CH 4

Those Beautiful, Little Things (1)

To her surprise, Gu Pingsheng’s experience as master of ceremonies was much better than what he had described of himself. After several rehearsals, they had already developed a good rapport with each other. On the day of the official dress rehearsal, Tong Yan and Gu Pingsheng were sitting in the waiting room backstage, and from outside their door, all sorts of cries and squeals of “Where’s my costume?” “Where’s my prop?” or similar were echoing up continuously. Her script in hand, she could not hold back her giggles.

Suddenly, someone charged in in a state of panic, then paused in surprise before immediately uttering sorry over and over again and hastily retreating from the room.

Both of them found this humorous and exchanged a look.

The assistant stage manager soon arrived to notify these two masters of ceremonies that the dress rehearsal was beginning.

The two of them walked onto the backstage area to stand just behind the huge curtain. Peeking out at the two or three rows of leaders and executives of the university, Tong Yan all of a sudden grew anxious.

Her heart was beating more and more rapidly, and her palms were starting to heat up… She instinctively glanced over at Gu Pingsheng. In that dim lighting, he seemed to detect her abnormal behaviour and lowered his head to gaze at her. “Nervous?”

Tong Yan nodded. So humiliating. All that talk about her being “very experienced” and that she could assist and support Gu Pingsheng in this. Why, then, was she nervous with just the first formal dress rehearsal?

Hearing the opening music begin to play, she took a deep breath. Not nervous, not nervous at all. It’s just twenty or more executives of the school, right? She silently recited to herself the mental trick that worked every time: The audience members are all just a bunch of big winter melons. Just winter melons that only know how to grin at you… Suddenly, someone squeezed her hand. Not too light, nor too heavy but with just the perfect firmness.

A warm palm. A familiar feeling… She did not dare even to breathe, let alone turn to look at him.

The music in her ear had lowered slightly in volume, and soon, the hold on her hand loosened. Gu Pingsheng’s voice was heard saying, “It’s alright. You still have me. If you forget your lines, just look at me.”

In the previous few informal rehearsals, she had established a system and understanding with him. Each time he was required to speak, she would look at him in advance while she finished saying her last couple of sentences to allow him to pick up his lines and continue.

“Tong Yan,” Zhou Qingchen addressed her from within her in-ear monitor. “Go.”

She immediately recovered herself. In this particular event, as master of ceremonies, she was required to be even more careful and attentive as all the programs and performances had to go through her to communicate with both the masters of ceremonies. If she made any mistake, Gu Pingsheng would not even have a chance to help her fix or cover up for it…

As a result of this pressure on her, Tong Yan’s performance was completely off during this official dress rehearsal.

Every time she looked over helplessly at Gu Pingsheng, she would see an obvious smile on his face before he quickly covered up for her mistake. His voice sounded as if he had had professional training before, for what echoed out from the microphone was completely different from his voice normally when he was carrying out class lectures. It was very clean and somewhat low.

It was like pure and refreshingly sweet spring water.

Great Beauty Gu’s performance was simply too good and served even more to emphasize how terrible hers was.

Even Zhou Qingcheng said to her, “Tong Yan Wuji, I had highly recommended you to emcee this, eh. How come it feels like you’re a rookie? Your voice is even trembling…”

Helpless, she covered her face with her emcee script and moaned in a sobbing tone, “I need to de-stress. The instant I think about the fact that I’m carrying the responsibilities of two people, I start getting anxious.”

Du Half-A-Beat was actually much more forgiving and relaxed. “It’s not a problem. This is just the first formal dress rehearsal. There’s still another two. Let yourself gradually get used to it.” When he finished speaking, his eyes shifted to cast a look behind Tong Yan. “Zhou Qingchen, go with Tong Yan to buy a new dress. This time, it’s the university’s Anniversary Gala, so let’s not have her wearing an old evening gown left behind by previous students.”

After he finished saying this, everyone looked towards Tong Yan’s dress. Sure enough, because she was so slender, a dozen or more silver pins were stuck close together across the back of the dress to secure the waistline that had been taken in.

Zhou Qingchen nearly bit his own tongue at this. “Teacher Du, my girlfriend would beat me to death. She even keeps a record of every time I just talk to another girl…”

Tong Yan was also feeling so awkward she thought she could die. “Teacher Du, as long as Students’ Union agrees to let me make alterations, I’ll just take it back, pull out the seam, take it in, and re-sew it.”

