Liu Man arrived at school just before the bell rang. She entered the cla.s.sroom and immediately felt everyone"s eyes on her, along with whispers.
"That"s her, that"s her."
"She does look pretty."
"Of course, she"s the prettiest in the entire piano department."
"So what? She"s just a pretty flower pot. Except for her face, she"s got nothing. Purposely fainting in front of Tang Tu, pretending to be all weak. Doesn"t she see? Tang Tu already announced that he has a girlfriend, yet she"s still trying to seduce him."
TL"s Note: In chinese, people only call a girl a flower pot when they only look pretty and aren"t good at anything else.
Liu Man was startled. She couldn"t remember who Tang Tu was, but then soon remembered, because Tang Tu was a very important person to the old Liu Man.
What the art school lacked the least were talented boys and girl. Yet, in this bunch of talented people, Tang Tu was the shining star. Tang Tu played violin and was very handsome. He was also selected, unexpectedly, by a famous director, to act as a violinist in a movie.
It wasn"t a very important role in the movie, but he soon became very famous after the movie was published. He was even more famous than the protagonist. The audience was amazed by Tang Tu"s incredible acting skills and talent in music. For a long time, Tang Tu was all that mattered in the entertainment circle"s news. There were paparazzi and fans waiting outside of his dorms, and wherever he went, he was all everyone cared about.
With all of that popularity at that time, if Tang Tu went back to the entertainment circle, he would"ve probably been extremely successful. But instead, he pushed away all of the invitations, and chose to return to school to continue learning about music.
But this decision didn"t decrease his popularity, but instead increased it. The press complimented him for not being arrogant and too proud just because of a little bit of success over a film, and instead going back to studying. The press also told everyone the reason Tang Tu was so calm must"ve been because he wasn"t from an average family, therefore, he wouldn"t care about a bit of success.
Liu Man was two grades below Tang Tu. She was a huge fan of him ever since high school, and Tang Tu was a huge reason why she got into the Capital City Music University. Liu Man used to have really bad grades, and her grade for her cultural arts cla.s.s was so bad that it hurt to look at it. But because she wanted to be in the same school as Tang Tu, she gave up everything and studied as hard as she could for one year. Fortunately, her perseverance was not wasted, and so, she was barely managed to squeeze into the university.
She thought if she got into the same school as Tang Tu, then she would be able to attract him because of her pretty face and her tall, straight body. But she didn"t realize that there were too many girls who also had a huge crush on him, and her so-called "advantages" were simply way too common.
Tang Tu told everyone that he liked girls with great talent. Liu Man did have talent, but her skills in piano in the department didn"t even meet the average line. She was even worse than Xiaoru and Nina. The school sometimes hosted small performances, but the teachers never picked Liu Man. Tang Tu, of course, was the teachers" favorite, and was handed a solo almost every single time.
So Liu Man never had a chance to really contact Tang Tu. In two years that she attended university, she hadn"t even spoken a word with Tang Tu. However, the good thing was, Tang Tu was always single, so that made Liu Man feel as if she still had a chance. But that thought was proven wrong, just not long ago.
About a month ago, someone took a photo of Tang Tu hugging a girl. The girl wasn"t facing the camera, so the face wasn"t shown. The photo was posted onto Wei Bo, and was put into the most popular discussions. Just when everyone started to guess who the girl was, Tang Tu posted and admitted that he was no longer single. But, he never told people who her girlfriend was, and instead just said that his girlfriend was in the same school as he was.
TL"s Note: Wei Bo is a social media that is commonly used in China. It"s sort of like a mix between instagram and facebook?
The girl was a legendary figure in the folk music department of the university, and everyone knew that as a fact. Even Liu Man knew that, that girl was a highly talented beauty, and that everyone liked her. She matched Tang Tu perfectly, to the point where Liu Man felt as if she didn"t even have the right to be jealous.
In the days after that event, Tang Tu"s fans were all very sad. Liu Man, who knew and understood that she would never have a chance now, felt depressed for a long time. In those days, she couldn"t even think about eating or sleeping. As a result, she lost a lot of weight. Even before she"d learned that her father had killed someone while drunk-driving, she still hadn"t been able to get out of her depressed status.
Liu Man didn"t mind the whispers, and instead found a remote seat in the cla.s.sroom to sit down and go over her memories. The old body"s memories were only up until she pa.s.sed out yesterday.
Yesterday morning, the teachers had scolded her and told her that when she played the piano, she wasn"t using the proper techniques, nor expressing her emotions. She was very angry at herself, her teacher, and at Tang Tu. Because of him, she wasn"t in a good mood and couldn"t even play the piano well.
The teacher left her alone at the practice room and told her to practice. She also said that if Liu Man kept on with this mood, then she wouldn"t be able to pa.s.s the end of semester exams, and would probably be kicked out of school. When Xiaoru and Nina saw her like this, they decided to accompany her while she practiced. They practiced until lunch, when every single student and teacher had already left.
That was when Zhang Pei called. With her mother"s increasingly rapid voice, Liu Ye walked out of the piano room and left her two roommates in the room to answer the phone.
Liu Man was still lost in her memories, and she didn"t realize that the entire cla.s.sroom suddenly quieted down.
"Are you feeling better now?"
A sudden male voice interrupted Liu Man from sorting through her memories. She raised her head and saw a handsome face.
She immediately lowered her head again.
Back in the cold palace, she usually never even saw an unfamiliar male, and of course, she would never be in such close distance with an unfamiliar male. Right now, she could even smell the perfume on him.
Tang Tu saw that her ears were reddening quickly and also saw that when she lowered her head, her eyes were panicked. Right now, she looked as if she didn"t know what to do.
Were there even shy girls nowadays?
Ever since he was a kid, Tang Tu was popular among the girls. When he became famous as a teenager, he naturally attracted a lot of admirers. Girls of all kinds were surrounding him. If he would just wave, then all of them would come over and try to seduce him. But contrarily, he didn"t do it, and instead couldn"t care less about them. He had high expectations, because of so many female admirers. He kept on selecting and eliminating his choices, as if buying products. He would always be buying what was the best. And just recently, he had finally confirmed his first girlfriend.
Tang Tu didn"t think that Liu Man was trying to seduce him like everyone said she was. Yesterday, at noon, he had been practicing his violin and it was getting late. He was going to graduate soon and needed to start preparing for his graduation performance. This was what every single student needed to pa.s.s in order to graduate from this school. It was just like the essays that the students at normal universities needed to prepare for.
The violin practice rooms were just a floor above the piano practice rooms. When he walked downstairs, he was just in time to see Liu Man making a phone call. He didn"t hear what she was saying. Instead, all he saw were her pale face, red eyes, and her tears rolling down her face like a river. She looked intimidated, as if she heard something very scary.
When she ended the phone call, she wasn"t even able to take a few steps before her body started to shake. Tang Tu knew something was wrong, and started to walk more quickly. He was just about to reach her, when he realized that she already fell unconscious.
After that, the girl"s two friends came outside too and saw her unconscious. They were also very scared. Fortunately, his car was parked just downstairs, so he took the girl in his arms and drove them to the school clinic. A lot of students that were eating lunch outside, saw this scene.
credits: sydney, dora, & katimu
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and that"s all for me proofreading. now, ill only be occasionally helping out, so gl to dora and sydney for working on this!