Chapter 2

I jumped down from the tree. “I’m going.”

“Hey, will you come back?”

“Will you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“So will I.”

After I’d gone a little way, he shouted behind me, “Bye, Chenxi!”

“Bye!” I turned and shouted back just as loudly.

I was a little late getting home. The moment I opened the door, I saw that Mom wasn’t pleased.

“Where have you been playing? Why are you home so late?”

“I’ll make dinner right now.”

“It’s already made.”

I looked at her in surprise. She wasn’t usually so industrious.

“Hurry up and eat. You’ll need your strength for dancing afterward.”

I had no idea whether I’d get into Angel Girls. The final audition passed in a blur. Mom didn’t give me any feedback; once I’d finished performing, we went home. Afterward, I practiced singing and dancing as usual, trying hard to learn and meet her standards. Getting yelled at was an unavoidable part of practice, but I believed I’d get better. Mom went out less often so she could supervise me. She really did want to train me.

Was the boy who played guitar in the tree there today? I looked out the window.

“Are they making a fool of me? Pu, you have to fight for this. Didn’t you promise you’d help?”

“An opportunity? How long are we supposed to wait for an opportunity?”

“Don’t brush me off. Is doing me one favor really that difficult?”

“Fair? You’ve already decided who’s getting in, and you’re talking about fairness?”

“Pu, you said you’d help. Please try again…”

Mom had already been asking someone for help behind the scenes, but in the end it came to nothing. She raged and pleaded into the phone, then slammed the receiver onto the floor. I stood beside her, afraid to move. For the next few days, she stopped teaching me to sing. Whenever she saw me, she looked furious.

I was so useless.

She started going out again.

I went to look for the guitarist. He wasn’t in the tree. I didn’t know when he would turn up, so I sat there alone and sang.

“I’m a kite from far away,
Soaring beneath a free blue sky.
Don’t ask me to stop;
I want to fly farther still.”

Those were the only lines I remembered, so I sang them over and over.

I went back several times without finding him. I’d promised I would come back, so I had to. I didn’t want to break my word. I rather wished I hadn’t said it in the first place. When I couldn’t find him, I felt like a child who’d told a lie.

More and more, I missed that defiant kite, flying alone through the vast blue sky, desperately searching for something.

“Chenxi, you’re to start training at Huahaoyueyuan tomorrow.”

Mom had secured me a place in the Angel Girls training program. If I did well, I would have a chance to replace one of the other girls.

That was where I met Pan Shuwei, Wang Leqian, and Zhang Ruirui.

Pan Shuwei was strikingly beautiful: wavy hair falling to her waist, a classic oval face, flawless features, a tall, slender figure, and a sweet smile. She had all the poise of a beauty.

Wang Leqian lived up to her name, with its promise of countless joys. She was lively, full of energy, and always smiling.

Zhang Ruirui was another pretty, outgoing girl.

When I appeared, all three looked at me with hostility. They’d already been training for more than a week. They hadn’t expected someone to turn up halfway through and challenge them.

I felt terrible. I hadn’t wanted this either, but I didn’t dare disobey Mom. During training, the three of them always joined forces to pick on me, mocking me and making snide remarks. I didn’t hate them. I might well take one of their places.

I told Mom I didn’t want to be someone who snatched things from other people.

She let loose at me. “How can you be so stupid? Everybody does it! If you get in, it means you’re good enough. Chenxi, do you know how hard I worked to get you this chance? If you don’t make it this time, don’t bother coming home!”

From Mom, I learned that Pan Shuwei’s place had been decided in advance. She hadn’t even needed an audition. Mom wanted me to find a way to beat the other two.

Three weeks later, Pu, the music director, said he wanted to see how much we’d improved. Standing in front of the microphone, I felt like a thief who couldn’t bear to be seen.

Halfway through my song, I suddenly saw the boy from the tree walk in. He was smiling so happily.

When I finished, Pan Shuwei made no attempt to hide her scorn. “That sounded awful.”

The other two chimed in. “It really did.”

“Uncle Pu, her singing is terrible.” Pan Shuwei criticized me freely in front of him. I knew she must have powerful connections.

“Chenxi, you went off-key,” Monica said. She was going to be Angel Girls’ manager.

It was the boy from the tree who’d made me go off-key.

Monica went on, “Chenxi doesn’t have a good natural voice. She needs more training before she can sing well. She might… she might not be able to keep up with the other three.”

“I thought she sounded pretty good,” the boy suddenly said.

Everyone turned to look at him in surprise.

“Do you know whose daughter she is?” Monica asked.

“Chenxi… She’s Yang Ling’s daughter?” He seemed surprised by his own answer. Still, he insisted, “I thought her singing was quite nice.”

