Chapter 704

On September 22, at six in the morning, before it was fully light, Su Miao and his roommates were already up.

The dormitory window was still shrouded in deep blue morning mist, with only a hint of paleness appearing on the distant skyline.

Today is the much-anticipated opening ceremony of the Asian Games. Although the ceremony officially begins at West Point in the afternoon, as venue volunteers, they have to start preparing very early and will definitely be busy all day.

They hurried to wash up. There were quite a few students in the dormitory building who were going to be volunteers, so the lights were already on at this time.

Su Miao put on a neat volunteer uniform with the Asian Games emblem and volunteer name tag pinned on her chest.

The girl in the mirror had a neat ponytail and didn't look tired from getting up early. There was excitement in her eyes.

The cafeteria opened early for the volunteers. Steam rose from the hot soy milk, and the freshly fried dough sticks were golden and crispy. Su Miao noticed that the woman serving the food looked particularly energetic today, her hair meticulously combed and her apron pristinely white.

After breakfast, the buses that picked up the university student volunteers were parked neatly at the school gate, with the Asian Games logo on the windows.

Su Miao and his roommates chose window seats. As the engine started, the entire car vibrated slightly, as if in uncontrollable anticipation.

The sky was dyed orange, and the morning light gave the buildings of the capital a golden edge.

The sanitation workers on the street were cleaning, and people riding bicycles to work looked at the long row of blue buses curiously from time to time. An old man who was doing morning exercises was waving at the buses, with a smile on his face that showed a lot of wrinkles.

Su Miao pressed his forehead against the cold car window, watching the street scene rapidly receding, his heart beating faster and faster.

"Are you nervous?" Meng Linlin, who was sitting next to her, touched her shoulder.

Su Miao smiled and said, "It's not that I'm nervous, I'm just very excited. I feel a little dizzy and it's not real. We are really going to attend the opening ceremony."

A classmate nearby heard their conversation and leaned over to say:

"Yeah, yeah! I told my neighbors I was going to the opening ceremony, and they laughed at me, saying I wasn't a guest, so how could I be considered an attendee? At best, I was just there to watch.

I refuted them, saying that as a volunteer I contributed my heart and soul to the security work for the opening ceremony, so naturally I could be considered to have participated!

Su Miao agreed with her words: "Classmate, you are right. Let's go to the opening ceremony together today and work together to make this sports event a success for the country."

When the bus drove into the outskirts of the Workers' Stadium, security personnel, staff and volunteers were busy in an orderly manner like an ant colony.

Huge inflatable sculptures of the Asian Games mascot panda "Panpan" stand at each entrance, swaying gently in the morning breeze, and their cute appearance seems to be waving to everyone who comes.

After 9:30, volunteers began to assist venue staff with the final inspection work, and then they could rest and stand by.

The team leader handed out small cards to everyone. They turned out to be thank-you cards prepared by the organizing committee for the volunteers. On them were handwritten their names and service positions, and a line of gold-plated words: "The Asian Games are wonderful because of you."

Starting from noon, actors and athletes arrived one after another and made final preparations.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, the opening ceremony began to warm up. As the Asian Games theme music such as "Asian Pride" was played on the spot, the audience began to enter. Su Miao and other volunteers who had been ready for a long time began to get busy.

In addition to the volunteers, there are many mascot "Panpan" puppets on the aisles of the stands to interact with the audience, allowing them to forget the boredom of waiting.

After the speech, cheers rang out from the crowd. A young man next to Su Miao pointed in a direction and excitedly said to his friends:

"Look over there! The Olympic flame is coming in! It's Teacher Xu holding the flame!"

Everyone looked in the direction he pointed and saw Teacher Xu, who won the first Olympic gold medal for our country, holding the Asian Games torch.

It was this figure who won my country's first Olympic gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Now, more than ten years have passed, and his steps are still as firm.

He was wearing a white vest with the "Panpan" pattern printed on it. The flame in his hand kept jumping, like a spark of hope, quickly igniting the passion of the entire audience.

Former women's volleyball team member Ms. Zhang and diving champion Ms. Gao guarded him on both sides as he ran into the Workers' Stadium.

They circled the field amid the audience's attention and applause, and then stepped onto the torch stand.

At this moment, the venue suddenly became quiet. He gently waved the torch and lit the main torch tower under the attention of the crowd.

In an instant, the main torch tower was ignited with flames that soared into the sky, reflecting the brightness of the sky.

At that moment, Su Miao felt that the whole world was illuminated by the blazing light of the Asian Games, and the spirit of the Asian Games blossomed and bore fruit at this moment.

The cheers around her formed a sound wave that made her chest numb.

A boy wearing glasses excitedly grabbed his companion's shoulders and shook him, and his glasses slipped to the tip of his nose.

The subsequent athletes' entry ceremony lasted nearly an hour. In accordance with international practice, delegations from 37 countries and regions entered in alphabetical order of their English names.

The first to enter was the Afghan delegation, and the last to arrive was naturally us as the host country.

Athletes from various countries wore brightly colored costumes and waved their national flags, while the audience cheered enthusiastically.

The opening ceremony arranged artistic performances with unique cultural characteristics. The performance with the theme of "Gathering in the Capital" showed the collision of thousand-year-old civilization and the vitality of the times.

"Celebratory Gongs and Drums" raised the audience's heartbeats, and the performance of 2,000 drummers was magnificent.

When the first drum beat sounded, Su Miao felt the ground beneath his feet shaking.

The performers seem to be rushing and leaping on the yellow earth, raising dust and inspiring people.

There was a particularly fast-paced part where a little boy in the stands couldn't help but stand up on his seat and dance along, but his mother smiled and pushed him back.

The opening piece is "Thunder in the Earth", and the main part is the harmony of western drums:

Jiangzhou drum music plays the 24 rhythms of agricultural civilization;

The Ansai waist drums danced in the air, and the red silk fluttered like blazing fire;

The Korean long drum displays multi-ethnic elements, with the drum beats forming a polyphonic sound with the main melody;

The Jiangnan fishing drum is like a girl holding a lotus drum and performing the gentle passage of "fine rain moistening everything".

The 72-year-old leader, Mr. Wang, used the "Phoenix Three Nods" technique to continuously break three drum skins, which became a classic case of drum music teaching.

This performance not only showcased the charm of traditional Chinese culture, but also reflected the enthusiasm and vitality of our people, and became a highlight of the opening ceremony.

In the climax of the dialogue between time and space, the traditional drum music suddenly stopped, and the electronic synthesizer version of the prelude of "Asian Pride" sounded. The drummer beat the digital code "1990" with the rhythm of Morse code, and finally all the drummers ended with the posture of "Ten Thousand Drums Paying Homage to the God".