Ever since rehearsals for this play began, Lin Miaoke had been guided entirely by Yuan Lai. Yuan Lai was truly meticulous; he explained the emotional shifts of the characters, every single emotional beat, and all the tiny details—including the psychological changes of the male and female leads—with exceptional precision. This was why Lin Miaoke had chosen Yuan Lai out of so many guys. On one hand, he had a relatively approachable personality; on the other hand, he genuinely possessed strong capabilities.
As a freshman, Lin Miaoke desperately hoped to have the guidance of such a senior student. Without a guide, there was no telling how many detours she would have to make.
Yet Yuan Lai had been beaten to the point of hospitalization because of her, leaving no one to explain these things to her, let alone anyone who would accommodate her quirks the way Yuan Lai did.
Not only that, but she had also been publicly criticized by a senior student, leaving her struggling to maintain her composure.
Thanks to Yuan Lai's prior coaching, her performance had felt fantastic, and even Teacher Shi had praised her. But now? Teacher Shi got a headache just looking at her. How could someone who had previously grasped the character so well suddenly lose it all? Was it because the male lead had been replaced?
Furthermore, due to Yuan Lai's unfaithfulness, public opinion toward her and Yuan Lai had soured drastically. Infidelity wasn't really a huge deal, after all—college students dating around and playing petty political games were nothing out of the ordinary. However, she herself intensely despised people who wrecked other people's relationships.
Still, everyone's choices were different. As a teacher, she could only guide and couldn't say too much.
Feeling aggrieved inside, Lin Miaoke opened her mouth and was just about to defend herself. "I..."
Another male student chimed in, "I bet she's just so used to acting like a pampered young miss that she has no clue about the psychology of a lowly maid!"
"If you can't put in the effort yourself, don't drag the rest of us down with you!"
"I seriously don't get how she even got chosen in the first place."
"Must be because she's got skills and pulled some strings. Not like the rest of us, who have zero connections and have to rely entirely on raw talent!"
"Did you really think everyone would fall for Yuan Lai's sweet talk like a fool? I happen to be completely immune to green tea bitches!"
[...]
Lin Miaoke's initial impulse to defend herself was completely drowned out by a barrage of spit and venom before she could even utter a sound.
The moment that impulse transformed into grievance, Lin Miaoke's tears fell uncontrollably.
Wiping away her tears, she apologized to Teacher Shi.
Seeing this, Teacher Shi felt a pang of sympathy and said nothing.
Students didn't have the same reservations or professional responsibilities as teachers. They called a spade a spade, hiding nothing of their inner thoughts, and let whatever was on their minds spill straight out the moment they opened their mouths.
In particular, a few sophomore female seniors who used to be quite close with Song Xinxin launched a direct attack on her personal character and conduct.
Seeing how things were developing, Teacher Shi had no choice but to call for a halt.
"Everyone quiet down. It's completely fine for you all to discuss Lin Miaoke's lack of focus today amongst yourselves. But stick to the matter at hand; don't drag other things into this," Teacher Shi said. After she spoke, the students fell silent. But that didn't mean they harbored no resentment.
Lin Miaoke had gotten selected as the female lead in the first place purely because of Yuan Lai, and with all those rumors flying around between the two of them, who knew what they might have done behind closed doors?
Plenty of female students had been unconvinced before, and now they were even more disgruntled.
One girl stepped forward and suggested, "Teacher Shi, since Lin Miaoke clearly isn't in the right state of mind, why don't we just replace her? We have the Mid-Autumn Festival performance coming up soon. If she keeps holding everyone up like this, none of us are going to get to perform!"
Once someone took the lead, others naturally followed. Sure enough, the girls who had previously failed to make the cut all began clamoring for Teacher Shi to replace her.
Even some of the guys joined in.
"That's right! We can't let a single rat turd ruin the whole pot of soup!"
"Besides, just because she can't act well doesn't mean the rest of us can't! Teacher, let me give it a try!"
"Yeah! Teacher, let me try!"
"Let me try!"
Everyone scrambled to recommend themselves. In this day and age of self-recommendation, there was no need for modesty; when it was time to showcase yourself, you had to put in the effort.
Lin Miaoke had hoped to squeeze out a few tears to win everyone's understanding, but she never expected that while the tears worked, the public sentiment shifted entirely from criticizing her acting skills to demanding that the teacher replace her.
This instantaneous loss of standing left her feeling as though she were walking on thin ice. Staring straight at Teacher Shi, who had yet to give a definitive answer, she anxiously anticipated, *Teacher Shi, please don't agree to them. I can act well. Teacher Shi, you believe in me!*
Her greatest fear right now was that Teacher Shi would nod in agreement. If that happened, all her previous efforts would be completely wasted.
Seeing that Teacher Shi still showed no intention of replacing the female lead despite everything the students had said, the senior actor acting opposite her decided to pour fuel on the fire, looking as though he wouldn't rest until Lin Miaoke was ousted. "Teacher Shi, if Lin Miaoke is still the female lead, I'm quitting. Whoever wants to partner with her can go ahead!"
