News of the Second-Round Test

Just as Fan Ning was surrounded three layers deep inside and three layers outside, and the boys' racket nearly lifted the classroom roof—

"Bang!"

A dull thud of someone pounding a desk came from the corner of the front row.

"Enough already. Are you done making noise?"

A cool male voice reached everyone's ears.

The speaker wore a sharp black formal suit. Tall and lean, with stern features, he was Murich, leader of Group One in their year and a piano major.

He rose from his seat, still holding a fountain pen, his fingertips stained with ink.

"Is this the gentlemanly conduct expected of students of the Imperial Public School?" Murich's gray eyes glinted coldly as he slowly swept his gaze over the crowd, lingering longer on the few who had been causing the biggest commotion.

Fan Ning finally let out a quiet breath of relief. This group leader should be able to get him out of this mess.

"Exactly! Aren't you being ridiculous?"

"You don't even want the sheet music, so why are you squeezing up front and causing trouble?"

"Yeah. If you like Miss Roy, go after her yourself! Why are you going after him?" One girl who looked delicate enough to be blown over by the wind was so furious that her words had become a complete mess.

Miss, what kind of savage words are those...? Fan Ning nearly jolted in fright at that sentence.

Still, the few students who had first approached Fan Ning also voiced their dissatisfaction, and more and more people behind them joined in.

Thus, Fan Ning had stirred up public outrage, and then these people stirred up the outrage of even more people...

In the end, they finally dispersed in every direction and returned to their seats.

But the gazes coming at him from all sides... If looks could kill, Fan Ning felt he would have been dead long ago.

"Damn it. Lu from Group Two and Cecil from Group Three—one took leave, and the other didn't choose this course." Murich muttered before sitting back down and burying himself once more in his thick stacks of books and papers to compose.

Letting out a long breath, Fan Ning lowered his head and opened his briefcase. "Sorry, everyone. I may not have printed enough copies of 'Fantasy Impromptu.' There are only ten here."

"I was first."

"I was second before."

"I was one of the people right at the front too."

Each score had nine sides over five pages, and Fan Ning had already bound them together with a wire binder.

"Thank you, Caloen."

"Thanks."

Fan Ning handed them out one by one into the outstretched hands around him.

"Uh, I'm terribly sorry, but it looks like there are actually only nine. The last one is my manuscript." Fan Ning looked at the girl in the yellow dress, who was holding out her hand pitifully.

"Can't you give it to me?" Her eyes shone.

"No." Fan Ning politely refused.

After finishing "Fantasy Impromptu" yesterday, he had gone on to write a string quartet. His hand was practically about to break!

Feeling the crowd's gazes on his manuscript grow even more fervent, he hurriedly stuffed it back into his briefcase.

"Everyone, borrow a copy from the classmates beside you after class and have it printed. Pushoer Publishing House's printing service point is downstairs in our school."

After tossing out that final sentence, Fan Ning began looking for a seat.

In the corner of the back row, he saw a guy in a vest sprawled across a desk, his face buried deep in the crook of his arms as he slept soundly.

"Galvin, you're catching up on sleep first thing in the morning?"

Fan Ning recognized his former roommate by his curly hair and sat down beside him after greeting him.

Galvin slowly lifted his head, revealing a dull face and heavy dark circles beneath his eyes.

"My god, man, you need to take care of yourself." Fan Ning said in surprise.

That part-time job paying you 3.5 pounds a week was far too demanding, wasn't it?...

Fan Ning activated Inspiration, imagining a sphere formed by three converging beams of light expanding outward from his chest.

He "saw" that Galvin's Aether Body was fairly normal, but the boundaries of his Emotional Body and Astral Spirit Body seemed a little blurred.

Moreover, Candle's Phase was not golden but closer to an earthy yellow, while its silhouette also carried the peach-red hue of Pool's Phase. Was something wrong here?

"What have you been doing lately? Not sleeping at night?"

Galvin gave a yawn that lasted a full ten seconds. "Mostly, composing is too exhausting. Caloen, people like you who can write such beautiful works and still stay so energetic every day are really monsters."

Could it be because the ignorant had composed until their Inspiration was exhausted?... Fan Ning could not be sure himself.

