As Fang Bai rushed to the school auditorium, the emcee's voice boomed over the speakers:
"Next up, we have a piano piece performed by Ji Yuning, a student from Class 3, Year 2..."
Her heart racing from the sprint, Fang Bai's cheeks were flushed and a thin layer of sweat glistened on her temples.
When she heard Ji Yuning's name, she breathed a sigh of relief and casually made her way to an empty seat.
She pulled out a tissue and dabbed the sweat from her face, feeling grateful for the cool air conditioning.
As she wiped her face, the lights suddenly dimmed on stage, casting a hush over the audience.
Then, a beam of light illuminated the right side of the stage, signaling the start of the performance.
As the light illuminated the stage, a white piano adorned with golden decorations sparkled like stars.
The auditorium, once bustling with noise, fell silent as a soft note rose from the piano.
All eyes were fixed on the figure in front of the piano, dressed in a straight and beautiful beige long dress.
Her neatly tied braids were now scattered on her shoulders, lending a mature air to her young age.
Under the light, Ji Yuning's complexion appeared neither sickly nor frail as before, but rather a cold, pure, and holy radiance.
Her chin was tense, and her jawline icy and aloof.
Those who knew Ji Yuning were stunned, unable to believe that the princess-like figure on stage was the same reticent and cold Ji Yuning they knew.
Ji Yuning's hands rested naturally on the keys, and her fingers moved like elves across the black and white keys.
She had already memorized the sheet music and practiced the tricky parts that had tripped her up a few days ago.
For Ji Yuning, performing on stage was not a nerve-wracking experience.
She felt like she was simply completing a task assigned to her by Teacher He.
Once she finished playing the piano, the task was done.
As a result, the audience below only saw Ji Yuning exuding an air of haughty nobility, like an unattainable princess.
Fang Bai also felt the same way as she looked at Ji Yuning, thinking to herself that she truly was the female protagonist.
"Was this Ji Yuning's first display of her talents?"
"Maybe it is, since I saw a glimpse of her transformation from an ugly duckling to a graceful swan."
As Fang Bai pondered this, she saw Ji Yuning on stage lift her head in agreement with her thoughts, revealing a beautiful curve of her slender, white swan neck.
As the piece came to an end, thunderous applause rang out.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the audience, a pair of envious eyes glared at Ji Yuning from behind the heavy curtain.
After watching Ji Yuning's performance, Fang Bai lost interest in the following programs and kept her eyes on the stage with half-lidded eyes.
After a couple more lackluster performances, Fang Bai grew bored and decided to leave the school.
She had hoped to speak with Ji Yuning, but couldn't find a good reason to approach her and ultimately gave up on the idea.
As Fang Bai made her way through the crowd, she overheard a conversation and stopped a student with a badge to ask a question.
"Excuse me, does the school close after the anniversary celebration?"
The student met Fang Bai's gaze and involuntarily replied, "Yes."
"With this information, I now had the perfect excuse to see Ji Yuning."
She smiled and said, "Can you take me to the backstage, please? My child just performed, and I want to find her and take her home."
The student was taken aback.
"Child?" It turned out that the person in front of him was not a teacher.
Quickly regaining composure, the student blushed and lowered their head. "Of course, follow me."
After tidying herself up, Fang Bai followed the student towards the backstage, catching glimpses of the student turning to look at her every so often.
Everyone in the audience today was from the high school department, and the youngest age was around 15, but the woman in front of him looked like she was in her early twenties.
Just as they approached the backstage, someone called out to the student urgently and said, "Zhou Xuan, what are you doing? Come with me, something happened."
Zhou Xuan's attention was diverted, and he asked, "What happened?"
"Somebody lost something backstage," the person replied.
Then hurriedly added, "Come with me to deal with it."
Zhou Xuan turned to Fang Bai, awkwardly scratching his head. "Uh..."
He had been planning to call her auntie, but when the words came to his mouth, he changed it to sister.
"This is the backstage. You can call your child to come find you, and I have something to do, so I'll leave first."
After hearing the conversation between the two, Fang Bai nodded and smiled, "Thank you, student."
Zhou Xuan responded with a "You're welcome" and walked away with the student who had called him.
As Fang Bai stood still amidst the hustle and bustle of the stage performers and crew members handling the props, a few people hurriedly passed by discussing the incident of a student named He losing their phone.
Unable to reach Ji Yuning by phone, Fang Bai stood for a few seconds before walking towards the backstage.
She scanned the area, but Ji Yuning was nowhere to be found.
As she continued to walk forward, she realized that there were more rooms around the corner, including a rest area and changing rooms.
She surmised that Ji Yuning might be changing clothes and decided to wait for a few minutes.
"..."
"Not having a phone was really inconvenient."
Fang Bai suddenly realized, "if Ji Yuning didn't use her phone, how could she contact her? Using a carrier pigeon?"
