Backstage was quiet and no one could keep up with her train of thought, even the school leaders were a little stunned.
The boy was grabbed by the collar by Bailian. Looking at that face up close was quite shocking, he was stunned for a moment.
Bailian looked at him calmly and repeated: “Is there a guzheng?”
“There is!” He quickly regained his senses.
The school had many things sponsored by Jiangjing University, and they especially loved to buy guzhengs for the school.
The music room alone had seven or eight different types of guzhengs.
“Mm.” Bailian nodded and let go of her hand.
She handed her phone to Lu Xiaohan next to her, and slowly took off her two silver rings and gave them to her. She politely said, “Please help me get a guzheng.”
The boy was stunned for a moment, then hurried to get a guzheng from next door.
The performance on stage was coming to an end.
Bailian smoothed her sleeves and looked at the school leader. Her cold eyes clearly showed no emotion, but her plain tone made people shudder, “The program can be changed, right?”
The originally aggressive school leader instinctively nodded.
Bailian retracted her gaze. “Then change it, I’ll play the guzheng.”
The boy who went to get the guzheng happened to come over carrying one.
Bailian took the guzheng and looked at the brown instrument for a long time before plucking a string.
It made a somewhat jarring sound. It was not a top-quality guzheng and the tone was not very good either.
She slowly tuned it.
But it was barely usable.
The backstage staff understood Bailian’s intention. The venue had microphones, guzhengs, etc. It was very easy to perform the guzheng.
They set up the stool and stand, and Bailian went on stage holding the instrument.
Ren Wanxuan, who was waiting for Bailian to beg her, stood in place with a frown as she watched Bailian disappear backstage.
“Lu Xiaohan, do your classmates also play the guzheng?” Someone else also reacted and quietly asked Lu Xiaohan.
Bailian was quite confident in tuning earlier. She didn’t look like an amateur.
Lu Xiaohan was covered in cold sweat at this time. She had no strength and just murmured in agreement.
Her answer clearly lacked confidence and was also distracted.
Most of the people present could see her state. They glanced at each other, and probably understood that Bailian was probably not very good at the guzheng.
That made sense.
If she was good, she wouldn’t have signed up for sword dance.
When the 15th class people went out to see the situation, only then did backstage start discussing in whispers, “How miserable, not only was the sword taken away, but now she has to go play the zither.”
“Especially since…” Someone cautiously glanced at Ren Wanxuan, “Her next opponent is Ren Wanxuan!”
“Ah? Does she know Ren Wanxuan is performing on piano?”
“…”
Doubting voices kept coming.
At this point, Ren Wanxuan also understood. She retracted her gaze and sneered coldly, “I was going to help her originally.”
Since the other party would rather force herself to play the guzheng than bow her head, she had no way to help.
**
Outside.
Lu Xiaohan and the others had come out to watch the stage.
On stage, the zither stand and stool were all set up.
Lu Xiaohan and a few others stood in the corner, their faces not looking very good.
Zhang Shize didn’t dare go back to the class. He just quietly asked Lu Xiaohan about the situation.
Lu Xiaohan stared at the stage, smiled bitterly and shook her head, “She hasn’t practiced guzheng at all.”
Let alone guzheng, Bailian barely touched the sword a few times.
Even Ren Wanxuan, who was proficient in piano, would take time to practice every day. Bailian hadn’t even touched the guzheng these days, let alone communicate with the stage about the drum beat in advance.
The result of this guzheng performance could be foreseen.
Zhang Shize and the others’ hearts suddenly sank.
Wearing a ruqun1, Bailian came out from backstage with a beam of spotlight shining on her cold white face. The noise in the auditorium suddenly became much smaller.
But some people were still whispering.
For example, a few boys standing next to Ji Heng.
They sounded quite studious, arguing incessantly about a problem of probability of genetic disease in biology.
“But her descendants have patients and normals…”
Ji Heng saw that Bailian had come out and seemed to be performing on the guzheng.
Bailian didn’t tell him about the content of her performance item. He had always assumed it was guzheng.
He had also heard from Ji Shaojun before that Bailian seemed to have learned guzheng at the Bai family. Ji Heng didn’t doubt it at all.
He just turned his head back and looked at the two arguing students, and said, “She is a patient and her son is a patient. Her daughter is normal. It is obviously X-linked recessive inheritance. Then the probability of her daughter’s child with a normal person getting the disease is one-fourth.”
