The other students didn’t dare say another word.
What a vicious demon of a teacher!
Liang Qiuyan then began explaining a Chinese art song that many students preparing for the arts entrance exams would choose. The melody wasn’t particularly difficult, but it placed considerable demands on breath control and emotional expression.
After teaching them the techniques, she demonstrated the song herself.
Then she had the students in the class sing.
Everyone in the room began singing in unison.
Liang Qiuyan walked among them, listening carefully and pointing out each person’s problems without the slightest mercy.
Some people’s voices were lacking. Some lacked technique. Others lacked feeling…
At first, Ruan Ying didn’t immediately join in. But little by little, within her own dark world, it was as though an invisible river had appeared.
She opened her mouth softly. When the first line came out, it didn’t overpower the others.
But Liang Qiuyan suddenly stopped.
The child’s voice was pure and clean, without any deliberately affected tone.
It was like a breeze drifting out of a mountain valley—clear and ethereal.
Before long, Liang Qiuyan raised her hand, signaling for everyone to stop singing.
The other students saw her gesture and immediately fell silent.
But Ruan Ying couldn’t see it. She remained immersed in the song.
She didn’t know that everyone was listening to her, nor did she know that the previously noisy corridor outside had gradually fallen quiet.
Parents stopped in their tracks. Students poked their heads in to look.
Even the family of the student who had just run out crying after being scolded by Liang Qiuyan came back to listen.
…Compared to this, I guess my child really is just an ordinary person. Sob, sob.
Only when Ruan Ying reached the final line did she return to the real world.
She realized that everything around her was quiet, but she didn’t know why no one was speaking.
Uneasily, she asked, “Teacher, did I sing it wrong?”
Liang Qiuyan didn’t answer. Instead, she asked, “Have you taken any basic classes?”
Ruan Ying shook her head. “No.”
“Who taught you to sing?”
“There’s a girl who lives in my courtyard who attends an arts class. I heard her singing at home.”
Liang Qiuyan was silent for a moment before speaking.
“I’ve taught blind students before. There’s no explicit rule prohibiting blind people from taking the vocal-music arts entrance exam. Of course, you can take it.”
“But in reality, many schools will allow you to sit for the exam, yet they still won’t accept you.”
“Judging by your age, you’re still in middle school, right?”
Ruan Ying nodded. “I’m in my final year of middle school.”
Liang Qiuyan said, “You still have three years before the gaokao. You might study for three years, only to discover in the end that all your hard work was for nothing—that no school is willing to take you.”
“So I’m asking you this.”
“Are you willing to take a path that may lead to absolutely nothing?”
Ruan Ying nodded without the slightest hesitation. Her voice was calm and dignified as she said, “I am. I’ve loved singing ever since I was little.”
“Why do you love it?”
Ruan Ying said, “My mother raised me all by herself. When she had to work, she couldn’t hold me every moment of the day. She was afraid I would be scared because I couldn’t see, so she would sing to me constantly, letting me know that she was there.”
“So I know that singing is something that gives both my mother and me peace of mind.”
Outside the window, Ruan Tian’s eyes blurred involuntarily. She turned around, wanting to praise her daughter’s good sense to Yu Xiaxing, only to discover that Yu Xiaxing was gone.
That made sense. She was a school trustee, after all. She was probably making the rounds of every classroom.
Ruan Tian continued peering through the window at her daughter.
Inside the classroom, Liang Qiuyan looked at Ruan Ying and finally understood why the girl’s singing carried such powerful emotion, without a trace of calculation.
It was because her very first teacher—her mother—had opened for her a window filled with love and hope.
She turned around and nodded at the teaching assistant.
The assistant hurried over and placed an application form in Ruan Ying’s hands.
Ruan Ying felt the paper and asked in confusion, “Teacher, what is this?”
The assistant smiled. “It’s Ms. Liang’s application form. At Ms. Liang’s studio, you can’t simply sign up whenever you want. You have to receive a form before you’re even qualified to formally enroll in her classes. She has always preferred having too few students to accepting just anyone.”
Ruan Ying was overjoyed. She quickly and somewhat clumsily bowed at the waist. “Thank you, Teacher.”
Liang Qiuyan’s tone remained stern. “Your foundation is far too weak. Your pitch has potential, but it’s unstable, and your knowledge of music theory is practically nonexistent. You have much more to make up than the others.”
“And don’t tell me you’ll work hard from now on. That kind of empty promise means nothing. Hard work isn’t valuable by itself—effective hard work is.”
“If you don’t do well, I still won’t continue teaching you.”
Ruan Ying took her words seriously and committed them to memory. “All right.”
A few other students also received application forms.
At first, they had thought Liang Qiuyan’s harsh words and constant attacks might shatter their confidence if they studied under her.
But now, seeing that Ruan Ying had been born with one less advantage than they had and was still willing to accept such a difficult challenge, they thought:
If they had also been given a chance, why not fight for it?
Those students all decided to return and formally enroll on Monday.
The trial class came to an end.
Soon, the students began filing out of the classroom.
As the high school students who had sung with Ruan Ying passed by her, some stopped to praise her.
“You sounded amazing just now.”
“Seriously, your voice is so ethereal.”
“You can understand what to do without watching the teacher’s mouth and posture? That’s incredible! You must be one of those naturally gifted people!”
Ruan Ying smiled, her face radiant. Although her eyes couldn’t focus properly, they still shone brightly. “Thank you.”
The people at this school were so kind. She had never received so much recognition before.
Ruan Tian went over and took her daughter’s hand, thanking everyone repeatedly as well.
Ruan Ying handed the application form to her mother. “Mom, I can learn to sing now!”
Ruan Tian took it, carefully placed it in her bag, and rubbed her daughter’s head. She couldn’t stop the tears from welling up.
Wonderful. Her daughter finally had a direction for her future.
In the story magazines she had read, Ruan Tian had encountered the biographies of many powerful figures. Their early years were always miserable, until one day a benefactor came along to help them change their fate and rise to the pinnacle of success.
She had envied them. At the same time, she had thought that she was merely an ordinary, somewhat materialistic woman.
Perhaps she was simply unlucky by nature. Her husband had died, her daughter had gone blind, and her own family favored boys over girls, giving everything to her younger brother…
The mother and daughter had been left with no one to rely on.
With a fate like theirs, she had assumed they would never meet a benefactor in their entire lives.
But unexpectedly, in the year she turned thirty-four, she too had encountered a great benefactor.
Someone who would help mother and daughter cut through the thorns and embark upon a journey with the wind at their backs!
—
At the foot of the Shengde Arts Entrance Exam Center,
Yu Xiaxing was crouching beneath a camphor tree, holding Dian Dian and sighing miserably.
Dian Dian lay across her knees, its tail swishing lazily from time to time.
“I only wanted to put together some makeshift team. None of them seemed suited to this line of work, which was why I found them in the first place. But who would’ve thought Shen Zhi would have a university professor guiding her?”
“And every one of the others is working so hard. Even that foul-tempered teacher didn’t actually try to drive her students away…”
“If this keeps up, am I really going to make money?”
She was muttering her complaints to Dian Dian when a familiar voice suddenly came from behind her.
“Director Yu?”
