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Old Xu was rummaging through the previous year’s speech scripts to give her as a reference.
While Old Xu wasn’t paying attention, Lin Zhe Xia whispered back to him: “You secretly mocked me just now.”
“I was pretty open about it.”
“…”
Lin Zhe Xia removed the word “secretly” and re-accused him: “You mocked me.”
The person behind her said: “Mhm, I mocked you.”
“…”
“You mocked me, so isn’t it fair if I pinch you once?”
After exchanging a few words with him, Lin Zhe Xia grew even angrier: “I didn’t get to pinch you earlier. After we leave, don’t walk away—let me try again.”
Chi Yao’s voice paused briefly.
“Do you think I look…”
“?”
He quickly followed up: “Like someone who has water in their brain?”
Of course, he didn’t look like that at all.
So by the time Lin Zhe Xia left the office holding a stack of winning speech scripts from past competitions, Chi Yao had already disappeared.
________________________________________
When she returned to the classroom, Lin Zhe Xia handed Tang Shuxuan her share and relayed the requirements Old Xu had mentioned earlier.
Unexpectedly, Tang Shuxuan remained calm and simply said: “Mhm, got it.”
Lin Zhe Xia: “Aren’t you nervous?”
“What’s there to be nervous about?” Tang Shuxuan asked.
“The speech. And Old Xu said they’ll randomly select over a thousand people from the entire school to be the audience—one thousand people!”
To her surprise, Tang Shuxuan shyly brushed her hair and said: “If I can catch the attention of a senior during this performance, forget a thousand people—even a ten-thousand-person auditorium wouldn’t scare me.”
“…”
She almost forgot—after failing to get Chi Yao’s contact information, Tang Shuxuan had shifted her target to a certain senior.
Though after a year, she hadn’t made any progress.
She underestimated the world of lovesick teenage girls.
For the rest of the afternoon, Lin Zhe Xia couldn’t focus on the lessons.
The speech competition loomed over her like a heavy rock pressing down on her heart.
In the evening, Lin Zhe Xia sat at her desk, staring at a piece of paper titled “10th Annual Speech Competition of Cheng’an No. 2 High School,” feeling troubled.
She had flipped the paper over and over, nearly crumpling it.
At that moment, Lin He knocked on the door and softly said: “I’m coming in.”
There was no time to put away the paper. As soon as Lin He entered, she noticed the competition sheet on the desk.
“A speech competition, huh?” Lin He said. “Are you participating?”
Lin Zhe Xia hesitated: “Yeah, our teacher asked me to join.”
No one knew her child better than herself. Lin He also felt a bit worried: “Participating in a competition is a good thing, but your personality—you’re only talkative at home with people you know. When you go out, sometimes you can’t even squeeze out a sentence. Can you handle standing on stage for a competition?”
“…”
Lin He understood her well.
She probably couldn’t handle it.
In the end, all Lin Zhe Xia could say was: “I… I’ll try my best.”
After Lin He left, Tang Shuxuan sent a message on WeChat to comfort her: “It’s fine. I’ve participated in this kind of competition before. Just stay calm—it’s really no different from standing up in class to answer a question.”
Tang Shuxuan: “Or do you have any boys you want to impress? You can make that your goal, like I did.”
Lin Zhe Xia replied: “Then I’d rather disappear from the eyes of all the boys in the school.”
Chen Lin also messaged her: “Desk mate, just imagine the more than a thousand people in the audience as cabbages.”
Lin Zhe Xia replied: “More than a thousand cabbages—that’s still pretty terrifying.”
After replying, she set her phone aside and sighed.
She was worried she would mess things up.
…
This had little to do with bravery or cowardice. In life, there were many situations like this—things you had to do but required a lot of courage to accomplish.
Sometimes, mustering that courage was incredibly difficult.
Over the weekend, she spent one day writing her speech. It came out very formulaic, filled with template-like sentences.
Finally, she managed to somewhat elevate the theme, making it appear decent enough.
The only thing left to prepare was the actual “speech.”
First, she tried reciting it off-script in her room.
Wei Ping was an expert at giving encouragement.
He expressed 100% admiration for Lin Zhe Xia’s speech: “Uncle thinks it’s fantastic!”
