A Young Woman's Heart

"What's wrong?" Mr. Xue pushed open the door and walked into the band room, and heard her shout.

"This! Um... I forgot to fill it in."

"What is it?" Mo Xueyao said impatiently. "Finish what you're saying."

"It was a student-organized event, a welcome ceremony for new students held at noon in the lecture hall. It was initiated by students from Class 7, and then the entire second-year band was invited."

"Was this a competition between students?"

"Almost?" Hua Yinyin tilted her head.

"So, when does the performance start?" Mo Xueyao looked at her helplessly. "Can't you be a little more reliable? How much time do we have to prepare?"

"Hmm... let me think, what's the date today?"

"Number Six."

"Huh—?"

Just as Mo Xueyao realized something, the classroom door was suddenly pushed open.

"Class Two! Aren't you participating?"

"Ah!?" Everyone except Mr. Xue stood up in a panic.

"It's already started, only your class is missing!"

"Oh no, oh no!" Mo Xueyao slapped Hua Yinyin hard, gritting her teeth as she shouted, "Yinyin—!"

"Huh? It really is today...?"

What kind of performance are we going to put on?

"We don't know either. The band leader of Class 7 asked me to come to you to ask for the program schedule."

"Ahhh, let's perform the one we know best!"

"Didn't you say there would be three performances? One band performance, one solo performance, and one duo performance."

"Hua—Yin—Yin—!" At this, all the girls in the band glared at her angrily in unison.

"Your forms aren't filled out properly?"

"No……"

"So, are you going to abstain?" the other party asked curiously.

"Of course we can't give up! We have to go even if it's improvised!" Hua Yinyin shouted. "Xiaoxue, the solo is yours! As for the ensemble..."

"Solo and ensemble performances cannot feature the same person."

“…Then I’ll go with… um, Xiao Yaoyao!” At this moment, Hua Yinyin finally made the decision that belonged to the captain.

No one had time to complain; they could only quickly pack up their instruments and prepare to head to the lecture hall.

Fortunately, the performance started from Class 7, so it's only just begun. There will be some time before Class 2 gets to perform.

"By the way, the order is 7-5-1, 2-4-6-3, and you are the fourth one."

"Hey—! Hurry up—" The girls all got busy, but Mr. Xue was the most relaxed. He just had to put his bamboo flute and suona in his pocket.

"Then I'll head back to the lecture hall first. Please come over as soon as possible." The student who came to inform them turned and left. After making sure they had everything they needed, the others also hurriedly left the classroom.

"It's all Yin Yin's fault!"

"Hey... I'm not mentally prepared yet..." Mo Zhuyou said with a worried expression.

"Don't worry, just play it like you do during practice."

"These are all freshmen this time. If I don't perform well, my image in front of my younger schoolmates will be ruined!"

"Don't worry, they won't remember you anyway."

"Alas--"

"You're already thinking about failure before you've even started?" Wang Jiale encouraged everyone, "Don't worry, even though we have an unreliable team leader, at least we have Xiaoxue!"

"What?!"

"Xiaoxue, if we really can't manage, we'll have to trouble you to keep things going with the suona." Mo Xueyao nodded in agreement.

"Do we need to muffle your voices?"

"Yes... or to guide the conversation to the right tone."

"No problem." Mr. Xue smiled faintly. His calm demeanor reassured the others a little. In fact, Hua Yinyin was quite confident, but for some reason, she just couldn't put people at ease.

Perhaps it's because her unreliable image has become so deeply ingrained in people's minds.

The lecture hall was already filled with first-year high school students, and some even gathered around the stage, watching the second-year students perform with envy and admiration.

"Xiaoyao..."

"Ah, Yu Shu?" Mo Xueyao waved to Yu Shu, who was already waiting below the stage. "You're here too?"

"Yes, the senior students have notified everyone this time, and quite a few people have come to see it."

Since it was a welcome party organized by the students themselves, it was impossible to expect all first-year high school students to attend, but it seems that about a third of them were present, which is quite a considerable number.

"Ah... I knew you weren't here at noon today." Mo Xueyao covered her forehead.

