After a long time, Liu Man said in a very, very small voice, “It’s all real, it’s just that they’ve twisted the truth in some way. I only knew Tang Tu and Shen Mozhen broke up the day before yesterday… He said he likes me, but I ignored him. I do not like him at all.”

Liu Man opened her Wechat with no hesitation, and she showed Li Xiaoru her entire chat history with Tang Tu.

Frank and open, without a trace of ambiguity.

“How could this be?” Li Xiaoru was angered, “This is blemishing your reputation, taking sensitive words and twisting the meaning. Your chat history only consists of Tang Tu’s one-sided interest. Why did they accuse you of trying to seduce Tang Tu? You didn’t even do anything! It is too unscrupulous, way too unscrupulous!”

Liu Man also thought this account named Zhang Daqiang was blaming her for something. But now, if she tried to explain online, would those infuriated fans believe her? They would probably defame her even more.

Liu Man recalled how cruel her fans treated her that time she took Moonlight in but got accused of trying to earn money by making Moonlight seem pitiful.

And these netizens on the internet right now weren’t even her fans. They knew nothing about her, so it was even easier for them to attack her without feeling bad.

At this time, someone knocked on the practice room door heavily.

Liu Man and Li Xiaoru exchanged glances. Only Wen Fangfei knew they were inside the practice room.

Li Xiaoru opened the door.

She saw Wen Fangfei standing outside, expressionless.

Li Xiaoru felt shocked. Wen Fangfei always put on a smiley face and always seemed very friendly to them. Li Xiaoru had never seen Wen Fangfei drag her face or be angry.

Wen Fangfei did not say a single word to Li Xiaoru but instead walked into the room and looked at Liu Man with an especially indifferent and strange look,

“Is it real, what they are saying about you and Senior Tang Tu on Wei Bo?” She directly got on the topic and interrogated Liu Man.

Liu Man stared into this pair of eyes that showed no trust anymore and asked in a soft voice, “If I say it’s fake, will you believe me?”

Wen Fangfei did not reply.

But this was a way of answering Liu Man that no matter what she said, Wen Fangfei would never trust her again.

“I’ve heard a lot about you before. They told me you’re a gold digger; you’re immoral; you have some relationship with Senior Tang Tu. They told me to not help you. I thought those were just rumors and were all fabricated. I didn’t believe them. They told me I’m an idiot and will regret this later,” Wen Fangfei’s eyes were filled with disappointment, “Now, reality tells me I am an idiot after all.”

Her voice contained a hint of quivering as if she was about to cry.

Wen Fangfei truly thought of Liu Man as a friend. She thought Liu Man was just like her and that they had the same interests. She treated Liu Man genuinely, but she received this in return.

She felt as if she was fooled and humiliated.

Liu Man felt sour inside. She did not want to lose Wen Fangfei as a friend, so she tried explaining, “I swear I never seduced Tang Tu. His breakup with Shen Mozhen has nothing to do with me.”

Liu Man took out her phone again. She wanted to show Wen Fangfei her chat history with Tang Tu.

Wen Fangfei, however, looked at her ironically, as if she was staring at a clown. A clown that was trying to hide her dark, evil side with stupid lies.

“Senior Mozhen is someone I like and admire. She’s both a friend and an older sister to me. There is no way for me to befriend someone who harmed her. I will not be able to participate in the performance this afternoon.”

Li Xiaoru was surprised, “What will we do if you suddenly quit? It is an ensemble concert, and there must be three people in each group. If you do this to us, Man Man and I will not pass this assessment.”

“Even if I stand on the stage with you guys, you will still not pass because of my current status. Seeing her…” Wen Fangfei pointed at Liu Man, “I do not have the mood and the status. I can’t play the Guzhen, and I do not want to play the Guzhen. Are you going to force me to be a tree trunk on stage?”

Li Xiaoru, who had an impulsive personality, got angry, “We have practiced for such a long time. Are you telling me that our tacit understanding and collaboration are fake? Don’t you have an understanding of Man Man’s actions? Why are you trusting those rumors online? Aren’t you showing injustice right now? Are you going to give up on all our hard work right now?”

Wen Fangfei also got angry, “If I knew this before, I wouldn’t have even agreed to help your performance. I wasted so much time on this. I’ve already decided to quit, and I’m just here to tell you guys.”

“You have gone much too far…”

Li Xiaoru still wanted to reason with her, but Liu Man pulled her back, “Forget it, forget it. It’s her choice whether to help us or not. We can think of another way to make this work.”

“What other way is there? There are only two hours before the performance. Where are we going to find another person? Even if we force someone to join, we’ve never cooperated with that person before. How will we perform? We should just quit.”

It was unexpected when Wen Fangfei said coldly, “You have a point. You should just quit, so you don’t embarrass yourselves.”

She turned around immediately, indifferent and merciless. She did not show any sign of regretfulness.

Wen Fangfei did not see Liu Man standing behind her. Her face filled with sadness and disappointment.

So, in the end, they weren’t real friends.

If Wen Fangfei was a real friend, why didn’t she believe in her?

The practice room quieted down. Li Xiaoru sat back onto her chair and sighed absentmindedly, “I’ll go inform Professor Zhu later to say we won’t perform. If he marks us as not meeting expectations, we can always test again next semester or retake this course.”

Liu Man stayed in the same spot and did not move at all, as if she was a statue. She tried to calm herself down.

She was involved in her gossip with Tang Tu. She was responsible, and she could afford not passing. But Li Xiaoru shouldn’t be affected. She was an outstanding student and received A+’s for every course, and she was in the top 15 in the entire grade. If she kept this grade until she graduated, she could easily become a postgraduate or go to an orchestra that was above medium level. She could have a perfect future.

But if Li Xiaoru didn’t pass this course because of Liu Man, she wouldn’t even be able to think about becoming a postgraduate. Even small orchestras wouldn’t hire a pianist that didn’t pass a standard course.

She could not drag Li Xiaoru behind.

“We must perform on stage,” Liu Man said confidently.

“But how do we perform with only two people?”

Li Xiaoru had already given up, but she heard Liu Man say,

“Who said two people cannot perform a trio?”

Li Xiaoru was stunned. She saw Liu Man smiling like everything was normal. It was a confident and calm smile.

Liu Man did get beaten by Wen Fangfei’s indifference and cyberbullying. However, she had to get up somewhere and not just lie down on the ground. Only cowards would give up. She had to get up, no matter how horrible the attacks and setbacks are.

She stayed in an underworld-like cold palace for 24 years. What kind of rumor is worse than those demons and monsters she saw?

Li Xiaoru saw Liu Man’s eyes glow as they have never glowed before.

Translated by: Sydney, with a bit of help from Yutong/Puppxteer