“You’re being too worried; there’s still a month left.”

“A month passes fairly quickly. I have never cooperated with anyone else, and you haven’t either, not to mention we have to do a trio. We need to practice, to combine our piano playing, and find an appropriate song. We need lots of time.”

“To be honest…” Liu Man hesitated, but she still decided to say, “During the break, I’ve cooperated with Tang Tu already. We did a piano duet and played on the same piano.”

???

!!!

Li Xiaoru was stupefied.

“My ears seem to be having issues. You… Did you just say you cooperated with whom?”

Liu Man was not going to keep Li Xiaoru in the dark any longer, so she told her honestly, “During the break, Professor Qiu gave me a part-time job, to be an extra in a movie. Tang Tu is the second male lead in that movie, and I have a piano duet scene with him. To conclude, I do have experience of cooperating with others on the piano.”

“Wait wait wait wait, let me calm down,” Li Xiaoru was going crazy, “So, you’re saying, when Professor Qiu pulled you away last semester after the exam, she was asking you to shoot a movie. So you stayed at ShangHai for 20 days, first, duetting with Coco, then shooting a movie with Tang Tu, and you guys even duetted. So, are you going to tell me that your next step is successfully stealing Tang Tu from Shen Mozhen’s hands?”

Li Xiaoru’s last sentence clearly scared Liu Man. Liu Man looked around her to check if anyone was noticing their conversation before saying in a low voice, “Nonsense! I was only another co-worker to Tang Tu. I’ve never even contacted him since I returned from Shanghai.”

“No wonder, during that period, not only did Tang Tu follow your Wei Bo, he also liked and reposted many of your photos,” All questions in Li Xiaoru’s mind got answered, and she pretended to be angry.

“Great, Man Man. You’re being very impressive. Are you even treating me like a friend? You didn’t mention any of this to me.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you guys, I was afraid that Nina would get angry.”

“She’s going to be angry and unfriend us no matter if you tell her or not,” Li Xiaoru got angry every time they got to this, “I’m really impressed by her. She returns to the dorm very late at night every day, and she doesn’t say a single word to me in the dorm. Well, that’s her choice. I stopped talking to her, too. I even want to tell the counselor that I want to switch to another dormitory.”

“Well, she’s not a bad person. It’s only that she’s too persistent on being the best,” Liu Man couldn’t do much about losing Nina as a friend

Li Xiaoru laughed coldly, “In this world, there’s no actual bad guys. Almost no one would commit genocide, right? But, there’s no room for ‘spreading words’ behind someone’s back, it makes all of our lives harder.”

Liu Man was confused, “What do you mean ‘spread words’?”

Li Xiaoru instantly shut her mouth and stopped talking about this topic. She urged Liu Man, “Quick, send a message to Wen Fangfei and ask her if she has time this afternoon. We should meet with her.”

She was too urgent, and Liu Man could do nothing but send a WeChat message to Wen Fangfei, “Hello. Do you have time later? Li Xiaoru and I need your help with something.”

Wen Fangfei quickly replied, “Coincidentally, I don’t have class this afternoon, and I’m free anytime.”

The three agreed on meeting at the same Starbucks outside of campus.

It wasn’t a peak hour for school, and there weren’t many people in Starbucks. In the furthest table sat three girls with outstanding temperaments, each with a cup of coffee in front of them.

Liu Man told Wen Fangfei everything about the Chamber Music Ensemble, and Wen Fangfei was astonished, “No wonder you asked me for help…”

Li Xiaoru said, “If you think it’s unfitting for you, you can just tell us. It’s not an issue, and we can find someone else.”

Wen Fangfei didn’t talk and took a few sips out of her coffee mug. She seemed to be carefully considering their request, and Liu Man and Li Xiaoru did not urge her, either. After a few minutes, she finally said,

“We can try that first. I’ve learned Guzheng for fourteen years, and I’ve never cooperated with a pianist before. If we try it out and our playing isn’t good, you can find someone else in case you fail your assessment. Besides, I have to practice for Senior Mozhen’s graduation concert these days, and I probably won’t have too much time to rehearse with you.”

“No need to be nervous, I’m happy enough that you’ve decided to help,” Li Xiaoru quickly said. A big rock of stress finally landed in her chest.

Liu Man also thought that there wouldn’t be a problem, she wasn’t as urgent as Li Xiaoru, she said to Wen Fangfei, “Thank you.”

Wen Fangfei smiled cheerfully, “Don’t say thanks just yet, it’s not too late until after your exam.”

Liu Man and Li Xiaoru found their third member, and now, their task was to find a fitting song.

Li Xiaoru was suddenly inspired, “How about ‘Butterfly Lovers’? The original ‘Butterfly Lovers’ had Chinese flute element in it. We have the piano music of ‘Butterfly Lovers’, so we only need to rearrange the piece according to Guzheng, and then we can compress the original long piece into only five minutes.”

“Okay, okay,” Wen Fangfei really approved this, “‘Butterfly Lovers’ really is fitting because it’s a classic and quite satisfactory piece. You were also required to only play in five minutes, so the level of difficulty is basically lowered. As long as we cooperate well with each other, you two will definitely pass the assessment.”

“Butterfly Lovers” was very well-known. In Liu Man’s memories, the past owner of this body had also played this piece on the piano. She recalled the melody of “Butterfly Lovers”, which really could be a combined melody of piano and Guzheng. She nodded, “I also have no problem with that.

So, the three agreed to make their performance piece “Butterfly Lovers”.

“I’m going to find a more publicly known piano music score of ‘Butterfly Lovers’ from the library, cut it short, and arrange the two different parts for Man Man and me,” Li Xiaoru told Wen Fangfei, “Then, I’ll send you the music score, and you can revise it according to how a Guzheng is played. We should rehearse together as soon as possible.”

Wen Fangfei said, “There’s no big issues with me. I’ve played ‘Butterfly Lovers’ as a practice piece, and I’m quite familiar with it. Now, I just have to see how you guys plan on dividing the parts, and I’ll be able to revise my part.”

To thank Wen Fangfei for her assistance, Liu Man and Li Xiaoru treated her to dinner at a restaurant outside of school. The trio had quite a good time chatting.

After Wen Fangfei was gone, Li Xiaoru told Liu Man in a half joking tone, “After God saw Wang Nina unfriend us, he made us meet Wen Fangfei. In conclusion, we’ll always be able to have friends.”

Credits: Puppxteer/Yutong & Sydney