ISBH - Chapter 25
Chapter 25: Singing
Wang Zhi gritted her teeth.
On the surface she had agreed to Mo Sheng, but inside she planned to expose Mo Sheng's lies in person and see what Mo Sheng was really doing after school!
When classes ended at noon, Mo Sheng went home.
Since school had started, Han Tian had been watching her, so Mo Sheng could no longer skip lunch the way she used to.
Han Tian was not around today, but Mo Sheng was set on growing taller, so at noon she still went to the bun shop by the school gate and bought two steamed buns.
Mo Sheng finished one bun and waited until she reached her front door to start on the other.
Sure enough, watching Mo Sheng eat so obediently, Han Tian visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
She drifted leisurely behind Mo Sheng and watched as Mo Sheng walked to the head of the bed and hid the more than two hundred yuan she had gotten from selling the mobile phone inside her pillow.
"Don't worry, this way we can hold on for another week! The royalties will come through before long..." Han Tian patted Mo Sheng on the head and quietly stifled a yawn.
That afternoon Han Tian stayed with Mo Sheng through classes.
Mo Sheng had no idea what luck she was having today. During the dialogue practice in afternoon English class, the teacher called on her again.
The moment the teacher read out Mo Sheng's name, the whole class turned to look as if waiting for a show.
It was that feeling again of being exposed before everyone's eyes.
Mo Sheng bit down hard on her lower lip and felt her legs trembling lightly.
But Sister was watching...
Mo Sheng closed her eyes and finally stood up, only to feel as if her throat had been frozen by something. She opened her mouth but found she could not get a single word out...
Would it be like that morning all over again?
There would be another round of laughter...
"Mo Sheng, don't be afraid," a gentle voice sounded beside Mo Sheng. Han Tian, who had been dozing with her head on the desk, had woken up at some point.
"Trust me, I've heard you recite words and practice dialogues. Your spoken English is better than most of the class! Mo Sheng, you can totally crush them..." Han Tian floated to the front of Mo Sheng and raised her hand in a cheering gesture.
Han Tian herself was actually modest and low key. With her ability, any casual remark she made would be taken as gospel, and only when it came to the Cub she was raising did she show a wildness unlike her usual self...
Looking into Han Tian's eyes full of encouragement, Mo Sheng felt the nervousness in her heart slowly and completely melt away...
Even if everyone laughed at her, Sister would stand by her side.
The moment she thought of that, endless courage surged up in Mo Sheng's heart.
"Mo Sheng?" The teacher at the podium urged her again.
"Hello, Li Lei..." Mo Sheng took a deep breath and began to read aloud from the textbook...
"Very good, Mo Sheng's pronunciation is very standard and her voice is loud..."
In those short three minutes of reading, sweat had soaked Mo Sheng's back. She could no longer even hear what the teacher at the podium was saying.
She... had really done it!
In that instant, Mo Sheng's nose stung and she even felt like crying.
It took all Mo Sheng had to hold back the urge...
Han Tian floated before Mo Sheng with shining eyes and gave her a big thumbs up. "I knew you could do it! My Mo Sheng is the best..."
Mo Sheng gave a small sniff and could not help glancing at Han Tian.
It felt as if her heart held a balloon that might float away the next second...
She really loved it when Han Tian said the words "my Mo Sheng." Those words bound her and Sister closely together...
Han Tian might fall short in other areas, but she had a wealth of study experience. While the teacher lectured above, Han Tian spent most of the time sitting beside Mo Sheng and tutoring her, and Mo Sheng felt she had never studied so efficiently as in this period...
After school that afternoon, Mo Sheng still left the classroom rather late.
Only when most of the class had left did Mo Sheng put down the practice sheets in her hands, pack her bag, and walk out the school gate.
Mo Sheng did not head home like the others. Once out the gate, she turned left into an alley...
Not long after Mo Sheng entered the alley, a dark figure followed in the direction she had gone...
