The entire hall fell silent.
Bai Anqi stood on the stage, her face alternating between pale and flushed, eyes rimmed with red, lips pressed into a thin line.
She practically fled off the stage, stumbling on the steps and nearly falling.
The students below exchanged glances, and someone murmured.
“That’s the gap in talent, I guess.”
“I’m embarrassed for her.”
No one argued.
After the recital, the results were posted on the bulletin board. Shen Qinghuan’s name ranked first, her score far ahead of everyone else’s, followed by Professor Zhou’s handwritten comment:
“Superb technique, rich emotion, bold repertoire choice executed to an exceptionally high standard.”
Bai Anqi’s name sat somewhere in the lower middle, annotated with:
“Unsteady technique, poor repertoire choice. Recommend strengthening fundamentals.”
Students gathered around the bulletin board in twos and threes, the chatter rising and falling.
“Bai Anqi said she wanted to catch up to Shen Qinghuan—isn’t this just humiliating herself?”
“Isn’t she supposed to be the hardworking type? All that effort and this is what she’s got?”
“Shen Qinghuan barely practices and still plays like that. Some people could practice their whole lives and never reach her level.”
“That’s the difference between a genius and ordinary people. It’s not that hard to admit someone’s better.”
Bai Anqi didn’t go look at the results. But as she passed by the bulletin board, those murmurs pierced her ears like needles.
She kept her head down and hurried forward, her eyes already red, her nose stinging—she almost couldn’t hold it in.
She turned into an empty corner at the end of the corridor, pressed her back against the wall, bit her lip hard, and fought desperately to hold back her tears.
She couldn’t understand it. Why was it that with the same piece, when Shen Qinghuan played it, she was a genius, but when Bai Anqi played it, she was a joke?
Footsteps came from the far end of the corridor.
Bai Anqi hastily lowered her head and wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand.
Shen Qinghuan came walking over with her instrument case, and seeing her, paused for a moment.
Bai Anqi assumed she had come to mock her and instinctively shrank back against the wall.
But Shen Qinghuan stopped in front of her, silent for two seconds, then pulled a pack of tissues from her pocket and held it out.
Bai Anqi froze.
“You… you’re not here to laugh at me?”
Shen Qinghuan shook her head, her voice soft but calm.
“What’s there to laugh about? We all play instruments. Who hasn’t bombed a performance?”
Bai Anqi bit her lip and didn’t take the tissues, but her eyes grew even redder.
Shen Qinghuan pressed the tissues into her hand, hesitated, then spoke anyway.
“Actually, back when I was reading the novel… I kind of liked you.”
Bai Anqi was completely stunned, tears hanging on her lashes, her face blank with confusion.
Shen Qinghuan realized she’d let something slip and hurried to cover it up.
“I mean, when you play, some of your interpretations are quite delicate, but…”
She looked into Bai Anqi’s eyes, her tone turning more serious.
“Don’t get too close to Lin Chen. He’ll only hold you back. He’s not a good person.”
Bai Anqi opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end said nothing at all.
Shen Qinghuan didn’t say anything more. Picking up her instrument case, she turned and walked away.
The setting sun streamed through the window at the end of the corridor, casting her shadow like that of a white swan.
Bai Anqi stood where she was, clutching the pack of tissues, staring blankly in the direction she had gone.
After a long while, she lowered her head and sniffled softly.
Shen Qinghuan only said that to make her stay away from Lin Chen-gege, so she could have him all to herself, didn’t she?
She clearly meant no good, yet she treated everyone else like fools!
Fortunately for her, Lin Chen-gege always favored her.
Bai Anqi regained her confidence and sense of superiority. She thought, well then, she would do exactly the opposite.
She tossed her violin case to the ground, pulled out her phone from her backpack, hesitated for a moment, and opened her contacts.
“Lin Chen-gege, it was my fault that day… Don’t be mad at me anymore, okay?”
Meanwhile, Shen Qinghuan had no idea what had happened after she left.
Carrying her violin case, she walked out of the concert hall, and her stomach growled.
Shen Qinghuan decided to go to the cafeteria for something good to eat, and to think about how to get in touch with the Shen family.
She had transmigrated over several days ago, and since the Shen family wouldn’t reach out to her on their own, she couldn’t just keep dragging things out like this.
As she was walking along Ginkgo Avenue, a white luxury car suddenly drove up from behind and stopped steadily in front of her.
The door opened, and a girl in a pale pink skirt suit stepped out.
The girl had long hair draped over her shoulders, exquisite makeup, and a hint of cold arrogance between her brows.
She stood in front of Shen Qinghuan, looked her up and down, and gave a slight curl of her lips.
“Shen Qinghuan, you’re still alive?”
Shen Qinghuan, suddenly scolded, froze for a moment and stared at that face for two seconds.
“You are…”
The original owner’s memories surged up—this was Su You.
The daughter of the Su family, one of the great wealthy families of Jingquan, and the original owner’s childhood best friend.
No, more precisely, the softest-hearted one in the entire friend group.
The original owner’s memories came flooding out like a burst dam.
Back in the day, among the wealthy young ladies of Jingquan, Shen Qinghuan—the youngest of her generation—was the center of the circle.
Five close friends orbited around her, protected her, and no one was allowed to bully her.
Su You was the one closest to her among them—gentle by nature, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. The original owner had called her “Youyou” for over a decade.
But during the original owner’s love-brained madness, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for Lin Chen.
When Lin Chen said those friends were materialistic, snobbish, and looked down on him, the original owner took it as truth.
She publicly attacked her friends, sneering that they only knew how to spend money on designer bags and didn’t understand true love, saying their friendship was worthless.
Then, the original owner blocked everyone, posted a long rant on her Moments, and announced she was cutting ties with them all.
The entire friend group was heartbroken. In the end, everyone unanimously decided to stop caring about this hopelessly stubborn Shen Qinghuan.
Shen Qinghuan pulled herself out of the memories and looked at Su You in front of her.
Su You leaned against the car door, arms crossed, her tone as cold as a winter wind, her words spitting out like knives, one after another.
“Shen Qinghuan, so you’re finally done orbiting around that poor boy?”
She paused, the corner of her mouth curving into a mocking arc.
“What’s the matter? Once he’d squeezed you dry of all your value, you finally know to turn around and look at reality?”
Shen Qinghuan said nothing, listening quietly.
Seeing no reaction from her, Su You’s voice grew even colder.
“Back then, for the sake of a Lin Chen, you turned against all of us, declaring friendship worthless. Heh. How does it feel to have fallen so low?”
Shen Qinghuan opened her mouth to say something, but Su You didn’t give her the chance.
“I heard you got cyberbullied at school? Tsk tsk. Where’s the Shen Qinghuan nobody dared to mess with?”
“How does it feel to be bitten by the pretty boy you raised yourself?”
Every sentence was cold and sharp.
And yet, Shen Qinghuan noticed that as Su You said all this, her eyes were slightly red-rimmed.
It seemed Su You was still as soft-hearted as ever.
She sighed inwardly.
Seeing that the girl in front of her wasn’t saying anything and was even smiling at her with crinkled eyes, Su You’s anger flared up:
“Have you become a mute now, or are you still as stuck-up as before, too proud to even bother talking to us?”
The Shen Qinghuan of the past would never have put up with being scolded like this.