Together Forever

Chapter 3.3

Are You Truly Real?

When she returned to school, her dormitory was empty of people. Shanghai's climate was humid. She had left for only seven days, but her clothing inside the closet all looked as if they had been sprayed with water. In the end, she had no choice but to toss them all into a plastic bucket and head to the laundry room.

"Tong Yan!" Outside the window, Ai Mi was gripping the metal security bars and excitedly calling to her. "I've got one piece of good news and two pieces of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

Last night on the train, Tong Yan had once again stood the entire night, and she was unbearably exhausted right now. Hearing these words, she only had one urge: to take the entire bucket of dirty clothes and smack it upside down over Ai Mi's head. In the two years she had known her, so long as Ai Mi made an appearance, irrespective of whether it was "good news" or "bad news," it was always news that meant bad things in store for her.

Sure enough, without waiting for her reply, Ai Mi continued to prattle on and revealed, "The good news is, for this year's Welcome Gala, an open vote in the school was taken and the nominee with the most votes for male emcee was your faculty's..." She deliberately dragged out the last vowel. Several girls standing inside the laundry room had perked up their ears to listen in, and now, they heard three words that made their blood boil with excitement. "... Great Beauty Gu."

Tong Yan was astonished. "He's a teacher. How can he host the Welcome Gala?"

"Why can't he?" Ai Mi was grinning like a blooming flower. "Don't forget, our new university president is known for being a maverick. Didn't he even chat anonymously with students on BBS? A mere teacher of the Law Faculty of course can be sacrificed, then."

When Ai Mi spoke the word, "sacrificed," there were many layered meanings contained in it.

Poor Teacher Gu...

"What about the bad news?"

"Because of the specialness of Great Beauty Gu, the Students' Union's fine arts department decided that another experienced emcee needed to be chosen, and on top of that, that person needed to be able to work well and be in sync with Great Beauty Gu... And that person is you."

"I resigned from Students' Union after I finished second year."

"Yup. That's why the president sent me to come do so mental work and prep on you. You've emceed a Welcome Gala, the school's Youth Talent Competition, and a school Christmas party. You have the most experience. Plus," Ai Mi gave her a woeful look and said, "you know that an emcee has to be able to handle all sorts of bad things that crop up. Are you really going to be so cruel to make us find a rookie instead, and then Great Beauty Gu won't be able to come in properly with his lines and will be humiliated?"

She remembered her first time on stage, she had gotten her lines wrong, the microphone had not worked, and the audience had burst out laughing... The most hated incident was the time the performers had knocked over the background scenery flats. She could not even imagine what would happen if Teacher Gu, who could not hear, encountered these types of situations.

"So, for the sake of your master of ceremonies career, the last piece of bad news is, you can't take part in the play's rehearsal anymore." Ai Mi let out a long sigh. "Yan Yan, I've done a disservice to you. You can't even personally be involved in the play you wrote the script for..."

Tong Yan shook her head wordlessly. After some time, she nodded again. Her entire brain was focused on the matter about serving as masters of ceremonies for the evening gala and could not be bothered at all about some stage play right now.

"I'm done saying what I need to say, eh." Ai Mi was very pleased that Tong Yan had not refused. "Tonight, five o'clock in the main auditorium, we're having the first meeting. Supposedly your faculty's Great Beauty Gu just arrived in Shanghai. Such a coincidence, really."