“How’s it going back here?” asked Lao-Lu, popping up out of nowhere. He had somehow gotten his hands on a staff badge, which was hanging around his neck. “You two are the third act, right?”
“Yup.” Jiang Cheng nodded. Staff badges for a shitty little school concert? And Lao-Lu’s wearing it so obediently, too… He suddenly felt like laughing. All of his nerves dissipated in an instant.
“Nobody’s ever played piano at our school concert before,” Lao-Lu said. “Jiang Cheng here is the first.”
“Probably no guitar either, huh?” Wang Xu chimed in, unwilling to be left out.
“Oh, there’s been guitar. Quite a bit of it, too,” Lao-Lu said. After a moment of thought, he patted Wang Xu on shoulder. “But this is a first for piano and guitar.”
Wang Xu grinned happily.
“I saw Yi Jing with a DSLR just now. How can she stay in the audience with such a great camera?” Lao-Lu complained. “During your act, I’ll tell her to photograph you guys from up on the stage.”
Wang Xu was instantly beaming from ear to ear. “Yes! Great idea!”
After the big choral performance of the first act, the two ostentatiously dressed emcees walked out and recited a segment of unfunny jokes before announcing the solo vocalist for the next act.
A wave of applause and cheers sounded from the audience. Jiang Cheng belatedly realized the singer was Hu Jian, the overconfident basketball maniac.
As soon as he opened his mouth, the clapping and cheers started again. Jiang Cheng sighed. If this was the reaction they gave to a performance like this, then once he and Wang Xu went on later… Tsk, tsk.
Another teacher was chatting with Lao-Xu backstage. “Jiang Cheng from your class is going to play piano?”
“Yep,” Lao-Xu replied happily. “And Wang Xu’s going to play guitar.”
“Wow! Jiang Cheng arranged the music himself?” the teacher asked, looking down at the program.
“Uh-huh.” The smile on Lao-Xu’s face wasn’t any less bright than Wang Xu’s. Quietly, he added, “And it was composed by our very own Gu Fei.”
“Oh?” The other teacher was surprised. “Kids these days, huh? Impressive!”
Jiang Cheng looked at Lao-Xu and frowned, but he and the other teacher had already moved on to talk about something else, so Jiang Cheng didn’t say anything.
“Hey, Jiang Cheng.” It was one of the emcees, who had just been fixing her makeup with her compact. She smiled. “I thought you’d be performing with Gu Fei today.”
“When has Gu Fei ever participated in something like this?” Wang Xu cut in. “No one could ever persuade him.”
“Wish I could hear him sing a song or something,” the emcee sighed in disappointment.
Jiang Cheng guessed she was one of Gu Fei’s fans from another class, but her makeup was so thick that he couldn’t tell who she was. To be fair, he wouldn’t have recognized her without the makeup, either—he still had a hard time putting names to all the faces in his own class.
Another round of applause rang out from the audience, signaling the end of Hu Jian’s performance.
“You two should get ready,” the emcee reminded them as she lifted the hem of her skirt and walked toward the stage. “Good luck, Jiang Cheng!”
“What about me?” asked Wang Xu. But the emcee ignored him and walked out. Wang Xu looked a little annoyed. “What the hell?”
“Good luck.” Jiang Cheng patted Wang Xu’s arm, gesturing to the side with his chin. “Yi Jing’s here.”
Wang Xu turned and saw Yi Jing coming in from the side door to backstage, holding the camera. He suddenly hopped in place. “Jiang Cheng, you better not drag me down.”
Jiang Cheng smiled. “Sure thing.” After babbling a string of filler nonsense, the emcees introduced the next act. “Next up we have a very special performance in a format that’s never been done at our school before: a piano and guitar duet! Is everyone excited to hear what that sounds like?”
Jiang Cheng sighed. He wanted to point out that piano and guitar was an extremely common combination that could be found practically everywhere. But the reaction from the audience was much more enthusiastic than for Hu Jian’s act. That pleased him, at least.
“So sit back and enjoy the performance! From Class Eight, ‘Run Wild.’ Piano and arrangement by Jiang Cheng, guitar by Wang Xu…” Jiang Cheng closed his eyes and quieted his mind. Amid the nonstop applause and whistles, the emcee continued, “And composition by Gu Fei.”
There was a brief silence in the auditorium, which bloomed into a wild burst of applause and shrieks—enough to blow the roof off.
Jiang Cheng’s eyes snapped open. He froze for a second before grabbing the program on a table nearby.
Piano and arrangement: Jiang Cheng.
Guitar: Wang Xu.
There wasn’t a third line.
“What’s going on?!” Jiang Cheng demanded in a hushed voice as he turned to glare at Lao-Xu.
Lao-Xu also looked taken aback. “I don’t know.”
“Jiang Cheng,” Wang Xu said, tugging at his arm. “It’s time.”
Jiang Cheng couldn’t tell how he felt at this moment. When he passed by the emcee and saw the smile on her face, Jiang Cheng had the urge to smack a girl for the first time in his life. He had no idea why Gu Fei had refused to participate in the concert, but he didn’t think he’d mind if he played his song. But now, with the sudden addition of his name to the credits…
The uncertainty and unease in his heart turned his hands cold. He didn’t know how Gu Fei would react to something like this.
He followed Wang Xu onto the stage. Unable to spare any attention to the intensity of the audience’s enthusiasm, he swiftly swept a glance over to Gu Fei’s seat.
A profound dread plunged into the pit of his stomach.
The seat was empty. Gu Fei had left.