Rebirth of the Millennial: Getting Rich After Parents Get Laid Off

Chapter 167 Third Place Questioned
Because the votes were given out all at once, and not collected for each program individually, Shen Qingqing and Wu Fangyi had no way of knowing how many votes their class's program received when they handed in their votes.

The hosts on stage were conducting the final segment of inviting leaders to the stage to give speeches, while the audience was busily registering the collected ballots one by one and tallying the final vote distribution.

Except for the kindergarten classes (small and middle grades), all other grades were given voting tickets, which is a very large number.

In order to count all the votes before the leaders finished speaking, even the instructors in charge of arranging the freshman party rushed to help.

The leaders' speeches were already full of tedious and repetitive clichés, and many people were concerned about the voting results, causing the students in the audience to become restless.

After enduring half an hour of agonizing waiting, I finally heard the host announce that the voting results were in.

"Now we proceed to the final item on the agenda for this year's Freshman Gala. Based on the valid votes cast across the entire university, the top three performances of this year's Freshman Gala are—"

"Third place goes to the medley of songs from the drama performance, 'Vibrant Campus,' presented by Class 1 of the top-performing first-year students!"

"Second place goes to the street dance performance 'Street Dance Medley' presented by Class 3 of Senior High and Class 7 of Preschool Education!"

"First place goes to the classical dance 'Peach Blossom Promise' performed by the top students from Class 1 and 2 of Grade 8!"

Upon hearing the host announce the top three, Shen Qingqing and Wu Fangyi exchanged a glance, both seeing the smugness in each other's eyes.

Although I only ranked third, the final assessment points were the same.

That's a full ten points! Usually, the points for hygiene inspections, the rotating red flag, and being a civilized class are only 0.5, 1, or 2 points.

Hygiene is checked every day, and points will be deducted if you're not careful.

The rotating red flag is awarded once a week, but it's not always the same class every week. For example, there are twelve classes in the entire first year of junior high school: two honors classes and ten regular classes. It takes three months to complete a full rotation.

The "Civilized Class" award is given only once a month, and a semester only lasts four months.

If two classes are evaluated at once, even if different classes are evaluated every four months, it would only be eight classes. Out of twelve classes, four classes would be left behind.

This shows just how difficult it is to win this mysterious grand prize in the final exam.

Only the performances at the freshman party in the first semester of each year, with their incredibly generous bonus points, can allow some classes to catch up later on.

After Zhang Bohang and his team received their third-place certificate on stage, they happily gave it to Fang Chengying after they came off the stage.

Fang Chengying, as the instructor of the performance class, stood below the stage and watched the students perform.

Liu Shiyun, the homeroom teacher of the class next door who performed one after the other, also stood by and watched Zhang Bohang and the others excitedly handing the certificates to Fang Chengying. Her expression looked stiff no matter how you looked at it.

After the awards ceremony, the leaders gradually left. Next came the children from the preschool section, then the primary school section, and finally the junior high school section.

As the event was ending, Wu Fangyi suddenly grabbed Shen Qingqing: "Qingqing, look over there."

Shen Qingqing looked in the direction Wu Fangyi pointed. The group of students from the top-performing class next door were still wearing their performance costumes and gathered around the vote tallying area, seemingly arguing with the students tallying the votes.

Shen Qingqing blinked, turned her head to look at Wu Fangyi, her eyes filled with eagerness.

Wu Fangyi immediately understood, "Let's go take a look."

The two hit it off immediately, withdrew their feet from the hall and turned to walk in that direction.

They stopped when they reached a place where they could hear the sound clearly.

"We just want to request a review of the vote count, and not all of them. We just want to review the vote counts for the program 'The Count of Monte Cristo' and 'Campus Vitality' to see if there are any errors."

"Why are you refusing to help us verify the results, saying you can't find the complete tickets on one hand and that the results are already confirmed on the other?"

The student playing the lead role is a cross-dresser; she's a girl, and she's the same girl Shen Qingqing saw submitting the complete script in the office that day. Her face is very aggressive, and the makeup and styling for the role make her even sharper.

Shen Qingqing looked around and saw that Liu Shiyun was not there; only the main actors were present.

The student wearing a red vest looked to be about the same age as them and seemed helpless: "Because we were about to leave when the event ended, all the voting tickets were disposed of in a unified manner."