“The first time I’ve heard such an amazing speech! First, your content is written very professionally, and second, your delivery is excellent—your intonation, the pauses in the middle—all highlight the key points of your speech and add structure to the paragraphs—”
“No, Uncle Wei,” Lin Zhe Xia interrupted him, unable to help herself. “That was me stuttering because I forgot the lines.”
Wei Ping: “…Ah, uh.”
Wei Ping: “But your stuttering was very smooth—it didn’t feel abrupt. Uncle didn’t notice.”
Lin Zhe Xia: “Thank you. Your critique was very thoughtful too.”
Finally, she stood in the living room, clutching her speech script, thought for a moment, and said: “You two aren’t suitable. I’ll find someone else to listen to me.”
Ten minutes later.
She knocked on Chi Yao’s door, holding her speech script: “Congratulations.”
Chi Yao: “?”
“You’ve won.”
Chi Yao had been dragged into gaming by He Yang last night and played until midnight. He looked like he hadn’t woken up yet. Today, he was wearing a rare white T-shirt, looking fresh and clean, appearing unusually civilized.
Then Lin Zhe Xia heard him say something not-so-civilized: “Get all your nonsense out in one go.”
Lin Zhe Xia took out her speech script: “Congratulations on being selected as today’s lucky audience member. You’ve earned the opportunity to witness Lin Zhe Xia’s speech.”
“The civilized person” glanced at the speech script: “Can I refuse?”
Lin Zhe Xia: “No.”
“How about transferring it to someone else?”
“Also, no.”
“Another forced buy-sell situation?”
“Yes,” Lin Zhe Xia nodded. “If you want to refuse, you’re dead.”
Chi Yao reacted indifferently and pretended to close the door: “Oh, then consider me dead.”
“…………”
Lin Zhe Xia squeezed her hand through the gap in the door, forcing her way in. To make him listen to her speech, she blurted out: “How could I ever consider you dead?”
After saying it, she froze for a moment.
Chi Yao’s hand, which had been about to close the door, also paused.
How could she.
Could she bear it.
The phrase “bear it” sounded strange.
Her mind went blank for two seconds. When it restarted, she instinctively tried to cover for herself: “What I mean is, if you were dead, I’d have to bother someone else. That wouldn’t be fair to others.”
Chi Yao sneered: “So you’re bothering me instead?”
Lin Zhe Xia: “…”
Chi Yao sarcastically remarked: “Should I praise you for being such a conscientious person?”
Lin Zhe Xia: “It’s fine. No need for praise.”
After entering the house, she prepared herself a glass of water.
Then she pushed Chi Yao onto the couch, ordering him not to move around, while she cleared her throat and unfolded her speech script: “Hello everyone, I am Lin Zhe Xia from Class Seven, Grade Two. The topic of my speech is ‘youth.’”
She paused briefly, gesturing outward with one hand, and let out a dramatic sigh: “Ah—youth. A seemingly simple word, yet not so simple.”
Chi Yao, lounging on the couch, lazily applauded: “Listening to your words feels like listening to... words.”
Lin Zhe Xia: “…”
Chi Yao tilted his chin slightly: “Continue.”
Lin Zhe Xia didn’t feel like continuing anymore.
She stopped: “Let me take a sip of water.”
After masking her embarrassment with a drink, she continued reading: “Each of us has, or once had, youth.”
Chi Yao had already started yawning.
He propped his chin with one hand and interrupted her: “Besides all this nonsense, do you have anything else?”
“…”
“How can this be nonsense?” Lin Zhe Xia said. “Is there anything wrong with what I said? Can you tell me it’s wrong?”
Chi Yao: “It’s a perfectly correct piece of nonsense.”
“…”
Hearing this, he seemed to muster a bit of energy: “Go on. Suddenly, I feel your speech isn’t entirely worthless—it at least adds some humor to my mundane day.”
Lin Zhe Xia took a deep breath.
She forced herself to calm down.
Coming to Chi Yao was a mistake.
But thinking about it another way, Chi Yao was the first major hurdle on her path to delivering this speech.
If she could successfully finish reciting her speech in front of Chi Yao, would she fear any other challenges?
Would there be an audience more annoying, more critical, or more picky than Chi Yao?
No.
She would fear no one.
Lin Zhe Xia struggled to recall the second paragraph in her mind and then read it aloud, still stumbling a bit.
This time, Chi Yao didn’t nitpick her anymore.
