 So for all the adults in this room, please find your inner child and for the children continue being awesome children and turn on your listening ears because I'm going to ask questions after and we'll see who is listening carefully. So the book I'm going to be reading is called The Empty Pot by Demi. If you know the story and you know the ending, let's keep it a surprise for those who don't. Okay? And it's always nice to hear a story twice. Or maybe more than twice. Okay. A long time ago in China, there was a boy named Ng. Came flowers, bushes, and as if by magic, everyone in the kingdom loved flowers too. They planted them everywhere and the air smelled like perfume. The emperor loved birds and animals, but flowers most of all. And he tended his own garden every day. But the emperor was very old. He needed to choose a successor to the throne. Who would his successor be? And how would the emperor choose? Because the emperor loved flowers so much, he decided to let the flowers choose. The next day, a proclamation was issued. All the children in the land were to come to the palace. There they would be given special flower seeds by the emperor. Whoever can show me their best in a year's time, he said, will succeed me to the throne. This news created excitement throughout the land. Children from all over the country swarmed to the palace to get their flower seeds. All the parents wanted their children to be chosen emperor. And all the children hoped they would be chosen too. When Ping received his seed from the emperor, he was the happiest child of all. He was sure he could grow the most beautiful flower. Ping filled a flower pot with rich soil. He planted the seed in it very carefully. He watered it every day. He couldn't wait to see it sprout, grow, and blossom into a beautiful flower. Day after day passed, but nothing grew in his pot. Ping was very worried. He put new soil into a bigger pot. Then he transferred the seed into the black soil. Another two months he waited. Still nothing happened. Bye and bye the whole year passed. Spring came and all the children put on their best clothes to greet the emperor. They rushed to the palace with their beautiful flowers eagerly hoping to be chosen. Ping was ashamed of his empty pot. He thought the other children would laugh at him because for once he couldn't get a flower to grow. His clever friend ran by holding a great big plant. Ping! he said. You're not really going to the emperor with an empty pot, are you? Couldn't you grow a great big flower like mine? I've grown lots of flowers better than yours, Ping said. It's just this seed that won't grow. Ping's father overheard this and said, You did your best and your best is good enough to present to the emperor. Holding the empty pot in his hand, Ping went straight away to the palace. The emperor was looking at the flowers slowly one by one. How beautiful all the flowers were, but the emperor was frowning and did not say a word. Finally he came to Ping. Ping hung his head in shame expecting to be punished. The emperor asked him, Why did you bring me an empty pot? Ping started to cry and replied, I planted the seed you gave me and I watered it every day but it didn't sprout. I put it in a better pot with better soil but still it didn't sprout. I tended it all year long but nothing grew. So today I had to bring an empty pot without a flower. It was the best that I could do. When the emperor heard these words, a smile slowly spread over his face and he put his arm around Ping. Then he exclaimed to one and all, I have found him. I have found the one person worthy of being emperor. Where you got your seeds from I do not know for the seeds I gave you had all been cooked. So it was impossible for any of them to grow. I admire Ping's great courage to appear before me with the empty truth and now I will reward him with my entire kingdom and make him emperor of all land. The end. Do you guys like the story? Yeah! So I have a few questions for you. Three questions to be exact. The first one is, why do you think the emperor was frowning? Because... Oh raise your hand. So the emperor was frowning because the seeds that he gave away were cooked and he knew that everyone, all the kids, the flowers were lying. Nice. So he saw the lie inside the flowers, huh? Yeah. Okay, my next question is, sometimes others can make you feel small when you're doing the right thing. How does Ping feel when he sees his enemy? He helps him through it. Yes. So Ping feels kind of like disappointed because he couldn't grow like a flower like his friend did and he was disappointed. So, yeah. And who helped him through it? His dad. His dad. Because that's what parents do. They help us through our problems. Thank you. Okay, last question. Can the truth ever be empty? Remember in the last part, what does the emperor say? I admire Ping's great courage to appear before me with the empty truth. Why does the author use the empty truth? Can the truth ever be empty? Yes. So yeah. So what do you mean by like the truth is empty? It's like, when you lie, it's like fill up, you know, like, you know, guilt and all like, and the truth is like you're like ashamed of yourself, you know, it's like the right thing. It's like it's like empty and clean. That is, that's actually one of the most beautiful responses I've heard to that answer. Did everyone hear that? She said that the empty, the truth is empty because it's empty from filth, basically. That's what she was saying. All right. So it's pure because truth is always, it's full of truth and empty of false. Thank you. I learned something today when the teacher becomes the student.