Ye Wanying involuntarily took a small step back; there was no way around it, it was a conditioned reflex.

"Uh, not everyone's here yet? Let's start when everyone's here."

If not everyone is present, what kind of rehearsal are we doing?

The women sighed, but there was nothing they could do. Several people who had registered hadn't arrived yet, so they could only wait.

At this moment, Ye Wanying had the soldiers bring out the colorful papers and said to everyone, "Since not everyone has arrived yet, let's do something else."

"Hey, troupe leader's wife, just tell us what you need us to do." The one who spoke was the sister-in-law who wanted to perform Peking Opera.

The others chimed in, since there was nothing else to do there and they were bored anyway.

"Well, cut this golden paper into a moon and little stars, the red paper into a national flag, and this orange-red paper into a sun. Cut all the green paper into little grasses."

Since it's a stage play, it can't be too perfunctory. There can't be nothing in terms of props. And right now, there are obviously no plastic flowers or plants to make, so we have to settle for cutting them out of paper.

In fact, Ye Wanying never expected that such a setup was already top-notch. Even the stage performance halls outside wouldn't have such complete props for each performance.

Often, what people appreciate most is the actors' superb performance on stage; they certainly don't pay much attention to anything else.

With more than a dozen women here, they were quick to get to work, and soon the table was piled high with colorful stars, grass, and moons.

Before leaving, Ye Wanying had all the red silk cloths that had been washed dried. She then directed the soldiers to hang the red cloths around the stage, tie them in a knot in the middle, and secure them with thin ropes. From a distance, they would look like big red flowers.

Fortunately, there was no need to worry about the lighting. Although the lights were all simple white, the red silk cloth on the stage made the white lights instantly turn orange with a hint of red.

It's quite pretty, though.

Finally, all the sisters-in-law arrived. A total of twenty-one people were confirmed to participate in the stage play, so they were arranged into three rows.

Below the stage, a dozen or so soldiers who had been cleaning and setting up earlier stood there, looking curiously at the women on stage, wondering what they would perform.

Ye Wanying held the short script she had written last night in her hand, and was considering which scenes to arrange for her sisters-in-law. The first one to appear would definitely have to be the one with the best acting skills.

Now, I really don't know how good the sisters-in-law's acting skills are, and I couldn't help but frown.

After a while, he said, "Before we rehearse, let's act out a short scene. Let's do something simple. Imagine we're having a tug-of-war. The ladies in the first and second rows stand on either side, and the ladies in the third row act as cheerleaders. You have three minutes to think."

Tug-of-war?

Everyone knows that, but what about the rope?

Then someone asked, "Hey, does the tug-of-war need a rope?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Wanying explained again: "Of course I know that a real tug-of-war requires a rope, but right now we are imagining ourselves in a tug-of-war, so there is no rope."

If there were actually ropes, what would be the point of calling it imagination?

Within three minutes, most of the women were still confused.

"Time's up!"