Chapter 2013 — The Freshman Gala, Part Three

Wei Zhao gently took Xu Shilan's hand, and the students below the stage erupted all over again! They had never imagined that Xu Shilan would hold hands with a boy right there on stage—it was simply electrifying!

Though no one actually believed there was anything going on between them, for Xu Shilan this still counted as no small breakthrough, and so a chorus of whoops and shrieks burst out from the audience...

After taking Xu Shilan's hand, Wei Zhao drew her lightly into his arms, and in that very instant he swiftly pressed his fingers to several of her acupoints...

Waves of soothing sensation flowed from Wei Zhao's hand, and Xu Shilan felt herself relax at once...

"Sister Yaoyao, do you think Sister Shihan is pretending to have a headache just to seduce Brother Band-Aid?" Shen Yushu gave free rein to her suspicious nature. "Yesterday she already seemed to have a bit of a thing for Brother Band-Aid."

"I don't think so, surely?" Gu Mengyao frowned, then said, "Sister Shihan isn't that kind of person. This time it must be genuine. Weren't there a man in black wandering around below the stage earlier? Could it be that the man in black is what set off Sister Shihan's headache?"

"That's possible too... Wow, they're actually hugging each other!" Shen Yushu pointed at the stage and cried out in surprise.

"What?" Seeing that Wei Zhao and Xu Shilan really were embracing, Gu Mengyao felt a flicker of doubt as well. Xu Shilan had never had a single rumor attached to her name—still less could she possibly let a man get that close to her—and yet this time...

"Hmph, hmph, there's definitely something going on between them. Tonight I absolutely have to get to the bottom of it!" Shen Yushu declared.

"..." Gu Mengyao said nothing, but she too was beginning to have her doubts.

Wei Zhao cured Xu Shilan's headache, and by then Xu Shilan had just finished singing the passage about love; what came next was the tense wait for the final exams, so Wei Zhao returned to his former seat and sat down...

This little "improvisation" was taken by their classmates below the stage as something rehearsed in advance; they cheered themselves hoarse with excitement, each wishing that the boy performing up there could be him... Of course, the students on stage were just as puzzled—what kind of act were Wei Zhao and Xu Shilan even putting on?

Surely that hadn't been rehearsed, had it?

But up on stage there was no good way to ask, so for the moment they simply had to stay baffled.

At last the song ended, and the great curtain slowly descended. The performance was over. Xu Shilan let out a breath of relief—this show had ended with a narrow escape after all.

"Brother Lin, just now you and Xu Shilan..." Once offstage, in the backstage dressing room, Bai Weituo asked impatiently.

Since Xu Shilan had a separate changing room together with Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi, Bai Weituo had no qualms about speaking freely over here.

"Nothing much. Xu Shilan was feeling a little unwell just now, so I treated her a bit," Wei Zhao said simply. "Didn't you notice?"

"Ah! Now that you mention it, she did seem a little off..." Bai Weituo's memory was jogged, and he did recall the earlier situation—Xu Shilan really had seemed not quite right, which was why Wei Zhao had gone over to help treat her.

"So that's it. And here I thought you were having an affair with the big star!" Zhao Shengji said, sounding rather disappointed.

"What affair? Our leader and Wang Xinyan are the couple. How could he go fooling around with Ming Da under **'s nose? What are your eyes even for?" Song Xiaodao, however, believed what Wei Zhao said.

As for the rest of the class, since they weren't well acquainted with Wei Zhao and had heard what ** said, they naturally stopped being curious; one after another they changed clothes and prepared to leave the stage and go watch the other departments' performances...

Back in his seat, Wang Xinyan was still sitting beside Wei Zhao, while Han Jingyi sat on Wang Xinyan's other side.

Wang Xinyan did not ask about what had happened earlier, only watching the performance quietly, as though she had never seen Xu Shilan and Wei Zhao embrace at all.

Han Jingyi was even more remarkable: while everyone else watched the show, she was fiddling with a tablet. Had she been playing a game it would have been one thing, but a glance from Wei Zhao showed she was not—her screen was filled with formulas and data Wei Zhao could not make sense of, and he had no idea what she was writing...

Zhang Duopan was beside himself with fury. He had been on the verge of complete success, and then Wei Zhao had gone up and hugged Xu Shilan, and the whole thing was resolved just like that; it seemed Xu Shilan had recovered as well. Though Zhang Duopan had no idea how Wei Zhao had done it, he loathed him to the bone for wrecking his plan—he could have killed him.

Originally, had Xu Shilan slipped up, first place would surely have been Cheng Yiyi's; but now Cheng Yiyi had no choice but to settle for second.

Hearing the praises of the classmates around him made Zhang Duopan even more furious!

"How beautiful! So this is how wonderful college life is!"

"Yeah, I'm so full of longing now—I wish a Prince Charming would drop right out of the sky..."

"I used to think college life was boring, but now it looks like it's only just beginning. I'm so envious!"

"How nostalgic—all of this... we've all been through it too!" a fourth-year student said with feeling.

And these voices were, without a doubt, an affirmation of the pharmacy program's performance. Zhang Duopan's expression was as black as could be.

"Damn it, can you all shut up for a moment? What the hell's so great about 'good, good, good'?" Seeing Zhang Duopan's foul mood, Fan Ganhe shot to his feet and snarled at the surrounding students.

"Who do you think you are? Believe I'll cut off your head and hang it on a telephone pole?" Li Biaohan loathed Wei Zhao, but he was a fan of Xu Shilan's singing; hearing Fan Ganhe kicking up a racket in front, he was instantly annoyed...

Fan Ganhe had heard rumors of the tough characters at the school, and seeing that it was Li Biaohan, he was so frightened he didn't dare let out a peep; he slunk back to his seat in a hurry.

"Forget it. Our turn is coming up soon—go get ready," Zhang Duopan said darkly. He was still quite good at keeping his composure; though the plan had failed, their class's performance still had to be given everything.

Zhang Duopan and Fan Ganhe rose and headed for the backstage dressing room. He had already prepared an excuse for losing anyway; never mind that this attempt had failed—it wouldn't affect much.

"Meiyue, Bai Weituo and the others' performance was a great success!" Chai Xiaoling said with a grin, munching on potato chips. "This time Zhang Duopan is bound to lose!"

"Just eat your chips. Zhao Shengji bought those for you, didn't he? That glutton—careful he doesn't turn you into a fat girl too!" He Meiyue retorted crossly.