Chapter 131 The only constant in transfer students is change itself

"What?!" Wu Bo exclaimed in surprise. "Are you kidding me?"

She glanced furtively at Zou Hao in front of her and warned her, "Zou Hao is incredibly petty. If you challenge him now, he'll definitely hold a grudge against you! Besides, everyone in the class has already formed a fixed mindset... I mean, most people are used to Zou Hao being class monitor, and they're generally too lazy to break this habit to avoid getting into trouble. If you challenge him, you'll not only earn Zou Hao's grudge, but your chances of becoming class monitor will be slim. You'll be in a tough spot."

She had thought that after all her eloquent remarks, Zhu Yingning would understand her meaning, but she unexpectedly asked, "Then will you vote for me?"

When he asked this question, his bright black eyes were looking at her expectantly, like a puppy asking for a bone.

"Nonsense, who else can I vote for if not you?" she answered subconsciously.

Zhu Yingning smiled and said, "That's enough. As long as there's one person supporting me, even if it's just one person, it's fine."

"Oh, no... why do you have to... If I were you, I definitely wouldn't choose to fight for it now. Wouldn't it be better to wait until the third year of high school and the classes are divided?" Wu Bo frowned in confusion, squatted down beside her desk, rested his chin on the edge of her desk, and sighed in worry. He had already imagined the embarrassing scene in the class meeting later, and he felt embarrassed for Zhu Yingning first.

"I want to focus on studying in my senior year, so I probably won't run for class leader."

She hadn't thought of this, and after she was enlightened, she found that it made sense, but she still didn't understand it. She sighed and said, "Do you like being the class monitor so much?"

"Actually, I don't necessarily need to be the squad leader." Zhu Yingning played with the pen in his hand, his voice lowered. "I'm just worried that I'll lose the courage to compete. Every time I try, it reminds me that no matter whether my current ability can match this position, at least I still have the courage to fight for it."

Courage requires repeated practice, and each time she practices, she can become more calm about herself.

It's like inflating a hydrogen balloon. It doesn't matter if it doesn't fly at first. If you fill it with enough air, it will eventually touch the sky.

As long as you don't lose your courage, everything is possible.

Wu Bo was moved by what she said: "Sometimes I really admire you. It really is from the bottom of my heart."

"Thank you." She grinned and then whispered in her ear, "Actually, I'm quite nervous right now. Can you tell?"

Wu Bo was both amused and speechless, patting her shoulder. "You wouldn't listen to my advice not to go anyway, so just enjoy the tension, classmate Zhu Yingning."

**

Before the class meeting, Zhu Yingning used the break to quickly write a speech.

It’s very simple, just a few hundred words.

She checked it and found that her speech was still as plain as the one she made at the beginning of the first semester of her freshman year. Perhaps she would never be able to learn Zou Hao's gorgeous expression.

When the class meeting officially began, Hong Qingyang probably felt that this process was just a formality and was quite uninterested. He repeated the election process, pulled an empty chair and sat under the podium. He leaned back in the chair and yawned one after another, his mouth so wide that it seemed like an egg could fit in it.

The student next to him offered the lid of the kettle filled with tea in a servile manner: "Brother Yang, please have some tea."

"Don't talk nonsense." Hong Qingyang pushed his hand away.

The blackboard still had the names of class leaders like monitor and league secretary written on it. Hong Qingyang lazily emphasized, "Go up to the stage, everyone. We're all so familiar with each other, so don't be shy."

The students laughed a few times. Amidst the laughter, Zou Hao took the lead and walked up to the podium. He wrote his name under the column for Class Monitor. His chalk lingered for a few seconds under the name of the League Secretary, but he ultimately put it down without writing anything. He turned to the students and began delivering a campaign manifesto that was largely the same as his previous one.

Following closely behind was Tan Jingjing, who wrote her name in the column for League Secretary with swift strokes of the pen. Her campaign manifesto was concise and to the point, without a single word of nonsense: "Please support me."

The two of them had their names placed under the positions, not like candidates but more like confident signatures. The classmates were tactful enough not to compete with them. Of course, the main reason was that they did not want to be such a thankless class leader.

