148. The Disappeared Pen and the Lesson Behind It

There.
There are plenty of children whose parents and teachers just let them be.
But now, Che Lin was his student as well—a student he held in exceptionally high regard.
Li An frowned as he looked at Che Lin.
"Little Che, we can't rely on others to supervise our studies; we have to depend on ourselves, just like when you practice the piano."
Before he could finish his sentence, Che Lin's gaze drifted to the billboard on the left side of the elevator entrance. The slight look of emotion on her small face vanished, replaced once more by a vacant expression.
Noticing the child's indifferent attitude, Li An's tone grew a bit heavier: "Make sure you hurry back and finish your homework later, did you hear me?"
Che Lin let out an acknowledgment, stepped onto the elevator, turned around, and waved goodbye to Li An: "Goodbye, Teacher Li."
"Watch your safety on the way. Have your dad send me a message when you get home, and don't forget your homework."
The elevator doors closed shut.
[Che Lin's teacher-student index has dropped to 71.]
Well...
Li An gave a bitter smile.
Had this child grown this weary of studying to such an extent?
He had merely added a parting reminder about her homework.
Earlier, when he saw Che Lin's crooked handwriting, he had found it somewhat odd; a sixth-grader who didn't know how to write the character for "keys" on a keyboard.
Judging by Che Lin's efficiency in learning the piano, there was definitely nothing wrong with her intelligence.
Li An pondered that he needed to find an opportunity to speak with her family.
At Che Lin's age, this kind of learning attitude was already very dangerous.
Perhaps her family had already given up on her, or perhaps due to a myriad of other reasons, but Che Lin still called him teacher.
He didn't feel he was so busy that he didn't even have time to say a few words.
Perhaps he could lend the child a helping hand.
-
Half an hour later, the elevator returned to the ninth floor and stopped.
Chen Xuan stepped out gracefully, carrying her flute on her back.
It didn't matter that Li An hadn't accompanied her for breakfast; she now had eighty thousand yuan.
Instead of returning to the office, she crossed the hall and headed straight for the classrooms, bumping into Xu Li, who was sitting near the entrance of the western teaching area.
She still vividly remembered the scene of Xu Li disciplining Wang Xiaohu.
She was a mother who could clearly distinguish right from wrong.
As their eyes met, Xu Li gracefully closed the book in her hand, stood up, bowed slightly with a smile, and nodded at Chen Xuan.
Chen Xuan marveled at the young mother's poise and could even feel the apology conveyed through her gaze. She returned the smile, as if conveying that the past incident was water under the bridge.
Then, hearing the intermittent piano sounds drifting from Classroom No. 4, she pushed open the door and entered her own classroom.
Xu Li smoothed down her skirt and sat back down. Seeing the young Teacher Chen again today, she looked radiant, her skin even better than last time.
As someone who had been through it all, how could she not understand?
Thinking of her own situation, she could only let out a soft sigh.
-
Classroom No. 4.
"What is going on today?"
Li An couldn't take it anymore. He interrupted Wang Xiaohu once more and said sternly:
"How many times is this?"
It was such a simple phrase, yet: "Where are your eyes looking?"
He couldn't help raising his voice again: "What note value is that!?"
It wasn't the first time Wang Xiaohu had seen Li An lose his temper, but today he felt a bit scared; he could sense that Li An was genuinely angry.
Moreover, he knew he had made several consecutive mistakes that he shouldn't have.
Wang Xiaohu said cautiously: "A quarter note."
Upon hearing "half note," Li An rolled his eyes and rubbed his forehead in utter helplessness.
Calm down, calm down, calm down—he quickly comforted himself internally.
Damn it, if this were his own son, he would genuinely fear he might have already slapped him across the face.
Suppressing the anger in his heart, Li An asked calmly, word by word: "Look—clearly—what note value?"
Wang Xiaohu suddenly snapped to his senses: "Oh, oh, half note, half note." He had meant to say half note just then, but ended up saying the wrong thing.
Anger level -1.
Teacher Li asked again: "How many beats does a half note get?"
Wang Xiaohu: "Two beats."
Anger level -1 again.
Li An continued to ask: "How many beats did you play?"
Wang Xiaohu muttered, "I... I forgot."
Along with Teacher Li's sigh, the atmosphere in front of the piano sank into the kind of silence that most students feared.
A moment passed.
"Go practice by yourself for a bit."
Li An stood up, massaging his temples, and walked over to the window.
The oppressive feeling in front of the piano instantly vanished, and Wang Xiaohu let out a huge sigh of relief.
