Touma opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the azure sky outside the window.
"Right... where am I...?"
Touma sat up slowly and looked around her. When she saw the distinctly sci-fi styled decor of the bedroom, she paused for a mont to gather her thoughts.
Right, I’m in another world now...
Touma raised her hand and clenched it tightly before letting it go.
Although this wasn’t her first ti, almost every night before sleep, Touma wished it was all just a dream, hoping that when she opened her eyes again, she would be back ho. But unfortunately, this was not just a dream.
Touma got out of bed, changed clothes, and finished washing up. As she stepped out of the bedroom and into the hall, she saw Fang Zheng and a few girls sitting there having breakfast.
"Hey, Touma, you’re awake?"
As he saw Touma, Fang Zheng waved at her, and Touma nodded slightly before glancing at the table.
"Where’s Sora?"
"Still sleeping, stayed up late again last night."
Fang Zheng spread his hands helplessly and sighed.
After transforming Sora into his enchanted, her frail physical quality was indeed cured, yet Fang Zheng didn’t expect Sora would take it even further... Before, she used to sleep on ti, but now, as an enchanted of the Ti Dragon, having discovered her night owl behavior rank MAX, she had decisively joined the night owl party.
This left Fang Zheng speechless, as he couldn’t even persuade Sora to sleep by saying staying up is bad for her health, since Sora would ask Fang Zheng, "Would it be bad for a Dragon Race to stay up late too?"
To be honest, this question... Fang Zheng had never really considered.
Fang Zheng had no good solutions for this, so he could only leave it be. In his view, once Sora grows tired of it after staying up for too long, she’ll give up. He had similar experiences before; there was a period when Fang Zheng played online gas so intensely that he wished he could be glued to the computer for twenty-four hours a day, and he even had a "glorious history" of fighting for seven days and seven nights during vacations at internet cafes. Later, after starting work, perhaps due to things getting overdone, he couldn’t play for long anymore.
Like soone who particularly loves eating pork belly suddenly getting nauseous at the sight of it after eating it every day for a month, Fang Zheng had sowhat similar feelings back then.
Since then, Fang Zheng rarely stayed up late.
And even now, as a deity, Fang Zheng rarely stays up late, mainly because... there are so many things more interesting than staying up late, right?
"Co on, let’s have breakfast first."
Fang Zheng gestured for her to co over, and Touma hesitated for a mont but sat down. Honestly, she felt a bit unfamiliar with Fang Zheng in front of her. After all, Fang Zheng in her mory was as young as she was, but the current Fang Zheng was clearly in his early twenties, although he didn’t look much different, Touma still felt sowhat awkward. Even though she already knew from Sora that this was Fang Zheng’s true form, Touma couldn’t accept it imdiately.
This is quite normal.
After greeting a few of the other girls, Touma also sat beside them and began eating breakfast. Frankly speaking, seeing Fang Zheng again, Touma didn’t quite know what to say. She wasn’t exactly an outgoing person; if Yukina or Natsuse were here, perhaps they would have sothing to talk about with Fang Zheng, but Touma just didn’t know what to say.
On the contrary, after finishing his al, Fang Zheng looked at Touma.
"By the way, Touma, how’s your piano practice going lately?"
"Eh?"
Hearing this question, Touma was slightly taken aback. For a mont, she felt as if she had returned to the past when Fang Zheng would ask her this as the first thing every day.
It seems it stays the sa even now.
"No problem."
Touma hesitated for just a mont before answering. After all, she wasn’t the sa as before. Now Touma had already perford at the Vienna Golden Hall, and she had both the aura and the confidence.
"Oh?"
Hearing Touma’s reply, Fang Zheng glanced at her, then snapped his fingers.
Soon, a piano appeared out of nowhere next to the dining room.
"Co on, play it for ."
Facing Fang Zheng’s request, Touma let out a light hum in response, then wiped her mouth with a napkin and sat down at the piano. Taking a deep breath with her eyes closed, she began to play.
The crisp, graceful sound of the piano imdiately grabbed the attention of the girls. Although they weren’t very knowledgeable about piano, they could tell that Touma’s performance was quite lodious.
Both Illya and Little Hei fell quiet, listening intently to the performance. Katori and Neflen also curiously looked at Touma — in their world, there wasn’t such an instrunt as the piano, so it was quite novel to them.
Soon, the piece ca to an end.
Touma lowered her hands and looked at Fang Zheng, then she saw Fang Zheng stand up, walk over, and pat her on the shoulder.
This startled Touma instantly, as she knew Fang Zheng’s habits. Generally, if Fang Zheng wasn’t satisfied with her performance, he wouldn’t criticize her directly but instead would let her get up and play the piece himself... unavoidably, the blow from this was quite significant. The sa piece, using the sa technique, she just couldn’t play as well as him, which couldn’t be more demotivating.
