Happy times are always fleeting.
All the new students brought their prepared notebooks and pens and arrived at the Eastern Theater, taking their assigned seats.
After the routine meeting, the head instructor stepped aside, and the old professor took the stage to begin the school’s curriculum.
The first class of the day was the History of Drama.
They took notes patiently.
The lesson was somewhat dull, but fortunately, the next class was an aesthetics course.
Their senior, now a celebrated singer in the music industry, arrived with his guitar!
The atmosphere became lively.
Seizing the moment, the head instructor announced the auditions for the artistic performance on the last day of the camp.
Then, they strongly encouraged all the new students to actively participate in the auditions.
Song Qiuyu’s heart stirred.
For these new students, every opportunity for practice was not to be missed.
More importantly, the performance required teamwork, so she could try to involve Jiang Xiao in the fun!
The question now was what kind of performance would be best.
“What do you think?”
Song Qiuyu shared her thoughts with her three roommates.
Lin An pondered for a moment: “A skit?”
Song Qiuyu glanced at Jiang Xiao. “What do you think, Jiang Xiao?”
Jiang Xiao simply nodded, indicating that a skit was fine.
“But what kind of skit should we perform?”
Xie Zhuran rubbed his chin.
Hearing this, Song Qiuyu mused, pulling out her phone to browse.
“Let me check Baidu first.”
Lin An, however, quickly showed them her phone screen: “How about this one? A skit about bandits and a wedding party.”
“Oh?”
Song Qiuyu glanced at Lin An’s phone screen, immediately asked for the link, put on her earphones, and listened while considering.
“I think it’s doable!”
Xie Zhuran was also listening with earphones.
“But this skit requires a lot of people. If we go with this, maybe we could ask the other four roommates to join?”
Lin An suggested.
“Yeah.” Song Qiuyu nodded.
“I think it’s decent too. Jiang Xiao, what do you think?”
Jiang Xiao nodded slightly.
“OK, then it’s settled!”
With that, Song Qiuyu immediately messaged the other four new roommates individually from the class group chat, then created a new group and added everyone to it.
[Group Name: Bandits and the Wedding Party]
[Xie Zhuran]: I think the most urgent thing we need to decide is who’s going to play the bride!
This was the first message in the group chat.
Although it made sense, Lin An sighed immediately.
Here comes Xie Zhuran stirring trouble again.
Song Qiuyu frowned, sensing something was up.
Sure enough, after some back-and-forth in the group, the role of the bride was somehow pushed onto Song Qiuyu.
Why would any guy willingly pass up a male role to cross-dress as a female character for no reason?
It was normal for them to be reluctant.
The problem was, she didn’t want to do it either.
In the past, she might have been open to trying it, as cross-dressing would offer more experience!
It was a rare opportunity.
“Song Qiuyu, don’t you know what it means to sacrifice for art?”
Xie Zhuran lowered his voice, bypassing the group chat to urge her in person: “This is something only you can pull off. If you take the stage, we’ve already half-won.”
Song Qiuyu’s mouth twitched, and she let out a dry laugh.
The other four new roommates agreed.
They quietly typed “1” in the group chat.
“Jiang Xiao, help convince Song Qiuyu to cross-dress!”
Xie Zhuran turned to Jiang Xiao.
Jiang Xiao ignored him.
This outcome was, of course, within Xie Zhuran’s expectations.
But then, Song Qiuyu looked at him and said something with a serious expression that left him stunned on the spot.
Song Qiuyu raised an eyebrow and typed a message in the group chat: “I’d rather you treat me to a month’s worth of meals than have me cross-dress!”
Xie Zhuran gasped.
A month? He couldn’t handle that!
Immediately, another message popped up in the group:
“Song Qiuyu, you’re setting the price that high?”
The sender was Gu Nian, one of the new roommates and on the same level of goofiness as Xie Zhuran.
As soon as he sent that message, the other three roommates in his dorm fell silent for a moment.
To be honest, they weren’t exactly dying to see Song Qiuyu cross-dress, but with the mood hyped up like this, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to see it happen.
And so, they tapped into their human nature and turned into relentless copy-paste machines.
Xie Zhuran saw a glimmer of hope and joined in with a single tap.
Seeing the flood of messages in the group, Song Qiuyu pressed her lips together tightly.
Not taking on the cross-dressing challenge?
Interesting—she’d accept it!
She cut through the synchronized spamming: “Kids, a skit needs dramatic effect the most. Me cross-dressing? How could that compare to Xie Zhuran doing it?”
The moment this message went out, the five awakened “repeaters” froze.
Uh-oh, she’d found their weak spot!
Another message appeared in the group.
[Jiang Xiao]: Song Qiuyu’s right.
All eyes turned to Jiang Xiao, filled with varying degrees of surprise.
This guy betrayed us?
Song Qiuyu laughed.
Lin An followed up with a message: “Whoever suggested it first should do it. No problem with that, right, Xie?”
Xie Zhuran pursed his lips tightly.
Lin An, be honest—did Song Qiuyu bribe you?
Then, they started assigning roles in the small group chat.
Although there was a ready-made script online, after some discussion, they decided to make some revisions.
The task of revising the script ultimately fell on Song Qiuyu.
By the time the school curriculum ended, the night rain hadn’t stopped.
They held umbrellas as they returned to the dorms and began rehearsing immediately.
Never leave for tomorrow what can be done today!
…
Meanwhile, at the audition venue for the artistic performance, Sang Tian and a few classmates from the dance department arrived early in a group.
Of course, they were auditioning for a dance performance.
They were still queuing.
Soon, more newcomers arrived, chatting and laughing as they lined up behind them.
Sang Tian didn’t pay much attention, but suddenly a soft female voice greeted her: “Hi, Sang Tian, we meet again.”
“Who are you?”
Sang Tian turned around.
“I’m Xu Tongtong, Jiang Xiao and Song Qiuyu’s classmate, and also their class monitor.”
Xu Tongtong introduced herself with a light smile.
“You might not know me, but I know you. This afternoon, I saw you hanging out with them, and you all seemed to get along really well.”
Sang Tian thought back.
She vaguely remembered this girl’s face.
“Speaking of which, didn’t they come with you?” Xu Tongtong glanced around Sang Tian, looking surprised.
“I thought for sure they’d drag you along to audition.”
Sang Tian furrowed her brow, feeling a sudden, inexplicable discomfort.
Xu Tongtong glanced at her phone and changed the subject: “Oh, by the way, Sang Tian, you probably don’t know, but tonight Song Qiuyu danced—a Mongolian dance, and it was amazing! Your audition program must be a dance too, right?”
Sang Tian froze for a moment.
She knew about this.
Song Qiuyu’s dance was so popular that she and some classmates had sneaked over to watch.
“I’m so jealous. You guys are all such great dancers, unlike me—I can only act in a skit with my classmates.”
Xu Tongtong tilted her phone screen toward Sang Tian, showing it off.
Their audition skit was none other than Bandits and the Wedding Party!
Sang Tian felt even more uneasy.
“You stopped me just to tell me this?”
Xu Tongtong knew when to quit and, after a couple more words, stopped engaging with her, chatting instead with her classmates about their skit.
Sang Tian let out a sigh of relief.
A short while later, Song Qiuyu and her group finished rehearsing and hurriedly arrived at the audition venue, only to walk right into Xu Tongtong’s group performing their audition.
Everyone’s hearts sank.
Half bandits, half wedding party…
Had they just collided with the same program?