During military training, the 2026 freshmen learn to stand at attention and march in step—to straighten their backs and shout their slogans loud. In the classrooms of the Smart City Service Industry College, they learn something “soft”—folding a paper crane and saying thank you.

Accompanied by the patient explanation of the assistant counselors, sheets of colored paper were distributed to the desks. The youngsters who had just been shouting slogans on the training ground fell quiet and began folding step by step following the tutorial. Sunlight slanted in through the windows, making the colors on the desks shine brightly.

The classroom in the afternoon was silent, with only the rustling of colored paper turning. Fold, press, flip, pull—hands that had just returned from the training ground were now especially gentle. When a student got stuck, the assistant counselor would lean down and guide them hand by hand; some students folded crookedly the first time and laughed sheepishly as they unfolded and refolded; some paired up face to face, one holding the crane's body steady while the other spread its wings.

Once the paper cranes took shape, the students picked up pens and wrote the words they most wanted to say into the wings—“Teacher, you have worked so hard!” “May you be in a good mood every day” “Thank you for shining on us like a lamp” “Happy Teachers' Day to you!”

These sentences were not long, nor were they ornate. Yet when written stroke by stroke onto the paper cranes, they gained weight. One student said that, having grown so big, this was the first time they had so earnestly written a sentence to a teacher; another kept turning the crane over and over, feeling it could still be written more neatly.

Military training is the first lesson of university, and gratitude is the softest part of that lesson. The college scheduled the paper-crane-folding activity during military training precisely so that students would learn to love while being loved, and learn to express thanks while being helped. For the Smart City Service Industry College, what it aims to cultivate has never been merely people who master skills, but people who have light in their eyes, love in their hearts, and who strive upward and toward goodness—only a person who understands gratitude can truly grasp the weight of the word “service.”

After the activity ended, the students held their one-of-a-kind paper cranes, came to the college lobby, and gently placed them into a transparent crane bucket. One, two, one hundred… the colorful paper cranes gradually filled the bucket, and turned the entire lobby into a kaleidoscopic autumn.

This cluster of paper cranes, full of sentiment, now stands in the college lobby. Passing teachers and students stop, bend down, and look closely; some smile as they find the one from their own class, others take out their phones to capture this gesture of care. “Seeing them bowing their heads to fold paper, I suddenly felt that all the hard work was worth it,” a teacher present said softly. “To be remembered like this is the happiest thing about being a teacher.”

One afternoon, one paper crane, one blessing. The paper crane cannot fly, but the sentiment it carries can. May this warm afternoon feeling, on behalf of these children just learning to grow up, gently speak the sincerest thanks to every teacher.

To all teachers: Happy Teachers' Day!