To wait for the release of the cat food company’s advertisement, Xia Yu postponed his time to visit An Siyao. By the time he arrived, An Siyao had already given up waiting and started doing her own things.
She was studying with a book in hand.
“There’s an exam coming up,” An Siyao explained.
After noting down the exam date, Xia Yu decided to come again that evening or go directly to Xu Youxiang’s place.
Speaking of studying, it seemed like a long time since he last attended classes at his own school.
But that wasn’t an issue. The teachers in Dongzhi Township explained things more thoroughly than those at Zi Lang. Besides, he could already be recommended to Huadaxia University based on his musical talent—so what was the point of studying?
Wasn’t that just a waste of time?
Placing the book aside, Xia Yu got up and walked to the piano room.
He converted all his in-game points into experience cards and resumed practicing.
What he was currently working on was a piece called “Tears of Devotion.”
This piece was famous for its vast and sorrowful tones and was considered a composition with minimal variation.
Minimal variation didn’t mean no variation at all—it meant subtle changes, the most difficult to master.
If the performance was too obvious, it ruined the subtlety; if too understated, it was still considered a failure.
“‘Tears of Devotion’ tells a mythological story—the myth of slaying a god,” An Siyao explained the emotional essence of the piece to Xia Yu.
“A god is a being sustained by faith. A believer raises a blade against their own faith—the sorrow in this act is the emotional core. From the initial fear of a mortal challenging a god in the first section, to the deep sorrow of the dying god in the latter part, that’s the evolution within the piece.”
What An Siyao said didn’t really help. Xia Yu didn’t lack emotional understanding of the piece; his problem was his underdeveloped fundamental technique.
Fortunately, with the help of experience cards, his skills were visibly improving.
After three hours, he could already perform the piece fluently, but his skill level remained at LV3, failing to reach LV4.
He had already learned dozens of pieces—wasn’t that enough?
“What other pieces are there?” Xia Yu asked.
“All the difficult ones are done. What’s left are just the basic ones,” An Siyao replied.
He had already mastered all the difficult pieces, so why couldn’t he reach LV4?
Xia Yu furrowed his brows, a sense of frustration rising within him.
He took a deep breath and calmed himself.
Now, he had a great teacher by his side. If he had doubts, why not just ask?
So he turned to An Siyao.
“Further improvement?” An Siyao organized her thoughts before answering, “To progress further, you need to truly feel the emotion. Did you see that player who played the ‘Raging Hornets’ piece in the competition with me?”
Hearing himself mentioned by An Siyao, Xia Yu’s emotions became complicated.
“In his last match, when he played ‘Franlaowolf,’ he achieved that condition,” An Siyao continued, “though his technique was quite poor.”
Was that the breakthrough point?
However, he couldn’t play “Franlaowolf” now, or An Siyao would surely discover the truth.
Xia Yu closed his eyes and recalled the myth An Siyao had just explained—mortals slaying a god.
Though this piece was based on a mythological story, in reality, it depicted a small Eastern nation.
The people rose up, overthrew the tyrannical ruler, but lost their leadership afterward, becoming disunited and eventually conquered.
The composer fled to a foreign land and composed this piece.
Five minutes later, he opened his eyes and pressed the first note of “Tears of Devotion.”
The window of the piano room was open, and the evening breeze blew against Xia Yu’s body, feeling somewhat dry.
Autumn evening breezes weren’t naturally dry—the dryness came from the emotional resonance of the music.
The vast, sorrowful melody surrounded Xia Yu.
The wind carried sand, endless and boundless. The white dragon symbolizing the monarchy circled above the nation, looking down contemptuously upon its people.
Boom—
A dull, heavy sound suddenly appeared in the slow melody. It was the thunder summoned by the white dragon, the monarchy’s suppression of the people.
The heavy sounds appeared intermittently, powerful and imposing.
The rebellious people dodged amidst them.
The first section ended. More and more people gathered, even soldiers from the royal army began to defect.
The white dragon was gradually weakened, but the melody showed no sign of relief or excitement—only vast sorrow remained, until the white dragon finally perished.
The third section became even slower. The god had been slain—where should they go next? Only confusion remained.
“Tears of Devotion”—the tears were shed by the white dragon, and also by the people.
The final note drifted into the air, and Xia Yu saw the prompt indicating his skill had leveled up.
LV4 music—success.
With the three end-of-month competitions approaching, things were basically settled.
The finals were in two days, and after that, the instrument competition would end entirely.
His recommendation to Huadaxia University would finally be secured!
Come to think of it, he had previously asked An Siyao about her university application. The girl had also mentioned Huadaxia.
Whether this was a good or troublesome thing, Xia Yu couldn’t determine.
He would deal with it when the time came.
Xia Yu started playing other pieces again. Now at LV4, whatever he played carried a feeling he had never experienced before. He was now expressing emotion—music was, after all, the product of emotion.
“You did it!” An Siyao exclaimed in delight. Her joy was even more intense than the emotions within Xia Yu’s heart.
“Mm,” Xia Yu replied.
In the remaining time, he continued playing other pieces.
When time was up, he returned to his own body.
It was already five in the afternoon. After spending half an hour at the café, he arrived at Kong Hanyue’s villa.
Pressing the doorbell, the door quickly opened, but the person behind it wasn’t Kong Hanyue—it was a frail elderly woman.
Taking a couple of steps back, Xia Yu looked around and confirmed he hadn’t come to the wrong villa.
So, the identity of the elderly woman could be determined.
This must be the teacher from the north, the one Kong Hanyue had asked him to steal skills from.
At that moment, Kong Hanyue suddenly jumped out and hugged the elderly woman.
Smiling mischievously, she said to Xia Yu, “Surprise?”
“Surprise nothing!” Before Xia Yu could speak, the elderly woman first extended her finger and tapped Kong Hanyue’s forehead, causing her head to tilt sideways.
At the same time, the elderly woman’s previously stern face revealed a smile.
It seemed that Kong Hanyue and her teacher had a good relationship.
After some playful interaction, Kong Hanyue introduced, “This is your mother’s teacher. You can call her Master Ancestor, Yu.”
“Master ancestor, my foot!” The elderly woman tapped Kong Hanyue’s head again.
She turned to look at Xia Yu, her smile disappearing, her expression once again turning serious.
Xia Yu’s heart trembled—he realized that the elderly woman probably didn’t hold a good impression of him.
Most likely due to Xia Dongyang’s influence.
“You can just call me Teacher. Hanyue told me you have great talent. Why don’t you give it a try?” The elderly woman’s expression remained neutral, clearly not taking Kong Hanyue’s words seriously.
If the young man truly had outstanding talent, how could she not have heard of him before?
Most likely, Kong Hanyue wanted to secure a future for her son and was trying to push this young man onto her.
Xia Yu looked at Kong Hanyue again. She gave him a mysterious smile.
Xia Yu immediately understood—Kong Hanyue had deliberately concealed the truth from the elderly woman.
Otherwise, sending a video would have been enough to resolve the issue.
As for her purpose, it was probably to see the expression on her teacher’s face when she was surprised.
What a mischievous personality.
Arriving at the guzheng room, under the elderly woman’s indifferent gaze, Xia Yu put on the finger picks and plucked the strings.
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