But eventually, Touma was trained up by Fang Zheng, which was why during subsequent competitions she remained calm. Although there were many formidable opponents, compared to Fang Zheng, they weren’t that intimidating.
However, now Touma was recalling the fear of being dominated by Fang Zheng.
Still, she habitually stepped aside, and Fang Zheng sat down confidently, reaching out his hands.
The next mont, the piano imdiately resonated.
In an instant, everyone’s minds were captivated by Fang Zheng’s playing.
If Touma’s piano rely sounded "beautiful," then Fang Zheng’s performance felt as though it whisked them into another world, making them feel like they were faced with a turbulent ocean, raging waves, and howling winds. Yet, in the next mont, as if the storm cleared and the sky brightened, the tempest vanished without a trace, replaced by the chirping of birds, the fragrance of flowers, and gentle whispers.
Not long after, the piece ended.
"Clap clap clap clap!!"
Coming to their senses, the girls couldn’t help but give a vigorous round of applause, while Touma stood by, expression uncertain. To be honest, it was as if she was back to her school days, every ti she felt she had made enough progress, Fang Zheng would shatter her confidence again — though saying this might not be entirely accurate, as she did make progress... but she was always just a step behind Fang Zheng.
"Big brother, you know how to play the piano? Why didn’t I know?"
Little Hei was the first to speak, surprised since she had never heard Fang Zheng play piano before!
"Mr. Fang Zheng’s performance is indeed exceptional."
At this point, Katori seed to recall sothing.
"Oh right, back in my world, Mr. Fang Zheng often sang for us. It was really nice."
"MASTER? You can sing too?"
At this mont, even Illya couldn’t sit still.
"How co we never heard it?"
As the earliest Heroic Spirits summoned by Fang Zheng, the two little girls had spent quite so ti by Fang Zheng’s side. They could affirm that not even Natsuse, Midori, or Tina knew that Fang Zheng could sing and perform!
"Haruno’s singing is indeed very pleasant."
At this mont, Touma also chid in.
"He even ford a band with us once."
"Eh?!!!"
The little girls imdiately jumped up, staring at Fang Zheng.
"Big brother!"
"MASTER!"
"Don’t look at , I was busy, okay..."
Fang Zheng waved his hand, realizing the two little ones were quite upset.
"I don’t care, I want to hear you sing, big brother!"
Illya is a good kid, but Little Hei is the type to cause a ruckus, imdiately starting to act up.
"If you don’t sing, I’ll go tell Natsuse and the others!"
This was a blatant threat.
"Alright, fine, since there’s nothing else to do anyway..."
Faced with Little Hei’s threat, Fang Zheng didn’t want to argue. If Natsuse and the others found out, it would be more troubleso. After all, those little girls had followed him for a long ti, yet he’d never sung for them... Well, back then was different from now, Fang Zheng was so busy he barely had a mont to spare, much less for such things. It was only in the World of Love that he indulged himself by forming a band for fun.
If he hadn’t ford a band for fun in the World of Love, Fang Zheng wouldn’t have sung to pass the ti in Katori’s world... But now, there’s no point in talking about these things.
Ultimately, under Illya and Little Hei’s coaxing, Fang Zheng relented and sang the songs he had once perford for Katori and Neflen, and with Touma’s cooperation, sang the songs from School Days, finally appeasing the two little ones.
Once everyone happily dispersed, Fang Zheng took a breath of fresh air on the balcony.
At that mont, Touma ca over to his side.
"Haruno..."
"Just call Fang Zheng... that na is just an alias..."
"But to , I’m more used to that na."
"Is that so? Suit yourself then."
Fang Zheng shrugged at Touma’s response and said no more. After a mont of silence, Touma finally spoke up.
"Haruno... will you et Yukina and the others after you return?"
"Of course, but by the way, how are they doing now?"
"Everyone is doing well. SchoolDays often performs at LIVE events, and we’ve made a few new songs. There’s even a producer who spoke with us about debuting SchoolDays as an idol group..."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Fang Zheng was taken aback.
"How did you respond?"
"We refused."
"Including Sekai?"
"Yes."
"That’s quite surprising..."
To be honest, Fang Zheng always thought Sekai was the type who liked being in the spotlight. Yukina and Setsuna might not enjoy the attention, but Sekai clearly seed like a girl with ambitions. He hadn’t expected Sekai to decline. But this is good; after all, the entertainnt industry is not a good place, and the idol world especially, though glamorous on the outside, is fraught with backstage troubles.
Thus, this is not a bad choice.
"Haruno..."
However, at this mont, Touma suddenly spoke again, but unlike before, her voice was trembling.
"I..."
"Hmm?"
"...Nothing."
In the end, Touma opened her mouth but lowered her head without saying anything more.
Witnessing this scene from not far away, Sora frowned slightly.
It seems Touma can’t be relied upon, now... it can only count on Yukina and Sekai!
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