Chapter 655
Sharing the Stage
"You're asking why we gave you tickets?"
At the side entrance of the gymnasium, Xia Qing took off her work badge and casually stuffed it into her pocket, asking curiously, "What, does anyone think I have a crush on you?"
In the phrase.
"Senior is really incredibly smart."
Han Zhou gave a wry smile. "Of course, I've never thought of it that way."
"Could you tell me who it is?" Xia Qing's curiosity was piqued, and her eyes lit up.
"It's not very convenient." Han Zhou immediately shook his head and refused.
"That's why I don't like you, Han Zhou."
Xia Qing sighed and said with a regretful look, "Keeping all your secrets in your heart and not being honest at all, I don't know why so many people like you."
"In order to avoid being liked by my senior, it's better for me to continue to be dishonest."
"Does Han Zhou think I have absolutely no charm?" Xia Qing said, feigning grievance.
Han Zhou hesitated for a moment: "Regarding this question, does Senior want me to be honest, or does she want me to be dishonest?"
"...Never mind, you'd better not answer."
Xia Qing was speechless for a moment, then smiled and said, "There's no other reason for giving away tickets than our pure and innocent friendship. You can record this and send it to your friend."
Don't think I can't see that you're trying to harm me...
Han Zhou sighed inwardly. Although his relationship with Senior Xia Qing was indeed purely platonic, recording and saving this conversation would only give the impression of trying to cover something up.
He changed the subject, saying, "I don't have classes this afternoon. Is there anything else I can help you with, senior?"
"Everything that needed to be done was finished long ago, otherwise how could the New Year's Eve party go on tonight?"
Xia Qing was about to shake her head when she suddenly remembered something. She looked him up and down and said with a smile, "Speaking of which, I do have something that only Han Zhou can help with."
"what's up?"
"Come with me."
Xia Qing kept him in suspense for a moment, then turned around and led him into the stadium, through the corridor, and to the backstage rest area.
"I had no idea there was such a place in the stadium..." Han Zhou followed along, looking around with curiosity.
"There's a lot you don't know."
Xia Qing said with a smile, "The dressing room, the sound control room, the lighting control room, and even the control room... Linda University is very willing to spend money on these things, although they are not very willing to maintain them."
In which aspect?
"It's about saving face."
She turned around and winked. "Without the school's strong support, you don't really think I could have put on such a large-scale New Year's Eve party on my own, do you?"
Han Zhou shook his head and said honestly, "I never thought of that."
“There’s no need to be so honest about these things…” Xia Qing sighed. “We’re here, let’s go in.”
The two stopped in front of a dressing room. She knocked on the door, and after hearing a response from inside, she pushed the door open and went in.
Han Zhou followed behind her and immediately saw a group of men and women sitting in front of a mirror putting on makeup. He couldn't help but ask with a strange expression, "Senior Xia Qing, you don't mean to make me your makeup artist, do you?"
You can understand it that way.
He was just joking, but Xia Qing nodded seriously and pointed to a seat, saying, "If I'm not mistaken, only you can convince her to put on makeup."
Han Zhou was taken aback. He looked in the direction she was pointing and saw a thin figure sitting in the corner with her back to the door. He immediately understood. No wonder Senior Wang Lengqiu said on her phone that she was busy this afternoon. It turned out that she had been conscripted.
As soon as he saw Wang Lengqiu, the latter turned around as if by telepathy, and her previously somewhat empty eyes suddenly brightened.
Seeing her reaction, Xia Qing became even more certain of her guess—if she wanted to persuade Wang Lengqiu to put on makeup, she had to rely on Han Zhou. So she whispered in his ear:
"There's a stage play tonight, and one of the actresses couldn't make it at the last minute. I managed to get Wang Lengqiu to fill in, but she just wouldn't put on makeup."
Han Zhou walked over there, asking as he went, "I don't know much about stage plays, but don't they require rehearsals beforehand? I've never heard of Senior Wang Lengqiu having rehearsed before."
"That actor's role wasn't very important, so we changed the script at the last minute."
Xia Qing explained, "This role only requires you to close your eyes and lie on the stage; you can perform without rehearsals."
"Sleeping Beauty?" (As mentioned before, she's similar to Sleeping Beauty from the previous life.)
"More or less..." Xia Qing hesitated for a moment, "It's a sleeping tree spirit."
