“Why isn’t she reciting?”
“Did she forget her lines?”
The students and parents looked at each other in wonder.
The principal of 15th Junior High also frowned. The female host was even more vexed. Just as she was about to remind Cao Mengmeng, and just as Teacher Leng and her classmates were having their hearts in their mouth…
Cao Mengmeng slowly opened her eyes.
“If I love you—I’ll never be a clinging campsis flower.
Resplendent in borrowed glory on your high boughs;
If I love you—I’ll never mimic the silly infatuated bird.
Repeating the same monotonous song for green shade;
Or be like a spring. Offering cool comfort all year long;
Or a lofty peak.
Enhancing your stature, your eminence.
Even the sunlight, even spring rain, none of these suffice!
I must be a kapok, the image of a tree standing together with you.
Our roots closely intertwined beneath the earth, our leaves touching in the clouds.