Chapter 65: The temperature of the cheeks rose a few degrees due to the stimulation...

"I haven't participated in any competitions, but... I have experience as a class monitor. From first grade to third grade, I have many, many years of experience. If I could become class monitor, I would do my best to help students in need. I would unite the class, uh... yes, unite the class, and then... make our class better and better."

Zhu Yingning took the stage with such passion that she hadn't even thought of what she was going to say. After delivering her simplistic and halting speech, she was at a loss for words, barely half a minute after taking the stage. She wasn't exactly tongue-tied, and her previous speeches in class had never been this awkward. Clearly, the repeated setbacks in her new class had taken a toll on her.

She tried hard to say something else, but her head was empty, so empty that she could hear the clanging sound if she knocked on it with a wooden stick.

silence.

A suffocating silence spread throughout the class.

She and the student in the front row exchanged a silent glance. Finally, the student in the front row couldn't stand her gaze anymore and had to pretend to study, lowering his head to flip through the textbook to avoid her gaze. She had no choice but to turn around and look at Hong Qingyang.

Hong Qingyang unconsciously lowered his crossed legs under her gaze. After a moment's thought, he crossed his hands on his knees and, acting as a kindly and patient teacher, asked, "How do you want to help? With what kind of help? Please be more specific."

"Uh, use..."

Zhu Yingning inevitably thought of what Zou Hao had said about "KPI thinking" and "SWOT analysis". She couldn't say such advanced things, and the first answer that popped into her mind was to help everyone with enthusiasm.

Is that okay? Helping people with passion? Would it be silly to say that?

Just as she was struggling with her conscience, one of the boys in the audience responded, "Use all your energy to help everyone."

As soon as she finished speaking, the classmates who had been silenced by her awkwardness burst into laughter again.

Laughter rose and fell, like waves rising from the shore, hitting the walls of the podium, the blackboard, and Zhu Yingning. Hong Qingyang had a headache and was about to step in to enforce discipline again when he heard Zhu Yingning whisper from the podium, "...Yes."

The sound was not loud, and at first only the students in the front row heard it. She simply raised her voice and suddenly shouted, "Yes!"

The classmates who were originally laughing uncontrollably were stunned by her resonant "yes" and stopped laughing one after another.

"You're right." She looked at the boy who took over the conversation, her black and shiny eyes were like longan seeds, gently flashing with a simple and clean light. "I can use my strength to help everyone. Although I don't have any experience to show off, I do have endless energy. This is my advantage. Thank you for reminding me." After she finished speaking, she showed an equally simple and clean smile, bowed, and said, "This is my campaign speech. I have nothing else to say. Thank you everyone, please support me, and I hope you can vote for me." Then she walked down the podium.

Her sudden sincerity left everyone at the table speechless, unable to respond for a moment.

Shao Yanjun glanced at her, shocked by the old-fashioned tone of her speech, and exchanged a look with Dai Yize behind him, saying "This person is really unfashionable."

After she stepped down, several classmates came up one after another. Some of them had a similar tone to Zou Hao and had an elitist style. Some were humorous and full of internet memes. Some were as tongue-tied as her, but had an accurate self-positioning and said directly that they wanted to be a study committee member because they ranked X in the district in the high school entrance examination.

After a round of speeches, it was time for voting in the blink of an eye.

Reality isn't a fairy tale, nor is it a cartoon. Zhu Yingning knew this all too well. So, after seeing the voting results, she wasn't as disappointed as she'd expected, but rather a bit shocked. Because—even though Zou Hao had completely outvoted her, as she'd expected—seven people in the class still voted for her. Their class had a total of fifty-four students, and for the position of class monitor alone, Zou Hao received thirty-three votes, while she received seven. The rest abstained.

She looked at the voting results, feeling both surprised and secretly delighted.

It turns out that there are seven people in the class who support her...

Besides, it seems that not everyone likes Zou Hao.

Oh, no! The latter thought was too evil. How could she possibly think that? Zhu Yingning quickly shook her head, trying to get rid of the evil snickering.

Shao Yanjun couldn't understand what Zhu Yingning was so happy about. If it were her, she'd gone on stage and given a silly speech, been laughed at by the entire class, and only received a pitiful seven votes. She'd surely have jumped from the hallway in shame and anger. So why was the man next to her still looking like the winner of the US election? He was practically writing "I actually have seven people supporting me" in bold letters on his face.

**

When she returned home in the evening, the part-time worker had already prepared dinner. She, Xu Sirui and Xu Zhengkang sat at the dining table to eat. Due to Xu Zhengkang's teaching of "don't talk while eating and don't talk while sleeping", no one spoke at the table. There was only the sound of chewing. The meal was extremely dull, almost like a banquet.

