Chapter 1566 - Faces of the Initial Class

There were sixty-four students in the Selection Group of each grade. From first grade of junior primary to third grade of senior primary, a total of over three hundred top students across five grades wore the emblem of the Learning Institute, accompanying these dozen or so Little Senators in their studies here. As for high school students, there were no high school students among the naturalized citizens yet...

The so-called "accompanying the Crown Prince to study" probably meant just this.

"What are you thinking about!" A short-haired girl sat on the desk, pulled out the earbud Ziqi was listening to music with, and stuffed it into her own ear. She was the child of another Senator, named Zhang Yunmi. Because she was about the same age as Ziqi, they got along quite well. "Lend me your PSP for a few days when I go back this time."

"Paying rent?" Ziqi raised an eyebrow.

"Tsk tsk tsk, money-worshipping woman." Zhang Yunmi teased, "I'll lend you my manga, is that okay? Masami Echi, Kai Tsurugi... and You Asagiri!"

"Deal!"

"Lecherous woman! But you only have those few games on your PSP; I'm tired of playing them over and over. Please change to some new ones. There are so many games in the resource area. There's nothing you can't download, only things you can't think of."

"Since moving to the new house, I don't have a network cable anymore. To download something, I have to go to the entertainment center in the apartment area and queue up—you know my family lives on a farm—I'm really too lazy to go." Lin Ziqi said lazily, "Go download them yourself."

"I really admire you. What a waste."

"I've gotten used to not playing games, too." Lin Ziqi wasn't so much of a shut-in anymore. There were too many fun things on the farm. Her dad had set up a small flower garden for her, and most of her spare time was spent tending to various aromatic plants.

"Where do you plan to go for the holiday?"

"Home." "So boring." Zhang Yunmi frowned. "I don't want to go back. There's a new little sister at home crying all day, so annoying! You have it much better."

Zhang Yunmi's old man's Life Secretary had just given birth to a daughter. Although their house was a large unit, having an extra baby in the apartment was quite noisy.

"Sooner or later, they'll add a younger brother or sister for me..." Lin Ziqi said indifferently. "I don't really care, since I won't be the one taking care of them anyway."

"Where can we go if not home? Lingao is only this big, and it's inconvenient for us to go out."

Lingao County itself wasn't big, nor was it a place with traditional scenic beauty. There were very few places to visit. Apart from Gaoshan Ridge, which had been designated a restricted area, only Cape Lingao and the Guyin Waterfall had leisure areas set up by the General Office specifically for the Senate.

The problem was Gaoshan Ridge; their entire class went there every summer for "summer study." As for Cape Lingao Park and the "Underground Waterfall," they had gone there so often they were a bit sick of it.

"Let's go to the Feiyun Club at Cape Lingao. They are holding a barbecue party again this Sunday. I heard they're even making seafood pizza."

Pizza? This delicacy piqued Ziqi's interest. "Seafood pizza?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yunmi laughed heartily. "Right, right. Lingao is rich in this resource."

"I love to eat it no matter how rich the resource is. The sea bream sashimi I had last time was delicious, and the grilled oysters too. As long as I don't have to eat seafood porridge..." Mentioning seafood porridge, a vague sense of discomfort welled up in both their stomachs.

"There are also small cakes. If you go late, they'll be gone." Zhang Yunmi looked like she was drooling when mentioning desserts. "I don't understand why they are so stingy, making only such a tiny bit each time. I see flour is sold openly in the special supply shop..."

"Most cakes use low-gluten flour..." Lin Ziqi was the daughter of an Agricultural Committee Senator after all, and she knew this well. "The Agricultural Committee doesn't grow much of it. There is also a type of hard wheat, which is also scarce—the food factory uses it to make pasta now."

"Your agricultural knowledge is so rich..." Zhang Yunmi put on an admiring look.

"Alright, sometimes I think it wouldn't be bad to be a horticulturist or agronomist like my dad. At least I wouldn't have to gnaw on advanced math everyday..."

This was just talk. Being an agronomist for the Agricultural Committee was not easy at all. Besides frequently going to the countryside, squatting in the fields under the hot sun was not something she could handle.

"If you don't gnaw on advanced math, you'll gnaw on a second or third foreign language, which is no better." Because her mathematical mind was really too poor, Zhang Yunmi was forced to specialize in languages. Besides English and Japanese, she was recently struggling with German. Her extracurricular reading materials at school were all original foreign books. One full day a week, a Senator specialized in one of the three languages would come to converse with her and guide her reading. According to the plan, after she mastered these languages, she would start advanced education in scientific and technical foreign languages. "Oh God, let me turn eighteen soon..."

"Do you think it'll be fine once you're eighteen? We'll graduate from here. But Uncle Hu said, after graduation, each of us has to choose a professional direction and study one-on-one with those Senator uncles and aunties... To be honest, I don't know who I should study with..."

"What do you want to learn?"

