Chapter 211: Mathematics Olympiad Award Ceremony

When Bai Yi Yang arrived at school, Teacher Ai is already waiting at the gate anxiously. Next to her is the Grade 11 female senior and Li Jian Yu.

"Student Bai, Student Bai." Teacher Ai called over, making the other students who is entering the gate look over. Bai Yi Yang walk over with Bai Yi Chen and Zhang Ming Ming and the two greets Teacher Ai good morning.

"Teacher, are we heading straight to City Nan? Not after the assembly?" Bai Yi Yang ask.

"Yes, the earlier we go the better. We are still waiting for Student Su Long and your club's president." Teacher Ai said.

"Then, should we inform our homeroom teacher?" Bai Yi Yang asked again.

"There is no need, I already texted your respective homeroom teachers and Mr.Ling is coming too." Teacher Ai smile. The rest also nod in understanding.

"Ge, Ming Ming. You two go inside. I will text you later." Bai Yi Yang said to Bai Yi Chen and Zhang Ming Ming.

"Okay, be careful." Bai Yi Chen and Zhang Ming Ming said. After waving goodbye, the two enter the school gate while Bai Yi Yang wait there with Teacher Ai.

While waiting, Bai Yi Yang chat with Li Jian Yu and the female senior. She and Li Jian Yu is close, so they have a lot of things to chat about but the female senior is not close to either of them, she is mostly quiet, only answering when she was asked something.

At 6.53 am, the last one they are waiting for which is the club's President also arrived. Teacher Ai bring them to the teacher's parking area and Mr.Ling is already waiting there. They decided to split into two cars, Bai Yi Yang and Su Long will follow Mr.Ling and the rest will follow Teacher Ai. Bai Yi Yang and Li Jian Yu can only said goodbye to each other for now.

"You seems very close?" Su Long said to her as they head to Mr.Ling's car.

"Yeah. Of course. Why, jealous?" Bai Yi Yang answer jokingly, she also laugh in the end.

"Nonsense. Go in." Su Long said with ridiculing small laugh and push Bai Yi Yang inside the back seat after opening the door for her.

The journey to City Nan is quite boring in Mr.Ling car. Su Long is originally not very talkative and unlike Bai Yi Chen who is closer to Mr.Ling, Su Long treat Mr.Ling more formally. It was Bai Yi yang who save many of the conversations a few times. Since Mr.Ling has visited and eaten in their house once, they are not as awkward as before.

When they enter City Nan, it was not even 9.00 am. The award ceremony will be at 10.00 am, they still have a bit of time. So, Teacher Ai lead them to stop by a restaurant to eat simple breakfast. They had some dim sums and youtiao with soy milk. After breakfast, they head straight to the venue, a big hall in City Nan university.

When they enter, half of the allocated seat is already occupied. While entering, Teacher Ai and Mr.Ling greet a few teachers that they recognise, they all congratulate each other and finally went to their seat.

Their seat arrangement is actually not close to each other, only Teacher Ai and Mr.Ling who is seated together at the teacher's section. As for the students, they are scattered. Bai Yi Yang is escorted to the most front row, her name is attached on one of the seat next to two students from other school. Bai Yi Yang greet them lightly and take a seat. She can guess that this must be the seat for Gold medalist.

She look behind her and Li Jian Yu is seated behind their row, she also saw Su Long at some seat behind and finally the two other students from their school in their respective seat. If she calculate, there should be around 40 students who will receive the award today.

"Hi, I never seen you before, are you a junior?" A female student who is seated 1 seat away from her reach out a hand to shake hand with her.

"Hello. Yes, I am. This is my first competition." Bai Yi Yang smile and accept her handshake.

"Ah? You must be very good then. This is my third competition, and my first time getting Gold. My name is Ling Xia." The female student said.

"Bai Yi Yang." Bai Yi Yang introduce herself too.

