Dawn of a New Era-Chapter 493 - 467: Speech

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The door was gently knocked on.

"General Manager Chen, it’s almost time." Bai Xiaoling reminded anxiously, with Chen Xingyue standing beside her.

"Brother, hurry up, we’re going to be late."

Chen Shouyi sat at the desk, racking his brain with a pen in hand, writing his speech, his heart filled with anxiety.

The desk was covered with crumpled drafts.

Unexpectedly, they hadn’t prepared a draft for him this time!

In his understanding, a speech wasn’t someone giving him a script to read aloud?

Even the nation’s leaders on TV spoke like that.

As for mentioning the refined Cultivation Technique, he planned to do that at the end.

It should have been easy, without any pressure.

But as time grew near, he found out the school hadn’t prepared a speech for him at all.

This was simply too irresponsible and unprofessional.

...

Chen Shouyi could face a demigod without fear,

but under the gaze of everyone, he still felt overwhelming pressure, worrying he might embarrass himself.

This was an old habit of Chen Shouyi,

since childhood, he cared more about face than anything!

Moreover, he heard that many people were coming, even his sister was curious and wanted to attend, so it demanded even more attention.

The last time he embarrassed himself during the Capital City’s Martial Artist assessment, it only spread within a small circle.

If he embarrassed himself this time... it might spread throughout the Hedong and even Jiangnan martial arts community, wiping out the hard-earned respect he had built in front of his sister.

Chen Shouyi checked the time and noticed there were only half an hour left, frustratedly scratching his head: "There’s still plenty of time, why the rush?"

"Brother, are you nervous?" Chen Xingyue asked from outside the door.

"Don’t be ridiculous!"

Was he nervous?

Chen Shouyi looked at the sparse lines written on his speech paper, crumpled it in anger, and stood up in self-abandonment.

Whatever happens, happens!

At worst, he’ll embarrass himself again...

After all, he had long been used to it since childhood!

He took off his clothes, grabbed a blue-grey cotton tracksuit, changed into it, and opened the door, speaking impatiently to his sister:

"What are you rushing for? What’s the rush about? It’s just a speech, not a big deal!"

...

The auditorium with three thousand seats was packed, buzzing with noise, even the aisles, the corridors outside, and the spaces by the windows were crowded with people, and more people couldn’t even get inside the building, lingering at the entrance.

After all, this was a speech by the strongest in Jiangnan Province, one of the top elites of Great Xia, a rare chance to get close to such a person, and even a bit of knowledge gained from the speech could be a lifelong benefit.

...

"Luckily we came early, or we wouldn’t have seats!" a girl beside Zhou Xue exclaimed excitedly.

"There are a lot of Martial Artists outside, is it okay for us not to give up our seats?" Zhou Xue whispered, usually rare to see Martial Artists on campus except for teachers, but suddenly so many came; some looked fierce, making her feel immense pressure.

"It’s fine, haven’t you noticed many here are students? Some seem like they hardly practiced Martial Arts!" another girl responded indifferently.

"But we aren’t students of Jiangnan University." Zhou Xue expressed concern.

"Who will know if you don’t say!"

This time, too many Martial Artists attended, not only civilians but military ones too, some even traveled from afar, if a bomb were dropped here, it could eliminate seven out of ten Martial Artists in Hedong.

With such a massiv gathering of Martial Artists, it put considerable pressure on both the school and Hedong City, fearing a major incident might spark.

On one hand, a large number of military police was deployed to maintain order, on the other, to avoid conflict, the speech was entirely open to everyone who wanted to attend.

But seats were first come, first served.

Fortunately, no one had the guts to act unruly here.

Martial Artists essentially amounted to nothing; even five or six Martial Arts Masters were present, not to mention two Martial Artists.

Anyone daring to disrupt the venue would, no matter their temper, behave as meekly as a castrated quail here.

Zhou Xue immediately felt slightly at ease.

In fact, she’d always felt a strange discomfort with this top name of Jiangnan Province.

There’re plenty of names to choose from, why choose Chen Shouyi!

Ironically, she knew someone named Chen Shouyi,

and whenever people mentioned it, she always felt awkward, as if they were talking about another Chen Shouyi she knew.

...

At that moment, a commotion suddenly came from outside:

"He’s here, he’s here!" someone whispered.

Zhou Xue turned and looked, noticing people outside the windows pressing closely against the glass, seemingly making a path; soon, the noise outside quickly quieted down.

A buzz-cut round head moved through the crowd.

With the lead of several school leaders, shortly thereafter a handsome young man stepped into the auditorium.

Upon seeing him, Zhou Xue’s eyes widened, and she looked as if struck by lightning.

"Chen...Chen...Chen Shouyi, how...how could this be."

Luckily no one was paying attention to her.

All her dormmates kept their eyes fixed on the young man in front, faces flushed.

"Today we are fortunate to have invited our province’s Chief Security Advisor, a renowned legendary elite, and our honorary professor, General Manager Chen Shouyi here, we appreciate General Manager Chen taking time from his busy schedule to be here...

On the podium were several retro amplifiers, and several film cameras below focused on this place.

"Now let’s welcome General Manager Chen, everyone please welcome!" the host passionately introduced amidst the feedback, then stepped aside.

A thunderous round of applause erupted from below.

Chen Shouyi smiled, walked onto the podium, and the fierce applause quickly subsided like a receding tide.

He glanced around, noticing quite a few familiar faces.

Not only Qin Liuyuan, Luo Peibin, Song Tingting were there, but also many he used to know but hadn’t seen much of since. His gaze momentarily rested on Zhou Xue before moving on, to him, she was just a passerby in life with whom he’d once intersected then parted ways.

Facing numerous expectant eyes, he found a wave of calmness wash over him.

"Testing, testing..."

Chen Shouyi tested the microphone and then began: "Thank you all for finding time to attend my speech. There are quite a few people here, and I almost didn’t dare to come in!"

Many people chuckled lightly, quickly restraining their smiles.

"With everyone being so enthusiastic, I heard quite a few came especially from afar. I think there are two reasons for that. One, to see the novelty, to see if a legendary elite has three heads and six arms, or if they’re a monster, but having seen me now, I suppose you might be disappointed!

The second reason, you must be hoping to learn something from my speech, so today I’d like to share some of my experiences and insights on Martial Arts, hoping it might be useful to everyone." Chen Shouyi said with a smile.

The applause once again thundered through the hall.

Standing at the doorway, Chen Xingyue watched the steady, radiant, and seemingly important Chen Shouyi on stage, clenching her fists excitedly, her heart filled with pride.

This was her brother!