Chapter 2011 — Freshman Gala, Part One
The Blossom Guardian · Page 2 of 2
Another round of warm applause rose from the audience, and the evening's program officially began. The first act was a group dance brought by freshmen from the English Department.
Girls made up a considerable proportion of the English Department, and those who came on stage were a uniformly lovely bunch, so the moment they appeared they drew waves of cheers and screams. As the pulsing music struck up and the spotlights flashed in time, the students below could not help but wave the glow sticks in their hands...
After the English Department's hot dance came a solo number by a male student from the Computer Science Department, "Brother Sleeping in the Bunk Above Me." This song, steeped in the atmosphere of campus life, completely won over the entire hall once the young man's somewhat melancholy, husky voice rose...
"Brother sleeping in the bunk above me, you who make no sound, those questions you once asked me—now no one asks them anymore..."
Though few dormitories these days still had bunk beds, the song spoke of the friendship between roommates in a college dorm, and so in one tune it voiced the innermost feelings of many students who had only just moved into their dorms...
The young man's voice was in fact not especially good, but the song was chosen exceedingly well, and in an instant it struck a chord with everyone present; many freshmen—and older students too, especially the seniors about to graduate—sang along...
Many had tears welling in their eyes as they sang. This was a gala to welcome the freshmen—but was it not also the last freshman gala the seniors would ever attend? So many hearts were filled with emotion...
And this song could be called a success; at the very worst it would not fall outside the top ten...
The first two acts could be said to have gotten things off to a fine start; both were quite good and drew a favorable response.
But the third act—originally a highly anticipated showpiece—ran into trouble!
Halfway through her piece, the girl grew more and more nervous, suddenly abandoned the piano, and fled the stage in tears, plunging the atmosphere on site into awkwardness.
According to the program schedule, the girl's piano solo still had more than ten minutes to run, and this threw the lineup into some disarray. The male and female hosts rushed onto the stage in a fluster to salvage the situation, offering a few words of comfort and encouragement.
"The Story of Youth" told of life at school and sang of the beautiful college years—of love, of friendship, and of frantic last-minute cramming before exams; the theme of the whole song was precisely a microcosm of college life.
So the moment Xu Shilan appeared, the atmosphere of the entire freshman gala was driven to a fever pitch!