This is completely different... Han Zhou's lips twitched: "Since it requires so little skill, wouldn't it be the same if anyone did it? Why did you have to let Senior Wang Lengqiu play the role?"
"Because she's pretty."
Looking at the slender figure in front of her, Xia Qing said with certainty, "As long as she lies there, the audience can't help but be attracted to her."
Han Zhou couldn't deny this; Wang Lengqiu naturally possessed a pitiful and endearing quality. If she were to be elaborately made up and lie on the stage, she would surely stun everyone. But the problem was...
"Aren't you afraid of overshadowing the host?" he said helplessly.
"If the performing arts club members are overshadowed by a girl lying down, then I have nothing to say."
"I understand."
Han Zhou nodded. "So you want me to persuade Senior Wang Lengqiu to put on tree spirit makeup, right? Let me make it clear beforehand, if the makeup is too ugly or too bizarre, I won't help you."
"That's where the problem lies."
Xia Qing said with a headache, "That makeup wasn't ugly at all, it was actually very beautiful, but Wang Lengqiu just didn't like it. She even said that she had agreed to play a non-human, but isn't a tree demon a non-human?"
"Oh."
Han Zhou suddenly realized and casually said, "She probably wants to pretend to be an alien."
"How did you know?" Xia Qing asked in surprise.
"If you don't even know this, then you don't need to ask me to come and persuade her, right?"
As Han Zhou spoke, he walked up to Wang Leng and greeted her with a smile: "Good afternoon, Senior Leng Qiu."
"Good afternoon." Wang Lengqiu nodded gently.
Although the two have become boyfriend and girlfriend, they still maintain a normal friendship in front of outsiders.
Of course, given Wang Lengqiu's unique circumstances, even becoming normal friends with her would still be an unbelievable thing.
At least until just now, the senior student who worked part-time as a makeup artist had never seen Wang Lengqiu say "Good afternoon" to anyone. Shouldn't it have been "Thank you"?
Han Zhou politely inquired and, upon learning that the chair next to him was unoccupied, sat down and continued chatting with Wang Lengqiu: "I heard you're planning to perform on stage tonight?" "I only want to play an alien," Wang Lengqiu said softly.
"Then it seems there's no other way."
Han Zhou shook his head. "Sorry, Senior Xia Qing, I can't persuade her either. Why don't you find someone else?"
Do you think I'm blind? You didn't even try to persuade her! Xia Qing took a deep breath: "Please, Han Zhou, this performance is very important, and it can't be done without Wang Lengqiu. Could you please try to persuade her again? I'm begging you."
She put on a pitiful look.
Han Zhou looked helpless: "The person in question is right here. You might as well beg her directly instead of me."
He knew it was just a small favor, and Wang Lengqiu would definitely agree as long as he asked. But he had already promised not to make her do anything wrong, so he could only apologize to Senior Xia Qing.
The word "alien" holds a special meaning for Wang Lengqiu. If she hadn't thought that the so-called non-human beings referred to aliens, she would never have agreed to perform on stage in the first place.
But then he thought about it again. Senior Xia Qing had been quite nice to him, giving away so many tickets so readily. He couldn't be so heartless. So after thinking for a moment, he suggested, "How about this, you revise the script again and change the tree demon into an alien. That way, there won't be any problems."
"no!"
Before Xia Qing could even speak, the senior student who worked part-time as a makeup artist objected, "This is a beautiful fantasy story. Adding aliens would turn it into an ugly sci-fi film! No way! Absolutely not!"
No wonder she was patiently waiting here for Wang Lengqiu to get ready; it turns out she was also one of the performers tonight, and might even be one of the scriptwriters.
What's wrong with sci-fi movies?
Before Xia Qing could speak, a boy wearing an antenna hood suddenly jumped up, looking furious. "Pursuing deep space, deconstructing truth—how can fantasy films compare to the beauty of science fiction?"
"Nonsense!" the makeup artist exclaimed, "Fantasy has beautiful castles and wondrous magic, but does science fiction have that?"
"Science fiction also includes warships and mechs!"
"Fantasy has dragons, giants, and elves!"
"That's all fiction, fiction, you understand!"
"Aren't warships and mechs fictional too?"
"Hehe, times are changing, these things will come true sooner or later."
"Then how can you be so sure that magic and elves won't become a reality in the future?"
The two men exchanged a cold stare, their gazes seemingly sparking. Neither could convince the other, so they both let out a cold snort and turned their heads away.