Not daring to let his mind wander anymore, he pulled himself together, refocused his gaze on the erroneous passage from earlier, and began practicing anew.
Truth be told, if Wang Xiaohu's lesson today had been scheduled for eleven-thirty, he definitely would have performed exceptionally well.
Because during this National Day holiday, he had genuinely put effort into practicing the piano, even though part of that pressure came from his mother.
Still, practice was practice.
Once he practiced, he could play well. With his mind cleared of other distractions, Wang Xiaohu gradually brought out the results of his home practice sessions from the National Day holiday.
His study plan for this semester was Czerny 599 paired with Hanon finger exercises. Since the first ten exercises of 599 were too simple, he had already finished them in his first two lessons; exercises 11 and 12 were his homework for this National Day holiday.
After a few measures, he was playing the 11th exercise of 599 with increasing fluency.
Hearing this, Li An had already turned around.
Looking at the messy mop of hair in front of the piano, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Wasn't this kid just like a stubborn mule?
He clearly knew how to play, yet he refused to focus.
The moment he got chewed out, he could immediately play well.
When Li An assigned these two pieces to him before the National Day holiday, he had been somewhat worried that the boy wouldn't be able to finish them. But when he saw in the background log that Wang Xiaohu had been practicing every day, he knew he had worried for nothing.
To be fair, after experiencing the concert, Wang Xiaohu's piano practice efficiency had noticeably improved.
Fourteen hours was more than enough for him to master these two pieces.
Listening to him now proved that his judgment had been correct.
Wang Xiaohu finished playing a section and turned his head, seeking a response.
His little expression was incomparably calm.
-
What could Li An say to that?
"You, oh you."
As he spoke, he sat back down in his previous seat: "Where did you mess up just now?"
Wang Xiaohu scratched his head: "I really forgot."
Li An pointed his finger at the last beat of the eighth measure of the sheet music: "With such a big half note right there, how did you manage to play it for only a beat and a half?"
"Did you swallow that missing half beat?"
Pfft—Wang Xiaohu burst out laughing.
Li An laughed as well, patted Wang Xiaohu's head, and said in a gentle tone: "Alright, run through the sixth Hanon exercise."
[Wang Xiaohu's teacher-student index has risen to 73.]
In the blink of an eye, it was time to end the class.
-
"Pay attention to that feeling of flicking your fingers out and pulling them back in. Practice a bit more."
After demonstrating one last time, Li An left the classroom.
"Knock on the door and dismiss class."
Outside the door, he praised Wang Xiaohu's performance in class to Xu Li and took the opportunity to ask about how Wang Xiaohu had been practicing at home recently.
Xu Li smiled: "I don't understand any of it. I just heard him practicing away in there without taking many breaks. Anyway, every time he finished practicing, he'd tell me, 'Ah, I practiced so well today!'"
Li An nodded and smiled along: "I hope he can keep it up."
"He owes it all to meeting you."
Xu Li sighed with emotion.
"I never would have dared to imagine he'd willingly sit down at the piano on his own accord before."
Thinking of her son's changes over the past two months, Xu Li truly felt a swirl of complex emotions inside.
Not only did he play on his phone less, but he was also easier to communicate with. Most importantly, his outlook on life had become positive.
Yet, as his mother, she hadn't participated much in these changes.
Pausing, she looked at Li An and said solemnly: "Thank you, Teacher Li."
Li An waved his hand: "Little Hu and I share a bond. Seeing him grow positive and motivated makes me very happy."
Just as the two of them were talking, Liu Fengrui appeared in the hallway.
"Hello, Teacher."
"Hello, Auntie."
After greeting them, young Liu walked into the classroom.
-
As soon as he entered the classroom, Liu Fengrui scurried over to Wang Xiaohu's side, then frowned, sniffing with his nose: "What is that smell?"
He then sniffed Wang Xiaohu's collar: "Did you spray your mom's perfume?"
Wang Xiaohu ignored him: "What were the teacher and my mom talking about outside?"
Liu Fengrui squinted as he tried to recall: "I heard the teacher say something about 'positive' and 'very happy'."
"Positive and very happy?"
While Wang Xiaohu was pondering what that meant, Liu Fengrui asked with concern: "How is the teacher's mood today?"
How was it? Wang Xiaohu raised an eyebrow. Seeing Liu Fengrui's distressed expression, he recalled the incident where Liu Fengrui had instigated him into calling Chen Xuan "teacher's wife": "Not very good. I got chewed out."
Liu Fengrui: "Damn it."
