The car started again. Song Mingxiu stared ahead, but he kept looking at the person beside him secretly.
Song Qinghuan put her head on the car window, leaving her back side of the head toward Song Mingxiu. In Song Mingxiu’s eyes, he thought she felt wronged and unhappy.
But Song Qinghuan was just afraid that she could be seen through. She opened her hands and let the wind blow through her fingers. She wanted to grasp something but found she could seize nothing.
However, she was sure that Song Shuyao would have a tough time in the following days.
Not just Xia Runan and her daughter Song Shuyao could put on an act and play the innocent. She, Song Qinghuan, could, too.
Song Qinghuan lowered her head and looked at the people on the street coming and going and the surrounding high buildings. She threw herself into a trance at that moment. The sky was dark and studded with stars. The city without darkness was covered by the dim moonlight.
After seeing Song Mingxiu and his car disappeared, Song Qinghuan raised her head, and looked at the words “Xinghan Conservatory of Music”, smiling lightly.
Having got rid of the terrible persons of Song’s family and the terrible things about them, she stepped on a different journey.
It was so great.
…
After the new semester began, Song Qinghuan and her classmates would celebrate the school’s centennial anniversary soon. The campus network was full of excitement and happiness.
After her rebirth, Song Qinghuan had been preparing for this anniversary. Her music score was finished in the holiday. As long as she could be selected in the anniversary performance list, she was sure that she could update herself into a new level.
Her show was not an individual performance, but teamwork. There would be 12 members in the team and everyone was good at one Chinese national instrument, including Chinese zither, Chinese fiddle, Chinese lute, Chinese dulcimer, Chinese drum, flute, Sheng, Xun and Konghou.
When the instruments were determined, next step was to choose the proper performers. As expected, Shen Yinian was the first one who wanted to join in the team.
Shen Yinian heard this music in the dormitory when Song Qinghuan practiced it with Chinese zither in the practice room. Hearing the music, Shen Yinian, the only audience, felt really excited.
Although Shen Yinian was really cool in the real world, she totally exposed her original outgoing nature in the virtual online world. She was ineloquent in reality, while she was an original singer wearing a waistcoat in the circle of ancient style.
Song Qinghuan had known about Shen Yinian’s waistcoat in the previous life.
“My second instrument is Konghou,” said Shen Yinian.
Konghou was a really ancient stringed instrument. In the ancient time, it was not only used in the royal refined music, but also played quite popularly among ordinary people.. In the ancient time, there were 3 kinds of Konghou: Wo Konghou (the Konghou was played flat), Shu Konghou (the Konghou was played standing on the end) and Fengshou Konghou (the Konghou was patterned by the head of phoenix).
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Konghou had a long history and a wide range of tones. Its sound was soft and clear and had strong expressive power.
Then, Song Qinghuan and Shen Yinian started to find the classmates who could play the other instruments. The school anniversary was before the National Day, so there was less than a month for them.
After all members were decided, what they should do was to practice together and apply for the preliminary election.
The teacher in charge of Song Qinghuan’s class was confident of this performance and made many things convenient for them. The name of this performance was The Great World.
Xinghan Conservatory of Music was the Top One University in the country, and its school anniversary had thus attracted many reports of media from all fields. Many famous artists who had learnt in Xinghan were also invited to join the celebration.
In Song Qinghuan’s team, there were 8 girls and 4 boys.
The 4 boys were sophomores and juniors. Among the girls, besides Song Qinghuan and Shen Yinian, there were also some other capable freshmen.
One day, in the practice room, the first dispute about performance costume occurred.
“The girls’ costume in Tang Dynasty style is beautiful.”
“But cheongsam is more representative.”
“I think the costume in Song Dynasty style is good, too.”
…
Song Qinghuan saw the cheongsam the girl player of Chinese lute held and smiled, “Anyway, this music is in ancient style. So the cheongsam is a little improper.”
The girl player was nice. She put down the cheongsam and voted for the costume in Tang Dynasty style.
The small meeting ended after a two-hour debate, and the four boys wisely chose not to join in. They sat quietly in the corner and said, “Women are so terrible!”
“Aren’t they thirsty?”
“It is so good that what we wear is not important.”
“We don’t understand the women at all.” The boy who uttered these words looked at Song’s long legs in jeans and said, “But I think Song Qinghuan will be really beautiful in cheongsam.”
“Can’t agree more.”
There the boys were talking in a low voice, and here the girls finally decided what they would wear. Song Qinghuan put down the sample plate of the skirt in Tang Dynasty style, clapped her hands and said, “Today is Tuesday, and the rehearsal is on Thursday. Hope all can do your best!”
In the past half a month, the atmosphere in this team was always harmonious despite sporadic disagreements. The rehearsal was on Thursday and Friday was school anniversary. At that time, they would represent the reputation of Xinghan, and couldn’t make any mistake.
Getting out of the practice room, Song Qinghuan and Shen Yinian left behind to lock the door. Song Qinghuan was always busy with the practice and exerted her utmost effort for this performance. During this period, Grandma and Song Mingxiu had called her many times to ask her why she didn’t come home, and she used the preparation as the excuse to refuse.
Xu Ningzhou, who seemed to put a monitor on her, always called her in her lunchtime break or her rest at night every one day or two days. The topic was quite common and didn’t arouse the disgust of Song Qinghuan.
“I haven’t had such nervousness for a long time,” Shen Yinian massaged her fingers and said in a languid tone.
After they got really familiar, Shen Yinian’s image as a cool beauty was totally changed in front of Song Qinghuan.
“Right,” Song Qinghuan smiled and looked at her, “Last time we were on the same stage and we were competitors. But this time we are teammates. Destiny is so amazing!”
“Yes,” Shen Yinian nodded, “Let’s buy some ingredients and cook the popular cold noodles in the dormitory for supper!”
When Shen had hardly finished speaking, Song Qinghuan’s phone was making a vibration in her pocket. Taking out her phone, she was really surprised at the phone number on the screen.
It was Song Lan.
Song Qinghuan said, “I have to answer the call.”
“Ok,” Shen Yinian nodded and took out her phone, too. She clicked the recipe about the popular cold noodles and studied how to cook them.
“Hi, Aunty?” After Song Qinghuan made a greeting, Song Lan simply said, “Come to see me. I’m in Wan’ning City.”
Song Qinghuan looked down. She didn’t know why Song Lan asked her for a meeting, but she knew it mustn’t be an ordinary talk between the elder and the junior.
“Ok, please send me the address.” No matter what Song Lan wanted, Song Qinghuan thought it was necessary for her to meet Song Lan.