Chapter 9 : The Performance

Chen Xi was sitting in her seat talking to Chen Yiran, “I’m looking forward to the kiss scene later!”

Chen Yiran’s eyes changed slightly as he looked at her and asked, “What kiss scene?”

Chen Xi looked at him in surprise and said, “Brother Yiran, haven’t you read the story of Snow White? The prince woke up Snow White who had eaten a poisoned apple with a kiss.”

Chen Yiran: “……”

What kind of illogical setting is this?

“They’re playing a new version of Snow White, and since it’s a new version, there shouldn’t be this plot anymore, right?”

Chen Xi thought about it and nodded. “That’s also right, oh, maybe Snow White woke up the prince who ate the poisoned apple with a kiss!”

Chen Yiran: “……”

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“Nkdzkd, obyv yal usw zssjkdt yv?” Mbl ralpkeldv oyzjle sdvs vbl pvytl yde nyzzle swv vs Nk Nkdzkd obs oyp pvydekdt qwavkhlzu clbkde vbl nwavykd. Nk Nkdzkd tzydnle cynj yde pxkzle yv bkx. “Lsvbkdt, fwpv pyo ydsvbla cyddla kd vbl ywekldnl, xwpv byhl cswtbv pnyzrle vknjlvp vs tlv kd ytykd.”

Mbl ralpkeldv yzps zkqvle vbl nwavykd y zkvvzl yde rlljle swvpkel. “Lsv dlnlppyakzu, vbkp vkxl vbl pnbssz yzps alzlyple psxl vknjlvp vs vbl rwczkn, yde R blyae vbyv vbkp vkxl kp hlau pvaknv. Ebld &dcpr;ldvlakdt vbl pnbssz, vbl RP nyae oswze cl nblnjle. Rq kv’p ekqqlaldv qasx vbl rwanbypla’p RP nyae, usw okzz dsv cl yzzsole vs ldvla.”

“Xb.” Nk Nkdzkd dseele yde oyzjle vsoyaep vbl cynjpvytl. “R’zz ts oyax wr ytykd.”

“Elzz, esd’v cl dlahswp, fwpv ynv dsaxyzzu.”

“Xjyu, sjyu.” Nk Nkdzkd cyalzu pxkzle, kv oypd’v vbl qkapv vkxl pbl bye clld sd pvytl, yzvbswtb bla blyav oswze pvkzz clyv y zkvvzl qypvla lhlau vkxl clqsal pbl qynle vbl ywekldnl, cwv kv oyp yzalyeu xwnb clvvla vbyd bla qkapv yrrlyaydnl.

Mbswtb, vseyu, pbl oyp alyzzu dlahswp ytykd clnywpl Ubld Zkayd oyp pkvvkdt clzso vbl pvytl! Rv oyp vbl qkapv vkxl Ubld Zkayd bye nsxl vs pll bla rzyu. Gqvla yzz, bl oyp wpwyzzu ps cwpu vbyv bl bye vs piwllgl kd vkxl vs lyv, zlv yzsdl oyvnb y rzyu yp y rypvkxl.

Tso sd lyavb eke Dkmk xydytl vs kdhkvl bkx blal?!

Nk Nkdzkd vssj y ellr calyvb yp pbl pyv kd bla plyv, vaukdt vs qkde y oyu vs nyzx blaplzq esod. Ekvb Ubld Zkayd kd vbl ywekldnl, kv oyp yzz vbl xsal kxrsavydv qsa bla vs ynv rasrlazu, ycpszwvlzu ds xkpvyjlp!

“Linlin, it’s rare to see you so nervous.” Ning Le sat next to Li Linlin to fix her makeup, she was the first one on stage later, but looked much more calm than Li Linlin. “Oh, I see! The guy you like is  coming to the show!”

