Chapter 21, Song 21...
In the small auditorium of the special education school, Qu Jiaying was playing the "Can-Can" cheerfully, her body swaying gently unconsciously. Compared to the complex and profound symphony, she preferred the dance music, as if she could dance along with it.
In a corner of the small auditorium sat several middle-aged men in suits. The one in the lead lightly tapped his toes on the ground to the music and murmured, "Music is truly wondrous."
The performance went smoothly, and Qu Jiaying breathed a sigh of relief.
The four of them practiced the piano with noise-canceling headphones a while ago, trying to simulate the same feeling and using their bodies to feel the vibrations of the sound. The final result was quite good, and the audience seemed to like it.
Qu Jiaying watched the students communicate quickly with gestures. Even though it was quiet, she could still feel their emotions from their sign language.
"Wouldn't that give you a deeper understanding of Beethoven?" Yan Zheng asked.
"Maybe," Qu Jiaying said with a smile.
After finishing his conversation with the teacher, Xiang Min returned with a business card in his hand.
Le Yi looked at the business card curiously: "Who is this?"
Xiang Min smiled slightly and said, "This school often receives donations. The owner of the business card is the owner of a cosmetics company and a member of a charitable foundation. He happened to be here today to inspect the site and listened to our performance. He quite liked it."
Yan Zheng didn't believe such polite words and scoffed, "Do you think we can call him?"
Qu Jiaying smiled and said, "Xiang Min, just send a text message to them, indicating your identity. If they have any charity events in the future, you can also help them out."
Xiang Min nodded and put the business card away.
Today ended relatively early, and Qu Jiaying said goodbye to the three of them before heading to the gym.
Le Yi quickly raised his hand: "I want to go too." He received two ambiguous glances, but he followed without noticing.
He started practicing after hearing Qu Jiaying say that fitness helps with performance. He practiced for a while, and his hair was soaked with sweat. His hair hadn't been touched up in a long time, and his blond hair had turned brown and was hanging down.
Qu Jiaying tossed him a towel.
Le Yi covered his head with the blanket and rubbed it vigorously, then casually asked, "How's the band doing lately?"
"It's good." Qu Jiaying took a couple of sips of her sports drink, thought for a moment, and then added, "Recently, people have been asking me how to improve the fingering of certain parts, and how to make the bowing gentle. It's a bit annoying."
Le Yi asked in surprise, "Why do you find it annoying? You were quite patient when you were demonstrating and explaining it to me."
"That's because you understand it as soon as you explain it. After you explain it to them, there's not much improvement," Qu Jiaying said helplessly.
Le Yi has been teaching children for over a year and has some experience. She then shared her advice with Le Yi: "Because I haven't studied violin for that many years, I naturally take what you say as the most correct technique. But they have all studied for over ten years and can't change their original habits so quickly."
"Then why do they have to ask me? Can't they just go directly to their teacher?" Qu Jiaying said helplessly.
"Because you are the chief they trust," Le Yi said with a smile.
Convincing? Qu Jiaying never thought she had leadership qualities; she relied solely on her abilities.
The other three members of the “three missing one” quartet listened to her at crucial moments, and she didn’t think it was because of any leadership ability, but because she was a girl.
Le Yi shook his head, disagreeing with her: "You really don't understand yourself. The three of us have different musical ideas. Back then, I couldn't find a suitable first violinist, so we couldn't form a group. But if it weren't for you, we might have disbanded very quickly because someone left."
"I don't know anything except how to practice the piano," Qu Jiaying said.
“That’s enough to become a soloist,” Le Yi smiled at her. “You’ve trained enough, let’s go back.”
Qu Jiaying and Le Yi parted ways at the school gate and were walking home when they saw a familiar figure jogging slowly, panting.
"Qiu Xue?"
The chubby girl hesitated for a moment, then turned around. Following the dim streetlights, she recognized Qu Jiaying and jumped up in surprise, waving vigorously: "What a coincidence!"
“You’re exercising too,” Qu Jiaying said.
"Yes, boys are naturally better at lung capacity than me. Even if I can breathe longer than the average girl, I still can't compare to boys, so I still need to practice." Qiu Xue finished speaking and looked regretful. She had said too much again. She always remembered not to talk too much with people she didn't know well, but she still couldn't do it.
Qu Jiaying didn't seem to notice anything and continued, "That's great! Your solo is very interesting. It feels like your interpretation is different every time. You're amazing. It's not easy for me to control even one interpretation well. You've managed to do it, haven't you?"
Qiu Xue looked bewildered: "It just came out naturally; I didn't deliberately think about it."
Qu Jiaying was a little annoyed that it was another intuitive type.
Qiu Xue noticed this and quickly changed the subject: "I heard that you formed a quartet with three boys, and you two are very close. Which one is your boyfriend?"
Qu Jiaying finally realized Qiu Xue's awkwardness with conversation and couldn't help but laugh and cry: "None of that."
Qiu Xue scratched her head awkwardly, her face turning red: "Oh, I see."
Qu Jiaying advised, "Don't run around for too long, or you won't be able to sleep at night."
