Although Jiang Zong’s gaze had been incredibly sharp and as piercing as cold ice during the interview, the questions he asked were standard. Lin Shuxue had essentially prepared for all of them.
When the five-minute timer buzzed, Lin Shuxue let out a long sigh of relief.
And here I thought he would deliberately make things difficult for me, It seems I was overthinking.
Meanwhile, Pei Tianyang also breathed a sigh of relief. To be able to let someone slide so flawlessly that was just typical of his Brother Jiang.
In truth, the Arts Department’s stress interviews were never meant to deliberately slash the pass rate. The final evaluation and results still relied heavily on performance during the group cooperation phase of the mass interview. Even if someone stumbled and stuttered during the stress interview, they would still pass if they excelled in group cooperation. Pei Tianyang had simply been worrying over nothing.
The moment Lin Shuxue’s submitted article landed on his desk, Jiang Zong took a cursory glance and knew she was a shoo-in. The senior sister who previously wrote the press releases had retired from her post, and Lin Shuxue was the perfect fit to replace her.
On the day she learned she had passed smoothly, Meng Shuyin was so ecstatic that one would think she was the one joining the Student Union. She was a hair’s breadth away from picking Lin Shuxue up and spinning her around.
Blinking her eyes as her eyelashes fluttered, Meng Shuyin said, “You get what I mean, right?”
Lin Shuxue chuckled softly. “Mission guaranteed.”
As a newcomer taking office, the first major project she received was the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala, co-hosted by the school’s Nebula Theater and the Art Troupe.
Only after taking office did she realize that the university’s Student Union was far less glamorous than the high school version. It was quite literally a tool for running errands and doing odd jobs for the teachers.
Lin Shuxue worked non-stop for an entire week, leaving early and returning late every day. Meng Shuyin even began to suspect whether Jiang Zong was secretly tripping her up, but after checking in with the classmates in the next dorm who were also in the Arts Department, she finally laid her suspicions to rest.
As for Jiang Zong.
Ever since their last unpleasant parting, he had never proactively greeted Lin Shuxue again. There were a few times they crossed paths in the cafeteria, and Lin Shuxue watched as he walked past pretending nobody was there. In the Student Union, they continued to act as if they were total strangers.
On the other hand, the forum post about Jiang Zong’s “new girlfriend” was continuously updated. The original poster described everything with vivid, convincing detail—claiming they ate meals together and were seen strolling around a shopping mall together. It was truly a waste of talent for that poster not to work as a paparazzi.
Lin Shuxue felt it was understandable. If he really was in a relationship, it was only normal to keep a distance from other members of the opposite sex.
If Meng Shuyin knew what she was thinking, she would definitely smack Lin Shuxue’s head hard to wake her up. Jiang Zong and the concept of “keeping his distance” did not belong in the same universe. He was, after all, a notorious romantic rogue who drifted through a sea of women.
The gala was scheduled for tonight, and Lin Shuxue had been notified early in the morning to come to the theater to organize the rehearsals.
She was responsible for the stage control of the entire program flow. Compared to the logistics and lighting crews, her job was lighter and required less physical exertion, but it was incredibly time-consuming; she had to stay put until every single performance had finished running through.
There were three people in the stage control team. The other two were Gu Qingwan and Ji Yan. However, because both of them had performances to practice for the gala, they did not see each other much after dividing the tasks equally. Gu Qingwan, at least, had behaved herself.
The lingering heat of summer had not yet faded. Even though the Autumn Equinox had passed, the blazing midday sun still made people feel irritable and restless.
After a busy morning, Lin Shuxue was just about to head to the cafeteria for lunch.
“Senior Sister Gu! Something went wrong with the costumes for the Dunhuang group!” a girl shouted, running frantically up to Gu Qingwan with an anxious face.
Gu Qingwan was the primary contact person for the stage control team.
With the performance scheduled for tonight, a sudden issue with the costumes was no small matter. Hearing this, she frowned. “What kind of problem?”
The girl panted heavily, trying her best to steady her breath. “The shop owner Sister Jiang rented from went back to his hometown to attend a wedding banquet! He completely forgot about Sister Jiang’s order!”
