Cloud Girl Chapter 8
It is said that there is a 1 in 6 chance that people will connect with each other; this is what is collectively known as the arithmetic probability of fate.
This pattern sounds unbelievable in their previous places of life—because Xu Xiaomeng is already a junior in college and has been here for at least two years, yet she has never seen Xu Xiaomeng before.
If she hadn't gone to university, they would never have had the chance to meet again after their first encounter. So it has to be said that fate also requires a specific opportunity.
Chen Nanyi couldn't help but recall a book she had read before. She pursed her lips and remained silent, waiting for Xu Xiaomeng's instructions.
Xu Xiaomeng felt a surge of excitement and panic, and the first thing she blurted out was, "I need to go to the restroom first..."
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Xiaomeng froze, and Chen Nanyi also paused for a moment, but quickly nodded and stepped aside.
Xu Xiaomeng nodded awkwardly, filled with endless regret.
I regret that he was such a foolish person; his first words were that!
Feeling increasingly uneasy, Xu Xiaomeng stared at herself in the bathroom for a while before she could barely suppress her emotions and prepare how to start a conversation with Chen Nanyi.
Unfortunately, in Chen Nanyi's eyes, who was not good at waiting, Xu Xiaomeng always seemed a little guilty and kept her waiting...
Okay, Chen Nanyi admits that she was overthinking things, but she only thinks about it occasionally during the long wait, otherwise she has nothing else to do, right?
Therefore, Chen Nanyi looked at Xu Xiaomeng walking calmly towards her, but her expression did not reveal the slightest bit of her thoughts.
Chen Nanyi remained in the same spot, but had been waiting for a long time and was now sitting on the steps leading to the backdrop.
Seeing him approach, Chen Nanyi was about to get up.
Xu Xiaomeng quickly waved her hand, "You can just sit down," and then unconsciously rubbed her hands behind her back.
He smiled at Chen Nanyi, who was sitting down, and said, "Hello, we meet again..."
After a pause, seemingly realizing she shouldn't have started that way, Xu Xiaomeng said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'm the head of the drama club. If you need anything, you can... come to me."
Even Xu Xiaomeng herself felt that her speech was hesitant and uncertain, which probably sounded very strange.
Chen Nanyi, who believed that every word was worth a thousand pieces of gold, seemed unaffected. She simply nodded at him, said "Yes, I will, thank you," and then said nothing more.
Although Xu Xiaomeng had anticipated that Chen Yijing would give her a cold shoulder because of Chen Yijing's matter—and she didn't seem like a warm or worldly person, so she couldn't expect too much—she was still somewhat frustrated by this cold shoulder.
So Xu Xiaomeng had to force herself to stay alert and give her a brief introduction, "Actually, there's nothing particularly special to tell you. Except for the rehearsals before the freshman performance, which are quite intensive, three times a week, everything else after the first official performance depends on the situation."
“It’s okay that you didn’t come the first two times, since we haven’t had a proper rehearsal yet… However,” Xu Xiaomeng raised her hand to look at her watch, and went to get the script from the drawer for her, but she turned around halfway and took out the script she had marked from her bag for her.
"You can take a look at this first—yours hasn't been printed yet, I'll go print it later. Familiarize yourself with the plot first. Oh, by the way, you're playing the leader..."
At this point, Xu Xiaomeng's face flushed uncontrollably, as if she had thought of something, and her gaze became evasive. "Um, do you have any other questions?"
As soon as Chen Nanyi got the script, she flipped through it. When she saw the careful markings, she only looked up at him once before looking away and lowering her eyes, flipping through it without saying a word.
This made even Xu Xiaomeng, who knew she was usually taciturn, somewhat disappointed, and she couldn't help but regret her abrupt actions.
However, Xu Xiaomeng felt awkward, and suddenly remembered what she had been looking forward to doing when she saw her, but she still continued, "Oh, right, last time, I'm sorry, I haven't apologized to you about your sister. I really didn't mean to, I..."
Xu Xiaomeng explained slowly, before she could finish her sentence.
Chen Nanyi stood up abruptly.
She stood on the steps of the chorus, and was actually taller than Xu Xiaomeng.
Then she looked down at the phone number below and said seriously, "This is the phone number the community asked me to back up."
