Chapter 8: Practicing Piano At The Piano Room
Since it was Liu Man’s first-time live-streaming, it was very messy and only lasted for ten minutes. The maximum amount of people watching had only reached twenty, but Liu Man was already very proud.
The biggest surprise was that on the second day, someone on XianYu bought one of her AJs that she had shown in the livestream yesterday. The buyer’s username was Dragon’s Roar, her first viewer in the livestream room.
TL’s Note: XianYu is an app commonly used in China where anyone can sell second-handed things.
Liu Man wrapped the shoes in her dormitory and carefully wrote the buyer’s address and phone number. Li Xiaoru was even more excited than she was, “Someone actually bought it!”
“The shoes are in great condition, and it’s also very cheap, so why wouldn’t someone buy it?” Wang Nina did not think that it was something worth being proud of. When they were live-streaming, she had been the one handing the shoes to Liu Man. When the shoes had passed through her hands, she had kind of wanted it, but did not have the habit of buying second-handed things.
“Then let’s do better this time and try on ten pairs of shoes today!” Li Xiaoru said.
“But I only brought five pairs to school, and I’ve got to practice piano this afternoon. I don’t have time to try on that many.” Liu Man was frustrated, but she also had never expected that her second-handed AJs would be so easy to sell.
“You can go home after you practice! Don’t bring the shoes around so much, since you can just livestream in your house. Me and Nina will be your audience, so we can hype up the chat!” Li Xiaoru snickered.
Liu Man and Wang Nina also laughed along with her.
There were only ten more days until the big exam, which meant that Liu Man had to hurry and practice. Because of the exam, the piano rooms and practice rooms were all booked. Liu Man was slow to book one and had only got one from five to seven, when there weren’t that many people.
TL Note: meaning she got a room from 5 to 7. Basically 2 hours of practice time.
The music was linked together, plus, she still had the memories from the old Liu Man. Piano wasn’t so hard to play, and Liu Man was getting better every minute that she spent practicing. She had also discovered some tricks by herself. But getting a score of eighty-five was still challenging.
TL Note: Like two instruments linked together.
The school was strict about grades. Last semester, Liu Man had failed the exam, and the rules were: two failed exams meant retention, while three failures meant expulsion.
At this point, Liu Man didn’t want to trouble her family, so she could only practice harder.
When Tang Tu finished practicing, it was already half past six, and the sun was already down. He sent his girlfriend a message via WeChat and was about to grab something to eat.
As he passed the piano practice rooms, he heard someone still practicing. He wasn’t interested in listening, but he found out that the person was repeatedly practicing a melody that seemed very easy to Tang Tu. He thought that it was funny and wondered how this person even got into the school.
Out of curiosity, he went closer to the room and looked through the window on the door, wondering who was playing.
He was stunned by the sight.
He saw Liu Man sitting up straight on the seat, her eyes focused on the sheet of music. She was strangely serious with playing this simple melody.
Under the warm dizzy light, the girl in the room seemed to be overwhelmed and in her own world. She had long, black hair and resembled elegance. She seemed as if she was an ancient lady that had come straight out of a mural.
For a moment, Tang Tu felt as if his heartbeats were getting faster. But soon, he got himself together, and was confused as to why a girl who was playing a western instrument had brought him the illusion of seeing a classic eastern beauty.
This illusion circled around in his mind until he stepped out of the building and saw his girlfriend, Shen Mozhen.
“Didn’t I tell you that you could have dinner without me?” Even Tang Tu didn’t realize that his voice held a bit of impatience.
Shen Mozhen didn’t notice anything wrong. She wrapped her arm around Tang Tu’s with a grin, “I wanted to give you a surprise! Are you glad to see me?”
“Of course, very glad indeed,” Tang Tu lowered his head to drop a light kiss on Shen Mozhen’s cheek, and Shen Mozhen leaned into him. Fortunately, it was very dark outside and only a few people were still out on the campus. Otherwise, if someone had taken a picture of the two of them like this and had put it onto the internet, then who knew how many girls would’ve experienced heartbreak again.
“Let’s go have Japanese food today, there’s a new restaurant that just opened near school, and there are a lot of good reviews for it on Yelp,” Shen Mozhen suggested.
“It’s your choice, you decide, I won’t mind,” Tang Tu’s tone sounded a tad perfunctory.
He was just about to walk toward the school gate with Shen Mozhen leaning against him, before he saw Liu Man, who was slowly walking out with her backpack. He paused for half a second, but this half a second of hesitation was just enough to alarm Shen Mozhen’s natural instincts as a woman.
Shen Mozhen looked towards the direction of his stare and saw Liu Man too.
The stares from the perfect couple were so straightforward that Liu Man saw them directly when she lifted her head. She unrestrainedly and generously nodded at Tang Tu, brightly smiled at Shen Mozhen, and walked around the two of them, thinking on the inside about how Tang Tu’s girlfriend was remarkably beautiful.
Was her reaction disregardful, or just out of courtesy?
Tang Tu and Shen Mozhen both felt weird, so Shen Mozhen asked her boyfriend,
“Who is she?”
“A sophomore in the piano major.”
Shen Mozhen immediately thought of the rumors that she had heard during the past two days. Someone told her that a girl in the piano major badgered Tang Tu, and Tang Tu even went to her classroom just to look for her. Ever since then, Shen Mozhen had felt a mixture of jealousy and anger, but had never had the courage to interrogate Tang Tu.
Shen Mozhen had studied folk music ever since she was a toddler, and was especially good at Guzheng. During the four years of her university, she was always the best in her major. Her appearance was feminine, with a slim and soft body. Whatever she did or said, she always did it gently and virtuously. She was always known for her classical eastern beauty. So, Shen Mozhen often represented her major and traveled internationally with the school’s official orchestra to perform. As someone who was about to graduate, she had already signed a contract with the National Folk Music Orchestra and had a bright future ahead of her.
She knew Tang Tu since the first day of freshman year. Excluding the romantic relationship that they had just announced recently, they still had four years worth of friendship. The duo knew each other very well. Because of that, all the other girls that knew Shen Mozhen had never complained and in the end, all stopped pestering Tang Tu when he chose her as his girlfriend.
But nobody knew that, Shen Mozhen, the perfect “goddess” to everyone else, swallowed her pride in front of Tang Tu. Most of the time, she put Tang Tu in front of herself. Maybe the reason Tang Tu chose her to be his girlfriend was because she was considerate and sensible.
“Don’t let her worry you. A few days ago she passed out outside the practice rooms, and I sent her to the clinic, and the next day, I went to her classroom to see if she was okay,” Tang Tu rarely explained himself, “Let’s go have our dinner now, I’m starving.”
“Okay, alright,” Shen Mozhen looked down. Tang Tu gave her an explanation but didn’t give her a chance to ask any other questions. These four years, countless girls of all kinds had tried to get near Tang Tu, but none of them could ever get his attention. Shen Mozhen was always extremely confident that if she stayed with Tang Tu as a friend, then one day, she would be able to get Tang Tu to like her. And she did.
But she didn’t know why. They had just confirmed their relationship a month ago, and now, out of every opponent in the past few years, there was a rival that had the best chance to steal away Tang Tu. Shen Mozhen felt a bit anxious and pressured.
Credits: Sydney & Kathrien
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