142. Yudong's Foremost Elegance

Leaving Wei Sanwan's place with Ji Yang, Li An whispered in the hallway, reminding her that starting today, she should call him Senior Brother.

This implied one clear fact: as of today, she was officially Teacher Wei's student.

The inner circle of traditional mentorship worked this way. Just like at the Teachers' Day gathering, where tables of piano players sat together, yet there was only one teacher.

Setting aside whether seniority and hierarchy could be considered feudal superstition, let's assume Ji Yang passed the entrance exam for the Chengdu Conservatory next year. At next year's mentorship gathering, if they both attended and Ji Yang called him "Teacher" in front of so many senior brothers and sisters, wouldn't people start gossiping?

At this current stage of building his career in Chengdu, he needed to integrate into the Wei Family circle, and he needed to do it well.

Therefore, Ji Yang could no longer address him as Teacher.

Ji Yang could only acknowledge that she had taken lessons with Senior Brother Li An for a period of time.

And then successfully become Wei Sanwan's apprentice.

Now that the apprenticeship had succeeded, the next step awaited.

"Work hard, there are still four months left."

That was how Li An had encouraged Ji Yang back then. Instead of following up on that, Ji Yang gave a sweet smile and called out, "Teacher."

Before Li An could frown in mild disapproval, Ji Yang shared the conversation she had just had with Wei Sanwan.

Li An froze for a moment, a strange, indescribable feeling welling up in his chest.

"Why are you so reckless?"

He didn't know what to say. Judging by Ji Yang's tone, not only was Teacher Wei not angry, but he actually seemed quite pleased.

Ji Yang scratched her head, "My brain just short-circuited in the moment, so I asked."

Then she giggled, "Anyway, you're the piano teacher who led me through the door in the first place."

With that, she skipped down the stairs ahead of him.

Recovering his wits, Li An hurriedly called out, "Watch your step."

His warning was met with a few crisp, cheerful chirps of "La-la-la."

Followed by a line of small red text—

[Ji Yang's Teacher-Student Index has increased to 99.]

Just 1 point shy of 100.

-

Teacher.

Having taught the piano for all these years, Li An felt he was finally tasting the true weight of that word for the very first time.

It was an ineffable experience.

-

The high-strung high school senior and art examination candidate, little Ji, had spent a wonderful evening.

Not only did she pass Teacher Wei's preliminary test, but she also had barbecue, drank milk tea, toured the Chengdu Conservatory of Music, and strolled near the campus with Li An and Chen Xuan for a while before heading home.

She bought a pair of small silver stud earrings.

She couldn't wear them yet, but she decided she would pierce her ears the moment she received her official art examination certificate.

-

Around ten o'clock, Li An took a taxi and dropped Ji Yang off at the entrance of Guanshan No. 1 Courtyard.

Ji Yang got out of the car, waved goodbye to the two of them, and trotted towards the gates.

"I've been here before."

Gazing at the dots of light twinkling through the dense foliage under the night sky, Chen Xuan recalled the scene from their second night in Chengdu when they had dinner at Sun Yuman's place.

Li An raised an eyebrow, "Sun Yuman lives here?" His mind raced to other possibilities.

Chen Xuan nodded, and the car started moving again, heading toward Wanhe Mansion.

"Li An, let's have dinner together."

It was indeed time to meet properly, so Li An agreed.

Chen Xuan added, "Xiao Yu has already seen you."

The next evening, Chen Xuan arranged a gathering. The moment Li An—who had spent the entire day consumed by curiosity—spotted Sun Yuman at the restaurant entrance, he finally realized where she had seen him before.

It was the night he had been hit on.

Which meant Chen Xuan had known about his encounter at Blue Whale all along.

"Hello there, Teacher Li, do you remember me?"

"Remember, of course I remember. Hello, hello."

Sun Yuman burst into a bright laugh.

She truly was top-tier.

-

Dinner with Sun Yuman was a very pleasant affair.

Through this meal, Li An gained a clearer and deeper understanding of her character.