Many of the evening gowns belonging to the Students’ Union were actually once private property that had been specially left behind by former students who had served before as masters of ceremonies. Hence, most of them fit to the original owner’s measurements. It was not just Tong Yan. It would be the same situation for anyone who was given a dress, and they were all long since accustomed to this. Fortunately, Du Half-A-Beat did not continue to insist on his suggestion.

Once the two of them finished the dress rehearsal, they hurried together to class.

As Tong Yan took a seat, Shen Yao immediately began mocking her in delight. “Tong Yan, you don’t need to be so brazen about it, eh. The entire class is waiting for just you two. It’s been several weeks like this already. Even my gossips cells are exploding.”

Tong Yan gave her a vicious glare. “How about you take my place?”

While they were talking, the other students in their class were also blatantly cracking jokes and making some strange noises to tease Tong Yan, who was trying to put on a calm, unruffled front. After all, Great Beauty Gu could not hear them anyway, so they could even more rampantly have their fun.

“Tong Yan Wuji, in order to help bring you and Great Beauty Gu together, we’re even attending class on Saturdays.”

“Yan Yan, we’ve got to keep the good things within our own[1]. That’s the teaching of our ancestors, you know.”

“Tong Wuji, do you know how to write the word, ‘jealous’? Please look at my face…”

She picked up her book and used it to block her face. She had rehearsal everyday and was already absurdly tired. She could not be bothered with responding to this bunch.

Due to the frequent rehearsals for the gala, she was late again and again for her part-time job on the weekends. Luckily, Miao Miao had been holding down the cash register duties for her the whole time. When Miao Miao saw her dashing in, the first words she said were, “Tong Yan, hurry, hurry. I’ve been telling our manager that you have diarrhea and were in the bathroom.”

Tong Yan was very grateful to her and at the same time, did not know whether to laugh or cry at the excuse. She was a full hour late. That French manager probably thought she had fallen into the toilet.

After several successive days of heavy rain, there was not really anyone in the store. She persevered until lunchtime, when she began to lower her head and tidy up. She was planning on randomly grabbing something to eat when, out of the blue, she heard a familiar voice calling her. The person she saw when she raised her head for a look, however, was completely outside of her expectations.

Gu Pingfan, Teacher Gu’s older cousin.

The greatest surprise was when she placed a paper bag on the checkout counter and then, from within, pulled out a royal blue evening gown. “This was what I wore during my graduation ceremony. TK said we have very similar builds and told me to bring it here for you to try.”

Tong Yan was basically frozen in astonishment. Gu Pingfan spoke again with a smile, “It’s used. Hope you don’t mind. I only wore it once.”

Of course she would not mind. Or perhaps Teacher Gu had actually been worried that she would refuse to accept this and that was why he had deliberately sent over a used gown?

“Do you need me to go with you to the bathroom and change into it to see how’s the size?” Gu Pingfan looked at her smilingly.

“No. Thank you, though.” Tong Yan hurriedly said thank you several more times, finding herself slightly at a loss for how to handle such a situation.

Owing to that dress, she was in somewhat of a daze for the entire afternoon.

That evening, while she was crammed inside the metro train, she finally remembered that she still had not expressed her thanks. Immediately, she with great difficulty pulled out her mobile phone from her schoolbag and sent Gu Pingsheng a text message: Thank you, Teacher Gu.

She felt she should say something behind those few words, though, so she quickly added another line: I got paid today at work for this month. Tomorrow I’ll first pay you back five hundred, is that ok?

Very soon, a text message came back in reply: It’s no problem. I remembered that Pingfan had worn that dress before. Royal blue should really complement your complexion. As for the money, there’s no hurry. TK

Gazing down at that little row of words, she contemplated for a long time but did not know how to reply. Without even realizing it, her inbox had already been overtaken by the name, “Teacher Gu.”

Her eyes fixed themselves on her mobile phone, and she inexplicably stared at it for a long while. Then, she opened up one text message after another and re-read each one of them.

A “ding” rang out. The speakers in the metro train car were starting to announce the next station. Abruptly, she pulled her mind back together.

