Children who come to the county for the first time are curious about everything.
Looking up at the tall buildings around us, and looking down at the flat and solid asphalt road under our feet, everything is fresh.
"Teacher, where are we going?"
"Go east and go to the teacher training school. Follow me. Don't wander around. There are many people in the county. I can't find you if you get lost."
Teacher Jiang, the leader of the group, pointed eastward and led the children forward.
The children who first arrived in the county couldn't tell the difference between east, west, north and south, so they could only follow the teacher obediently.
As I walked, I looked at the scenery along the way.
The teacher training school is located at the foot of Dongshan Mountain in the county seat. Walk all the way east from the alley in front of the Grain Bureau, and you will arrive near the root of Dongshan Mountain.
This is a quite large courtyard, with office buildings and conference rooms to the south, a canteen to the east on the north, and dormitories to the west.
"You guys stay in the yard for a while, I'll go through the formalities."
All participating schools must sign in at the office building and then arrange rooms and accommodation.
Teacher Jiang let the children play in the yard, while she took the school's letter of introduction and other things and went to the office building to sign in and complete the procedures.
Not long after, Teacher Jiang came out and led the children to the north dormitory.
Under the arrangement of the staff, four girls will share a room and two boys will temporarily share a room.
If there are many people coming in the afternoon, people will be arranged inside. Teacher Jiang lives with teachers elsewhere.
The dormitory has three floors. Xu Haiyuan lives on the second floor. The monitor with him is the monitor of the third class.
This kind of competition only selects the best performers in the class. Most of them are class presidents, or they are also members of the school committee. Ordinary students have no chance at all.
Everyone went into the dormitory to rest and went downstairs to the cafeteria for dinner at 11 noon.
There are ten people at a table and ten dishes. It doesn’t matter whether you know the people around you or not, just sit down and eat.
The food was okay, there were a few cans, and everyone was rushing to eat that can. Xu Haiyuan took two bites, and the plate was empty.
He wasn't picky, he could eat whatever he wanted, so he just ate two bowls of rice.
There was nothing to do in the afternoon, so the teacher asked the children to memorize questions in the dormitory.
Get up early the next morning, wash up, have breakfast, and then all go to the conference room in the south office building to prepare for the game.
There are 16 central primary schools in the 16 towns and villages in the county, plus several primary schools in the county. Each primary school arranges one or two groups of students to participate in the competition.
Some larger villages will also arrange for a group of students to come, so the conference room was full of people.
The competition is divided into two rounds, preliminary and final.
The competition questions for central primary schools and village primary schools are different. The questions for central primary schools are more difficult.
A group of three people came forward to draw lots, and asked whichever set of questions they drew, and the teacher asked the questions one by one.
Ten questions are asked in one minute. Ask and answer quickly. Each correct answer is worth ten points.
I originally thought that the range of questions was in that book, but it turned out during the competition that many of the questions were not in the book at all.
Some children were simply dumbfounded and didn't understand it at all.
There are also some children who usually memorize very well at home, but when they come on stage and see so many people below, they are immediately confused.
Ten questions in one minute, I can't even respond.
Some children stuttered and couldn't answer the questions when they came on stage, and started to cry when they came off stage.
"I've remembered it all. Don't be nervous when you get on stage. Just treat the people in the audience like carrots and potatoes."
Teacher Jiang called the six students together and repeatedly told them to calm down and not be nervous.
There are two groups of students in Donggang Central Primary School, each group consists of one boy and two girls.
The group led by Xu Haiyuan includes the squad leader of Class 2 and a student committee member of Class 4.
The monitor of Class 3 is named Liu Qiang, and he also has a monitor and a school committee member.
The order in which each group of students takes the stage is determined by drawing lots by the teacher. The two groups of Donggang Central Primary School are separated by a long time.
Liu Qiang's group came on stage first, and the team leader drew questions. He must have been unlucky, and the questions he drew were quite difficult.
The academic committee member of Class 1 was stunned as soon as he heard the questions. He finally answered five of the ten questions correctly. When he got off the stage, the little girl burst into tears.
Xu Haiyuan and the others were at the back and finally got on stage. Xu Haiyuan went over to draw questions.
It was okay. They were lucky. Most of the questions came from the book they memorized. Only Xu Haiyuan encountered two out-of-range questions.
With Xu Haiyuan's level of knowledge, this was just a piece of cake. He answered it easily and got full marks.
There were so many participating schools and students that there was nothing to finish in the morning, and the competition continued in the afternoon.
Then from all the groups in the preliminary round, the top ten central schools and the top five village primary schools will be selected for the finals the next day.
The team led by Xu Haiyuan successfully advanced with the first overall score.
Another group was eliminated due to poor performance of its members.
"Very good, you all performed well. Hurry up and eat. After eating, I will take you to Xijiang Park for a walk."
Teacher Jiang is quite satisfied with this result.
This is the first competition in the county. Both teachers and students have little experience. It would be great if one group can advance to the finals.
When the students heard this, they became happy.
The little girl who had been crying for a long time stopped crying now and went to eat quickly.
Everyone followed Teacher Jiang from the training school and followed the path from the east mountain of the county to the Xijiang Embankment.
No matter how good Li Jingyu's work ability is, he really put in a lot of effort into the construction of this city.
Last year, in order to hold the Ginseng Festival, the county specially repaired the Xijiang Embankment.
It has built guardrails, walking paths, pavilions, stone tables and benches, etc. It is quite beautiful.
After the beginning of spring this year, the county arranged for people to build many statues on the embankment of the river.
There are dancing fairies, black bears emerging from tree holes, deer, squirrels, etc.
Therefore, the Xijiang Embankment has now become a place for people in the county to relax after dinner.
In early summer, after dinner, the family went out for a stroll, watching the sunset and blowing the river breeze, not to mention it was quite pleasant.
When have these children in Donggang ever seen such a beautiful park?
Everyone was very happy, touching this and looking at everything, everything was rare.
Especially those statues, the children had to stand and look at them for a long time.
"It's a pity that I don't have a camera. It would be great if I had one. I could take some pictures for you as souvenirs."
Teacher Jiang is also very sorry that it is difficult for children to come out. Wouldn't it be great if there was a camera?
Xu Haiyuan didn't say anything there.
He did have a camera at home, but the teacher didn't tell him about it, and he didn't want to bother with it, so he didn't bring it with him.
Besides, it’s just a county town, so what?
When I have the opportunity to go to the province or the capital in the future, I can take as many photos as I want.
In the evening, there are many people in Xijiang Park, and some small vendors have also found business opportunities. Many people are shouting about popsicles, ice cream, soda and melon seeds.
Xu Haiyuan remembered what his father had told him, so he went over and sold ice cream for two cents to everyone and distributed it to everyone.
"Wow, ice cream, this is delicious and much more expensive than popsicles." Everyone became happy when they saw it.
On weekdays, it would be nice to have a five-cent popsicle. This ice cream costs two cents.
Maybe Xu Haiyuan would be willing to do so. If it were anyone else, who would be willing to buy such expensive ice cream?
"Yeah, it's delicious, much better than popsicles."