He quieted down, resting his chin on his hand, looking a bit drowsy but listening attentively throughout.
Occasionally, he would comment: “This round was slightly better than the last.”
Lin Zhe Xia felt a bit proud: “I do have some natural talent for public speaking, right?”
Chi Yao raised his eyes: “I thought this was called diligence making up for lack of talent.”
“…”
The script was long, and memorizing it completely and fluently was difficult.
Lin Zhe Xia spent the entire afternoon reciting it to him at his house, drinking two jugs of water in the process.
During her final attempt, halfway through, she still forgot her lines: “So we must cherish our youth... um, we must... what comes next?”
The person on the couch, nearly falling asleep, propped his head up and casually completed her sentence: “Live without regrets, rushing toward tomorrow.”
Lin Zhe Xia: “Oh, right, live without regrets...”
Halfway through, she stopped: “Wait, how do you already have it memorized?”
Chi Yao: “Because I have normal intelligence.”
Lin Zhe Xia: “If you think I’m dumb, just say it directly.”
Chi Yao lowered his hand, stood up from the couch, and headed to the kitchen to pour himself a glass of water. As he passed by her, he briefly rested his hand on her head and said sleepily: “Mhm, you’re dumb.”
“…”
Lin Zhe Xia felt somewhat defeated.
After all, she had practiced reciting that thing for so long, yet she still couldn’t match the fluency of a mere “audience member.”
When Chi Yao returned from the kitchen, holding his glass of water,
Lin Zhe Xia looked at him and said: “Since you’ve memorized it already, why don’t I give you this precious spot? You can participate in the competition instead.”
________________________________________
Lin Zhe Xia stayed at Chi Yao’s house for the entire afternoon.
By evening, when it was time for dinner, Lin He urged her to return home to eat.
During the meal, she felt a bit down. This gloom stemmed from the fact that despite putting in effort all day, the task she had little confidence in still didn’t seem to improve.
She began to doubt whether she could actually pull this off.
Once a person starts doubting themselves, the first thought that comes to mind is giving up.
“Mom, Uncle Wei,” Lin Zhe Xia lowered her head, poking at the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks. “I’m thinking of telling Teacher Xu to let someone else participate in the competition.”
Lin He didn’t want her to feel pressured, and since the speech competition wasn’t mandatory, she agreed: “If it’s really impossible, then ask the teacher to replace you.”
Wei Ping also said: “Yeah, and you’ve already tried. If it’s truly difficult, just let the teacher know.”
Lin Zhe Xia responded with a sound of acknowledgment.
After finishing dinner, she seriously considered the idea of replacing herself.
She sat in the living room and opened Old Xu’s profile picture in the class group chat.
Old Xu’s profile picture was a tranquil blooming lotus flower. She stared at the flower for a long time, hesitating. She typed out a message but quickly deleted it.
Finally, she wrote a very formal message. However, just as she was about to press send, her hand paused for a second.
But in that exact second,
Her phone suddenly vibrated.
Dog Chi: Are you practicing or not
Unexpectedly, all the emotions Lin Zhe Xia had bottled up throughout the day burst forth in response to these five plain words.
She sniffled lightly.
She switched to the chat window and furiously typed with her fingers flying across the keyboard.
• Do you also think I’m incapable
• I know—I spoke haltingly and kept stumbling
• I couldn’t even memorize such simple content
• And whenever I think about going on stage with so many people watching, I get nervous
She typed several lines.
Finally, she slowed down her typing speed and repeated the first sentence.
• So
• Do you
• Also think I’m incapable
If Chi Yao were in front of her now, she wouldn’t have said so much.
Perhaps it was because they were communicating online, or perhaps it was because she had almost sent that message of resignation to Old Xu in that same fleeting second.
After sending it, the other side didn’t reply immediately.
After about ten seconds, she saw the familiar “the other party is typing.”
Dog Chi: Although your speech script is full of nonsense and your delivery wasn’t great
Dog Chi: But no one thinks you’re incapable
Dog Chi: It’s you who thinks you’re incapable
Strangely, though it was just a few lines of text,
She felt as if she could hear Chi Yao’s habitual mocking tone, sometimes oddly tinged with a hint of gentleness, echoing in her ears.
The other side sent one final message.
Dog Chi: I don’t think so
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