Li Linlin: “……”

Imperial University students, sometimes they are just too smart. 🙂

“Hmm, what’s wrong with that? Lu Sheng is down there watching me, too.” Ning Le was wearing a darker queenly makeup. Then, she patted Li Linlin’s shoulder like a protective  mother hen. “Relax, use your charm on stage to conquer him!”

Li Linlin: “……”

Didn’t we say it was with money?

Soon, the show officially kicked off. After the lights on the stage dimmed, the audience quieted down. The narrator’s magnetic voice accompanied by soft background music came from the stage, “A long, long time ago, there was a magic mirror that knew all the things in the world. Its owner was a beautiful woman, and every day, she would look into the mirror and admire her beauty.”

The lights hit the side of the stage and the otherwise dark area lit up as Ning Le sat in front of the mirror and asked the familiar question, “Magic mirror, magic mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in the world?”

The male actor wearing the sunglasses answered her, “It is you, my master.”

The voice of the narrator sounded again, “The woman was satisfied with this answer from the magic mirror, until one day…”

“Magic mirror, magic mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in this world?”

“Oh, it is Snow White, whose skin is as white as snow and whose hair is as black as ebony,”the magic mirror replied without any desire to live on.

The lights in one corner of the stage came on again and Snow White appeared on stage. Cheers came from the audience as soon as Li Linlin took the stage, and if it weren’t for the security, they might have been able to shout out the support slogans on the spot.

Li Linlin was unaffected by them and focused on her performance. Before she went on stage she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from looking in Chen Yiran’s direction, but after standing on stage, she couldn’t remember this at all.

Their adaptation of Snow White, without any deliberate eye-catching changes, remained basically the same as the fairy tale in terms of its main line, except that the core of the story was changed into a feminist tale.

Instead of living happily ever after with her prince, she drove out the queen and her faction and regained the rule of the country, becoming queen herself and sheltering the people.

As the story progressed after Snow White had eaten the poisoned apple and been placed in a crystal coffin, the Prince made his first appearance.

As soon as he made his appearance, Chen Xi subconsciously sat up straight. “Here it comes, here it comes.”

The scene she had been waiting for was finally coming.

The actor playing the prince had short blonde hair and was wearing a medieval prince’s suit. The design of his trousers already made his legs look long, and with the knight’s boots under his feet, it visually added to the height of his body.

This actor was a mathematics major, and was quite popular in the Imperial University because of his good looks. As soon as he appeared on the stage, there were girls in the audience screaming for him.

Holding the sword at his waist, the prince walked up to the crystal coffin and looked down towards  Snow White inside. As if stunned by Snow White’s beauty, the prince visibly showed a smitten expression.

Anyone who had seen Snow White knows that there was a kiss scene here. But as this was a new version, the audience was not sure if it would play out according to the original plot.

The scene was quieter than ever before, with all the audience watching the stage with bated breath, as if they were waiting for something.

Chen Yiran’s eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the young man on stage bend down, his eyes sharpening the closer he leaned to Li Linlin.

The prince on stage felt a chill for no reason, like the god of death was watching him.

If it weren’t for the fact that this was a performance, he would have turned around to look, but now he could only force himself to play on while breaking out in a cold sweat.

“Wait.” An old voice interrupted the prince’s movements as an old man surrounded by seven dwarfs approached. “She needs knowledge, not a kiss from the prince!”

When the script was first set, the actor playing the prince thought this bit was very wrong, but now a wave of joy rose up in him as he was saved!

He felt the gaze of death disappear!

The old man was the wise man of the village, who has been called by the seven dwarfs to help the princess with her poison. After Snow White was saved, she learned a lot from the old man, and in the process, she refused the prince’s proposal to marry her, choosing to return to her country and take the queen head on.

After that, there was basically nothing more to do with the prince, like a tool of a male protagonist in a big female drama.

At the end of the story, the playwright once again sublimates the theme by having Snow White tell the Queen that there was more to a woman than just her appearance, and that there was never just one definition of beauty. As the play’s poster states, the magic mirror was not qualified to determine who was the most beautiful person to begin with.