A child of a wealthy family, poised and graceful in her speech and manner, she was a very approachable Chengdu girl.

Most of the evening, he spent his time listening to the two women talk. Even when Sun Yuman intentionally tossed the conversation his way, he kept his responses concise.

He adhered to two strict principles.

First, answer questions directly and get straight to the point.

Second, avoid steering the conversation back toward himself.

Be proactive when it came to paying the bill, keep a smile on his face the rest of the time, and play the role of the high-end supporting foliage to perfection.

Li An knew very well that the bond between Sun Yuman and Chen Xuan wasn't just ordinary friendship; it was forged by four special years in university.

Yet no matter how close their relationship was, it remained *their* relationship.

As Chen Xuan's boyfriend, Li An had no prior history or interaction with Sun Yuman.

Even if there was a high probability they would become good friends in the future, that was for the future.

Today was their first time meeting over a meal, so conversations should be kept within appropriate bounds.

On the way home, Chen Xuan asked Li An if his mood seemed a bit low that evening, and whether he was angry with her.

She was referring to her withholding of prior knowledge.

"What are you thinking? Why would I be angry about that?"

After hearing Li An's explanation, Chen Xuan thought to herself that she hadn't overthought it nearly as much.

Actually, she didn't mind Li An having a bit more interaction with Sun Yuman, because she felt both of them were people very dear to her. What harm could a few more exchanged jokes do?

Still, she had to admit that Li An's handling of the situation gave her a unique sense of security.

When it came to a man, no one wanted to share him too freely.

Taking advantage of Chen Xuan's line of questioning, Li An asked out of curiosity, "Were you very surprised when you found out I worked at Blue Whale?"

"Of course," Chen Xuan smiled. "Bonus points for you."

-

When they got home, Chen Xuan sat down at her computer and got to work. Her account had been warmed up for about a week now, and it was finally time to publish.

Over the past period, Li An had successively finished recording the remaining thirty pieces of the Czerny 299.

Chen Xuan now had the complete collection of Li An playing the 299 on her phone. "How many should we post first?"

Li An rubbed his chin. Following his initial plan, categorized by grade levels, they would post ten pieces for the first batch and take it slow from there.

"So, what should we call it?"

The title needed to be catchy enough. (√)

It had to showcase the performer's poise and caliber. (√)

After a brief discussion, the two of them finally settled on: [Absolute Amateur Czerny 299 Original Speed Challenge].

The rest was simple.

The cover art, sectioning, and tags had all been designed by Chen Xuan beforehand.

Finally, she clicked upload.

Then came the waiting period for review.

Before posting, Li An hadn't thought much of it, but now that it was out in the wild, he felt a tiny flutter of nervousness.

After washing up and getting into bed, Li An asked, "Won't the title sound a bit too boastful?"

Challenging the entire set of Czerny 299 at original speed made it very easy for picky critics to find fault.

Chen Xuan was sitting at the edge of the bed applying lip balm. Hearing Li An's uncharacteristic lack of confidence, she turned her head and blinked, "Is there a time when Teacher Li lacks confidence?"

Li An curled his lip. Those were two entirely different matters.

Unlike performing on stage, he had no idea what kind of netizens or comments he was about to face.

Chen Xuan raised her hand and patted Li An lightly on the lips. "Stop overthinking it. Who knows, it might be up for days and nobody will even watch it."

When he put it that way, it made sense.

Lights out, time for sleep.

Before long, Baowan bounced onto the bed, took two steps over to Chen Xuan's side, and curled up.

The night passed in quiet peace.

-

The next day, after the piano department's teaching meeting concluded, Li An was called into Qin Yong's office.

With the National Day holiday coming up next week, Qin Yong checked in on the progress of the music theory textbook. Additionally, there was another matter he needed to give Li An a heads-up on.

"The knowledge framework has been finalized, sticking to the traditional approach of music theory instruction."

After Chen Xuan's guidance that night, Li An had figured this point out.

