Zu An’s playing was slowly joined by the sound of the xiao, painting out a sorrowful tune. However, Qiu Honglei’s playing didn’t seem as proficient compared to her skill at the zither.

Xie Xiu couldn’t hide his confusion. “This doesn’t seem right. With Qiu Honglei’s skills, her skills with the xiao shouldn’t be so far below her skill at the zither. Why does her playing sound so… so ordinary?”

He had already chosen the most polite way of describing what he was hearing. Qiu Honglei’s playing lacked any semblance of smoothness, with some large hiccups that were audible even to him. If it had been anyone else, they would have long been chased off the stage.

Xie Daoyun frowned. “It might be because she is unfamiliar with this song…”

She quietly trailed off, unable to continue her justification. There’s no way an expert would mess up this badly, is there?

*Screech!*

With that sharp, wrong note, Qiu Honglei had finally had enough. She lowered the xiao with a reddened face. This really was too embarrassing! She actually couldn’t play the song!

However, no one else doubted her skills. All of them instead rushed to reassure her:

“If not even a master like young miss Qiu could play it, then this song was probably just randomly thrown together!”

“Precisely! Brat, don’t drag Lady Qiu down with you if you don’t know how to play it yourself!”

…

However, quite a few in the crowd had discerning ears. To them,...