"Ah right, she is also a 3rd time competitor too." Ling Xia said to Bai Yi Yang, referring to the quiet girl between them.

"Hello. My name is Wen Nuan. I recognise you from the news." Wen Nuan said shyly as she fix her spectacles. Bai Yi Yang smile and only nod.

"What news?" Ling Xia ask, quite puzzled. She take a few more look at Bai Yi Yang.

"Their school team that won Gold in the International High School R&D Competition not long ago. Junior Bai is in it too." Wen Nuan said.

"Ohh, that. So it's your team?!" Ling Xia look quite shock. She now look at Bai Yi Yang with a new light. This pretty junior is really not ordinary.

"I heard Student Li Jian Yu is also here?" Wen Nuan ask in low voice, she look around. Bai Yi Yang laugh softly and nod.

"Senior Li Jian Yu won the Silver medal for Olympiad Mathematics, he is over there." Bai Yi Yang point at Li Jian Yu on the second row. The two girls immediately look over and nod. Li Jian Yu face is a bit familiar to Ling Xia too.

"You are amazing, even able to win a big competition like that. Our school also send a team but they didn't make it to final, actually school from our city rarely make it to the final. How did you make it?" Lin Xia said.

"We choose a good topic, plan it carefully and work hard on the research." Bai Yi Yang said, this is her standard answer.

"Your teacher must be good too right?" Ling Xia ask.

"Of course. Our teacher did a lot too, it's the results of everyone's effort." Bai Yi Yang answer. The three girls chat for a while until the ceremony start.

The ceremony start with speeches from the organiser and VIPs. Followed by 2 performances. Bai Yi Yang smile to herself, well, award ceremony is generally the same everywhere and any events.

After that, the award ceremony started with the Honourable Mention, there are 18 students who received the Honourable Mention awards, Bai Yi Yang clap loudly when her schoolmates come up the stage, she even point out which student is from her school.

"Ah, that handsome student is your senior. Last year he got Honourable Mention too and everyone remember him because he is good looking." Ling Xia said when Bai Yi Yang pointed at their club's President.

"Really? Our club's President is that famous?" Bai Yi Yang smile.

"Yeah. When you go up you will be famous too since you are the prettiest here." Ling Xia laugh. Bai Yi Yang blush and quickly denied it. She have become prettier but still not the prettiest.

After all Honourable Mention receivers got their certificate and presents, Bronze medalists is called up the stage, there are only 9 of them, quite a huge difference with the number of students who receive Honourable mention.

"People said it's difficult to cross the line separating a medal and an Honourable Mention, that's why Bronze medal is a big achievement too." Wen Nuan said, clapping for every student who got up on stage.

When Su Long come up, Bai Yi Yang use her phone to take picture, she also wave at him with big smiles, her camera is with Mr.Ling. Mr.Ling promised her to take a lot of good pictures. He is actually amongst the people taking pictures down the stage.

It was the same with Li Jian Yu. When his name is called out, there are some whisper amongst the students, even the VIPs also seems to talk about him. Then, someone sitting at the VIP seat even point out at her, which she pretend not to notice. They must have recognise the two of them. Who knows, they become quite famous after the R&D competition?

Lastly is the Gold medalists, 7 of them receive Gold medals. Bai Yi Yang is the 4th student to be called out. Every one if them receive big applause from the crowd. They even got longer photo taking sessions. Each of them receive a medal, a certificate, flower bouquet and also an envelope. She heard that inside this is 1,500 yuan cheque. Not bad, for a high school student that's a lot.

"It is an honour to meet you Student Bai." The award presenter shake her hand with big smiles while camera flashes.

"Thank you sir." Bai Yi Yang smile back.

"You and your team has bring big honour to City Nan. Next year, if your school organise a demonstration again, I will surely come over and take a look." The VIP said again. Bai Yi Yang nod and said a few kind words such as thanking him for supporting them ah and so on. Bai Yi Yang has learned how to talk like this from Ruby An, Ruby An is a pro when it comes to saying empty but nice to hear words.

