Most of the residents of Daliang City could play the zither to various level. There was zither competition every year. Those who won first prize would not only became very well known within Daliang City, their social status would also increase drastically.
And Gu Ziyan was one of them. Not only was he skilled in zither, he was also young and handsome. He certainly was the prince in every girl's eyes in Daliang City.
While Yan Ziyuan was learning under him, she developed feelings for him. And, being a bold and passionate girl, she decided to let him know of her feelings.
She didn't expect he'd rejec right then and there.
And after the event, probably wanting to avoid any further trouble, he had also declined to continue teaching her zither and stopped visiting the Yan's.
Yan Ziyuan did not give up, she continue to pursue him. She sent him gifts, she took advantage of every opportunity to run into him. Until that day, when she saw him with Rong Yan.
She found out later on that the two of them grew up together and had been close friends since before her family gone downhill.
The two of them were seen together at the zither recital a year ago. They went on stage together and played a duet. Most were envious of the good looking couple group and, of course, may young girls' hearts were crush, including that of Yan Ziyuan.
Of course this hit Yan Ziyuan harder than others. The man that she has feelings for was the childhood best friend of the person she hated the most. Her being defeated by this particular woman was the worst thing that could happen to her and she had a hard time getting over it.
She had own a supreme quality zither up until this point, it was picked up for her by Gu Ziyan when he first became her zither instructor. She had always treasured it.
After she found out his relationship with Rong Yan, her first thought was to smash it. But she has a pathological attachment to her possessions and couldn't bring herself to destroy it. Finally she sent someone to throw it out, out of sight, out of mind.
Of course, she had also given up continuing to pursue Gu Ziyan.
But, one could think about something rationally, emotions were a whole different story. She had invested too much and it wasn't easy to just stop thinking about him.
Luckily she was a rational person. She stopped trying to find out where he was or what he was doing, and she stopped going to places where he might be.
Mr. Yan wanted to help distract her from this so he had organized many tea gatherings, garden gatherings, and poetry gatherings with other ladies and gentlemen. He even arranged for her to attend the Heavenly Teacher's enthronement ceremony just so she could realize there's a much bigger world out there and forget about this guy.
During this year, she had made many friends and became much happier. Even she thought she was already over Gu Ziyan. She didn't think that after runninginto him again today, her heart still skipped a beat, and that it pained her when he said stern words to her.
Seeing him with Rong Yan, it felt like her heart was about to explode. She wanted to cry, bawl even.
She said she wasn't going to cry, but tears still rolled down her face in front of Ning Xuemo. Finally she bawled on Ning Xuemo's shoulder.
After she was done crying, she sadly said she had only applied to participate in this even because she heard that Gu Ziyan wasn't going to come. She hadn't expected to run into him here.
So she planned on pulling out of the performance and drag Ning Xuemo back to her place.
"You have already decided to move on. Why not just see him as any other person?" Ning Xuemo signed, then patted Yan Ziyuan on her shoulder.