"Shi Hui."
Carrying her schoolbag, Jiang Jinran suddenly appeared before the group. Beaming, she swept her gaze over everyone's faces before finally settling on Shi Hui. "I happen to be free today, so I can join the rehearsal."
She deliberately emphasized her words. "Let's rehearse in the arts building later. Don't spoil the fun."
Shi Hui froze briefly, then anger crept into her eyes. "Jiang Jinran, watch your tone."
The others couldn't help feeling surprised, too-
How had Jiang Jinran's personality become like this?
She had become so brazen, and she even liked talking big...
"Watch my tone?" Jiang Jinran raised her eyebrows. "Fine, should I leave, then?"
It wasn't as if she absolutely had to play this tree anyway.
Jiang Jinran turned to head for the classroom's back door-
"Wait."
Shi Hui gritted her teeth and hurriedly called Jiang Jinran back. "Stay for rehearsal. We'll go to the arts building."
Jiang Jinran got her wish and went to the arts building.
She wanted to go to the arts building partly because she wanted to see Shi Hui get taken down a peg, and partly because-
Subconsciously, she felt that the arts building might have some faint connection to the mysterious piece of iron she had received.
Shi Hui had always firmly believed that if inexplicable, bizarre incidents occurred one after another in the same area, there was a high probability that those incidents were connected.
Of course, she also worried that the arts building might be dangerous.
But there were plenty of people rehearsing, after all. If something really happened, Shi Hui and her group would be there to bear the brunt of it.
Besides, apart from that incident involving Shi Hui, there didn't seem to be any other rumors of danger about the arts building, and it remained open to students.
Although Jiang Jinran also really wanted to lie flat, shut her ears to everything outside her window, and concern herself with nothing, now-
She seemed to have been forced into a quagmire.
She had no choice but to get to the bottom of it.
Imperial Star's arts building was a European-style building with a distinctly artistic air.
Jiang Jinran followed Shi Hui and her group into the large classroom on the first floor in a grand procession.
"Teacher, we brought the tree actor."
As soon as she entered the classroom, Shi Hui made a beeline for the female teacher sorting through the props and pointed at Jiang Jinran behind her by way of introduction.
Everyone's eyes immediately focused on Jiang Jinran.
As though they really were looking at a tree.
The teacher came over, patted Jiang Jinran on the shoulder, and smiled. "I'm the teacher leading the team for this Hope Cup. There are only a few days left until the Hope Cup finals, so you'll have to work hard!"
Jiang Jinran nodded perfunctorily.
The teacher then introduced the stage play they planned to perform in the Hope Cup finals-
Put simply, it was a story about environmental protection.
Shi Hui was the undisputed female lead. The story began when a tree outside the home of the heroine she played inexplicably died because of environmental degradation. For the sake of a tree, the heroine then embarked on her touching environmental journey, doing a whole series of positive-energy things, blah, blah, blah-
In the end, the dead tree inexplicably came back to life!
And at the very end, naturally, everyone lived happily ever after.
What Jiang Jinran needed to play was this tree that died and came back to life, dying and reviving!
At first, they had considered using a prop tree, but the effect wasn't very good.
The teacher felt a prop wasn't expressive enough to convey how miraculous and touching it was for this tree to die and come back to life, dying and reviving...
So they eventually considered having a real person play it.
But no one was willing. They went around asking several arts clubs, yet still no one was willing.
In the end, Shi Hui could only return to her class to choose an actor.
"When you actually go onstage, you just need to put on the costume and perform a few physical movements. It's very simple, and you really don't have much stage time." The female teacher pointed at the costume piled in the corner and patiently explained to Jiang Jinran.
The teacher was naturally happy, and relieved as well. She had thought no one would be willing to play the tree, and now that they had finally found someone, she was terrified Jiang Jinran would run off.
Jiang Jinran looked toward the costume. A round, plump trunk was paired with big, rounded green leaves, with an opening in the middle that would expose the actor's face...
It might look a little comical at first glance, but the longer she looked, the more inexplicably cute it seemed.
It was better than she had imagined.
Still, she could understand why no one wanted to play this role-
After all, chances to appear on a big stage were hard to come by. Playing something like this, without a proper appearance, lines, or much stage time, was simply a thankless task. They would be better off not acting at all.
"Jiang Jinran, did you get a good look? That's what you need to wear. Want to try it on beforehand and see if you can get used to it?" Shi Hui had come up beside Jiang Jinran without her noticing. By now, she was no longer afraid and only wanted to watch Jiang Jinran make a fool of herself in the costume.
She smiled with her eyes curved, ill-intentioned mockery showing in their depths.
The others also did their best to conceal their schadenfreude, looking over as though they wanted to laugh but didn't dare.
Jiang Jinran merely gave Shi Hui a sidelong glance without speaking.
Then she swaggered over to the sofa at the side and sat down, brazenly crossing her legs as she smiled at everyone. "No need. I'll just watch you rehearse."
"With my tiny part, there's nothing to get used to. I could go straight onstage." Jiang Jinran gave a leisurely yawn. "You, on the other hand, need to work hard..."
With that, she leaned back, lounging lazily against the sofa.
Like some "big shot" supervising their rehearsal.
Shi Hui clenched her fists, the amusement in her eyes vanishing abruptly.
With so many people around, she couldn't very well lash out. She could only call the others toward the center of the classroom, slipping in a snide remark along the way. "True, playing a tree doesn't take much skill. No need to practice too hard. As long as you can be an inanimate object, you're fine."
The rehearsal officially began.
Bored by what she was watching, Jiang Jinran yawned several times off to the side and had a few bites of snacks along the way.
But the rehearsal didn't seem to be going very smoothly-
"Shi Hui, have you still not mastered this song?" The female teacher frowned, looking with some difficulty at Shi Hui, who was singing.
The plot required Shi Hui to sing an original song onstage, but even after all this rehearsing, she still couldn't sing it well enough. She even consistently flubbed several of the difficult passages.
"This won't do." The teacher's expression grew serious. "But it's too late to change the script now. If we change this singing scene, we'll have to make major changes to the entire script... We don't have time."
"I'll try again." Shi Hui was frustrated herself. Frowning, she lowered her head to look at the lyric booklet in her hands and opened her mouth to sing again. She had only just sung the opening-
"Pfft, hahahaha."
Sitting on the sofa, Jiang Jinran couldn't help bursting into laughter.
She laughed wildly, as though afraid Shi Hui wouldn't hear her.
Everything Shi Hui was doing came to an abrupt halt. She narrowed her eyes at Jiang Jinran in displeasure. The others looked stunned for a moment before expressions of discontent appeared on their faces as well.
To them, Jiang Jinran's laughter showed a complete inability to read the room and a total lack of respect for Shi Hui. It had also disrupted the atmosphere of their rehearsal!
"Jiang Jinran, what are you laughing at?" They weren't going to put up with it either. Their faces darkened as they questioned Jiang Jinran in hostile tones.
Their voices were clamorous and shrill. "Is it that funny? Or do you have some uncontrollable laughing disorder?"
"Your voice really sticks out, you know? Can you be quiet?"