CH 82

Chapter 82: The Eve of the Competition

Time disappeared quickly. The [Little Swallow Dressed in Flowery Clothes] team members were so busy they almost had no time to sleep, working through the nights to finish their accessories and final adjustments to their outfits. The opening of their show was very important — it was their first chance at catching everyone’s attention.

The first design that would come out was a collaboration between Xiao Qi and Zhou Yi. In order to sufficiently reflect their main theme, they created the ‘green straw rain cape’ from an ancient poem; a sumptuous dress from the peak of the Tang Dynasty lay underneath, with both the headdress and accessories all reminiscent of the dynasty. Nan Jia was going to personally model this outfit.

But in the end, under the lights of the dress rehearsal, the effect of the outfit wasn’t enough with its straw rain cape. After watching the video replay, Nan Jia thought the green straw rain cape was overly plain and was more suited for the later outfits inspired by martial artists Chen Pi had designed. The effect of it wasn’t enough to immediately catch people’s eyes. 

Everyone was at a loss, thinking there wasn’t enough time to rectify it, and even Xiao Qi could only suggest using fresh flowers as a decoration for the cape.

Nan Jia ended up raising her eyebrows at Yue Zhishi, who’d been silent the entire time. “What do you think? Your brain has a bunch of random ideas, quickly think of how we should decorate the cape.”  

Yue Zhishi was reclining on the table, twirling a pen. “We should give it up.”

“Ah?” Nan Jia couldn’t believe it. “Even you would give up?”

“I mean give up using the straw rain cape in the opening.” Yue Zhishi sat up straight and very earnestly said, “I actually have an idea, but I don’t know if we have enough time. I read through many history books earlier when I was researching, and the Book of Sui said that Emperor Yang ‘met rain while hunting, slipping into oilskins’. This ‘oilskin’ is actually what rich people used to wear as raincoats back in the ancient days.”

“It’s not a bad idea to pull off the straw cape after reaching the end of the T stage, but the model’s outfit inside is actually too splendid — the status of someone wearing an outfit like that wouldn’t be wearing a green straw rain cape.” 

Zhou Yi frowned. “But… how would we make an oilskin? Wouldn’t it be too sticky?” 

Yue Zhishi spun his pen. “It’s actually not hard, I read in a book that we need to soak silk in tung oil. After that, we’ll need to spread a mixture of soil and water over it before drying it out in a well-ventilated and shaded area. The oilskin won’t be sticky that way. We can even spray water over it, it won’t get drenched from the water on the stage. We can try.” He lowered his head to look at his watch. “We still have time.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Nan Jia agreed. “We still have a lot of silk, and if it ends up looking good, it’ll look more magnificent than a straw cape.”

Since the team had Yue Zhishi, Nan Jia and Qu Zhi, who were all filled with energy and productivity, they started working on the opening’s plan b after confirming there were no other issues with the other rounds. With only twenty hours left until the competition, they dipped their leftover gold silk fabrics into the golden tung oil to produce an oilskin.

The process was much harder than they’d thought. Xiao Qi used a sewing machine to tailor the oilskin cape by hand, and then she felt like it didn’t match with the bamboo hats. After Yue Zhishi modified the design, they decided to attach a pale golden veil over the very first bamboo hat in order to tie it in with the gold cape.

Once they’d applied three layers of the tung oil, Chen Pi and Zhou Yi brought back some mud taken from the mountains behind campus and mixed it together with water. They then spread it over the cape on a fixed board, drying it with a hair dryer and large electric fan. They waited for a good few hours, and the mud crust had only just dried by the time Nan Jia finished reconfirming their entire show’s background music and timings.

Xiao Qi peeled off the mud bit by bit, and when the completed cape fluttered over Nan Jia’s body at 6am in the dressing room, everyone spontaneously cheered.

Yue Zhishi could feel himself being covered in goosebumps — the joy and triumph of group creation exhilarated him.

It was already 7:30am by the time they finished cleaning up. They needed to place all of the clothes and their accessories together into sets so that it’d be convenient for the models to change into them. There were thirty sets in total, ten for each round; it was a significant amount of work.

“There’s a rehearsal at noon. We need to take our models over to the stage for practice, and then they’ll need to go through makeup. I don’t think we’ll have much time to rest until the competition starts.” Nan Jia checked her watch, still wanting to say something, but she couldn’t hold back a yawn.