“You’d better not say that in front of your mother.”

“The previous generation’s grudges are their business. Leave the children out of it,” Pu said.

I felt like a criminal watching everyone point fingers at me.

On my way to the bus stop, a black car pulled up in front of me.

“Get in.”

Once I was inside, I asked him, “Who are you?”

“One day I’m going to make sure everyone in the world knows who I am,” he said indignantly.

I laughed. “You’re a singer who’s… not famous… No, that’s wrong. You haven’t made it big yet.”

“I’m already famous. I just haven’t made it really big.”

“Oh, I see!”

“Chenxi, how can you not know who I am? I thought I was famous already, and now I find out there are people who don’t even recognize me. It’s infuriating!”

“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I don’t know much about these things. I hardly ever pay attention to celebrities.”

“How can you want to work in this business without knowing anything about it?”

“I never wanted to be a celebrity.”

“What are you doing at Huahaoyueyuan, then?”

“Mom told me to come.”

“You’re the opposite of me. My mom wouldn’t let me join, so of course I had to.”

“Why didn’t she want you to?”

“She said my studies should come first.”

“She has a point.”

“Wouldn’t studying and singing at the same time be even better?”

“That’s true. Do you still go to the tree to play guitar?”

“Yes, but I haven’t seen you.”

“I went too, but I didn’t see you either.”

“Which way to your house?”

“That way, then turn right.”

He drove me to the entrance of our residential complex.

“You still haven’t told me your name,” I said. “What am I supposed to call you next time I see you?”

“Go home and look it up.”

“Wait a second.”

I ran over to the security guard at the gate. “Do you recognize him?”

The guard, a man in his fifties, shook his head. “No.”

“Chenxi, stop rubbing it in!” the boy shouted.

Before I could find a second person to ask, he was gone.

Later, I saw his name on a poster.

Fei Randi.

Before I knew it, I’d been training at Huahaoyueyuan for six months. I hadn’t seen him again during that time. I’d started at one of the city’s top high schools. Pan Shuwei was in her second year at the best private school, while Wang Leqian and Zhang Ruirui attended an arts school. Once term began, our training moved to evenings and weekends.

I was relieved that the final decision would come after school started. At the same time, I worried that if I didn’t get into Angel Girls, Mom might make me drop out halfway through.

Huahaoyueyuan had created Angel Girls to compete with Lai’erte. The company took the group very seriously. On the day of the final selection, all the senior executives were there.

Pan Shuwei’s performance won everyone’s praise. With her exceptional looks, she was born to be a star. She’d won them over the moment she stepped onstage. Whether she could sing hardly mattered.

Wang Leqian and Zhang Ruirui had been chosen for their ability. Their singing was faultless, and they danced just as well.

And me? I thought I’d done everything I could. But when we sang and danced together, I didn’t fit in with them at all. Mom looked distinctly unhappy.

I went to Lili to pour out my troubles. I’d done so badly that I was certain to be eliminated. I might soon be forced to leave school and stay home.

“Chenxi, don’t drop out. Who’ll go to class with me if you do?”

“Lili, could I be born into your family in my next life?”

“Of course! We’ll be twin sisters.”

“That would be wonderful. We could be born together, grow up together, play together, go to school together, sleep in the same bed, share the same clothes, have the same mom and dad, and finally die together.”

“If that really happened, it would be wonderful!”

Lili was such a sweet, innocent girl.

On my way home, I passed the tree where Fei Randi played guitar. Its leaves were thick, dense, and green. That deep green seemed as solid as the unmelted ice of Antarctica, frozen into a motionless green cloud, hanging in the sky forever.

I climbed up and sat there in a daze until I forgot the time, forgot the world, forgot I was a living person.

“What are you doing here?” Fei Randi asked from below.

I blinked hazily. “Waiting for you.”

I remembered that I was a person after all, with things a person needed to do.

“How did you know I’d come?”

“I guessed.”

Fei Randi climbed up. “I wasn’t planning to.”

“Why did you, then?”

“My mom was being too annoying.”

“Why didn’t you bring your guitar?”

“I wasn’t planning to play.”

“Fei Randi, could you do me a favor?”

He smiled. “Oh, so you finally know my name. What favor?”

“I want to get into Angel Girls. Could you help me?”

He looked uncomfortable.

“I know you might not be able to help,” I said calmly. “I just wanted to try. Maybe you can?”

“So that’s why you were waiting here.”

I nodded.

“Chenxi, that’s not a good thing to do. Using connections isn’t fair to the others.”

“I don’t want to either. But if I don’t get into Angel Girls, I might not be able to stay in school. Mom might even throw me out.”

“Your mom would throw you out?”

“She would.”

He thought for a moment.

“Don’t worry. If she really does, you can stay with me.”