"What happened to you two?" As the girls woke up one after another, they noticed that something seemed off about Chu Lian and Cai Ya. One had a faint blush on her face, while the other kept glancing around as though lost in thought.
The sight made the girls suspicious. Could something strange have happened between those two? Just what had they done while everyone else was asleep?
Only Chu Chu understood what had happened. However, for the sake of her Big Sis, she chose to keep quiet about it. It would not be good if Chu Lian ended up embarrassed.
Of course, what worried her most was how the tsundere girl would feel if she revealed it. Although she looked forward to seeing Cai Ya's shy little expression, doing so would definitely make it impossible for them to communicate properly afterward.
For the sake of securing her future position in the harem, Chu Chu certainly would not do such a thing. Mm, she could also use this secret to threaten the girl and make her obey her, right? That would be even worse, though.
"Ahem, nothing. Nothing happened." Whenever Chu Lian lied, she habitually repeated herself. Everyone else had already noticed it. Only she remained unaware, believing she could still conceal the truth.
"All right, nothing happened." Everyone "stared" at Chu Lian for quite a while. When they saw her turn her head to look at the surrounding scenery, they rolled their eyes and stopped pursuing the matter.
They could simply wait until she came to them that evening and ask about it then. With no one else around to interrupt, the two of them could talk much more freely.
"Right, we agreed to go to the guzheng room this afternoon, so there's no need to return to class, is there? Is there anything you still need to bring?" To keep herself from becoming everyone's target, Chu Lian once again deployed her grand topic-changing technique, directing everyone's attention elsewhere.
Even though they knew she was avoiding the subject or concealing something, the girls had not intended to keep questioning her anyway, so they let her have her way. This was hardly the first time Chu Lian had acted like this. They were used to it by now.
"We don't need anything, but shouldn't we tell Ms. Ning? If she discovers that we aren't there, even though our things are still on our desks, she'll probably worry, won't she?" Seeing Cai Ya's unhappy expression, Liu Yanran also wanted to change the subject and joined the conversation.
"That shouldn't be necessary. We're still inside the school, and she should know we've gone off to practice or something. After all, we only have a little more than a day, and we still have to gather tomorrow. It would be a bit troublesome." After thinking it over, Chu Lian decided not to tell her.
The more contact she had with Ning Zhiyuan, the more she realized there was something unusual about the teacher. Then again, that made sense. How could an ordinary teacher have entered this school? More importantly, how could she have become the homeroom teacher of Class One, the most highly anticipated class of the entire first year, immediately after arriving?
Ultimately, Chu Lian's former strength and limited perspective had restricted her view. When looking at many things, she had been deceived by their surface appearance and failed to notice the deeper layers beneath.
Still, Ning Zhiyuan probably would not do anything harmful to them. She had also learned quite a bit about Chu Lian's mysterious side recently, so she would not worry that anything serious had happened merely because Chu Lian had disappeared.
"Since you don't want to tell her, do as you please." Liu Yanran generally would not stop Chu Lian from doing what she wanted. She had defined her own role very clearly—to offer reminders, ease the mood among everyone, and help Chu Lian clean up afterward.
"Don't we need to bring instruments and sheet music?" Li Xiu'er looked at everyone's empty hands. If they were going to practice, they could not do so without preparing everything they needed.
"No problem. I can handle it." Chu Lian waved her hand, unconcerned about the matter.
There were plenty of instruments available through the Integrity Points exchange, with every imaginable variety ranging from low to high quality. She could simply exchange for them when the time came.
"I'm not against it, but Big Sis, why did you agree to do this? It's so troublesome. We could have enjoyed a few days of rest, yet you just had to take it on." Chu Chu casually snapped a twig from a tree and looked at Chu Lian, who was walking ahead while chatting with everyone, before voicing her question.
"Well, because I caused this trouble myself, it's only right that I solve it." That was the reason Chu Lian gave for accepting the task. She would never admit that she had only agreed because she did not want to be a ⑨.
"That's true. A responsible Big Sis really is the most charming." Hearing Chu Lian's answer, Chu Chu nodded in realization. Indeed, whenever Big Sis caused some kind of trouble, she had always dealt with it herself.
They were certainly pressed for time, but honestly, Chu Chu did not believe the task was truly impossible. At the very least, she was confident that she could paint a master-level landscape and figure painting of their homeland on the spot. Astonishing the audience would be effortless.
However, she was not someone like Chu Lian who enjoyed standing in the spotlight. Unless someone specifically asked her to do something, she generally remained silent and would never take the initiative to show off.
She had been like that before, and she was even more so now. With someone as outstanding as Big Sis standing before her, how could she possibly steal her brilliance?
Although her intentions were good, if Chu Lian knew that Chu Chu thought she "enjoyed standing in the spotlight," she would undoubtedly feel terribly wronged.
It was not that she liked standing out at all. She simply had no choice and was constantly forced into it.