The two students flipped to the back of the answers –
Sure enough, it was one fourth for X-linked recessive genetic disease.
The two of them looked at Ji Heng with his white hair, and asked in a trembling voice, “Elder, were, were you a biology teacher before?”
“Me? Tailor.”
The two looked at Ji Heng’s serious face. He didn’t look like he was joking. They were confused, “Tailor???”
Their tone was as if they were about to cry.
“Yes,” Ji Heng looked at them expressionlessly, then pointed to the stage, “My granddaughter is going to perform now. You two watch quietly, remember to applaud later. Look, her clothes were made by me.”
The two looked at Bailian’s exquisite clothes on stage.
Ah… he really is a tailor?
The two finally burst into tears.
**
Front row.
Seeing Bailian going on stage, holding a guzheng, Chen Ju suddenly sat up straight.
Staring at Bailian without blinking.
Many outstanding performances had taken place today, but Chen Ju had watched somewhat perfunctorily. Compared to the national level performances he had seen, Xiangcheng’s little disturbances were nothing. He was able to sit from 8 o’clock to after 11 today.
It was completely to give Jiang Fuli and Bailian face.
Unexpectedly, Chen Ye, who had paid no attention to the performances, suddenly straightened up. The principal was stunned.
At the same time, the leader who came back from backstage whispered what had happened backstage to the principal.
The principal’s smile froze as he looked at Chen Ye who had suddenly become serious. He quickly whispered to him, “This guzheng piece is just small disturbance from the students. Naturally it’s not as professional as Jiangjing. Just watch it for amusement.”
“Mm.” Chen Ju’s eyes didn’t look away.
He was still staring seriously at Bailian’s stage.
Bailian sat on the stool.
Her hands gently placed on the zither stand, her eyes slightly closed.
A section of the wide, gradient green skirt was draped on the ground with various kinds of morning glories in bloom along the hem swaying in the wind[5].
The restless auditorium gradually quieted down.
“Boom–“
The brightest spotlight in the middle shone down.
Bailian, who had her eyes closed all along, suddenly opened them. Those eyes were no longer casual and indifferent. They were dark, cold and murderous.
She raised her hand with both hands on the strings, plucking slowly from top to bottom. Extremely smooth pipa sounds poured out from her hands.
The zither sounds were restrained yet powerful, like an army commander.
Even people who didn’t understand music could feel the tense atmosphere told by the zither, word by word.
Chen Ju in the front row suddenly stood up!
He stared at Bailian, his fingers trembling. Just from the prelude, he recognized it ——
It was Bai Yi Xing2!
“Zheng–“
The zither sounds became more and more urgent!
Bailian raised her wrists, pinching with her index finger and thumb. When pressing the strings, she was decisive and crisp, plucking in one go!
She was clearly not wearing nails, yet the timbre was not soft and mellow. Instead, it became more resolute.
Faintly, it seemed to transcend time and space, with thousands of horses and soldiers surging out!
Bailian kept her head half-lowered with her fingertips gliding quickly across the strings. Her rotating and shaking fingers were so fast that they were almost invisible, the urgent and relaxed, light and heavy notes collided into flashing blades!
The hurried and abrupt zither sounds rose vigorously without giving the auditorium a chance to breathe. Just when it reached a climax, it would suddenly drop down.
Wherever her jade fingers swept, iron cavalry and thousands of soldiers came out!
“Zheng–“
The last note was like a taut string in everyone’s mind, almost holding their breath.
The urgent sound stopped abruptly. Bailian rested her hands on the strings and slowly raised her head.
The big screen behind her zoomed in on her face. Her eyes were still pitch-black, but also seemed to be slightly red.
Although the piece had finished playing, the auditorium was still perfectly silent.
Only her morning glories swaying on stage, only her slowly raised peach blossom face, seemed to be interwoven into a painting across a thousands years and reality, engraved into an image in the distant chaotic universe.
Bailian’s fingers pressed the zither strings, seeming to pause for two or three seconds, before hugging the zither and standing up.
With one hand lifting her skirt, she bowed slightly to the audience.
In the gathering place of Class 15, being hugged by Ning Xiao, Jiang He stared wide-eyed at the stage.
Beside him, the tall and slender Jiang Fuli also stood quietly in place. His usually unwavering light eyes were now surging with waves, and his fingertips were almost trembling.
And in the front row, Chen Ju’s eyes were also slightly red.
