Chapter 10 The Bitter Summer Had Always Been Quiet
"Here, take this." She stuffed a sheet of music into Shen Qingli's arms and explained, "Yixiao just told me that there was a problem with the sheet music for their performance, so he asked me to bring over a temporary backup."
"Oh, is that so? Then you can just take it backstage, why did you give it to me?" She nodded, although she didn't understand why Shen Qingyun did this, but seeing that she was breathing heavily and her face was a little pale, she said worriedly, "But the performance on stage is about to end, sister, why don't you come backstage with me to give it to them, and you can rest for a bit?"
"No...no need." Shen Qingyun refused the suggestion, as if she was afraid that Shen Qingli would see through her. She hurriedly said, "I have some things to do in my class. You go ahead and go. I'll...go back first."
After saying that, ignoring Shen Qingli calling her from behind, she walked quickly and disappeared in an instant.
Seeing this, she glanced helplessly at the sheet music in her arms and had no choice but to go through another door to the backstage area.
When they got backstage, only Zhao Yixiao was standing there anxiously waiting. He was taken aback when he saw Shen Qingli, but he quickly noticed what she was holding.
Seeing him staring at her, she walked closer and explained, "Oh, senior, it's perfect that you're here. This is something my sister asked me to give you."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Yixiao thanked her. He took the sheet music, flipped through a few pages, and finally breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that everything was correct. He then looked up, a grateful smile on his lips, and said to her, "Thank you so much, Qingli. I wouldn't know what to do if you hadn't brought it to me."
"Oh, no need to thank me, senior. If you want to thank someone, thank my sister. I just helped her bring it in." She waved her hand, not expecting Zhao Yixiao to say that.
"Oh right, Qingyun is also here. By the way, where is she? Why didn't she come with you?"
She said she had something to do in class, so she handed me my things and left in a hurry. She must have been busy going back to class.
Hearing her say that, Zhao Yixiao was unusually silent for a while. He seemed to be thinking about something. After a long while, he finally said, "That should be right. It's okay. I'll go thank her in person tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll be going now." Shen Qingli didn't think much of it. Seeing that she had done what Shen Qingyun had asked her to do, she thought about going back.
Just then, Luo Yiqiu, who had changed her clothes, came out of the dressing room. She was taken aback when she saw the two people talking in front of her, but she quickly regained her composure and walked up to her, asking, "Qingli, what are you doing here?"
Hearing the voice, Shen Qingli turned around and saw Luo Yiqiu, who had changed into a white midi skirt. She was very fair-skinned, and the skirt accentuated her waist. She couldn't help but exclaim, "You look so beautiful in this skirt too."
"Really? This is the first time I've heard you praise me." Seeing her praise her, Luo Yiqiu was visibly happy. She stood next to Zhao Yixiao, saw the sheet music in his hand, and subconsciously looked around.
Noticing who she was looking for, Zhao Yixiao explained to her why Shen Qingli had come.
Hearing this, she nodded without thinking much. The first performance outside the stage had ended, and they were preparing to go on stage. Before going on stage, Shen Qingli clearly heard Luo Yiqiu quietly asking Zhao Yixiao, "What do you think of this dress I'm wearing?"
She leaned closer to him and whispered in his ear. Zhao Yixiao stood to the side a little embarrassed, but as for the other party's answer, only Luo Yiqiu knew.
As they walked onto the stage, the curtain in front of them rose, and the two adjusted and prepared at the piano.
It was obvious that they were going to perform a four-hand piano duet. Shen Qingli stood behind the curtain backstage and glanced at them a few times before wanting to leave. Just then, Lin Xiaqing walked in through another door.
Shen Qingli heard the door open, turned around, and was startled to see him standing at the door.
Lin Xiaqing was somewhat surprised to see her there. He paused for a moment before closing the door behind him and walking in, finding a seat to sit down.
He was still wearing the same black suit that Shen Qingli had seen from below the stage, but seeing him up close now gave her a completely different feeling than when she had looked at him from afar.
On stage, Lin Xiaqing was cold and indifferent, but like Luo Yiqiu, he did not show any signs of naivety or stage fright in the face of countless eyes and discussions below the stage. He seemed particularly at ease.
But now, the bangs that were originally styled up with hair gel on his forehead are hanging down, making his aura seem much gentler.
Now, there were only the two of them in the huge backstage dressing room. The silent and awkward atmosphere made her feel a little helpless. Seeing that Lin Xiaqing kept her head down and did not intend to talk to her, she hesitated for a moment and decided to leave first.
But just as she took her steps to leave, the person behind her seemed to finally hear her and looked up. He called out softly, "Sit here for a while."
"What?"
Noticing her gaze, Lin Xiaqing explained, "Their performance is about to start. If you leave now, you'll probably miss their piano performance."
He was right. Before Shen Qingli could even consider it, loud applause rang out on the stage. As the applause subsided, the sound of a piano began to play softly.
She glanced through the curtain at the two people standing side by side on the stage, then at Lin Xiaqing, and thought he was right. So she found a chair next to him and chose the outermost one to sit down, where she could just see the performance in front of her clearly.
Just as Chen Chaoxi said, the two sitting side by side on the stage cooperated so well that even she, a layman who knows nothing about piano, had to sigh in admiration.
Shen Qingli recognized the song they were playing; it was from a previous TV series and was called "Always Quiet."
"...It's clearly a movie for three, yet I never get a name. My love for you has always been quiet..."
Luo Yiqiu's voice is very gentle, and when she sings sad songs, it gives people a feeling of telling a story in a gentle and detailed way.
