A ripple went through the room as the doors at the far end opened.
Teachers straightened their backs. Students stopped mid-sentence. The chatter died down to a thrum of whispers.
The judges had arrived.
Leading them was the principal, flanked by representatives from several tech companies, a handful of university researchers, and two regional education officials. Each wore a badge identifying their role, their eyes sharp and evaluative as they stepped inside.
Their presence tightened the mood instantly.
Li Xue clutched her tablet a little closer, her shoulder brushing Li Feng's.
"…They're here," she whispered.
Li Feng gave a soft nod, hands in his pockets, posture relaxed — as if this were just another ordinary school event.
"It's fine. Just focus on what you prepared."
She exhaled slowly, grounding herself with a small nod.
The principal stepped onto the small stage near the entrance and tapped the microphone.
"Good morning, students, teachers, and honored guests."
The speakers carried his voice across the hall, steady and warm.
"Today marks the opening of our annual Science and Technology Expo — a celebration of creativity, innovation, and the future of Longhai's brightest minds."
Polite applause filled the hall.
"This year," the principal continued, "industry partners and academic representatives will be observing your work. Judging will be based on originality, functionality, and real-world impact. Please demonstrate with confidence and clarity."
He gestured outward with a welcoming sweep.
"Judges, you may begin your evaluations."
At once, the hall stirred back to life.
Students rushed back to their booths.
Teachers moved strategically to manage flow.
Judges began splitting into groups, each approaching the nearest row of projects.
The tension climbed.
Li Xue inhaled deeply, trying to steady her hands as she arranged the Silent Hands gloves on the display table.
Her fingers trembled slightly.
Li Feng noticed.
"You've tested the system," he said quietly. "It won't fail."
She glanced up, saw the certainty in his eyes, and nodded again — this time with more conviction.
Around them, murmurs swelled as judges began speaking with the first groups.
A robotic arm sparked applause in one corner.
A smart irrigation system caught interest in another.
The Expo was officially underway.
Li Feng and Li Xue waited in poised silence, their project pristine, ready.
Across the hall, the judges' group assigned to their category began moving slowly—steadily—down the line of booths.
Closer.
Closer.
Li Xue unconsciously gripped the hem of her uniform.
Li Feng gently tapped her wrist.
"Relax," he murmured.
Their turn was coming.
And Silent Hands was ready.
---
The judges moved slowly through the gymnasium, dividing into two groups to cover more ground.
Group A approached the robotics and engineering path.
Group B — the one assigned to assistive tech and software solutions — was headed straight toward Li Feng and Li Xue's booth.
You could feel the shift in the air as they advanced.
Students straightened their posture.
Tablet screens lit up in hurried checks.
Teachers subtly nudged their best groups to prepare.
Li Feng and Li Xue stood quietly at their station, watching the judges evaluate the booth three stations away.
A boy demonstrated a sensor-driven walking stick. His voice trembled slightly as he explained infrared range detection, but his device worked well enough to draw a few nods from the judges.
Next, a girl showcased an emergency alert pendant for elderly people. Her explanation was smooth and confident; one of the judges smiled and wrote something on his clipboard.
Then—
The judges moved to the station directly beside Li Feng and Li Xue.
A group of three boys proudly presented a "Smart Energy Monitor."
They spoke loudly.
Gestured energetically.
Smiled as though their confidence alone could power the circuit.
Their families had clearly invested in their equipment — expensive panels, a custom board, polished casings. It was flashy, polished, and precisely the type of project most students assumed would win.
Li Xue watched nervously as the judges inspected the display.
"They're really confident…" she whispered.
Li Feng shrugged lightly. "Confidence doesn't determine results."
The judges nodded politely to the boys, but their faces held a faint, unmistakable strain — the kind experienced evaluators got when they recognized a project more presentation than innovation.
They moved on without lingering.
Next—
It was their turn.
Li Feng and Li Xue's booth.
Li Xue took a quiet breath.
Li Feng stepped half a step forward — beside her, not in front.
The lead judge, an older man with silver-framed glasses, approached first. His sharp gaze scanned the placard:
Project: Silent Hands
Category: Assistive Technology
Team: Li Xue & Li Feng
One of the corporate observers — a woman from YunTech Robotics — leaned in curiously.
Another judge, a younger researcher with a lanyard full of conference badges, murmured, "An assistive communication system?"
Li Xue swallowed.
Then she stepped forward.
Her voice, soft at first, steadied with every word:
"Silent Hands is a wearable system designed for people with speech or hearing impairments.
It translates sign language in real time — into text, or into spoken voice."
That earned attention.
Real attention.
Four judges raised their brows slightly.
Two leaned forward.
Even the YunTech observer's expression brightened.
Li Feng remained silent, hands in his pockets, eyes calm.
This was her spotlight.
Li Xue continued with grace she didn't know she had until now:
"The gloves use a combination of motion sensors and micro-gesture detection.
We built a recognition model to interpret finger positions and wrist angles accurately.
Then, a processing module converts the recognized gesture into output text or speech."
She picked up one glove, her hands steady now.
Li Feng watched her quietly, pride flickering behind his eyes.
She'd practiced this countless times — and it showed.
One judge raised a hand.
"How accurate is the recognition?"
Li Xue smiled — a small, confident one.
"As at last week, 89% for basic sign sets.
78% for extended sets.
We also included adaptive training so the system can learn individual gesture habits over time."
More scribbling.
More interest.
Li Xue continued:
"It's designed to be affordable.
Lightweight.
And usable without requiring specialized equipment."
A brief silence.
Then the lead judge asked softly:
"Can we see a demonstration?"
Li Xue nodded.
