Chapter 46: High School Extra (Xi Qin’s Perspective)
“Classmate Xi Qin—”
As soon as Xi Qin stepped out of the classroom, he heard someone calling him from behind. He was quite surprised, because since returning to school, very few people in his class had actively approached him to talk. Among that small group, most had gradually stopped trying because of his indifferent attitude.
Xi Qin turned his head with a neutral expression, slightly lowering his eyes as he looked at the person who had come out to call him. It was a rather cute girl, about the height of his shoulder. Xi Qin racked his brain for a moment and recalled that she seemed to be the class monitor, though he didn’t remember her name.
“Classmate Xi Qin,” the class monitor seemed a bit intimidated by the new classmate who had never smiled, stiffly tugging at the corner of her mouth as she asked, “Are you planning to go home?”
“Mm,” Xi Qin answered briefly.
“There’s still the arts festival activity later…” The class monitor hesitated, as if she wasn’t sure how to continue.
“I’m not participating,” Xi Qin said.
“I know,” the class monitor’s smile grew even stiffer. “But those who aren’t participating are still required to attend and watch the program.”
Xi Qin subtly furrowed his brow. “Can’t I skip it?”
“The school rules say you have to go,” the class monitor patiently explained to the new student. “Since it’s during normal class hours for high school students, the school organizes this event to allow us to relax a little. If anyone leaves during this time and something happens outside, the school will be held responsible, so the rule is that students can’t leave before the end of the school day.”
Xi Qin pressed his lips together.
The class monitor added, “And, Jia Guanghui and Qin Liqun from our class are performing. Don’t you want to go to the venue and cheer them on?”
Honestly, Xi Qin really didn’t care. He didn’t even know who those two were.
But of course, he couldn’t say that directly to the class monitor, so he nodded instead.
“Alright then,” the class monitor took his nod as agreement, thinking that the new student seemed to have a sense of class solidarity. Her smile softened considerably. “Please wait a moment. We’ll be heading to the studio shortly, and we’ll enter in a line by class.”
The studio at H City Shiyan High School was quite large and could easily accommodate the entire second-year grade.
Xi Qin’s class was Class 4, and their seats were located in the middle, towards the front of the left side of the corridor.
Xi Qin was the last in line from his class. After entering, he sat in a soft chair in the top left corner of the Class 4 area.
Once everyone had seated, the lights in the studio dimmed, leaving only the stage lighting.
Xi Qin rested his elbow on the armrest of his chair, fingers curled against his head, with little interest as he raised his eyes to look at the stage.
Under the spotlight, a boy and a girl walked to the center of the stage. After stopping, the boy made a slight gesture of courtesy.
The girl smiled charmingly. “Hello, everyone. I’m Xu Shanshan, the host of this arts festival.”
The audience responded with enthusiastic applause.
“Hello, everyone,” the boy said with a smile, raising the microphone after the first round of applause had stopped. “I’m the host, Jiang Zhong.”
The applause from the audience grew louder, accompanied by many girls’ screams and the teasing shouts of a few boys.
Among them were three girls sitting in front of Xi Qin. As soon as Jiang Zhong finished saying his name, the three girls started pushing and pulling each other while screaming.
Xi Qin nearly jumped in surprise, and the finger resting against his head slipped. Instinctively, he looked at Jiang Zhong several times with more attention.
His first thought was that this boy had really long legs, and they were very straight.
The slim-fitting clothes outlined his figure perfectly—narrow waist, legs long and slender, and his shoulder and neck forming a right angle. Even when standing casually, he appeared upright and full of energy.
Under the lighting, the boy’s features became even clearer. His almond-shaped eyes curved slightly due to his smile, and a light seemed to radiate from them. His small, well-shaped nose, and lips that were neither too thin nor too thick, moved as he exchanged words with the female host.
“I’m sure everyone is looking forward to the upcoming performances,” Jiang Zhong said, his fingers with clearly defined joints holding the microphone in front of his mouth. “So let’s quickly invite the first performance guest.”