The ceremony ended after photo session ended. Bai Yi Yang and Li Jian Yu was even called out to take exclusive photos with the VIPs. Everyone was looking at them, even those who don't know found out after that because it attracted too much attention.

Everyone from QiYing also wait for their turn to take pictures on stage when the ceremony ended. Everyone have big smiles on their face. Getting an award is a huge thing, what more a big competition like this. Teacher Ai even cry for a bit.

When they were leaving, Bai Yi Yang wave at her two instant friends and they wave back, no problem, they have exchanged their contact number. They are also Gold medalists so they are quite popular too, many people wanted to take their pictures.

When they got into the car, it was only 12.05 pm. They finally decided to go to a restaurant to have their lunch, it is Teacher Ai's treat.

"Teacher, should I call the restaurant to make reservation? We may not find a seat later." Bai Yi Yang ask through the phone. She is calling Li Jian Yu's phone now, Li Jian Yu put it on loud speaker so that Teacher Ai can hear.

"Will you do that? I didn't think about that." Teacher Ai sounds thankful from the other side.

"No problem Teacher." Bai Yi Yang said before they hang up. Then, she skilfully search the restaurant phone number and make a call. In less than 5 minutes, she settled it and texted Li Jian Yu.

"You seems to have done this a lot?" Mr.Ling said.

"En. Whenever we wanted to eat at a famous restaurant, we always reserve place in advance, if not we may be disappointed if the place is full." Bai Yi Yang said.

"You are reasonable." Mr.Ling nod. He totally approved of this.

When they arrived at the restaurant, they were immediately escorted to their table. Teacher Ai ordered 3 meats, 2 seafood and 2 vegetables dishes. The restaurant price is actually at the middle range, but this meal will still cost more than 200 yuan. Teacher Ai doesn't seems to be very well off too, she must be very happy today.

The 2 teacher and 5 students enjoyed their lunch as they chat. The club's President is a social butterfly too, so the atmosphere is very good. They even received call from the principal congratulating all of them.

"I know a good bakery. They sell delicious tarts." Bai Yi Yang said when Teacher Ai was asking them if they wanted to stop by any place to bring back.

"Good." Teacher Ai nod. She then hand over 100 yuan for every one of them, she said that this is the allowance the principal gave them. They all immediately said their thanks.

So, when they arrived at the French bakery, they still have money even if they didn't bring much from home. The female senior is very shy when she entered the bakery, she doesn't seems to be used to this kind of place compared to the other four. Bai Yi Yang noticed this and tell her the delicious stuff, what the elderly, grown up and what children would like, after that, she let her choose on her own.

Bai Yi Yang also goes all out, since today is Zhou Zhu Yao birthday too, she bought something for her too then buy a bulk of pastries for her classmates. She estimated that they will arrived at school before the school ends.

"Su Long, come help me." Bai Yi Yang called over Su Long who is already holding some of Bai Yi Yang's purchase. He actually didn't purchase a lot, the two extra paper bag in his hand is Bai Yi Yang's.

"What is this again?" Su Long ask when the staff is holding two trays behind Bai Yi Yang.

"Our classmates ah." Bai Yi Yang said.

"You still remember those ungrateful bunch?" Su Long joke.

"Yeah. This will shut their mouth." Bai Yi Yang said. After paying that, Su Long's both hand is full. Mr.Ling is shocked too when he saw this.

"Su Long, this much..?" Mr.Ling ask.

"Yi Yang bought them for the other classmates." Su Long laugh awkwardly. Mr.Ling immediately feel awkward too, he also totally forgot about his students back there.

"I will pay this, how much?" Mr.Ling took out his wallet.

"Let me pay too." Su Long also said. Bai Yi Yang also think it's appropriate so she ask for 30 yuan from each of them, the total price is roughly that. After that, they also start heading back to their town.