Because they had earned money fixing the mobile phone, Han Tian had Mo Sheng pay extra for a half closed booth. Both Han Tian and Mo Sheng were very thin, so each took up half a chair, with Mo Sheng sitting on the outside to block the view from others. With Mo Sheng shielding it, no one could see the changes on the screen unless they leaned in close.
In that position, both of them felt much more at ease.
Han Tian quickened her typing, while Mo Sheng bent over the desk beside her to do homework.
Before long, a familiar voice sounded in front of Mo Sheng. "Well now! Little ugly freak, you act like a good little student at school, yet here you are in the internet cafe just like us..."
Mo Sheng looked up to see Wang Zhi triumphantly snapping several photos of her with a mobile phone.
Mobile phones at that time did not have high resolution, but it was enough to capture Mo Sheng's face clearly.
After taking the photos, Wang Zhi walked over with easy familiarity. Having caught Mo Sheng's weakness, her face wore a smug smile. "I want to see what game our good student is playing!"
The screen, however, was full of English letters, formulas, and numbers that Wang Zhi could not understand.
Mo Sheng looked at Wang Zhi with a cold expression. Wang Zhi had grown up surrounded by flattery, and this was the first time she had met such a gaze from Mo Sheng.
"These are my Father's articles from before he passed away. I want to copy them out and send them to a magazine."
Mo Sheng recited the story she and Han Tian had agreed on long before.
Hearing Mo Sheng's words, the triumph on Wang Zhi's face froze abruptly, and she felt guilty for no clear reason. Yet looking at Mo Sheng's expression, she pushed that flicker of guilt back down.
A trace of displeasure rose in Wang Zhi's heart. "I don't care what you're doing. The teacher said no one is allowed in the internet cafe! You're breaking the rules right now..."
Mo Sheng took a deep breath.
Wang Zhi's words hit her weak spot, and she could not argue back.
Seeing that Mo Sheng had fallen silent, Wang Zhi curled her lips in pleasure and glanced at Mo Sheng's still screen. "But if you promise me one thing, I might be generous and not tell the teacher you went to the internet cafe..."
"I'm treating some classmates to KTV tonight. Come along! Otherwise I'll send the photos to the teacher..."
Mo Sheng lowered her head in silence, while Han Tian behind her tugged at her sleeve and whispered, "Don't go. We might as well bring this matter into the open..."
Watching Mo Sheng like that, that impatient feeling surged up in Wang Zhi again!
She swept Mo Sheng with a cold look and frowned. "Don't worry, I won't let them hit you this time! But if you don't come, I can't say what will happen..."
Han Tian gritted her molars at Wang Zhi's bossy manner and wanted to rush over and give her a beating, but Mo Sheng quietly shook Han Tian's arm and nodded toward Wang Zhi.
The education Han Tian had received required her to respect a child's wishes, so even though she disagreed with Mo Sheng's choice, she could only swallow her worry and say nothing more.
Wang Zhi had not expected Mo Sheng to agree so quickly, and her face froze for a moment.
Strange as it was, Wang Zhi found she did not feel as happy as she had imagined she would.
"Finish your work early, then we'll go to KTV."
But Wang Zhi quickly pushed down the strange feeling inside and turned on a computer beside Mo Sheng, starting to invite people over QQ.
Wang Zhi loved crowds and always went out with a big group, and this time she invited a big group too.
With Wang Zhi beside them glancing at the screen from time to time, Han Tian had no mood to keep typing. She tugged at Mo Sheng's sleeve to persuade her. "Why don't we find an excuse to go back?"
"If Wang Zhi doesn't get her way this time, she'll only get worse next time," Mo Sheng wrote quickly in her notebook for Han Tian to see, then looked up and smiled reassuringly at Han Tian. "With Sister here, I know Sister will protect me."
Han Tian was easily comforted. The moment Mo Sheng said this, feeling the little girl's trust, Han Tian felt her whole heart fill with joy.
Still, Han Tian had Mo Sheng write a note asking for help and keep it in her pocket, planning to toss it out of the private room for help the moment things looked wrong.
Unlike Han Tian with her strict readiness for battle, Mo Sheng looked utterly calm.
