Returning to the county opera troupe in 77

"Li Zhangqing, number 37, enter the examination room immediately."

The sound coming from the loudspeaker made Li Zhangqing shudder.

When Chen Xiangdong saw Li Zhangqing's pale face, he immediately thought to himself that something was wrong. This kid was too nervous, and he was afraid he would mess up the exam later.

"Is candidate number 37 not here?" came the urging voice from the loudspeaker again.

"Come with me!"

Chen Xiangdong grabbed Li Zhangqing's sweaty little hand and pulled her through the small door to the front door. Just before entering, he squeezed her little hand hard, making the girl cry out in pain.

Chen Xiangdong stared into Li Zhangqing's eyes: "Does it hurt?"

Tears welled up in Li Zhangqing's eyes as he nodded vigorously, "It hurts!"

"It's okay now that you feel pain." Chen Xiangdong breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you still nervous?"

Li Zhangqing was taken aback. She looked down at her small, red hand and then looked up at Chen Xiangdong. The tension that had made her stiffen up seemed to have dissipated by most of it.

Chen Xiangdong patted her on the shoulder: "Go in, just sing your own song, the louder the better, don't think about anything else."

Li Zhangqing nodded, turned around, took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to enter the examination room.

Chen Xiangdong peeked through the crack in the door and saw Li Zhangqing walk up to the judges' table, looking at them timidly.

"Good morning, examiner. I am Li Zhangqing."

Liu Dezhu, Han Wenxue, and Lu Meiyin exchanged glances. Liu Dezhu coughed and asked in a pretentious manner, "What song do you want to sing? Just say it boldly. We judges aren't going to eat you alive."

Seeing the encouraging look in his uncle's eyes, Li Zhangqing's heart settled down: "I'm going to sing 'I Love Beijing Tiananmen'."

Lu Meiyin patted her chest with a smile, indicating to Li Zhangqing to sing with confidence and without worry.

Li Zhangqing composed himself, opened his mouth, the veins on his neck bulging slightly, and began to sing loudly at the top of his lungs:

"I love Beijing Tiananmen Square, the sun rises over Tiananmen Square..."

The singing was straightforward, without even any vocal transitions; it was almost entirely shouted out in one tone, and there were even two instances where the voice cracked.

Even so, Li Zhangqing still sang the entire song in one go.

After the last note faded, the rehearsal hall fell silent for a few seconds.

Liu Dezhu nodded first: "Yes, this kid has a great voice, loud and penetrating, he's a good candidate for opera."

Han Xuewen and Lu Meiyin nodded in agreement: "Yes, yes."

The two judges from the Education Bureau rolled their eyes. Did they really think they were blind and deaf? The whole thing was in one tone, without any distinction between high and low notes, and the singer even cracked at the end. Is that what you call a good voice?

The two men exchanged a frown, about to voice their questions, when Liu Dezhu smiled at them, leaned closer, and whispered, "Teachers, you've come here on a mission too, haven't you?"

Upon hearing this, the two people immediately fell silent.

Before they arrived, the director of the Education Bureau had told them that some of the candidates applying for the training program were relatives of leaders in various departments of the county. No matter how well they performed on the exam, they had to be allowed to pass.

Since the county theater troupe also has connections and needs to use back channels, there's no need to make things unpleasant for everyone over such a small matter.

After a moment of stunned silence, they both chimed in, "It's alright, it's alright."

"Its penetrating power is quite strong... yeah, quite strong."

Then the five judges tacitly ticked a box in their respective notebooks.

Li Zhangqing was completely dazed until he walked out of the examination room.

As soon as the door opened, Fu Xiaoyue, Han Nongyue, and Wu Xiaolian rushed over, chattering excitedly, "How was it? How was it?"

Li Zhangqing stared blankly around for a moment, then looked at Chen Xiangdong with a bewildered expression: "Did I... pass the exam?"

Chen Xiangdong nodded with a smile: "It's all set, it'll definitely pass!"

Li Zhangqing then laughed.

Chen Xiangdong then looked at Fu Xiaoyue and the other two: "You see, it's not difficult at all. If Zhang Qing can pass, you guys will definitely pass too."

"Uh-huh!"

The three girls nodded repeatedly like chicks pecking at rice, and then they heard the loudspeaker announce: "Wu Xiaolian, number 39, enter the examination room immediately."

