Chapter 163 It's not that Qin Jing he had in mind, is it?

To be honest, after listening to Fang Che's words, Gu Ci now harbored a tiny bit of doubt regarding the reliability of this Elder Qin...

She remained silent for a short while before finally saying, "My teacher is Qin Jing."

Upon hearing these two words, Fang Che was stunned.

He had never imagined that Gu Ci's teacher would actually share the exact same pronunciation as the name of the Vice President of the Conducting Sub-Association!

Yet if someone truly bore that name, even if they were merely a D-grade conductor, it would likely be known to many people.

However... there was no such person.

Fang Che could not think of a single conductor in the Musicians' Association above D-grade who went by that name.

Naturally, he instantly ruled out the "Qin Jing" who was the president of the Conducting Sub-Association.

There was simply no way, was there?

On one hand, the president of the Conducting Sub-Association could not possibly be so unreliable; on the other hand, if Gu Ci truly were President Qin's disciple, how could she possibly need to participate in the admission grading?

He had never yet witnessed the disciple of any branch president choosing to enter the Musicians' Association through such a method.

Since that was the case... then Gu Ci's teacher was probably just an obscure, unknown conductor.

Otherwise... how could they be so utterly unreliable as to throw Gu Ci alone into an orchestra that had to participate in the municipal evaluations of the Musicians' Association at such a tender age?

With these thoughts, Fang Che's gaze toward Gu Ci took on a trace of sympathy.

He patted Gu Ci on the shoulder.

"Take your time looking, no need to rush! Even if... even if this time you..., if you have time in the future, you can come find us, and we'll practice with you. Our former conductor was also a very experienced teacher; once he comes back, you can follow him and learn a thing or two."

Gu Ci received a pat on the shoulder.

She was a little bewildered.

With a slight, hesitant nod, she scanned the score Fang Che had just given her at a glance.

Having swept through it line by line, she closed the notebook again.

It was the second movement of Bellman's 96th Symphony.

Raising her eyes, she asked, "No need to rearrange the symphony?"

Fang Che's temple throbbed slightly. "Correct."

How could rearranging a symphony on one's own be such an easy task? Furthermore, the preparation time was already short, and a conductor who had just reached the entry-level standard of the Musicians' Association—or rather, hadn't even reached Shenzhen's standards—would have even less capability to do so.

Therefore, in times like these, they usually relied on the classic symphonies created by previous composers.

All the conductor needed to do was adjust the pitch during their continuous performances.

"Only performing a sub-movement?"

Fang Che said, "...Correct."

Gu Ci nodded slightly. "Have you rehearsed it before?"

Fang Che replied tactfully, "Only once or twice."

The first time was before their conductor left, and the second time was when they practiced on their own without a conductor. The scene... if they hadn't already collaborated for over a month beforehand, it probably would have descended into complete chaos.

Even so, it was still too ghastly to behold.

To this day, whenever Fang Che recalled that day's performance, he still felt a sense of awkwardness.

Gu Ci's gaze swept across the members who were practicing individually, and then she pointed out a few of them, giving each some specific modifications.

The few individuals felt utterly baffled, their eyes clearly revealing their confusion.

Even if they needed tuning, shouldn't it be done after running through a rehearsal once?

Believing he knew just how unreliable Gu Ci's teacher was—and figuring they might have taught Gu Ci some equally unreliable methods—Fang Che could not help but remind her.

"Gu Ci, you can lead us through a rehearsal first, and then we can fine-tune things slowly afterward."

Gu Ci merely replied indifferently, "No need, I've already heard it."

Heard it?

Gu Ci had just arrived at their orchestra, and they had only rehearsed this piece twice. Gu Ci hadn't even been present at the time, so how could she have heard them play it before?

At this, a massive question mark appeared in everyone's minds.

Just then, a flash of inspiration struck Fang Che, reminding him of how Gu Ci had just asked them to play a piece they were previously very familiar with.

An extremely unreliable idea surfaced in his mind, yet it seemed awfully close to the truth.

Could Gu Ci... possibly think that by listening to them play through a piece they had practiced earlier just once, she already had a grasp of everyone's pitch?

This... ($)@%@&*...

Just how utterly unreliable was Gu Ci's teacher to have instilled such a notion in her?

Wanting to clearly discern each person's intonation based on a single performance—that was something only elite masters of B-grade and above could pull off, alright?

"Gu Ci, let me tell you..."

Fang Che weighed his words. Before he could finish, Gu Ci cast a cool glance at him and spoke, "That girl over there in the blue clothes with the high ponytail, go help her tune her instrument."

As the concertmaster of the orchestra, Fang Che concurrently handled the tuning duties for the entire ensemble.

Following Gu Ci's direction, he looked toward that girl, his brow furrowing deeply.

At that moment, one of the girls pointed out by Gu Ci couldn't help speaking up.

"It's Gu Ci, right? Could you please stop pretending to understand everything? Che-ko helped her tune her instrument not long ago; there is simply no way her pitch could be off."

The rest of the group nodded in agreement, clearly endorsing what the girl had said.

Indeed, because the conductor had been absent for the past few days, Fang Che had taken advantage of the time to give all of their instruments a thorough tuning.

Therefore, logically speaking, their instruments should not have any pitch deviations at this moment.

Besides, Gu Ci had merely listened to them all play a familiar tune together; how could she possibly single out a pitch discrepancy in a single instrument among so many people?

She probably just didn't want to be looked down upon, so she was putting on airs here!

She probably didn't realize that acting this way would only make them dislike her even more.

Thinking back to how their pianist hadn't come because of Gu Ci, and how several people had left the orchestra, the group's gazes toward Gu Ci grew even more resentful.

"Little sister, if you want to practice properly and pursue self-improvement, I won't say anything to you. But if you intend to keep hanging around our orchestra using these scheming tactics, I'll be the first to object!"

"Gu Ci, if you still want to stay in our orchestra, please straighten out your attitude and stop pulling stunts like this! Every conductor needs continuous practice to gain experience and improve. It's fine if you don't have experience right now, but if you want to take shortcuts because of that and deliberately use such attention-seeking methods to draw our notice, then we won't welcome you either!"