Song Xinya walked into the venue for the Gold Lecturer competition.
The audience included not only judges from the International Education and Training Association, but also colleagues from various companies.
Every one of the two hundred seats was occupied.
Chen Siyan was stunned by the sight before him. “This is huge. Absolutely huge. Ever since I was a kid, when I peed into my dad’s cup and he drank it like juice, then hung me from a tree and beat me while the whole village watched, I haven’t experienced anything on this scale.”
Song Xinya asked, “Didn’t your mom protect you when you were getting beaten?”
Chen Siyan replied, “She drank from the cup too. She teamed up with my dad and gave me a proper double beating.”
Song Xinya couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. “Did your butt split open?”
Chen Siyan said, “I couldn’t get out of bed for a month. I had to sleep on my stomach, and every time I had to poop, it felt like I was being tortured. I’d howl in pain.”
Song Xinya said, “After going through that, I’m sure Manager Chen never misbehaved again.”
“Not at all,” Chen Siyan said. “Once my butt healed, I went and pooped in my dad’s cup again.”
“Uh…” Song Xinya asked, utterly baffled, “Why would you do that?”
Chen Siyan answered, “A real man always gets his revenge. Once my butt was healed and I could run and jump again, of course I had to get even. So I pooped in my dad’s cup.”
Song Xinya asked, “And what happened?”
“My dad hung me from the tree and beat me even harder. I couldn’t get out of bed for three months.”
Song Xinya burst into laughter.
“This time, you didn’t try to get revenge again, did you?”
“No,” Chen Siyan said. “My dad told me that if I ever peed or pooped wherever I pleased again, he’d cut off my dick and sew my asshole shut.”
“You have no idea. When he said it, he was holding a cleaver. It scared me so badly that I couldn’t sleep properly for a whole week. I had nightmares every night.”
Song Xinya said, “Your dad was driven to desperation because of you. He had no choice but to resort to that. If he hadn’t scared you like that, he’d probably have worried that you might eventually put rat poison in his cup and kill him.”
The two of them walked into the venue chatting and laughing, and their nervousness eased considerably.
Dong Dongdong was so nervous that his hands, feet, and forehead were all covered in sweat. When he saw Song Xinya and Chen Siyan, he walked over.
“This Gold Lecturer competition isn’t just between the three of us,” he said. “There are people from other companies too. That means we’re not only competing against one another—we’ll all be graded alongside every other contestant.”
Chen Siyan looked at the beads of sweat rolling down his face and said, “So what if we’re competing? Why are you so nervous? Even if we can’t win, it doesn’t mean we’ll lose, does it?”
Who wanted to lose?
Dong Dongdong was so nervous precisely because he wanted to win.
The twelve contestants went onstage together to draw lots.
Dong Dongdong drew fourth.
Chen Siyan drew eleventh.
Song Xinya drew twelfth.
Dong Dongdong had drawn the best position—not too early and not too late.
If you went on too early, the judges had no basis for comparison and might score you more harshly.
If you went on too late, the judges might suffer from aesthetic fatigue and give you lower scores.
Chen Siyan and Song Xinya had drawn the worst possible positions—the second-to-last and last.
Fortunately, both of them had always maintained a good attitude.
Chen Siyan thrust his arm into the air, looking as if he were leading Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in a peasant uprising. He was being spectacularly overdramatic.
“How can second-to-last not count as second? Today you look down on me because I’m second-to-last. Tomorrow, you’ll be begging for my attention!”
Song Xinya put on a cutesy voice. “Come on, come on, come on!”
Yuan Jingcheng, chairman of the International Education and Training Association, took the stage first. As expected, it was little more than a pile of official-sounding platitudes.
He announced that the competition had officially begun, and the contestants went onstage one by one to give their speeches.
The first few contestants all performed fairly well. It was obvious they had put in a great deal of preparation behind the scenes.
They clearly explained their professional experience and workplace achievements.
However, their speeches were all stiff and official, with a noticeable edge of nervousness.
Listening to one was fine. Two, three, four, even five were still manageable. But when everyone spoke in the same way, it inevitably became dull, and the judges grew tired of listening.
Naturally, their scores were equally ordinary. There was little difference between them, and most of the contestants ended up with roughly the same marks.
