“Sigh, what are you afraid of? I’m here with you! If you forget your lines, I’ll cover for you!” Mia Waters said loudly on purpose, even nudging Zoe Young’s back with his elbow, as if that could somehow give his friend a boost.

Zoe Young smiled. “Ah, don’t worry, I’m fine. And… from now on, just call me 周周!”

Mia Waters, getting what he wanted, immediately turned away. “Don’t try to get chummy with me.”

Zoe Young knew that Mia Waters was nervous.

He had already run to the bathroom for the fourth time.

Even the always expressionless Sean Sherman was sitting on her left, head down, muttering to herself, apparently busy rehearsing the opening lines for the experiment. The more pressure there was while memorizing lines, the easier it was to get distracted and blank out. Sean Sherman was on her sixth attempt at the opening, but kept getting stuck at the same spot, breaking off.

At this moment, it was actually Zoe Young who felt relaxed. She looked up ahead, even the physics teacher’s smile as he talked to the principal looked stiff. The voices of the teachers and students “performing” on stage echoed through the microphone and speakers above the heads of the students from No. 13 Middle School, making everyone even more silent. This situation made Zoe Young feel heavy-hearted.

She was very worried.

The sense of collective honor she thought had died after elementary school graduation was suddenly burning again. Zoe Young’s fighting spirit, just like the Chinese people more than fifty years ago, would only awaken in moments of crisis when there was nowhere left to retreat.

This nerve-wracking auditorium setup made it hard for anyone not to be nervous.

On stage were desks, chairs, a blackboard, a podium, a projector, and a screen. After drawing lots, each school’s team would go on stage in order.

All the judges, teachers, and students from other schools sat in the audience, a dense crowd of people, their intense gazes scorching the contestants on stage. It was easy to imagine that any teaching activity in such a terrifying and cavernous “classroom” would feel like a public trial.

In this gloomy auditorium, on such a sleep-deprived, anxious morning.

Mia Waters, who had just come back from the bathroom and sat down next to Zoe Young, zoned out for a while, then looked up at the red banner with white characters above the stage and grinned.

Ironically, the banner read, “Happy New Curriculum.”

“Happy, my ass.” He cursed through gritted teeth, making Zoe Young burst out laughing.

“Really, don’t be nervous, listen to me.” Since she hadn’t run into any old acquaintances, Zoe Young’s shoulders finally relaxed, her smile returned, and she kept glancing around. Her lively demeanor made her seem like the only living person in the No. 13 Middle School team.

Mia Waters looked over, half convinced, and saw Zoe Young’s serious face and sincere gaze. “Mia Waters, when the time comes, just watch our classmates speak. As for the audience, just pretend they’re all pigs.” Mia Waters was surprised, pointed at his own nose, and said, “Then to the people on stage now, aren’t we the pigs?”

Zoe Young nodded. “Yes, to them, we’re the dumb pigs.”

Mia Waters didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “What kind of pep talk is that? Calling ourselves pigs?”

“Remember this,” Zoe Young still didn’t smile. “When we go on stage to set up the equipment, we have to say this sentence out loud three times, seriously!”

Mia Waters was so struck by Zoe Young’s serious expression that he didn’t ask why, just kept nodding.

Zoe Young gently patted his shoulder, then turned to look at a certain teacher on stage from another school, whose smile was stiff and whose tone was sickly sweet.

She wanted to tell Mia Waters that this sentence wasn’t meant to insult anyone. The girl who had told her this, she didn’t know if she was still standing on a stage somewhere.

She really missed Fiona James.

Back when Zoe Young became famous in the storytelling contest, her first time co-hosting a squad meeting with Fiona James at the provincial competition, she was still incredibly nervous. The linking lines were all long, meaningless rhetorical flourishes, just like the Spring Festival Gala. Zoe Young couldn’t improvise like she did when telling stories, and was terrified of getting a line wrong, so she sat there muttering to herself, just like Sean Sherman and Mia Waters now.

