072 Thank You
“Thank you, thank you everyone. The new semester has begun. I hope everyone enjoys their brand new university life…”
Hearing the girl on stage say this, Wang Heng, who was sitting peacefully in the crowd, suddenly had a bad premonition. The back of his neck seemed to tingle faintly.
Sure enough, the next moment, the premonition seemed to be coming true.
Pei Ningle continued, “Standing on this stage today, I also want to thank one person. Without him, without his support, I definitely wouldn’t be able to sing here…”
In front of his eyes, a blood-red character for ‘Danger’ seemed to float by.
He sat up straight and heard the girl’s next sentence: “So… thank you, big brother!”
With that, Pei Ningle bowed, turned, and left the stage, running off with the hem of her skirt and disappearing from the audience’s sight. Only that crisp “big brother” seemed to linger in everyone’s ears.
“Oh my god, where did this little cutie come from!” Wang Ke clutched his chest, as if he were about to have a heart attack.
Fu Hanwen was obviously much calmer. “Little Ke, you’re not her big brother. No matter how cute she is, what does it have to do with you?”
Tang Hexing subconsciously looked at Wang Heng beside him again and saw that his roommate’s expression was a little strange.
Wang Heng’s right hand was also on his chest, but unlike Wang Ke, that hand was gently patting his own chest, as if he were breathing a sigh of relief.
Tang Hexing was a little curious. “Teacher Wang, what are you thinking about now?”
Wang Heng: “I was thinking… I seem to have made a mistake in the code I wrote yesterday! Sure enough, I can’t forget to check.”
Tang Hexing: “Whether there’s a mistake in the code or not, can’t you just run it once to find out?”
Wang Heng nodded seriously. “Yes, just like life, it’s really full of surprises. It’s really hard to predict what the future will be like.”
Pei Ningle’s speech was indeed beyond his expectations, but after a little thought, it shouldn’t be a big problem. Anyway, she didn’t mention the name Wang Heng, so it wouldn’t bring him any unnecessary attention. And Pei Ningle had said ‘big brother’. The normal guess should be that they were siblings with a blood relationship, right?
Suddenly, Wang Heng had a flash of inspiration.
Since Pei Ningle was already calling him that, why not just give her a “little sister card”? In the future, they could just get along like brother and sister. Wouldn’t that also be a reasonable way to avoid ambiguity? As long as she dared to cross the warning line, he could remind her—don’t be like that, I’m just your big brother!
Hmm, this path seemed feasible.
The blue-skirted girl had run off, and the applause had died down.
The two hosts took the stage. The female one smiled and said, “That performance just now was so wonderful. Everyone loved it! I believe the next act will also receive the students’ applause.”
The male host announced, “For the next act, please enjoy the crosstalk performance by Guan Honglang and Xie Hongbo from the School of Life Science and Technology, second year—’I Am a Scientist’!”
With that, the two hosts left the stage.
Two boys in crosstalk-style long gowns walked up, holding microphones. One was Guan Honglang, the other Xie Hongbo. They were so nervous that their limbs were a little stiff.
After all, coming on stage after such a popular performance, the pressure was a bit high. If they messed up, the contrast with the previous act would be too strong.
At this moment, Xie Hongbo had a flash of inspiration, gave his partner a look, and then turned his head to look backstage.
Guan Honglang understood and said into the microphone, “Hey, why are you craning your neck so long?”
Xie Hongbo turned his head back. “That girl just now sang really well!”
Guan Honglang: “Of course. Do you even need to say that?”
Xie Hongbo: “I really like her song!”
Guan Honglang: “Nonsense, I like it too.”
Xie Hongbo turned and took a step. “I’m going to go get her phone number…”
Guan Honglang grabbed his partner. “Do you like the song? You’re just lusting after the girl. You’re despicable!”
A burst of laughter erupted from below the stage.
Guan Honglang and Xie Hongbo both breathed a sigh of relief in unison. It seems the audience’s reaction is not bad?
After finishing this impromptu gag, the two began to perform the crosstalk they had memorized in advance…
Below the stage, Wang Heng also started to laugh.
But some people beside him weren’t listening to the crosstalk. For example, Wang Ke was still seriously discussing, “She can’t be sixteen. Fourteen at most!”
Tang Hexing turned his head. “Teacher Wang, what do you think?”
Wang Heng: “Eighteen.”
Wang Ke couldn’t agree no matter what and quickly retorted, “How can she be eighteen? Look at her. She’s in the third year of junior high at most!”
Wang Heng waved his hand. “If you think she’s in the third year of junior high, then she is. I won’t argue. Let’s just listen to the crosstalk quietly. This crosstalk is quite fun.”
The impromptu gag just now was only moderately funny to others, but to him, it was particularly familiar, hitting on a meme that would only become popular a few years later…
**
Pei Ningle returned backstage, found her phone in the dressing room, and sent a text message to Wang Heng:
【Was it okay for me to say that just now?】
Wang Heng: 【It was fine. But since you’ve already said it, you can just call me big brother from now on.】
Pei Ningle didn’t think too much about it and just replied simply: 【Okay!】
Putting down her phone, she came to the mirror.
The girl in the mirror had a brilliant smile on her face, the corners of her mouth unable to help but curve up, unable to be suppressed even if she wanted to.
“My singing just now should have been okay, right?” She patted her cheeks with both hands. “Mhm, I probably didn’t embarrass myself!”
Just then, the dressing room door opened.
The bar owner, Yan Zitao, burst in. “Little Le, can we discuss something?”
The girl turned around and asked, “Brother Tao, why are you here? What do you want to discuss?”
Yan Zitao said with some excitement, “I’ve thought of a plan. It’s to use you to advertise and attract the students from this school to our shop. It’s very simple to operate. We just need to hand out flyers at the school gate and tell them that you sing at our shop every night.”
Pei Ningle tilted her head. “Do I need to hand out the flyers?”
Yan Zitao shook his head vigorously. “How could that be! I just need to print your photo on the flyers and then hire a few part-time students to hand them out at the school gate. It’s just that printing your photo on the flyers, I definitely need to talk to you about this first…”
Pei Ningle thought for a moment and said, “I think it’s okay, but I want to discuss it with my manager.”
“Manager?” Yan Zitao was stunned. “You even have a manager now?”
Pei Ningle: “It’s just my cousin. You know him, Brother Tao.”
“Oh…” Yan Zitao’s gaze suddenly became a little meaningful. “You were saying ‘thank you’ to this cousin on stage just now, right?”
Pei Ningle: “Yeah. He’s the one who has helped me the most.”
Before the girl could finish, Yan Zitao suddenly slapped his head hard. He had thought of a seemingly very interesting idea.
“I know how to print the flyers… Damn, I’m a marketing genius!”
