But he felt a little guilty, shielding his comic books with his summer homework. He clenched his fist and waved it in front of the two, threatening, "Village... I mean, Jiang Mianmian, Li Lan, if you two even think about tattling to my parents that I’m reading comic books, I’ll beat you up, understand?"
"I’m not interested in ratting you out," Jiang Mianmian glanced at him and continued reading.
Li Lan didn’t even raise her head and simply ignored him.
So, Wang Li was quite satisfied and retracted his fist, happily continuing with his comic book.
On Saturday, thinking about tomorrow’s recognition ceremony, Li Lan, who rarely initiated conversation with Wang Li, spoke to him.
"Wang Li, Mianmian is going to attend the recognition ceremony tomorrow. Our whole family is going to watch. Are you going?"
"I’m not interested," said Wang Li indifferently.
But when the weekend arrived and Jiang Mianmian stood on the stage, she saw Wang Li standing in the crowd.
Jiang Mianmian couldn’t help but smile at the sight of this little hypocrite who had claimed he wouldn’t come.
The recognition ceremony was attended by many, including the relatives and friends of the two students from the town who had ranked first, as well as people from other communes who came to join in the excitement.
In the countryside at that time, entertainment was extremely scarce; aside from chatting with neighbors, there were almost no other leisure activities.
So whenever there was an event at the commune, as long as people had the time, they would attend, just to be part of the excitement.
This time, the most people came from Jiang Mianmian’s commune. After all, she was the Little Genius that their own commune had nurtured, and they naturally wanted to show their support.
At the Jiang Family, except for Zhaodi who feigned illness to skip the event, the whole family set out. Most of the people from Stone Bridge Village attended as well.
After the recognition ceremony began, Principal Fang started with some encouraging words, then gave the stage to the three students who had ranked first.
The two top students from the town read their essays first. Since the ceremony was held in honor of Jiang Mianmian, it wouldn’t be fair to let only her read her essay.
So they decided to have all three kids read their essays, since it wouldn’t take much time anyway.
The two town kids’ essays were also quite brilliant, with some sentences even more beautiful than Jiang Mianmian’s. When they finished, both received a round of applause.
After the two had finished, it was Jiang Mianmian’s turn. As soon as she began to read her essay, the villagers from Stone Bridge Village started applauding and cheering.
"Good job, Mianmian! Truly worthy of being our Stone Bridge Village’s Little Prodigy."
"Wonderful, just wonderful! You’re the pride of our village."
Their excitement left people from other communes in astonishment.
Seeing they were being watched, the people from Stone Bridge Village proudly puffed out their chests and said, "That kid on the stage is from our village, we’ve watched her grow up."
Although Jiang Changhai and Su Wanyu were also very excited, they didn’t show it.
With so many leaders on stage, they had to act with more composure, not wanting the leaders to think Jiang Mianmian’s parents were country bumpkins inexperienced with the world.
However, when Jiang Mianmian finished reading her essay, everyone in the audience became very excited and applauded vigorously. For a moment, the applause was like thunder.
Even though some people in the audience had already read the essay, they were still very moved at this moment.
Similar sentiments were shared by the leaders sitting on stage, who were also quietly exchanging words.
"This child has written so well, even though I’ve read it several times before, listening to it now still makes me feel stirred up."