Goodbye September, Hello October

The scene could no longer remain quiet.

On the low bass keys of the piano, two black keys separated by an octave rose and fell at a speed invisible to the naked eye, producing a muffled, humming acoustic resonance like the suffocating darkness before dawn.

Just this preliminary intro of an intro caused a few young boys to clench their small fists.

When two groups of descending third melodies emerged resolutely from the other hand on the keyboard, the distinct melodic progression blended and entangled with the bass drone into a harmonic progression.

At this point, the children's expressions shifted from curiosity to surprise, and then to excitement mixed with a trace of tension.

It was this tune.

The Lonely Brave, their absolute favorite, The Lonely Brave.

The intro faded into complete silence alongside the diminuendo of the tremolo accompaniment, the lingering echoes left in the air seeming to herald the dawn.

Li An turned his right wrist slightly and struck the keys again, a decisive dotted half-note soaring into the air.

At the same time, it was impossible to tell which child sang the first note aloud.

"We are all brave ones."

The immature children's voices soon merged into one, responding in harmony with the piano.

-

If there were any connoisseurs present, they would certainly have noticed that Teacher Li An initially employed a piano-playing technique called tremolo with his left hand.

Tremolo: The rapid alternating and repeated playing of two non-adjacent notes.

A single piece of pop music can be adapted into multiple performance versions.

The resulting effects naturally vary wildly, depending on the skill of the arranger and the skill of the performer.

The version Li An was currently playing was adapted from Liu Fengrui's score, further revised after listening to the original song.

The initial intention was to use it today to spark the children's interest in music theory, so throughout the arrangement process, he surrounded it as much as possible with passionate and fiery elements from the original song, incorporating a large number of intense techniques such as tremolos and octave playing that could elevate the musical atmosphere.

This was to match keywords in the lyrics like "heroes," "roaring," "battle," and "humble dreams."

The lyrics possessed a distinct thematic quality, outlining for the children the heroic image of a brave person facing difficulties and actively chasing their dreams.

As for whether such a character could be outlined in such a melody using pure instrumental performance language, Li An made an attempt when entering the chorus for the second time.

He found that, at least for him, it was not quite working; the arrangement and combination of notes themselves did not possess a grand internal layout, and the harmony followed the common progressions of modern pop music.

With a slight smile, Li An pressed the pedal down again while increasing the pushing force of his arm.

"BAM!——"

Another powerful chord pushed the external musical emotion to the next climax.

Children are sensitive, and under the infection of the stirring piano music, they roared even more fiercely.

It was as if at this moment, each of them had transformed into that solitary warrior, rushing forward recklessly and fearlessly.

Once the DNA of youth is activated, the energy it erupts seems capable of blowing the roof off the media classroom.

This momentum of "though thousands march, I shall go" genuinely startled the piano teacher seated before the instrument.

While using both hands to escort the little warriors immersed in their own worlds, Li An worried about their vocal cords.

By lowering the volume and slowing the tempo, the momentum within the singing was gradually diluted.

Li An could hear that many children had not yet sung enough.

Very good, his goal had been achieved.

As the music entered its absolute coda, his left hand's chords returned to the intro, and his right hand recapitulated the two groups of descending third melodies.

By now, the children's singing had stopped; they stared uniformly at the figure before the piano.

And at those hands still dancing gorgeously across the black and white world.

This person seemed to have become the hero in their hearts.

[Wang Xiaohu's mentor-student index increased to 72]

-

The music gradually faded under their gaze, like a spark in the wind, disappearing entirely in the next instant.

The entire hall fell silent.

As Li An withdrew his hands, the dream world he had personally woven returned to the classroom.

Tap, tap, tap.

Standing up and walking back to the podium, Li An scanned the entire classroom with a smile once more.

Then he raised his hands and applauded, praising sincerely, "You were all amazing."

Encouraged, the children giggled and laughed.

The proper classroom atmosphere finally arrived at this moment. Teacher Liu to the side pushed up his glasses; for a split second, an adult like him felt deeply envious of Li An sitting at the piano.

He played the piano so well, much better than their school's music teacher... incomparable.

"Do you want to truly sing this song well?"

Li An suddenly posed the question, and the scene quieted down.

The next second, all the children answered in unison.

"We want to!!!"

Li An smiled with satisfaction, turned around, and clicked the mouse. On the large screen, a line of text appeared in the blank space at the very top of the musical score.

Jinhua Experimental 2021 Autumn Music Literacy Class Final Examination Questions: Sight-Singing "The Lonely Brave"

A moment passed.

"Are you confident?"