“Please enjoy the medley of songs brought to you by Class 8,” Xu Shanshan followed, announcing a list of song names.
“Let’s go,” Jiang Zhong said, leaving the stage with Xu Shanshan.
As Jiang Zhong’s figure disappeared backstage, Xi Qin’s gaze lazily returned to the stage.
It wasn’t surprising that he only paid attention to the male host among the two. Xi Qin had known for a long time that his sexual orientation was toward men. With a handsome and dazzling boy like Jiang Zhong right in front of him, it was hard not to be attracted to him.
Medley performances like this were common and overdone, with a group of students singing for fun, not really sounding good. But they were lively, and the songs were familiar to people of this age. As an opening program, it was effective in heating up the atmosphere in the studio.
After the first performance, Xi Qin’s expression, which had remained calm, softened slightly, and it was time for the next hosts to announce the next segment.
However, this time, the two hosts were different, and the previous one… what was his name again? Xi Qin hadn’t caught it. The boy was no longer on stage.
“This time it’s not Jiang Zhong,” as if answering Xi Qin, two girls from Class 5 in the back row quietly discussed. “There are four hosts in total, and they take turns.”
Quite formal, Xi Qin thought.
The two students from his class—sorry, Xi Qin still hadn’t remembered their names—had their program scheduled for the sixth segment.
As the fifth program was nearing its end, students from the class began reminding each other. A classmate sitting to Xi Qin’s right poked his arm enthusiastically and said, “Remember to clap when Guanghui and Liqun perform! Clap hard to show the spirit of our Class 4!”
Xi Qin: “…”
Xi Qin helplessly nodded, unsure if the classmate saw him. After speaking, the classmate turned to tell others the same thing.
The performers from the fifth program exited, and the stage lights dimmed, reducing visibility in the studio.
Class 4 students straightened their backs, whispering excitedly, eagerly anticipating the next performance. Xi Qin remained lounging in his soft chair, his left cheek suddenly feeling a gust of wind. Instinctively, he turned his head and saw a blurry figure quickly running from the left corridor and stopping near the front rows. The person was gesturing excitedly, as if asking classmates to hand something over.
The lights on stage brightened again, and the last two hosts walked to the center of the stage.
This time, the announcing process was different. Previously, the male and female hosts had exchanged lines, but now it was all done by the female host, with the male host standing by and adding brief remarks like “Mm,” “That’s right,” “Exactly,” and “You’re right”…
The male host’s teasing caused the students in the audience to laugh, and finally, the female host asked with a smile, “So, can you all guess what the next performance is?”
“Anyway, I guessed it,” the male host continued.
“What is it?” the female host teased.
“What is it, really?” the male host played along.
“That’s right,” the female host’s tone shifted, “Now, let’s welcome Jia Guanghui and Qin Liqun from Class 2, Grade 4, to perform the cross-talk ‘Our Class 4.’”
As soon as her words finished, the area around Class 4 erupted into applause that lasted for a long time, accompanied by teasing shouts from the boys in the back row. The sound was so loud that it completely drowned out the male host’s last words, “Please welcome.”
Amid the shouting from the classmate on Xi Qin’s right, Xi Qin clapped politely and thought to himself that the classmate must be good friends with the two performers who were about to take the stage.
The hosts exited, and the performers took their place on stage, with the lighting focused solely on the two of them.
Xi Qin adjusted his posture and turned his attention back to the center of the stage, but suddenly, his arm resting on the armrest was yanked hard.
Startled, Xi Qin turned his head, only to see the person who grabbed him kneeling awkwardly on the stairway corridor, letting out a soft exclamation. Before Xi Qin could react, the person quickly pressed one hand to the floor and grabbed Xi Qin’s arm with the other, using his strength to stand up.
The person didn’t stand up straight but instead bent at the waist, squatting slightly, which didn’t obstruct anyone else’s view of the performance and allowed him to move subtly.
