Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) Chapter 14

Alrighhhht back to the grind. Took a mini vacation to New York so I’ve been slacking, but heading back home tomorrow!

Also btw, shout out to Xixi at Novitranslation for picking up Mo Zhen’s story (another novel by Chestnut in this universe). It seems pretty hilarious so far so check it out! I hadn’t read it before, but now it makes sense why Qiao Yichen mentioned that Mo Zhen made a song called Miss Ghost. LINK

Chapter 14: White Bird

This answer was clearly beyond Ding Meng’s expectations. She was dazed for a moment.

Upon carefully recalling the past, she really…didn’t seem to have ever told him to become a musician! At the time, her biggest hope for him was just to pa.s.s a math exam.

She looked at Qiao Yichen in confusion. He seemed to have sank into some distant memory. “I remember in the 2nd year of middle school, the school choir represented our school by partic.i.p.ating in a performance in the city. One time after playing basketball, I just happened to pa.s.s by the choir room and heard a person practicing inside. At that time, there weren’t many people left in at the school. I wanted to find out who would stay so late to sing so I went to take a look.”

Ding Meng was a little alarmed. “That wouldn’t have been me, right?”

Qiao Yichen laughed. “You were singing White Bird. The scene at that moment was just like a painting. Against an orange sky, a young girl was gazing into the distance and absorbed in her singing. For a split second, I almost actually saw wings spread out from your shoulders.”

That was also his first time realizing that music could hold such power.

Ding Meng stared at him, eyes full of astonishment. She had no idea that her secret practices back then had been discovered by her little desk mate. Recalling Qiao Yichen’s description just now, she somewhat self-deprecatingly laughed. “It’s a pity the little girl was too fat and ruined the beautiful painting.”

Qiao Yichen lightly laughed and looked at her, “Actually it was alright. I just felt a little worried you wouldn’t be able to fly off the ground.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Listening to the just first half of Qiao Yichen’s words was enough.

She blinked her lashes and stood up from the floor.

The sky in the distance was pitch black. She raised her head, looked at the sky as she had done in the past, and began to sing, “I want a pair of wings, to fly through the air like a bird, following the wind to welcome the rays, and head anywhere.”

Her bright voice gradually disappeared into the night. She lowered her head and looked at Qiao Yichen to speak, “Back then, the choir teacher recommended me to be the lead singer so I secretly practiced, but ultimately, I was still dismissed by the school president. He said my figure wasn’t too good.”

While she was aware of her chubbiness, she had hoped that she could sing even better and use her voice to win over everyone. In the end, the school president had still chosen some tall, skinny girl, whose name she couldn’t even remember anymore, to lead the chorus.

“He probably also worried I wouldn’t be able to fly off the ground.”

“Pu.” Qiao Yichen laughed quietly and stood up with her. “You’re so graceful now. You’ll definitely be able to fly.”

Ding Meng lifted her brows and laughed, “I’ve decided. I’m going to sing White Bird at the next compet.i.tion.

Qiao Yichen nodded his head. “Mm, singing a nursery rhyme is indeed quite unexpected.”

Ding Meng, “…”

White Bird was extremely popular in the 70s and was sung by Ballad Queen Deng Jingjing. Afterwards, because of the catchy tempo, quite a few popular singers sang their own covers. Even later, it was added into her middle school music textbook.

To bluntly say she was going to be singing a nursery rhyme was really insulting his emperor rank musical accomplishments!

Qiao Yichen watched her expression turn as if she had swallowed a fly. Then he laughed and rubbed her head. “Don’t give yourself so much pressure. Even more, don’t feel so compelled to compare yourself with others. As long as everyday you’re doing better than the previous day, that’s enough.”

Ding Meng nodded her head, feeling a little emotional. She was just about to apologize when Qiao Yichen sighed, “Ah, back then after every exam, you would always point at my nose saying this and that person had scored higher than me again. If only you were like this, gently encouraging me, my grades definitely would have advanced by leaps and bounds.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Her hands waved a goodbye.

Qiao Yichen followed behind as she silently walked downstairs. “Take a bath and sleep early.”

“Oh.” Ding Meng locked up her door and took a bath. When she laid on the bed, she couldn’t help but think, perhaps there did seem to be a problem with her way of teaching back in the day?

