Shen Xingruo continued drinking her milk, watching him with a direct, calm, and slightly intrigued gaze.
It seemed like she was waiting for him to give some brilliant, earth-shattering explanation.
Meeting her eyes, Lu Xingyan’s mind went blank.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Suddenly, his face turned expressionless. He kicked Zhao Langming and said coolly, “Don’t know? Then go look it up on Baidu. You freeloading moron.”
Hearing this, Shen Xingruo was in the middle of sipping her milk and started choking, “Cough, cough, cough…”
Young Master Lu’s fragile heart made him instinctively look back.
He saw Shen Xingruo coughing, with a bit of milk in the corner of her mouth.
Seeing the rare display of varied expressions on Shen Xingruo’s face, he inexplicably thought of the phrase “adorably spit milk.”
This realization gave him goosebumps.
Great.
Shen Xingruo and “adorable” had nothing in common.
Soon after, the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and everyone headed off to their respective sports classes.
Mingli’s P.E. classes were electives.
When Shen Xingruo transferred, the popular options like yoga, badminton, and taekwondo were already full, so she followed Ruan Wen’s advice and chose Comprehensive Training and Rehabilitation.
Comprehensive Training and Rehabilitation sounded like a course designed for someone recovering from severe injuries, like learning to walk again after months in a wheelchair.
When the elective courses were first announced, the majority were put off by the course title.
In reality, the class was quite relaxed. It mainly involved doing some exercises and running a bit before being free to do whatever.
Moreover, the Comprehensive Training teacher was very much like Mr. Wang—slow and kind-hearted. He spoke slowly, rarely took attendance, and only required one lap of running each time.
Lu Xingyan had chosen basketball.
Their basketball coach was completely different. Muscular and fierce-looking, he showed no mercy when training the boys.
Every class started with three sets of push-ups, followed by three laps of running, and finished with three sets of squats.
Sharing the same field, their experiences couldn’t have been more different.
While Shen Xingruo and Ruan Wen chatted and moved at a snail’s pace around the track, Lu Xingyan was already on his second lap.
Ruan Wen asked, “Xingruo, did you come over with He Siyue just now?”
Shen Xingruo replied, “YeAh he came to talk to me about the school anniversary…”
Before she could finish, a hand suddenly reached over her head—
“Why are your legs so short?”
Lu Xingyan’s voice was teasing and light, his palm warm as it brushed over Shen Xingruo’s head. By the time she snapped out of it, he was already more than ten meters away.
Once Lu Xingyan was out of earshot, Ruan Wen cautiously asked, “Xingruo, do you and Lu Xingyan have a good relationship?”
“A good relationship?”
“He’s usually pretty aloof with girls, but he just joked around with you. Maybe it’s because you helped him this morning and he appreciates it…”
Ruan Wen pondered seriously, continuing down a mistaken path without a second thought.
When Lu Xingyan ran his third lap and silently passed them again, once more using his height to easily brush over Shen Xingruo’s head, Ruan Wen closed her mouth nervously, fearing the big shot might come to trouble her.
Shen Xingruo hadn’t been paying attention since Ruan Wen mentioned gratitude, because she didn’t believe Lu Xingyan would be grateful to someone who had spread rumors about his bad back, causing him to lose a large portion of his fan base.
Moreover, who expresses gratitude by wiping the dust from their hands onto someone’s head after doing push-ups without washing them?
He was dead meat.
Time flew by, and soon it was Thursday, the day of the school anniversary performance evaluations.
In these few days, Shen Xingruo hadn’t had much time to practice, so she chose “Mariage d’Amour.”
Lately, Lu Xingyan had been particularly curious. Not only did he look up why 2262 had two Februaries due to an intercalary month, but he also googled “Mariage d’Amour” after hearing Shen Xingruo and He Siyue discuss their song selections.
When the bell rang and the teacher came in, He Siyue turned back to his seat.
Lu Xingyan, nonchalant, asked, “I heard you’re good at the piano. Isn’t ‘Mariage d’Amour’ pretty simple and overplayed? Why choose that?”
Shen Xingruo looked at him for a while before finally saying, “What do you know?”
Shi Qin, who had studied piano for a while, was equally surprised to hear Shen Xingruo chose “Mariage d’Amour.” “Really? Just ‘Mariage d’Amour’? I heard that Liu Fang is one of the judges this time.”
She thought Shen Xingruo would play something by Chopin or Liszt, but she chose Richard Clayderman, a favorite for adult beginners.
And playing this in front of Liu Fang was like reciting “Bai Goose” to a Chinese literature teacher.
Shen Xingruo simply replied with a “Mm,” without further explanation.
The performance evaluations were scheduled for Thursday during lunch break, with singing, dancing, and instrumental performances being held in the music auditorium of the science building.
At noon, Lu Xingyan was having lunch with Xu Chengzhou and a few others from Class Three.
After lunch, Lu Xingyan said he was going back to the dorm to sleep.
However, Xu Chengzhou and the others insisted on dragging him to the music auditorium to check out the girls, especially Chen Zhu, who was going to sing and needed support.
Lu Xingyan, tired and uninterested, continued towards the dormitory.
Just as Xu Chengzhou and the others were debating, Li Chengfan and Zhao Langming arrived with bottles of water.