“And he didn’t even notify Sister Jiang”
“If I remember correctly, there was a strict order that the costumes for every group had to be fully assembled by last night, right?” Gu Qingwan cut her off, her tone harsh.
“Yes…” The girl lowered her head even further. “But last night, Sister Jiang told us she had a way to borrow from another shop and told us not to worry. In the end…”
“In the end, she didn’t report to me in advance, and now that the matter is staring us in the face, she comes to me to solve it?” Gu Qingwan reprimanded sharply, her voice filled with stern anger.
Enduring her fury, the girl swallowed her grievances, having no way to voice them.
Although Lin Shuxue felt that Gu Qingwan’s anger was justified given the circumstances, venting it entirely on this young girl was a bit uncalled for. It was quite obvious that this girl had been pushed forward by that “Sister Jiang” to take the blame.
Thus, she spoke up in a gentle voice, “Where is Sister Jiang right now?”
The girl was visibly dazed by Gu Qingwan’s shouting, and her tone became even more disheartened. “She said, she said she is the lead dancer, and the Art Troupe teacher called her over for something. So she asked me to come to Senior Sister Gu for help.”
Lin Shuxue thought for a moment and suggested, “Why don’t you call her over? After all, she has been the one dealing with the rental shop owner. Maybe we can contact the owner again to find a solution?”
The girl hadn’t expected Lin Shuxue to speak up for her. She recognized this face; when they first entered the university, this face had even trended on Weibo during the military training photo roundups. When she first saw it, she only thought her appearance was somewhat aloof. She had round eyes that were originally suited for a cute and lively style, but because of her slender eyebrows and petite, sharp face, she seemed a bit difficult to approach.
Who knew she would speak so gently…
At this moment, Gu Qingwan chimed in sarcastically, “The man has already gone back to his hometown, what’s the use of looking for the owner now? The performance is about to start. Can you please stop offering useless ideas?”
Lin Shuxue wanted to explain, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the girl with the high ponytail from the group interview walking over. She had later learned her name. It was Zhang Zhixing.
Zhang Zhixing’s pace was hurried, but her voice brought a strange sense of reassurance when she spoke: “Regarding the Dunhuang group’s costumes, I have already contacted the owner. He said he has a spare key, but we need to go to the shop to fetch them ourselves.”
After speaking, she paused and added, “He also reminded us to lock the shop door properly. If any other costumes in the shop go missing, it will be pinned on us.”
Gu Qingwan, who had just finished snapping at Lin Shuxue that “looking for the owner is useless,” watched her own face flush between green and white.
The girl was overjoyed upon hearing this, but her expression quickly turned into a dilemma. “But our dance group still needs to stretch and warm up our legs later. None of us have time to go over there.”
Zhang Zhixing shrugged. “I can only help this much. I’m responsible for the camera crane, so I have to be on-site the entire time to scout the angles.”
Ji Yan suggested from the side, “That’s easy. Can’t we just go and fetch them for you?”
As if she had finally regained her footing, Gu Qingwan immediately put on that overbearing and bossy countenance.
“Us?” She laughed disdainfully. “Did you forget that the two of us have to rehearse for our folk music performance?”
Ji Yan choked, stammering, “W-we can discuss it with Teacher Qin and push our rehearsal time back a little.”
Gu Qingwan sneered, “Teacher Qin is extremely strict. Changing a set rehearsal time on a whim if a problem occurs on the official stage, will you take the responsibility?”
Ji Yan shrank her head back, not daring to speak further.
“Then what should we do?” The girl panicked, her voice tinged with a crying tone once more. “We can’t even call a delivery service for this…”
Gu Qingwan abruptly turned her head, fixing her gaze squarely on Lin Shuxue.
Lin Shuxue felt a subtle sense of foreboding.
Sure enough.
“Don’t we have a ready-made errand runner right here?” she heard Gu Qingwan say in an arrogant tone. “Let her go.”
“Just one person?” Zhang Zhixing felt it was inappropriate and frowned slightly.
