When She Stops Being Dramatic novel Chapter 243

Chapter 243: Chapter 100: The Top Star of the 60s Cultural Troupe (39)

After a dreamless night, Xia Zhaoyun once again directed He Qingran in making breakfast. Today’s menu was potato pancakes, a smooth and savory steamed egg custard, fragrant rice porridge, and a new way to prepare pickled vegetables.

Since they were up early, Xia Zhaoyun also taught He Qingran how to make fluffy pancakes. The process was similar to making a cake, requiring the egg whites to be whipped by hand and then gently folded into the yolk batter before being pan-fried over low heat.

They made original, raisin, and red date flavors.

The fluffy pancakes had a delicate, soft, and springy texture, even more delicious than the sponge cakes from the supply and marketing co-op. A single bite while they were still steaming hot was pure bliss.

They ended up devouring more than half of the entire batch of pancakes.

He Qingran rubbed her sore arm, saying through gritted teeth, "Once my arm recovers, I’m making these again!"

The allure of such delicious food was hard to resist.

After a delicious breakfast, everyone was in high spirits. They saw the kids off to school, then went their separate ways to work.

Seeing the girls’ beaming faces, Xia Zhaoyun smiled and led them through their daily stretching routine. When they were done, she clapped her hands to gather everyone together.

"First of all, I want to praise you all. You were fantastic yesterday, far exceeding my expectations. Thank you for putting your trust in me."

The moment she finished speaking, the girls burst into enthusiastic applause.

Xia Zhaoyun couldn’t help but laugh. "Okay, okay, I can feel how happy you are. But what I need to say is this: from this moment forward, our journey to chase our dreams has officially begun."

"If you believe in me, I will lead you all to the city’s arts festival in August!"

Always warming the bench, the backups to the backups, the scenery behind the scenery—the girls of Group Three had never been particularly strong-willed. The instructors had given up on them long ago, and they had simply gone with the flow, waiting to get married and be transferred to other positions.

Only a stubborn refusal to give up completely had kept them going through their daily exercises, just barely preventing their skills from deteriorating entirely.

To them, getting to perform a thirty-second solo at a factory-level event was the highlight of a lifetime. They had never even dreamed of participating in a major performance at the city level.

"Teacher Little Xia, we’re with you!" the girls declared one after another.

"Whatever you say, we’ll do!"

Xia Zhaoyun smiled and nodded, then mysteriously beckoned them closer. "I need you to help me put on an act," she whispered.

They all looked at her in confusion.

"You all know we defied everyone’s expectations and took first place in the preliminaries. What do you think Group One, Group Two, and Director Yuan, who never thought much of us, are thinking right now?"

"To prevent any trouble, we need to create an atmosphere that suggests we’re suffering in silence."

Her words left them even more bewildered.

"Let me put it this way," Xia Zhaoyun said, raising an eyebrow with a smile. "We’re about to get first place, which means we get to split three new batches of fabric from the factory. Are you happy about that?"