Once everyone had arrived, Zhao Mancao stepped up on the stage and started to address the crowd through a loudspeaker in his usual long, drawn-out manner. Everyone listened, bored and yawning yawningly.
Ma Xiulian was so anxious that she could hardly contain herself, thinking: Hurry up and finish your irrelevant talk, and start discussing the reward for Guibao!
Perhaps Zhao Mancao had heard her thoughts, for he paused and finally said, "Fellow villagers, there's another matter to announce today: the achievement of our commune school. Both Guibao and Tingyun have excelled academically, scoring full marks in their end-of-term examinations, andequalling each other for first place in the entire grade. Let us give them a round of applause!"
With that, he began to applaud himself.
Although everyone already knew about it, they respectfully joined the applause as a courtesy.
Helian Qiao stood tall, her chest held high, basking in everyone's attention.