Li Chengfan casually slung an arm around Lu Xingyan’s shoulder and said, “What are you guys still doing here? Let’s go.”
Xu Chengzhou asked, “Where to?”
“The music classroom, of course,” Li Chengfan said matter-of-factly. “Shen Xingruo is playing the piano. Yan-ge, you’ve got to support your deskmate and our class goddess, right?”
Xu Chengzhou looked confused.
Lu Xingyan, either irritated by their pestering or for some other reason, stopped and said, “Fine, let’s go.”
Xu Chengzhou was even more baffled, his confusion written all over his face.
No, this didn’t make sense. The last time they met on the sports field, that girl had stormed over and dumped trash everywhere, and the atmosphere between them had been extremely tense. How could things have progressed so quickly that he was now going to support her over Chen Zhu?
The lecture hall was large, with teachers and participants seated in the front row, and the back row was already filled with many onlookers, evenly split between boys and girls. When Lu Xingyan and his friends strolled in, many girls gasped in surprise, noting that Lu Xingyan had shown up.
Lu Xingyan looked disinterested, lounging back in his chair like a grand lord, casually chewing gum. His presence was hard to miss.
The girls were sneaking glances and whispering:
“He must be here for Chen Zhu.”
“Definitely.”
“No, a few of them are from Class One. They must be here for Shen Xingruo.”
“He Siyue is here too. He must be here for Shen Xingruo.”
“Comparing them, Lu Xingyan still seems more handsome.”
“Of course, Lu Xingyan is more handsome, which is why so many girls like him. But He Siyue is genuinely nice. Last time after school, someone missed the trash can and didn’t bother to pick it up. He Siyue, walking behind, went over and threw it away. Such a good impression!”
“YeAh I feel like dating Lu Xingyan would be thrilling, but for a long-term relationship, He Siyue is more reliable.”
“Okay, stop. As if either of them would date you guys.”
The classroom was abuzz with low chatter, even during someone’s singing performance. The teacher couldn’t take it anymore and shouted, “If you’re here to watch, then just watch quietly. Otherwise, get out!”
Instantly, the room fell silent, like a pot of salted popcorn.
Lu Xingyan appeared to be idly playing with his phone, but he had been eavesdropping on the conversations around him for a while.
—Good, no one was talking about his back.
The discussion fell silent, and he pocketed his phone, turning his attention to the stage where various performances were underway: singing, dancing, erhu playing, guzheng plucking, saxophone blowing…
Most of the students at Mingli School came from affluent families, so it was quite normal for them to have one or two special talents.
As Lu Xingyan watched for a while, a question began to form in his mind—what the hell am I good at? Is it too late to pick up something now?
Forget it, everything seems so difficult. No need to torture myself.
After going through a series of mental gymnastics, Lu Xingyan finally watched as Shen Xingruo took the stage for her performance.
Glancing at the program list that had been handed to her, Liu Fang frowned slightly.
Meanwhile, Shen Xingruo had already stepped forward, gracefully introducing herself, “Hello everyone, I’m Shen Xingruo from Class 2 of Grade 10. Today, I will be performing the piano piece ‘Wedding in a Dream’.”
With a bow, she took her place at the piano.
The piano in the school was just a common Pearl River model, nothing compared to the Steinway that Pei Yue had brought upstairs, but as her fingers touched the keys, there was a strange familiarity and warmth.
Liu Fang had initially thought this would be another case of a girl showing off without much skill, but she found herself putting down the pen she had been using to mark scores as Shen Xingruo’s fingers began to dance across the keys, slightly surprised.
Meanwhile, Li Chengfan and his clique were still chatting away until Lu Xingyan suddenly kicked him, signaling him to shut up.
Shen Xingruo playing the piano—Lu Xingyan had seen the JPG version of her doing so once at the Shen household, but this was his first time witnessing the GIF version. Her cool and distant aura seemed even more pronounced as she sat in front of the piano.
The piece “Wedding in a Dream” itself carried a faint sadness, though for a while it had been used as a ringtone by telecom operators, making it quite annoying to listen to. Coupled with the fact that many novice enthusiasts often mentioned dream weddings in Croatia, for a long time, quite a few classical piano enthusiasts grew tired of this piece and other similar popular piano pieces.
Liu Fang has taught many students in her career.
Among the audience were also quite a few adults, some well-off, who were eager to learn one or two simple yet impressive pieces. “Wedding in a Dream” was often singled out by this group for its popularity. She could say she had heard countless renditions of it.
Truth be told, playing “Wedding in a Dream” smoothly was simple enough, but infusing it with emotion and grace was rare. This girl’s piano skills were very adept, evidently capable of handling difficulties far beyond “Wedding in a Dream”. But what was intriguing was how well this piece matched her temperament. Unconsciously, everyone was drawn in, not just her, but the entire classroom was quiet.
The piano was positioned by the window, with the noon sunlight cascading over Shen Xingruo, casting shallow grid-like shadows. Her profile was bathed in the interplay of light and shadow, half in clarity, half in obscurity. It should have been a scene of serene tranquility, but the notes leaping from her fingertips added a touch of melancholy.
Suddenly, Lu Xingyan understood why she insisted on playing this piece. As she reached the climax, he recalled that day’s lawn wedding.