Three days later, on Thursday.
Zhang Yiyang arrived at the office door and silently boosted his spirits, calming his slightly nervous mood.
"It's okay, no need to be nervous," he reassured himself. "I've got the sketch script and a complete set of materials from my junior, there's absolutely no way this can go wrong!"
Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and this year it falls together with the National Day holiday, creating an eight-day long holiday. Today is the last day before the holiday, and he is here to report to the guidance teacher on the progress of the preparations for the newcomer's welcome party.
This report is very important.
If it goes well, it means that most of the main programs for the welcome party can be confirmed, and all that's left to do is to practice according to the established timeline.
This long holiday only requires three to four days of rehearsals, and the rest of the time can be spent having fun.
But if the report does not go well, then it will be troublesome. At that time, the welcome party's program list would need to be adjusted continuously, and considering the steps involved in selecting new scripts, casting, rehearsing, etc., will consume a lot of time, there would be no rest for these people during the holiday.
In short, this report is not only related to the success or failure of the welcome party in the future but also impacts the precious holiday time for all involved.
However, Zhang Yiyang was still quite confident because yesterday, Lu Zhixing had given him the detailed script for "The You in My Eyes" and all the virtual set materials used on stage.
After seeing the script, Zhang Yiyang understood why Lu Zhixing said it didn't quite count as a sketch.
Although its form leaned towards that of a stage play, it was not presented in the third-person perspective, but rather in the first-person.
That is to say, the audience's view was not omniscient but through the eyes of one of the characters. Instead of a stage play, it was more like the performance style of a game.
At first, Zhang Yiyang was somewhat worried that such an innovative original format might flop, but after reading the script, he was completely captivated.
With the art materials that Lu Zhixing had somehow sourced and could be used directly, Zhang Yiyang instantly determined that they would surely win over the guidance teacher.
They might even be able to secure more resources from the academy.
After calming his emotions somewhat, Zhang Yiyang gently knocked on the door.
"Come in."
He pushed the door open and saw Fang Ling, the guidance teacher for the academy's newcomer welcome party, just finishing up a document in her hand.
"Teacher Fang, I'm here to report on the preparation for the welcome party."
Fang Ling glanced at him, "Hmm, take a seat. Have you settled all the language-based programs?"
Teacher Fang Ling was known for her high standards, and this time the academy had issued a strict order that the welcome party's popularity must reach the top five. Fang Ling, being at the forefront of this directive, naturally passed down the pressure to Zhang Yiyang and Yan Wei.
If this had been before, Zhang Yiyang would have been genuinely intimidated to face Fang Ling, not knowing how to report to her.
But now, with the support of his junior, he could stand tall and face Fang Ling's deadly gaze confidently.
"Teacher Fang, the language-based programs have been settled, there are two. One is 'Undercover Trainee,' and the other is 'The You in My Eyes.' Here are the scripts."
Zhang Yiyang said as he handed over two printed scripts.
Fang Ling reached out to take them, first looking at "Undercover Trainee." As she read, her brows began to furrow.
"This script...
"There are plenty of punchlines and comic moments, but isn't it a bit too aggressive?
"It's not that I'm worried about anything else, mainly that it might lead the tone of the entire evening astray. Our event represents the image of the Game Design Academy and is to be presented before the entire university's faculty and students, so it's better to stay on the side of caution."
For the teachers at the academy, they are not worried that the satire of the sketch will offend certain talent shows.
Because in their view, the newcomer welcome party is just a minor affair, with its influence mostly confined to Jinghai University, and it is unlikely to gain significant widespread popularity. So they do not have to be concerned about offending those talent shows, as the capital probably won't even be aware of such a sketch.
The teachers are more concerned about the "image of the academy."
Domestic universities are still relatively conservative as a whole, and newcomer welcome parties also serve to showcase the academy's image, so they worry about the "tone of the evening," just as holiday galas decades ago worried, "whether it's good for the audience to laugh their heads off or not."
"Undercover Trainee," in this regard, carries some risk if presented to the leadership of the academy, or even the university leadership.
In such a context, sketches that end on a bittersweet note are often more favored. These sketches might not be funny, but they are considered more stable and carry less risk.
Of course, Zhang Yiyang and Lu Zhixing would definitely disagree with this view since different positions yield different perspectives.
It's understandable that the guidance teacher has such concerns.
Zhang Yiyang had anticipated this point and had already thought out his countermeasures.
"Fang, you don't have to worry about this," Lu Zhixing said. "Don't we still have a language-themed program?"
"My idea is that we ditch the clichéd 'happy start, sad end' routine typical of evening sketches. If we want laughter, let's make the audience laugh until their sides split without forcibly driving home a moral at the end. If we want tears, let's make the audience cry from beginning to end, without injecting any comic relief at the outset."
