Chapter 254 - 103: Leading Lady of the 60s Song and Dance Troupe (42)
Chapter 254: Chapter 103: Leading Lady of the 60s Song and Dance Troupe (42)
That’s how selfish people are. She can take the initiative to pour her heart out to you, regardless of whether you accept it or not; but if you ask her to do the same, that’s just wrong...
’And the matter of Little Qin borrowing the book... that probably wasn’t fake either. So that girl harbored murderous intent and hid it from me. She’s even more vicious than I was at her age!’
A chill ran through Master Yuan. She was lost, wondering what she had been striving for her entire life.
Xia Zhaoyun said lightly, "Old Comrade Yuan, you should be kinder to yourself. After struggling for so many years, how many people truly appreciate you? It’s time to relax and enjoy life a little."
She started to walk away, then paused and added in a low voice, "You were Teacher Gao’s student, weren’t you?"
Without another word, she walked away, leaving the other person’s imagination to run wild.
Master Yuan felt as if she had plunged into a pit of ice. Watching the woman, whose every step exuded a natural, enchanting air, she felt ’this little vixen is here to claim my life.’
When the factory’s cultural troupe was first established, Teacher Gao had been hired as the choreographer for a high salary. Her reputation and skill were so great that even Mr. Xue looked up to her.
She had gone to great lengths to become her student, and after finally getting her wish, she had learned most of Teacher Gao’s skills.
Unfortunately, Teacher Gao had her own daughter, so it was impossible that she would teach an outsider everything she knew.
Master Yuan had always held a grudge about this, and she felt that Teacher Gao was deeply biased against her.
Years of resentment had built up. Then, when the political climate grew severe, she... she sent an anonymous letter reporting Teacher Gao and her husband.
’Teacher Gao was sent down to a remote mountain village with a harsh environment. With her proud and aloof personality, there was no way she could handle such filthy, exhausting work. She’d probably get sick from sheer indignation and end up bedridden!’
And Teacher Gao’s only daughter, who taught music at a high school, had recently been killed in a fire.
Master Yuan had even been so "kind" as to write about this news in a letter and mail it to her mentor.
She had always targeted Xia Zhaoyun for a simple reason: the little vixen was just too beautiful. She looked so much like Teacher Gao and her daughter, and she was incredibly talented. Even though Master Yuan had retired from the stage and no longer danced, she couldn’t stop the feelings of envy, jealousy, and hatred from bubbling to the surface.
’The only person I hate now is Xia Zhaoyun. But I never expected this little upstart to be so ruthless, to have figured me out completely, inside and out.’
’For Xia Zhaoyun to deliberately bring up Teacher Gao right now... she must have found out something else!’
Terrified that Xia Zhaoyun knew even more, Master Yuan didn’t dare make a rash move. She clutched her belongings and left, her face a mask of defeat.
That evening at the dinner table, He Qingran listened as Xia Zhaoyun recounted the day’s events. She gasped in amazement again and again as she got the gist of the story.
They didn’t avoid talking in front of the two little ones. Although the children were young, they were tight-lipped and mature for their age. Knowing more about the world’s darkness and schemes wouldn’t necessarily lead them astray. On the contrary, they could learn from these examples, which would serve as a guide to help them grow up to be even more upstanding.
"Yunyun, you’re amazing! How did you know Jie Xiaoqin would go find Master Yuan on her own? And that they would talk in the office?"
The key to breaking Master Yuan’s composure was the recording pen. The pen was in her coat, and with the current weather, it was just cool enough in the mornings and evenings to need one.
If Master Yuan and Jie Xiaoqin had met somewhere else, if she hadn’t been wearing her coat, or if she had discovered the recording pen, everything would have turned out differently.
Xia Zhaoyun smirked and said smugly, "Because the recording pen was never in her pocket. I just used a bit of sleight of hand and pretended to pull it out of her pocket."
The one adult and two children stared, their mouths agape in shock. ’You can do that?’
"Then how did you get the recording?" He Qingran couldn’t help but ask.
Xia Zhaoyun cleared her throat twice. When she spoke again, she perfectly imitated Master Yuan’s voice. "I was bluffing, of course. Since Jie Xiaoqin was the one who went to find Master Yuan, Master Yuan would naturally ask, ’What are you doing here?’"
"Then I mumble a few more words and drop in Little Qin’s name. With their guilty consciences, they’d only focus on hearing their own voices. How could they possibly tell if it was real or fake?"
Her voice shifted again, this time imitating Jie Xiaoqin. "And I’d call out ’Auntie.’ Nothing wrong with that, right? The rest of the words are all mumbled, with only the names spoken clearly. If you were in that situation, do you think you could tell the difference?"
He Qingran shook her head. "I’d just assume the other parts were too quiet, or that I was too far away to hear them clearly."
Then she sighed, "Master Yuan sure keeps her secrets. To think she has a daughter that old! It’s a good thing she’s retired. Otherwise, with that vicious mother-daughter pair around, they would have eaten you alive, leaving nothing but bones!"