Chen Nanyi handed Xu Xiaomeng a note, saying, "Then I'll look at the script first!" Then she bowed slightly, jumped down the steps, and walked towards the middle of the rehearsal room.
Xu Xiaomeng was a little stunned by Chen Nanyi's series of actions. She didn't know whether to be happy to have gotten her number or sad that she was as indifferent as ever. She could only follow her back and watch her walk away with complicated feelings.
However, he still had a lot of troubles to deal with behind him.
In the script, Chen Nanyi plays the role of the male protagonist's father, a leader of a foreign tribe.
Fortunately, Chen Nanyi is nearly 1.7 meters tall, so although it's a bit of a stretch, it's still a suitable height.
The general plot of the script is that the male protagonist, played by Xu Xiaomeng, suffers greatly because his father, a chieftain, dies during a territorial invasion by another country. He then becomes entangled in a series of battles with a foreign princess disguised as a general. He believes he has fallen in love with a male rival prince and suffers greatly. During this time, a series of hilarious events occur. Later, after the female protagonist reveals her true identity to the male protagonist, the two overcome numerous obstacles and live happily ever after...
The plot is a bit cliché, but it's just a borrowed story, so there's not much to say about it.
The script has five acts, and Chen Nanyi's scenes are very short, all in the first half of the first act.
Apart from the opening scene of the second part, in order to show the absurdity of the old leader's indifference to men and women, Chen Nanyi chases a man out of the teahouse, and after flipping over a table, he gives a wicked smile to a woman who is "frightened" by him and utters a compliment, "well, elegant!", to show that "he" is a womanizer by nature.
Then, during a battle against another country's army, she was so struck by the beauty of the opposing general that she was shot dead by an arrow as soon as she appeared—except at that moment, when Chen Nanyi needed to show a slightly infatuated expression before being shot to death, her entire storyline would be over... Oh no, not yet.
Another plot point, which isn't really part of the story, is that after she dies, she lies on the ground and is held and mourned by the male protagonist who rushes to the battlefield after hearing the news. Only then does the entire plot end.
Chen Nanyi was very satisfied with all of the plot points; it was extremely convenient.
Although she wasn't that kind of person herself, she could still put on an act, but... the thought of the male lead, played by Xu Xiaomeng, embracing her and crying on the "battlefield" made her feel strange.
After all, in real life, she has hardly ever had close contact with anyone.
However, she thought to herself that if she acted strangely, she would attract more attention, so she had to ignore her discomfort and try to appear normal.
She did a great job, which made Xu Xiaomeng's behavior seem extremely strange.
During the first rehearsal, Chen Nanyi successfully jumped over a table in front of everyone, and then, when the woman was startled, gave her a frivolous and wicked smile.
With a slight upturn of her eyebrows, she softly uttered, "Well, elegant!" Her voice was deep and resonant, like the tolling of a bell.
Then they arrived at the battlefield. When Chen Nanyi met the enemy general, he appropriately showed his infatuation and was accidentally killed by an arrow. Everything was fine up to this point, and the guards also "timely" notified the leader's son, Xu Xiaomeng, to go to the battlefield.
Next, Xu Xiaomeng helps the leader up and then hugs his father tightly, crying bitterly—even though his father is a womanizer, it cannot stop his determination to avenge his father.
Holding his lifeless father, he cried out to the heavens, as if a sense of sorrow permeated the entire world...
But, but for some reason, Xu Xiaomeng just couldn't lift her up!
Like a zombie with a severed hand, holding Chen Nanyi's head in one hand and watching her "dead" appearance with her eyes closed, Xu Xiaomeng always seemed a bit awkward and unnatural—and it was as if he really wanted to be more natural, but he just couldn't.
Anyone could see his awkwardness and eccentricity.
Their director was a petite woman who didn't know anyone in the drama club, so no one remembered her name and just called her by her in-play title. The director squatted down next to Chen Nanyi and Xu Xiaomeng, the "father and son soldiers" on the battlefield, and said to Xu Xiaomeng, "Hold your father tight, and be more emotional, more sad... Don't pity him as a girl, he is a real father!"
The people around burst into laughter.
"What are you laughing at!" the director said with a laugh. He was probably someone who knew Xu Xiaomeng well. In the end, he shook his head to himself, tapped Xu Xiaomeng on the shoulder with the script he was holding, and stood up.
