A while had passed since Liang Yunfei’s boyfriend appeared. After that meal, Qiu Xi’s campus life returned to normal. One evening, after finishing her studies, she heard a familiar voice again.
“Beep! Speech advanced course training assessment passed, course concluded.”
“Beep! Host’s CET-4 mission activated, rewards depend on final score.”
The system’s mission finally reminded Qiu Xi of the CET-4 study materials she had bought with her roommates, which were still unopened. She thought she should start studying soon. Maybe tomorrow… As Qiu Xi drifted off, she was already thinking about it.
The very next morning, the first thing she did upon waking was to take out the materials she had put away earlier and place them on her desk as a reminder to study them when she had time.
“Xiao Xi, the semi-finals are in two days, and I’m a little nervous,” Qiu Xi heard Shen Yan say after she finished her morning routine. Hearing this, Qiu Xi thought about it and decided to practice with Shen Yan in the dorm that day. Anyway, they were the only two left in the dorm. Ever since Liang Yunfei was discovered, she had been openly going in and out of the library with her boyfriend. That’s right, besides dancing, this girl loved spending time in the library, though she also went out to have fun from time to time. As for Song Daiyao, she had fallen so deep into the student union that she frequently became a missing person from the dorm.
“It’s okay, I’m nervous too. That’s normal. We’ll just practice as usual.” Qiu Xi’s words were true, after all, those who reached the semi-finals were elites from various schools who had passed the preliminaries, all top performers.
“Okay, then let’s practice.”
“Alright.”
Time flew by, and before they knew it, the semi-finals had begun. The day before the competition, their teacher took them to their accommodation, speaking to them for a long time, fearing they might be nervous.
“Go on, I’m rooting for you, good luck!”
“Okay.” Qiu Xi and Shen Yan nodded at their teacher and walked backstage. Shen Yan went up first. After hearing the announcement, she took a deep breath and slowly walked onto the stage. Qiu Xi whispered from behind, “Good luck!”
The time for one person to perform on stage wasn’t long, nor was it short, but it felt quite brief for the next contestant because it seemed like as soon as one person went up, it was already their turn. This was exactly how Qiu Xi felt. In the blink of an eye, she saw Shen Yan walking off stage, and before they could even greet each other, it was her turn. Shen Yan could only manage a gesture of encouragement when they met later, whispered a few words, and then walked back.
After Qiu Xi went up and finished her speech, she felt the difference from the preliminaries during the impromptu speech and the judges’ questions, noticing a significant increase in difficulty. After thoughtfully answering, the stage speech for the semi-finals was finally over, and she walked off. Just as she returned to her seat and before she could sit down, she received a thumbs-up of encouragement from her teacher, who had clearly been listening intently from below and was satisfied. Qiu Xi smiled and nodded obediently.
After sitting down, she felt Shen Yan’s nervousness and immediately grabbed her arm because Shen Yan’s score was about to be announced next. As expected, as soon as the host finished speaking, Shen Yan deflated. Her score was significantly lower than those who had performed before. Qiu Xi could only pat her shoulder. However, Shen Yan only felt down for a moment, as she was already very satisfied to have reached this stage. Thinking this, she smiled and whispered to Qiu Xi, “I’m okay.” Then, they both continued watching the other contestants’ speeches.