Sunday morning was the rehearsal time Liu Man, Li Xiaoru, and Wen Fangfei agreed to. Liu Man rushed there from her house and arrived a few minutes after the other two.

As she walked into the practice room, she noticed how melancholy the atmosphere seemed.

Wen Fangfei, her back towards the door, stood in front of her Guzheng and didn’t move at all. Li Xiaoru was standing at her side, her face angry, and her eyes red. She was almost crying from being so upset.

Liu Man knew something was wrong and walked up to see all the strings on the Guzheng broken. They spread messily like weeds.

Wen Fangfei’s expression looked helpless and confused; she had never encountered anything like this.

“The practice room teacher is too irresponsible. She promised to help us lock the door but didn’t in the end. When we came, the door was open, and anyone could’ve walked in. We’ve just practiced on Friday, and the Guzheng became like this after just two days,” Li Xiaoru said, infuriated, “This is great. I need to reason with her.”

Li Xiaoru immediately started walking out, but Wen Fangfei got out of her trance and pulled her back, “The practice rooms are open to the public, and we are the ones insisting on leaving the Guzheng here. The teacher isn’t obliged to help us, and she will scold us for leaving it here. If you offend the practice room teacher, how are you going to play the piano at school in the future? We are graduating after two whole years!”

Li Xiaoru calmed down.

She knew, as a weak student, that there would be consequences if they offended any teachers at school, “Why did she promise us when she didn’t want to help us? She’s not fulfilling her promise. Why is there someone like her in this world? I’m so angry.”

“The teacher is keeping her promise. Did you forget? She did lock the door for us on Thursday evening. She probably forgot to on Friday because we left at such a late time. You should blame the person who cut the strings instead of the teacher,” Liu Man was much calmer than Li Xiaoru, “Besides, it’s no use to go after the teacher right now. We need to focus on fixing this situation.”

Wen Fangfei knelt to closely examine her Guzheng, and she sighed in relief when she realized there wasn’t a big issue, “Luckily, this person only broke the strings and did not harm the Guzheng itself. It’ll be fine after I get it to a shop and have someone change all the strings.”

Liu Man said, “Your Guzheng’s front and back were made of Paulownia wood, and the decorations were made of Rosewood. It must be expensive since the wood texture is very smooth. There are even patinas on the edges. I’m guessing you’ve been using it for quite a long time, and you love it.”

Wen Fangfei nodded. Liu Man did know her Guzheng facts.

“It’s the second Guzheng my parents bought me; it cost us 50 thousand. I’ve been using it for ten years, but I’ve been too sentimental to change it.”

Liu Man stretched out her hand and touched Fangfei’s Guzheng. Such a good Guzheng was so close to getting ruined! Liu Man said to Wen Fangfei, “I guess this person is afraid that if they do too much damage, they will get into trouble. If we call the police, they will not only have to compensate for your Guzheng. They probably only want to warn you to stop helping us.”

Both Wen Fangfei and Li Xiaoru were stunned.

“Simply cutting the strings of the Guzheng is meaningless. If we have the materials or if we find experienced masters, we can change the strings in an hour or two and adjust the tone. But if they do this right before the performance, we won’t be able to do anything. But now, doesn’t this person’s actions give us a hint instead to let us be more prepared? I thought about it, and their purpose can only be to keep you away from us, otherwise next time, they will smash your Guzheng.”

Of course, Liu Man did not understand much about how the modern world worked, but she knew a lot about the tricks to harm and defame people. These were all old and prevalent methods used by women in the cold palace.

After hearing Liu Man’s diagnosis, Wen Fangfei laughed out of her anger. This villain felt it wasn’t enough to spread rumors about Liu Man in the Guzheng major, and they even started taking action on her, Wan Feifang’s Guzheng.

The good thing was, she wasn’t afraid. She would not give in to their arrogant actions, and she was more than ever determined to help Liu Man and Li Xiaoru now. No one could stop her!

“We don’t have to be afraid of a person who only dares to make moves in the shadows,” Wen Fangfei bravely said, “I’ll go fix my Gzuzheng right now, and after that, we can come back and practice. It’ll be fine since it’s Sunday; I’ll be free all day.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Liu Man and Li Xiaoru said in unison.

As they passed by the practice room teacher’s office, Li Xiaoru glared at the female teacher sitting inside. The female teacher looked surprised as she saw the Guzheng with broken strings in Wen Fangfei’s hands.

“What happened to your Guzheng?”

“We don’t know who cut the strings while the door was unlocked.”

The female teacher was embarrassed. She just now remembered that she had forgotten to lock the practice room door after the three girls left.

Liu Man asked, “Who was here on Saturday?”

“There were too many people. Since you are having a concert, dozens of students came practicing on the weekends,” The female teacher pulled out a long list of names.

The teacher was perplexed. If there were a student who accidentally went in the room, no one would stoop that low to cut the Guzheng strings.

Most people would realize that the room was preoccupied and would change to a different practice room immediately.

The female teacher had been working here for at least ten years, but it was her first time hearing something like this happened under her watch.

“There are security cameras here, right?” Li Xiaoru asked the teacher, “Let us see the footage to determine who is the culprit.”

“There are cameras, but I don’t have permission to look at the footage. I’ll need to ask the school’s security department,” The female teacher said, “You’ll need to wait a bit before I get permission.”

“We’ll wait as long as it takes,” Li Xiaoru wanted revenge. She had to catch the culprit.

In reality, Liu Man and her already guessed as to who had been the mastermind.

There was a street outside the music university with many instrument shops. This street got nicknamed “the music road,” and it was very famous within the entire capital. Anyone who wanted to get an instrument would come here to select one.

Wen Fangfei had been visiting one particular shop that sold folksong instruments whenever she wanted to fix her Guzheng. She led Liu Man and Li Xiaoru through the road she was so familiar with. This shop seemed very old, and the floor was peeling. It did not even take 20 square meters in area. There were all kinds of Chinese traditional instruments on the walls, the floors, and even on the ceiling, including Guzhengs, lutes, erhus, flutes, and Xiaos… Every folksong instrument you could imagine was there. Although there were many and all in different kinds, it didn’t seem messy at all. The owner of this shop organized them based on whether they were wind instruments or string instruments and presented them with a pattern. Customers could easily find what they wanted.

Liu Man saw the Guqin right next to all the Guzhengs at her first glance.

Translated by: Sydney & Yutong/Puppxteer

Proofread by: DoraiO