Doing It Over Again [Rebirth]

14: Mid-Autumn Festival Performance

High school life turned out to be a lot easier than Shen Shao imagined. The students in his class weren't buried in books all day either. His classmates not only got good grades, they had a surprising array of talents. Ballet, piano, pipa, guqin, painting, etc. were so common they didn't raise an eyebrow. The most astonishing thing for Shen Shao was finding out that a petite, pretty girl in his class was the national women's martial arts youth champion last year.

As the saying goes, you can't judge a book by its cover, and that went double for the students in his class.

Soon after classes began, the school began planning its Mid-Autumn Festival Cultural Show. Since their class had a lot of talented students, they weren't worried about having nothing to perform. What worried them was putting together a good enough sketch to make it through the preliminary selection. If they didn't pass, they wouldn't be able to shine in the Mid-Autumn Festival performance.

The cultural show was only scheduled to last two hours, but the senior high school had almost fifty classes across all three grades. In addition, the school had invited a few performers to liven up the atmosphere. That meant only a few classes would be able to perform on stage.

The students of Class 15 held a class meeting and brainstormed for a long time. In the end, they decided that the students who were good at musical instruments would play accompaniment for a girl who'd studied professional singing. They, in turn, would be joined by several boys and girls who could dance, culminating in a final sword dance.

The initial concept was good, but the students spent a lot of hours deciding how to integrate all the elements. Shen Shao noticed that several of the girls researched dances and costumes from previous dynasties and even found references for the choreography. They had such a serious attitude about doing everything to perfection that Shen Shao felt inferior by comparison! Since he didn't have much artistic ability, he went along with the group and avoided sharing non-constructive opinions.

Although Shen Shao could play the piano, other students in class were far more talented, which meant there was no need for him to play. In the end, he was assigned the role of a young scholar wielding a calligraphy brush and splashing ink next to Lu XiaoYu as she performed the sword dance.

Lu XiaoYu was the girl with the hidden martial arts skill. Shen Shao's role was intended to contrast the heroic style of a woman's sword dance with the gentleness of men. The choreography was meticulously designed and tested everyone's skill.

After several rehearsals, Class 15's piece successfully made it into the final performance.

Liu Shuang, a member of the Cultural Committee, was dressed in a Tang Dynasty costume with a flying immortal's topknot wig. After looking around at all the students in ancient costumes in front of her, she slapped her hand on the table with imposing momentum. "This performance is the first time Class 15 will appear in front of the whole school. We have to uphold our reputation." With that, she looked at Zhou ZeYu, who was standing in the corner, lost in thought. "Zhou ZeYu, when it's time, you need to beat the drum as loud as you can, otherwise there won't be a sense of spectacle when Lu XiaoYu comes out. Got it?!"

"OK!" Zhou ZeYu automatically straightened his back. Shen Shao was standing next to him in a jade crown and a wig. Zhou ZeYu wiped his forehead and said quietly, "How come all the girls in our class are so tough? They don't even give us boys a chance!"

Shen Shao straightened his wide sleeves and said lightly, "Haven't you heard the saying?"

Zhou ZeYu was puzzled. "What saying?"

"Women hold up half the sky. Without them, watch out or half the sky will crumble and will crush you to death."

"Man, do you even care about your brothers at all?"