Chapter 46
On stage, Chen Yan, dressed in women's clothing, had only been cleaning for a short while when her two stepsisters arrived as promised.
"Oh, you're still cleaning? Look at your poor, pathetic appearance, you're only fit to clean the house."
"Unlike us, who are invited by princes to the palace for balls. But look at your shabby dress, no nobleman would be willing to invite you to dance."
"Sister, stop talking and let's go. The prince is inviting us to dance tonight, and we still need to choose which dress to wear," Zhou Xinyi urged impatiently.
Shen Feiyang suppressed a laugh and chimed in, "Little sister, you're right. Let's go, let Cinderella clean up the house herself." As she spoke, she added her own dramatic gesture, glaring at Cinderella behind her.
The two women, who played the stepsisters, quickly left the stage amidst playful bickering.
As they left, Shen Feiyang kept nudging Zhou Xinyi from behind, as if to make her burst out laughing if she stayed even a second longer.
After the two left the stage, Chen Yan, dressed as a woman, put down her broom and sat alone on the windowsill, saying to herself with a sad look in her eyes, "If only the prince would invite me to dance."
Next came Cinderella's inner monologue. Chen Yan remained seated as the narrator passionately recited his inner monologue, but the audience below the stage and the live chat exploded with excitement.
The barrage of comments was so numerous that the screen was almost invisible.
[The 186cm tall Cinderella looked like two dwarfs next to her when her two stepsisters walked by.]
Help! I thought it was a movie about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs for a moment. I was wondering why there were only two dwarfs.
[This scene is so bizarre it makes me want to laugh, it's so bouncy, and I really love it!!]
[The host did mention Xiang Wan's name earlier, so who does Xiang Wan play?]
[Replying to the comment above, could it be a prince? Hahahaha, that would be hilarious.]
I have to say, I'm really looking forward to it!!!
Offstage, Jiang Juncang and the group of leaders beside him had somewhat frozen expressions.
But the students in the back row burst into laughter.
"Isn't this Chen Yan, the campus heartthrob of class 2020?"
"What was the director thinking when he made Cinderella who's 186cm tall? Hmm, he's got talent!"
"So how many credits do you get for each performance? The campus heartthrob actually performed without any inhibitions, lol."
"Chen Yan is Cinderella, but who is the prince?"
"I don't know."
Despite the cacophony of online and offline discussions, the stage play continues.
Chen Yan, dressed as a woman, sat by the window, gazing melancholically out the window. The window was then pushed open, revealing a parrot with colorful feathers.
The parrot was calling out, "Fairy—Fairy—"
The next second, Che Nanbei, who was playing a fairy, appeared and handed her a princess dress and gown: "Oh~ Cinderella, go to the royal banquet, and here are your glass slippers."
As she spoke, she handed the crystal shoes covered in diamonds to Chen Yan: "But be careful, the magic will wear off after the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella, you must be back before the magic wears off."
Chen Yan accepted the crystal shoe and performed a courtly bow towards Che Nanbei: "Thank you, fairy."
As the background music for the costume change began to play, the curtain slowly fell, and the narrator's voice rang out: "After receiving the gift from the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella immediately began her costume change."
"She was no longer the drab Cinderella, but Miss Cinderella, sparkling in a princess dress. Her beauty was no less than that of a princess, accentuated by the gorgeous gown."
The background music changed to a more cheerful melody, the curtain slowly rose, and Chen Yan, dressed in women's clothing and wearing high heels, walked into a street corner.
"Miss Cinderella stepped out of her house and noticed the luxurious pumpkin carriage parked not far from her door, remembering the third gift her godmother had mentioned to her earlier..."
The narrator's voice disappeared, and then Zhou Chengze, dressed in knight's attire, appeared from behind the pumpkin carriage and gave a knight's salute to Chen Yan, who was dressed as a woman: "My dear Miss Cinderella, I will escort you to the palace to attend the ball."
