His voice was still calm, but everyone could hear the pain beneath that calm, ready to spill over.
"I was only fourteen when I lost my parents. My creditors sold me to a mine as a slave. For two years, I worked there, going underground before dawn and coming back up after dark. The food was fit for pigs, the shack I lived in leaked whenever it rained, and the mine tunnels could collapse at any moment. Several of the people who worked alongside me died. Their bodies were thrown onto the mountain to feed the dogs."
He raised his arm, revealing the dense web of scars covering it.
"These are all from the mine."
In the stands, some people covered their mouths. Others turned away, unable to bear the sight.
"Later, Prince Xiaoyao's people found me and bought me out of the mine. They gave me food and clothes, taught me to cultivate, and taught me how to be a decent person."
He lowered his head and looked at the scraps of school uniform on the ground. For a moment, he fell silent.
"I spent only three days at Shrek, but I remembered them for the rest of my life. Shrek didn't want me because I was poor, because I was physically weak, because I wasn't a noble, and because I had no one to back me."
He suddenly raised his head, his gaze colliding head-on with Shrek Academy's direction.
"I just want to ask Shrek: You're always going on about 'education without discrimination.' Does your school motto, 'Choose the finest talents in the world and educate them,' still mean anything at all?"
The moment those words left his mouth, the plaza erupted.
"Exactly! Doesn't Shrek claim to choose the finest talents in the world?"
"A kid's a little