The senior's words only added to Teacher Shi's already frayed nerves.
Seeing that the students were dead set on replacing the female lead, she developed a headache.
Out of sheer helplessness, she waved her hand to dismiss the class and told them to resume rehearsals tomorrow.
Faced with the students' relentless pressure, she promised she would give them a definitive outcome by tomorrow.
After class, as Teacher Shi walked along the path, she happened to run into Teacher Qiu, who was rushing off to a class. Feeling entirely exasperated, Teacher Shi poured her heart out, telling Teacher Qiu about the students throwing a tantrum and demanding a replacement for the female lead.
Teacher Qiu advised her not to panic. Since the male lead was striking and people were fighting over the role of the female lead, she should simply hold auditions and select a brand-new pair of leads.
As the saying goes, "you cannot establish the new without destroying the old," so there was nothing to worry about. As for rehearsals, as long as everyone put their heart into it, there was always enough time.
Hearing Teacher Qiu's words, the boulder in Teacher Shi's chest finally settled to the ground. Exactly—she had constantly worried about this and that, but in the end, not only did nobody praise her, some people even accused her of secretly favoring the leads and rigging the casting.
If she held open auditions just as Teacher Qiu suggested, making everything clear and transparent for everyone to see, nobody would be able to accuse her of favoritism anymore.
Having made up her mind, a smile returned to Teacher Shi's face. She expressed her gratitude to Teacher Qiu and immediately set about preparing for the auditions.
The next day, news of the auditions for the Mid-Autumn Festival play spread across the campus. Students who hadn't participated in the play before eagerly rushed to sign up; after all, this was an exceptional opportunity to showcase themselves.
Song Xinxin wanted to participate as well, but upon hearing that play rehearsals would eat into her free time outside of class, she decisively opted out.
After classes let out in the afternoon, she still had to head to the coffee shop for a two-hour part-time shift. Alas, all her time was spent making money, so she could only hone her acting skills during class hours. Still, life itself was a grand stage where acting was refined every single second.
Take her today, for example: when faced with a difficult customer, she not only maintained a smile throughout and resolved the issue amiably, but she even won praise from the customer as they left.
Relying entirely on her exquisite acting skills and formidable mental fortitude, she had flawlessly executed her job duties.
To Lin Miaoke's surprise, Teacher Shi wasn't just recasting the female lead—she was replacing the male lead as well. In other words, the senior student who had given her a hard time earlier was also booted out.
This instantly lifted her mood quite a bit. Since both leads were being recast, this wasn't an audition specifically targeted at her.
While this preserved Lin Miaoke's dignity, it made the ousted senior look utterly foolish. However, since he had been the first to threaten to quit, his dismissal was entirely justified. Although he felt displeased inside, he put on a nonchalant front with his words.
And so, the one-day auditions quickly concluded, and Teacher Shi was quite satisfied with the two newly chosen candidates. Lin Miaoke and the previously dismissed senior were reassigned new roles and continued to participate in the play, which served as a disguised form of recognition for their acting abilities.
The whole drama surrounding the play thus came to a temporary close.
Yuan Lai, who was hospitalized with severe injuries to his genitals, recuperated in the hospital. During this period, he caught wind of certain happenings back at school. Yet, due to reasons too unspeakable to mention, he was in no position to interfere with anything. He could only let Teacher Shi hand his role as the male lead over to someone else. This was an acting opportunity he had fought hard for, yet it had all been completely ruined by this chain of events.
If it hadn't been for Lin Miaoke taking the initiative to cozy up to him and muddling his wits, he would never have suffered such a devastating blow—not just academically, but physically as well.
To this day, he still wasn't sure who had beaten him up. He had sent people to pull surveillance footage from the vicinity; it didn't capture Song Xinxin's figure at all, but instead showed Lin Miaoke walking out of that alleyway with an excited look on her face. He utterly despised the woman who had ruined everything for him, and lying there in his hospital bed, he swore an oath to make Lin Miaoke pay a heavy price!
Meanwhile, Song Xinxin's life had returned to tranquility following Yuan Lai's hospitalization. Aside from attending classes, chatting on the phone with Li Xuan, and going to work, there were virtually no special changes in her routine.
As for Meng Qingyan? He had pondered once, twice, and a third time, yet still couldn't come up with a single excuse to go look for Song Xinxin. Consequently, he had holed himself up at the company working without making a single move.
On this day, Assistant Bai walked in to report on recent company affairs. Listening while deep in thought, Meng Qingyan suddenly asked just as Assistant Bai finished speaking, "Has Song Xinxin been up to anything lately?"
At the mention of Song Xinxin, Assistant Bai couldn't help but want to smile. Based on his observations over the past few days, he had noticed President Meng occasionally frowning, occasionally gazing out the window, and occasionally checking his phone—yet refusing to say a single word about it. He had originally assumed Song Xinxin and President Meng had fallen out, so he had specially dispatched someone to look into Song Xinxin's recent situation.
