country bumpkin

Chapter 225 Spring Cultural Festival

Time flies, and more than a month has passed. In another week, it will be March. Clusters of flowers are already in full bloom on campus.

This means the school's annual Spring Cultural Festival is about to begin. Each class is required to prepare a performance to participate, and the students are very enthusiastic about it.

Teacher Ji walked into the classroom, clapped her hands, and said, "Class, our class is going to put on a performance for the cultural festival. Does anyone have any ideas?"

The classroom instantly became lively. Some suggested singing, some wanted to perform a dance, and others wanted to recite poetry.

The class monitor stood up and said, "Teacher, I think we can choreograph a dance that incorporates the blooming flowers on campus to showcase the beauty of spring." This suggestion was approved by most people.

So, everyone got busy during their free time. The students responsible for picking flowers to decorate the stage carefully removed any excess flowers from the flowerbeds;

The students preparing to perform the dance practiced each movement diligently, striving to express the vibrancy of spring.

Art teacher Ms. Ji led students who were good at drawing to paint a background board, painting various blooming flowers.

The whole class was immersed in a joyful and busy atmosphere. Everyone was looking forward to shining brightly at the cultural festival, as if they could see the colorful scenes on the stage and the enthusiastic applause from the audience.

In this busy yet expectant atmosphere, every class was filled with laughter and joy.

Once everything is ready, the exciting performance will begin soon.

The homeroom teacher, Ms. Ji, went on stage. The lectern on it had been moved to the side, to a place where it wouldn't get in the way.

Teacher Ji gave the opening remarks, and then the art class representative went on stage to act as the host.

The first performance was a song by Shang Yanqiu, the class representative for Chinese language. Her rendition of "Where is Spring?" ignited everyone's enthusiasm.

There were also students in the audience who liked to draw, and they started drawing while enjoying the song.

Yunya also likes to draw and has joined the drawing team.

The other students drew various flowers, and one student even tried to draw the school itself, but her classmates didn't think she would succeed.

Yunya's drawing was actually of the New Year's picture of a lucky doll that was pasted on the wall at her maternal grandmother's house during the Chinese New Year.

The program above is still ongoing; currently, Fu Ziling is performing a poetry recitation on stage.

He recited three ancient poems about spring in succession. The audience applauded continuously, marveling that he could recite them word for word, and even his expressions and gestures showed people's love for the beautiful scenery of spring.

Next, a male student came up and surprisingly performed calligraphy. He spread out a sheet of rice paper on the ground, waved his little hand, grasped the brush dipped in ink, and wrote several large characters stroke by stroke.

The eight large characters, “Spring colors fill the garden, spring warmth and flowers bloom,” were written in neat and beautiful handwriting, winning applause from the entire audience. No one expected that someone so young could write such excellent calligraphy.

A classmate who knew him well explained in a low voice, "His grandfather is a teacher at an after-school tutoring center, and he started learning calligraphy from his grandfather when he was three years old." Everyone suddenly understood and had an "I see" expression on their faces.

Many of the students who were drawing have already finished their artwork and are handing it in.

Then, it was finally the turn of the class monitor to lead the dance.

As the music began, the students dressed as flower fairies danced gracefully, their lithe figures resembling real flowers blooming in spring, swaying in the wind.

The flowers decorating the stage complemented the paintings on the backdrop, creating a picturesque springtime world.

The audience was captivated, their eyes glued to the performance on stage.

As the dance ended, thunderous applause erupted throughout the hall. The students who had performed on stage embraced each other excitedly; their hard work had been rewarded.

Then, the teacher displayed all the artwork for everyone to see.

When people saw Yunya's New Year's picture of the lucky baby, some praised her ingenious ideas. Others laughed and mocked her for making it too exaggerated.

Actually, her drawing was quite accurate, but the New Year's picture of the lucky doll holding a large gold ingot was bigger than her belly, which is why everyone laughed at her.

Art teacher Ms. Ji said, "Everyone, stop laughing. We should give a round of applause to Sun Yunya. I believe she wanted to show everyone how cute the New Year's painting of the lucky doll was, so she deliberately drew it so exaggeratedly. And we should encourage all the students who participated in the painting activity and congratulate and thank them."

The students applauded again, and Yunya, sitting in the audience, felt a little better.

And so, the cultural festival drew to a close amidst a series of wonderful performances. Everyone left with a wealth of experiences and memories, looking forward to the next joyful and vibrant event.

This cultural festival has become an unforgettable and wonderful time in everyone's campus life.

Yun Ya's deskmate, Meng Fanxing, blinked her big eyes and looked at her with a smile on her face.

He praised her, saying, "Sun Yunya, I didn't expect you to be such a good painter. If you could go to an after-school training class, a place that specializes in learning to paint, you would definitely become a painter."

Yunya knew this was impossible. It was just her deskmate's kind offer. Although there were many art classes available now, given her family's situation, her mother would never allow her to attend.

She could only practice drawing at home by herself. She could draw whatever she liked, and since she didn't have a sketchbook, she had to practice using old exercise books.

I usually use both sides of the notebook when doing homework, and occasionally there are notebooks that the teacher gives out in class.

After she finished the first one, they gave her a second one. The teacher didn't allow her to write on the back of her notebooks for class, so she used them to practice drawing.

During the winter vacation, Yunya practiced drawing using old calendars. Her grandparents praised her for her good drawings.

After Yunya returned to the city, she only showed her paintings to Sun Fei and Gu Yu when they were doing their homework together. No one else had ever seen her paintings.

When Yunya got home from school this time, she happily showed her mother the drawing she had made for the activity. Her mother praised her drawing, saying it looked very similar to the original.

Yunya remembered her deskmate's suggestion and cautiously asked, "Mom, I... want to... go to an art class to learn to draw."

Kong Xiujuan frowned upon hearing this and said unhappily, "Where in the family is there any spare money for you to learn to paint? We're lucky if we can eat and dress warmly these days. Besides, there are the tuition and fees for the three of you, which are not small sums."

Yunya stopped talking, and could only lower her head, look at the painting in her hand, and silently shed tears.

After saying this, Kong Xiujuan left. She didn't pay attention to Yun Ya's mood; Yun Ya was too preoccupied with worries to care about such trivial matters.

We can't even afford the tuition for proper studies, so where would we get the extra money?

She has already planned that once her son starts school next year, she will start a small business to earn some extra money to supplement the family income.

There are just too many places to spend money, and there are so many children. Although they are not hungry or cold, the family wears the same clothes for several years.

The eldest daughter's clothes are too small, so we'll leave them for the second daughter. We just need to buy new clothes for the eldest and youngest children.

Otherwise, she would feel it was a waste of old clothes.