"Do you understand music?"

After the show ended, the old principal picked up his hat from the armrest and placed it on his head. Rising from the last row, he turned and squeezed out of the concert hall with the crowd.

He hadn’t planned on coming tonight. He had long since stopped concerning himself with Blue Sky’s affairs. He trusted Qin Yong completely with Yudong, but when the time came, he couldn’t resist coming to see the young people take the stage.

It turned out his visit was worthwhile. Not acting as a judge, but simply as an audience member, he had to admit he gained a great deal. Especially that last girl to take the stage—remarkable, so young already, but she had already started to develop her own distinct style of playing.

She had talent, a true prodigy—what a pity to keep her confined to Yudong.

And Wei Sanwan’s two students were excellent as well. The younger one was sharp and could play Chopin. The older one had solid technique, but his playing was too rigid.

Outside the concert hall, Ma Tao once again suggested a celebration. The other four all shook their heads in unison. After a long, exhausting day, none of them had energy left for festivities.

“See you tomorrow, An.”

“Good night, Xuan.”

“Bye-bye, Panpan.”

“Let’s go, let’s go. See you tomorrow.”

The five parted ways. Li An and Chen Xuan crossed the street and reached the entrance to their apartment complex. Suddenly, the two of them seemed to fall into silence again, a hush that remained until Li An’s stomach rumbled in the elevator.

Only then did Chen Xuan remember she’d eaten Li An’s dinner. She thought, if she’d known, she should have bought him something to eat when they passed Harmony Square just now.

“Do you have anything to eat at home?” she asked with concern.

“Yes, yes,” Li An replied, rubbing his stomach.

Chen Xuan remembered Li An didn’t have a fridge in his place. “Not instant noodles again, is it?”

Li An nodded, “Mm.”

At the apartment door, they both pulled out their access cards. Chen Xuan opened her door and turned back, “Wait for me a moment.”

Kicking off her high heels, she skipped barefoot inside, her delicate white feet moving nimbly—nothing like the masterful figure she’d been on stage. A moment later, she returned to the door with a box of frozen dumplings in hand. “Vegetarian.”

Li An took the box and grinned, “Thank you, Teacher Chen.”

“You’re welcome, Teacher Li. Good night.”

“Good night.”

Li An entered his apartment. Ba Wan was sprawled by the door, looking up at him with a gaze full of reproach. Glancing at the litter box, Li An smacked his forehead. He’d been so busy these days he forgot to put out food for Ba Wan that morning.

“Come here, come here. Dumplings for you tonight.”

“Meow~”

Li An got busy at the dimly-lit kitchen counter, Ba Wan weaving around his feet. Next door, in the bright living room, Chen Xuan placed the white plastic flower into the empty bottle on her windowsill. She stared at the vase for a while, then turned and collapsed back onto the sofa.

She was already very tired tonight.

But she couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep.

It was nearly half past ten. After the assessment, Qin Yong, Lao Dong, and the three other members of the evaluation committee didn’t go home, but went straight to the Yudong meeting room.

The teachers had worked hard for more than half a month, preparing for the performances. Now, it was the committee’s turn to give their scores.

To avoid any unfairness due to order of appearance, the five of them followed the original plan: first, each wrote down their score for every teacher who performed tonight, then they would compile and discuss the final ranking.

Each person handed in their score sheet.

After tallying up the results, Lao Dong announced the rankings with some surprise.

Chen Xuan was first, with a total score of 23.8. Just behind her was Tian Yu with 22.7.

Third was Li An, with 22.1.

Fourth, Xu Nana, 20.3.

Fifth, Lin Pengfei, 19.6.

Sixth, Jia Lu, 19.3.

Seventh, Ni Hongjie, 18.5.

Eighth, Zhang Youwei, 16.3.

No one had any objections to the top two—they had both delivered performances everyone had witnessed. Aside from Qin Yong, who wasn’t too familiar with his level, and Lao Dong, who didn’t really understand, the rest all knew Tian Yu’s abilities. And Chen Xuan had truly amazed everyone. Both Qin Yong and He Yiming gave her a perfect score of five.

Then, Deng Yingnan proposed adding one point to Zhang Youwei’s score. Being the first to take the stage, it was understandable if he didn’t perform at his best, and his opening did set a lively mood for the parents and students in the audience.

No objections were raised.

Lao Dong changed Zhang Youwei’s score to 17.3, and just as everyone thought the matter settled, He Yiming suddenly objected to Xu Nana’s score.

He Yiming believed Xu Nana’s score was too low and requested that her marks be made public.

Everyone present was an old acquaintance, and ordinarily, it wouldn’t matter. But saying this in front of the new principal was somewhat inappropriate for someone of his standing.

Lao Dong hesitated, glancing at Qin Yong.

From Lao Dong’s perspective, he hoped there would be no friction between Qin Yong and He Yiming.

Qin Yong was highly capable and had been personally appointed as head of Yudong by the old principal, but he was still new to the position. Given the current trajectory of the wind ensemble, He Yiming would almost certainly become the first section leader at Yudong in the future.

“It’s fine,” Qin Yong loosened his collar and gestured to Lao Dong. “Let’s all have a look.”

He Yiming took the tally sheet first and went straight to Xu Nana’s column.

Glancing over it, he snorted inwardly—sure enough, Qin Yong had only given Xu Nana 3.6 points. Without even looking at the other scores for her, he immediately checked the score Qin Yong had given Li An.

4.7. Instantly, he was furious.

Huang Juan took a look and said nothing, passing the sheet to Deng Yingnan.

After reading it, Deng Yingnan understood the situation at once. He thought to himself, “Old He, you’ve always favored the wind teachers—let’s see how you handle this.”

“Section Leader He, is there still a problem?” Qin Yong spoke again, and Lao Dong was sweating, desperately signaling Qin Yong with his eyes behind the others’ backs.

Qin Yong seemed not to notice, his smile fixed on He Yiming.

He Yiming’s expression shifted several times. “Principal Qin, I speak plainly—please don’t mind.”

Lao Dong turned and shot He Yiming a look—“Your kid’s in high school and you’re still this tactless?”

After a pause, He Yiming couldn’t hold back, “Do you even understand music?”

The tension in the meeting room rose again.

But this time, even Deng Yingnan and Huang Juan turned their eyes to Qin Yong.

This was not just He Yiming’s question. From assigning extra lessons over the summer to personally reviewing the teachers’ progress files, from listening in on classes to scoring tonight’s performances, what exactly were Qin Yong’s criteria for evaluation—especially for the technical assessments?

Before scoring, Lao Dong had at least discussed things privately with each section leader, but Qin Yong had never asked about any teacher’s specifics.

Was he just going by personal preference? If he liked someone, he’d promote them—so why go to all this trouble for an assessment? Was this just a way for the new boss to make everyone jump through hoops for his debut?

Even Lao Dong turned to look at Qin Yong.

Facing the four pairs of eyes, Qin Yong smiled. “When we first met, it was all rather rushed, and I forgot to introduce myself.”

“I hold a master’s degree in orchestral conducting from the Berlin University of the Arts.”

“My undergraduate years were spent in the Orchestral Department of the Haishi Conservatory of Music.”

“My instrument is the clarinet.”

“My teacher was Mr. Qing Guonian. Section Leader He, I believe you’ve heard of him?”