At this point the show came to a perfect close, with all the actors coming together on stage to bow to the audience. The audience gave the actors a round of applause and Chen Xi applauded while saying to Chen Yiran beside her, “This version is a good adaptation! Worthy of the level of students at the Imperial University.”

Chen Yiran nodded approvingly and said, “Especially the part about helping Snow White to cure her poison, the original version was too anti-intellectual.”

Chen Xi shot him a sidelong glance. Heh!

After the show, instead of going out for dinner with everyone, Li Linlin went to the car park outside the school and found Chen Yiran’s car. Chen Yiran had driven himself today, and Chen Xi was sitting in the back seat, waving at her through the window when she saw her approaching.

Li Linlin took a secret breath, opened the car door and sat inside.  “Xixi, brother Yiran.”

“Hm.” Chen Yiran in the driver’s seat grunted in response and looked at her through the rearview mirror. “Put your seatbelt on.”

“Oh.” Li Linlin put on her seatbelt, as good as a quail.

“Where’s Wu Hui? How did you get rid of her?” Chen Xi asked curiously.

Li Linlin glanced at Chen Yiran in the front row and leaned over to whisper in Chen Xi’s ear, “I told her that brother Yiran was also here and she was immediately too scared to come.”

Chen Xi knew that it was Chen Yiran who had carried the drunken Li Linlin out of the club that day, and as Wu Hui, who had faced Chen Yiran’s anger head-on, it was only natural that she would react in this way; after all, even the employees in her brother’s company could not withstand a single look from him.

Chen Yiran drove with great concentration and did not chat with the two young girls in the back row, but the two of them talked all the way..

Only after he arrived at the hot pot restaurant and ordered his food did he start talking to Li Linlin about business. “Today’s performance was good, it was wonderful.”

When she received Chen Yiran’s praise, Li Linlin was overjoyed. “Thank you, brother Yiran, I’m so happy that you came to see me!”

“Yeah.” Chen Yiran gave a dispensable response, he was worried earlier that the meeting would be awkward, but with the relationship between their two families, it was impossible not  to see each other. And all the more reason for him, as the older brother, to take the initiative in handling the relationship.

“My brother has put off a meeting to come and see you!” Chen Xi winked at Li Linlin from the side.

“Ahem.” Chen Yiran coughed lightly and digressed, “Didn’t you say before that you wanted a new agent? I’ve contacted a senior agent for you at Shengteng Entertainment, if you agree, I’ll let her go to your studio to take care of your affairs.”

“Huh?” Li Linlin froze, did brother Yiran really want to replace Wu Hui’er? “That…I’m just talking about it, I don’t really want to replace Wu Hui.”

Chen Yiran said, “She really doesn’t fit in too well, she’s just a little girl about your age. How can she help you take care of things?”

“Well… we really don’t even have much experience right now, but Wu Hui and I are still growing together! And we haven’t graduated yet, so we won’t be taking on too much work, either,” Li Linlin said, her voice gradually weakening, “That day at the club was really an accident, it was very proper there! We just sang and didn’t do anything!”

“Is that so?” Chen Yiran gave her a look, “Then do you dare to tell Uncle Li and Auntie Yu?”

Li Linlin: “……”

She didn’t dare.

“It’s good to know that you wouldn’t dare.” Chen Yiran didn’t need her answer to know what she was thinking. “That kind of place, you’re not allowed to go there again.”

Li Linlin’s mouth curved slightly and muttered in a small voice, “It’s not like you’re accepting my confession, and you still care so much…”

“What did you say?” Chen Yiran asked.

“……” Li Linlin doggedly said, “I said that Yiran brother is wise and powerful!”

Chen Xi took out her phone and surreptitiously sent a message to Li Linlin, “Ignore him and bring me along next time. [wink]”