Chapter 162: A Huge Misunderstanding

When those who wished to leave had finally departed, the symphony orchestra, which originally boasted around seventy members, was left with only four-fifths of its people.

Someone ran his hands through his hair in frustration. "What is the point of practicing now? We might as well just prepare for the next round. Next time, our conductor will also..."

At that point, he cut himself off.

After all... Gu Ci was still right there in front of them.

Fang Che glared at him as well. "Since you've decided to stay, practice properly and cut out all this nonsense."

With that, he turned his gaze to the rest of the orchestra members. "Pull yourselves together, everyone! No one is allowed to give up until the very last moment. Did you hear me?"

A resounding reply echoed through the crowd, "We heard you!"

"But Brother Che, what are we actually supposed to do now?"

Fang Che immediately fixed his gaze on Gu Ci and pulled her aside.

"You came here for the Musicians' Association's grading evaluation as well, didn't you?"

Grading evaluation... This was not the first time Gu Ci had heard these words since stepping inside.

A flicker of strange emotion flashed through her eyes. "Yes."

Hearing this, Fang Che shrugged, acknowledging her answer, and then continued, "You've seen it for yourself. Our orchestra only has a little over fifty people left now. Are you still planning to stay? I have to warn you, our conductor left when we had only prepared a tiny fraction of our piece. You have no prior attachment to this orchestra, and as you said yourself, there's still time for you to leave."

"I'm not leaving."

Fang Che nodded, looking at Gu Ci with a hint of surprise, though he pressed no further on the matter.

He had originally assumed this young woman was merely drawn here because their ensemble had successfully passed the grading evaluation last time.

Yet now, more than a dozen people had walked out, including many whose skill levels were above average in the orchestra, and still Gu Ci showed no intention of leaving.

For a fleeting second, an unexplainable glimmer of hope rose within Fang Che.

"May I be so bold as to ask who your teacher is?"

Before Gu Ci could utter a word, Fang Che immediately felt as though he had lost his mind.

A conductor even younger than himself...

He rubbed his temples in a fit of a headache, cutting off Gu Ci before she could speak. "Never mind, don't answer that. Even if your teacher is the president of the conducting branch..."

He froze.

"Since you've made up your mind, let's give it our all together... This is the piece we originally prepared. We've barely been working on it for a week, so take a look first."

As he spoke, Fang Che handed a musical score to Gu Ci.

In truth, calling it "prepared" was a stretch, as they had barely begun practicing. No conductor could possibly complete all the preparatory desk work in such a short span of time...

Although Fang Che had previously claimed that if Gu Ci proved incompetent she would be replaced, under their current circumstances, finding another conductor would likely prove exceedingly difficult.

A bizarre thought even crossed Fang Che's mind: when Gu Ci had so calmly told those who wanted to leave to go ahead, had she already calculated that once their numbers dwindled, no other conductor would step in?

Still, Fang Che dismissed it as a passing thought.

Had he genuinely believed that, he wouldn't have let Gu Ci take charge in the first place, let alone added fuel to the fire.

He knew the reality of the situation all too well.

On one hand... the hearts of those few individuals were already divided, and keeping them would yield no benefit to the orchestra whatsoever.

On the other hand... he understood that many had already undergone the grading evaluation multiple times and viewed their ensemble as doomed. He could comprehend why they refused to watch this attempt end in absolute failure.

He had rallied the remaining members with an inspiring speech, but deep down, even Fang Che had no idea what fate awaited them this time.

Seeing this, Gu Ci said nothing further.

She took the score without glancing at it immediately and asked, "What did you mean earlier by 'grading evaluation'?"

"What did you say?"

The expression on Fang Che's face froze dead in its tracks.

Then, staring at Gu Ci in sheer disbelief, a giant question mark seemed to slowly materialize across her calm, blank forehead...

Followed closely by a second... and a third...

After struggling for a long moment to regain his composure, he felt his entire world collapsing.

"No..." He licked his lips, unable to resist rolling up his sleeves and frantically fanning himself.

Noticing that quite a few orchestra members were now looking in his direction, he hastily lowered his voice. "Aren't you here for the evaluation yourself? What do you mean by 'what does grading evaluation mean'?"

Gu Ci blinked. "I meant, aren't you people already preparing for a capital-level performance?"

Fang Che instantly responded with a barrage of question marks.

"No... Big Sis... Ancestor! Where on earth did you hear that rumor? Did you seriously think joining the Musicians' Association means stepping into an ensemble that already has a fixed capital-level rating, just to accompany you to actual metropolitan concert halls across various regions for three performances?"

Gu Ci felt that what Fang Che was saying made complete sense.

That was precisely the impression Elder Tan's words had conveyed earlier.

Watching Gu Ci's accepting expression, Fang Che nearly went mad. "Who on earth told you this?"

Gu Ci replied, "My teacher."

He couldn't help repeating the word "no" three times. "This capital-level rating isn't the grand performance you think it is. It's simply the evaluations given to our playing by C-rank and above heavyweights within the association. And this capital-level standard is roughly a notch below being invited to play at a music hall ranked around fiftieth in Mianzhou..."

Of course, Fang Che left out the detail that if they genuinely managed to secure the accompaniment of an orchestra frequently invited to perform at or above the fiftieth-ranked hall in Mianzhou, that would also be completely acceptable.

But such an assumption was utterly absurd, wasn't it?

Which established, long-famed orchestra like that would ever waste so much time acting as mere backing for the preliminary entrance audition of a member who hadn't even officially joined the Musicians' Association?

It was an absolute impossibility!

Once he finished his explanation, looking at Gu Ci's enlightened yet overwhelmingly calm expression, Fang Che finally failed to contain his madness once more.

"I'm telling you, Gu Ci, who on earth is your teacher?" Can someone this unreliable seriously be for real???