Chapter 6

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

The man sat behind the shadows, almost blending into the darkness.

The angle of his position and the way the ivy leaves that cascaded down like a waterfall cleverly covered him— this was why Ming Dai did not notice him before he made a sound.

However, Ming Dai quickly realized that her tone was a little too aggressive.

The other party must have come to the terrace before her, but she was the one who disturbed their peace.

Her attitude quickly softened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrogate you.”

The man laughed softly. It was like a feather gently tickling his cochlear. A numbing feeling crept up from the back of his neck.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I’m the one who’s bothering you.”

Even though she could not see his face and did not know his identity, Ming Dai could still feel the goodwill from this stranger.

The kindness of strangers was usually pure and clean, so it was even more precious and moving.

For a long time, Ming Dai had only received straightforward malice from strangers.

They did not know her, nor did they understand her. However, because they had too much dissatisfaction and resentment in their lives, they vented it all on the Internet. Ming Dai was just a target that had been erected.

After enduring malice for so long, Ming Dai almost thought that no stranger would be kind to her, let alone have the right to confide her grievances.

But today, there was Zhao Xian first, and then there was the mysterious gentleman on the terrace.

The long-lost warmth enveloped Ming Dai in the cold winter night, making her almost cry uncontrollably.

Ming Dai tried her best to widen her eyes so that tears would not flow out.

There was a surge of emotions in her heart. She could not help but muster up the courage to complain loudly.

“It doesn’t matter if you hear it. Anyway, I just feel that her piano skill is very ordinary!”

Ming Dai found it funny again after saying it all in one breath.

It was as if she had become an unreasonable little girl. Regardless of whether she had done anything wrong, she stubbornly and childishly asked her parents to stand behind her and help her unconditionally.

She thought that she would not receive any response and wanted to find an excuse to leave in embarrassment.

Unexpectedly, the man agreed with her.

“No, it’s not ordinary. It’s very bad.”

“… Huh?”

“Shumann’s ‘Träumerei’ is meant to bring the listener into a quiet and delicate mood with poetic intent. He deliberately abandoned those showy expressions of skills and focused on the embodiment of emotions. Every melody is the expression of the romantic aesthetic in his heart. These two performers are obviously amateurs and don’t understand the deeper meaning Schumann wanted to convey. They deliberately showed off clumsy techniques with no sense of rhythmic breathing. They pressed the keys too hard, and not to mention the mistakes and missed beats… If anyone thinks that they played well, we can only say that the person who praised them has poor taste.”

The man gave a serious and sharp evaluation. He was like a professional music critic, his every word hit the nail on the head.

How could Ming Dai know so much?

The piano she was talking about was just her homework for the role. She had acted as a vicious, supporting actress in the piano major in one television drama, which was why she had specially found a professional piano teacher for a month of training.

The teacher had indeed praised Ming Dai for being very talented, but what if she was just fooling around because of the high tuition fees?

Ming Dai did a good job. She could play the entire song in front of the camera without looking at the score. There was no need to specially find a stunt double.

Unfortunately, in the end, these piano scenes were cut into pieces because the director said that the only scenes of the supporting actress needed was when she was dealing with the female lead viciously out of love for the male lead. There was no need to showcase the piano scene…

Now that a few years had passed, Ming Dai had completely forgotten about the little piano knowledge she had. Listening to the man’s comments was like listening to ancient greek.

She was not proud at all. Instead, she was embarrassed, as if she had played with a big knife in front of Guan Yu.

“Actually… I don’t really understand. I just don’t like her and am deliberately venting.”

Ming Dai explained weakly. She did not want to lie to this kind-hearted person.

At the same time, Ming Dai was also afraid that the other party would hate her because of her thoughts and think that she was vicious and narrow-minded.

The man did not fly into a rage.

“Sometimes intuition speaks louder of talent. Your piano teacher didn’t lie to you.”

He was good at reading people and saw through Ming Dai’s lack of confidence at a glance. He comforted her gently and tolerantly.

However, his tolerance was different from Zhou Yunzhi’s. It wasn’t that he saw her as inferior, but that he had already seen the vastness of the universe and still pitied the greenery.

It was as if the spring sun had brushed past the ground that was cracked by the cold. Everything grew wantonly in this gentleness.

The emotions that Ming Dai had been suppressing for too long suddenly broke down.

She could no longer control her tears. They rolled down her cheeks like large pearls.

“Thanks for the compliment.”

She sobbed as she thanked him.

However, she felt that this was very impolite and tried to hold back her tears.

Unexpectedly, her tears fell even more fiercely. She cried like an aggrieved child.

The ivy leaves rustled.

The man seemed to be unable to sit still and wanted to get up to comfort her.

Ming Dai did not notice that all she could think about was how embarrassing it was that she could not stop crying.

She hurriedly said, “Thank you so much.” Then, she grabbed the corner of her dress and ran away.

The man did not even have time to stop her.

He stared blankly in the direction where Ming Dai’s skirt disappeared and did not come back to his senses for a long time.

Ming Dai knew nothing.

She covered her face and ran for quite a distance. When she controlled her tears, she heaved a sigh of relief.

As for that man, she did not dare to think about how panicked he was when he saw her tears.

It was simply a social death!

At this moment, Ming Dai noticed that she had accidentally run into the corridor that connected to the lounge of the annex building.

She wiped the wetness from her cheeks and was glad that no one was around when she saw a figure come out of the corner.

It was the man who had played the duet with Gu Lingsi on stage earlier!

Ming Dai turned around and wanted to hide, but the other party discovered her first—

“Dai? It was really you I saw just now.”

His voice and tone were extremely gentle as he walked towards Ming Dai unhurriedly.

Ming Dai subconsciously stood up straight and her back stiffened slightly. It was a defensive posture.

“Shen Qinghe.”

She said his name.

Ming Dai had dated four boyfriends in total.

Only her first boyfriend had hurt her deeply when she was at her most innocent and ignorant age.

This person was Shen Qinghe—

Winner of three Golden Roosters, he had countless fans and was praised by his peers. He was known as the male god of the entertainment industry.

The only blemish on him was probably the scandal with Ming Dai a few years ago.

In fact, very few people around them knew that the two of them had actually been in a relationship.

In the eyes of the outside world, this scandal was even more out of Ming Dai’s league.

When Shen Qinghe debuted in a major literary film, he was nominated for the Best Actor award.

As for Ming Dai, her debut work was an online movie that was frenzied. Ming Dai acted as a pretty vase and had no acting skills at all.

Even though she insisted on not revealing her body, the labels of this movie being vulgar and low-grade were still firmly stuck on her and accompanied her throughout her acting career.