Not good, Tong Yan. The way you’re headed right now is very dangerous.

The university’s Anniversary Gala was at six o’clock. By three o’clock, everyone was already beginning the preparations.

To allow the masters of ceremonies to have a peaceful and quiet atmosphere, the dressing room that she and Gu Pingsheng were to use was set-up inside the backstage waiting room. When she stepped out, Gu Pingsheng was leaning against the makeup table, reading a book. He had removed his silver-gray suit jacket and placed it on the empty chair beside him. Perhaps because he had seen Tong Yan out of the corner of his eye, he now raised his head to look at her. Tong Yan, however, hurriedly shifted her gaze away.

Since last Sunday on the metro, when she had discovered her little fancies and feelings, she was behaving more and more abnormally. The most obvious thing was, she had started to pay attention Teacher Gu’s every little movement and gesture.

She discovered that when he was driving, he liked to hold the steering wheel with his left hand while resting his right hand on top of it. Such a pleasant sight to look at. She discovered that every time he held his microphone, he was very relaxed about it and would hold it loosely, unlike her tight grip on her own microphone. She discovered that the tattoo on his arm truly was an English name, and furthermore, it was written in his own handwriting…

Several girls, all junior schoolmates, suddenly ran up to their doorway, prattling on together at the same time and grinning, “Senior sister, senior sister, when you graduate, will you leave this dress behind?”

“Senior sister, may we come in just to watch?”

Before Tong Yan could reply, Gu Pingsheng had leaned over so that he was precisely blocking their view of more than half of her body, and then noiselessly and without drawing any attention, he helped her cover up for a little error of hers — he pulled up the open zipper that was at the waist of her evening gown.

It only took the space of two seconds and then seven or eight junior, female schoolmates came charging in. Tong Yan gazed dazedly at Gu Pingsheng, but he had already leaned back again against the edge of the table, picked up the book on it that was written in the language of some country she could not determine, and carried on with his reading. His expression seemed as if he was deep in contemplation…

When the two of them were standing in the wings behind the stage curtain, waiting for the event’s start, Tong Yan at last looked at him and said, “Just now… thank you.”

Seeing that a slight red had risen up in her cheeks, Gu Pingsheng tapped her on her head with his rolled up script and deliberately used a lighter tone to reply, “Student Tong Yan, there are some things that you need not, and should not, say thank you for.”

Tong Yan had already been feeling embarrassed, and now, his little action caused her face to grow even hotter.

Fortunately, the opening music that by now they had listened to more than a dozen times was already echoing out. The auditorium that just a moment ago had still been bustling with boisterous activity, instantly quieted down. The quietness of 3500 people. Shutting her eyes, she allowed herself to set aside all other thoughts that might distract her.

“Tong Yan.” In her in-ear monitor, Zhou Qingchen’s voice sounded somewhat tight. “Go. Tonight, you’re the prettiest.”

In that moment when she opened her eyes again, the stage was already completely dark.

With one hand, she lifted up the skirt of her gown slightly and finally stepped out from behind the curtain. Under that dazzling spotlight, she could not see anything. Only the sound of Gu Pingsheng’s footsteps behind her were still very clear and very distinct.

A total of twelve steps, no more, no less. And then she saw the silver tag that had been taped down onto the stage floor.

She came to a standstill on that spot, smiled, and exchanged a look with Gu Pingsheng before eventually turning her eyes to the front…

“Distinguished guests, teachers, fellow students, as well as all alumni who are watching this live via the Internet, a good evening to you all…” After getting through saying all the cumbersome wording, she secretly breathed out in relief and proceeded into the main topic of the night. “I am Tong Yan and I’m from the Law Faculty’s class of students who were admitted in 2008. Standing here by my side is my teacher and also my co-host for the night.” Tilting her head to the side, she smiled and looked up at Gu Pingsheng. “Gu Pingsheng, our Teacher Gu.”

Before she had finished speaking the last word, the entire auditorium had already erupted in excitement.

Gu Pingsheng only spoke three words: “Good evening, everyone.” As his voice echoed out from the speakers, it unexpectedly contained a slight, understated elegance and sensuousness.

“Oh my god,” Zhou Qingchen’s voice sighed in her in-ear monitor, “that is the real voice of Teacher Gu…”

Tong Yan was also quite astounded. In comparison to their dress rehearsals, this truly was of a professional caliber.

