The School Anniversary Celebration Begins

The following afternoon.

The school guards lifted all restrictions, and many people from outside the school came to visit.

Some found it a novelty and strolled around as though it were a park, taking the opportunity to look at the youthful female students.

More were parents who had brought their children, hoping they would come to long for a place at the school and study hard once they got home.

Naturally, it had no effect, but the school was happy to promote itself this way.

Chen Lu was with the drama club members. After spending so many days together, they had naturally grown a little close, and he was ready to cheer them on.

Unlike usual, Liang Zhirou looked a little worried.

When Chen Lu had gone to ask, all five spots allocated to his class had already been claimed.

He was a little shocked to hear it. After all, only a moment ago, he had been saying that not even a dog would go to an event like this.

For all the evening shows held before, the counselor had to press people into attending to fill the seats.

He could not, for the life of him, figure out why places were in such demand this time.

Liang Zhirou was torn. She lowered her head and silently fiddled with her fingers.

As Lin Miaomiao's good friend, she had to go and watch the drama club's performance, but if Chen Lu couldn't go...

She couldn't bear to leave Chen Lu all by himself, lonely and forlorn.

Chen Lu, however, acted as if nothing were wrong, smiling and bantering with this group of social terrorists.

After he finished chatting with everyone, he noticed Liang Zhirou looking down and had a vague idea what the silly girl was thinking. For some reason, warmth spread through his heart.

"Why are you unhappy? Because I can't go?" Chen Lu asked, moving closer to her.

The girl gave a soft "Mm," her voice a little subdued.

Chen Lu being unable to go with her was only part of it. The other reason was that he was acting as if nothing were wrong...

It made her worry a little that Chen Lu might not be all that willing to go with her.

"Silly," Chen Lu said with gentle reproach. "I didn't take it to heart because I've got plenty of ways to deal with it."

"Why don't you talk to your classmates and see if anyone doesn't particularly want to go?" Lin Miaomiao came over too, making a stupid suggestion.

Chen Lu glanced at her and thought, My dad teaches right here. Why would I need to go offending people?

Still, he had no intention of going to Chen Guanglin over such a small matter.

"I just need to talk to my counselor. Why go to all that trouble?"

Lin Miaomiao and Liang Zhirou both froze when they heard that, apparently never having imagined that was an option.

Their own counselor was fierce as could be and wouldn't even let them take leave.

Soon, the group arrived outside Chen Lu's counselor's office.

He knocked twice, and after opening the door, glanced at Liang Zhirou and Lin Miaomiao before walking straight in.

"Hello, counselor." Chen Lu paused after entering. "The way you're dressed, anyone who didn't know better would think you were a student."

The counselor rolled her eyes at him, but the compliment still pleased her. She picked up her pen and prepared to write him a leave slip.

She wasn't much older than the students and wasn't so stiff with them. She also often called Chen Lu over to help, so he could usually get a leave slip almost as soon as he walked in.

Chen Lu was a little speechless. He hurried forward to explain, "I'm not here to ask for leave."

"Then what are you here for?"

"The spots for our class to watch the evening show have already been assigned, right? I'd like to go too. Could you add me to the list? With so many people there, one more or one less won't make any difference." He said with a light laugh.

The counselor paused, then gave him a strange smile. "I knew you'd definitely go."

After all, Mo Yuqing's name was right there on the master list of performers for the show.

Even his counselor knew that Chen Lu liked Mo Yuqing.

Back in their first year, Mo Yuqing had found it a novelty and wanted to run for class monitor, so Chen Lu had run himself ragged helping her.

Later, Mo Yuqing began to find it tiring, so Chen Lu simply took over all the class monitor's duties himself, leaving her to enjoy what it felt like to be one.

He absolutely doted on her.

And Chen Lu really was capable. Even if Mo Yuqing wanted to try out a position in the student council, he could probably make it happen.

As a young woman who had just finished graduate school, she actually longed for and envied that kind of love.

Now it was Chen Lu's turn to be confused, because he hadn't understood her at all.

She added, "That's easy enough. If you have something else to do, you can go. If not, help me enter these records."

Chen Lu glanced outside. "I do! I won't disturb you any longer."

The counselor looked up in the same direction and caught Liang Zhirou and Lin Miaomiao sneaking curious peeks inside.

Lin Miaomiao wasn't fazed at being caught, while Liang Zhirou hurried away.

Chen Lu suddenly sensed a strange gaze. He turned around to find the counselor glaring at him in irritation.

