Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

 A Leisurely Play

The Chairlady of this New Year’s Eve Party event was the deputy headmistress of the school, named Song Xiaoxia. She was just leaving the hall when Zhao Youyue started to play the piano.

After a few days of rehearsal, Song Xiaoxia was satisfied, especially when it came to the flawless presentation of the two hosts, Zhao Youyue and Huang Zhongzhao. The solos were not perfect, but they were good enough. Only the collective performances such as the choir were giving her a headache, like mice dropping from the ceiling into a saucepan of otherwise perfect broth.

Song Xiaoxia was a math teacher before being appointed as a deputy headmistress, and she was a math teacher who dearly loved music. She immersed herself into the mesmerizing piano tune played by Zhao Youyue, but a thought came to mind

Wasn’t Zhao Youyue playing the violin? Where did she pull out such an imposing piano performance?

Song Xiaoxia soon found that Zhao Youyue was far captivating with the piano skill than what she could do with the violin!

Such a remarkable piano performance! It would be a waste not showcase it on the stage for all the leaders, alumni and guests!

Zhao Youyue finished the whole “B comme Brise,” composed by the avatar of the music God, Chu Luoxun, and ended her mobile phone recording.

Even though her Fruit Mobile Phone was the newest model in the market, using nothing but the latest technology among the local mobile phones, it was clear to her that “B comme Brise’s” Spiritual power had failed to translate into the digital language. The recording carried none of its power.

It was exactly the same as her mastering the recipe of those “illuminating cuisine.” Others might not be able to reproduce the same cuisine, even if they followed every step, down to the twitching of her fingers.

Likewise, her phone could not reproduce it. One had to present as she performed Chu Luoxun’s music, in order to experience that ideal form of music.

After Zhao Youyue was finished with the track, the hall was pin-drop silent. It was in the middle of chilling winter, yet those few audiences left in the hall were still basking in the peak of spring.

A single clap stirred everyone else, and was quickly followed by a thundering applause. That Erhu performer Wang Shun clapped his palms with extreme gusto, his face locked in a frozen mask of awe!

How could this violinist bring a piano to life?!

Such a beautiful piano piece had to be well-known, yet he knew nothing of it!

She couldn’t have composed it herself, could she?

No! It is impossible!

Wang Shun convinced himself to rather believe that Zhao Youyue had been born in a wealthy family. They had to have the connections and wealth to hire a well-known musician to compose a song for her.

She could not be that talented, could she?

While Wang Shun was deeply affected by Zhao Youyue’s performance, he was also affected by an overwhelming sense of inferiority. Music was a cruel world, where innate talent determined the limit of a musician at birth!

Even with great effort, one might only reach the lower limit of the others. Yet, so many people had failed to do so, just like a short-lived infatuation, while earning a few pats on the back for mastering a few songs.

The ugly truth was, ordinary people should not be expected to admire the performance of an artist automatically. They could be considered insincere and fake, or they were just good actors, for when it came to complicated, classic music that consisted of different levels of emotions, they could comprehend nothing, but get impressed for reasons they could not word out.

And that time, Zhao Youyue had created the greatest actor out of everyone else!

Huang Zongchao, the president of Student Union who thought that Zhao Youyue was a novice pianist, applauded rigidly, as a thought plagued his mind, should I perform on that night with my incompetent skills?

Why not pass the stage to Zhao Youyue!

There was no doubt Huang Zongchao had been petrified by the performance of Zhao Youyue, which led him to wonder, why would she compete only in violin music contests if she was so much better with the piano?

Deep in his bones, Huang Zongchao was full of himself. He called himself a hard-working genius, always ahead of other academicians. Now he truly understood what real music talent was!

For an instance, he compared the difference between his piano skills and Zhao Youyue’s skills. Finally, he had been acquainted with the emotions of ordinary students as they ponder over his academic achievements

Yet, Huang Zongchao could not ignore the fact that Zhao Youyue was almost his equal in academics! She might have even toppled his throne if she had opted for the science stream, but not the art stream.

Huang Zongchao could not help but gasp to himself; this girl was talented in everything, not even sports had slipped through her fingers!

That impressive yet soothing piano performance by Zhao Youyue had left Huang Zongchao physically petrified, while his heart went wild. It was at that moment when he glanced at his competition lecture notes and broke the spell. At least Zhao Youyue did not excel in math and science competitions; she had chosen the art stream as she was not the best in science.

Huang Zongchao felt a little comfort for a while. He was afraid of being bested by an unseemly girl like Zhao Youyue. After all, it was he, who was always beating down his rivals as a hardworking genius.

The sudden applause had startled Zhao Youyue. She was just about to upload her piano performance on her Weibo, in order to comfort her fans who were worried about Su Li’s curse. Impressing everyone in the hall and earning their most sincere applause had come as a bonus!

She stood up, bowed to the scattered bunches of audiences, and went behind the stage.

Vice Headmistress Song Xiaoxia walked towards Zhao Youyue with a smile, “Zhao Youyue, you displayed remarkable skills with the piano, why not participate as a piano soloist, your violin performance was not as impactful.”

Zhao Youyue spoke within her heart; if I activated “Chu Luoxun’s card” with violin, the effect would be far more impressive. Yet the words came out from her mouth was “I was playing leisurely with the piano, it could not be put on stage but if I express myself with a violin performance, everybody would be satisfied on that night, I guarantee it!”

These words have amazed Song Xiaoxia and Huang Zongchao, such great performance was out of leisure, if she was serious, would the sky shatter?”

Nevertheless, the program and sequences had repeatedly been rehearsed and set; there was no room for further changes. They could do nothing but look forward to her violin performance.

Zhao Youyue uploaded her piano performance onto “Ah Yu” Weibo. For once, she was careless, having overlooked the fact that she was in her school uniform. Lucky for her, her school sports uniform sported the common blue-and-white standard styles, perhaps the only differences were on the small details.

But, let’s not forget that her very own school was awash with “Ah Yu” fans, they would be far more familiar with her uniform, and find out who she really was!