By the day of the rehearsal, Wen Yuluo was so nervous that his body felt somewhat numb. The moment he saw Qi You later, his heart would definitely jump right out of his chest.
They were not even going to wear the play costumes for the rehearsal; practicing like this would be quite awkward, right?
He rubbed the back of his neck, sitting on the edge of the stage and watching everyone bustling about.
The prop crew, lighting crew, atmosphere crew, and dubbing crew had all finished preparing, leaving only the two exchange students.
The venue was not particularly quiet. Xie Xia was just about to maintain order when footsteps came from backstage, followed by an arrogant male voice shouting: “Making it this professional, huh? I heard you all have already chosen your roles, so where is my princess?”
Wen Yuluo paused, raised his head to look, and saw Qi You and Lu Baihai walking side by side, looking at the stage setup from left to right.
Before he could even process what Lu Baihai’s words meant, Wen Yuluo was swarmed and herded forward by people from his class, who shouted: “Her Royal Highness the Princess is right here!”
“!”
Wen Yuluo was pushed in front of Qi You and Lu Baihai for no apparent reason. He subconsciously looked at Qi You and clearly saw Qi You’s eyebrows furrow ever so slightly.
Sure enough, a guy playing a princess must be unbearable for him, right?
Lu Baihai cried out in amazement: “Yubao? You are the princess?”
Wen Yuluo’s ears turned red with embarrassment. He twiddled his fingers and said, “The girls in our class are all relatively petite and cannot pull off the play costumes issued by the school, so I had to step up.”
“That is great,” Lu Baihai said, not knowing why he was so happy. “When I came over, I was still afraid that not being familiar with the princess would affect the play’s effect, but since the princess is you, that makes things easy!”
“?”
Wen Yuluo stiffened. Why could he not understand what his words meant? “Senior Lu, what are you playing?”
Lu Baihai said: “I am playing the prince. I have already memorized my lines, and I remember there is a kiss scene at the end, right? Since we are all so familiar with each other, I think the kiss scene can be for real.”
“”
Familiar? They had only met twice, and then he had shamelessly added him on WeChat. Could this kind of relationship be called familiar? Or in Lu Baihai’s eyes, can people who have met twice just kiss?
Wen Yuluo stood in place at a loss, looking like he did not know where to put his eyes, which seemed a bit pitiful to Qi You.
Hearing this, Xie Xia walked to Wen Yuluo’s side with a face full of anger and calmly said: “Hello, Senior Lu and Senior Qi. I am the monitor of Class 7, Grade 2, and also the director of this play. We are all students, not professional actors. We are just putting on the play for fun, so the kiss scene does not need to be real.”
“Oh,” Lu Baihai said, “that means kissing the corners of the mouth, right? That works too.”
With that, he leaned his face forward, staring straight at Wen Yuluo’s lips.
Wen Yuluo felt uncomfortable with this behavior, and his eye sockets felt somewhat dry.
Qi You suddenly said coldly: “Lu Baihai.”
“Hmm?” Lu Baihai looked at Qi You in confusion. “What is wrong?”
Qi You called out to him, but did not speak again.
Xie Xia pulled Wen Yuluo back a bit, his tone calm: “Senior Lu, the focus of the play is not the kiss scene, it is the overall presentation.”
Wen Yuluo reacted belatedly. Following that, a buzzing sound rang in his ears, and he could not hear anything else.
What did that mean? Qi You was not playing the prince?
Then what was the point of him striving for the role of the princess?
Wen Yuluo wanted to speak but hesitated, and in the end could not say a single word.
Is it still too late for him to regret this now? Whoever loves being this princess can be it.
“I am here, I am here!” Zilan’s voice arrived before she did. She had promised Wen Yuluo she would come to watch the rehearsal, and as soon as she finished her own class’s affairs, she rushed over without stopping.
To blend into the atmosphere, Zilan smiled and greeted: “Prince Qi, King Lu, hello.”
Lu Baihai corrected: “It is Prince Lu, King Qi.”
“? Huh?” Zilan’s mouth flattened. “Senior Qi. Senior Qi is not playing the prince? Was he not trying on the prince’s play costume?”
“Tsk, he was supposed to play it originally, but after reading the script, he found out there was a kiss scene, so he insisted on swapping with me no matter what. I reluctantly swapped with him; anyway, our builds are pretty much the same.”
“…”
Wen Yuluo’s face turned pale as he secretly glanced at Qi You, suddenly realizing that the other person’s expression was completely indifferent.
He did not care who the princess was, nor did he care about any role, looking as if he had come to complete some task without any emotions mixed in.
Wen Yuluo lowered his head. He had said he was doing it to contribute to the class and sacrificing himself to wear women’s clothing, but now he finally realized he was not that noble at all. He only played the princess for Qi You. Now that Qi You was not the prince, all his motivation and excitement were crushed down in his chest.
“Sorry, Monitor. I am not feeling very well; please skip my scenes for now.”
Wen Yuluo walked away from backstage, ignoring how anyone behind him called out.
Xie Xia wanted to chase after him without even thinking, but Zilan stopped him: “I will go take a look. You, the director, should not run around.”
“”
Lu Baihai was puzzled: “What is wrong with this? Was he not just fine a moment ago? Is he shy? Yubao really does blush easily; how cute.”
Xie Xia: “He picked up the walkie-talkie with a blank expression, “Actors in position, start walking through the pacing.”
Lu Baihai hurried to the prop department to get his matching sword. Everyone got busy, except for Qi You, who was still standing in the same spot, staring blankly at the door through which Wen Yuluo had left.
Why was it that knowing Wen Yuluo was the princess made him feel somewhat regretful about swapping with Lu Baihai?
When the rehearsal ended, Xie Xia took photos of the princess’s pacing spots one by one and sent them to Wen Yuluo, also attaching a voice message: “Yuluo, are you feeling better?”
Every single word was heard clearly by Qi You.
Beside him, Lu Baihai casually threw an arm over his shoulder: “Without the princess, I am doing a one-man show by myself. I am exhausted, I am not eating. Let us just head straight back to the dorm to sleep.”
Qi You replied with an unconcerned “hmm” and pushed Lu Baihai away.
The two walked side by side toward the dormitory building. The sky had already grown dim, and a few of the school’s streetlights were broken, leaving a long stretch of road without light. They had to walk feeling their way in the dark.
Qi You was pondering how to use a tactful way to tell Lu Baihai that he wanted to play the prince again. After preparing several phrases in his mind, Qi You still could not bring himself to say them.
It was originally he who had domineeringly made Lu Baihai swap with him, and now asking him to swap back. Furthermore, they had already rehearsed for a full day; no matter how he looked at it, it would be extremely abrupt.
But if they did not swap, he was the king, and Wen Yuluo was the princess. That meant he was playing Wen Yuluo’s father?
“”
Damn it.
Annoyed by his own thoughts, Qi You clicked his tongue.
“What is wrong?” Lu Baihai glanced sideways. “Bad mood? During the rehearsal, I could already tell you had a lot on your mind.”
Qi You looked straight ahead, having no intention of answering him, when suddenly he spotted a large rock on the road ahead, swallowed up by the dark night.
Seeing that Qi You ignored him, Lu Baihai was just about to turn his head back when Qi You suddenly said, “Lu Baihai, look at the sky.”
“Look at the sky?” Lu Baihai obediently looked up at the sky. “What is in the sky? There is nothing at all, not even a single star. Ouch!”
The sound of bones breaking rang out clearly in the dark night.
“…”