It was fortunate that the lines that followed were all Gu Pingsheng’s task. She simply stood there beside Gu Pingsheng, listening in on the repeated sighs of admiration coming from the control booth. The final remnants of her tension all dissipated, and now, she was so annoyed she wanted to curse at someone.

“Give me a word to describe the voice of my future fellow senior schoolmate.”

“Magnetic.”

“That’s tacky!”

“Sexy.”

“Also tacky!”

“Nice-sounding.”

“You must be studying physics, right? You don’t even know any adjectives.”

This continued until the spotlight dimmed and the control room was thrown into its next segment of turmoil and clamour as it began to conduct the change into the next program. Tong Yan and Gu Pingsheng could not return backstage and could only sit off the stage to the side and rest.

When Tong Yan turned to look at him, Gu Pingsheng had just taken a bottle of spring water from the assistant stage manager, nonchalantly opened it, and taken a drink. “What’s up?”

“Teacher Gu, have you actually practiced or maybe been trained in speech and broadcasting and hosting?”

He did not deny this. “More or less. I studied it a bit.”

As she took a sip of water, a voice was already speaking in her in-ear monitor. “ ‘Without You’ is up. Zhao Jianan get ready.”

The current program that was performing was the school’s symphony orchestra. It was therefore not required for them to introduce “Without You” as the next act because once the orchestra’s performance came to an end, it would simply continue directly into providing the accompaniment for Zhao Jianan. And so, she needed only to listen and continue to rest.

“Sh*t!” Zhou Qingchen suddenly burst out a swear. “We’re screwed. Tong Yan, we’ve got a big problem. You need to fill in.”

Her heart gave a thump, but her monitor only allowed her to listen so she could not even ask what had happened. Out on the stage, the curtain was slowly being lowered, signaling that this particular program had reached its conclusion. When the view of the orchestra was completely hidden by the curtain, it would be the beginning of the next performance…

“Tong Yan, the next two performances aren’t ready yet and it’s too late to let the orchestra know. You sang this song in last time’s singing competition, so you’re subbing in.”

She was utterly stunned. The curtain had already come down and the musical introduction on the piano quietly rang out. The musical notes seemed to skip forth, each one landing on the deepest reaches of her heart.

“Come on, go.”

When she had finally steeled herself and risen to her feet, she had already missed the first line of the song. On the other side of the stage, Shen Yao seemed to have detected that no one was singing, and she immediately improvised and added another few bars to the introduction. Then, she imperceptibly transitioned back into that soothing rhythmic chording she had played at the very beginning—-

“No I can’t forget this evening…”

With her microphone raised, Tong Yan did not have enough time to even to step onto the stage before she had sung this first line. Stillness instantly fell over the backstage. Nobody knew what exactly had happened, and everyone was in a state of shock.

“Or your face as you were leaving,

But I guess that’s just the way…”

In the darkness, Tong Yan seemed to see Gu Pingsheng’s eyes. It was only for a brief instant, though, for then, she had already stepped up onto the stage. In that moment, as a single, silvery spotlight shone down, the hall also grew quiet.

Half a second later, the entire auditorium was flooded with a deafening roar of screams, surprised shouts, and applause that nearly drowned out the musical accompaniment.

The event program had been released very early on. No one had expected that, in the end, the gala’s host and master of ceremonies would personally perform this piece.

“I can’t live…”

But, right as she sang out the first half of this line of the chorus, a clear and melodious male voice echoed through the whole auditorium.

“I can’t live

If living is without you

I can’t live

I can’t give anymore…”

In disbelief, Tong Yan turned around and watched as Gu Pingsheng walked out from the other side of the stage. At some point in time, he had taken off his suit jacket, looking now just as he had that first day he strode into the classroom, and even his tie was removed. His microphone was held relaxedly in his hand.

He merely smiled as very, very slowly, he walked out from the shadows and towards her.

Those deep black eyes were fixed unblinkingly on her… He made a subtle gesture, and instantly she understood.

Lowering her own microphone, she quietly stood in that brilliant circle of the spotlight and gazed at him there, partially illuminated and partially still veiled in darkness. As the chorus came to its end, all the accompanying instruments faded out, leaving Shen Yao alone to continue playing, perfectly blending with Gu Pingsheng’s voice.