"Yes!!!"

Another click of the mouse.

The score on the big screen flashed and transformed into a blue cartoon staff.

Below the staff——Blue Sky Elegant Art Promotion Art Center Music Literacy Curriculum
Lecturer: Li An
Illustrations: Feng Donglai

"Dear students, please pay attention. The five lines you are looking at right now are our staff."

"Now I have a question for everyone. Does any student know which line is the first line?"

Just as his voice fell, Wang Xiaohu raised his hand to answer first: "The very bottom line is the first line!"

"Very good. Then, extending upwards in order from the first line all the way to the fifth line, has everyone noticed whether there is still an empty position between every two lines?"

Wang Xiaohu raised his hand again: "They're called spaces. Counting from bottom to top, the first line and the second line form the first space, the second line and the third line form the second space, the third line and the fourth line form the third space, and the fourth line and the fifth line form the fourth space."

Li An: ....

"Very good. Particular students, please remember not to blurt out the answers."

"Our main task today is to study these five lines and four spaces."

"Come, look at the next page."

With another click of the mouse, the Li An style of his first literacy class officially began.

-

Yudong Principal's Office.

Before the computer, Qin Yong finished browsing Li An's courseware, feeling a sense of admiration in his heart.

Li An had truly put a great deal of thought into this.

To be honest, he really wanted to give Li An another push.

He was wondering whether he could make a suggestion to the old principal to provide some opportunities for educational advancement for outstanding active teachers.

Of course, that was a matter for the future.

-

The busy month of September came to an end just like that.

As for Li An's first class at Jinhua, it was an overwhelming success.

With their enthusiasm thoroughly mobilized, the children studied with immense vigor.

In the span of just two lessons, most of them had memorized the appearances and time values of the five members of the note family.

Not only that, a small portion of them even memorized more or less the pitches on the staff.

Li An's evaluation: Remarkable.

This was the importance that interest and goals played in the learning process.

Taozi explicitly praised Li An in the group chat.

Everyone else in the chat agreed wholeheartedly.

Because Li An had done them a massive favor.

They all had teaching objectives, and every single one of their teaching objectives revolved around providing the first batch of fresh blood for Qin Yong's fourth-quarter orchestra establishment.

If there was one difficulty in their curriculum, it was teaching the children how to read music.

With only one class a week, they had to teach the children both how to play each note and how to read music.

Now, the children's music-reading problem had been entirely shouldered by Li An, allowing them to free up time and energy to focus fully on performance techniques.

Over this matter, several people in the west office specifically treated Li An to a meal.

Although they called it a meal, everyone just wanted to get together.

On the night of the 30th, the group of five went out for hot pot.

Unsatisfied after eating, Xu Hongxin suggested going to a KTV, even though it was already past ten o'clock.

"Let's go, Brother An, we don't have work tomorrow anyway."

Wang Panpan seconded, pulling on Chen Xuan and acting coquettishly.

"Let's go, let's go, my treat. Tonight we sing until you throw up."

Li An didn't want to spoil everyone's fun, and moreover, he could tell that Chen Xuan actually wanted to go as well, most likely hesitating out of concern that it might disrupt their plans for the next day.

In the KTV, Li An and Ma Tao drank and chatted, and it was evident that neither of them were people who particularly loved singing or partying.

The other three sang song after song.

Probably growing tired of singing, they demanded that Li An and Ma Tao join in as well.

Sing then, why not. A crate of beer had already gone down, and Li An was slightly tipsy.

"Panpan, request 'She Came to Listen to My Concert' for me."

Li An didn't think much of it at the time and casually ordered the song; once upon a time, a certain someone loved most for him to sing it.

When it came to singing, ninety percent of the time, heaven wasn't dozing off.

His slightly husky voice after drinking, carrying a touch of smiling melancholy, effortlessly sang through the lifetime of a woman.

With every tiny vocal run, he left people wanting to savor the notes over and over again.

The others listened quietly to the end and offered Li An applause.

Putting down the microphone, Li An looked first at Chen Xuan and noticed that Chen Xuan's smile was somewhat forced.

Those who have a story keep their story within the song.

Chen Xuan sang Kit Chan's "Like You" for Li An, but didn't receive much of a response.

Perhaps having already drunk three bottles of beer, she felt she might have been overthinking things; she didn't hear her own story in Li An's song.

She hadn't heard wrong—while singing, the only image flashing through Li An's mind was that of the violinist.

The violinist was probably already a mother by now.

It was hard to say this was an immoral thing.

Every person's next second is composed of countless previous seconds.

