Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: Soul

  Xiao Xiao listened to the principal's speech, and scenes of nearly a hundred years that he was familiar with appeared in his mind.

  The winds of change are blowing, with wars of blood and fire rising and falling, technology advancing rapidly, and the internet emerging.

  The chaotic and complicated world is changing too fast.

  Maintain a sincere heart for learning, inherit the banner of predecessors in an agricultural university, and create happiness for people around.

  Simple words, in the world seem to be just a speck of dust, but doing it is very difficult.

  He suddenly felt a sense of responsibility and thought it was lucky to be admitted to the Agricultural University.

  Fate is a thing that when you spend some time interpreting it, has already turned into an appearance completely opposite to the original one. It's really interesting.

  Xiao Xiao looked up at the vast and distant sky in Tao Qingcheng's words, with a sense of boundless and profound emptiness.

  Tao Qingcheng's speech was plain and sincere, full of humanistic spirit. It naturally won the warm applause from the students who love freedom and imagination in the audience.

  After Principal Tao Qingcheng finished speaking, it was the turn of the representatives of new students from each department.

  Student representatives from various faculties, both male and female, took turns speaking on stage. The content of their speeches was basically the same, as if they had all been modified from online templates.

  Tao Qingcheng stepped forward again and specially announced that the Academy of Arts would be added as a new college to Nongda, and the school would increase its support for the Academy of Arts. A student representative from the academy gave a speech.

  "Who will be the student representative of the Academy of Arts?" The classmates all guessed.

  The whole school has only about a hundred students, although everyone hasn't met for long, they have already become familiar with each other's faces. Nobody likes worldly things, who can take on the role of student representative this time?

  Under the gaze of all the freshmen, Liu Yu, a representative of the students of the Academy of Arts, walked onto the rostrum.

  Students from other departments didn't know Liu Yu, so there was no reflection at all.

  The students of the Academy of Arts couldn't help but feel incredulous when they saw that it was the one who had fainted during military training. Moreover, he had just been serving as a student leader and suddenly became the representative of the Academy of Arts.

  "No, shouldn't the representative of our art academy be Xiao Moguai? Did you get it wrong?" Someone suddenly said in a low voice, with a hint of mockery.

  "Who is Liu Yu?" The classmates from the art academy whispered to each other, turning their eyes towards Xiao Xiao with a puzzled look as if asking "Why isn't it you?"

  Xiao Xiao raised his right hand and pointed at them with his index finger, silencing them.

  The classmates saw that Xiao Xiao was very unenthusiastic about this question, so they all turned their heads to the podium, wanting to hear what Liu Yu had to say.

  Liu Yu faced the gaze and puzzlement of his classmates below the stage, a smile spreading across the corners of his mouth.

  The student representative who was originally scheduled to speak on behalf of the Academy of Arts is an undergraduate student with a Beijing hukou. Unexpectedly, Liu Yu gained the trust of the leadership through his video presentation and took over this position.

  This kid's future is truly boundless.

  Liu Yu walked up to the podium, unfolded his speech with a flourish and blew into the microphone.

  He stood on the stage, holding the microphone in his hand. This was the stage he had dreamed of for a long time. There were more than 100 people below the stage, all staring at him. He was going to make it happen on this stage with over 100 people. What's more, this was already a scene of thousands of people.

  He has been insisting on doing push-ups every day since he fainted on the first day of military training, while Wang Yong and others have picked up their old habits again, and naturally cannot be compared to themselves.

  The greatest tragedy of a person is not that they have flaws, but that they are aware of their own flaws and yet do nothing to change them, even if they try to change, they immediately revert back.

  Liu Yu was able to overcome his own shortcomings. The virtue of self-conquest is fully embodied in him.

  He was moved for a moment in his heart, and then began to read out his speech: "Thank the city leaders for their support to our school, thank the school leaders for giving me this opportunity.

  When I first came to this stadium, I saw the podium representing the highest honor. At that time, I had a dream of speaking on the school's podium, and it is an honor now that I have achieved it.

  Of course, first of all, I would like to thank the school leaders and the municipal leaders.

  Standing here now, I am extremely excited. Our art college, as a newly established college, is like a young student, taking tentative steps forward with a heart eager to learn.

  As student representatives of the college, we make a vow here to live in school with a grateful heart and actively play our positivity for the construction of the school.

  As a student, I hope everyone can draw a clear boundary with the complex and chaotic world outside the school, give us a clean and pure school, study well in school, give ourselves a beautiful youth, and add glory to our hardworking parents.

  "This was originally going to be my first speech, and I had a lot to say, but time is limited. I think it's better to give the time to other classmates instead. Thank you."

  Liu Yu is handsome in appearance, elegant in manner, and has a lot of flattering words for the leaders in his speech. Moreover, he had just taken a photo with the leader, so his speech was well-received by the leaders present.

  He finished his speech and received applause from most people.

  Just as Liu Yu was about to step down, Tao Qingcheng stopped him and said to the students below the stage: "We should encourage this kind of student who dares to make suggestions for the school. I hope all the leaders and students in our school can fully support him in doing video construction work." After he finished speaking, he gave Liu Yu the warmest applause first.

  Liu Yu's face turned red as she bowed to thank her classmates in the auditorium.

