One thing that he learned from therapy is that when he was to read and recite in front of people, he should have a calm and resolute heart. No matter what the people are thinking as long as he can get hold of his self, he can perform the task without fainting. Actually, if he will just pretend that he was only alone in the stage he might be able to pull it off.

The words slowly integrated inside his mind. Like the usual, his brain sends him the wrong signals making 'A' sound like 'O', or 'W' to 'M'. It will take him time before he can recognize the letter and form the word. The next problem would come to his mouth. Because the brain sends him the wrong signal, even though that he knows that it was pronounced as 'Table', his mouth will form another word and would say 'Cord'.

This time, the small frown from the youth's face was slightly visible. Lou MuLan, who was using her keen senses to detect the body rhythm of the youth, can tell the panic arising inside Lang Yuan. His heart rate is very fast and he is also profusely sweating. This only indicates that Lang Yuan finally fell down from the first place.

Well, that is true if what Lou MuLan interpreted as 'fast heart rate' is from nervousness. Little did she know that this fast heart beats are caused by a sudden excitement ignited inside Lang Yuan's heart.

Can't read? Dyslexic?

There's one point that Lou MuLan missed.

It is Lang Yuan's hyper memory.

When Lang Yuan was still learning the words, he was already dreading that he won't be able to finish everything on time. Even though JiDan is diligently teaching him, the time is not enough for him to complete the practice. Plus, he still has to familiarize his self from the words that will surely be converted by his mind.

In a crisis like this, there was only one thing to do. And that is to cram all the respected poems inside his mind and have him to memorize them. Lang Yuan never do anything than to learn, he never even crams from the previous world. The feeling of trying to absorb all the knowledge in the shortest span of time made Lang Yuan realizes the feeling of those people who studies the night before the exam.

And it was really exhausting even for a genius like him.

So instead of JiDan teaching him the words one by one, they took the shortcut and have Lang Yuan memorize it. With a few days left to do the deed, Lang Yuan managed to fit the information inside his head without leaving a mistake. Right now, if ever the library pavilion will burn to ashes, Lang Yuan is enough to return the lost knowledge and write everything back to paper.

People thought that Lang Yuan is feeling down, but actually, he was just trying to recognize the symbols. The letters in this world is different so he has to look at all the symbols to recognize which memory it belong. After seeing all the characters, the poem that was hidden in a folder behind his head quickly flowed out like a river. Now, he can recite the poem easily without stuttering.

But simply reciting the poem is boring so Lang Yuan threw the useless scroll away and headed towards his zither instrument. After a few considerations, he chose to play the guqin.

Lou MuLan thought that she already won the game. Lang Yuan was unable to read the poem so he threw it away. She tampered the strings on the zither so unless Lang Yuan can tune the zither correctly then the youth will definitely be disqualified from the game. Lou MuLan made a celebratory smile.

She finally defeated the human!

But well, Lang Yuan is a formidable character so there's no way that he didn't know how to tune the zither. He can tune a piano, a violin, and a guitar with ease. With this zither that has the same way of tuning can also be done simply. Lang Yuan only needed to adjust the tightness of the strings.

The youth strummed the strings and noticed the loss tones. He wanted to ask a replacement but that would take some time so he did his work as usually. It only took him a minute to finish fiddling with the strings to get the right tune. Lou MuLan who was watching got her eyes bulge out.

This human... This human knows how to tune a zither?

This fact is no longer foreign to Zhong Song. After all, during their zither practice, Lang Yuan showed his expertise in holding instruments. He only needed to know the cord once to learn a whole song. He tried all the zither instruments and all of them are compatible to him. If he can play and can't tune a zither, isn't that slapping him directly to his face?

Though, Zhong Song was unable to comprehend what Lang Yuan is trying to do. Why did he suddenly threw the scroll away and play the zither? Well, there was no rule saying that he should play the zither first or read the poem. But this arrangement was done since the beginning that's why the defiant actions of Lang Yuan weirded the people out.

After fine-tuning the said instrument, Lang Yuan heaved a sigh of relief. Now that he is done preparing all the necessary things, all he needed to do is to properly execute the plan. He doesnt have to be nervous. Just be calm and perform it well.

Lang Yuan closed his eyes as he placed himself before the zither. Using a single finger, he struck on string in such a force that the certain vibration cause the people to tremble. There's no way that Lang Yuan is stronger than the dragon. But the force brought by that simple string caused their hearts to surrender.