As long as Sister stayed by her side, Mo Sheng found she had endless courage.
Soon Wang Zhi finished her calls and looked toward Mo Sheng.
"All right, I've booked the private room."
Seeing that Mo Sheng had already shut down the computer, Wang Zhi's expression finally softened a little. "Come with me!"
As long as this little ugly freak behaved afterward, she might not teach her a lesson by making her look bad in public, and might even kindly teach her to sing...
Mo Sheng glanced at Wang Zhi, pressed her lips together slightly, and did not move her feet.
"I'll go this time, but from now on you and your friends can never corner me at the internet cafe again."
Wang Zhi keenly felt that something about Mo Sheng seemed different, though she could not say what for the moment. She only felt those dark eyes of Mo Sheng's made her inexplicably irritated.
"As if I enjoy cornering you!" Wang Zhi gave a light scoff, anger rising for no clear reason. She felt this little ugly freak thought too little of her. "As long as you come this time, I will never corner you again..."
Only then did Mo Sheng pick up her bag and follow behind Wang Zhi.
Behind the school stood a newly opened KTV. Mo Sheng had heard many classmates say its sound was good and its song library large, but she had never been inside.
Such a place was not somewhere Mo Sheng could afford.
Mo Sheng actually knew what Wang Zhi wanted to do to her.
She simply wanted to make her embarrass herself once more.
In the past Mo Sheng would not have wanted Han Tian to see it, but after the experience in afternoon music class, Mo Sheng wanted to try again.
In Mo Sheng's memory, her singing should not have been unpleasant. Every time her father heard her sing, he praised her and said that when they had money he would send her to a top training class to learn singing...
But after her father left, Mo Sheng had never sung again.
Mo Sheng followed Wang Zhi into the private room Wang Zhi had booked.
Several people were already waiting inside, including Wang Zhi's best friend Liang Juan.
"Why is she here too?" Seeing Liang Juan, Han Tian grew even more wary.
The moment Wang Zhi brought someone into the private room, Liang Juan looked over warily. When she saw the follower was Mo Sheng, her face fell. She walked over unhappily, linked arms with Wang Zhi, and shot Mo Sheng a hostile look. "Zhizhi, why did you bring this thief along? Are you going to let this thief play with us?"
Wang Zhi froze for a moment and gave a dry cough. "No choice. My old fashioned Father told me to get along with her..." Then Wang Zhi leaned to Liang Juan's ear and whispered something...
The displeasure on Liang Juan's face gradually faded, and she smiled at Mo Sheng with ill intent.
Mo Sheng kept her eyes lowered in calm composure. As soon as she entered, she chose a corner by the door and sat down, even taking out a set of practice sheets to read in the dim light, utterly out of place amid the dazzling lights of the KTV.
Seeing Mo Sheng like that, the contempt on the others' faces grew even more obvious for a moment.
Before long, the rest arrived.
More than ten people crowded around the song request machine to pick songs.
Everyone knew Liang Juan was the mic queen of this little circle, and Liang Juan thought so herself. She leaned in, picked a pile of songs for herself, and grabbed the microphone first.
Liang Juan was Wang Zhi's good friend, and Wang Zhi was today's host, so everyone naturally gave Liang Juan face. Besides, Liang Juan really did sing well among them, so after she sang, everyone applauded hard.
When the second person to pick a song lifted the microphone, Liang Juan held that person's hand down.
"Don't forget we have a top student here today," Liang Juan said, her gaze flickering toward Mo Sheng. "Since she came, it wouldn't do if she didn't sing, right?"
Facing the gloating stares of everyone, Mo Sheng raised her head.
In the dim light, the girl's eyes shone like winter stars, bright yet cold and distant.
There was none of the panic from morning class.
"What do you want to sing?" Liang Juan's hand touched the request machine, her voice full of provocation. "Don't tell me you can only sing Two Tigers..."
Everyone burst into laughter with ill intent.
Wang Zhi had said there would be a special program today, and now they finally knew what it was!