The director's original plan was to film it from the beginning, and then practice the parts that didn't work until the performance was complete. However, Xu Xiaomeng's approach didn't work, so she decided to continue filming and then film the parts that didn't work a few more times.
In just one night, from 7 pm when Chen Nanyi arrived until after 10 pm, apart from the scene where Xu Xiaomeng wanted to hug Chen Nanyi, the confession scene between the male and female leads, and the pacing of several fight scenes that weren't quite right, there weren't any major problems.
Towards the end, the story gets stuck at the moment when the male and female leads confess their feelings. The female lead's disdain is almost tangible, and Xu Xiaomeng is standing there feeling quite awkward.
Fortunately, the director quickly gathered everyone together, saying, "Alright, alright, everyone come over here."
The director stood on the steps, looked at everyone, and said, "Everyone worked very hard today, and you all did a great job. Our drama club has gone through so many twists and turns to finally open, and we hope you will all continue to work hard. It's really not easy for us all to get together. Rehearsing the play was hard work, the teachers were hard work finding replacements, the senior students were hard work, and you freshmen were hard work too. But please don't complain, because all of this will become our precious memories and experiences... Please understand!"
The director chuckled as he spoke, "But you guys are really lucky. I've been at this school for three years and I've never seen someone as serious as our class monitor Xu act in a play before. This is his first time! If Director Xu hadn't insisted on him, we wouldn't have seen such a shy male lead. It's really tough on him, so please bear with him..."
After the female director finished speaking, those who were secretly criticizing Xu Xiaomeng stopped talking.
Fortunately, thanks to this statement, no one knew Xu Xiaomeng's hidden feelings for Chen Nanyi, or the fact that he was stiff during his confession scene with the female lead because he was afraid Chen Nanyi would misunderstand—which was a great blessing for Xu Xiaomeng.
After everyone dispersed, they all went downstairs.
Most people rushed back to their dormitories, while a few headed towards the school supermarket.
The drama club's rehearsal room was at the foot of the mountain, as were the dormitory and the supermarket. Only Chen Nanyi was heading uphill, and Xu Xiaomeng's mind went blank for a moment.
He followed her and said to Chen Nanyi, who was walking briskly on her own, "Let me take you there? It's too dark where you are..."
Chen Nanyi didn't answer the question. Instead, she frowned and asked softly, "Have you always been this kind?"
Xu Xiaomeng was speechless, unsure how to respond.
He seems to mean well, but that's only true when some girls bring it up and he feels embarrassed to refuse.
But if it were another girl, she would also offer to have someone accompany her if she was scared to walk on mountain roads at night, right?
Seeing this, Chen Nanyi didn't say anything more, only replying lightly, "Thank you for your kindness, but it's dangerous for you to walk alone, and there are latecomers at the dormitory."
The subtext of those words was obvious to anyone, so without waiting for Xu Xiaomeng to speak, Chen Nanyi turned and left, disappearing in an instant as if a ghost were chasing her.
Rejected, Xu Xiaomeng could only stand there, watching that thin figure disappear into the boundless night...
Small Theater
"How does it feel?" Chen Nanyi, wearing a white coat, pressed her hand firmly against Xu Xiaomeng's tiger's mouth as she asked.
"I don't feel anything," Xu Xiaomeng said, her eyes sparkling as she looked at her (≧▽≦) -- Haha, she finally gave in! Even though it wasn't a pink nurse's uniform, it was still a kind of uniform fetish, and there wasn't even any underwear underneath, mwah (￣ε￣＠), let's see if those onlookers dare laugh at us for being unromantic! Hmph…
Unexpectedly, Chen Nanyi put away her stethoscope but frowned coldly. "No feeling? No feeling is the biggest problem. You're very weak—but it's still treatable."
What?! Xu Xiaomeng's eyes widened as if struck by lightning, then a surge of anger rose within her. She decisively pounced on the ground, deciding to add another... no, two hours today!
As he did so, he couldn't help but grumble, "I was going to give you a chance to be gentle, but forget it. I'm so smart, I knew you'd be this kind of person... Hmph, then I'll show you with my actions whether I'm a pushover or not!"
"Huh? Why are there clothes inside... Ouch, don't hit me, don't hit me! I didn't hide your underwear, I didn't know it was in the microwave!"
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