He just only started but the people are already ecstatic. Lang Yuan struck another string again making the same vibrations to the air. Then, one struck became two, one note became four, and the zither that once lay asleep started singing a marvelous song. The warmth the music can give to people can melt the hearts of the stone cold.

The youth played the first part of his piece in a rather exciting tone. The plucking is fast and moving, making the air a bit warm and humid. The feeling is like going to a war when drums of the warriors can be heard to vitalize energy. Even though he was only playing a zither, the tone of the music brings too much Yang to the dragons.

And when everything is already drunk by the strong force, the strumming suddenly shifted to softer notes focusing on playing in every after vibrations than chasing the first note. The heavy atmosphere shifted to sudden solemnness. The hands of the youth that earlier is dancing above the strings now look like a maiden stepping on the strings in a very careful manner. Each string gives a different feeling of sweetness and bitterness, hotness and coldness, happiness and sadness.

That's when Lang Yuan's voice suddenly echoed out.

[A/N: The Poem was written by yours truly, so you won't be able to search it on the internet. Aha h ah ah ah ah I'm not good at this.]

Title : The Flower That Left

I found the garden where my ice-cold heart resides
Twinkling, and dazzling, a treasure under the moonlight
Behind the covers, the beauty purposely hides
But my eyes could only see the worth of a hundred scythes

The bright light is deadly, and the darkness is dangerous
If I were to fall in this trap, how will my life end?
Your whisper and caresses, your touch is very poisonous
You are the angel in disguise the gods must have sent

The world is very treacherous; I could only agree
Yet, you were born from this cruel world's only essence
That's why it is always hard for me in the future to foresee
That you are actually false with a tangled presence

You are the life that I wanted to protect
You are the beauty that this world created
You are the death of the life that I get
You are the flower that died at the end

And left

The words that came out are clear and sober. The one reciting the poem emitted an emotion that washed everyone's sadness, and happiness. As if a sponge, Lang Yuan absorbed all the attention around him, giving them a thump on their hearts and tears to the eyes.

This poem is written by an old god with an unrequited love. This foretells that the writer is in deep pain, yet, the cause of his pain is also the life that he wished to cherish. He would always look over this love, nurtured it from deep within, but at the end killed him. The treasure that he protected, just because he was coward to snatch it, was taken away. The writer wrote his feelings of deep love and hatred to the paper leaving an impression of bitter sweetness.

Who is the old god who wrote it?

Nobody knows the name other than the initials of YJY. But for Lang Yuan who understood the poem the moment he read the title, he could not help but to look up to the throne and look straight to that man.

The poem could only be written with that man. And by that man, Lang Yuan do feel the regret. To think that that person treated him as a treasure that after transferring place he would write a poem about him. But it wasn't Lang Yuan's fault. It is not that person's fault. It was fate that decided that they could never become together.

After all, everything is just an infatuation created from the false love.

Lang Yuan lowered his head again. That person received the message and only nodded. It has finally ended; the answer that wasn't given is now presented properly. It hurts, but how can he choose? It was his decision to leave him. And to leave a beautiful flower unattended, surely, someone will pick it up to take good care of it.

Lang Yuan finished his presentation. Who would ever think that reciting a poem accompanied with music sounded very well to the ears. Not only it brought uniqueness to the atmosphere, the emotion was also played very well and clear. This set up was then recorded by the performers and sooner will develop the entertainment industry to the idol and drama system.

The program has ended. By just looking at it, everyone can tell who the champion is. Lang Yuan remained on the stage as Lou MuLan was told to go up and sat beside the youth. Zhong Song carried the scroll holding the scores of the candidates. No need to tell, Zhong Song's smile gave the answer.

It was this moment of time that Lou MuLan realized that she fucked up. She was confident earlier because of the schemes she planned beforehand. She never thought that Lang Yuan did not only pass the trials, he also has the ability to surpass her. Her heart finally became black.

Everyone was waiting for the announcement to formally appoint Lang Yuan as the empress. The world leaders are satisfied with the outcome and wanted to meet the empress one on one later. Zhong Song is excited to arrange the wedding that will eventually happen to the next day. All of them are very occupied to noticed the mistake on the center stage where one life can easily be erased.

It was as swift as the air, and their reaction suddenly slowed down. They are only a few seconds late before they realized that on the chest of a certain youth, a blood suddenly trickled due to the stab of a certain dragon on his heart. The hall suddenly become silent, only hearing the sound of a man falling to the ground unconscious.

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yay! I updated!