At this point, Zhou Chengze's face was also projected in high definition onto the screens on both sides of the auditorium.
The audience erupted in noise, with laughter and whistles rising and falling...
"What's going on with the Class of 2020 Finance this year? They're full of talented people! Two of the most handsome guys in the department, Chen Yan and Zhou Chengze, have both gone to act in stage plays."
"The cast of this stage play is absolutely stunning; I haven't seen a single ugly one so far."
"Cinderella's two stepsisters were also so beautiful I almost licked the screen."
In the stage setting, a pumpkin carriage slowly moves forward. This pumpkin carriage was custom-made by Che Nanbei at a high price, and he wanted this kind of extravagant effect.
When the carriage reached the far right of the stage, Zhou Chengze stopped it, got out, and bowed to Chen Yan, who was dressed as a woman, once again: "Miss Cinderella, we have arrived at the palace."
The narrator's voice rang out: "In front of the palace, Cinderella looked at the guards, still a little uneasy that she didn't have an invitation. However, when the guards saw her gorgeous attire, they let her in without asking any questions."
Behind the curtain, everyone was methodically setting up the palace scene. Che Nanbei pushed the carriage away, and when she saw Chen Yan about to come over to help, she quickly stopped him, saying, "Chen Yan, you're wearing high heels, don't come over."
"Remember to keep your movements small when you dance later, so you don't fall."
"Um."
Once the people controlling the curtain behind the scenes saw that they had set up the scene, they raised the curtain up again.
Inside the palace, everyone was dressed in formal attire, their positions seemingly casual but actually carefully arranged.
Chen Yan, dressed in women's clothing, stood in the center of the stage. The stage lights shone on the corner, where Shen Feiyang and Zhou Xinyi, the two stepsisters, held champagne glasses and asked knowingly under the lights, "Hmph—who is this person who is as beautiful as a princess?"
"She's probably a young lady from some noble family. But I've never seen her before; she's dressed so elegantly..."
Then the narrator's voice came: "The two wicked stepsisters had no idea that the person they were jealous of was Cinderella, whom they had spent every day with but had never looked at properly."
The narrator's voice was full of emotion, and Shen Feiyang, under the lights, almost couldn't help but burst out laughing. Zhou Xinyi, who was standing next to her, glanced at her and whispered helplessly, "Try not to laugh."
Shen Feiyang pursed his lips: "I'll do my best."
The two women only breathed a sigh of relief when the light moved away from their faces and onto Chen Yan, who was in the center.
Chen Yan, who is already 186cm tall, stands out from the crowd on stage wearing 7cm high heels.
"His Highness has arrived—"
After the guards announced the arrival of the attendants, everyone's attention shifted to Xiang Wan, who was emerging from the other side of the stage.
She appeared in everyone's view wearing a tuxedo, and the moment she appeared, the barrage of comments exploded.
The narrator's voice rang out: "The prince was also captivated by Cinderella's beauty and went up to invite her to dance the first dance."
Wearing a suit, Xiang Wan bowed politely to Chen Yan, who, dressed in women's clothing, demurely placed his hand in hers.
As the soft music began, the two danced gracefully under the stage lights.
However, unlike the video taken during rehearsals, where the comments section was full of people shipping the couple, the live stream chat was filled with people laughing hysterically while they were dancing.
[Hmmmm, Cinderella, who's 190cm tall, dancing with Mr. Xiang, who's 170cm, really does look like the Beast and Bella.]
[Seriously, I'm laughing so hard I'm going crazy! You have to pay me for emotional distress!!!]
Has anyone noticed the boy in this Cinderella story? He's so handsome... to be honest.
[How could the campus heartthrob at Beiyi University not be handsome? A photo of him taken without his consent on Weibo went viral.]
Not only the live stream chat was filled with laughter, but the audience below was also in stitches. Even the leaders, who had been frowning, couldn't help but laugh when they saw this.
