It was the same duet, and Liu Man and Tang Tu had only rehearsed it once beforehand. They could never return to the carefree days when they could practice all night because they had to shoot the piano scene in “The Sound of the Wind”. Now, both of them felt awkward just by being in the same room.

Tang Tu sent her his rearranged music sheets for “Sound of the Wind” through WeChat.

Xue Yunfei’s original version of “Sound of the Wind” was only two and a half minutes long. It was a piano duet. Tang Tu stretched it out to six minutes and arranged it into two divisions, a piano one and a violin one.

Mhm. This time, Tang Tu was not playing the piano, but he would be collaborating with Liu Man using the violin, which he was the best at playing.

To be safe, Liu Man practiced her part using the piano in her house a few times. Tang Tu did not edit the main melody, but he did divide the climax into three parts. The piano was going to play it first, the violin would play it again later, and as for the last part, the instruments were going to play it together.

They rehearsed the piece two times in the practice room at school. She and Tang Tu still remembered how they collaborated the best, and they still had a tacit understanding of the music. On the second time, they were already playing fluently, and there wasn’t any problem left.

The two silently practiced, not getting off-topic at all.

After Liu Man finished playing her part, she asked for Tang Tu’s opinion, “What else do you think I can improve on?”

“I don’t have any feedback,” Tang Tu understood what Liu Man meant, and he said, “If you have any other places to go to, you can go now.”

And so, Liu Man stood up and got ready to leave. As he watched her silhouette heading to the doorway, Tang Tu suddenly recalled something and called her, “Oh, right. Your litigation files have all been drafted by Lawyer Li. Would you like to glance over them?”

Liu Man nodded, “Let me check over them.”

“OK. I will send you the files via WeChat later.”

Ten minutes after leaving the practice room, Liu Man received her copy of the litigation files. She found a quiet place, sat down, and carefully read through them.

Sure enough, Lawyer Li was very professional; his writing was full of evidence and had strong fresh claims. No mistakes could be found. Liu Man noticed a detail.

In the evidence part, Zhang Daqiang’s confession mentioned a netizen on Wei Bo nicknamed as “NANA”. The made-up parts in Zhang Daqiang’s exposing post were all provided by this “NANA”.

When she saw the nickname, “NANA”, Liu Man immediately thought of Wang Nina.

Wang Nina and Li Xiaoru were at her first live-stream to be her “fans”. At that time, Wang Nina’s nickname was called “NANA”.

According to the date shown in Zhang Daqiang’s Wei Bo private messages, Wang Nina had started harshly blemishing Liu Man’s reputation when Liu Man first got popular with the “Hanfu Goddess” name.

Liu Man remembered that, at that time, she had not yet unfriended Wang Nina.

Had Wang Nina’s thoughts become this vicious back then?

Liu Man couldn’t understand. Why did Wang Nina hate her so much?

Tang Tu’s concert was also in the third concert hall and started at the same time as Shen Mozhen’s: 7 p.m.

The incredulous thing was that, starting from four o’clock in the afternoon, Tang Tu’s fans had already started to wait in front of the concert hall. When it got to around six o’clock, the concert hall’s entrance was already in a major “traffic jam”. A huge portion of these fans did not have tickets, but they just wanted to see Tang Tu in person.

After all, Tang Tu was a famous social media celebrity with a huge fan base. A huge amount of journalists all came to the concert hall to set up all kinds of equipment inside and outside the concert, waiting to film the entire performance.

Tang Tu had already predicted this situation. To prevent too many fans from coming and causing pandemonium as well as influencing the school’s daily operation, he purposely cooperated with a live-streaming corporation to put his concert online as a live broadcast.

Liu Man could imagine Shen Mozhen’s concert turning into this if the journalists and fans yesterday had known Tang Tu would appear at Shen Mozhen’s concert. The elegant and ancient atmosphere would’ve gotten ruined.

Under so many people’s watch, it became arduous for audiences with tickets to enter. The school sent guards to maintain order, sending these excited fans to the two sides of the music hall’s entrance so there would be an empty pathway in between. A group of men guarded the entrance to the backstage and prohibited any unrelated people to get near.

Liu Man, Tao Zhiyao, and the others intentionally came late. It was only when the performance had already started twenty minutes ago and when the sky had darkened when they sneakily enter the backstage.

Li Xiaoru asked Liu Man out of curiosity, “Doesn’t the school say outstanding graduates’ concerts must invite at least three guests? Shen Mozhen invited you, Wen Fagnfei, and a group of folksong students. Tang Tu invited you and Shen Mozhen, but who’s his third guest?”

Neither of Liu Man’s and Shen Mozhen’s duets was the last, which meant that the third person’s duet with Tang Tu was the finale. Liu Man said, “I don’t know either,” Tang Tu didn’t tell her who the third person was, and she wasn’t interested enough to ask either.

Tao Zhiyao suddenly said: “Tang Tu’s family has lots of social connections, and you are worried about him not being able to invite a third guest?”

Tang Tu’s family?

Li Xiaoru felt strange. What was Tang Tu’s background? It seemed that nobody ever mentioned his parents or family.

However, when faced with Li Xiaoru’s inquiries, Tao Zhiyao refused to reveal any other information.

Miao Xiaomei silently listened to their conversation, and she felt very excited inside, for tonight, she would see Tang Tu in person! She was also a fan of Tang Tu.

Tang Tu also had nine pieces in total: Six solos and three duets with guests.

When they arrived backstage, Tang Tu was still performing his fourth piece, “Butterfly Lovers.”

“Butterfly Lovers” was a concerto written for the violin initially, and every violinist had performed it once. However, the more publicly known a piece was, the more it could show the real level the performer was at.

If Li Xiaoru’s piano version of the “Butterfly Lovers” was delicate and tactful, and Liu Man’s Guqin version of the “Butterfly Lovers” was light and spiritual, then Tang Tu’s violin version of the “Butterfly Lovers” was like a man’s personality. It was full of passion, containing happy and sad parts. During the affectionate parts, he played sentimentally and commiseratively, and during the indignant parts, he played boldly and powerfully.

Liu Man was initially going to change and put makeup on, but she got attracted to Tang Tu’s violin playing. She didn’t go out to the front stage to watch, and neither did she turn on her phone to watch the live broadcast.

She just sat there, in the break room, listening to the music flowing in from the outside. This playing was enough to strongly overwhelm her soul.

Tang Tu performed the story of “Butterfly Lovers” with his music, bringing out how they joyfully fell in love, how they miserably turned into butterflies… Liu Man fell into the music the more she listened.

Li Xiaoru and Tao Zhiyao were admiring his performance, too. Li Xiaoru exclaimed, “No wonder Tang Tu has this many fans. He does have real skills. I remember Tang Tu was the student with the best grades for three continuous years in the violin major.”

“I don’t understand why he decided to film movies,” Tao Zhiyao mumbled to herself, “Every choice placed in front of him is better than being an actor.”

The excited Miao Xiaomei ran to the front stage to shoot videos.

Liu Man finally went to prepare after listening to the entire piece of “Butterfly Lovers”.

Translated by: Sydney