The core knowledge points the children needed to master couldn't be skipped, especially when dealing with students who had academic advancement needs.

He could only do his best to break the knowledge down even further on this basis and inject a bit of fun into it.

Qin Yong nodded.

"Go ahead and do it your way. Let me know if you need anything."

"Also, Jinhua's musical literacy class has finished its enrollment."

"Your class is scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 3:30. The day after tomorrow afternoon, just bring your employee badge and head over. I've already spoken with their team counselor, and someone will be there to guide you."

That the class time at Jinhua avoided conflicting with Chen Xuan's schedule was within Li An's expectations; children couldn't split themselves in two to attend two clubs simultaneously.

"Got it, Brother Yong. Is the class in a multimedia classroom? Will there a piano?"

Qin Yong answered cheerfully, "Everything is there, you'll see when you get there. Besides, I've already talked you up big time, telling them that Yudong has dispatched our absolute best piano teacher to teach this literacy class."

Li An gave a wry smile, "The kids have to cooperate too. Just imagine the scene of a music theory class with sixty or seventy students."

Qin Yong wouldn't hear of it, waving a hand dismissively. "It's 500 yuan per club session, you know. Go ask around in tier-one cities; which training institution offers that kind of rate?"

"Do you know how much pressure I was under to get this hourly rate approved for you?"

"If this class doesn't produce results, then my year-end orchestra performance plan will have to be postponed to next spring semester, and we'll both go up on stage at the annual meeting and make fools of ourselves."

Wasn't this outright kidnapping? More importantly, Li An was probably concerned about: "Will my pay be docked?"

Qin Yong froze, his cigarette-hanging mouth dropping open: ...

Is this guy toxic?

-

During lunch with Chen Xuan, the notification that his upload had passed review finally arrived.

He opened Bilibili and searched for it, casually clicking on one of the videos.

The screen flickered, and his hands appeared over the piano keys.

Seeing this pair of hands—which couldn't be more familiar—on such a video platform for the very first time felt wonderfully novel.

Here it came.

The wrist of the right hand moved, and then a crystal-clear stream of ascending scale melodies rang out inside the office.

Not bad at all.

Li An clicked his tongue in appreciation while Chen Xuan chuckled across the table.

Shortly after, another piano sound chimed from Chen Xuan's phone.

Wang Panpan wondered why both of them kept picking up their phones while eating and grinning as they watched.

Only after asking did she find out that Li An had posted a performance video on Bilibili.

"Whoa!"

As a veteran ACG fan, Bilibili was Ma Tao's second home on the internet, right after Summoner's Rift.

Without a second thought, he smashed a triple-combo (like, coin, favorite) and dumped all the coins he had into Li An's video.

Actually, it wasn't many—just four coins. Ma Tao never hoarded coins; whenever he saw a video he liked, he tipped them all.

"Brother An, from now on, my coins belong to you."

Xu Hongxin didn't use Bilibili much, but he still created an account just to join the fun.

Just like that, the news of Li An posting videos on Bilibili spread through several offices by the end of lunch.

It didn't matter; there was nothing to hide anyway. Wasn't more traffic a good thing?

He was just eagerly anticipating when the first comment from a complete stranger would arrive.

For now, the current comments were mostly concentrated under the first video, all friendly fire.

Little Sidekick FL (Chen Xuan): Hehehe~

Planting Sweet Potatoes Under the Grapevine (Wang Panpan): That's Dove chocolate, you added Dove chocolate.

Liszt Fangirl 555 (Lin Pengfei): Loved it, loved it, I'm kneeling.

Comments along those lines.

Ma Tao, however, watched it seriously and gave Li An some practical suggestions, such as adding some editing and text overlays to the video to polish the visuals.

Anyway, the first step had been taken; he would take it slow from there.

In the afternoon, several people from the office set off for their club classes, and Li An returned to his classroom to begin his daily practice session.

According to his plan, he aimed to complete the performance of the first version of the transposed 299 by November, and also nail down the three movements of the *Les Adieux* Sonata.