Dong Dongdong had benefited from the perfect timing, location, and circumstances, but still received a merely average score.
Then it was Chen Siyan’s turn.
His main job was livestream teaching. His best livestreams had attracted as many as fifty thousand viewers at once.
As someone who lectured every day to audiences of tens of thousands, he had been through countless battles. He appeared more relaxed and natural than all the contestants who had come before him.
On top of that, Chen Siyan’s performance record was already among the best. When he finished his speech, the judges gave him higher scores than anyone else.
Next, it was Song Xinya’s turn.
She repeated silently to herself: Treat every judge below as a carrot or a cabbage! Treat every judge below as a carrot or a cabbage! Just pretend you’re talking to a bunch of carrots and cabbages! Just pretend you’re talking to a bunch of carrots and cabbages!
Qin Yuhe’s words echoed in her mind.
“Xinya, you usually speak pretty quickly. Remember to slow down during your speech. If you get too nervous onstage, try pausing for a second, take a breath, and then continue. Remember, a speech isn’t a one-woman show. You have to interact with the audience.”
Song Xinya took a breath and walked toward the podium.
With a smile on her lips, she walked calmly to the front of the stage, placed her manuscript on the podium, and looked around at the carrots and cabbages below.
She began by slowing her speech appropriately and asking the audience her first question:
“Have any of you heard me give a speech before?”
This was her first time competing for the title of Gold Lecturer. Naturally, no one there had heard her speak.
The audience answered, “No.”
The corners of Song Xinya’s lips lifted. Her smile was bright, lively, and mischievous.
“Well, since you haven’t heard me before, I’ll just start making things up.”
The audience burst into laughter.
The judges, who had been nodding off, couldn’t help laughing. They immediately perked up.
Just as Qin Yuhe had said, a speech wasn’t supposed to be a one-woman show. It was meant to involve the audience. Once Song Xinya began interacting with them, their enthusiastic response gave her even more confidence.
When she looked at the audience again, she no longer needed to imagine them as carrots and cabbages. She was able to remain calm and composed on her own.
Thinking on her feet, she continued with a second line:
“I don’t know what I did to offend Heaven, but somehow it arranged for a complete newcomer like me—making her first appearance today—to speak right after one of the most famous top sales performers in the education and training industry. Everyone in the field says Song Xinya has excellent professional skills. But the truth is, I’m really just a paper tiger. With so many distinguished experts here today, and with me having to speak right after a sales champion, I’m afraid this paper tiger is about to reveal her true form.”
Another wave of laughter swept through the audience.
Song Xinya continued, “Before this, I was still boasting that I could win. When I left home this morning, I even bragged to my husband and told him to prepare a feast fit for an emperor for me to celebrate my victory. So tell me, if I lose today, should I eat the feast or should I eat the feast?”
The audience erupted into even louder laughter.
Song Xinya hadn’t even gotten to the main subject when someone shouted from below, “Excellent!”
What exactly was excellent?
The fact that she was so entertaining, perhaps. Everyone was simply enjoying themselves.
Song Xinya had completely energized the atmosphere. Every eye in the venue was fixed on her.
Her confidence grew even stronger.
Next, she spoke in a relaxed, engaging tone, naturally and vividly recounting the journey that had brought her this far.
She talked about her uncertainty when she first entered the workforce after graduating from college, the delight she felt when she signed her first client, the nights when everyone else had gone home while she was still working overtime at the office at three-thirty in the morning, and the steady growth she had achieved over the years…
Every one of these experiences came from her real life and her genuine experience in the workplace. The judges in the audience were reminded of their own younger days and empathized with her.
As the speech drew to a close, Song Xinya brought it to an end with a few concise and powerful words:
“I’m Song Xinya from Qin Group’s education and training company. Thank you!”
The audience erupted into thunderous applause.
The scores were soon tallied.
After calculating the final scores of every candidate, Yuan Jingcheng stepped onto the stage to announce the results and rankings.
“The first-place winner in this selection for Gold Medal Lecturer is…”
“The first-place winner in this selection for Gold Medal Lecturer is…”
“The first-place winner in this selection for Gold Medal Lecturer is…”
