Play (4)

The group of three turned to Feng Qi's grinning face. Neither Jun Yang nor Pei Ling said anything, probably waiting for the other to take the lead. Since Jun Yang did not pick up the thread of conversation, Pei Ling took it upon herself to guide the stream of conversation before Jun Yang decided to pull Feng Qi into their ranks.

However, she was not going to be the one who rejected Feng Qi, after all, she had an image to maintain. Instead, she coughed under her breath, and her friend took the cue. She turned to Feng Qi and said with a polite yet firm tone, "I'm sorry but our team is already full."

"But the maximum size of a team is five and if my eyes haven't failed me, I only see three people here," Feng Qi argued. However, the young man had his face turned to Jun Yang when he made his case, instead of addressing the girl who stopped him.

Naturally, the girl took offense to his rudeness and she started to lose her temper, "Can you not understand human language? I've already told you, we have reached our capacity. There is no need for us to have another person join us…"

Suddenly, Jun Yang cut through the girl's tirade by announcing, "It's okay, Feng Qi can join us."

Even though Jun Yang was not looking at Feng Qi when he said that, he could have sworn he could see the bad-boy smirk on the young man's face from the periphery of his sight. As much as it made his heart pound, Jun Yang could not help but wonder if he had made the wrong choice. This felt like another scheme of Feng Qi's to get under his skin… Yet again it had also reached a point where Jun Yang himself had a hard time telling whether he was encouraging that behavior from Feng Qi or not.

The girl turned to Jun Yang and started to argue, "But Jun Yang, there is no need for us to carry on a dead weight. Why would you take on the worst student in the class just to add more workload for the team? I understand that you are a kind person and perhaps this is influenced by the relationship between you and Feng…"

If the girl had not suggested the rumours of a relationship between the two, Jun Yang probably would have allowed her to ramble on. Unfortunately she did and Jun Yang was quick to shut her down.

"The fact is none of us here is better than the other in terms of acting and scriptwriting. This places all of us on a level playing level, in fact, Feng Qi might be more talented at this than the rest of us so what gave you the confidence that he will be the one who drags us down?"

Jun Yang's retort was so fast, logical and structured that the girl had no counter. She stammered with her mouth open. She turned subconsciously to Pei Ling for help. The latter leaned in as if she had something to say. The girl thought her rescue had arrived but Pei Ling turned on her instead, "That's right, Cindy, you should not have such prejudice against others. Perhaps Feng Qi will be able to surprise us, why are you so adamant against him joining us. As your friend, I feel like it my responsibility to remind you to not be guided by blind prejudice. On that note, I think you owe Feng Qi an apology."

The girl was dumbfounded. She was doing all those things on Pei Ling's behalf and now she was setting her up as sacrifice?!

From Pei Ling's perspective, she knew that the battle had been lost so in that case, she better cut her losses and sided with Jun Yang to earn some brownie point. She did not hesitate at all to commit the betrayal because compared to her mission, the girl was more dispensable.

Just like how Pei family was dependent on Jun family, the girl, Cindy's family was indebted to Pei family as well. It was a hierarchy of power and it was truly a dog eat dog world out there. There was nothing the girl could have done even though the indignation that she suffered was huge.

All she could do was to suck it up and turned to Feng Qi with a pout and uttered, "Feng Qi, I'm sorry. Please forgive me." It was obvious that her heart was not in it but Feng Qi was not really aiming for her apology anyway so he just let it slide.

Feng Qi yanked over a chair and sat down at the table. The discussion continued. Since they were planning a play, the first thing that they needed to decide on was naturally none other than a script.

Throughout the discussion, Pei Ling's friend appeared less willing to help her along but it did not really matter that much. Without the extra aid, Pei Ling still managed to push the script down the direction that she wanted.

She suggested that they do a love story and of course the main character would feature herself and Jun Yang. They would be a pair of high school sweet hearts and Feng Qi as well as Cindy, would play respectively the role of Jun Yang's and Pei Ling's best friend. In a way, it was not that different from real life, minus the romance.

Jun Yang hesitated about the plot but since he did not have any better idea, he just went along with it. After all, it was only acting and the performance would be short.

Feng Qi had too little investment in the assignment to really care. He merely shrugged and allowed Pei Ling to take the reins.

Cindy had even less of a reason to complain. She was just there to provide support to Pei Ling, even though she was feeling less and less willing about it.

That was how the plot was decided and ushered through. Pei Ling said since she was the one who suggested it, she would volunteer to work on the plot. No one had any comment.