266 Reversal
Everyone was stunned and stared at the woman in disbelief.
Her peach blossom eyes were filled with calmness. This woman was none other than Shen Ruojing!
Someone exclaimed in surprise.
“Teacher Anonymous?”
“Teacher Anonymous, what did you say? You want to join his group to make up for the numbers?”
“My heavens, how can this be possible?”
“I thought Teacher Anonymous is only skilled in the piano and violin? She knows the zither too?”
“…”
Everyone was dumbfounded. Even Yun Yiheng was stunned and could only stare dumbly at her.
Shen Ruojing slowly walked to his side. “Do you want my participation, so you can make up for the numbers?”
“…Yes.”
Yun Yiheng felt as though a warm feeling filled his heart.
He always felt that Anonymous didn’t disparage folk music for the sake of giving him face. She had always been encouraging him and had never said anything bad about Qing Dai before.
But never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined that Anonymous would actually join his band for the sake of making up for the numbers.
Sadly, even if she was here, it was fated that he had to be the one playing the main melody. After all, Anonymous wasn’t a professional in playing the zither. Even so, the weightage of his band would surely be heavier with Anonymous as a member.
Shen Ruojing nodded and glanced at the surroundings. “Is there anyone willing to lend me a zither?”
The Qilin Band was the only band that focused on pure folk music, and other bands emphasized on combining eastern and western musical instruments. In addition, the zither was the most classic and best-sounding instrument among eastern musical instruments, so there would be someone among all the bands that was proficient in playing the zither.
After she said this, someone immediately acknowledged it.
“Teacher Anonymous, I can lend you my zither!”
“Me too!”
The thoughts of university students were still relatively simple and pure. They didn’t understand the grudge between Wen Yuyi and Yun Yiheng, so they were easily swindled by Wen Yuyi’s performance.
After all, Wen Yuyi always had a smiling face in the academy and looked very easy to talk to. As for Yun Yiheng, he would always act cool and arrogant, exuding a lofty demeanor. Hence, his relationships with his schoolmate weren’t that good.
But even so, quite a lot of people were willing to show him kindness and offer help.
“Teacher Anonymous, our band is the first one on stage. After we are done with our performance, I can lend you my zither.”
Shen Ruojing stared at the person who spoke and nodded to her. “Okay, thanks.”
They had enough people now and she also had a zither…
Yun Yiheng then looked at the teacher. “Now, you cannot cancel my qualification to participate, right?”
The teacher hesitated before finally sighing heavily.
Wen Yuyi looked at Shen Ruojing and said, “Miss Shen, do you think you are helping him by doing this? Don’t you know that you are actually harming him instead? Look at his fingers! If he persists in joining the competition, they might become crippled!”
Yun Yiheng coldly laughed. “Wen Yuyi, please don’t put up an act before me. Let me tell you this, even if my fingers are crippled, I’ll still be on the stage today and let everyone know the charm of zithers, allowing everyone to see the splendor of China’s music culture!”
Wen Yuyi seemingly wasn’t able to maintain her fake smile anymore.
She narrowed her eyes.
However, she soon collected her thoughts and smiled. “I’m doing this for your own good. Since you don’t need it, just forget it.”
Wen Yuyi had tried playing the zither before and understood a little bit.
Hence, she knew very well how painful it was when one tried playing the zither with injured fingers.
Also, as for Shen Ruojing making up for the numbers…that was simply ridiculous!
Wen Yuyi smiled. “Let us meet on the stage then.”
The Music Festival began at 6 p.m. sharp!
The first band on the stage performed the song [Castle In The Sky]. The melody was pleasant to listen to and had a high performance value. However, because the difficulty was low, it didn’t get a very high score.
They purely wanted to contribute to a performance.
The first performance ended and someone sent the zither over to Shen Ruojing.
At this moment, the medical team of the school was dressing Yun Yiheng’s wound.
The tip of his right index finger was smashed and bruises covered it as it swelled up. However, Yun Yiheng didn’t want to bandage it because playing the zither required one to use their fingertips and nails!
He only requested a cold compress and ice pack to reduce the swelling. At the very least, he couldn’t allow the flesh of his finger to be so swollen that its size surpassed the fingernail.
When applying the cold compress, his fractured fingertip caused him great pain whenever he lightly touched something.
Cold sweat was dripping from Yun Yiheng’s forehead. However, he was staring at Shen Ruojing. “Try out the zither’s tunes first.”
Every zither had its own personality and natural disposition. The player was required to adapt to the zither.
Shen Ruojing’s dainty fingers strummed the strings, producing a clear sound.
Yun Yiheng frowned and sighed. “This zither is ordinary.”
“It’s fine, it won’t affect the results,” Shen Ruojing calmly spoke before looking at his hand again. “Can you still endure it?”
Yun Yiheng gnashed his teeth.
Actually, he was at his limit and his body was trembling from the pain uncontrollably.
However, he had to endure it.
He wasn’t afraid of pain and only afraid that he couldn’t play well this time around. If he wasted the chance, he might no longer have an opportunity to play the zither again in the future…
As he pondered, Shen Ruojing seemed to read his thoughts. “I’ve checked your injuries. Don’t worry, it will recover.”
“…”
Yun Yiheng pursed his lips and suddenly asked, “Are you really fond of eastern music?”
Shen Ruojing. “Naturally.”
Yun Yiheng lifted her eyebrows. “In that case, I’ll teach you the zither after the competition is over. However, you are already quite old and might not be able to reach Qing Dai’s height in your entire life.”
Shen Ruojing. “…”
Her lips twitched. “Let’s talk about that after we are done with the competition.”
Yun Yiheng still wanted to say something, but his vision suddenly darkened.
He lifted his head and saw Fatty standing before him. Fatty had a complicated look on his face and his eyes were flickering with puzzlement. “Bro Yun, why did you have to make such a choice? Don’t you know that if you don’t go for treatment now, you might not be able to play the zither in the future?”
Yun Yiheng pursed his lips. “Because this is my dream.”
Fatty mumbled, “Are dreams so important? You clearly know there’s an iron wall ahead, yet you don’t give a damn about your life and want to ram headfirst into it?”
Yun Yiheng mocked, “The path of chasing dreams is filled with thorns. If you don’t even have this courage, what qualifications do you have to speak of dreams? Fatty, those who give up halfway are trash!”
Fatty’s face was red.
The more Yun Yiheng persisted, the more it seemed that the four of them who turned traitors and left Yun Yiheng were shameless.
This feeling of shame caused Fatty to involuntarily come over and ask Yun Yiheng.
But after being scolded as ‘trash’, Fatty grew infuriated. “What do you know? You were born with everything, so you naturally don’t have to care about anything. However, we still need to survive!”
“But surviving isn’t the reason why you betrayed me.” Yun Yiheng stared at him. “Fatty, you can quit if you cannot persist anymore. I don’t think anyone will blame you. However, you chose the path which you should have never walked! Do you believe me when I say that someone as cowardly and shameless as you is destined to never achieve anything in their life?!”
“Achieve nothing in my life?” Fatty stomped his feet and shouted, “How would I fall into that category? I’m going to win the championship with Sister Yuyi and will be heading to Vienna Music Hall to perform! On the contrary, you are the one who will achieve nothing. Tell me, what do you hope to achieve?
“Your fingers are injured and no one knows if you can even play a complete music piece. Do you think that with Anonymous helping you to make up for the numbers, your band would be able to reverse the tides? She is only skilled in orchestra music, so how would she understand anything about folk music? In the current situation, you would only be able to reverse the situation if Qing Dai was here!”