Fan Ning asked again, "Wasn't your composition test handed in the very next day? Why are you still composing?"

"Because my first-round score was really good afterward! Out of 182 people, I ranked tenth!" At the mention of this, Galvin finally perked up a little.

"So I've started preparing for the second-round test of the Small-Scale Works Selection. This time, we have to write a sonata, though only one movement."

"It seems the opportunity to remain at school and take up a post really did motivate you." Fan Ning smiled.

Yet he was still somewhat surprised. Galvin's composing had truly been rather average before. If he had been competing for a chance to play the French horn at the graduation concert, that would have been more in line with Fan Ning's expectations.

"Hey, it's not just me who struck it lucky this year. Two guys who usually can't squeeze out even eight measures of music somehow ranked ahead of me. What the hell is going on?" Galvin curled his lip.

Fan Ning could not make sense of it now. "Looks like everyone has moments when Inspiration erupts?"

Galvin yawned again. "Forget that... I heard through the grapevine that the second-round test for your Large-Scale Works Selection is chamber music composition. It should be officially announced at the next group meeting."

"So it's the same as last year."

His string quartet had been prepared precisely for this upcoming round of testing.

"But I heard there are still some changes to the testing format this year."

"Oh?"

"You remember, right? In previous years, the second-round entries were all performed at the school's upcoming New Year concert."

"Yes. It was always the end of the year around this time, and then the entire faculty and student body voted on them." Fan Ning recalled.

"But this year, I heard that your second-round entries will be given a special performance at Ufransel City Concert Hall! Then they'll be put up for a vote by the entire art world in the New Works Exhibition Hall!"

Hm? That really was a huge challenge... Fan Ning pondered inwardly.

He had only learned of this news now, later than Group Leader Cecil.

At the City Concert Hall, the scrutiny they faced would not come merely from Ufransel's music world, but from the entire nation, perhaps even from abroad.

Compared with the school's former confines, the scale of expansion was exponential.

Those mature contemporary artists, those mainstream cultural review outlets—some would offer encouragement when faced with immature student works, but far more would pick flaws and criticize them without mercy.

And there was another point: at school, every student possessed one vote. Operational factors existed, but they were not significant.

But the New Works Exhibition Hall at City Concert Hall had its own voting system.

A listener's rank of nobility, spending record, influence within the art world... all these were factors affecting the weight of their vote.

With the eyes of Imperial music lovers, a genius musical work would find it hard to remain buried, but that did not prevent the system from having its own complex logic of operation.

He truly needed performers and appreciators with greater social influence to help his competition entry open up the situation.

"Caloen, keep it up." Galvin yawned again. "That 'Fantasy Impromptu' from last time made you wildly popular in our music department. There are even a few students from other departments who think highly of you now. We'll definitely help you vote."

After saying that, he buried his face in his arms and resumed sleeping with loud snores.

Under the desk, Fan Ning opened an exquisite envelope.

It contained a salon invitation issued in Miss Roy's name. Besides the basic information, it included Miss Roy's home address, private telephone number, a list of steward contacts for various matters, and the departure time and place of the car that would pick Fan Ning up.

This invitation alone was enough to trigger certain group incidents at Saint Leniya University.

Of course, Fan Ning's main attention was not on it.

Next came brand-new fifty-gold-pound banknotes, ten in total—enough to buy the apartment where he currently lived.

Ufransel's government did not issue banknotes. Several major banks each issued their own paper currency. Besides King Louis's portrait, the notes bore carefully designed bank emblems and different denominations.

Logically speaking, if a bank went bankrupt, the banknotes it issued would become waste paper. But in this era of booming industry and prosperity within reach, people had ample faith in the Imperial economy.

They were the highest denomination currently issued by the Imperial Bank.

Fan Ning inhaled the peculiar fresh scent of ink and felt their fine, substantial texture. They made him feel immensely comfortable.

A quick postscript about the protagonist's "Light of First Acquaintance" ability: I didn't make this up at random. It is related to music and the protagonist's inheritance. Only now has the tip of its limitations begun to emerge from the iceberg, and the protagonist will gradually approach its true nature later. Well, everyone can also let your imaginations run wild and guess how it is connected to music. Hint: it mainly concerns composition and conducting.

All right, I padded it out by another hundred words. Runs away.