"It's nothing, I've suffered from insomnia for years."
Qu Jiaying was speechless.
However, the usually lively Qiu Xue quickly became depressed and slack off in her practice.
However, the cadenza in her solo performance wasn't as beautiful. Cai Rui pointed it out to her several times, but all he could see was Qiu Xue's dejected expression, and there was no improvement whatsoever.
The New Year's concert is just around the corner.
Seeing that the original principal of the clarinet section was eager to try, Qu Jiaying recommended himself to Cai Rui, wanting to play a solo.
Qiu Xue didn't react much, dragging her feet and keeping her head down.
Qu Jiaying was puzzled and hoped that she could cheer up again. She specially pulled her aside for a heart-to-heart talk, but she was afraid that she would not be able to keep up with the conversation, so she pulled Xiang Min, who was free that night, along as well.
Qiu Xue had a low alcohol tolerance and was in a depressed mood. She quickly drank two glasses of strong liquor and soon became drunk. She covered her face and cried, muttering, "I don't want to live anymore..."
Xiang Min sighed and advised Qu Jiaying, "She's sick, don't worry about her."
Qu Jiaying glared at him: "What are you saying? You're the one who's sick."
“I saw her coming out of the psychiatric ward when I went to the hospital to pick up a report once,” Xiang Min said.
Qu Jiaying first asked him with concern, "Are you sick?"
“It’s nothing, just a routine check-up.” Xiang Min shook his head, then returned to Qiu Xue, “You’ve probably heard that many young musicians have psychological problems.”
"It seems that's the case." Qu Jiaying was still not quite convinced, since Qiu Xue had been in good condition before.
"It's going up and down in a few moments, it might be bipolar disorder," Xiang Min guessed.
"How do you know so much about this?" Qu Jiaying asked.
Xiang Min smiled but didn't explain. He couldn't explain that his mother had committed suicide, and he was very clear about the symptoms of mental illness because of it.
Qu Jiaying patted Qiu Xue's shoulder and draped her coat over her shoulders: "Don't cry, I'll take you home."
Xiang Min helped her to the girls' dormitory building. Qu Jiaying asked the dormitory supervisor, and she helped Qiu Xue to her room by herself.
The next day, Qiu Xue had just woken up when she received a bunch of messages from Qu Jiaying. She struggled to sit up and made a phone call.
"Thanks for yesterday," Qiu Xue said with a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm quite heavy, aren't I?"
“I’ve been working out to build muscle, but I’m not really feeling it,” Qu Jiaying said. “I’d like to ask a somewhat offensive question.”
"Go ahead and ask," Qiu Xue said with a smile.
"Do you have bipolar disorder?" Qu Jiaying asked.
"ah?"
Qu Jiaying quickly apologized: "I'm sorry, Xiang Min said you have some bipolar disorder. He saw you at the hospital. I shouldn't have believed such a thing."
Qiu Xue hesitated for a moment: "I did go to see a psychiatrist, but the doctor diagnosed me with bipolar disorder."
"I'm sorry." Qu Jiaying's voice was dry. She hesitated for a moment before asking, "Is it related to learning a musical instrument?"
"I don't know, maybe yes, maybe no," Qiu Xue said. "Don't worry, my emotions used to fluctuate a lot, but it didn't affect my performance much. I just saw a doctor not long ago, and the medicine he prescribed didn't work. I'll go to the hospital again today."
Qiu Xue hung up the phone, packed her things, and headed to the hospital.
Qiu Xue said with distress, "I'm no worse than those boys. I finally became the principal of the section and I want to play well. It's also my junior's first time being the principal of the orchestra, and I don't want her to worry about me."
After the doctor's consultation, he prescribed her medication: "I'll change your medication. You don't need to take the previous one anymore. I'll prescribe some carbamazepine tablets."
Qiu Xue opened the instruction manual; the medication was for bipolar disorder. She asked in surprise, "So you misdiagnosed me before? I have bipolar disorder?"
"Many symptoms are very similar," the doctor said cautiously.
Qiu Xue cursed under her breath while taking the medicine as prescribed, and to her surprise, it did help; her emotions stopped fluctuating so frequently.
However, problems still arose during the performance.
As soon as rehearsal began, Cai Rui called a halt: "Qiu Xue, pay attention to pitch."
Qiu Xue looked confused, but didn't explain and continued playing.
But Cai Rui stopped her again: "Qiu Xue, the pitch is too high. What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your clarinet?"
Qiu Xue couldn't help but argue, "But everyone lowered their voice by half a tone, didn't you notice?"
Putting aside Tsai Rui, the band members were all unhappy. They had rehearsed for so long, their pitch was perfect, and the performance was in a few days. What was Qiu Xue saying here?
Qiu Xue was confused and originally wanted to persevere with the rehearsal, but Cai Rui stopped her: "You should rest first."
However, Cai Rui did not allow the original principal clarinetist to perform the solo.
After the rehearsal, Qu Jiaying packed her things and called Qiu Xue. As soon as she left the rehearsal hall, she saw Qiu Xue sitting on the steps eating a hamburger.
