As the competition time drew nearer, those participating grew increasingly busy, especially those involved in student clubs. New members had a lot of initial tasks to handle.
Take the three girls in Qiu Xi's dorm, for instance. Song Daiyao, a member of the student council, was constantly occupied with the school's freshman welcome party. Shen Yan spent every evening meticulously refining her proposals. And Liang Yunfei was preparing to perform at the same welcome party.
Of course, Qiu Xi wasn't idle either. As the freshman class representative for academics, she had her own share of duties. Moreover, Qiu Xi had discovered that their teachers seemed to have a penchant for assigning homework.
Consequently, Qiu Xi spent a considerable amount of time collecting assignments from various subject teachers. Her days were filled with either issuing notices or being on her way to issue them.
From time to time, she also had to resolve various issues raised by her classmates.
In short, everyone was as busy as a spinning top. However, having undergone training several times, they hadn't yet developed any pre-competition jitters.
Furthermore, during this period, whenever she had spare time, Qiu Xi would seek guidance from her teachers, which helped resolve many problems encountered during their training.
Then came another quiet night.
"Beep! English practical speaking training has reached beginner level. Reward issued."
It had been a long and arduous process, but through recent speech training, Qiu Xi had managed to gain a significant amount of experience, successfully advancing her speaking skills to the beginner level.
Looking at the 1000 bonus points and 10,000 yuan cash credited to her account, Qiu Xi felt immensely moved and proud of her achievement.
With her speaking training reaching beginner level, Qiu Xi felt even more confident about the upcoming speech competition.
After all, the rewards were enticing, and she couldn't miss out; she had to give it her all.
With just a few days left before the competition began, Qiu Xi and the others received another "heavy" dose of attention from their teachers.
They were given a stack of impromptu speech topics to review, with the suggestion that early preparation would be beneficial.
Upon receiving the materials, Qiu Xi shared them with the others, and they all wore faces that looked like bitter gourds.
There was no other way; the burden of this "care" was too immense, and they felt somewhat overwhelmed.
"I'll take them back and have a look. I might not have the strength to cope," said a girl from the group, smiling outwardly but secretly weeping inwardly.
"Yes, it's still better to spend our time on our own speeches and refine them carefully to see if we can improve further," Qiu Xi thought the same. After all, they couldn't have their prepared speeches completely miss the theme, could they?
"Mm!" The others nearby nodded in agreement, clearly sharing the same sentiment.
Indeed, they had previously received the speech themes for the preliminary round.
They hadn't trained for the past few days; everyone was focused on preparing their own speeches. While they could openly discuss anything during regular training sessions, the competition speeches were something they had to figure out on their own. Any unclear points could only be discussed with the teachers.
After finishing their studies and on the way back, Song Daiyao, thinking about the recent days, felt as if her hands were made of iron. "Xiao Xi, I feel like I don't have any thoughts left now."
"Haha~ So, is what's wandering around now just a shell?" Qiu Xi chuckled. This had become their form of entertainment lately.
As soon as their studies were over, they would engage in various playful banter to entertain themselves, at least to bring smiles to their faces.
"Oh my, look at you all. Are you not smearing honey on your lips lately, but rather highly toxic arsenic?"
"Hahaha~ So, Xiao Feifei, are you also smearing arsenic on that little mouth of yours?" Song Daiyao teased, making a move as if to touch it.
Watching Liang Yunfei quickly dodge, the two playfully chased each other all the way back to their dorm.
Qiu Xi and Shen Yan watched from behind, confirming that Song Daiyao and Liang Yunfei certainly knew how to have fun.
These playful moments also significantly strengthened the bond between the four of them.