“No I can’t forget this evening…”

Smoothly, he had transitioned in to take the lead vocal line.

With another gesture from him, she raised her microphone and quietly harmonized with his singing. After each line was sung, she would echo it again in response.

What did it mean to “go crazy”? The students who had long since erupted in exhilaration and those ceaseless squeals and screams, that’s what. She finally could personally experience the meaning.

The entire time, he stood outside the illumination of the spotlight, gazing at her, until the very last chorus when he at last extended his hand to her.

She could not remember how she had stretched out her hand.

As if she had been bewitched, just like that, he was tightly holding onto her hand.

“I’m crazy, I’m going crazy!” After Tong Yan stepped off the stage with her hand still enclosed in Gu Pingsheng’s, Zhou Qingchen finally managed to exclaim this out in a voice that was quivering terribly. “Did you see that? Those two are what you call professional emcees. Did you all see that?…” In her in-ear monitor, there were peals of lively and excited laughter that filled her ears. But as for her own voice, she seemed to have lost it somewhere…

“Tong Yan Wuji!” Ai Mi suddenly threw her arm around her. “Was I good or not? I mouthed the words to lead your Great Beauty Gu to keep with the beat. Totally flawless and unnoticeable! So perfect!

When the jokers who made up the Sunshine Theatre Society saw the two emcees coming down, they immediately headed up onstage and smoothly announced their own performance.

Successfully, they transitioned the program into the next act.

Onstage, the resounding sounds of impassioned theatrical voices had started up by now, but backstage, pandemonium had broken out.

Everyone was elated, as if they had personally been the ones to save the production by filling in for the act. Standing beside her, Gu Pingsheng handed Tong Yan a bottle of water. “Good thing the song was an oldie. Otherwise, I would only be able to watch and do nothing.”

Ai Mi handed her coat to her, then took advantage of the opportunity to express to Gu Pingsheng, “Teacher Gu, I ‘white part of the scallion’ [cōng bái] you.” After saying this, she left with chortles of “hee hee.”

Gu Pingsheng was silent for a moment before asking Tong Yan, “What did she say?”

“She said she idolizes [chóng bài][1] Teacher Gu, you.” She had finally found her voice again but it was still somewhat raspy. Luckily, he could not hear it.

“When you did that, weren’t you afraid you might sing something wrong or off?” She looked at him.

“I have a bit of a musical foundation in vocal studies, and I’m also very familiar with that song.” He motioned for her to put on her coat. These last few days, the temperature had fallen somewhat, and it was rather chilly backstage. “But I still couldn’t be certain that I could completely complement you. Good thing you and Shen Yao are both very astute.”

He spoke nonchalantly about this, as if a moment ago, he had been singing in a karaoke bar and not performing in front of several thousand people. And the main point was, in those circumstances, he had been required to go onstage and sing.

Piano, vocal studies, speech and broadcast… As she pieced together all these things about him, she gradually came to the realization that his family had actually intentionally trained and fostered abilities in him. Even if one were to disregard the profession he had once studied, simply these things alone were enough to make one feel a sense of regret and a twinge of sadness in the heart. Heaven had richly blessed him with many talents, but unfortunately, he no longer had an arena for him to demonstrate them.

By the time the evening gala came to an end, Tong Yan nearly collapsed from exhaustion.

Because they needed to remove their make-up and change their clothing, she and Gu Pingsheng were almost the last to arrive at the post-event celebratory feast. Students’ Union had reserved the entire Haijingge Restaurant, and inside, boisterous noise and loud laughter stirred the eardrum.

The two of them had just stepped inside when Zhou Qingchen immediately clapped his hands together, indicating that everyone should quiet down. “Hurry, hurry, bring the alcohol. Tonight, our mission is to get our two emcees hammered with booze until they fall over.”

Before Tong Yan had a chance to say anything, a brimming glass of beer was stuffed into her hand. Her alcohol capacity was such that she would pass out after three glasses, and she had never before been the subject of a focused effort to get her drunk. However, judging from the atmosphere here tonight, she reckoned that unless they drank themselves unconscious, they should not even think about exiting through those main doors …

Gu Pingsheng glanced down at the glass in his hand, sensing that he could not back out of this now. “My friends and students here, do you need to take into consideration the virtue of respecting your teacher?”

