With the time limit on the skit, the script was short and punchy, focusing on humor with one joke after another.
Many of the lines and jokes did not seem funny on the page, but paired with the atmosphere onstage and the actors' exaggerated expressions, they became hilarious.
Chen Shi'an had never written a script, but he had made a point of learning about it lately. With Wen Zhixia's draft to work from, he made a few tweaks to the original.
There was not much to change. After spending one Chinese class on it that afternoon, Chen Shi'an finished revising the script. "Class Monitor, take a look. What do you think of this version?"
Lin Meng Qiu took the notebook from him and lowered her head to read.
[Character: Lin Meng Qiu-a student at Yunqi No. 1 High School in 2023, class monitor, good at summing things up, calm, often deadpan when pointing out the punch line-]
The girl blinked at the new characterization Chen Shi'an had given her, then continued reading through the rest of the plot.
Although she and Annoying Cicada had roughly equal parts, at least the balance between the characters was no longer a complete mess like in the original version. Even Xu Zihan, the "deskmate from thirty years ago," had a few lines.
"This works."
Lin Meng Qiu nodded, finally satisfied.
"Great. I'll take it over for the others to look at in a bit."
During the break, Chen Shi'an showed the revised script to Qiu Yufu and Xu Zihan beside him. Zihan was both excited and touched!
"Daoist Master! We're deskmates?! You're really looking out for me!"
"Uh... Zihan, do a good job!"
"You bet!"
Xu Zihan was quite happy with his role. Not only would his face be on show the whole time,