"So, 'Undercover Trainee' will go first, and 'The You in My Eyes' will come later. As long as we bring the general mood of the evening back into balance, that's all that matters."
Actually, Zhang Yiyang's initial solution was also to use a "happy start, sad end" sketch to lighten the mood and pull the tone back. But he never expected that Lu Zhixing would provide a more perfect solution.
So Zhang Yiyang simply took this standard answer and used this more perfect scheme to get the job done.
Fang Ling nodded and picked up "The You in My Eyes," "Alright, I'll look over this script again."
She was still worried about what Zhang Yiyang had said.
Can another language-themed program really bring back the evening's tone?
Soon, all of Fang Ling's worries evaporated because, to her surprise, she discovered that "The You in My Eyes" was a novel form of stage play, extremely moving, with tearjerking moments throughout!
For one, it included sections that were presented from a first-person perspective. That is to say, the actors on stage would speak to the audience, who would play roles that interacted with the actors on stage, but without seeing any specific person.
This was a common technique in games, but it was rare in stage plays.
At first, Fang Ling was baffled and couldn't understand the purpose behind this seemingly meaningless first-person perspective, but as she read on to the detailed plot, she immediately got it.
It was to enhance the audience's sense of immersion.
The general plot of "The You in My Eyes" goes like this: An angel found the protagonist and told him that his mother had died and had a chance to ascend to heaven but needed the protagonist to answer some questions to ultimately determine if his mother qualified for heaven. Thus, as the angel questioned the protagonist, the story of the protagonist's life with his mother unfolded before all the viewers.
The protagonist recounted his life with his mother to the angel:
As a child, he was born in a common machinist's residential compound and was very sensible and obedient to his mother from a young age.
He played with his toys quietly while his mother cooked; as he grew, he took the bus alone to the city to study painting and piano; he played soccer with his buddies on the field; and because of financial constraints, he always consciously avoided snack stores.
Later, he took exams, but with no natural talent in music or painting, he had to give them up. Out of loneliness, he took to running, and just like that, he ran faster and faster, eventually becoming an athlete.
In class, he met a girl he liked. At every school sports meet, he always came in first, and the girl cheered for him and brought him water.
As he grew up, he broke records, won gold medals, and even went to the Olympics. Although he didn't place, he made his parents proud. After retirement, he happened to meet the girl he had liked before, and they lay together in the field watching the sunset, naturally coming together.
Later, he organized many charity runs, raising funds for many disabled children until his mother passed away in her hospital bed, telling him she had no regrets in life.
However, it didn't take long for the angel to spot the lies in his story, and after harshly criticizing him for lying, the angel revealed the true details of the memories:
In reality, he had no talent, was clumsy and naughty, and had been very thoughtless as a child.
All the previous scenes, including playing with toys, going to the city to learn painting and piano, avoiding snack shops, and more, changed. He was willful, mischievous, and somewhat of an outcast, never giving his mother peace of mind.
And when he grew up, he didn't become an athlete but instead fell and ended up in the hospital. From then on, he was confined to a wheelchair, and all those images of running were mere fantasies he had while sitting in his wheelchair.
In class, he felt the strange gazes of his classmates, and whenever he passed by the main buildings, all of them stared at him. The teachers arranged for some classmates to help him, but those students quickly grew impatient, and he felt like a burden to others.
The girl at the desk in front of him was the only one who truly cared about him, but he could never be sure if it was affection, and he never dared to get close.
He struggled to live like a normal person, but his mother was forced to quit her job to take care of him, and the family's financial situation became dire due to medical expenses.
He hated himself, hated being thoughtless when he was healthy and not giving his mother peace of mind, but when he finally became considerate, he had become a burden.
That's why, after his mother died and he met the angel in his dreams, he made up such a story to deceive himself. He didn't want to fool the angel; he just couldn't overcome his own hurdle, so in his dreams, he painted such a scenario to compensate for his regrets.
Just when the protagonist thought all was irretrievable, his mother appeared.
This time, his mother told the angel about the life of her child from her perspective:
The parents looked at the baby slumbering in the crib, watched him grasp toys, babble and point in directions, stagger to his feet, ride on his father's back like he was riding a big horse, and naively press the piano keys...
So the scenes the protagonist was dissatisfied with were all seen as joyful and fulfilling by the parents.
When the protagonist was confined to the wheelchair, he continued to make plans to make his parents happy. He fantasized about being able to run and raise funds to help disabled children. He wrote down and drew all these things, and although his writing and drawing skills were naive, his works still contained a child's pure heart.
"Child, your mother has been immensely happy in this life.
"You don't need to fantasize about another life, for you have lived a truly great one."
In the end, the angel asked the protagonist to close his eyes and wake up from the dream. The mother who had died went to heaven, and the protagonist was also able to let go of all his burdens, living on in reality with the memory of his mother's love.