It had been thirty seconds since the vice president’s speech ended. Gu Mang still had not appeared on stage. A commotion stirred in the crowd as the students began talking quietly among themselves. Tang Xiaoxiao strained her neck to look at the podium. “What’s going on? Why isn’t Gu Mang going up?”
The person next to her whispered to her, “Word has it that she’s lost her script.”
“What?” She blinked and said nervously, “Then what is she going to do? I saw that script. It was pretty long and I don’t think she can remember anything from it since it wasn’t written by her.”
Zheng Miao frowned when she heard that. There are so many cameramen around filming this event. Things aren’t looking good for Gu Mang.
Unlike the two of them who were worrying themselves sick for their roommate, Su Jiaying’s lips curled up slightly to form a smirk.
…
Lu Chengzhou looked down at Gu Mang and asked softly, “Did you read the speech?”
Gu Mang, however, made no response as she let her frigid eyes droop. The counselor answered in her stead. “Even if she did, she wouldn’t be able to remember it all. It was a very long speech.”
Despite the heat, the counselor’s back was drenched with cold sweat. Everyone wore grim expressions, knowing that Gu Mang had been targeted. The counselor glanced at the podium, where the rest of the school leaders and Red Scorpion’s instructors were exchanging baffled looks with each other. They had no idea what was going on. Anxious, she turned to the principal and the dean for help. “What should we do now?”
Principal Ren looked at Lu Chengzhou in trepidation as he pondered for a moment. “How about we cancel her speech?” This is a big event. It’s better to do away with that segment than having her fumble it. Since there’s no guarantee that she can do a good job, we might as well cancel it.
“No need,” said Gu Mang all of a sudden, earning her incredulous looks from everyone. “I’ll go up.” With that, she crumpled the paper into a ball and tossed it into a nearby trash can before making her way over to the stage without so much as a head turn.
Principal Ren and Yang Tianming instinctively moved to stop her, wanting to dissuade her. However, with a slight turn of his body, Lu Chengzhou blocked them and pinned them to the spot with a look. Neither of them dared to take another step forward. They could not help but break out in a cold sweat when they turned their gazes to Gu Mang once more.
Cameras were everywhere. They could almost imagine the insults she would be subjected to should any mistake she made be aired nationwide. That was why they were not in favor of her going up on stage without the script.
Qin Fang was even more worried than them, thinking that it was easier for her to kill someone than for her to give a motivational speech in front of others. With such thoughts in mind, he readied himself to delete any articles regarding her speech as soon as they appeared.
They watched Gu Mang leave with mixed feelings.
…
Gu Mang had nothing in her hands as she stood centerstage in front of the microphone. When the camera crew noticed this, a few of them lowered their cameras slightly as if they wanted to confirm that she had really come up on stage empty-handed.
Meanwhile, over in the freshman section.
“Hey, Gu Mang is up on stage!”
“She sure deserves commendation for bravery.”
“Is she thinking of giving an impromptu speech?”
Gu Mang was only informed yesterday afternoon that she would be the Freshman Representative. Since she was given a ready-made script, there was no need for her to think about crafting her own speech. Everyone reckoned that she probably had not bothered to read the script in advance.
The students from the medical school were shocked to see her go up.
“Jiaying, you girls share a room with Gu Mang. Did you see her memorizing her script last night?”
Su Jiaying replied lightly, “No…”
“What? Not at all?” softly exclaimed the other person in disbelief.
“Maybe Xiaoxiao and Miaomiao saw her reading it.”
Tang Xiaoxiao pursed her lips. “Regardless of whether she memorized it or not, I believe she can do it. She’s the top scholar who scored full marks on all subjects after all.”
Zheng Miao nodded in agreement. “Even if she lost the script, she can always improvise.”
Su Jiaying hummed an acknowledgment, only to ask a moment later, “If she’s really that confident, why didn’t she go up right away?”
Upon hearing this, the freshmen around them came to the same realization. If Gu Mang really had full confidence, she would have gone up straight away to give the speech instead of delaying for a minute.
“Looks like she braced herself to do it.”
Tang Xiaoxiao knitted her eyebrows together at that. “Enough said. She’s about to start.”
She and Zheng Miao then turned to look at Gu Mang, their hearts racing nervously. Su Jiaying, too, shifted her gaze toward the stage. She pursed her lips as she squeezed her fingers tightly.
Right at that moment, Gu Mang’s voice rang out from the stage.