The next day when Ding Meng walked out of her room, Qiao Yichen had already left. On the table was breakfast and there was even a small, cloth wrapped bag. Ding Meng walked up and prodded open the bag. Inside was a packed lunch. On the lid was a note with two words written on it, “Bring Me.”

She couldn’t help but laugh. She neatly and quickly finished her breakfast, carried the packed lunch, and walked out.

Her state of mind was much better than yesterday’s. It was almost as if her improved mood had also raised her intelligence. Even when the instructor said many things she didn’t recognize, she quickly understood.

During the midday break, Tang s.h.i.+ran, who yesterday acted as if she hadn’t seen Ding Meng, ran out to talk to her. “Ding Meng, you seem much different from yesterday.”

Ding Meng laughed but didn’t speak. Tang s.h.i.+ran probably thought that she was hiding her strength again and had performed so terribly yesterday on purpose.

Tang s.h.i.+ran saw that Ding Meng didn’t speak and seemed a little gloomy. At that moment, a girl with long wavy hair walked past them, carrying some water. Tang s.h.i.+ran’s eyes flashed upon seeing the girl and found something new to talk about. “Ah, did you know, there are quite a few contestants who have backstage connections?”

Ding Meng was in the middle of drinking water. She choked when she heard those words. No way, had she already been exposed?

But the one Tang s.h.i.+ran was talking about clearly was not her. “Did you see that girl who just walked by? She’s usually ice cold and doesn’t talk with anyone. However, I’ve heard that the Heavenly Voice director is her aunt.”

Ding Meng paused. Although she didn’t like to gossip, this information was really too juicy. She couldn’t help but look over at the girl who had just walked by. The girl felt their glances and coldly shot them a glance before tilting back her head to drink water.

Tang s.h.i.+ran’s shoulders trembled. “She’s worthy of being a human shaped air conditioner. I’ve got gooseb.u.mps.” After speaking, she looked at Ding Meng again. “Her name is Mu Shuang, just like the Mu in the director’s name. Since the last name Mu really isn’t that common, I figure the rumors are mostly true.”

Ding Meng drank another mouthful of water without offering an opinion.

She put on an “I don’t want to chat” expression and Tang s.h.i.+ran didn’t continue asking to get snubbed. Tang s.h.i.+ran gave her a smile and left. At lunch, the program organizers delivered packed lunches. However, more and more contestants were beginning to bring their own food because the packed lunches had been the same for the past couple of days and were especially greasy.

Since today Ding Meng had brought her own lunch, she didn’t need to pick up a lunch box. After peering over at the oily lunches that the others were holding, she eagerly opened her own.

Egg wrapped okra, lettuce sandwich, kimbap, everything was cut up into small little pieces and arranged neatly. It looked very fresh and healthy.

Ding Meng bit on her chopsticks a little uncertainly. Were these actually made by Qiao Yichen?

While she was contemplating, Tang s.h.i.+ran came over again. “Wow, did you make these? They look really good. Can I try one?”

Ding Meng raised her head and looked at her. “No you can’t.” After seeing Tang s.h.i.+ran’s expression momentarily stiffen, Ding Meng felt a bit gloomy, but in order to avoid souring their relations.h.i.+p, she followed up by explaining, “My personal taste is really weird. Other people wouldn’t like it.”

Tang s.h.i.+ran laughed and tactfully walked away. That lunch, Ding Meng didn’t finish her food. Instead, she decided to save her leftovers for when she would get hungry during the afternoon training.

In the afternoon, the instructors asked them about their program for the next round of compet.i.tions. After Ding Meng said that she wanted to sing White Bird, the instructor rubbed his chin and thought. “This White Bird song was originally a ballad so the high vocal range will showcase your talent in singing high pitches. However, it won’t be easy to highlight that aspect unless some work is done to arrange the music.”

Ding Meng nodded her head, but arranging music was a domain she didn’t have any expertise in. The teacher deliberated for a while and then told her, “I’ll help you rearrange this song as much as possible and we’ll see how it turns out.”

“Okay, thank you instructor!”

