“Junior Sister Xia, aren’t you nervous?” asked Zhong Cai, who had never worn makeup before and felt uncomfortable with the powder on her face.

Xia Xiaolan had only applied some powder and darkened her eyebrows, which made her look radiant.

“Senior Sister Zhong, of course, I’m nervous too. When I get nervous, I take deep breaths to try to calm myself down… and we’re not the only ones feeling nervous,” Xia Xiaolan whispered in the last part. Zhong Cai looked around and indeed noticed everyone acting strange – some were blinking constantly, and others picking at their skin.

College students were used to competitions – wasn’t the college entrance exam the most important competition of all? But being on television was different. Many families didn’t even own a TV set, as it was still a rare appliance. Appearing on television was even rarer.

What made everyone nervous was the TV station’s recording. When the camera focused on their faces, even their minds seemed to slow down.

Zhong Cai looked around and couldn’t help but laugh, which helped reduce her nervousness significantly.

Indeed, there wasn’t much to be nervous about. Making it to the oral examination meant ranking among the nation’s best. It was like the ancient imperial examinations – everyone had passed the metropolitan examination and was just waiting for the final palace examination to determine who would be the top three scholars. Even those who ranked below still became officials. Today’s situation was similar – reaching the oral competition meant they were just determining final rankings.

Professor He and others from Huaqing University had analyzed that all remaining twenty candidates would likely become exchange students.

Having figured this out, Zhong Cai relaxed and held Xia Xiaolan’s hand. “Xiaolan, thank you.”

After having extra tutoring sessions with Xia Xiaolan for so long, Zhong Cai had formed a very good impression of her. There were messy rumors at school about Xia Xiaolan and Ji Jiangyuan. People even claimed Ji’s family had come to see Xia Xiaolan, with elaborate details. Zhong Cai was surprised by how curious her schoolmates were.

Ji Jiangyuan’s family had been quite excessive, ruining what had been a good friendship between classmates. While Ji Jiangyuan himself wasn’t particularly dislikeable and seemed quite approachable, after his family’s interference, Xia Xiaolan and he stopped speaking to each other.

Just as Zhong Cai was thinking this, she spotted Ji Jiangyuan peering through the doorway.

“Xiaolan, is Ji Jiangyuan looking for you?”

Xia Xiaolan frowned. For so long, she had been practically ignoring Ji Jiangyuan. What did he want now?

“Student Xia Xiaolan, please come here for a moment. Teacher Lin is looking for you.”

Teachers weren’t allowed in the waiting room, which was reserved for TV station staff and students waiting for their oral examination. Xia Xiaolan walked to the door, and Ji Jiangyuan pulled her aside.

“I’ll be brief – you might be in trouble. The TV station staff said someone has been pulling strings for you, contacting both the station and the judges to give you special consideration… I don’t think this is good news.”

Could it be the Zhou family?

Or Tang Hongen?

Ji Jiangyuan felt neither seemed likely to do such a thing. With Xia Xiaolan’s abilities, performing consistently would be better than anything else. She didn’t need any special consideration. He had gone to great lengths to extract this information from two TV station staff members, who mentioned that someone from the Higher Education Division had made the request.

Xia Xiaolan’s mind raced through various possibilities.

Who from the Higher Education Division would intervene for her? She thought she had glimpsed Aunt Zhan earlier.

Aunt Zhan had a good relationship with Zhou Cheng’s mother – how could she harm her like this? Having someone pull strings so obviously that even the lowest TV station staff knew about it would definitely backfire!

Xia Xiaolan suddenly understood why the production crew’s attitude had seemed strange earlier.

How could they not be curious? They probably deliberately came closer to see this student who warranted intervention from Higher Education Division leadership.

Xia Xiaolan felt like she had swallowed a fly.

“Ji Jiangyuan, thank you.”

Though she had cut off contact with Ji, he didn’t see things the same way. He had specifically told her about this so she could be prepared. Of course, if Ji were in a similar situation, Xia Xiaolan would have warned him too.

“Could you help me tell Teacher Lin?”

When facing difficulties, seek help from teachers. The oral competition was about to begin, and if communication with the judges was needed, having Huaqing’s teachers intervene would be more appropriate. Xia Xiaolan felt clear in her conscience – she had made it this far on her merit, not through connections!

Ji Jiangyuan ran off, leaving Xia Xiaolan deep in thought.

If it wasn’t for Aunt Zhan’s well-intentioned mistake, the only person in the Higher Education Division who would do such a thing was Wang Guangping.

Two things puzzled Xia Xiaolan. First, why would Director Wang suddenly lower himself to trouble a mere student? Had the Wang family already embraced Xia Ziyu so completely that they would act according to their future daughter-in-law’s wishes?

Second, Director Wang had recently lost a power struggle with Du Zhaohui – how had he so quickly regrouped and gained influence over the English competition?

This tactic was despicable. Xia Xiaolan’s qualification for the competition might be revoked.

However, since Director Wang had made his move, would merely disrupting one English competition be enough?

Such people often planned several moves – the English competition must be just the first step. Director Wang was going all out. Despite his struggles in the Higher Education Division, instead of focusing on career advancement, he was here troubling a student… No wonder he couldn’t return to the city – being awful was just his nature!

“Alright students, please pay attention. When you go on stage, cooperate with the host. Keep your face turned toward the judges when speaking, don’t mind the cameras, just pretend they’re not there…”

The TV station staff came to give instructions to the contestants.

The performance order was convenient, following the written test rankings. Xia Xiaolan was seventeenth. With each student’s oral test taking about 15 minutes, it would be evening by her turn. Such was television recording – a total of 5 hours would probably be edited down to a one-hour program.

The contestants would have to stay this long, and so would the audience.

Besides the students who hadn’t made it to the finals, there were invited guests from English education circles and the Ministry of Education. Zhan Aiqun had given two tickets to Guan Huie.

Zhou Guobin definitely wouldn’t have time to attend. The oral examination list had come out at noon, and she had called Guan Huie to confirm she would definitely come.

Zhan Aiqun was a judge. As the competition was about to begin recording, the TV station makeup artist had touched up her appearance, so she hadn’t noticed whether Guan Huie had arrived.

Guan Huie had indeed come, holding two tickets, but instead of coming with Zhou Guobin, she arrived with Zhou Cheng’s grandmother. They both sat quietly in the back row.

Grandmother Zhou had always been fond of Xia Xiaolan. When she heard how well Xia Xiaolan was doing in the English competition, the old lady insisted on coming to see them in person.

It didn’t matter if she couldn’t understand – she knew Xia Xiaolan, and just watching would be fine!