What It Means To Be King

Chapter 79: In Between The White And The Black

As far as Alex was concerned, the Student Council had entered one of their busiest phases of the year. It was different when they held a large-scale event and programs for the students. If he were to say so himself, this kind of busy was far different from anything they'd done before. Mainly because now, everyone was responsible for their own opinions. 

Back during the presentation, Alex had thought that they were going to go through all of the ideas together like they always do. Someone would be in charge of the social part, someone would deal with the site settings, someone would handle the media etc. Most of the time they had all that perfectly divided between them to reduce the amount of work, and be able to actually keep up with their homework at the same time. 

But no. This time, Shao Long had insisted to change their original game plan. Now, everyone was doing their own paperwork, everyone was calling their respective connections, visiting their respective sites, work with their respective bureaus for everything. It was jarring. Originally Alex thought that it was a counter effective strategy. Their workload would pile up in ridiculous amounts in a short amount of time, and since not everyone was used to doing everything, they may stumble upon something like, say, deciding on seating arrangements, dealing with the PA system, talking with the people they've never talked to, whatever. Something they've never done. Sure, they could learn. In fact, it might even be good for them! But in this time limit, wouldn't it be better to let the people do what they do best and surrender their weaknesses to other members who could cover up for the flaw?

That was to say, Leon may not be the best person to create advertisements about cook-offs or galas. And Felix may not be the best person to write a whole set of paperwork about sports events. And those would take a lot of time if they decided to start learning it now. 

But then Shao Long had tutted him in the way that was supposed to be fretful, and said, "Why are you babying them? Let them grow up, for goodness sake." 

He then pointed to the current paperwork they were working on, the one that needed Shao Long's signature because it involved the treasury. "You say that it's always Charles or Albert that always does the paperwork, yeah? And that Felix deals with the advertisement? Are you just going to let them do paperwork and advertising for the rest of their leadership career without doing anything else?" 

"I think our main concern right now is the time, Shao Long." Alex smiled sheepishly. "Learning is not the problem. But we really, really, really need at least three of these events to be ready before the end of the week." 

"Alex, what does the word leader mean to you?" 

"...." Alex was kinda tired of being questioned like this for the past few weeks by this same person. It was far from the first and too soon to be the last moment where Shao Long was yet again looking down on the thing he has always done best. He felt like he should be upset about it at some point, and he was. Just that, they really didn't have the time to fight over who was the better leader and who wasn't. Because Shao Long can really make things work out. And figthing was the last thing they needed right now. 

So no, he didn't answer. And when it became obvious that he wouldn't, Shao Long didn't look too surprised, only rolling his eyes, and exclaimed, "Just tell them to delegate. Don't they have their own bureaus now? C'mon, I didn't push for the bureaucracy system just for you guys to not use it. They're there to help you and stuff. Just use them. A leader should be able to accomplish a lot of things, but it doesn't mean they have to be good at everything. Who told them to do everything by themselves anyway?"