Defeated By Love

Translated by Fairy_Dust 

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After summer vacation ended and the third year of junior high school began, the school organised a class exam. A special class would be made according to the test results.

Shu Nian passed and was able to enter the special class.

But to her surprise, Xie Ruhe also managed to enter the special class by finishing at the very bottom.

The two often stayed together and over time, rumours began in class that the two of them were dating. There were various rumours too about how Xie Ruhe had an unrequited love with Shu Nian.

Shu Nian couldn’t understand why they thought so many irrelevant things at such a young age. She once mentioned it to Xie Ruhe but that was that.

Later.

The music exam that happened every semester was approaching.

Shu Nian had been laughed at for 4 consecutive semesters and became extremely desperate this time around. During those days, she was very depressed and sighed frequently.

Xie Ruhe found that she was acting strangely: “What’s wrong with you?”

Shu Nian looked up at him and remembered that the relationship between the two of them were pretty good. She sat up straight and asked him: “Xie Ruhe, let’s team up for the music exam, okay?”

He didn’t know why she mentioned that all of a sudden. Xie Ruhe felt a little strange but he didn’t ask.

“Okay.”

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Shu Nian admitted bitterly. “I can’t sing.”

“I know.” Xie Ruhe didn’t comfort her and spoke rather bluntly. “You sang in front of me the other day.”

“…”

“I don’t want to sing.” Her sore spot was poked at and that made Shu Nian very unhappy. “Others will ridicule me.”

Hearing those words, Xie Ruhe was a little stunned: “You’re unhappy?”

“Of course I’m unhappy.” Shu Nian felt dejected and scared at the thought of what was coming. “It’s not even funny. Why do they laugh at me…? It’s not like I want to be out of tune.”

Xie Ruhe was quiet for a few seconds and then he asked. “What are you going to sing?”

Shu Nian didn’t know either so she bulged out her cheeks: “I want to find an easy song.”

Xie Ruhe thought for a bit. “What about, “Little Bugs Fly”? Have you heard of it?”

Shu Nian nodded.

" "

Xie Ruhe said: “Then sing it to me.”

Shu Nian was not afraid of embarrassing herself in front of him and sang it.

Xie Ruhe said quietly: “When will the exam be held?”

“This Thursday.”

“…Let’s practice.”

They practised for the next few days.

After singing it several times with Shu Nian, Xie Ruhe changed his methods of attacking the matter: “I’ll sing it first and then you sing it after me.”

But it didn’t work much. When Shu Nian sang with him, she wouldn’t be out of tune but once she sang alone, her tune would go out of control. It always happened in the same parts too.

Shu Nian was extremely frustrated.

During the spare time before the music exam was going to take place, Shu Nian dragged Xie Ruhe to a small clearing nearby and nervously said: “Let’s practice again.”

Xie Ruhe led Shu Nian: “The dark sky hangs over/bright stars follow…”

“The dark sky hangs over/bright stars follow…”

“Little bugs fly/little bugs fly…”

“Little bugs fly/little bugs fly…”

Xie Ruhe’s paused and repeated: “Little bug fly…”

Shu Nian stumbled over her words: “Bugs, little bugs fly…”

“Yes, that’s it. Now sing it on your own.”

Shu Nian listened to him and sang it.

When she raised her eyes again, she found that Xie Ruhe was looking away from her with the back of his hand against his lips as if he were laughing at her. Shu Nian saw it and got angry. She threw the lyric sheets at him: “Are you laughing at me?”

Xie Ruhe shook his head: “No, you are singing it correctly.”

Although she was still sceptical but with his comment, Shu Nian felt a little more confident. She went on the stage and sang the classic nursery rhyme “Little Bugs Fly” with him.

But as expected, there was still laughter from the crowd.

However, after stepping down the stage, what surprised Shu Nian was——

They were both out of tune.

She heard her desk mate say that it was pretty incredible because they went out of tune on the same parts.

…

…

The next afternoon, she arrived outside of Xie Ruhe’s residential area on time at exactly 1PM. The security guard took the initiative to open the door and let her in but after a few steps, she saw that Fang Wencheng had come down to pick her up.

It seemed like he didn’t sleep well yesterday as his under eyes were blue and grey.

He had no energy.

Shu Nian greeted him: “Assistant Fang.”

Fang Wencheng also greeted her and smiled. “Let’s go up. Teacher Ah He is waiting for us.”

Shu Nian responded with an “oh”.

“Recently, Teacher Ah He’s mood has been a little unpredictable.” Fang Wencheng kindly warned her. “Please pay attention to it. Other than recording the song, try not to mention other things.”

“Okay.”

After saying that, Fang Wencheng began to apologise to her: “Also, I’m really sorry about yesterday. I didn’t take the initiative to tell Teacher Ah He about this matter first and it had affected you.”

Shu Nian said: “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yesterday, because of this, Teacher Ah He asked me to reflect on myself.” Fang Wencheng had no choice but to say. “Isn’t it just writing a reflective report? I thought I could go back to write it but he asked me to write it on the spot.”

“…”

Fang Wencheng sighed: “I thought I was seriously going to get fired and I didn’t sleep well all night.”

Shu Nian stiffly comforted him: “It’s not that serious.”

The two entered Xie Ruhe’s house and she changed her shoes at the doorway. She stood in place and waited for Fang Wencheng but he didn’t seem to have plans on coming in. He waved to her: “I have something else to do, you can just go straight in.”

Shu Nian nodded: “Goodbye.”

Shu Nian went in and found that Xie Ruhe was in the living room. At that moment, he had his head lowered and was writing something on the coffee table. She came closer and called him: “Teacher Ah He.”

Hearing her voice, Xie Ruhe subconsciously moved the things in his hand to one side and looked up at her.

“Have you gone back to practice the song?”

Shu Nian carefully answered him: “I’ve practised.”

Right after, her eyes casually glanced sideways and noticed the bundle of paper that was moved aside by Xie Ruhe. There were two words written on it – “reflection”.

Shu Nian thought that it should be the reflective report that Fang Wencheng handed to him.

But upon further inspection, she found that the signature at the bottom was——

“Xie Ruhe.”

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