"If you had stood up and said you wanted a review when the rankings were announced, you would still be here then. Now that the event is over and everyone is cleaning up, it's pointless for you to be so unreasonable, junior."

It turns out she was a senior in the second year of junior high school.

"Where did you throw them? You couldn't have torn up all those tickets before you disposed of them, could you? We'll go look for them, and if we find them, we'll check them for you. Is that alright?" The female lead from the next class persisted.

The eighth-grade student was so angry she almost laughed.

The problem now isn't whether we can find it or not, but that the event is over and everyone needs to go home for the holidays.

It's obvious that the female lead in the next class doesn't understand the problem.

The other older students next to the eighth grader were also packing their things while occasionally casting speechless glances at the female lead from the next class.

Finally, someone in their class belatedly realized that something was wrong, and quietly tugged at the female lead's clothes, whispering something to her.

But it was no use; the female lead just stood there and refused to leave.

Shen Qingqing noticed that the senior student who was confronting them exchanged a glance with another senior student behind her, who probably guessed that they were going to call the teacher.

Sure enough, not long after, a teacher wearing glasses and with a serious face came over.

With a teacher present, the female lead from the next class no longer seemed so aggressive.

After listening to the second-year junior high school student explain the whole story, the teacher asked the female lead from the next class if there were any mistakes or omissions. She immediately added a lot of points that she thought were minor but that the junior high school student's side had been unwilling to make.

The more she spoke, the more serious the teacher's expression became.

Shen Qingqing couldn't help but shake her head twice and click her tongue twice.

Hearing her squeak, Wu Fangyi turned her head and asked in a low voice, "What are you clicking your tongue about?"

"Tsk, this girl isn't smart. She didn't even see how unhappy the teacher was, and she kept talking." Shen Qingqing said to Wu Fangyi, half-covering her mouth with her hand. "I think this girl will be sent away by the teacher. The teacher definitely won't side with them." "The teacher was sent by a senior from the second year of junior high. She must be a teacher they know from the second year. People only side with those who are right, not with their relatives. Right now, everyone is obviously more anxious to go home. There are only ten minutes left until ten o'clock, and she still hasn't paid attention. The teacher has even less reason to help her."

Wu Fangyi understood and knew the outcome, so she lost interest in watching any further. "Shall we go?"

Shen Qingqing nodded.

Stepping out of the auditorium, walk straight ahead to reach the accommodation area.

Shen Qingqing asked, "Sister Fangyi, aren't you going home tonight?"

Wu Fangyi shook her head: "I'm not going back. There are no buses running anymore, and no one will come to pick me up if I call. I'll stay in the dorm for one night and go back tomorrow."

Since it's Thursday, according to the school's automatic power system, there won't be a power outage tonight. The power will only be cut off by the dormitory supervisor tomorrow after confirming that all students have left the school.

"Would you like to stay at my place for the night? If you're not comfortable sharing a room with me, I have another room available." Shen Qingqing recalled the time when Wu Fangyi had a fever at school and ended up in the hospital.

"No need. I have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch the earliest bus home, which means I'll have to get up at five to pack my things. Staying at your place would be too much trouble for your family."

"After I get home, I still have to go to my part-time job. I've already booked part-time jobs for the seven-day National Day holiday. If nothing unexpected happens, I can earn 720 yuan by working six days!" Wu Fangyi's face was full of longing for the salary.

But she also knew why Shen Qingqing had invited her, and comforted her, "Last time it was my own carelessness, it definitely won't happen again this time, don't worry!"

Since she had already said that, Shen Qingqing had no way to persuade her anymore. She could only remind her to be careful and not to catch another cold.

Wu Fangyi smiled and agreed. As soon as they arrived at the accommodation area, she waved goodbye to Shen Qingqing.

Shen Yangyang, Shen Hong, and Li Chunchun all had performances to give, so after they left the stage, Li Shuyun told them to wait for her to come find them and not to move from where they were.

Shen Qingqing got separated from the group because she was traveling with the main group.

Fortunately, when she passed through the dormitory area and arrived at the teaching area in front, she saw four people waiting at the intersection.

"Sister!" Shen Yangyang, Li Chunchun and Shen Hong recognized her and quickly waved and shouted her name.

Shen Qingqing quickly ran over, "I'm sorry, I was watching the excitement in the auditorium for a while."