With system quests hanging over her head, she had to do it.
"One day, I'll make Huaxian culture a global trend." Chu Lian gazed at the tall building before her. Inside, Western instruments occupied three floors, while Huaxian instruments had only one.
Even if dedicating more space to them would be wasteful because so few people studied them, the sense of decline still made her deeply uncomfortable.
"What's wrong?" Seeing Chu Lian stop in place, the other girls halted as well. Even Cai Ya, who was still sulking, began to worry about her.
"Nothing. Let's go inside." Chu Lian stood there blankly for a while. When she heard the girls calling out to her, she immediately came back to her senses, shook her head, and walked inside with a smile.
"It seems you have plans of your own, Chu Lian." Liu Yanran looked up toward the guzheng room and understood how Chu Lian felt. Since this was something Chu Lian wanted to do, she would accompany her.
"I'm curious what kind of surprise Chu Lian will give the world this time. After all, it's been a very, very long time since she put on such an outstanding performance, hasn't it?" After spending so much time with Chu Lian, even their perception of time had become strange.
Only a month had passed, yet looking back on it now, it felt as though several years had gone by. Perhaps the recent changes had simply happened too quickly, so quickly that everyone felt as though a great deal of time had passed.
"I believe she'll give us a performance we can all be satisfied with." Lux gently squeezed Ruriko Nana's hand and spoke with a soft smile.
"I think I'll be very happy if she does." Nana and Lux were the last to climb the stairs, so no one noticed the small gestures they exchanged behind everyone else.
"Oh, very happy? Will there be a reward?" Lux leaned closer and lightly licked Nana's earlobe, making the short-haired girl tremble.
Nana turned her face aside, a faint blush revealing the girl's feelings. She said nothing and instead imitated Lux's action, lightly licking her earlobe in return.
Compared with Nana, Lux reacted far more strongly. After a single lick, her body already showed signs of heating up, and a low, soft moan escaped her lips, enough to inspire all sorts of fantasies.
"A reward? What kind of reward do you want?" Seeing Lux's reaction, Nana stopped teasing her and instead moved a little farther away before asking the question.
"Then let's do this..." Lux whispered a few sentences into her ear. Ruriko Nana was somewhat resistant at first, but by the end, she began to smile. "So that's what you want. You said it yourself."
"I'm really looking forward to it~" Although they knew it was something that would inevitably happen, the two still used this method to maintain the subtle atmosphere between them.
Perhaps this was simply how girls showed that they cared about each other and wanted to share their feelings.
"You two~" Cai Ya was walking ahead of them. Although she had not seen what happened, she still heard a little of the quiet whispering behind her.
After they had walked most of the way and she realized the two were still acting like that, she found it rather strange. She turned to glance at them, wanting to know exactly what they were doing.
However, the two girls had been paying attention to her every movement. Thus, when Cai Ya looked back, all she saw were two girls holding hands and smiling, their faces faintly pink. She did not catch them doing anything else.
Probably deciding that she had been overly suspicious, Cai Ya muttered a few words before turning her head back around. She looked ahead and recalled what had happened earlier.
Raising a hand to cover her cherry-red lips, she bit her lower lip and murmured softly, "Damn Chu Lian. Bastard, idiot, moron! How dare she do something like that to me? She's absolutely hateful."
Of course, although the girl claimed to hate Chu Lian and cursed her aloud, no one but Cai Ya herself knew what she truly thought in her heart.
"It feels like I haven't been here in ages, even though it's only been a month. As expected, the flow of time around me has accelerated." Standing before the guzheng room, Chu Lian let out a faint sigh before reaching out and pushing open the door.
"All right. We'll be training here this afternoon, tomorrow, and Monday morning. For now, though, let's rest for a while and let me prepare a few things~" Chu Lian walked inside and sat in the frontmost seat. Resting her chin on her hand, she looked around and spoke softly.
"Hm? At least tell us what we're performing. How are we supposed to do anything when we don't even know?" Cai Ya entered after her. Upon hearing Chu Lian's words, she immediately frowned and asked the question.
"Singing, singing, and more singing." Chu Lian toyed with a lock of her hair in her left hand and answered Cai Ya's question seriously.
"What are we singing?" The girl walked to her side, tidied her slightly disheveled curls, and looked at Chu Lian as she asked.
"Well, I'll give you the sheet music and lyrics in a moment. Familiarize yourselves with them first, and we can discuss everything else afterward." Chu Lian's attempt to secretly transfer the knowledge through a kiss had failed, and Cai Ya had caught her instead.
In her panic, Chu Lian had reacted instinctively and forgotten to transfer the songs. Now she had no idea how to broach the subject, so she could only delay the matter for a while.
"How about this? What instruments do you want to play? Everyone needs to know at least one. After all, I plan to combine ancient Huaxian music with Western instruments this time." She needed to know their preferences before making the exchanges so that she would not waste Integrity Points.
Not that those points were worth anything anymore...