I'm starting to ship you two...
Han Zhou thought to himself, "They're already twenty years old, and they can still argue about this kind of thing. It's really amazing. Didn't they see that our student council president is right next to us?"
Sure enough, the next second, Xia Qing's face darkened, and she showed what "reality" meant in front of the two people who liked science fiction and fantasy respectively.
"Get out if you keep making noise."
It must be said that Xia Qing is quite authoritative when she gets serious. As soon as she finished speaking, the two immediately stopped talking.
"I want to go there and act."
Just then, Wang Lengqiu whispered something in Han Zhou's ear.
"Because there are aliens over there?" Han Zhou was both amused and exasperated.
Although their conversation was low, it was still heard by the others present. The boy with the antenna on his head immediately beamed, first giving the makeup artist a smug look, then politely declining:
"I'm sorry, Senior Wang Lengqiu, although we have 'aliens' here, this is a science fiction skit, so we still need to rehearse beforehand."
Wang Lengqiu was not disappointed, and simply said "thank you" softly.
It seemed Wang Lengqiu wouldn't be able to participate in tonight's performance... Xia Qing felt a pang of regret and was about to try to persuade him to stay when something suddenly occurred to her. Her eyes lit up, and her gaze quickly returned to Han Zhou:
"Han Zhou, if I remember correctly, you and Zhong Ling should have a good relationship, right?"
—That's right, there are more beautiful girls than just Wang Lengqiu in the school. If Wang Lengqiu refuses to perform on stage, then why not just find another beautiful girl?
Zhong Ling's beauty is in no way inferior to Wang Lengqiu's. Although she doesn't have that unique, pitiful charm, she has a great figure!
Han Zhou was taken aback: "It's not bad, but... wait, you're not thinking about Senior Zhong Ling again, are you?"
He quickly saw through Xia Qing's thoughts.
Xia Qing seemed not to hear her and continued, "As far as I remember, Zhong Ling hasn't participated in any performances. She should have time, right?"
"Ask her yourself, I'm not going to ask for you."
Han Zhou refused decisively. He had already seen Wang Lengqiu's clothes, a bright green long dress that did fit her well and looked beautiful. However, for someone like Zhong Ling with such a stunning figure, it would likely expose her too much, so he wouldn't help her.
Not only would he not help, he also planned to secretly remind Zhong Ling later not to agree to the request.
Xia Qing also thought about the clothing issue and immediately felt a little discouraged. She couldn't help but complain, "They said they would come to help, but when asked, they refused to do this or that. If neither of them is suitable, surely that girl named Guzheng can?"
She could tell that the girl named Guzheng was the closest to Han Zhou, and that Guzheng was perfect for tonight's performance in terms of both personality and figure. If this guy still refused, she would have to consider giving up this pure friendship.
Faced with her resentful gaze, Han Zhou couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed: "She has other performances."
"Of course I know, it's classical dance."
Seeing that he finally didn't refuse outright, Xia Qing was somewhat satisfied. She took out the program schedule from her bag, glanced at it, and said, "These two programs are about forty minutes apart, which is plenty of time to change clothes."
Han Zhou hesitated for a moment, then took out his phone from his pocket: "Let me ask her."
He sent Guzheng a message, preparing in advance so as not to disappoint Xia Qing: "I recently had a little conflict with Guzheng, so she might not agree."
"A contradiction?" Xia Qing was taken aback. "What contradiction?"
"I'll act it out."
As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Lengqiu said softly, "I can play the tree spirit."
Upon hearing this, not only Xia Qing and the makeup artist senior were stunned, but even Han Zhou was taken aback. He immediately turned to look at her and said in a low voice, "Don't force yourself."
"I won't force you," Wang Lengqiu shook her head.
Xia Qing's gaze lingered on each of their faces for a moment. Although she wasn't quite sure what had happened, at least the outcome was good, so she smiled.
"Okay, it's decided then, tonight's performance..."
Before he could finish speaking, Han Zhou's phone suddenly vibrated twice in quick succession; it was a message from Gu Zheng.
There is no extra content, just a single, simple word.
"it is good."
If it were just this one message, it wouldn't have caused Han Zhou to lose his composure. What truly made him break out in a cold sweat was another message—
"Come out and meet me, I'm at the school gate."
...This message came from Mo Yixia. (End of Chapter)