luo pointed to his scarf, "your scarf is too warm—I get hot when nervous, and I'm practically sweating from it."

In reality, he wasn't nervous at all.

Though he'd never had such an experience in his past life, his mental age was over thirty, and he'd already spoken on stage several times after his rebirth—he was no stranger to the spotlight.

A simple speech? Nothing special.

Especially with his Memory Palace at hand, Li Luo delivered his speech entirely from memory, earning a nod of approval from the vice-principal overseeing the flag-raising ceremony.

This appearance was primarily because Fuzhong No. 1 had scheduled another monthly exam in December.

Li Luo ranked 15th overall in the school, still the only student from the parallel classes to break into the top 40.

Thus, at the vice-principal's request, Li Luo from Class 8, Grade 1, was asked to prepare and share his study methods and experience during the flag-raising ceremony.

It was truly the first time in both his past and present lives.

In Li Luo's memory, students who spoke on stage during flag ceremonies were always top-tier elites.

Take, for example, the girl beside him, Ying Chanxi, who consistently held the top rank in the grade and was frequently called up to speak.

After the flag-raising ceremony ended, Li Luo followed Class 8 back to their classroom.

After morning classes ended and a simple lunch, Li Luo and Shi Yanran sat down in the classroom where the student union meeting was held.

Xu Youyu, as president, went through routine matters before turning to announce the New Year's Eve party.

"The New Year's Eve party will be held on December 31st; the next day, January 1st, is New Year's Day, followed by January 2nd and two weekend days, making a New Year's holiday."

"On New Year's Eve, the event will be divided into three phases."

"Phase one: a class stamp-collecting activity in the morning, organized by class, with the entire grade as the activity zone."

"Each class will host one small game in their classroom; completing the game earns a stamp."

"Phase two: a club experience activity in the afternoon, organized by interest-based clubs, open to the entire school."

"Each club will offer a simple experience process; completing the basic activity earns a club stamp."

"Phase three: a bonfire party in the evening, with the entire school gathering at the outdoor basketball court."

"Classes, clubs, and teachers may voluntarily sign up to perform or interact on stage."

"The detailed schedule and rules have already been distributed to you."

Xu Youyu scanned the room, then added, "The New Year's Eve party is next Wednesday."

"Therefore, by Wednesday noon, each class must submit its small game proposal; by next Monday, all props must be prepared and personnel assigned to stay in the classroom."

"For the clubs, once notified, the same applies: confirm the experience process by Wednesday, and finalize personnel arrangements by next Monday."

"Additionally, for the bonfire party, performance proposals must be self-submitted by Wednesday noon; we plan for a total of fifteen acts."

"In the past, slots have always been filled, so no mandatory requirements will be enforced."

"That's all."

"Any questions? Raise your hand."

After the meeting, Li Luo returned to his class and delegated the heavy task of planning the class game to the class arts committee member, Ren Zheng, instructing her to finalize the game by Tuesday evening.

Thus, before evening self-study began, Ren Zheng walked to the podium, clapped her hands to signal silence.

"Next Wednesday is the New Year's Eve party—each class must prepare a small game in their classroom for students from other classes to participate in."

Petite Ren Zheng spoke softly from the podium.

＿￠o

"So later, please each write on a slip of paper one small game you think is interesting and can be played inside the classroom, then hand it to me."

As she finished, the bell for evening self-study rang.

Li Luo turned to look at Yan Zhusheng and saw she had already taken out paper and pen, earnestly thinking and writing. Curious, he leaned over to peek.

But Yan Zhusheng immediately covered her paper, her face serious. "Don't copy me."

"I'm not copying—I'm just looking," Li Luo said boldly. "Besides, if you want your game chosen, wouldn't you want more people to write the same one?"

"Hmm..." Yan Zhusheng hesitated, then lowered her hand, letting Li Luo take a glance.

【Instrument Guessing Game: Prepare over ten instruments. Have participants close their eyes while others play a piece; then guess which instruments were used in the music.】

Li Luo blinked in dismay: "... Isn't this a bit too demanding? Way beyond the syllabus."

Yan Zhusheng tilted her head, puzzled. "Really? I think it's simple."

"If you like it, you can try. If it's not selected, there's nothing I can do."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded, then looked at Li Luo's paper. "So what did you write?"

"Not showing you," Li Luo covered his paper, scribbling secretly, acting mysterious.

After finishing, Li Luo turned to Yan Zhusheng and noticed her gaze.

"You show me yours, but won't show me yours," Yan Zhusheng said seriously. "You're bad."

Li Luo: "... You're so childish. The adult world is full of deceit—I'm just helping you adapt early."

"But we're not adults yet," Yan Zhusheng replied earnestly. "Let me see."

"Fine." Li Luo lifted his hand, letting Yan Zhusheng take a look.

【Instrument Guessing Game: ……】

"You copied me." Yan Zhusheng narrowed his eyes.

"How can a scholar's act be called copying?"

Li Luo reached over, took Yan Zhusheng's paper, placed it atop his own, stood up, and walked to Ren Zheng at the other end of the classroom to submit the slips.

After class, Ren Zheng had already gathered a pile of slips.