“Teacher Gu,” everyone suddenly shouted in unison, “we ‘white part of the scallion’ you.” It was a resounding sound, and even the serving staff who were carrying trays around jumped with shock.

Tong Yan suddenly felt very, very touched and she turned her head to look at him. Though he could not hear, he could still see the words they had spoken.

Everyone’s lips moving in unison, everyone’s excited expressions caused many emotions to flood up into that pair of eyes — an intensity that flashed very briefly before it was gone.

In the end, contrary to everybody’s expectations, they were the ones who were all finished off by Gu Pingsheng instead.

Everyone was transported back on bicycles ridden by dormmates who had all been summoned over from their various dormitories to help … Only she, the one who had joined forces with Gu Pingsheng against their “common enemy,” very clearheadedly looked toward Gu Pingsheng and said, “Oh no, they’re all drunk. There’s only us left to pay the bill.”

Smiling, the restaurant owner wagged his hand at them. “No need, no need. Your Students’ Union President Zhou will come back tomorrow to pay the tab.”

Tong Yan secretly exhaled in relief. Gu Pingsheng was now the people’s idol, and she did not dare force him to pay the restaurant bill.

In the beginning, she had still been carefully totaling up how much he had drunk, but later, she utterly lost track. At the end, even she had started to suspect whether Teacher Gu actually had ancestral roots in northeastern China[2] and had started drinking baijiu [traditional Chinese alcoholic drink][3] to pass the day when he was still a babbling baby learning to talk.

As the two of them walked back together along the tree-lined boulevard that was relatively empty of people, there was not much conversation between them. Perhaps he was a little tipsy, too. When they arrived in front of the girls’ dormitory building, someone gave a loud sigh of admiration. Instantly, numerous gazes coming from the laundry and boiler rooms[4] were thrown in their direction. And then, more joined in from the balconies … Heads furtively poked out from at least half of the forty-odd balconies on this side of the building, all trying hard to locate Gu Pingsheng, the person who, only a little while ago, had amazed an entire audience.

“Teacher Gu.” Tong Yan could not handle this much longer. “I’m going in first now.”

He seemed to have perceived that standing at the foot of the girls’ dormitory building was not a wise thing to do to. “Go ahead.”

Tong Yan turned away, but just as she stepped up onto the first step, she suddenly turned back again. “Teacher Gu, you drank. Make sure you don’t drive.”

“I don’t drive anymore.” He could not hold back a laugh. “I’m planning on settling down to live in Shanghai, so I can’t continue using the driver’s license I was originally using. Nowadays, there are regulations and restrictions around hearing ability when obtaining a drivers license within the country, so lately, I’ve been riding the campus shuttle or taking a taxi.”

Tong Yan had not expected, however, that when she pushed open the door to her own dormitory room, she would be greeted with a different sort of scene. Shen Yao and Wang Xiaoru were sitting facing one another, both wearing very grim expressions. So grim it was rather scary.

“What’s going on?” Even when Tong Yan shut the door, the two did not turn their heads.

Shen Yao shrugged. “I’m looking at the person who is now famous school-wide for being a third party, the culprit who caused us to nearly be humiliated tonight at the gala.”

Tong Yan could not quite understand. Wang Xiaoru merely smiled, “I’m heading out.” After saying this, she grabbed her mobile phone and keys and strode straight out the door.

“What’s going on?” Tong Yan asked again.

“Do you know why Zhao Jianan suddenly didn’t go up on stage?” Shen Yao heaved a lengthy sigh. “Let me give you a brief summary of what was happening backstage while I was shaking in fear and accompanying you and Teacher Gu on the piano.” Tong Yan tossed the paper bag containing her clothes off to the side and motioned for her to speak.