Qu Jiaying quickly pulled her up: "It's cold, don't sit on the ground."
Qiu Xue pulled out a still-warm red bean pie: "Want some?"
Qu Jiaying pulled her to an indoor chair and sat her down. While eating a sweet red bean pie, she asked, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Qiu Xue shook her head: "I recently changed my medication and I feel much better, but I don't know why my voice always sounds half a octave lower. If it weren't for today's rehearsal, I wouldn't have known it was my problem."
"Should we get your ears checked?" Qu Jiaying asked.
"But my ears don't hurt." Qiu Xue doesn't like going to the hospital.
Qu Jiaying hesitated and said, "You said the medicine was changed, could it be related to the medication?"
"Side effects?" Qiu Xue also began to have doubts.
"Go check again, otherwise I'm afraid you'll miss the New Year's Concert," Qu Jiaying said worriedly.
Qiu Xue had no choice but to agree.
On Christmas Day, Qu Jiaying invited her friends over to her home, while her parents went back to their old house near the old campus.
Lü Yueming and Yan Zheng moved a cedar tree, while Ruan Qi and Qiu Xue decorated a Christmas tree.
Gao Ying was preparing to brew red wine in the kitchen when she asked Qu Jiaying, "Do you have any cinnamon at home?"
“My dad has a lot of seasonings, you can find them yourself,” Qu Jiaying said.
Le Yi and Xiang Min each prepared their signature dishes. Gao Ying cut apples and oranges and put them into the simmering red wine. She asked Qu Jiaying, who was sitting on the sofa, "Aren't you going to do anything?"
“I can cook German food, would you like some?” Qu Jiaying asked.
"No way! It's not as famous as British food, but it's just as awful!" Lü Yueming wailed. Cai Rui suggested he consider studying abroad after graduation; Germany is generally good, but the food is a bit of a turn-off for him.
Ruan Qi knew about this. She didn't want to have a long-distance relationship, but she had a good feeling about Lü Yueming. The only solution was to go abroad together.
"Qiu Xue, how are you recovering?" Ruan Qi asked while hanging up the bell.
"I'm feeling better, it won't interfere with the performance," Qiu Xue said guiltily, casually hanging up a mistletoe wreath.
Her attending physician only sees patients once a week, and the most recent appointment was the day before the performance. She was extremely anxious, but she couldn't be sure if it was a problem with the medication, and she didn't dare to stop taking the medication arbitrarily, fearing that she would have an emotional breakdown if she stopped taking it.
"The mulled wine is ready. Bring your cups over, and I'll scoop it out with a spoon," Gao Ying said with a smile.
After everyone had a cup, the kitchen was left for Le Yi and Xiang Min to show off their skills, while the rest of the group strolled around and chatted.
Gao Ying suddenly pointed at Qu Jiaying and Yan Zheng and shouted, "You two have mistletoe on your heads!"
In the semi-open kitchen, Xiang Min looked up, and Le Yi couldn't help but secretly observe the movements in the living room.
Before Qu Jiaying could say anything, Yan Zheng walked away with a cold face.
The atmosphere had just become a little stiff when Lü Yueming took the initiative to pull Ruan Qi to stand under the mistletoe wreath, and Qiu Xue let out a long "Oh—".
Qu Jiaying called to Gao Ying, "I want to make hot beer. Wash the pot from earlier; I'll use it later."
She went to the balcony where many things were stored and squatted down to look for Qu's father's beer. Yan Zheng appeared behind her and whispered, "Sorry."
Qu Jiaying turned around and smiled: "It's nothing."
"I don't want us to start over because of a joke."
Qu Jiaying paused slightly upon hearing this. Oh no, the thing she least wanted to happen had just happened.
She didn't know how to reply, so she just pretended not to hear it, hoping that Yan Zheng would understand what she meant. Qu Jiaying picked up a few cans of beer and stood up.
Yan Zheng followed her the whole time, but he couldn't find her alone.
The New Year's concert was held on the night before New Year's Day. Each department and class would put on a show. Qu Jiaying changed into a black dress, put on makeup, and hurriedly found Qiu Xue.
"How is the situation?"
Lu Yueming was also standing nearby, eager to report the situation to Cai Rui.
Qiu Xue was on the verge of a breakdown due to anxiety: "It is indeed a side effect of the medication. The doctor changed my medication, but my body has not yet metabolized the previous medication. My voice still sounds half a degree lower. What should I do?"
Lu Yueming was also anxious: "How about we change the cadenza to a violin solo? Qu Jiaying, why don't you play the solo?"
Qiu Xue seemed to have found a lifeline: "Yes, you can play a solo."
Qu Jiaying glared at Lü Yueming: "Don't come up with bad ideas. Alright, I have a way."
"What method?" Qiu Xue was so flustered that her hands and feet turned cold. If she hadn't taken her medicine, she probably would have had a panic attack by now.
Qu Jiaying told her, smiling gently and reassuringly, "It's okay, trust me."
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