At the same time, she began to size up Qiu Honglei to see if she showed any reaction.
Only now did the others all wake up, all of them starting to curse:
“Have you gone mad? You dare treat the beautiful woman this rudely?!”
“How can someone like lady Qiu agree to this type of condition?”
“This is simply a disgrace for all men! Utterly shameless!”
…
You have successfully trolled the onlookers for +99 +99 +99…
Only Wei Suo secretly gave him a thumbs up, thinking that his boss was the boss after all.
However, when he thought about how worked up the crowd was, he didn’t dare voice this lest he gets caught up in a disaster.
Qiu Honglei’s eyes flickered with a dangerous light, but she concealed it immediately afterwards. She said with a soothing voice, “Then we’ll have to see if the young master’s method works or not. After all, this is an issue that our predecessors have not been able to solve for hundreds to thousands of years. I truly cannot fathom what kind of method can make different instruments complement a guqin.”
When they heard her words, the entire place immediately became quiet. Exactly! This is a problem none of those big shots of the music world could even solve, so what can some little shitter like him do?
When he thought of this, everyone calmed down from their impatience.
Zu An said, “In that case, let’s start with your song’s second issue.”
“Second issue?” Qiu Honglei was stunned, only now did she remember that this fella brought up two flaws. She was already more calm than before. With a smile, she said, “Then I must ask for the young master’s guidance.”
“Your second issue is that the emotions were too intense. To imbue emotions into a song is a wonderful thing, but…” Zu An. “The emotions you expressed were sorrow and anger. These two emotions are not only entirely different from the festive ambience of a brothel, it doesn’t match the inherent nature of the guqin either.”
“Yi~” Second floor’s Xie Daoyun voiced her surprise. “What this fellow says actually makes some sense. I didn’t even think of this just now.”
Qiu Honglei released a light sigh. “What the young master says is indeed the case. It was just that this song possesses great meaning for me, so I couldn’t hold myself back from playing this song due to reminiscent feelings.”
When they heard her words, everyone began to whisper among themselves. Does she actually have a lover?
Just who was this blessed man?
When he saw the emotion that flickered in the depths of her eyes, Zu An thought that this might be a rare leak of her true feelings. “Lady Qiu, you are currently in the prime of your life. Your mentality should be like the radiance of the sun and not wounded and sentimental as if your heart is covered in scars.”
Qiu Honglei said with a smile, “The me you describe seems to have suddenly aged a few decades.”
Zu An sighed. “Music comes from the soul. As for whether this really is the case, only the lady herself knows.”
Qiu Honglei’s sweet smile began to fade bit by bit. She had clearly been moved.
“We told you to show us the method of harmonizing instruments. What are you rambling about all of this for?”
Chen Xuan grew impatient from listening. The others immediately voiced their agreement.
That plastic smile immediately returned to Qiu Honglei’s face. “Exactly, young master. Honglei is still waiting for you to broaden my horizons.”
Zu An had Leng Shuangyue beside him fetch a xiao. “Does the lady know how to blow the xiao?”[2]
“But of course.” Qiu Honglei revealed a smile.
But from the whistling that sounded afterwards, Qiu Honglei immediately realized her mistake. Her face became a bit red as she shot him a resentful look. “Is the young master ridiculing me?”[3]
“That is not what I am trying to say.” Zu An’s expression became gloomy as well. He shot the others a fierce look. These idiots aren’t good for anything else, but they’re incredibly sharp when it comes to this type of stuff.
“If we examine all of the available instruments, the xiao and guqin make the best pairing.”
Qiu Honglei nodded her head. “This is indeed the case, but it is still only slightly better than other instruments. The tonal color of the guqin is too unique, so a xiao’s accompaniment will easily overwhelm it. As such, one might as well perform on the guqin alone.”
Zu An said with a smile. “I just happen to have a song here where the zither and xiao can perform together.”
“Really?” Qiu Honglei’s eyes brightened. Even Xie Daoyun upstairs subconsciously schooched a bit closer to the window.
In reality, the reason this world didn’t have any songs with the zither and xiao played together was only because the xiao would either overwhelm the zither, or the zither’s sound would stand out too much. When the two were mixed together, the song would seem too mediocre, so everyone eventually gave up on trying to make the combination work.
This Zu An seems so confident. Does he really have such a formidable song?
“I’ll write it down for you. Then, I’ll play the zither, lady Qiu will help me blow the xiao.” Zu An gestured for Leng Shuangyue to pass him a pen and paper.
He already had a bit of a musical exchange with that beautiful big sis Shang Liuyu before, so there was no way he wouldn’t try to get closer to her.
That was why he specially looked into this world’s music. Even though he was no expert, transposing the score of his past world into what the people of this world could understand wasn’t too difficult.
“Sure~” Qiu Honglei accepted the xiao. Then she reacted, her eyes and face were flushed with redness.
This guy was doing this on purpose!
Zu An was currently preoccupied with transposing that song onto paper. In order to have more weapons in his arsenal when chasing girls, he learned how to play ‘Scenery of Home’. Because he really liked the tv drama ‘The Smiling, Proud Wanderer’, he memorized that song by heart as well.[4]
This song from ‘The Smiling, Proud Wanderer wasn’t James Wong’s ‘Sea’s Laughter’, but rather Jackie Lui’s tv drama version composed by master composer William Hu Wei-Li.[5]
“Oh? This son is rather new and original…” Qiu Honglei was an expert in this field. She immediately noticed that this song was completely different from any song she had seen before.
Could this fella really successfully combine the guqin and xiao?
She was merely going with the flow. However, after seeing this song, her expression became serious.
“Will lady Qiu be able to play it?” Zu An asked.
“The music seems a bit strange, but we can give it a try.” Qiu Honglei noticed the rather difficult syncopation. She became a bit nervous as well.
“Then let’s begin.” Zu An sat down in front of the guqin, his previous frivolousness nowhere to be seen.
His fingers moved lightly. A confident and relaxed zither sound immediately echoed through the entire hall.
Xie Daoyun originally disapproving expression immediately froze.
Pei Mianman’s expression also became a bit strange. This fella actually had this set of skills in his pockets? Did Chuyan already know all about all of this? Was that why she decisively chose him as her husband?
Those other spectators were originally waiting for him to make a fool of himself. But, when they saw how he sat in front of the guqin, they immediately knew that something wasn’t right. All of them became dumbstruck when they saw him play this impassioned and confident melody.
1. Finest Servant is a chinese novel
2. Xiao is a free reed mouth organ with five or more pipes blown from the bottom
3. Blowing the xiao is slang for blowjob
4. For those who want to listen to Scenery of Home, the song name in chinese is 故乡的原风景
5. Sea’s Laughter – 沧海一声笑; William Hu Wei-Li – 胡伟立