“I’m sure in your Students’ Union celebration feast, no one dared tell you the truth, but when we, the band were out at our own dinner, it was a complete uproar. Apparently, at the time, Zhao Jianan had already changed into her outfit, but one minute before she was supposed to go onstage, she suddenly started bawling and ran away with her phone in her hand. Everyone backstage at the time was stunned. Someone eventually revealed the gossip that Zhao Jianan had found out Prez Zhou was actually cheating on her with another girl. She was so mad she didn’t care about anything else and just bawled, saying she’d rather die before she went out onstage, that she wanted to completely screw up the gala so that Prez Zhou would be disciplined …”

As she listened up to this point, Tong Yan suddenly realized that, indeed, it did seem that no one had mentioned tonight why such a big slip-up had occurred

“And so … it’s Xiaoru?”

Shen Yao let out another long sigh. “Xiaoru is just too ruthless. She nearly ruined all of us.”

Tong Yan was somewhat unable to believe this was true. “Doesn’t she have a boyfriend already?”

“Prez Zhou has an offer from the University of Pennsylvania and also has a job offer from the Singapore government. Whoever’s with him won’t have to worry about taking an exam for this or trying to get into that anymore.”

Yet another love story that crumbled after a single strike. Tong Yan had no desire to ask for more details, and Shen Yao also could not be bothered to say any more. Instead, she grinningly began showing Tong Yan the current hot topics on the school’s BBS. Without a single exception, they were all related to tonight’s “Without You” performance. She only needed to look at the subject headings of the posts before she wanted to start laughing.

“Begging on my knees for a recording of tonight’s ‘Without You.’ Will treat you to Xinjiang big plate chicken[5]!!!!”

“Oh cr*p! So freaking annoying. My computer crashed while I was streaming it live!”

“[Shocking appearance] Perverted old dude impersonating Pretty Lady’s Bane beside Remembrance of Roots Lake!”

“Latest campus shuttle bus schedule (Gu Pingsheng version)!”

……

“I’ll show you two that are exciting.” Shen Yao opened up two windows on her screen and read out the subject line. “ ‘Any Penn alumni out there? Have you heard of the stories about Gu Pingsheng when he was in med school?’ Hurry, look, look.”

With an expression of adoring worship, she stared at Tong Yan, as if she could see through her to the far away University of Pennsylvania over in the United States…

“I can’t believe Great Beauty Gu studied medicine and that he’d actually been in the School of Medicine at Penn. Tong Yan Wuji, I can’t take it. That’s the home of Wharton School of Business — my goal for next year, aaah …”

Tong Yan gave a couple of “mm-hmms” and remained silent out of a guilty conscience.

“There’s more. There’s this one, too.” Shen Yao clicked open another window.

She took a glance and was truly taken aback this time.

“I can’t take it, can’t take it! Huge, earth-shaking scandal! The girl in white who nearly scared me to death that time in the Upper Building was the female MC from tonight, ah ah ah ah! And that, that, that, that backside that totally enchanted me was definitely Gu Pingsheng! I’ll bet a cartload of cucumbers that these two for sure have a teacher-student romance going on!! Just look at their eyes. I watched the video 19 times and couldn’t even find one second where their gazes separated …”

A post that had been posted half an hour ago already had twenty pages worth of replies. Someone was even incessantly posting screenshots, analyzing each little movement and each expression the two of them had shown during every line of lyrics they had sung…

“God, besides in the American TV series forum, I’ve never seen anyone take screencaps and analyze everything so painstakingly before.” Chortling, Shen Yao turned around to see a speechless Tong Yan, so she comforted, “Don’t have such bad composure. It’s the era of universal entertainment.”

Shen Yao’s mobile phone abruptly started to ring, and she hurriedly stepped out onto the patio to take the call.

Tong Yan continued to read line by line through the replies, and very soon, she stopped at one that was actually extremely technically sound. Someone had actually totaled up the number of teacher-student romances in each of the faculties over the last ten years. The final conclusion was, although their university did not explicitly stipulate a stance in regards to such scenarios, behind closed doors, they certainly tried to break up the loving couple. At the very least, during the period the student in question was still studying at the school, the pair should not dare — and must not — brazenly be romantically involved.

There had been a total of seven pairs, but in the end, the only romance that came to fruition was last year’s couple from the Faculty of Architecture that had wed after the graduation ceremony. The others had stirred up a merry ruckus, but the end result was either the teacher leaving the school or else the student moving far awa y…

She was engrossed in reading when out of the blue, Shen Yao swatted her on her shoulder. “Read anything fun or interesting?”

“No, just pointless stuff.” Tong Yan closed the computer screen window.