Registration for the previous Xinghai Cup Piano Competition started in late October, with the finals scheduled for the end of the year.

The competition notice would be published along with the repertoire list for the finals, at which point he would need to reserve November to prepare the concerto for the finals.

Whether he could make it to the finals was a secondary question, but the necessary preparations couldn't be skipped.

What if he did?

After briefly organizing his thoughts, Li An flipped open Czerny 299.

He had finally reached his original concept.

Transposed Czerny, an alternative finger exercise, would begin today.

He picked up a pen and noted down a new date: September 23, 2021.

He raised his hands and let his fingers fall.

The familiar yet altered first etude of Czerny 299 once again rang through the west teaching wing.

In the next room, Lin Pengfei thought he had misheard, then paused to reflect.

His expression changed drastically.

D major?

Was he really going to see 299 through to the bitter end?

Ah Fei's diagnosis: Truly, absolutely obsessed.

-

After finishing Ji Yang's lesson that evening, Li An went home, opened his computer, and began working on the courseware for the class the day after tomorrow.

With a multimedia classroom and a piano at his disposal, teaching this class would surely be much easier.

What he taught in the first class wasn't the most important thing; finding a way to ignite the children's enthusiasm was paramount.

The kids who walked into the literacy classroom had naturally all enrolled in various instrument classes, so they inherently held a love for music.

How to further reinforce this affection—he already had a plan.

First, piggyback on the hype of *Lone Brave*.

The kids liked the song, so he would turn the song into a sheet of music.

If you want to sing the song well, you first have to read the sheet music well.

If you want to read the sheet music well, you first have to know the notes.

If you want to know the notes, you first have to recognize the staff.

How to read the staff—that brought them to the foundational stage of note-reading.

Learning notes through music sheet reading; this would be the teaching content for his first two classes.

As for the courseware, he also had a concept.

Those children's books he brought back from the library last time—Li An had been flipping through them whenever he had free time at home, like right now, while Chen Xuan was scrolling through Weibo on her phone before bed.

From them, he had gained some inspiration.

Most of us went through the picture-word recognition stage when learning Chinese characters as children.

A flashcard would have three mountains drawn on it, and the character "Mountain" written right beside it.

Combining illustrations with explanations helped children enhance their memory.

The same logic applied.

The note family only consisted of a few notes; compared to the vast number of Chinese characters, it was merely a drop in the bucket.

The whole note, the eldest sibling of the note family.

Its appearance was a hollow circle.

So, let's turn it into a donut.

Donut—Whole note.

Much easier to remember, right?

Following this line of thought, Li An racked his brains to figure out what kind of imagery could be used for each note to help the children strengthen their memory.

A quarter note: a solid circle with a vertical stem sticking up from it.

"A lollipop, obviously."

Walking past the computer, Chen Xuan glanced at the screen from behind and chimed in.

Hearing this, Li An slapped his knee. "That's why you're our Teacher Chen."

Finally, after organizing the reference memory graphics for all five basic notes, Li An encountered a problem.

The images were all pulled from the internet, varying in size and inconsistent in color.

Piled together, they looked a complete mess.

Moreover, some of the image effects didn't meet his envisioned requirements.

Take a group of sixteenth notes, for example: what he imagined in his mind was a clothes hanger with four socks hanging below it, toes pointing to the left.

Where on earth could he find a picture like that online?

Draw it himself?

Forget it.

His art skills were definitely taught by a physical education teacher—truly.

If there were a unified art style to illustrate every single graphic in his courseware, then this set of courseware would turn out exceptionally gorgeous.

When projected onto the big screen in the multimedia classroom later on, it would truly match the vibe of Yudong's number one.

"Teacher Chen, do you know how to draw?"

Li An leaned back in his office chair, craned his neck, and shouted toward the bedroom.

"My art skills really were taught by a P.E. teacher."

Li An: ...

No wonder they were meant for each other.

Who else around knew how to draw?

As he pondered, a certain someone popped into his mind.