The next second, Li An put down the microphone and obediently sat down beside Chen Xuan.

The past inevitably evokes a sense of nostalgia on occasion, but life never stops at the previous second.

Li An always looked forward in everything.

How fortunate that, through a quirk of fate, the heavens had bestowed Chen Xuan upon his side.

He tightly grasped Chen Xuan's hand and said nothing at all.

Chen Xuan smiled and opened a fourth bottle of beer.

She wanted to completely intoxicate herself.

No charity wanted, only striving for what she desired.

Chen Xuan regretted deeply that the story Li An told her on the night of the Qixi Festival was merely a story.

Since they could not return to the past, she wanted Li An's future.

At that moment, she felt there was not a more selfish woman than her in the entire world.

She wanted to cover every single inch of territory in Li An's heart with herself.

Perhaps no one would care about her thoughts, and perhaps Li An would occasionally be negligent.

-

September came to an end just like that.

Chen Xuan had experienced a great deal this September.

She officially ended the trial period of running away from home.

She officially ended her singlehood.

Returning to Rongcheng, she officially began a new chapter of her life.

New developments in her work gave her considerable confidence.

God only knew how exhausting it was to lead club classes across 11 schools, but she felt grounded.

Because there was quite a bit of money to be earned.

If Chen Xuan had to label her September, after romance would certainly come making money.

Aside from making money, she was also self-taught in a new skill.

Video editing.

The motivation stemmed from the second wild comment on Li An's 299 video:
'He plays really well, doesn't the up-loader know how to edit?'

Speaking of comments, the first wild comment Li An had waited for bitterly gave him immense encouragement:
'With this technique, you can totally record at the original speed of Czerny 740, looking forward to it!'

Though it was a relatively amateur comment, it was enough to keep him cheerful for half an afternoon.

299 and 740 were two entirely different concepts to begin with.

And 740 versus the original speed of 740 were yet another two concepts.

In reality, Li An could currently play some of the etudes from Czerny 740 at their original speed, but that would undoubtedly require a massive investment of time and energy.

Recording a set of original-speed 740s was something that could happen, but it would have to wait for the future.

All 40 items had been uploaded one after another.

There were already some comments and likes, though the view counts were still too low.

As he had anticipated, it didn't matter; slow and steady wins the race.

Perhaps he could draw inspiration from a netizen's suggestion:
'So where is the little fairy playing the flute?'

Aside from gains on Bilibili, the other major development was the upgrade of his system level.

Teacher Li An had finally reached level four.

The system rewards for reaching level four also underwent a slight change; previously it was always a single strike of the hoe.

This time it gave him two strikes.

The four children dug out a total of two rewards for him.

Spatial Pill: Effect is 'Li An's Piano Classroom' student capacity +1.
Score Fragment: Unknown purpose.

Judging from the appearance of the two items, the quality of the latter was clearly higher.

Yet Li An chose the Spatial Pill without the slightest hesitation.

The next upgrade would take at least five to six weeks, and he didn't want Che Lin lingering outside the classroom door any longer.

On the afternoon of the 30th, Che Lin officially entered Li An's system class, following Liu Fengrui.

The evening KTV outing didn't end until half-past three in the morning.

When he supported a swaying Chen Xuan back to 2501, Chen Xuan had completely lost consciousness.

Collapsing onto the bed, she made not another sound.

Thus, Chen Xuan's little plan fell through; she failed to conquer Li An that night.

Vanishing along with it was the couple's shopping plan for the following day.

They had originally planned to purchase some daily necessities and several household appliances.

The reason was that in half a month—October 15th—the two of them would officially begin cohabiting.

Sun Yuman had previously paid half a year's rent for Chen Xuan, and the lease for 2502 was about to expire.

It didn't matter. At 1:27 AM on October 2nd, Chen Xuan completely conquered Li An.

Painful yet joyful.

-

"Good morning."

Early in the morning on October 2nd, the first thing Chen Xuan saw when she opened her eyes was Li An's smiling face.

Chen Xuan tried hard to imbue this moment with some sort of emotion to serve as a commemoration of completing her rite of passage.

Regrettably, she only detected certain bodily signals.

So she gave up. Forget it, let it be.

Then she hooked her arm around Li An's neck.

The drama of the night played out once more this morning.

The goalkeeper, Bayuan, stood blankly at the bedroom door watching its new master take a beating.

Powerless to help, every time it tried to approach the bed by two steps, it would be driven back by miserable cries.

"Mh——"

"Meow——"

"Mh——"

"Meow————————————"

——

This was destined to be a vivid and colorful National Day holiday.