The three other roommates Sheng Ning shared a dormitory room with also clearly sensed a change in her.
She was a lot calmer, a lot less talkative, and a lot more diligent.
Her other two roommates were Zhao Feifei and Wu Youli. They were from the theatre squad and didn’t usually train in the same place as Sheng Ning and Zhang Hongmei, who were from the song and dance squad. They weren’t involved in the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala incident, and had only heard rumors about it. This was their first time seeing Sheng Ning since the incident.
Zhao Feifei was a very upright person and had never been fond of Sheng Ning. At night, when she returned to the dormitory and saw her occupying the only desk and writing, she sneered.
Wu Youli, who came back with her, found her expression worrisome, and nudged her.
“Don’t worry. I won’t kick up a fuss.” Zhao Feifei glared at Sheng Ning and carried her basin with her to the shared bathroom to wash up.
Sheng Ning felt Zhao Feifei’s glare. She looked up just as Zhao Feifei walked out, and a thoughtful expression appeared on her face.
She interacted with the two girls when she was recuperating, but they didn’t have a good relationship with her and barely spoke to her at all.
Sheng Ning thought to herself that since she intended to change her fate in this life, she couldn’t afford to offend anyone, especially those closest to her.
But the problem now was… what was she going to do? After all, she had already offended them. The more she thought about it, the more of a failure she felt. She didn’t have a single friend in the whole troupe apart from Zhang Hongmei.
Wu Youli greeted her with an amiable smile. “Sheng Ning,” she said softly.
Sheng Ning turned her gaze to Wu Youli, and her eyes sharpened. Wu Youli was taken aback by the look in her eyes, and stared at her uncertainly.
“What… what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Sheng Ning replied good-naturedly. She remembered that Wu Youli had experienced something similar to herself in the previous life.
Wu Youli had gone out to have fun but ended up getting drunk and raped. She was very timid and didn’t dare to utter a word about it after returning. In fact, she managed to hide what happened until an accident during a performance that caused her to fall and suffer a miscarriage.
Sheng Ning tried to recall exactly what happened, but she couldn’t no matter how hard she tried. The only thing she was certain of was that it had happened before hers.
Wu Youli began to panic under Sheng Ning’s scrutiny. She quickly grabbed her shower essentials and rushed out the door.
“She’s so timid. How on earth did she end up partying with a delinquent?” Sheng Ning muttered to herself, just in time to be overheard by Zhang Hongmei, who had just stepped inside the room.
“What are you doing?” Zhang Hongmei hollered, giving her a fright.
“I’m writing a self-criticism.” Sheng Ning chewed on the end of the pen in her hand and pulled her hair in frustration.
The prospect of writing a self-criticism was daunting enough to make Zhang Hongmei feel nauseous. “I can’t help you with that.” She only had a primary school education, but she was one of the best-educated people in her village. It was only when she came to the song and dance ensemble that she realized how far behind she was compared to everyone else.
This had been a source of shame for Zhang Hongmei for a very long time.
“Don’t worry. I can handle it on my own.” If she were her past self, she never would have been able to do it. But she had been exposed to the internet and had gone through intensive practice while in prison.
A hundred thousand words would’ve been a piece of cake for her.
Sheng Ning took a grand total of three hours to finish her self-criticism essay. After proofreading it to ensure it was error-free, she placed it in her bag.
She had gotten used to waking up early while in the village, and woke up the next morning before the alarm clock even rang. When she rose from bed, she realized that Zhang Hongmei was already up and out cleaning the premises.
The competition within the General Union was fierce and largely depended on a person’s background, performance, and capability. Zhang Hongmei was the most guileless person in the troupe, and she gladly took all the dirtiest and most tiring chores upon herself just so she could remain in the ensemble.
Sheng Ning greeted her. In the wet morning mist, Sheng Ning’s fair and tender face looked as beautiful as a fairy’s.