Gu Qingwan crossed her arms over her chest, completely justified. “There are only twelve outfits in total. Can’t one person handle that?” After saying that, she even put on a fake smile of care toward Lin Shuxue. “Don’t worry, keep the receipts for the round-trip taxi fare; the school will reimburse you.”
“After all, who else but you is the only idler here who doesn’t have any talent to perform?”
“Let’s go, Teacher Qin is calling us over to check our positioning again.” Gu Qingwan called out to Ji Yan, who was still standing in place, hesitating.
Ji Yan seemed to still feel a bit guilty.
Gu Qingwan’s face darkened, her patience running thin. “Teacher Qin hates people who are late the most.”
Lin Shuxue smiled and comforted her, “It’s fine, you go ahead. I’ll call my roommate to come with me.”
Only then did Ji Yan turn back three times with every step she took, leaving reluctantly.
Hearing Lin Shuxue say this, Zhang Zhixing felt relieved. She nodded at her and sent the owner’s contact information to her phone.
Meng Shuyin rode in the car with Lin Shuxue for over an hour before they finally reached their destination. She collapsed into a rant of complaints.
“This shop is way too far. What kind of wicked person would think of coming all the way here to rent clothes?”
Lin Shuxue’s face carried a look of exhaustion. She couldn’t tell if it was because of the gasoline smell inside the taxi, but her stomach felt incredibly uncomfortable. Her voice was somewhat faint, filled with apology: “If I knew it would be such a hassle, I wouldn’t have made you accompany me on this trip.”
Meng Shuyin immediately grew anxious. “How could you say that? It’s so unsafe for you to come to such a far place alone. Besides, I have nothing else to do today anyway. Just consider it expanding my horizons!”
Lin Shuxue smiled. She wanted to say something more, but fearing she wouldn’t be able to hide the weakness in her voice, she dropped it.
Following the owner’s instructions, she located the spare key, unlocked the shop door, and found the 12 performance costumes required for the “Dunhuang” program.
The moment Meng Shuyin saw the actual items, she instantly changed her tune: “As expected, good wine needs no bush! The craftsmanship on these clothes is way too exquisite, isn’t it?!”
Lin Shuxue was amused by her rapid change of face. After inspecting them closely, she silently agreed. Indeed, the materials used were meticulous and the accessories were beautiful; no wonder that “Sister Jiang” had traveled thousands of miles to rent from this specific shop.
After grabbing the clothes and getting back into the car, Lin Shuxue quietly rolled the car window down a crack.
They had been in a rush when coming over, so she had randomly bought a bag of bread from a convenience store. She hadn’t expected it to have a chocolate lava filling, which tasted a bit too rich and cloying. After taking just a few bites, her fragile stomach began to throb with bouts of pain, forcing her to put it away.
The round trip took nearly three hours of tossing around. The meager amount of food from breakfast had long since digested. At this moment, Lin Shuxue only hoped to return to school quickly so she could drink a bowl of hot porridge to soothe herself.
When the taxi arrived at the school gate, they realized they hadn’t ridden their electric scooters out. The two of them still had to manually carry the two large bags of performance costumes all the way to the theater.
“These clothes look like they barely use any fabric, but the materials are so solid! They are so heavy!” Not long after they started walking, Meng Shuyin looked at the red marks carved into her palms by the straps and exclaimed loudly.
Lin Shuxue had no energy left to respond, only managing to squeeze out a pale smile. She didn’t know if she was experiencing motion sickness, but she constantly felt her steps were unsteady and the world was spinning. Thinking that they were almost there, she clenched her teeth and endured.
Even the passing vehicles and the laughter and chatter among the students seemed to become distant and muffled.
Clutching the bags, Meng Shuyin didn’t pay much attention to the unusual paleness of Lin Shuxue’s face.
Seeing that they were about to reach the main entrance of the theater, Meng Shuyin let out a long panting sigh. “Finally liberated~”
“Even the Journey to the West to fetch scriptures wasn’t this difficult”
Realizing that Lin Shuxue hadn’t chimed in to answer her as she usually would, she turned around in confusion.
Instead, she saw Lin Shuxue standing not far behind her, her footsteps swaying and her lips completely white.
In the very next second, her frail body could no longer support itself, and she collapsed straight onto the ground.