Yet Song Xinxin's life was proceeding as normal, whereas President Meng's life was anything *but* normal. This naturally led him to wonder: could President Meng have been dumped by Song Xinxin?
The thought that Song Xinxin actually dared to dump their President Meng filled him with admiration.
"What are you daydreaming about?" Seeing him stand there in silence for ages, Meng Qingyan felt his heart—already itching like it was being scratched by a cat—grow even more unbearable.
Seeing the boss flare up, Assistant Bai hurriedly gathered his composure and said with a straight face, "Miss Song hasn't had anything out of the ordinary happen these past few days. She just goes to a nearby cafe for a two-hour part-time shift every day after class."
"Part-time work!" It seemed Song Xinxin was truly strapped for cash. Pondering this, Meng Qingyan asked again, "Hasn't anything else happened to her? What about at school?"
Realizing his answer hadn't satisfied the boss, Assistant Bai frantically wracked his brain. "It seems the school recently changed the male and female leads for the Mid-Autumn Festival play. The original male lead, Yuan Lai, was heavily beaten and hospitalized—I heard his injuries aren't light. And the female lead, originally slated to be your cousin—Lin Miaoke—was also replaced."
"Heavily beaten? Yuan Lai got beat up? When did this happen?"
"It was the day President Meng went to see Miss Song."
Meng Qingyan recalled Song Xinxin's words: *"A happy event—does beating someone up count?"*
Could it be that she really went and thrashed someone that day, and that someone happened to be Yuan Lai, her ex-boyfriend?
He had already dug into the whole affair between Song Xinxin and Yuan Lai; aside from the minor details, he pretty much had the full picture. From an outsider's perspective, Song Xinxin was reluctant to break up with Yuan Lai, but Yuan Lai fell for Lin Miaoke, making Lin Miaoke the culprit who wrecked their relationship.
Moreover, judging by other people's descriptions, Yuan Lai still harbored feelings for Song Xinxin, and Lin Miaoke had aggressively forced her way in. In the end, it felt as though Yuan Lai couldn't bear to let go of Song Xinxin, and Song Xinxin found it even harder to let go of Yuan Lai. Because of this incident, the two of them had no choice but to end this inseparable romance in the form of a breakup.
Since outsiders knew nothing about the kidnapping incident, thinking that way made complete sense. But knowing Song Xinxin's attitude toward Yuan Lai, Meng Qingyan absolutely did not believe she still had feelings for the guy. As for the fact that Yuan Lai had once tried to hand Song Xinxin over to a bunch of thugs, that alone was proof enough that he had no real affection for her whatsoever.
Moreover, given Song Xinxin's tit-for-tat personality, thrashing him a good one was entirely within reason.
"That really sounds like her style!" Thinking of Song Xinxin's demeanor, a trace of a smile crept onto Meng Qingyan's face.
"Xiaobai, go get ready. I'm heading out in a bit," Meng Qingyan said, closing the document in his hands and pinching the bridge of his nose. It was time to take a brief break.
Seeing him act this way, Assistant Bai caught on in a second. He prepared some casual clothing and an economical car, and even thoughtfully scrounged up some small change, terrified that President Meng wouldn't look the part.
Upon seeing what Assistant Bai had prepared, Meng Qingyan was initially stunned, then laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "You rascal, you've been doing well lately!"
"That's all thanks to your guidance as a leader!" Assistant Bai said modestly, seeing that Meng Qingyan was very satisfied.
"Who told you to prepare these?" Meng Qingyan suddenly snapped, his expression turning cold. "When did I ever say I was going to see Song Xinxin?"
Assistant Bai jolted, losing his footing for a second as his mood plunged from the clouds like a roller coaster. *Wait, he's not going to see Miss Song?* he thought to himself. *He clearly asked so much about Miss Song—if he's not going to see her, who else could he be visiting?* Though he thought this, he couldn't say it aloud, and immediately nodded in compliance. "Understood, President Meng, I'll go prepare something else right away."
"Make it quick," Meng Qingyan urged.
Once Assistant Bai finished re-preparing everything, the two of them got into the car. Sitting in the driver's seat, Assistant Bai asked timidly, "President Meng, where are we heading today?"
"To the Film and Television City. I remember Director Qiao has a production going on there and has apparently been looking to collaborate with us. Since we have time, we might as well go discuss it."
"Got it, President Meng. I'll arrange it right away."
"No need, just drive straight there!"
After Meng Qingyan gave his instruction, Assistant Bai said no more, comforting himself internally: *Doing more leads to more mistakes, doing less leads to fewer mistakes, doing nothing means no mistakes at all. Not bad, not bad...*
The car pulled to a stop at the Film and Television City. Director Qiao's film was currently in the preparatory stage, and for quite a long time, casting and auditions had been taking place right here.