Xu Sirui finished eating first. Without looking at anyone, he threw the bowl into the sink with a clang and went back to the bedroom.

He'd been acting like someone owed him eight million the past few days at home. Xu Zhengkang hadn't said anything the past few days, just pretending not to notice. But today, he'd gotten mad at work, and the anger had built up inside him, making him dislike Xu Sirui no matter how he looked at him. Seeing him leave like that, Xu Zhengkang frowned unhappily, put down his bowl and chopsticks, and asked Zhu Yingning, "How was it? Did you adjust to school today?"

She thought about it, put aside those not-so-good experiences, and answered carefully: "It's...it's pretty good."

"Where's Xu Sirui?" He glanced at Xu Sirui's closed bedroom door. "Did he skip classes?"

"No." She quickly defended Xu Sirui, "He's a good guy, Uncle Xu. He seems to have made new friends."

Xu Zhengkang sneered, "Making friends? What's the point of making friends? Doesn't he have enough of those shady friends? Students should act like students. Studying well is the real thing! Yingning, you should keep an eye on him more at school. Make sure he studies hard and don't let him hang out with those shady people all day."

Zhu Yingning smiled awkwardly, feeling that it was not good for Xu Zhengkang to judge Xu Sirui's friends so arbitrarily, but since he was living under someone else's roof, he could not say anything and could only nod silently.

"If you have any questions or problems at school, go ask him. Don't leave him idle."

She had no choice but to nod humbly again.

However, speaking of not understanding, she did have a question she wanted to ask him.

**

Knock knock.

Zhu Yingning knocked on Xu Sirui's door and waited outside for a long time, but she didn't hear him say come in, so she had to knock a few more times.

After waiting for what seemed like millions of years, Xu Sirui's lazy voice finally came from inside, saying sparingly, "Come in."

She pushed the door open and walked in. Xu Sirui had turned the air conditioner down to a very low 18 degrees Celsius. She shivered as she entered, hunching her shoulders as she walked to his desk. She saw him playing Snake on his phone, not even looking up. She hesitated for a moment.

He saw her hesitating out of the corner of his eye: "What's the matter? Tell me."

She then raised her meal card and said pitifully, "Xu Sirui...my meal card won't work in the school cafeteria today. Do you know what's going on?"

He freed one hand to take her meal card, while his other hand was still swiping the screen. He spared a glance at the meal card, took a look, and asked, "You didn't activate it?"

"Activate? What's that?"

"You just scan the card on the machine at the cafeteria entrance and enter your student ID number. You have to activate the card before you can use it."

"Ah! So that's how it is." She suddenly realized, but her joy didn't last long before she felt a little disappointed. "But why does everyone know that it needs to be activated?"

"Didn't your head teacher say that?" He finally took his eyes off the screen and glanced at her.

Zhu Yingning recalled carefully and confirmed: "No." She listened to Hong Qingyang's speech very carefully and even took notes. She was 100% sure that Hong Qingyang did not say it.

"That's his problem."

She was slightly startled.

For some reason, hearing Xu Sirui say that this was Hong Qingyang's fault, not hers, suddenly cleared up inside her, and things became much brighter. But the brightness lasted only a few seconds, and Zhu Yingning couldn't help but spit at herself. Why had she become so mean-spirited today? She wasn't a gentleman at all. One moment she was happy because someone didn't vote for Zou Hao, and the next moment she was happy because Hong Qingyang had been negligent. This was wrong, this was absolutely wrong.

Xu Sirui's hand slipped, and the snake crashed into the wall. The screen displayed "Game Over." He was about to start another round when he saw Zhu Yingning squatting beside his desk, his expression changing constantly, sometimes scowling, sometimes self-destructive, like a mushroom wilting in the rain.

“…”

He put down his phone and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I examine myself, and I despise myself."

"?"

He couldn't help laughing, "What stimulated you?"

She sighed deeply and reached out to pick at the edge of his desk. Xu Sirui frowned and rudely tapped her hand with the edge of his meal card, quite hard: "Don't pick at it, it's a bad habit you picked up."

She had no choice but to shake her hand, retract it, and ask, "Xu Sirui, do you know what KPI is? Also, SWOT analysis, Model United Nations competitions, social cards, card heads... and so on?"

After she finished speaking, she waited a moment, but Xu Sirui didn't respond. Curious, she looked up and met his downcast gaze. He propped his chin with the back of his left hand, his gaze lowered, looking down at her with a half-smile on his face. After a long moment, he said calmly, with a knowing tone, "Oh... So it was stimulated by this."

“…”

Maybe it was because of his words, or maybe it was because of the teasing look in his eyes and the smile on his lips. In short, for some unknown reason, Zhu Yingning felt the temperature of her cheeks rise a little.