"I'm in the Dragon Clan, what the heck is the Naruto Counterattack System?"

Liu Miaomiao's grandfather was a cellist in the National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra, but unfortunately her father did not inherit his talent for musical instruments.

Her father seemed to be pinning his hopes on her, searching through all his surviving friends who played music, but after seeing her performance, they all shook their heads.

Perhaps he's a little better than his father, but he's far from being considered a talent.

Her father, who didn't believe in superstition, enrolled her in piano classes at the Children's Palace, and all that remained of her childhood memories were of practicing piano and strengthening her finger muscles.

Liu Miaomiao wasn't particularly passionate about the piano; she was just used to obeying her father since she was little.

She wasn't the kind of prodigy who could achieve the equivalent of years of hard work by casually playing the piano in her spare time, so she had to dedicate all her time and energy to the piano.

As the mother jokingly said to the piano teacher, her daughter can only play the piano and doesn't know anything else. What if she meets a boy with bad intentions and gets tricked away with just a wave of his hand?

Liu Miaomiao remained silent in the music room, simply sitting obediently on the piano bench with her knees pressed together, raising her long, slender hands to strike the notes on the keys...

"Chopin's Ballade No. 1? Neapolitan Sixth Chords are better."

After the song ended, accompanied by soft applause, a voice came from behind, startling Liu Miaomiao, who was still young at the time.

Before she could turn around, a pair of arms suddenly reached out from behind her, a unique, warm scent wafted over her, and fair hands were placed on the piano keys in front of her.

Chopin's Ballade No. 1 begins with the most stable triad of all chords, and then becomes the first inversion of the triad, a sixth chord.

However, the Neapolitan sixth chord is somewhat special compared to other sixth chords.

when……

The fingers of those hands struck the piano keys, and an extremely deep bass note resounded.

The notes slowly climb upwards, supported by the solid bass, and gradually ascend from the lower register to the higher register.

The Neapolitan sixth chord lowers the position of the root note, making the originally solid sixth chord more fluid and giving the notes a unique sense of pathos.

It serves as an indicator tone for modulation and also as an intermediary tone for tonality changes.

The feeling of being both close and distant, seemingly there and yet not there, made Liu Miaomiao's heart tremble.

It was the same rhythm, the same piano, but just the opening note made her hear the difference.

Those hands, which were slightly wider than hers, did not stop. Under those hands, the piano, as a percussion instrument, no longer had any inherent disadvantages.

All the notes formed a line, a perfectly formed line, just like a person truly singing.

The tactile quality of the piano keys, though preserved, blends seamlessly with the powerful, dynamic movements of the arms, becoming as subtle as fine sand brushing against the cheek in the wind.

A true pianist always plays music with all their passion and strength, their fingers moving at high speed across octaves, landing on the black and white keys like ripples on a lake.

The sound flowed from the zither, accompanied by the warmth from the chest behind her, as if it were about to completely engulf Liu Miaomiao.

With a gentle syllable, the entire movement ends. The transition from extremely fast to extremely slow, the connection between the two relative speeds, and the lingering resonance of the notes linger and dissipate, naturally evoking a sense of regret and loss.

"Hundreds and thousands of monotonous repetitions will erode the last bit of passion you have left," he said. "Since the established facts cannot be changed, why not try investing your own emotions?"

"Whether it's resentment or regret..."

Click.

It wasn't until the piano teacher opened the front door of the practice room and asked her with a mixture of surprise and delight how much she had suddenly improved that Liu Miaomiao snapped out of her daze.

The hands that had been resting on the piano keys were gone, leaving only the lingering warmth behind them, which was gradually fading away.

Some say that you shouldn't meet someone too amazing when you're young, because they can take away your entire youth with just a turn of their head.

That amazing feeling was fleeting, but it could never be erased from my memory. The unclear face kept appearing in my mind, and I gradually beautified and embellished it until it finally became perfect.

Later, Liu Miaomiao entered the junior high school section of Shilan Middle School.

The board members of Sze Lan Secondary School often enhance the school's reputation and brand by organizing similar celebratory performances.

Liu Miaomiao, who is already taking the piano grade 10 exam at a young age, is undoubtedly a must-have for the annual gala performances. Handsome men and beautiful women dressed in black dresses dance around her and the piano.

Liu Miaomiao was in the same class as Qi Xiuyuan, so she had naturally heard about his deeds.

You may not know what he looks like from your girlfriends' stories.

You might not even know his gender, but you've definitely heard of Qi Xiuyuan, because he's the school's star student.

In the eyes of teachers and parents, he is a symbol, an icon, representing someone else's child, a genius from afar, a gift from God, a typical example of an orphan turning his life around, a miracle that even the principal has to greet with a smile.

But what Liu Miaomiao heard most often was his identity as a bestselling author and child star.

Until this year, when Shilan Middle School collaborated with a film crew for promotional activities, Qi Xiuyuan stood in the center of the stage in front of a silent audience of teachers and students, holding a viola and bow, and played the theme song of that movie solo.

The poignant and melancholic music touched the entire audience. Each strum of the zither seemed to leave a mark on the girls' hearts. As the piece was played from beginning to end, the bow seemed to write its mark on their hearts again and again.

As Qi Xiuyuan finished his performance, packed up his instrument, and bowed, countless girls had already etched his name into their hearts, and countless boys felt a pang of bittersweet emotion welling up inside them.

Even though Liu Miaomiao was the most knowledgeable about music theory, she could hear a familiar sense of regret and melancholy in the melody of the piano.

Even knowing that Qi Xiuyuan was the same person from back then, Liu Miaomiao, with her introverted personality cultivated since childhood, still didn't know what she should or could do.

It wasn't until today, when my girlfriends nudged me, that I finally came over, half-heartedly, and mustered the courage to call out that name.

"Liu Miaomiao?" he said.

The face in her memory gradually overlapped with the face of the boy in front of her, causing Liu Miaomiao, who had been puffing up her cheeks, to lower her eyes in frustration.

But just like the villain destined to appear in the story, a slender hand, like a silver-white blade, interrupted everything with an almost rude and overbearing force.

"Sorry, classmate."

Liu Miaomiao looked up in surprise, meeting a pair of deep green eyes that were looking down at her. She heard the woman say lightly, "He has an appointment."