Chapter 59: New Year's Day Talent Show (Part 3)

Time quickly reached Wednesday.

Because the school would hold the New Year's Day talent show in the gym that evening, Nanqin High School let students leave one class period earlier than usual.

During this time, students who had performances that night would go to the gym for a final practice to make sure everything went smoothly.

Since Nanqin High School only had high school students, the talent show was not very long and would end after about two and a half hours.

The event was scheduled from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM, so many students who lived off campus chose to go home for dinner before returning to school.

Li Nuo and An Ran'er did the same. After having dinner at home, they came back to school. Since they were performers, they arrived earlier than the regular students.

By around six o'clock, the gym and the surrounding area were already filled with students. Many were waiting for their friends, while others gathered in groups to discuss what performances they might see that night.

At 6:30 PM, each class monitor led their classmates to their assigned seating area. The seats were not strictly assigned by seat number, so many students chose to sit with their closest friends.

Just before seven o'clock, the principal and several school leaders finally arrived and took their seats in the front row.

Before the show officially began, there were naturally the usual long speeches from the school leaders.

Most of the speeches were about hoping everyone would improve and work hard in the new year. After the principal finished, the dean spoke, and then other leaders took turns. By the time all the speeches were over, more than twenty minutes had passed before the real event finally began.

"Next, the 2015 Nanqin High School New Year's Day Talent Show officially begins!"

The female host's announcement immediately woke up the students who had nearly fallen asleep from listening to the speeches.

There were two hosts for the event, one male and one female. Both were members of the student council. They were tall, good-looking, and spoke very clearly.

The performances were arranged by grade level. The second-year students would perform first, followed by the first-year students.

As for the third-year students, because of their heavy academic workload, they could only sit in the audience and watch. Some study-focused students had even brought review materials with them, making use of every minute to study while completely ignoring the noisy surroundings.

The first performance came from Class 2-1, where several senior girls performed a dance similar to those of Korean girl groups. Their stylish outfits and charming dance moves captivated many of the teenage boys in the audience, who quickly pulled out their phones to record the performance.

After that came a series of singing performances and amateur magic tricks learned from the internet. One particularly impressive act was a street dance performance by several boys from Class 2-6. One of them even performed a difficult Thomas spin, earning loud cheers and applause from the audience.

As the second-year classes were finishing their performances, Li Nuo headed backstage to change into his costume.

Although there were only three performances left before their turn, the waiting felt extremely long. To Li Nuo, it seemed even longer than an entire hour.

After changing into his costume, he became increasingly nervous. This was his first time performing in front of so many people, and he was doing it while dressed as a girl. The feeling was difficult to describe.

Meanwhile, An Ran'er showed no sign of nervousness at all. She casually sat there scrolling through her phone.

"Aren't you nervous at all?" Li Nuo asked.

"Nervous? Why would I be nervous?" An Ran'er replied with a puzzled look as she put down her phone. "Compared to a concert, this is nothing."

"Uh... that's true..."

Because he was so nervous, Li Nuo had completely forgotten that An Ran'er was already an idol.

For someone like her, a school event was insignificant compared to performing at concerts, so there was naturally nothing to be nervous about.

Noticing his anxiety, An Ran'er comforted him.

"You don't need to be so nervous. We've practiced this several times already. Just perform the way we did during rehearsal and relax."

"I... I know."

Even so, Li Nuo still felt as tense as a tightly wound spring. Seeing that he was still nervous, An Ran'er sighed helplessly.

"Do you remember what I told you before? Just imagine everyone watching is a bunch of carrots and vegetables. There's nothing to be afraid of."

At that moment, Zhou Qikuan, dressed as the Evil Queen, walked over.

"Yeah, Xiao Nuo. Look at me. I'm dressed like this and I'm not scared. What are you afraid of? If we're going to embarrass ourselves, I'll do it right beside you."

Li Nuo laughed.

"Haha, hearing you say that actually makes me feel better."

Yeah, there's really nothing to be afraid of, he thought.

Meanwhile, Zhou Qikuan adjusted his cape and said,

"Actually, this cape looks pretty cool, doesn't it? It would be even better if I wasn't wearing the rest of this outfit."

As he spoke, he struck several dramatic fantasy-style poses, looking completely ridiculous.

Everyone backstage burst out laughing at his antics, and even Zhou Qikuan laughed along.

After that, the performers waiting backstage became much more relaxed and less nervous.

Not long afterward, someone came in to announce that it was Class 1-3's turn to perform, and everyone headed onto the stage together.

Although Li Nuo had calmed down somewhat, his legs still felt weak when it was finally time to go on stage. Tiny beads of sweat covered his forehead.

Standing backstage, he nervously looked across the audience of teachers and students. His movements became stiff and slow.

At that moment, An Ran'er walked over, took his hand, and softly said,

"Don't be afraid."

Soon, the performance began.

First came the narrator's voice, followed by Zhou Qikuan's entrance. Facing the student playing the magic mirror, he shouted,

"Magic Mirror, Magic Mirror, who is the most beautiful woman in the world?"

"Of course it's Snow White, my queen."

"What? Guards, go and kill Snow White!"

Zhou Qikuan's appearance and voice quickly made it obvious that he was a boy. The audience immediately burst into laughter when they saw his performance.

However, he was not affected at all and continued acting seriously.

Soon the play moved to the second scene, where Snow White and the Huntsman appeared.

Li Nuo slowly walked to center stage and performed exactly as he had during rehearsal.

The audience began discussing him.

"That girl playing Snow White is pretty cute."

"Yeah, I think so too."

"Too bad she's a bit flat. Not my type."

"You don't know anything. Watching someone grow is part of the fun."

…………………………

Fortunately, Li Nuo did not hear those comments. He continued acting earnestly and had completely forgotten his earlier nervousness. His performance felt natural and smooth.

The play only lasted about ten minutes, so it quickly reached the final scene, the prince awakening the sleeping princess with a kiss.

This was naturally the most anticipated part of the play, and everyone watched attentively.

First, An Ran'er, playing the prince, knelt beside the glass coffin. After delivering a short confession to Snow White, played by Li Nuo, she prepared to perform the fake stage kiss.

But at that exact moment, the lights suddenly went out.

The entire gym was plunged into darkness.

The sudden blackout caused immediate chaos among the audience. Some students started shouting, and several girls who were afraid of the dark even screamed.

The stage was not much better.

The students playing other roles began moving around in confusion. Somehow, someone accidentally bumped into An Ran'er while she was kneeling by the coffin.

Still confused about what was happening, she lost her balance and instinctively fell forward toward the coffin.

Meanwhile, Li Nuo had his eyes tightly closed and had no idea what was happening. He was only wondering why everyone had suddenly become so noisy.

Then he suddenly felt something touch his lips.

It was warm.

Soft.

Very soft, almost like pudding.

It was a strange and indescribable feeling.

At that moment, the lights came back on.

The blackout had been caused by a tripped circuit breaker.

Curious, Li Nuo slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was An Ran'er's face extremely close to his.

Then he realized something else.