Some classmates had written more than one, so when Ren Zheng brought the slips over to Li Luo, they formed a stack of seventy or eighty papers.

"Monitor, I can't decide alone—let's look at them together?" Ren Zheng suggested. "That way we'll go through them faster."

Hearing this, Li Luo promptly called over Hua Xiuxiu and Shi Yanran, planning to go upstairs to find an empty classroom for discussion.

Curious, Yan Zhusheng followed them upstairs; eager for entertainment, Zhu Yufei hurried after them, shouting he wanted to join in the grand deliberation.

Thus, the six class officers gathered in an empty classroom on the sixth floor, forming a circle to examine the slips.

"Blind men touching an elephant."

"Picking up marbles with chopsticks."

"Folding paper airplanes."

"Table tennis."

"All of these feel so old-fashioned."

"Is there anything more original?"

"What about this one? I think it's fresh." Zhu Yufei shamelessly handed over a slip.

Hua Xiuxiu, curious, picked it up and glanced at it—then immediately blushed and tossed it onto the desk. "What is this?! Who wrote this? Looking for a beating?"

Li Luo, puzzled, leaned over to take a look—then immediately grew serious. "This one's out. Rejected."

Yan Zhusheng picked up the slip and read it plainly: "Maid Guessing Game: Have several girls wear identical maid outfits and identical hairstyles and accessories."

"Have participating students choose one maid, have her walk up, turn around once, let the student observe closely, then return to the group of maids."

"Put a blindfold on the student; the maids swap positions, stand back-to-back with the student, then have the student remove the blindfold and guess which maid they just saw."

Shi Yanran: "... Tang Bohu points to Qiuxiang?"

Ren Zheng: "... Such a perverse idea."

"Isn't this acceptable?" Zhu Yufei asked quietly.

"Isn't this yours?" Hua Xiuxiu shot him a sidelong glance.

"Impossible!" Zhu Yufei declared indignantly. "I'd never write something like this—it's obviously Zhang Guohuang's work."

"Here's another one exactly the same." Yan Zhusheng pulled another slip from the pile—also reading "Maid Guessing Game."

Li Luo glanced at it and chuckled. "Yeah, he's not lying. That first one was Zhang Guohuang's. This one's his."

"Monitor!" Zhu Yufei cried. "How can you falsely accuse someone of something?"

"I recognize both your handwritings," Li Luo said, looking at him as if he'd never seen the world. "I know everyone's handwriting in this class."

"For example, this one—this is Hua Xiuxiu's, right?"

"This one is Yanjie's."

"This one is Ren Zheng's."

After confirming, they exchanged glances.

Though everyone had long known of Li Luo's memory, none expected him to have this ability.

"Actually, the Maid Guessing Game isn't entirely bad," Hua Xiuxiu suddenly smiled brightly. "We could just switch the staff—have Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang pick a few boys to wear maid outfits, right?"

"Cough, cough." Zhu Yufei snatched up both slips, tore them into pieces, and shoved them into his pocket. "I think we should look at others."

Ren Zheng gave him a disgusted look and continued flipping through the slips.

Soon after, Shi Yanran suddenly brightened and held up two slips for everyone to see. "I think this one's quite creative."

"Instrument Guessing Game?" Hua Xiuxiu and Ren Zheng leaned in. "Guessing instruments? Won't that be too hard?"

Li Luo feigned interest, then said, "We can adjust the difficulty. If three instruments are too many, use two. If that's still too hard, use just one. If they can't guess even then, they've got no excuse."

"Hmm, difficulty can be adjusted—we could test it in class first," Shi Yanran nodded. "But where do we find so many instruments? We'd need at least three or four. And some, like pianos, are impossible to bring into the classroom."

"I have many at home," Yan Zhusheng raised her hand. "Flute, violin, xiao, guitar, pipa, hulusheng, harmonica—and this one."

As she spoke, Yan Zhusheng pulled from her pocket the harmonica Li Luo had given her and shook it twice.

Hearing this, Hua Xiuxiu immediately nodded in agreement. "I think this works. But if we're going to play multiple instruments simultaneously, we'll need several people who can play them, right?"

"I can play a bit of all of them," Yan Zhusheng said, then pointed to Li Luo. "He can play guitar."

"Chen Zhongqi seems to know pipa."

"I learned flute as a child—I can play simple tunes easily," Ren Zheng raised her hand.

"Then finding two or three more people who can play other instruments shouldn't be hard," Shi Yanran said. "Let's make this one the backup option?"

After much discussion, half the class period had passed.

Later, though they found a few other interesting games, most were ultimately discarded due to venue, equipment, or staffing issues.

Combined with Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng's active intervention, the class activity for Class Eight was temporarily settled on "Instrument Guessing Game."

On the way back from the sixth-floor classroom to the third floor, Zhu Yufei sighed heavily. "Ah, my Maid Guessing Game is gone."

"Serves you right," Hua Xiuxiu shot him a look.

"By the way," Zhu Yufei suddenly remembered something and turned to Li Luo. "Who wrote this Instrument Guessing Game? You can recognize handwriting, right? Let me see who got lucky."

Li Luo chuckled twice. "Guess."

Beside him, Yan Zhusheng walked with light, cheerful steps, humming a tune as she returned to the classroom.