“Sorry,” the person said, turning to Xi Qin.
The stage lights had dimmed by this point, but with his 5.0 vision, Xi Qin quickly recognized that the person beside him was none other than the male host who had taken the stage earlier—what was his name again? Oh right, Jiang Zhong, one of the girls in the back row had mentioned him.
Jiang Zhong wore an apologetic expression, his intentionally wide almond-shaped eyes giving him a pure and innocent look.
Xi Qin and Jiang Zhong made eye contact for a moment, and Xi Qin’s gaze lowered to the armrest, where Jiang Zhong’s hand was still tightly gripping his arm.
“Oh!” Jiang Zhong quickly realized and immediately let go, murmuring, “Sorry again.”
“It’s fine,” Xi Qin looked at Jiang Zhong once more, thinking to himself that this person’s eyes were really beautiful, especially with the light reflecting in them.
After hearing Xi Qin’s reply, Jiang Zhong gave a slight nod, then hurriedly bent down and ran through the corridor toward the back door of the studio, making a half-circle on the outside before running back to the backstage area.
He was the next performer. When he was changing clothes earlier, he had realized he had forgotten a prop, which had caused him to rush and search for it, and in his haste, he had tripped on the step on his way back.
Fortunately, the studio floor was carpeted, so he wasn’t injured. Also, since the lights were dim, no one saw his awkward fall, except for the person who had helped him.
That person’s face had been in the dark, so Jiang Zhong hadn’t seen what they looked like. He also considered them part of the “I haven’t seen myself make a fool of myself” category. In any case, he didn’t know who that person was, so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed if they met again.
After Jiang Zhong left, Xi Qin rubbed his arm where it had been grabbed, feeling the slight pain. The temperature in the studio was just right, and after not being there long, he had taken off his school jacket, now only wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt, and Jiang Zhong had grabbed his bare skin.
That grip was quite strong.
It was clear that Jia Guanghui and Qin Liqun had been preparing for this performance for a while. In their script, they mentioned everyone in Class 4, including Xi Qin, who had only recently transferred into their class.
Xi Qin was surprised when he heard his name mentioned, and then he remembered both Jia Guanghui and Qin Liqun’s names and faces.
After the cross-talk performance, Class 4 once again sent Jia Guanghui and Qin Liqun off the stage with enthusiastic applause, giving them full respect.
The lights dimmed and brightened, and the three hosts walked onto the stage once more.
The audience below was a bit confused, and the male host asked the question on their minds, “Huh? Shan Shan, where’s your partner?”
Xu Shanshan feigned being wronged, “My partner is going solo.”
After a few more light-hearted jokes from the three hosts to tease the audience, they finally announced Jiang Zhong’s name and the performance.
“Please enjoy the dance performance brought to you by Jiang Zhong from Class 2, Grade 4.”
Xi Qin squinted his eyes.
Only one spotlight remained, shining directly on the center of the stage. Jiang Zhong stood in the light, wearing a loose white shirt and black trousers that draped beautifully. A black tie hung loosely around his neck, and the skin on his face and neck was almost translucent under the spotlight.
Jiang Zhong slowly raised his hand to adjust his black tie, and as the music began, he started to move rhythmically, his actions smooth and natural.
Xi Qin pressed his lips together. The Jiang Zhong in front of him now was completely different from the one who had apologized to him just minutes ago—lazy, enjoying the moment, like a cat.
When the music finished, the studio erupted into the loudest applause since the opening.
Tsk, his popularity is quite high.
However, that wasn’t all. Less than ten seconds after the lights on stage dimmed, they brightened again, and several more people appeared on stage, standing on either side of Jiang Zhong.
Jiang Zhong caught the black baseball cap thrown to him by one of the people and casually placed it on his head. He then lowered his head slightly, crossing his arms and letting them hang in front of him.
A new piece of music, entirely different from the first, began. At the first beat, Jiang Zhong tilted his head slightly, instantly transforming into the cool boy vibe.