Soon after, various committee members also came on stage, all of them were the original team.

When the election was almost over, Zhu Yingning prepared himself mentally, stood up and walked up to the podium, and wrote his own name neatly under Zou Hao's name in the column for class monitor.

"Wow~"

I don't know who started the booing, but the booing from the audience gradually grew louder.

"This is a challenge."

"Zou Hao, you are in danger."

“I’ll go—”

Hong Qingyang's nap was interrupted. He stood up and maintained discipline: "Everyone, be quiet."

The situation did not get out of control.

After writing her name, she turned around, gripped the chalk tightly, and faced the students below the podium to recite the campaign manifesto she had just improvised.

Just like Zou Hao's campaign manifesto was almost the same as last semester, her campaign manifesto was also almost the same as last semester. It was simple and unpretentious. It was nothing more than explaining her own strengths and telling everyone that if she became the class monitor, she would work hard to protect the class and would not fall behind anyone in the class.

If I had to point out her innovation, it would be the last paragraph. She said: "I was tutoring during the summer vacation. On the recommendation of one of my students, I watched the TV series "Soldier Assault". It's a 2006 drama that tells the story of Xu Sanduo, a country boy who joins the army and goes through a series of trials and tribulations. I was deeply moved after watching it and wanted to make a line in it my motto and a promise to everyone after becoming a squad leader."

She wrote a sentence on the blackboard -

Never abandon, never give up.

After finishing writing, she turned around and bowed: "I hope everyone will support me, thank you for your support." Then she walked off the stage.

It was not until I sat down that I realized how weak my legs were, like two limp noodles.

Shao Yanjun had just woken up and climbed up from her desk, yawning and stretching, her hands almost touching Zhu Yingning. She opened her tearful eyes, glanced at the blackboard, and uttered a monosyllabic particle between her teeth, a mixture of surprise and amusement.

"You still want to be the class monitor? Aren't you afraid of being hated by the fat guy?" She commented indifferently.

Zou Hao did look back in their direction frequently, and his expression was not very good.

Shao Yanjun propped up his chin and squinted his eyes to study the blackboard carefully: "Never abandon, never give up? Ha! What kind of idiot wrote that?"

“…”

The fool squeaked weakly beside her.

"Why are you writing this? A conscription notice? It's so stupid." She laughed for a long time, slapped the table with her hands, and even took out her glasses from the bottom of the table and put them on her face so that she could see more clearly.

Shao Yanjun was a bit nearsighted, not severely, just over 100 degrees. Worried about the distortion of her eyes, she tried to avoid wearing glasses whenever possible. Although she kept a pair of glasses permanently under her desk, she rarely used them. Seeing her pull out her long-dusted glasses to study her handwriting, Zhu Yingning was unsure what to think.

On the other side, Hong Qingyang called out several times, but seeing no one else coming up, he walked up to the podium and said, "Since no one wants to come up, let's just vote. As usual, voting is anonymous. Each candidate has a number before their name." As he spoke, he wrote numbers like 123 before the candidates' names. "Just write the number when you vote. Okay, let's get started."

During the voting session, everyone wrote their own answers, and only a few people gathered together to communicate, but they were quickly stopped by Hong Qingyang.

Finally, he collected the tickets and shook them in the bucket to make sure they were evenly distributed before he picked them out and began to count them.

The correct characters continued to accumulate next to everyone's names on the blackboard. Zhu Yingning's courage had been almost exhausted by now, and she buried her head in the sand, acting like a coward. She lowered her expectations, thinking that if only one person could vote for her this time, it would be enough. No, Wu Bo would definitely vote for her, so she could be a little greedy and hope that one or two more people would vote for her than last time.

Shao Yanjun wanted to sneer at her expression: "You dare to go on stage but you don't dare to look at the voting results?"

She didn't respond to her ridicule, but instead asked her, "Who did you vote for?"

"Aren't you afraid of hearing me say I voted for someone else?" She teased her deliberately.

"I'm not afraid." Zhu Yingning shook her head. After a moment, she pinched her thumb and index finger together, indicating a small distance. "Okay... Actually, I'm a little scared."

"I voted for you." Shao Yanjun turned his face away and gave a calm answer, then ignored her.