At that time, it was Fiona James who grabbed her hand and said, “It’ll be fine. Remember, everyone in the audience is a pig.”

Little Swallow, only in first grade, had a maturity and steadiness beyond her years, with adorable dimples on her cheeks and a dry, soft palm. Yet she said, “The audience are all pigs.” The last word came out with a little pout, almost heroic.

This was Fiona James’s unique trick for easing nerves. Zoe Young was half convinced, still nervously reciting her lines with her head down.

Finally, when they were about to go on stage, Fiona James grabbed her hand again and whispered, “Come on, let’s say it together.”

“Say what?”

“The audience are all pigs.”

Zoe Young looked around nervously. “You mean now?”

“Hurry up!”

The two girls put down their microphones and, in voices only each other could hear, said in unison:

The audience are all pigs!

This absurd and exhilarating act made Zoe Young burst out laughing almost instantly, and she realized that her nerves seemed to float away with her laughter.

“I announce, the first grade, class seven of the Affiliated Primary School of Normal University, with the theme ‘Ode to the Gardener,’ will now begin our squad meeting!”

Zoe Young came out of her memories and looked up at the crystal chandelier on the auditorium ceiling, smiling. She had learned composure from Fiona James. When they stood on stage, they never looked at the audience. The ethereal lines, dazzling lights, even the enthusiastic applause—all of it was unimportant. What mattered was that they stood on stage, ignoring everything else.

The audience are all pigs.

Zoe Young didn’t realize that Mia Waters had been watching her the whole time. She was completely lost in her own world, eyes half closed, a sweet smile on her face.

Mia Waters let out a barely audible sigh.

At that moment, polite applause sounded in the auditorium. The language teacher and her class exited, and the next competing class began to enter from the right side of the stage.

“Next up for the lesson review is Megan Brooks, a senior English teacher from the junior high division of the Affiliated Middle School, and the competing class is all sixty-one students from Grade 2, Class 1.”

The moment Zoe Young looked up, she froze in her seat.

Zoe Young’s class was sitting very close to the stage, and her eyesight was excellent. She could almost count the number of buttons on the white shirt of the boy who was directing his classmates to their seats and helping the teacher adjust the projector.

“周周, are you okay?” For the first time, Mia Waters openly dropped the surname and called her Zoe Young, feeling a bit embarrassed.

“I—I—what’s wrong with me?” Zoe Young turned to look at him, her smile a bit stiff, just like that language teacher who had just left the stage.

Mia Waters was about to say something when cheerful music filled the auditorium, drawing their attention to the stage. The students from Grade 2, Class 1 of the Affiliated Middle School all stood up, clapping in rhythm and singing a pleasant English song. The previously lifeless venue was instantly energized, and the teachers and students in the audience started clapping along.

“What song is this?” Mia Waters whispered in Zoe Young’s ear.

Zoe Young shrugged. “I don’t know the name, but I know it’s a song from ‘The Sound of Music.’ Uh, actually, they’re just singing the scale, do-re-mi-fa-so-si.”

There was one line Zoe Young remembered very clearly: “Far, is long long way to run.”

The open class from the Affiliated Middle School was clearly on a whole different level from the previous classes. The gloomy venue seemed a bit brighter thanks to the lively atmosphere on stage. They were truly relaxed, from teacher to student, with none of the forced acting—very confident. And it wasn’t just because they were on home turf.

When everyone else was still just using projectors, their PowerPoint lesson plans were already beautifully made.

The interaction with the Australian guest teacher, and the four-student group introducing the upcoming 2002 World Cup, all performed exceptionally well.

Zoe Young looked away from the stage and noticed that all the students from Class 6 around her were staring wide-eyed, especially Sean Sherman—who usually kept her head down even in class, but now her eyes were shining as she watched the stage. The slight reflection on her glasses even made Zoe Young feel a little uneasy.

It was a mix of defiance and admiration; longing and disdain.