"Xiao Lu, you really should be faithful," the counselor said after glancing at the master list of performers.

????

Chen Lu left in a complete fog, still wondering what the counselor had meant.

As soon as he came out, Liang Zhirou and Lin Miaomiao came up to him.

"Well? Did your counselor agree?" Lin Miaomiao asked anxiously when she saw Chen Lu's stern face.

Seeing his expression, Liang Zhirou's heart sank too, and she clutched the hem of her clothes tightly.

"It's settled."

Lin Miaomiao, who hadn't held out much hope, was shocked. So someone could actually make a creature like a counselor this easy to talk to?

That was ridiculous!

Then she remembered it was Chen Lu, and it seemed rather normal again.

Even so, she rolled her eyes at him. "Then why the long face?"

Chen Lu thought for a moment, then looked at Lin Miaomiao and joked, "I need to keep my distance from you, so people don't misunderstand and think I've got a foot in two boats."

Lin Miaomiao was furious. She pointed at Liang Zhirou. "But you don't need to with her, right?"

Liang Zhirou half understood and lowered her head, a little embarrassed.

Chen Lu nodded slightly, deliberately putting on a serious expression.

"Drop dead!!"

An extremely loud shout echoed through the corridor.

That evening.

The group queued and squeezed into the Jiannan Great Hall, then found their seats.

The space in front of the enormous stage was crowded with people in charge of filming, and many wore television station badges.

Every seat around them was occupied. It was a sea of people.

The whole affair was much bigger than Chen Lu had expected.

No wonder the counselor hadn't needed to pick lucky volunteers to fill seats this time.

Liang Zhirou seemed never to have seen anything on this scale before. She sat in a daze beside Chen Lu, her gaze drawn to the stage and the colorful lights in front of her.

She watched the novel sights, and Chen Lu watched the silly girl. They stayed that way until the show began.

Just then, Chen Lu suddenly felt someone pat his shoulder. He turned to see that Jiang Chao had, at some point, changed seats and come to sit beside him.

Jiang Chao's girlfriend, Liu Yan, sat to his right.

"Oh, here to watch the show?" Chen Lu asked.

"Yeah. What are you here for?" Jiang Chao replied.

Liu Yan, sitting beside them, couldn't take it anymore. "Are you two doing a comedy routine?" she said irritably.

Only then did she notice Liang Zhirou sitting beside Chen Lu. She froze slightly but said nothing and didn't take the initiative to greet her.

Seeing Liang Zhirou lower her head, too embarrassed to speak, Chen Lu didn't take the initiative to introduce them either.

"Apparently the show's divided into two halves. The first is for the officials, and the people going onstage are all prominent figures who came out of this school. The second half is made up entirely of performances prepared by current students," Jiang Chao whispered.

Chen Lu found that surprising too. For some reason, it felt quite considerate, much better than rigidly putting on those hollow, grandiose performances.

Just as Jiang Chao had said, the first half was extremely boring.

Although the silly Liang Zhirou still watched attentively, Chen Lu and Jiang Chao were both nearly asleep.

By the time the second half started, Chen Lu had already fallen asleep.

Just then, Jiang Chao suddenly started patting his shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

Jiang Chao pointed at the stage. "Li Sinian's the host! That bastard didn't tell us before!"

Chen Lu woke right up and rubbed his eyes. "Whoa, it really is him."

Onstage, Li Sinian was hosting alongside a girl they didn't know, looking quite professional.

But their interest lasted only a little while, and soon they were bored again.

It wasn't until the drama club came onstage that Chen Lu sat up straight.

The results of everyone's hard rehearsals showed. In just a minute or two, they had caught everyone's attention.

It was the best performance so far, bar none. Even the people filming in the front row became much more attentive.

Chen Lu leaned toward Liang Zhirou and asked close to her ear, "Do you like it?"

The girl nodded. "I've never seen anything like it before..."

He looked at how cute she was, so attentive and curious, and couldn't help smiling.

But when he remembered that the silly girl before him had actually seen so little of the world, his heart ached a little for her.

A few minutes later, Liang Zhirou leaned over, took a bottle of mineral water out of her canvas bag, and unscrewed the cap for him. "Are you thirsty? I brought you some water..." she asked gently.

Chen Lu had just taken it when Jiang Chao nearly made him spill it with a pat.

"Will you knock it off?" he cursed in a whisper.

Jiang Chao didn't turn to look at him. Still watching the stage, he patted him and muttered:

"Mo Yuqing..."