Wu Xiaolian took a deep breath and, under the concerned and nervous gazes of Fu Xiaoyue and Han Nongyue, pushed open the door and went inside.

Li Zhangqing, now that the exams were over, was the most relaxed, a rare smile on his face. Leaning against the wall, he let out a sigh of relief: "Finally, the exams are over..."

Chen Xiangdong peered through the crack in the door. Fu Xiaoyue and Han Nongyue were squeezed in front of him, their three heads piled together like stacked steamed buns.

Wu Xiaolian came out less than five minutes after she went in. Chen Xiangdong and the others could see her clearly through the crack in the door. This girl was much bolder than Li Zhangqing. She went in, announced her name, and started singing. However, it was too noisy, and they couldn't hear how well she sang.

Wu Xiaolian's face was tense, revealing neither joy nor disappointment. It wasn't until they reached the small door that she broke down, her eyes reddening, her lips pursed, and she whispered to Chen Xiangdong and the others:

"You scared me to death!"

"Did you sing the whole song?" Chen Xiangdong asked.

Wu Xiaolian nodded, then hesitated, "I finished singing, but it seems... I sang off-key. Teacher Lu even said I sang quite well at the end."

Li Zhangqing held Wu Xiaolian's hand: "Aunt Lu said you sang well, so you'll pass."

Next, Fu Xiaoyue and Han Nongyue's exam numbers were next to each other. After Fu Xiaoyue, number 41, finished her exam, Han Nongyue, number 42, entered the exam room. The two girls nervously entered the exam room and walked out in a daze.

Seeing their dejected looks, Chen Xiangdong couldn't help but laugh: "The exams are over, what are you afraid of? Come on, I'll take you to buy candy, want some White Rabbit candy?"

The four girls exchanged glances. Still children at heart, they couldn't resist the allure of the candy and nodded eagerly, "Yes!"

"Let's go then!" Chen Xiangdong sang in a fancy tone, then swaggered out of the crowd with his hands behind his back, followed by four little tails, laughing and joking all the way out of the theater troupe's compound.

The exam lasted a full day. Except for the lunch break, Liu Dezhu and the other four examiners never left the rehearsal hall.

When the last candidate finished performing, it was almost 8:30 p.m. The group was exhausted and sat in their chairs, feeling sore backs and aches. It was even more tiring than when they usually performed opera.

Han Wenxue rubbed his lower back, his voice hoarse: "That's all for today. We'll have to trouble the two leaders from the Education Bureau again tomorrow."

The two judges from the Education Bureau also looked tired. One of them laughed and said, "What's so hard about it? Isn't it all for the future talent cultivation of Dongping County?"

Liu Dezhu quickly gave a thumbs up: "Look at the leader's awareness, he's really high. I'm exhausted, I need to eat something and lie down in bed for a while."

The two men immediately looked at each other and smiled wryly.

Han Wenxue stood up and called to everyone, "Come on, come on, the kitchen has saved some food for everyone. Commander Jia specially arranged for the kitchen to make mutton stew, just waiting to treat the two leaders tonight."

Upon hearing the words "mutton soup," the eyes of the two officials from the Education Bureau immediately lit up, and the fatigue on their faces seemed to disappear by a third.

"Oh dear, I can't accept that."

"That's right, your theater troupe isn't exactly well-off either, and you've still gone to all this trouble."

The two exchanged polite words, but their feet were already moving towards the door.

Lu Meiyin also smiled and said, "It's only right. You two have worked hard all day, you should at least have a bowl of mutton soup to relieve your fatigue. Get some rest, there are still more than a hundred candidates waiting for you tomorrow."

"That's right, that's right. We'll have to trouble the two leaders for another day tomorrow." Liu Dezhu said politely, and had already walked out of the rehearsal hall.

After all, no matter how delicious the mutton soup was, it couldn't compare to the good news that the kids had passed the test smoothly, so he rushed towards the gatehouse.

Right now, He Jianshe, Liu Qiaosheng, Xu Erdao, and Hu Xiaolian are all eagerly awaiting his good news.

Pushing open the door to the guardhouse, a pungent smell of dry tobacco hit him, nearly knocking him over. He couldn't help but curse:

"My goodness, are you guys cultivating immortality?"

He steadied himself and saw that in the room, which seemed like a fairyland shrouded in mist, all four people stood up in unison and asked, almost in unison, "How was it?"

Liu Dezhu grinned: "Absolutely!"