Someone in the same class as Mo Sheng began to fill the others in on what had happened that morning...
Mo Sheng's expression did not change as she named the song from morning music class.
Where she had fallen, she meant to get back up!
Mo Sheng quietly squeezed Han Tian's nervous hand, then picked up the microphone, stood, and closed her eyes...
In that instant, all her past experiences flowed before Mo Sheng's eyes like water.
Mo Sheng gently pressed her lips tight.
Why should she feel afraid? She had never done anything wrong. It was this world that had always been against her...
An ethereal voice came through the microphone...
Wanting Mo Sheng to lose face completely, Liang Juan had spitefully turned off the original vocals, yet she never expected Mo Sheng's singing to sound this beautiful!
Mo Sheng's voice was as clear as a stream transparent to the bottom, as pure as the unmelting snow high in the mountains. In the high notes her voice gathered into a single thread that tugged at the heart, and in the low notes it turned soft and lingering with its own tenderness...
When the song ended, everyone present fell silent.
Mo Sheng clenched her fists and turned back to meet Han Tian's gaze.
Han Tian's eyes held a sheen of water, as if she looked at Mo Sheng and at the same time through Mo Sheng toward some faraway place...
Was it that bad?
Panic rose in Mo Sheng's heart, and she could not help biting her lower lip tight.
Meeting Mo Sheng's gaze, Han Tian finally woke as if from a dream!
She wiped the tears from her eyes and forced a smile for Mo Sheng. "Mo Sheng, that was so beautiful!"
Mo Sheng breathed out in relief and only then set her mind at ease.
Sister did not look as if she were lying. She truly liked her singing!
In Mo Sheng's heart, as long as Sister liked it, nothing else mattered. She did not care about anyone else.
Only then did the others come back to themselves!
They had not expected Mo Sheng to sing so well, even better than the original vocals...
They wanted to applaud on instinct, yet seeing Liang Juan's face, the others hesitated and in the end did not clap.
Mo Sheng did not expect any reaction from these people.
After singing, she was about to return to her corner to keep working on practice sheets when Liang Juan grabbed her arm with a dark face. "Did you practice this song on purpose?"
"Do you dare sing another one..."
Mo Sheng picked another song that Han Tian often hummed off key.
Han Tian was not as stunned as before this time, and only now realized Mo Sheng had been singing songs she herself often hummed.
Thinking of her own tone deaf singing against Mo Sheng's near heavenly voice, Han Tian felt utterly undone!
What a painfully crushing scene this was!
This time Mo Sheng kept her eyes open and caught the change on Han Tian's face, and a smile tugged at her lips before she knew it.
It was rare for Sister to show such an expression, just like a little child...
In that moment, Mo Sheng suddenly felt glad. Luckily she alone could see Sister look this way.
Yet Wang Zhi, who had been watching Mo Sheng all along, caught that smile too.
She had never seen Mo Sheng smile. In her memory Mo Sheng always kept her head down without a word. Only now did she learn Mo Sheng's singing could be so beautiful, and that this girl she had always called little ugly freak had a voice as if it had been kissed by God.
And the little ugly freak was not ugly at all...
Wang Zhi could not describe what she felt. She only felt Mo Sheng seemed to glow at that moment, so much that she hardly dared keep looking, while her heart pounded like a drum...
Face flushed, Wang Zhi was the first to applaud.
With her leading, those around followed one after another, and the applause rang far warmer than before!
Liang Juan's face flushed red!
She had meant to sing first to set a standard so everyone would mock Mo Sheng after...
No one had expected Mo Sheng to sing so beautifully!
Compared with Mo Sheng, Liang Juan's once decent singing had become mere background!
Yet this was an age that refused to admit defeat, so after Mo Sheng sang, Liang Juan snatched the microphone...
Everyone listened to Liang Juan. Her singing was pleasant enough, but only pleasant. It lacked the power Mo Sheng had shown to make one's whole heart tremble...
Seeing their perfunctory looks, Liang Juan gritted her teeth and, face livid, picked another song...