"I want to be a doctor." Lin Ziqi actually had no intuitive understanding of doctors; she just felt female doctors in fluttering white coats were beautiful and intellectual.

"Then you'll have to follow Doctor Shi or Doctor Ai. Or follow that little dentist Song Junxing to learn dentistry? I heard being a dentist is very lucrative in foreign countries." Zhang Yunmi unconsciously still often brought up concepts from the old spacetime.

"Facing people's bloody mouths feels very uncomfortable. Besides, what if the patient has bad breath?"

"Then you still want to be a doctor? Performing surgery will scare you to death!"

"That's true." Lin Ziqi nodded. She was a bit bewildered. In this world, she didn't need to take college entrance exams, but she still faced life choices. What profession should she choose exactly?

Speaking of the Senate, they had talents in everything. No matter how obscure the subject, there was someone who could talk about it for a bit. Although she was young, she understood the Senate's thinking: They not only wanted to be Senators and manage this new world but also master the "black technology" indispensable for ruling this world. That was why she had to gnaw on advanced math day and night, and Zhang Yunmi had to learn three foreign languages simultaneously—not to communicate with foreigners, but for those vast amounts of foreign technical materials in the Great Library.

"So? Are you going to Cape Lingao on Sunday?" Zhang Yunmi noticed she was spacing out a bit and asked.

"Going, of course I'm going. I'll bring my swimsuit too, let's just go swimming."

"Why bring a swimsuit," Ai Beibei had already packed her schoolbag and was about to leave. Hearing their conversation as she passed by, she said, "My small boat, the Xiaocang, is going for a sea trial on Sunday. You guys come play too!"

"What Xiaocang? Doesn't your family live on the Feiyun?"

"My dad and Uncle Zhou made it for me together—a single-masted skiff. It was just launched a few days ago. Going for a sea trial on Sunday. Let's go out to sea together; let's form a girls' sailor team!"

"I don't know how to sail..." Lin Ziqi hesitated.

"I know how. Don't worry!" Qian Duoduo was full of confidence. Although only twelve, she was about the same height as them. Her chest had also swelled up, and by the looks of it, her size would surpass theirs in the future. "By the way, Sonia will come too. She is also an expert at handling boats."

"Sonia? Uncle Lin's Life Secretary?"

"That's her. She can sail a boat by herself, very skilled." Qian Duoduo nodded.

"Alright, we'll definitely go."

"Students, the carriage to Bai Ren City is ready. Please get on quickly." The life teacher came to notify them.

Young Senators were picked up by Life Secretaries, but Little Senators over ten were no longer picked up by anyone. The Senators were very wary of being "born in the deep palace, raised by hands of women."

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, the temporary school bus to Bai Ren City in Lingao departed. This was a large four-wheeled public carriage that could seat twenty people when full. Now with only a dozen Little Senators, the carriage seemed very empty. Everyone chatted and laughed along the way. The road was flat, so although the carriage ride was a bit slow, it wasn't very bumpy.

The topic on the carriage was naturally the recent Cultural Festival. For the Little Senators, this was a rare opportunity to spice up their dull and tense study life. What's more, each of them had talents; it would be a pity not to perform.

What everyone cared about most was the performance of "The Test". This play, adapted from a puppet show, came from the hand of a Senator with a background in the Chinese department and was polished by several Senators with directing and acting experience. It hadn't been fully finalized yet. It was said that several leaders of the Executive Committee had to observe it before the final decision could be made, giving it the air of becoming a "Model Play of the Senate."

The stage play version of "The Test" was actually a modern drama. Both the performance form and acting skills were things from another spacetime, and ordinary naturalized citizens felt quite estranged from it. Therefore, the performance mainly relied on the students of the Fangcaodi Selection Group and the College of Arts and Sciences, who had the most contact with Senators and the deepest understanding of the Australian lifestyle. The genuine Little Senator Lin Ziqi was also selected to share a role.

In another spacetime, Lin Ziqi wouldn't even bother to glance at this kind of "propaganda-heavy" stuff, but now she was eagerly looking forward to actually performing on stage.

"Zhang Yunmi, why aren't you acting in The Test?" Qian Duoduo was a bit puzzled—Zhang Yunmi was arguably the most active in arts among the Initial Class. She originally liked singing and dancing and had a considerable dance foundation.

"Those costumes are too ugly, all ragged and tattered. I don't want to wear them," Zhang Yunmi said. "I plan to dance." As she spoke, she made a movement with her upper body. "I signed up for dance this time. I'll be the lead dancer, with students from the College of Arts and Sciences performing."

"Speaking of the College of Arts and Sciences, do you know the Propaganda Department is organizing a girl idol group? They are selected from the students and graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences," Qian Duoduo said. "I heard they've been rehearsing in secret. I wonder what songs they are preparing to sing? Can they sing well?"

"For an idol group, singing isn't important," Zhang Yunmi said. "It's lip-syncing anyway; it just depends on whether their dancing is good or not."

(End of this chapter)