  The students under the stage immediately responded with thunderous applause.

  Liu Yu was highly recommended by the principal on the podium of the opening ceremony, thoroughly making a name for himself in school, and his rise to fame took only a short ten or so minutes.

  Wang Yong sat on a chair, wiping his shiny forehead and said: "This kid is now going to surpass Xiao Ge's prestige."

  The people around him sneered and coldly laughed: "Can he compare with Xiao Ge?"

  Xiao Xiao didn't say anything after hearing this. He thought Liu Yu got the position through his own efforts, which was reasonable and there was nothing to dispute about. If his classmates could see him leaving early and returning late every day, they would also choose him.

  Liu Yu finished speaking and walked down from the podium with excitement, returning to the team of the Academy of Arts, her heart still racing rapidly.

  Principal Tao Qingcheng finally came out to make a concluding speech for the opening ceremony. He gazed into the distance, as if crossing time and space to arrive at the scene of the school's centennial celebration three years later. With great anticipation, he said: "I am eagerly looking forward to the 100th anniversary of our university now, hoping that glorious day will come soon."

  The opening ceremony came to an end amidst the principal's and students' expectations for the future.

  It was already noon, and students poured out of the new stadium like a river, walking back to the entrance of Nongda through the east gate.

  Xiao Xiao and others put the chairs back in the art school, and crowded into the cafeteria to eat.

  After finishing dinner, Xiao Xiao and Lu Feng returned to the dormitory, took off their school uniforms and threw them into their wardrobe, changing into casual clothes. They met up with Lin Yi, who had also changed out of her uniform, under the girls' dormitory building. The three of them left the campus and took the subway to go to the Soul Rock specialty store.

  At noon, not the peak hour of Tianjing City's traffic, there are many empty seats in the clean subway, with strong air conditioning on, cold wind blowing into every corner, making the enclosed subway feel refreshing and cool.

  Xiao Xiao sat on the chair, chatting and laughing with Little Fatty. Lu Ting, on the other hand, sat solemnly in his seat, staring at his reflection in the dark glass across from him, looking somewhat somber.

  At this time, there were two singers strumming wooden guitars and singing popular internet songs. They had a large black bag hanging from their waist, containing several blue-green banknotes. They strolled over from the other side, two street performers.

  Xiao Xiao shifted her gaze towards those two people, seeing that they looked like they were in their early twenties, dressed neatly and with a healthy complexion.

  Lu Peng and the other two people walked past his body, his heart moved, recalling some scenes from the past, hurriedly took out a 10-yuan note and threw it into their large pocket.

  The two singers nodded busily to express their gratitude to him.

  Xiao Xiao gazed at Lu Feng's movements, a smile blooming in her heart.

  Lin Yi stared with wide eyes, full of doubt, and said to Xiao Xiao: "Ah! If we practice singing well, won't we be able to perform like them when we don't have money?"

  "No." Lu Teng said solemnly, "We must put on a show, a thunderous performance." Having experienced so many things, he now had an urgent desire to take the stage and perform in this grand theater of Tianjing.

  "Yes. To perform in a venue with tens of thousands of people. Let those fans wet their pants." Xiao Xiao clenched his fists and said with a smile all over his face.

  "Ah!" Lin Yi let out a breath, she felt inexplicably tense.

  Three people took an hour subway and then took a half-hour bus to arrive at Nie's soul rock specialty store.

  The location of the soul rock specialty store is not very good, located on a deserted crossroads. Although it's a street-facing bungalow, the storefront isn't big. The combination of aluminum alloy and large glass doesn't have any decorations. From outside through the glass window, you can see the rock music equipment inside, in addition to instruments, there are also alternative clothing, shoes, and bags hanging on the wall, looking very stylish.

  Lu Teng pushed open the door and invited Xiao Xiao and Lin Yi to enter.

  Xiao Xiao and Lin Yi followed him in.

  There was no air conditioning in the store, and a greasy fan blew loudly, not cool at all. In the half-empty space of the store, there was a lingering smell of something old, which seemed to be emitted from some old things that had been around for years.

  Today, there are not many soulful customers, only two 15 or 16-year-old kids wandering around inside. In fact, the number of customers here is not large, and now musical instruments such as pianos, violins, saxophones and other elegant Western musical instruments sell better. Rock music instruments are only bought by die-hard fans.

  "You're here." Nie Zhong saw Lu Feng arrive, immediately got up from the recliner, shaking his fan and walking to Lu Feng's front.

  Xiao Xiao glanced at Nie Zhong on the side.

  Nie Zhong is over 40 years old, with a height of over 1.8 meters, and is younger than his father-in-law Xiao Liangpeng, making him more suitable as an uncle. He wears a coarse linen short-sleeved T-shirt on top and tattered jeans on the bottom. His short hair has some white strands, and his square face looks somewhat gaunt, clearly due to insufficient qi and blood.

  Xiao Xiao had seen his photos from when he was young online, back when the mechanical squad still existed. Nie Zheng wore a leather jacket and pants, with big curly hair and holding an electric guitar, looking incredibly handsome. He was literally so damn cool.

  Now his appearance is like a middle-aged uncle in the countryside, and no one would think that he was the same long-haired young man as in the photo.