The morning sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains at its usual time, dutifully landing on Su Wanli’s eyelids.
Su Wanli frowned slightly, lazily turning over in bed and pulling the blanket over her head, trying to block out the harsh rays.
But that familiar, gentle voice couldn’t be blocked out as easily as the light—
“Miss Su, good morning. Time to wake up, okay?”
“…No, don’t—give me another ten minutes…”
Half-asleep, Su Wanli furrowed her brow, stretched her hand out from under the blanket, and waved it toward the source of the voice.
What you think during the day, you dream about at night.
In the dream that had lasted throughout the previous night, Su Wanli had been like an audience member the entire time, standing below a blurry stage, watching a play performed above.
She couldn’t remember the specifics, but after a series of profound and heavy partings and reunions, the story had finally reached its end.
The prince and princess had both reached out their hands toward Su Wanli from the stage, smiling as they invited her to join them.
And those two leads—they both had faces just like Meng Wange’s, delivering their lines with that same gentle, soft voice unique to Meng Wange.
But just as Su Wanli, hesitating slightly, finally made up her mind to step toward the stage, Meng Wange herself appeared directly in Su Wanli’s room, inviting her to step into reality—
“Miss Su, it’s already 7:16 AM, you know? If you don’t get up soon, Cinderella’s hazel tree is going to fall down, right?”
With a soft rustling sound, that tender voice drew closer to Su Wanli’s side, and the warm breath nearly pierced through the blanket, reaching Su Wanli’s ear—
“Just like this… First, it sways from the roots, the trunk and branches slowly tilt, the angle gets bigger and bigger, and finally—”
“—Boom!”
“…Wah!?”
The stage in her dream was suddenly smashed apart by a collapsing hazel tree.
No way to continue that dream now.
Forced awake, Su Wanli gritted her teeth and sat up in bed, shooting a big glare at Meng Wange, who had mimicked the sound of a collapse with her mouth—
“…Meng Wange!!! How could you say something so cruel!? Next time you wake me up, can’t you find a gentler way?!”
“Understood, Miss Su. I apologize for disturbing the role you were playing in your dream just now.”
Meng Wange gave Su Wanli a small, apologetic smile, then pulled out a thick stack of notebooks from behind her, still carrying a faint scent of ink—
“But starting now, I’d prefer it if you practiced your role in reality instead.”
Su Wanli raised an eyebrow slightly and took the notebook Meng Wange handed her.
Is this… the script she adapted?
Only one night had passed since the story was finalized, and Meng Wange had already written the rough outline?
As expected of the main heroine with that “protagonist halo”…
It was clear that, although time was short, Meng Wange hadn’t cut any corners.
Not only had she written “Cinderella” in neat handwriting on the notebook, but she’d also wrapped it in a sturdy white cover, and even drawn a simple illustration of Cinderella on the cover.
Heh, to go this far.
Even though she’d said out loud, “It’s just the academy festival, no need to take it too seriously,” this Meng Wange really couldn’t lower her standards for herself, huh.
…Huh? Wait, this illustration is…?
Su Wanli’s eyes went wide as she angled the cover of the notebook toward the sunlight.
If she wasn’t mistaken, this scene she’d drawn… it didn’t look like a palace or a ball at all, did it?
No matter how she looked at it, it was just an ordinary classroom.
And the two characters in the drawing didn’t look like Cinderella and the prince at all—they weren’t even a man and a woman; they were completely two girls?
…
At noon, after the morning’s classes were over, Zhang Shiyu hugged the thick stack of scripts Meng Wange had written, her eyes shimmering with admiration—
“…Wow, Boss Meng really is Boss Meng. She wrote all this in less than half a day!? Last night, I barely got to the stepmother’s entrance before I fell asleep!”
“And not only did she write a lot, she also drew the cover illustration, and even completely flipped the whole story—this isn’t really Cinderella anymore, it’s some kind of original story, right!?”
“Sorry for stealing a bit of your work as the playwright.”
Meng Wange sat beside Su Wanli, gave Xiao Fen a small smile, and then turned her gaze toward the black-haired girl who had been silent since the start—
“Of course, this script still mostly follows the setting of Cinderella.”
“But I thought everyone probably wouldn’t just want to see an ordinary fairy tale, right?”
“A proper adaptation should add as much fun to our performance as possible. With that thought in mind, I adjusted the story framework a bit.”
She gave the sullen Su Wanli a slight wink, making it clear that her seemingly redundant explanation was meant for her.
“…”
For a moment, even though Meng Wange was being so obvious, Su Wanli still couldn’t easily adjust her mindset.
Damn it, what’s wrong with an ordinary fairy tale!
I just wanted to see…
No, I just wanted to play Cinderella and the prince’s story normally!!
What’s wrong with a romantic love story!
What’s wrong with falling in love at first sight at a ball!
And what’s wrong with a happy ending after all those entanglements and misunderstandings!
This Meng Wange actually made such huge changes to the original story—she even removed several characters!
And she didn’t even tell me before making such big changes!
No, if I’m being honest, I guess she kind of did tell me.
Just last night, on the way home, Meng Wange said in the car:
“The reason I chose that story is just because I think it’s a little similar to our life right now.”
And—
“I want to use my own pen to turn it into the way I want it to be.”
Besides that, Meng Wange said some other hard-to-understand things at the time. I thought she was just being sentimental, but I didn’t expect she actually hated the original Cinderella script that much!!
Heh, well, now it’s fine.
The leads of the play are still me and Meng Wange, but this time, no one needs to cross-dress as a prince anymore.
And why? Because Meng Wange’s script clearly lists the specific cast and crew—
Director/Playwright: Zhang Shiyu
Assistant/Director: Du Xinxin[Why is she here? Missing Wen Manman? Actually, the raw says: Collaboration / Props: Zhang Shiyu, Wen Manman, Du Xinxin. So it should be:]
Props/Coordination: Zhang Shiyu, Wen Manman, Du Xinxin
Cast:
Cinderella—Meng Wange
Stepsister—Su Wanli