"Hey, what happened?" Yu Shu asked curiously.

"Let's talk about that later. Anyway, because of a certain unreliable captain, we were caught off guard by this..." Mo Xueyao took a deep breath. "I'm going backstage."

"Okay, I'll record it properly for you later."

"Please, Shuer~" Wang Jiale pinched her little face.

Because she often came to the band room at noon and after school to take photos and videos with the camera that Qiu Yi lent her as a memento for the future, everyone was basically familiar with her. In everyone's eyes, she was also a member of the Snow Music Band.

"Uh-huh……"

"Let's go!" Hua Yinyin swung the straps and helped Mo Zhuyou carry the drum set into the backstage area.

Not all class bands have such large instruments.

If it's a folk music band, then it's not necessarily necessary to have drums...

In some classes, everyone uses small musical instruments such as flutes and harmonicas.

When everyone arrived, Class 5's last performance had ended, and they retreated backstage amidst applause.

"Phew, it's almost our turn?" Because she hadn't prepared for it, Mo Zhuyou seemed very nervous.

"What are you afraid of? We've already performed on stage, haven't we?"

"This time is different! Last time at least we had some really bad singers to set an example, but this time everyone's a proper band!"

"Hmm... none of the school bands are serious, right?"

"To be precise, none of them are professional," Mr. Xue corrected Hua Yinyin.

Mo Zhuyou sat on the built-in speaker, clutching her head: "Oh no, my mind is completely blank..."

"Don't be nervous, take a deep breath." Mr. Xue gently patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry, just follow our pace. If you'd like, you can improvise too."

"I'm not that good!"

Class 1 performed the school song in a very conventional way, and the subsequent solo and duet performances were similarly lacking in style.

The applause from the first-year high school students was also sparse.

Soon, the students from Class One finished their performance, and then it was Class Two's turn.

"It's our turn?" Mo Xueyao licked her dry lips, trying to remain calm. "What's first?"

"Either is fine," replied the student acting as a staff member.

The host's voice could already be heard from the stage—it is said that the host is the organizer of this event and the class monitor of Class 7.

"Then let's play the whole team together first!"

At this moment, Mo Zhuyou especially hoped that the host would speak more so that she would have enough time to prepare.

However, even the longest story must come to an end.

"Next, please listen to the performance by the band from Class 2 of Grade 11—" He turned to look behind the curtain.

Hua Yinyin propped up a megaphone with both hands and softly called out, "Snow Music Band—"

However, he clearly did not hear clearly.

"Let's have the Class Two band introduce themselves this time!"

As the curtain slowly rose, everyone hurriedly grabbed their instruments and ran to their assigned spots, while Mo Zhuyou sat behind the drum set, completely hiding herself.

For the first time, she felt that playing the drums was so safe.

Others are afraid of being ignored, but she hopes that others will ignore her.

"Ahem, ahem!" Hua Yinyin cleared her throat into the microphone, "Good evening, freshmen!"

"It's noon!" Mo Xueyao said in a low voice, but it still got through the microphone in front of her, and a burst of good-natured laughter came from the audience.

"Oh right, good afternoon. Um, we're called the Snow Music Band, or MPL for short! Not English, but the first letters of Finnish!"

She moved the microphone stand forward a little, closer to the edge of the stage, which is closer to the audience: "I am Hua Yinyin, the captain of the Snow Music Band!"

"Oh~" The students applauded enthusiastically.

"Keyboardist—Mo Xueyao!"

"Wow—" The first-year high school students also knew that there was such a blue-eyed mixed-race school beauty in the school, and they were able to enjoy the view.

"She's nice to everyone, but she's always finding fault with me."

"Hey, hurry up and start!" Mo Xueyao shouted helplessly.

"Hurry up a bit, or the other shifts won't have enough time—" a staff member backstage whispered.

"Okay, then, I'll introduce them next time. Let's get started!"

"What? I thought they were going to introduce me." Wang Jiale muttered, puffing out his cheeks.

Then came a silent silence—a full five seconds.