Perhaps influenced by the song playing, Shen Qingli watched the two figures from the side. The white light shone on them. Luo Yiqiu and Zhao Yixiao exchanged a knowing glance, smiled at each other, and then gradually played the climax of the song. She looked at the scene in front of her and couldn't help but feel a little dazed.
Suddenly, she recalled Shen Qingyun's hasty departure earlier. She vaguely felt that her sister's hasty departure might have been to avoid the performance, just as she had tried to avoid hosting with Lin Xiaqing and Luo Yiqiu.
Thinking of this, she lowered her eyes and listened to the applause that followed the end of the performance outside. For some reason, she felt a little sad for Shen Qingyun.
For the first time, she felt that this song perfectly matched her current mood. When she was younger, she only thought it sounded nice when she heard it on TV, but now she felt it was particularly fitting for the moment.
She remained quiet and nameless. Perhaps that was the fate of her relationship.
-
When the second performance ended, Lin Xiaqing stood up and walked to her side. He silently looked up at her and, seeing that she was in low spirits, subconsciously looked at the people outside through the gap in the curtain.
The curtain facing the audience slowly descended, and Zhao Yixiao and Luo Yiqiu stood up. They looked at each other and jokingly praised each other's performance that day.
With only these two people in front of him, he naturally attributed Shen Qingli's disappointment to them.
He suddenly recalled the conversations he had had with her and Zhao Yixiao on previous occasions and today, and his eyes darkened for a moment.
But only for a few seconds, before Shen Qingli noticed him standing next to her and looking at him, he had already adjusted the expression on his face.
Then, seemingly unaware of Shen Qingli's gaze, he held two microphones in his hands and walked straight towards Luo Yiqiu, pulling back the curtain in front of him.
He walked up to her, handed her another microphone, and then the two of them went to the front of the curtain, giving the students backstage time to move and organize the instruments and things on stage.
Shen Qingli stared at their disappearing figures. Perhaps it was because she couldn't process the emotions stirred up by the song earlier, but she inexplicably felt her eyes sting and the uncomfortable feeling in her chest spread back, even more intensely than before.
She instinctively wanted to leave, but before she did, she noticed another person. He stared into the distance for a long time before finally looking away, his face no longer showing the happy expression he had just had.
As if noticing a gaze upon him from behind, he turned around and saw Shen Qingli. He smiled politely at her, then stepped backstage and walked to her side, smiling as he asked how his performance with Luo Yiqiu had gone.
Seeing that he came over to talk to her, Shen Qingli couldn't just walk away, so she had no choice but to stop and say, "It was very nice. I heard from Chen Chaoxi that you won a lot of awards for the school in junior high school. You really live up to your reputation."
These were her honest thoughts. She imagined that after the cultural performance ended, Zhao Yixiao and Luo Yiqiu's performance would become a topic of conversation among the first-year high school students for a long time, because it was truly outstanding and rarely seen in Suzhou No. 1 High School.
"Chao Xi likes to exaggerate these things, but it's not as exaggerated as she makes it out to be." Zhao Yixiao was a little embarrassed by her praise.
Knowing that the other person was being modest, Shen Qingli couldn't help but smile along with him and didn't say anything more.
She listened to the voice coming from the microphone outside. The third performance was about to begin, but she didn't want to see Lin Xiaqing right now, afraid of encountering the same situation as before. She still wanted to leave first.
But Zhao Yixiao probably felt that the two of them were not talking and that it would be awkward if there was an awkward silence, so he changed the subject and asked her, "I heard from Yi Qiu that you didn't sign up for any performances?"
"Oh right, I don't have any talent or special skills in this area," she replied casually, while inwardly considering how to tell Zhao Yixiao that she had to go back first.
However, the person on the other end clearly misunderstood her words, thinking that she was feeling disappointed because of this matter, and comforted her instead: "It's okay, everyone has things they are good at and things they are not good at. For example, although I can play the piano, I am actually tone-deaf when I sing, so all the songs I play can only be sung by Yi Qiu."
Upon learning this for the first time, Shen Qingli was also somewhat surprised: "Senior, you can't sing?"
“Yes, so people have their strengths and weaknesses.” He smiled and casually asked her, “There’s a saying that goes, ‘When God closes a door, he opens a window,’ and the reverse is also true. We just need to find our own window, right?”
"..." It was as if she had been suddenly and inexplicably given a dose of "chicken soup for the soul" in writing. She didn't know how to respond, so she could only nod silently in agreement.
Realizing he had been a bit too serious, Zhao Yixiao smiled and added, "Do you think I'm spouting platitudes all the time? Well, it's mainly because your class teacher, Mr. Chen, has been constantly asking me what I want to do in the future and what my ideal university is. After listening to his earnest advice, I just blurted it out unconsciously."
Speaking of this, he seemed to have a bit of a headache, half-jokingly saying, "But when you get to your second year of high school, you probably won't be able to escape Mr. Chen's 'interrogation' either. I'm giving you a heads-up in advance, so you need to think it over early."
His exaggerated words were clearly an attempt to liven up the atmosphere between the two of them.
Shen Qingli naturally understood, so she jokingly replied, "Okay, I understand. Thank you in advance, senior."
...
But in her joke, she remembered that someone had asked the same question not long ago.
She didn't mention that she seemed to have had a dream for a long time, but that dream was too unrealistic. She only told one person about it, and it was a secret known only to that person.
A note from the author:
----------------------
TvT There's more than one story of unrequited love in this story TT
I'll rest tomorrow and update the day after. Mwah! ^^
Note: 1. "...It's clearly a movie for three, yet I can never have a name. My love for you has always been quiet..." / "Always quiet, never having a name." From A-Sun's song "Always Quiet".
2. "When God closes a door, he always opens a window." — Western proverb
(The source of this sentence is rather vague after searching, so I'm just noting it down. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
