120. The Charming Classmate Who Walked the Runway

“Right after the call ended, I got back to you immediately.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuan’s little mood instantly lifted. “So proactive~”

Li An knew right away that nothing serious had happened.

Earlier, when she was on the phone with Jia Mingyu, he barely focused on replying to the messages she sent him. Later, when she stopped responding, he’d felt a bit worried.

Riding on that, he roughly recounted the phone conversation to her, along with some of his “grudges” with his sect.

He framed this part emotionally around being scolded by Teacher Wei for four years, casually mentioning how he’d barely kept in touch with Wei’s class after graduating.

Chen Xuan could never have imagined that Li An—so talented in his field—had such an experience in college. She focused mainly on the rare traces of frustration in his words, overlooking most of the details.

In the end, she comforted Li An for a long time, and as she did, she felt she had a clear understanding of his four years at university.

Yet in truth, many crucial details hadn’t even been mentioned.

Women are probably just such emotional creatures.

When the call ended and she heard Li An’s mood improve, she was secretly delighted.

—

Li An certainly bore no ill intent.

Though he employed a little sympathy-seeking and evasion, his aim was simply to gradually convey his past college life to Chen Xuan.

Once she had a rough outline of his history, he could then figure out how to slowly dilute the presence of those troublesome entanglements.

This was life, not a novel—there’s no such thing as a protagonist appearing and instantly having the female lead throw herself at him regardless.

Even if you were a scoundrel, they wouldn’t just blindly care.

In reality, even two high schoolers dating would want to know about each other’s middle school flings.

Moreover, he truly cared for Chen Xuan, so even if she didn’t bring up such matters at this stage, he still had to plan to dismantle those ticking time bombs in the future.

Originally, on the Qixi Festival day, he had many chances to “clear his name” while Chen Xuan was emotionally vulnerable, but he got caught up in their three-hour couple’s game instead.

Ah well.

Step by step.

This feeling of juggling messes while courting is something else.

But what can you do? You just love her.

Time to sleep.

—

[Blue Sky Repertory Teacher-Student Music Night Series Concert]

[Organizer: Rongcheng Blue Sky Fine Arts…]

[…]

Early the next morning, the LED screen outside Huayang Theater began scrolling the introduction to Yudong’s series concert.

“Looks pretty decent.”

Lin Pengfei stood in front of the LED screen, holding a jianbing guozi, taking a big bite.

Then he turned to ask Hou Cheng if he’d ever seen the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Hou Cheng had no choice but to say no.

Lin Pengfei then started to show off.

Once all the young performers had arrived, the entire cast entered and went to the second floor.

Seeing the four pianos already arranged on stage, the kids who entered first were especially excited.

Before long, the group was divided into five teams by teacher, each sitting in different sections of the concert hall.

From a glance, Li An’s group was the largest: ten children for three programs, plus ten parents.

Over twenty people seated there made quite an imposing sight.

Huang Juan came on stage and clapped her hands, and the noisy crowd instantly quieted down.

After discussion among the five teachers, they decided to let the closing octet perform first.

Li An originally wanted Huang Juan’s teacher-student program to go first, but seeing the decision, he didn’t argue.

He waved his hand as he stepped down, “Octet, go on.”

Marco Zhang Tian and eight children rose.

At that moment, Wang Xiaohu, sprawled out in his seat fiddling with his actor’s badge, suddenly heard a hoarse female voice nearby.

“May I get through?”

Wang Xiaohu looked up and saw Che Lin’s indifferent face.

The girl was quite pretty.

“Wang Xiaohu.”

Xu Li reminded him from the side.

He hurriedly stood up.

As Che Lin sidled past him, he stared at her like a lovesick pig.

He didn’t blink until Che Lin stepped onto the stage.

Liu Fengrui came over with his phone, ignoring Xu Li nearby, asking Wang Xiaohu, “Chicken dinner?”

The strategic relationship between the two young men had been established even before Li An’s arrival in Yudong.

Normally, Wang Xiaohu would have already taken out his phone, but today he had no mood for games.

“Not feeling like playing now.”

He looked toward the stage.

Liu Fengrui thought Wang Xiaohu might be sick.

Xu Li was also surprised; her son actually had moments when he didn’t want to play games. She credited Li An, who was busy on stage.

“Che Lin!”

Li An’s voice came from the stage.

The name sounded pleasant.

Wang Xiaohu saw his little goddess turn her head toward Li An and remembered her name.

—

“You must make sure the other seven are ready before you start leading.”

Che Lin nodded.

Li An then reminded the other seven, “After going on stage, find your seat and sit down, then look at Che Lin immediately.”

“Everyone must make sure Che Lin sees you looking at her. Got it?”

“Got it!!”

“Okay.”

Li An jumped down from the stage, backing away as he shouted toward the stage, “Let’s run through it once!”

The concert hall instantly fell silent, all eyes from teachers, students, and parents focused on the stage.

After a moment, Che Lin raised her hand and began to play a gentle prelude.

“Stop!”

Li An interrupted after less than three measures.

“The tempo started too slow!”

Che Lin adjusted and started over.

After five measures, as the other parts joined in, the music flowed seamlessly, and Li An was quite satisfied.

For eight children performing on stage for the first time, this was already impressive.

He still needed to fill in some stage experience for them later.

The octet finished smoothly, and other programs followed one after another.

By the time all had performed once, it was nearly one in the afternoon.

Huang Juan instructed all the teachers to help the children improve based on the morning’s rehearsal, then announced the formal rehearsal would be here at 3 p.m. the next day.

Afterward, Yudong’s logistics and staff arrived to set up the concert hall for the evening performance.

In the afternoon, Li An gathered the ten children into the rehearsal room for a big lesson on stage performance.

From entrance etiquette to bowing before leaving, including facial expressions during playing, he covered every detail.

Surprisingly, the children seemed to prefer this kind of large class; in just over an hour, he gained 82 teaching points.

By the time all work was done, it was already 4 p.m.

With nearly three and a half hours before the string ensemble concert began, he used the time to practice piano in the classroom for three hours.

—

At dusk, from afar, Huayang Theater was brightly lit. Li An glanced at it from a distance.

“Good luck.”

He turned and boarded the bus heading to Guanshan No. 1 Courtyard.

Tomorrow at this time, it would be his turn to take the stage.