“Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring—”
The class bell echoed like a horn of liberation, resounding through the empty corridors of Baiying Academy.
“Really? Miss Su and Meng Wange are performing in a drama together?”
A girl who had just stepped out of the classroom looked in surprise at her classmate spreading the news nearby.
“Yes, yes! I heard it straight from someone in San Ban—it was announced in today’s class meeting! Fresh firsthand info!”
“…Whew, that Su Wanli… can she actually act?”
“Don’t worry about whether she can act. Just tell me, wouldn’t it be nice to watch them perform together?”
“It would be nice, but whether I’ll dare to watch her or not is another matter. What if I don’t give her the reaction she wants and end up on her bad side?”
“With that attitude, you’re not going?”
“No way! Of course I’m going! I have to be part of this excitement! What time does it start? I need to grab a front-row seat!”
Su Wanli shot a fierce glare at the female students passing her by, scaring them into silence. Not daring to even breathe, they quickly skirted around from behind her.
Damn it, class had just ended—how had news of her and Meng Wange performing in a drama for the academy festival spread so fast?
It had to be those good-for-nothing students from San Ban again, posting on the school forum without permission. She’d find a chance to teach them a lesson sooner or later…
“Let’s go, Boss Su! Let’s head to the library together and look for inspiration and themes!”
Xiao Fen said cheekily from behind Su Wanli, her tone light as if she were going on a field trip, completely unaware of Su Wanli’s current mood.
Faced with these shameless subordinates, Su Wanli could only resort to more practical punishment to make them understand—
“Stand right here and do ten squats. Right now.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Without even asking why, Xiao Fen immediately dragged Potato Thunder and Da Zhuang along to bob up and down three or four times, then started walking on their own toward the library.
“Hey, who said you were supposed to do ten in total…”
Damn it, all because of these unreliable idiots, she’d been dragged into this troublesome mess on her behalf.
She had barely seen a drama herself, let alone had to go on stage…
Though the idea of standing under the spotlight with Meng Wange seemed like a nice experience, the thought of reciting all kinds of weird lines in front of the entire school made Su Wanli’s toes instinctively start digging into the floor.
Besides, she still had a mission from the System—whether she could successfully perform with Meng Wange was still uncertain…
“Don’t worry, Miss Su. Just relax.”
Easily reading the slight anxiety on Su Wanli’s face, Meng Wange, half a step behind, gently placed her fingers on Su Wanli’s shoulder and smiled—
“After all, it’s just an academy festival stage. The demands on our acting won’t be too high. Besides, realistically, we only have about a week to prepare, starting from scratch with the script and rehearsals. Even if there are some mistakes during the actual performance, it’s inevitable.”
“…Hmph, easy for you to say. I didn’t agree to participate just to embarrass myself. You’d better step up when the time comes.”
Those few words from Meng Wange did ease some of the anxiety in Su Wanli’s heart, but she still sighed and shot Meng Wange a reproachful glare.
After all, what had made her agree to this performance in the first place was that girl’s pleading, wasn’t it!?
If it weren’t for that girl saying something like “I want to do all kinds of things we’ve never done together” this morning, she would never have agreed to such a thankless task.
…But whatever, she’d already agreed to perform. Now the first priority was to decide on the script.
Under Su Wanli’s cold stare, Xiao Fen, Da Zhuang, and Potato Thunder all agreed to postpone their after-school plans and followed Su Wanli and Meng Wange to the library, where they would pick a story suitable for adaptation into a drama.
As for the Baiying Academy library, it was located in the northwest part of the campus.
Though it was just a high school library, its collection was no small matter—three floors high, with exterior decoration just as impressive. The overall style continued Baiying Academy’s consistent white color scheme, a magnificent building of classical European architecture.
In less than a dozen minutes, after stepping through the tall doors, Su Wanli and the others were greeted by several modern checkout counters, rows of neatly arranged rosewood bookshelves, and a few reading desks for students.
The air was filled with a mix of old book pages and faint wood scent—just staying here gave a subtle sense of cultural weight.
“Alright, stop standing around. Let’s get moving.”
Su Wanli clapped her hands and casually waved at the group behind her, including Meng Wange—
“Go all out and find the scripts you think are most suitable. Meet back at the table in thirty minutes.”
“Understood.”
Meng Wange gave Su Wanli a slight nod, paused for a moment at the library’s index station, then disappeared with Xiao Fen and the others into the rows of bookshelves.
Of course, Su Wanli couldn’t just let Meng Wange and the others do all the work. She herself slowly got up from the desk and sauntered lazily through the shelves near the drama and literature sections.
In truth, asking them to pick scripts was just a diversion.
Su Wanli already had a rough idea in her mind of what she really wanted to perform.
As she imagined the name in her head, she shifted her gaze to the gilded words on the spines.
Hamlet, Waiting for Godot, Oedipus Rex…
These revenge tragedies or sad dramas that gave her a headache just by hearing them—she hadn’t agreed to perform just to fight to the death with Meng Wange on stage.
If she were honest, what she really wanted was a simple, straightforward romantic fairy tale about a prince and princess…
A story where there was a gap in status, about misunderstandings and reconciliation, and a happy ending.
Of course, Su Wanli knew that a happy ending was probably just wishful thinking on her part, but…
At least on a stage like this, there was nothing wrong with dreaming a beautiful dream, right?
So, after passing a series of familiar fairy tales, Su Wanli’s steps finally stopped in front of a familiar title—
Cinderella.
Su Wanli gently pulled out the book covered in a hardcover jacket.
On the cover, Cinderella in her gorgeous gown was waltzing hand in hand with the prince at the night ball.
Recalling the ballroom dance practice with Meng Wange on the rooftop this morning, she curled the corner of her mouth slightly.