50: A Disturbed Heart

"What are you doing!!!"

"Kissing you, can't you tell?"

"I'm going to tell Teacher Song!"

"Go ahead, and then what?" Shen Qian sat nonchalantly at the piano, lightly pressing a few keys.

"Do you think they'd believe it? I didn't even spare a glance for Tao Yan, let alone you."

The girl's steps halted. Shen Qian was right. Tao Yan was so beautiful, and he had even given up on collaborating with her. If she went now and said this junior had forced a kiss on her, who would possibly believe her?

Moreover, he was so talented. Teacher Song would probably side with him too.

"What's wrong? Not going? Or have you thought it through and accepted your fate?"

Two more piano keys were pressed, but this time they were two heavy notes, like two stones dropping in the girl's heart.

"If you've made up your mind, come over here."

Shen Qian patted the seat beside him.

"What exactly do you want? If you... if you keep this up, I'll tell Tao Yan what you just said.

I'll tell her you only chose me to spite her."

"Oh."

"Oh? Don't you like her?"

"No, I just think she's pretty and simply want to sleep with her."

"You're just scum, trash, a bastard..."

The girl hurled every dirty word she could imagine from over the years, but to the boy in front of her, it was like scratching an itch. He didn't even flinch.

"Finished? If you're done, then come sit here."

He wasn't threatening her; his voice remained calm. Yet, whenever he spoke, the girl's heart trembled with fear, and she didn't dare approach for a long time.

Shen Qian nodded, stood up, and walked towards the girl, slowly backing her into a corner.

"If you won't practice the piano, then we'll practice something else."

Five minutes later, the girl's face was as red as it could possibly be, but she felt strangely conflicted inside. She was bewildered. Why hadn't she bitten him just now? Bitten his lip until it bled, or bitten his tongue!

"First kiss, huh? Your kissing skills are terrible."

Shen Qian stared at her, and she could only nod slightly.

"It's fine, I don't mind. We'll practice slowly later, just like your piano skills. We'll practice slowly later."

He sat back down at the piano and patted the seat beside him again.

"Sit here."

When the two were seated before the piano, Shen Qian pointed at it.

"Teach me to play."

"Huh?"

"I'm telling you to teach me to play the piano. Don't you understand?"

"Oh."

The entire afternoon, the two stayed in the piano room. Sometimes, Shen Qian would play 'If It Can Radiate Brilliance' again. Other times, he would write and press a few notes.

Interspersed throughout were kiss after kiss.

At first, the girl still resisted somewhat, but gradually, she began to like this feeling. It seemed to give her strength and a confidence she had never felt before.

When Shen Qian was about to leave and wrapped his arm around her waist, she actually lifted her head and closed her eyes on her own.

"[Capturing a young girl's heart, behavior meets scumbag standards, rewards being distributed...]"

"My name is Ni Zixin."

Faced with the girl's self-introduction, Shen Qian simply smiled faintly.

"Unimportant. The way you are now isn't enough for me to remember your name."

"Bastard!"

In response to her assessment, Shen Qian remained unmoved.

Returning to the dormitory that night, Ni Zixin's roommates surrounded her.

"How was the duet with the junior?"

"It... it was okay."

"Xiao Zi, this is an opportunity. What have you been practicing the piano so hard for all this time, if not for opportunities?"

"But I never expected a guy to reject Tao Yan. That's Tao Yan! I heard that at the rehearsal, that junior made Tao Yan cry, and then he argued with a whole bunch of people by himself."

"He's that impressive? He's only a first year and already so brave. Xiao Zi, he didn't bully you, did he?"

"N-no, he didn't bully me."

The girl answered hastily, but even she couldn't say for sure whether it counted as bullying or not.

That person was a bastard, a scoundrel, and his words seemed vulgar too. He was completely different from the boy she had imagined, at least completely different from the boy she wanted.

The boy she wanted was gentle, kind, devoted, and gave warmth. But this person was the exact opposite.

Yet, why couldn't she stop thinking about him?

They had just parted in the afternoon, and by night, he had already made it impossible for her to sleep.

"Ranran, are you asleep?"

"Not yet, what's up?"

"Tell me, can someone fall for a person who's the complete opposite of what they imagined?"

"Xiao Zi, you have someone you like!?"

"No, it's not me. It's a childhood friend from my hometown. During summer break at home, she started dating a Boyfriend. Before, she always told me what kind of guy she needed to date.

But when I met that Boyfriend this time, he wasn't anything like she used to describe."

"Standards are set for people you don't like. Tall, handsome, rich, devoted, and so on, and so on.

Where in the world would you find a man like that?

Look at Keke. Because she likes him, she's dating even a kappa, saying he gives her a sense of security.

Do you remember her previous requirements? Couldn't be missing tall, rich, or handsome."

"Ranran, he's not a kappa! He just has a bit of hair loss, and he's not ugly either!"

Another girl in the dormitory shouted.

"Yes, yes, yes, not ugly, not ugly, okay?"

The girl called Keke still wouldn't let it go, sneering,

"Well, you dated a handsome one, and what happened? Only when you broke up did you find out how many green hats you'd been wearing, and you were the little fourth, not even making it to the little third."

"Ahhhh! Don't mention that scumbag, that bastard! He still owes me 500 yuan!"

"Heh, I think you deliberately didn't ask for it back, so you could legitimately keep his WeChat and secretly stalk him."

...The two of them argued back and forth like this, leaving only Ni Zixin lying in bed. She didn't know how to explain it. Shen Qian was too complicated. Even though she was the senior, in front of him, she felt like a child.

"It's a pity I didn't even get a single contact method today. If I had added him, what should I say?"

"What did he mean by what he said at the end today? What does 'I'm not enough for him to remember my name' mean?"

In the boys' dormitory, Shen Qian exercised as usual. By now, his six-pack abs were fully formed, and he was working towards an eight-pack.

"Third Brother, there's a class meeting tomorrow. They'll probably elect the class monitor."

Suddenly, Chang Heng reminded him.

Shen Qian received a lot of messages daily and often didn't have time to check group chats.

"I know. Don't you three worry, just vote. We're definitely winning one position!"

"But I heard Tian Xiwen has been having meals with the boys and girls in the class these past few days. Do you think something unexpected might happen?"

"Tian Xiwen."

Shen Qian had an impression of this name. He seemed to be in the same dorm as Sun Haoyu. Looks like that guy knew he couldn't win himself, so he put someone else forward to run.

There were only three boys' dormitories. Sun Haoyu's dorm would most likely support Tian Xiwen. Another dorm would probably have someone else running too. So, the boys' votes would be relatively evenly split. The key was the girls' votes.

Shen Qian patted Chang Heng's shoulder.

"The class meeting is tomorrow night. We still have time. Just watch."