Chapter 70: Night Of The Party
“Finally, the welcome party is about to start…”
Looking at the poster on the bulletin board in the dormitory first-floor lobby, Fu Hanwen sighed.
Behind him was Wang Ke, who had just taken off his headphones.
Wang Ke turned off the music player on his mobile phone, patted Fu Hanwen’s shoulder, and teased, “Planning to hook up with girls at the welcome party?”
Nearby, Tang Hexing interjected, “It’s almost dark, you won’t even be able to see what the girls around look like, and you’re still daring to hook up?”
At this time, Wang Heng put down his mobile phone and reminded, “Take a good look at the text messages from the counselor and class monitor. We’re supposed to sit together in groups by class and dormitory. So there’s a high probability there won’t be any chance to hook up with girls at all; the people around us are probably all boys.”
Wang Ke pretended to be profound and sighed, “Watching you guys rack your brains to hook up with older women is really tragic…”
Tang Hexing, Fu Hanwen, and Wang Heng all looked at him and complained in unison:
“The tragic one is you, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Loli enthusiasts are even more tragic, right?”
At this time, class monitor Sun Xing Si also came over. He counted the heads and said loudly, “Good, all the boys in our class are here, let’s go!”
Just like that, under the class monitor’s lead, this group of boys formed a loose formation and headed toward the football field.
Because there were too many first year university students, the auditorium couldn’t hold them all, so the welcome party was held on the spacious football field. The main stage directly facing the football field was an excellent performance stage. The room behind the main stage and under the stands became the performers’ temporary makeup room.
Sun Xing Si led the classmates to sit in the position pre-planned by the student union. With no chairs or benches, everyone sat directly on the ground. New students from other departments and majors did the same, each with their own designated spots, all sitting directly on the artificial turf of the sports field.
The five girls from their class also arrived here, led by vice class monitor Feng Jia Miaomiao. However, the girls were still more particular; they all put paper under their butts.
By the time the new students arrived and busied themselves finding seats to sit down, the sun had already set below the horizon. By the time everyone was basically seated, it was dark.
But there was no lack of lighting here.
The big lights outside the track, though they couldn’t light up the football field like daylight, at least made it no problem to see the faces of the people around. However, just as Wang Heng had said, there were all boys around them; the nearest girl was their classmate Feng Jia Miaomiao, and there were still four or five people in between.
Fu Hanwen couldn’t help but sigh, “Hook up with what girls…”
Wang Heng: “Then don’t hook up, just relax and watch the girls on the stage.”
The place they were sitting wasn’t far from the main stage, so after the performance started, it shouldn’t be hard to see the performers’ faces clearly.
Fu Hanwen: “Teacher Wang, how do you know for sure there will definitely be good-looking girls on stage later?”
Wang Heng smiled, “Rest assured, there definitely will be.”
He was very certain, because Pei Ningle had told him that afternoon that her solo was the third program at the welcome party. Estimating the time, it should be about a quarter of an hour after the party started.
Wang Heng looked toward the still empty main stage and couldn’t help but wonder secretly—what was Pei Ningle doing at this moment?
————
Pei Ningle stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself with delicate makeup and wearing a sky-blue long dress; many, many thoughts flashed through her mind.
About past matters.
In elementary school, she was the little princess at home, the cutest little girl in the class; at that time, her head was full of inexplicable fantasies, imagining herself as the female lead in various stories, foolishly not knowing what she was doing all day long…
In junior high, because of the affection from a few boys, she attracted dislike from some girls in the class; then because those girls targeted her and said a lot of gossip, all the girls in the class started to dislike her, and even many boys along with them…
So she understood that life wasn’t a fairy tale, not those beautiful romance stories. Low mood and depression seemed to be the norm in life.
By high school, she deliberately kept a low profile, trying not to attract others’ attention, so her relationships finally became relaxed. But at the same time, the academic burden grew heavier and heavier. She found that she always couldn’t meet her parents’ expectations; the little princess seemed to have turned into Cinderella.
Luckily, she finally got her own music player.
That music player was red, about the size of correction fluid, and could hold many, many songs—but it was still easy to fill up. Those catchy songs that classmates looped on repeat had at most a few days’ shelf life in her ears; then, no matter how classic, they would make her feel sick of them. Once sick of them, she’d find new songs, and the songs appearing on the music player became more and more obscure; she’d heard more and more songs…
Then came that class gathering in the second year of high school.
It was a female classmate’s birthday; she went, still shrinking silently in the corner. After eating, everyone went to KTV.
She couldn’t resist ordering a song she was good at and sang it.
That was her first time using a microphone, but not the first time opening her mouth to sing. At home, on the way home from school, in the stairwell on the way home—as long as no one was around, she would sing out the melodies that came to mind. So she was very familiar with singing, just had never done it in front of others.
But in that cheap discount KTV private room, holding the microphone, she went all out. After singing one song, classmates cheered and applauded, urging her for another, another, and another… The girl who originally just wanted to be a wallflower was unexpectedly forced to become the mic hog of the night.
Becoming the focus of many classmates’ attention again made her very panicked. But soon, she found it was different from the bullying in junior high. Whether boys or girls, everyone was kind and pleasant to her, with increasingly good attitudes.
It turned out that music was the magic in fairy tales.
So, even if her parents opposed it, she had to hold on to her magic.
“Pei Ningle, is Pei Ningle here? How are your preparations?”
Facing this administrative teacher she was already somewhat familiar with, the young girl smiled and nodded, “Prepared. By the way, teacher, can you give me the microphone?”
The administrative teacher was a bit puzzled, “It’s still early before you go on stage; why do you want the microphone now?”
“I want to hold it and get used to it.”
Though this reason was a bit odd, it wasn’t a big deal. The administrative teacher then brought a microphone and left to check on the other performers.
Pei Ningle held the microphone, waved it, and struck a pose as if casting magic—as if the thing in her hand wasn’t a microphone, but a magic wand.
The young girl’s confidence became even more solid.
She put down the microphone, picked up her mobile phone, and sent a text message to Wang Heng. As she typed, the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curve up.
【To have today, really thanks to you. Later on stage, I want to thank you.】
However, less than ten seconds later, Wang Heng replied: 【Absolutely do not mention my name!!】
Pei Ningle’s smile froze: 【Why?】
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