It was as if a pair of wings were inserted into her heart. Zhu Yingning instantly jumped up with joy. She stood up from the desk and wanted to say something excitedly.

At the same time, Hong Qingyang also counted the results and announced to the blackboard: "Okay, the votes are in, let's talk about the class monitor candidate first--"

What she wanted to say was cut off in her mind, and her excited heart tightened again. She tried to glance at the blackboard from the corner of her eye. Below the word "Class Monitor" were her and Zou Hao's names. Next to Zou Hao's name were one, two, three... four correct characters with one horizontal stroke, a total of twenty-one votes. Next to her name were one, two, three...

Wait, oh my god! There are so many positives, five in total! Twenty-five votes.

She suspected that she had counted wrong, so she opened her eyes wide and counted again carefully, but she still didn't believe it. It was not until Hong Qingyang's voice came and announced that she was the class monitor that she stood up stupidly and accepted the applause from her classmates.

"Unexpected, but also reasonable," Hong Qingyang said. "Throughout her freshman year, Zhu Yingning has always been eager to help her classmates, from small things like sharing her notes with anyone in need to big things like sending injured classmates to the school hospital. She truly lives up to the saying 'never abandon, never give up.' I've also seen 'Soldier Assault,' and you possess a similar persistence and sincerity to Xu Sanduo. That's wonderful, and I hope you continue to maintain that."

After praising her, he didn't forget to comfort Zou Hao. "The rotation of class leaders is to give all students in the class the opportunity to participate in class development. Students who are not selected don't need to be discouraged. As students in the same class, it is most important for us to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses."

It's a pity that Zou Hao was not comforted at all by his words. Anyone with a discerning eye could see how bad his face looked. The atmosphere in the class became extremely weird. Some people held their breath and exchanged glances with their friends, while others stayed out of it, showing expressions of enjoying the show.

Years of experience as a class teacher had shaped Hong Qingyang into a strong person. He calmly announced the results of the class leader selections, and dismissed the class as the bell rang. Before leaving, he said to Zhu Yingning, "Come to my office."

I wish Yingning all the best down there.

She stood up and walked to the office, inevitably passing by Zou Hao's seat on the way. She could feel Zou Hao glancing at her, his eyes filled with anger of betrayal, shame of defeat and hostility, but no matter what she said now it would seem like a provocation from the winner, so she chose to remain silent.

When she arrived at Hong Qingyang's office, he was already sitting in the chair in front of his desk. He unscrewed the lid of his thermos and drank a sip of chrysanthemum and wolfberry water to moisten his throat before saying to her, "Yingning, first of all, congratulations on becoming class monitor. I've seen your hard work throughout your first year of high school, and you absolutely deserve this title. However, Zou Hao will probably be a little upset. Do you think you can handle your relationship well?"

She thought about it and nodded: "Yes."

"Okay, then I won't interfere for now. If you find it difficult to handle, tell me again and I'll come forward to coordinate." He quickly turned the page and began to introduce her to the work of the class monitor. In addition to the most basic shouting "stand up" and "get out of class is over", there are many trivial matters, and the most offensive one is maintaining discipline during self-study classes.

Zhu Yingning knew that Zou Hao was not selected this time, and discipline management was probably the main reason.

In order to avoid offending others, he never enforced discipline. Sometimes, to avoid being accused of not following discipline, he would go to the teacher's office to ask questions or consult about exams when he should have. This way, he could avoid the noisy environment and use "I'm not here" as an excuse.

But in addition to the talkative and playful students in a class, there are also some quiet students. In order not to offend the former, he completely offended those who wanted a quiet environment to study.

"Being a class monitor isn't easy. To put it bluntly, you have a lot to do and a lot of blame to bear, but the teacher believes you can handle it well."

After saying some encouraging words, he finally got to the point of why he had called her to his office. "I called you here because I actually have something else to tell you. We'll have a new transfer student joining our class tomorrow. I plan to have him sit next to Dai Yize, right behind you. As the class monitor, please take good care of him and help him integrate into the new group as quickly as possible. Okay?"

New classmates?

"Yes, I will do my best to help him," she promised.