She slipped on the gloves.
The tablet screen lit up in response.
She signed:
Hello. This is Silent Hands.
The tablet displayed the text instantly.
A soft ripple of surprise went through the judges.
Then she signed something more complex:
Nice to meet you.
The tablet converted it — smoothly, naturally — and then the speech output followed:
Nice to meet you.
Even the nearby students paused to look.
Li Xue then stepped back.
Her hands folded in front of her.
She glanced at Li Feng — just for a heartbeat.
Li Feng gave a single slow nod.
And she finished:
"This is Silent Hands.
A voice for people who struggle to be heard."
The judges stood still for a moment — absorbing it.
---
Silence lingered for half a heartbeat — the impressed kind.
Then the lead judge adjusted his glasses.
"Very well done," he said. "The baseline accuracy is already impressive."
Another judge nodded. "Eighty-nine percent for basic signs is exceptional at a high-school level."
Li Xue bowed her head politely, relief blooming in her chest.
But the judge with the silver-rimmed glasses tapped the table once.
"Your presentation was clear," he said. "Now let's look under the hood."
Instinctively, Li Xue glanced at Li Feng.
He stepped forward — calm, hands in pockets, eyes steady.
The judges shifted their focus to him.
"Student Li," the woman in the center asked, "your sign-to-text conversion is remarkably fast. What's your gesture segmentation approach?"
"A hybrid," Li Feng replied, tone precise and unhurried.
"Frame differencing for primary segmentation, reinforced with a lightweight continuity classifier. Latency reduction is roughly thirty percent."
The judges exchanged a short, sharpened glance.
"And the recognition model?" another asked. "It doesn't seem to lag even with complex gestures."
"Pruned convolutional layers," Li Feng replied. "Depth reduced, but accuracy preserved using parallel micro-branches for spatial features. It's optimized for low-power hardware."
Several students nearby leaned in, confused already.
One whispered, "What is he even talking about…?"
Another: "Isn't that… like graduate-level stuff?"
The judges continued.
"What about calibration drift?"
Li Feng answered smoothly,
"Dynamic scaling tied to user-specific vector baselines."
"And gesture ambiguity?" asked the youngest researcher — the one with the lanyard full of badges. "Some signs overlap in motion trails."
"We use a layered inference model," Li Feng replied.
"What Xue'er demonstrated was the last stable build we completed together."
That made several judges pause.
Last stable build?
Li Feng continued, voice steady:
"The live system is running an optimized inference core I completed this week.
I applied compression, rule-pruning, and dynamic thresholding."
He tapped the tablet once.
Diagnostic overlays flickered—gesture vectors, confidence weights, decision pathways.
"In this build," he said, "error rate is under three percent for basic sets…
…and under six for extended sets."
The judges froze.
Even the corporate observers lifted their heads.
Behind them, the principal exhaled — quietly, involuntarily.
The YunTech Robotics representative stepped closer, expression sharpening.
"You improved accuracy by that margin… in a week?"
Li Feng blinked once.
"We found inefficiencies in the inference layer. I rebuilt it."
No bragging.
No theatrics.
Just fact.
The youngest judge murmured, "In one week…?"
Someone else whispered, "That's research-institute grade work…"
Beside him, Li Xue stared — realizing just how far he'd pushed the project after their last joint test.
But Li Feng wasn't finished.
He lifted one glove, turning it over.
"Hardware-wise," he said, "we used independent micro-sensors instead of bundled flex modules.
Cheaper.
Lighter.
More precise."
He placed it down gently.
"Silent Hands is built for real users," he said softly.
"Not for show."
A heavy, evaluative silence settled.
Then—
One judge began writing furiously.
Another nodded, visibly impressed.
The YunTech representative leaned toward an education official, whispering rapidly.
The atmosphere around the booth transformed completely.
Not curiosity.
Not mild approval.
Professional interest.
Serious attention.
Li Xue straightened unconsciously, a spark of pride warming her expression.
Li Feng stepped back, letting her retake the spotlight as the judges continued with deeper questions — now fully invested.
The judges stayed longer at this booth than at any other so far.
Silent Hands wasn't just in the running.
Everyone now saw it as a project to beat.
---
The judges eventually stepped away, still whispering among themselves, still glancing back at the Silent Hands booth as they moved on to the next row.
Li Feng and Li Xue stood together for a moment in the settling quiet — the kind that follows a storm.
Around them, the Expo had shifted.
Students who had barely spared their booth a look earlier were now stealing glances.
A few whispered.
Some pointed subtly at the gloves.
Others, emboldened, drifted a step closer just to see what project had made the judges linger so long.
Li Xue exhaled shakily.
Her hands—finally—stopped trembling.
"Gege…" she whispered, voice small but bright, "do you think we… did well?"
Li Feng looked at her.
She was nervous, hopeful, flushed with adrenaline — but in her eyes was something rare.
Confidence.
"You did very well," he said simply.
A soft, relieved laugh escaped her.
A teacher approached them briefly to remind them to stay near their station for the next evaluation round. Li Xue nodded, still stealing little smiles that she tried (and failed) to hide.
As they returned to the booth, the atmosphere around them felt different.
Not heavy.
Not tense.
Expectant.
And quietly electric.
Li Xue checked the tablet again, cheeks warming with leftover excitement.
Li Feng slipped his hands into his pockets, gaze sweeping the hall.
The Expo was far from over.
But one thing was clear:
Silent Hands had changed the playing field.
---
Hello, Author here,
Thanks for reading — Leave a comment to tell me what you think about this chapter, and drop a Power Stone if you're enjoying Li Feng's story so far! Let's grow this story together.