Everyone present were people from Xiangcheng. Some understood Chen Ju’s feelings.
This song, as the school anthem of Jiangjing University. Just listening to it was enough to shake one’s heart ——
Think about it. A thousand years ago, this military tune composed by the young miss of Bai family saw tens and thousands sending off the Bai family army to battle. And now, someone had vividly and almost perfectly reproduced it. Just imagining gave a sense of throbbing pride!
This was Bai Yi Xing.
It didn’t need drums, piano or guitar.
It only needed a guzheng to evolved thousands of troops and horses.
After Bailian’s exit, the scene remained perfectly silent for almost a minute.
Then thunderous applause poured out.
Chen Ju also suddenly reacted.
Without saying a word, he went straight backstage.
Beside him, the principal finally regained his senses. As he followed along, he asked the person next to him, “Didn’t you say Bailian doesn’t know it well?”
How’s this called not knowing well?!
The leader who had been furious backstage just now: “…”
The two senior high school hosts also finally reacted after the ups and downs. They walked out from the back and continued the hosting with a smile. “Next, please welcome the last performer…”
**
Here, as soon as Jiang Fuli came out, he saw Bailian lazily standing to the left of the gate.
She was waiting for Lu Xiaohan with her eyes quietly looking ahead.
A wooden hairpin on her head, backlit, facing the wind.
Her robes fluttered lightly in the breeze.
It seemed that in the next second, she could drift away with the wind.
A half yellow leaf lightly fell on her shoulder.
Jiang Fuli reached out and gently flicked away that leaf. His fingertips still hooked the black mask. He lowered his eyes with his whole face hidden in the shadows. His voice was very soft, “What are you looking at here?”
He looked in the direction she was looking. Ahead was blocked by a teaching building and nothing could be seen.
Hearing the sound, Bailian tilted her head and replied, “Reflecting.”
Reflecting?
Jiang Fuli stood gracefully with his light eyes narrowed slightly.
“How did you get here?” Bailian suddenly remembered, “Didn’t Jiang He say you were very busy?”
When it came to this, Young Master Jiang was silent for a while, rarely.
Today was not the weekend. The new equipment in the lab was still waiting for him to check on. He had skipped out the whole morning.
But no one dared to ask Young Master Jiang about this.
Bailian was still the first to ask.
This morning, Chen Ju didn’t even dare look at Jiang Fuli, let alone ask boldly. Otherwise, Young Master Jiang would pack him up to the fighting arena and Chen Ju wouldn’t even have time to cry.
If he saw how cocky Bailian was, he would definitely look at her with new eyes.
In Jiang Fuli’s silence…
Chen Ju at the back had also caught up.
“Miss Bai.” He had always been respectful to Bailian.
But at the moment, mixed in that respect was inexpressible excitement and admiration.
After saying “Miss Bai”, he raised his head and saw Jiang Fuli beside Bailian.
The other party no longer had that “death to those close to me” cold air around him this morning, but the light eyes that swept over still exuded cold aloofness.
Chen Ju’s next words got stuck halfway in his throat.
Bailian tilted her head slightly and raised an eyebrow at Chen Ju.
“Miss Bai,” Chen Ju steeled himself to ask Bailian: “Your guzheng playing is so wonderful. May I ask who was your teacher?”
It seemed everyone in the Chen family was born with a screw loose in their brains. They couldn’t pick up Liang style boxing3, had no talent for music; even someone as smart as Chen Beixuan played the guzheng like sawing wood.
Chen Ju was the same.
But inability didn’t mean lack of understanding. Following the old master, Chen Ju had listened to countless professional-level performances, large and small, but none had been as shocking as today’s.
Other than seeming a little obscure at the beginning, it got better and better later on.
None of the guzheng factions that the Chen family had looked into had Bailian’s playing style. So he wanted to know where she had come out from.
Chen Ju was asking sincerely.
But Bailian looked a little strange. She looked at Chen Ju, “Played well?”
- “??” (ruqun) – A type of traditional Chinese garment worn during the Han dynasty, often a type of skirt or dress worn in ancient times, with a separate top (?/ru) and skirt (?/qun). See more information on the ruqun hanfu here. ↩︎
- Name of the song, can be literally translated to ‘White Robe Journey’. This is the same ‘Bai’ as the surname of Bailian. ↩︎
- “??” (Liang style boxing) – A famous Chinese martial arts style. ↩︎
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