Qu Zhi patted her own shoulder. “Rest for a bit?”

Nan Jia glanced at her and was about to lean down; she curved over halfway and then straightened up again, giving her own face a pat. “I can’t, I’ll end up sleeping really deeply.”

Yue Zhishi couldn’t help but smile. “In order to prevent our beautiful opening model from falling off the stage due to lack of energy, I — the leader for the Little Swallow Dressed in Flowery Clothes’s team spirit — will allow you to sleep for a while.”

“Yeah, me too!”

“Senior Nan Jia, sleep.”

After letting all three girls sleep on the chairs in the dressing room, the remaining three guys busied themselves with creating the outfit sets, and they finally completed them around 10:30am. Yue Zhishi felt like all of his muscles and limbs were cramped, not wanting to move at all, but they still needed to take their models to rehearsal.

“Are your parents coming?”

“Of course, they have to witness the highlight of my life!” Chen Pi bragged. He elbowed Yue Zhishi. “Le Le, what about you?”

“Ah?” Yue Zhishi nodded. “They’re coming, they asked me for tickets a really long time ago. They might even record the entire thing.”

“Wow, your mom really loves you.”

“Yeah…” Even though she wasn’t his true mom.

He couldn’t help but send a message to Song Yu, even though he knew Song Yu was in a meeting the entire morning. 

[Le Le: Your little boyfriend’s about to turn useless from being overworked.]

There were a ridiculous amount of people at the rehearsal. Yue Zhishi was already relying on coffee to continue staying alive, and he followed his team over, his heart jittering as soon as he heard the drumbeats of the stage audio. His entire body broke out in a sweat, and it felt like he was suffering from heart palpitations.

He was originally standing next to Nan Jia, helping her double check each model, but Yue Zhishi’s heart was truly beating too quickly — he wanted to find a place far away from the speakers where he could rest.

“Eh? Where’s the guy closing the show…” 

Yue Zhishi didn’t hear Nan Jia’s muttering to herself, walking away by himself to the door. He saw the long table where they’d be checking tickets and wanted to rest there; unexpectedly, he met the team from the journalism school.

Xu Lin was in front, and he immediately saw Yue Zhishi. He arrogantly asked him from very far away, “Mixed Sweetheart, why are you alone? Where are your useless underlings?”

His heart palpitations yet to subside, Yue Zhishi barely managed to give him a look and didn’t speak.

Xu Lin thought something was strange, seeing his face so pale. “What’s wrong with you? Didn’t eat?” He came closer, the tip of a finger poking Yue Zhishi’s arm. “Are you okay, you’re really pale. Are you naturally this pale, or are you sick?”

Yue Zhishi thought this guy’s brain wasn’t too normal, but he didn’t want to say it out loud. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? Look, the competition comes second to your body. Let me take you to the hospital.”

The rest of the journalism school’s team behind him wondered at how he could’ve said nonsense like the competition coming second. “Wait, Xu Lin, it’s our turn to rehearse soon. You’re not going to watch?”

“Are flowers going to bloom with me watching?” Xu Lin took hold of Yue Zhishi’s arm, tugging him two steps towards the door. “Are you going or not. Let me tell you, very few people can sit in my car.” 

“There’s really no need. I’m fine, I just had too much caffeine.” Pushing off his hand, Yue Zhishi felt his legs weaken — but someone else caught him. He raised his head, and when he saw Song Yu’s face, he even thought he was hallucinating.

“How are you here?” Yue Zhishi’s voice was very soft. “Didn’t you say your meeting was going to run until 12:30?”

“I left midway,” Song Yu answered very succinctly, his hand going by itself to touch Yue Zhishi’s forehead. He only looked at Xu Lin once he was sure Yue Zhishi didn’t have a fever, and without any expression on his face, he asked, “Who are you?”

“Ah? I…” Xu Lin pulled back his hand a bit awkwardly. “I’m his opponent, the kind who’ll press him onto the floor and fiercely pound at him.”

Song Yu frowned, thinking there was something wrong with this guy’s brain, so he directly decided to ignore him. He pulled Yue Zhishi into his arms, saying, “Let’s go and eat something first.”

“But I haven’t told senior Nan Jia…”

“I’ve already talked to her. You need to take a rest right now.”

The ignored Xu Lin stood where he was, and as he watched the two of them walk away, he boiled over in anger like a kettle.