Upon hearing that there was excitement, Shen Yangyang became energized and kept asking questions.

Having no other choice, Shen Qingqing had to tell him about the girl from the next class.

After listening, Li Shuyun frowned: "The vote count wasn't entirely done by the students. Didn't the teachers help out later? How could this student be so inconsiderate?"

Li Shuyun herself is a teacher. As a member of the teaching profession, when she heard a student questioning a teacher like this, and the class that won the award was Shen Qingqing's class, she naturally sided with Shen Qingqing.

Shen Qingqing chuckled twice: "Maybe it's because they lost to us and felt ashamed. After all, we were admitted from outside, while they were directly promoted from the experimental school and have better family backgrounds and connections."

"We guess in their eyes they're just a bunch of poor bookworms who can't produce anything good, which is why they're so angry after we beat them."

Li Shuyun frowned even more deeply. "What did the teacher who came here say?"

Shen Qingqing shook her head: "I don't know, I came out before I finished reading it."

However, they soon found out the result, because the group from the next class hurriedly passed by them, and the group of people did not look very good.

After they had all walked away, Shen Qingqing said, "It seems that the teacher who came to us also knew that they were being unreasonable and didn't help them. The group of people who just walked by were the ones who acted in 'The Count of Monte Cristo'."

Li Shuyun glanced at the group of people who had walked away with a strange look, and didn't continue the topic: "Alright, let's go home, let's go home."

Li Xunli had already received Li Shuyun's call and had Shen Rongzhou set off early to pick her up.

After arriving at the school gate and getting into the car, the four children sat in the back seat, while Li Shuyun sat in the front passenger seat. She placed the Shen family's video camera on the platform between the two driver's seats and said, "This is yours. It recorded everything from beginning to end."

"Okay, thank you so much, sister-in-law!" Shen Rongzhou smiled and looked at the video camera.

We only have two DVDs of the Children's Day program that Shen Qingqing participated in when she was in kindergarten. Now we have a third set of program records.

Shen Rongzhou first sent Li Shuyun and Li Chunchun back to Huafu Haoyuan before returning to his own home.

I got home at exactly 10:30, and it was time for the kids to go to bed.

Shen Hong, in particular, was exhausted both mentally and physically after hosting for more than two hours in one night. She didn't even wake up when the car was parked in the underground garage.

Shen Rongzhou had no choice but to hug him, let his two daughters hold his hands, and lead them home.

When Li Xunli saw that Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong had returned without removing their makeup, she quickly took out her makeup removal tools from the master bedroom and told Shen Rongzhou to follow her example and remove the makeup from each of the children's faces.

Shen Qingqing went to take a shower first.

Even after Shen Hong removed his makeup, he still couldn't be woken up, so they had no choice but to give up on letting him take a bath and wait until he woke up on his own tomorrow.

After taking a shower, Shen Yangyang couldn't stay awake any longer and went to sleep. Shen Qingqing had been waiting in the living room because she thought she had something to say to Shen Rongzhou and Li Xunli. But she saw them excitedly connecting the VCR to the TV, turning down the volume, and happily watching the three children's newborn party.

Seeing the couple's enthusiastic demeanor, Shen Qingqing figured that she probably wouldn't get a good response if she brought up the medical check-up at this point, so she quietly left.

The next morning, when she was woken up for breakfast, Shen Qingqing finally had a chance to talk about scheduling a medical check-up.

Shen Rongzhou ate a small steamed bun. "I'll make the appointment for you guys, so I won't do it myself. At the end of this year, General Manager Zhang said he wants to arrange a physical examination for the whole company, and I'll do that then. I happen to have the hospital's phone number."

"Let's arrange it for tomorrow then. The sooner the better. Manman said she wants to go out with me this National Day holiday," Shen Qingqing said after thinking for a moment.

"Okay, all four of you can do it. I'll take you there tomorrow." Shen Rongzhou dialed the hospital's number and then asked about some precautions before the physical examination. While asking, he repeated the nurse's answers. After hanging up, he said, "Did you hear what I just said? You can't eat anything after dinner tonight, and you need to go to bed early, understand?"

Shen Yangyang and Shen Hong were still young and didn't really know what a physical examination was. When they heard Shen Qingqing say "I know," they quickly added that too.

Thank you everyone for your monthly votes!
See you tomorrow night~