After the full day of rehearsals had ended, Ding Meng’s packed lunch was finished off cleanly. When she brought the empty lunchbox home, Qiao Yichen was in the middle of cooking dinner. Ding Meng rolled up her sleeves and entered the kitchen to help.

Qiao Yichen saw her come over and lowered his head again to say, “I’ll be done in just a second. Just go out and wait.”

“That would be too rude of me. I’ll help you serve the food.” She walked over to the sink and started to wash her lunch box. “Oh yeah, did you make all those things?”

Qiao Yichen replied, “Mhm.”

Ding Meng paused for a moment before asking, “Why did you think of making me a packed lunch?”

“Didn’t you say before that the program’s lunchboxes were too greasy? Eating greasy foods is really unhealthy so I made you some fresh foods.”

Ding Meng looked at his profile in a daze and then lowered her head to continue was.h.i.+ng her lunchbox.

She had previously complained to him about the greasy lunchboxes, but while she had only casually brought it up, he had taken it to heart.

Qiao Yichen didn’t cut short that evening’s training again, but he did ask Ding Meng to go back to her room and rest right after they finished. Training all day was really quite tiring. Ding Meng took a bath and prepared to go to bed when, unexpectedly, Jiang Nanqing suddenly called. Ding Meng unwillingly picked up. “What’s the matter? I’m getting ready to sleep.”

“What sleep, don’t you know Heavenly Voice aired tonight? My mom pulled me along to watch with her. d.a.m.n, I didn’t expect you could sing that well. My mom has pretty much become your groupie!”

Ding Meng froze. Since the training was so rigorous, she really hadn’t concerned herself with the program’s broadcast time. However, she did seem to recall hearing the staff members saying that today it would be aired.

“Hurry up and take a look online. Online there are a lot of people commenting on today’s compet.i.tion!” Jiang Nanqing seemed to be very excited. “Meng Meng, I think you’re going to be famous. How about you give me an autograph in advance.”

Ding Meng, “…”

She lifted herself up to turn on the computer and spoke to Jiang Nanqing, “I’m going online, bye bye.”

“Okay okay, the next time will be competing to enter the top 8. Good luck!”

Ding Meng hung up the phone and started by taking a look on Weibo. The names of the first ten contestants to enter the top 20 were announced on the Heavenly Voice page. Ding Meng saw her own picture and thought she looked very photogenic. No wonder Qiao Yichen praised her for being beautiful that day.

She saved her picture and looked at the comments. Sure enough, everyone was discussing up a storm. Everything was being talked about. She swept a couple glances and then stopped looking. The Q chat on the lower right corner was also noisily sounding. After clicking it open, she discovered her middle school chat group was unexpectedly also discussing this topic.

T/N: I believe this is referring to QQ Messenger. Super popular messenger in China (could be wrong..please tell me if you know). And Weibo is like a twitter/fb hybrid, blogging website.

Ting Ting: Is that Ding Meng on Heavenly Voice the Ding Meng who used to be in our cla.s.s?!!

Du Xiao: Probably just the same name. Ding Meng was so fat.

Ting Ting: Maybe she’s skinnier now?

Du Xiao: This wouldn’t just be losing weight. This would be plastic surgery too.

Ting Ting: →_→

Yu Huanhuan: I saw Qiao Yichen! At least Qiao Yichen is from our cla.s.s! d.a.m.n don’t be so handsome when scolding people [Womanizer]

Du Xiao: Qiao Yichen is really too pitiful. The prime of his middle school years was wasted on Ding Meng. It gives off the feeling of a cabbage having been eaten by a pig.

Ting Ting: Just lightly saying this, I think Du Xiao seems to blame Ding Meng quite deeply

Du Xiao: Did I say something wrong? Ding Meng was a fat and ugly bookworm.

Ding Meng froze in front of the computer. Even though she knew Du Xiao didn’t like her when they were at school, and even though she had personally never said anything in this cla.s.s group chat, did Du Xiao never consider that she might see this?

Looking at the words “fat and ugly”, Ding Meng started to get angry and was just about to fulfil her resignation promise to go out into the world and scold elsewhere when another person’s message appeared.

T/N: “Go out and scold elsewhere” is a reference to her reason for resigning from her job in Chapter 7

Qiao Yichen: I think she’s way better than you. At least she wouldn’t insult other people behind their backs like this.