After sitting for half an hour, Mo Sheng asked Wang Zhi if she could leave.
To Mo Sheng's surprise, Wang Zhi did not make things hard for her. Wang Zhi's gaze stayed on Liang Juan as she sang, and only when Mo Sheng pushed open the door did Wang Zhi glance at her retreating back with complicated eyes.
This was unbelievable! How could she think Mo Sheng was pretty...
Liang Juan saw all of this.
Not long after Mo Sheng left, Liang Juan sat beside Wang Zhi. The two chatted intimately for a while, then Liang Juan picked up Wang Zhi's mobile phone to play with...
While Wang Zhi went up to sing, Liang Juan quickly sent several photos from Wang Zhi's album to her own QQ, then deleted the record...
Mo Sheng knew nothing of what happened after she left.
She had already left the KTV with Han Tian.
The alley beside the KTV was lively at this hour, with all kinds of vendors out with their stalls. Amid the bustling warmth of everyday life, Mo Sheng listened to Han Tian nagging beside her to buy something to fill her stomach as a reward, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
Han Tian, however, felt the weight of her task grow heavier.
If she had never discovered Mo Sheng's fine voice, it would have been one thing, but now that she had found Mo Sheng's gift, Han Tian felt it would be a sheer waste not to nurture it.
"Mo Sheng, do you like singing?"
"Mo Sheng, don't worry. When we have money, I'll send you to study music..."
"Mo Sheng, you sing so beautifully..."
At Han Tian's strong insistence, Mo Sheng bought two steamed buns.
Munching on a steamed bun, she walked along a road that grew quieter and quieter.
Lights glowed in house after house, and the scent of cooking drifted out from time to time.
Sixth Aunt's son A Qiang sat outside the door in tears. His parents had quarreled for so long about divorce, and perhaps afraid of being beaten again by his hot tempered Sixth Uncle, Sixth Aunt had vanished to parts unknown these past days...
Even though A Qiang was no longer as arrogant as before, Mo Sheng still walked around his house.
In the past, the hours around seven or eight in the evening were the time Mo Sheng hated most.
At such hours, every household seemed to show off its reunion, which only made Mo Sheng alone seem lonelier and colder.
Yet this time Mo Sheng felt utterly complete inside.
Not far behind her, someone was earnestly planning her future, just like every loved one in this mortal world...
Because they had not finished the papers that day, the two had agreed to go back to the internet cafe to write the next afternoon, but Mo Sheng had not expected the homeroom teacher to keep her after school the next day.
The homeroom teacher came straight to the point. "Mo Sheng, someone reported that you go to the internet cafe to play games after school..."
Mo Sheng's eyelid twitched!
The homeroom teacher lectured Mo Sheng for a long time about the dangers of going to the internet cafe...
With Han Tian coaching her, Mo Sheng said nothing and kept her head down while admitting her faults over and over.
Seeing that Mo Sheng's attitude seemed properly repentant, the homeroom teacher said nothing more, only reminding Mo Sheng that midterms were near and warning her to mind her grades.
Since she was in the spotlight now and feared being caught by the homeroom teacher if she went to the internet cafe again, Mo Sheng spent the next week honestly tutoring Wang Zhi...
For some reason, Wang Zhi hardly dared meet Mo Sheng's eyes during this time. Mo Sheng noticed Wang Zhi's attitude but did not think much of it.
A week later, Han Tian went to the internet cafe with Mo Sheng again.
Han Tian logged into her mailbox and found replies from two of the three magazines she had submitted to.
The emails said Han Tian's articles needed only minor word revisions before publication, and listed the payments.
Mo Sheng looked at the "1200" written in one email and asked softly, "Is that 1200 yuan for one piece? What a high price..."
"Sister is amazing!" Mo Sheng would have to work two months herself to save that much.
"Mo Sheng, look closely at the unit," Han Tian said, unable to hold back a smile at Mo Sheng's look as she raised a brow. "It's US dollars!"
"Our two articles together earned more than ten thousand!"
"Little Mo Sheng, do you want to try too?"
Comments
Post a Comment