When Jiang Juncang saw Xiang Wan appear in a tuxedo, his expression cracked.
He couldn't bear to watch the two of them dancing, so he lowered his head and held his forehead. But then, remembering something, he still raised his phone and took a picture of Xiang Wan.
While taking photos of Xiang Wan, he also took photos of his younger brother, who was wearing a formal suit, and sent them to the family group chat of the four of them.
The front row of the audience consisted of leaders, who reacted relatively reservedly, while the students in the back row were laughing their heads off.
Everyone in the finance section on the left raised their phones to take pictures, and even Shi Sheng couldn't resist taking several.
While she was taking pictures, she heard students in the front row laughing and commenting, "What a burly Cinderella! Even the prince looks tiny next to her."
"..." Shi Sheng pursed her lips, trying hard to suppress her laughter. Who would understand her ridiculous sense of humor?
Suddenly, a bell rang in the auditorium. While everyone was still wondering what was going on, the narrator's voice began:
"As the waltz ended, the clock struck midnight precisely. But because the magic was about to wear off, Cinderella, wearing her glass slippers, had no choice but to abandon all decorum and hastily flee..."
Chen Yan ran away in high heels, but almost fell because he lost his footing. He pretended to fall, but left the crystal shoe in the center of the stage and ran behind the curtain.
Xiang Wan, following the script, pretended to chase after him. Standing under the stage lights in the center, holding Chen Yan's size 44 crystal shoe, she suppressed a laugh and asked knowingly in the direction Chen Yan had left, "Oh~ you still haven't said whose daughter you are? Whose crystal shoe is this?"
Xiang Wan couldn't help but whistle when she heard it from the audience.
She turned her back, and only turned back after a long while. She handed the crystal shoe to Jiang Zhuochun, who looked like a minister: "We must find the owner of the crystal shoe."
"yes."
The comments section burst into laughter at this point.
[This crystal shoe is bigger than Mr. Xiang's face; do we really need to search for it door-to-door?]
Ask around and see whose daughter has the biggest feet; she'll be Cinderella.
The stage play continues, and the prince, played by Xiang Wan, watches as one woman after another tries on the size 44 crystal shoes, but none of them can fit into them, except for Cinderella, played by Chen Yan.
Then, Xiang Wan publicly announced her wedding date with Cinderella. The curtain slowly fell, and the narrator's voice gently began: "And they lived happily ever after..."
As the curtain rose for the last time, all the actors, directors, and playwrights of the stage play came on stage in order, lined up, and bowed to the audience.
The audience erupted in applause, and even the live stream chat was filled with positive energy.
Although it wasn't what I imagined, it cured my years-long emo...
[This is hilarious! It's absolutely hilarious, and the cross-dressing is even funnier than the original.]
[President Xiang is awesome! President Xiang is awesome! President Xiang is awesome! I'll say it three times because it's important.]
…
In the audience, Jiang Juncang clapped for a while. Not long after, his phone vibrated again in his pocket. He glanced at it and saw it was another message from Jiang Zhuochun.
[Were you shocked?]
Yes, in some ways your stage play was very successful.
Brother, can you see me?
[I saw it; the minister was there, carrying the glass slipper and looking for Cinderella.]
Jiang Juncang had just put his phone back in when, as if remembering something, he sent him another message.
What's the name of that guy who dressed up as Cinderella?
[Brother...you don't actually have a crush on Chen Yan, do you?]
What is his relationship with Xiang Wan?
Oh, you two are rivals for his affections; he also likes Wanwan.
[...]
Jiang Juncang watched Xiang Wan take her final bow on stage with a look of interest; it seemed he had quite a few rivals in love.
*
When the curtain fell and everyone saw the extremely enthusiastic reaction from the audience, they all looked relieved.
Only Zhou Chengze's eyes held a hint of bitterness. His gaze swept over the umbrella placed behind the curtain, then looked at Xiang Wan beside him, and finally made a decision...
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