She found herself standing next to the rest area and overheard several students standing on both sides of the door, craning their necks to look inside and whispering about the phone incident:
"Why do you think she stole the phone?"
"Well, why else? She doesn't have one. Look at the shoes she's wearing, do they look like the kind of shoes someone who can afford a phone would wear?"
"But I don't think she's the type to steal things."
"Why not? Just because she's the top of our grade?"
"No, it's just that she looked really good playing the piano earlier, and I just..."
The girl didn't finish her sentence as someone poked her shoulder.
Turning her head, the girl saw a beautiful woman asking her, "Excuse me, who are you talking about when you said someone stole something?"
Thinking it was a teacher, the girl swallowed and whispered, "It's J-Ji Yuning from class 3."
"... "
When they mentioned the top of the grade, Fang Bai had a hunch, and it turned out to be true.
"Did Ji Yuning steal a phone?"
"This is just a pure joke, right?"
It made Fang Bai a little angry, but she couldn't figure out whether she was angry that Ji Yuning was being slandered or for some other reason.
Several students standing by the door looked at each other and then left when they saw Fang Bai approaching.
Voices could be heard coming from inside the room through the crack in the door:
"How do they educate students in your school? How can they still steal things?!"
"Sorry, Mrs. He, we can't be sure that it was Student Ji who stole it."
"It was found in her backpack. How could it not be her who stole it?"
Fang Bai pushed open the door and the small room was packed with people.
Inside the room, people were discussing heatedly and didn't notice the door being pushed open.
Only Ji Yuning, who was standing in the corner protected by Teacher He, caught sight of Fang Bai.
When Ji Yuning saw Fang Bai, her eyes glinted for a moment, but then her usual indifference disappeared, and her eyes became filled with confusion, looking completely at a loss for what to do.
From Fang Bai's perspective, Ji Yuning looked like a rabbit suspected of eating a carrot it had lost, without a hint of the wolf's viciousness.
"Tsk."
"As expected, she's still a child."
After retracting her gaze, Fang Bai didn't notice Ji Yuning's fluctuating expression, but her eyes were filled with interest.
"How does finding it in her bag prove that she stole it?" A lazy voice rang out in the room, filled with disdain.
Everyone turned their heads and saw a person walking in, wearing a blue strap dress with a white veil outside.
The woman who spoke just now saw Fang Bai and her eyes brightened, then she smiled and said, "Miss Fang, what brings you here?"
Fang Bai said lightly, "To attend the school anniversary."
"A few days ago I asked you, didn't you say you couldn't come?" the woman asked in a fawning tone.
The woman has no other choice but to please Fang Bai as her family's business has recently been in contact with the Fang family.
The head of their family has been asking her to interact with Fang Bai.
A few days ago, she obediently went to have afternoon tea with Fang Bai when they talked about the school anniversary.
However, Fang Bai looked disgusted and didn't want her to bring it up.
Mrs. He knew that Fang Bai didn't like Ji Yuning, so she went over to try to persuade Fang Bai, but Fang Bai avoided her.
Mrs. He was stunned for a moment, then she remembered that Fang Bai didn't like to interact with others, so she didn't take it to heart.
She whispered to Fang Bai as she got closer, "That thing you're keeping stole my child's phone. I'm about to have her punished by the director."
"That thing?" Fang Bai looked at Mrs. He with a smile on her face, but her voice was cold. "You mean Xiao Ning?"
Mrs. He was intimidated by Fang Bai's cold gaze.
She was not a slow-witted person, after recalling what Fang Bai said when she first entered the room, and felt that Fang Bai was very different from usual today.
Suddenly, Mrs. He thought that Ji Yuning had been punished, and it was Fang Bai who did it...
"However, it was a fact that Ji Yuning stole something, and I had no intention of backing down."
She said awkwardly, "Yes, it was Ji Yuning."
Fang Bai smiled, but the smile didn't reach her eyes and said, "You're mistaken. Xiao Ning wouldn't steal things. You might as well put the punishment on your own daughter."
Mrs. He's face changed.
"I'm a shrewd person, so how could I not understand Fang Bai's meaning?"
"Wasn't she implying that it was my daughter who deliberately framed Ji Yuning?"
Fang Bai didn't look at her, but turned her head to the corner, and her gaze fell on Ji Yuning.
Her tone was completely different from when she dealt with Mrs. He, and she said gently, "Come here, I'll take you home."
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Author's note:
Fang: Carrier pigeon~
Ji: Coo coo coo! Coo! Coo coo coo! Coo!
Fang (frowning): Can someone help me translate this?#
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How do I do this LMAO
MTL TRANSLATION from a site ---> Correct names/places and pronouns misplaced from the MTL ---> Then another round of proofreading through a tool ---> then another proofreading, this time by me
P.S. Tbh, I'm not really confident that this looks good to go. So thank you really for your patience!