Chapter 77 — First Date
Lin Yuejiu’s breathing gradually steadied, and Xu Nianshen asked, “Are you okay?”
She shook her head and smiled faintly. “I haven’t been criticized by anyone for a long time. I wasn’t used to it at first, but I’m fine.”
He didn’t reply, only gesturing for her to sit on the piano bench.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, puzzled.
“Actually, I wasn’t always like this,” he said.
“Ah?” Lin Yuejiu didn’t immediately catch his meaning.
Xu Nianshen sat beside her and continued, “I wasn’t always like this.”
“Like what?”
“I wasn’t always outstanding.”
Lin Yuejiu remained silent.
“Before you were taken back by the Lin family, I was a very naughty child.”
Lin Yuejiu was surprised; she could hardly picture him being mischievous.
Xu Nianshen smiled. “You probably can’t imagine it, right?”
Lin Yuejiu nodded honestly. When she first met him, he seemed distant and unapproachable, appearing uninterested in anything. After getting to know him, she realized he wasn’t that cold—he was excellent, always praised by teachers, always on the honor roll, always top of his grade.
She had assumed he had been like this since childhood, raised with good education, a child from another family.
Xu Nianshen reminisced, “When I was two or three, I gave my mom a lot of trouble. I would climb everywhere, even dangerous places. She would worry I’d fall, catching me with one hand while scolding me with the other.”
Lin Yuejiu couldn’t help but laugh; she could vividly imagine the scene.
“That wasn’t even the worst,” he continued. “A little later, around six, I would climb trees. There was one tree in our yard I especially liked, and I climbed it often. My mom would always scold me when she saw me.”
“I wasn’t just naughty; my grades were poor too.”
Lin Yuejiu looked puzzled.
“You probably can’t imagine. At that time, I barely passed my subjects. Sometimes I didn’t pass—well, often didn’t pass. Especially language. Like most people say, good at math, bad at language. My language scores were often thirty or forty points. Math was decent but only around eighty or so—not outstanding.”
“Then how did your grades improve later?”
“Because of my mom.”
“Because of your mom? What did she do?”
“At that time, I really liked models. But my pocket money wasn’t enough to buy them.”
“So your mom used that as motivation for you to study?” Lin Yuejiu guessed.
“Yes. I loved them so much that my mom set a goal: get full marks on exams, and she’d buy me the model I wanted.”
“So you worked hard to study?”
“Yes. She even put pictures of the models I liked by my bedside to motivate me.”
Lin Yuejiu smiled.
“To help my grades improve quickly, my mom also enrolled me in tutoring classes.”
“You went to tutoring too?”
“Yes.”
“I thought someone like you, a top student, wouldn’t need tutoring.”
“I’m not a natural prodigy. I got here through later training. At first, in tutoring, the teachers often criticized me.”
“??”
“Because my grades were poor, I was scolded many times by my teachers.”
Lin Yuejiu suddenly grew quiet.
“Being criticized is a normal thing,” Xu Nianshen said.
Lin Yuejiu opened her mouth but didn’t speak.
“I know what you’re thinking—you’re thinking our situations are different, right?”
“Yes,” she replied softly.
“What I want to say is this: in life, no one can go without criticism. It’s just a matter of when it comes.”
“You won’t be sad just because of criticism. Without criticism, there’s no progress. You were in a stage where you were floating and easily proud. This criticism brought you back. It’s normal to feel a bit unsettled when you’ve been praised for so long.”
He looked at her, gently turned her shoulders, and met her eyes. “No one is always excellent. You aren’t, I’m not. We should face ourselves honestly, see ourselves clearly, and find our position, so we can calmly handle criticism from others.”
His voice was clear as it reached her ears, echoing in her mind.
Her long lashes trembled. “Yes, I understand.”
Criticism isn’t just something that makes you sad; it can awaken you before you fall into darkness.
The teacher didn’t tell them the level of their performance that day. Instead, he kept finding Lin Yuejiu afterward, having her play pieces alone for him. Even after listening, he rarely gave feedback. Occasionally, he offered criticism, which Lin Yuejiu accepted graciously, bowing and saying, “Thank you, teacher.”
After that day, when Lin Yuejiu thought back at night, she realized that Xu Nianshen had deliberately shared those stories to comfort her. Her heart felt warm.
Another Saturday arrived. Lin Yuejiu asked for leave from the music association. When Huang Weixue asked why, she said, “I need to take responsibility.”
After saying that, she left, leaving a puzzled Huang Weixue behind.
On Friday night, Lin Yuejiu sent a special message to Xu Nianshen.
Lin Student: [Xu Teacher, are you free on Saturday?]
Xu Teacher: [Aren’t you supposed to practice violin at the association on Saturday?]
Lin Student: [I asked for leave.]
Xu Teacher: [Are you planning to ask me out?]
Lin Student: [Yes, so I wonder if Xu Teacher has any free time for his only student.]
Xu Teacher: [Let me check my schedule first.]
Lin Yuejiu raised an eyebrow at the words “my schedule” and quietly waited for his next message.
Xu Teacher: [Yes, Xu Teacher is free on Saturday.]
Lin Student: [Great, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule.]
Xu Teacher: [After all, you’re my only student. A little face has to be given.]
Lin Student: [Alright, then Xu Teacher, let’s meet at the school gate at 9 a.m. tomorrow.]
Xu Teacher: [Okay.]
Lin Yuejiu put down her phone, picked up her pajamas, and hummed a little tune as she entered the bathroom.
If Chen Qianxi were there, her sharp intuition would definitely notice that Lin Yuejiu was acting differently. Unfortunately, Chen Qianxi, constantly busy with her own life, wasn’t in the dorm.
Meanwhile, at the Xu residence.
Xu Nianshen put down his phone and drummed his fingers on the table rhythmically.
She asked him out?
This seemed to be the first time she took the initiative.
She hadn’t confessed yet, so she wasn’t officially his girlfriend—but she was practically a quasi-girlfriend. Their interactions were already similar to those of a dating couple.
So tomorrow’s outing would be their first date?
Realizing this, Xu Nianshen stopped drumming.
A first date—its significance was obvious.
He immediately stood in front of the wardrobe, carefully choosing what to wear. Tomorrow was their first date… what should he wear?