Looking utterly lifeless, he muttered, "I'm done for."
Wang Xiaohu: "Did you not practice the piano?"
Liu Fengrui wailed mournfully: "Practice my ass! Where would I find the time? I spent the entire holiday doing homework, and I'm still three worksheets and one composition short."
"Do you know how much homework Shiyan assigned us for National Day? Twenty-seven worksheets alone!"
Wang Xiaohu was speechless: "....Your Shiyan School is terrifying."
He patted Liu Fengrui lightly on the shoulder and comforted him: "Think on the bright side, you only have three worksheets left."
Liu Fengrui: .....
Thump, thump—two knocks on the door.
Wang Xiaohu stood up, put away his books, and finally gave young Liu a look of self-preservation: "Hang in there."
With that, he touched the pen in his trouser pocket and left the classroom under young Liu's complex gaze.
-
"Teacher, Liu Fengrui has twenty-seven worksheets to write for National Day. Don't say I told you."
"Understood."
-
Li An believed it. Liu Fengrui's father had already told him over the phone last time that after the boy advanced to the sixth grade this semester, his homework for every subject had doubled compared to before.
It was just that he hadn't expected a primary school student to have twenty-seven worksheets to complete over a National Day holiday.
Thinking about it this way, the fact that the kid could still squeeze out three hours to practice the piano during the break and come to class without asking for leave made Li An feel somewhat gratified.
"Come on, play it for me to hear."
Liu Fengrui opened his sheet music and began to play.
Czerny 599, Exercise 24.
After listening to four measures, Li An was pleasantly surprised to find it sounded pretty good.
Not bad at all.
-
Exercise 24 was an etude featuring double thirds, with the right hand playing a mix of legato and staccato, and noticeable dynamic changes.
Double thirds were a hard technique in piano performance.
They required the player's second and fourth fingers to lift and drop simultaneously.
Normally, people could lift their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th fingers quite high, but the 4th finger could not be raised very high because the 3rd and 4th fingers shared the same tendon, making the 4th finger extremely passive.
Therefore, only after training the 4th finger to acquire a certain degree of independence could one preliminarily master this technique.
Regarding the preliminary practice methods for this technique, Li An had already taught young Liu in the previous two lessons.
Press both hands flat on a desk so that the entire palm was flush with the surface, and then lift only the 4th finger.
Lift—drop.
Lift—drop.
Repeat this movement while avoiding lifting the other fingers along with it, especially the 3rd finger.
Through the double-third passages played by the 2nd and 4th fingers in Liu Fengrui's performance just now, Li An heard that the strength and accuracy of the 4th finger's key descent were reasonably solid.
Listening to the piece as a whole, aside from a lack of fluency, it was actually quite good.
Of course, this evaluation didn't rule out the fact that he had lowered his expectations in advance.
"Not bad, your 4th finger has improved."
Seeing that the plot was taking a favorable turn, Liu Fengrui hatched a plan: "Teacher, I was practicing my 4th finger using that exact method while doing my homework."
You give him an inch and he takes a mile, Li An thought with a smile, not exposing him. He thought to himself: I clearly praised your right-hand 4th finger for improving; did you write your homework with your left hand instead?
He sat down at the classroom piano and demonstrated it once slowly and once quickly.
He reviewed and summarized two key technical points for the entire piece, telling the boy:
"Control the volume of the left-hand block-chord accompaniment."
"The melody needs natural dynamic changes (crescendo and decrescendo)."
-
Before class ended, Li An set aside five minutes for young Liu to air his grievances.
"Twenty-seven worksheets, Teacher!"
"A whole twenty-seven sheets!"
(500 words omitted here.)
After a thorough venting, young Liu let out a long breath.
"Alright, keep it up."
Li An offered a bit of an incentive: "8 exercises. If you play 8 exercises of 599, I'll teach you how to play 'Lone Brave'."
Liu Fengrui brightened up, baring his teeth as he bargained: "No, Teacher, half of 15 is 7.5, so 7.5 exercises."
Li An sneered: "7.5 rounded up is still 8, and 8 rounded up is 10. Ten exercises."
"No, no, no, Teacher, let's stick to 8 exercises."
Looking at young Liu's crestfallen little face, Li An could only sigh inwardly.
"Forget it, 6 exercises then."
Liu Fengrui was stunned. He had never won an argument with Li An before. Today...
[Liu Fengrui's teacher-student index has risen to 74.]
Looking at the teacher's kindly gaze again, he grinned—he already had his composition title for today.
"Who Says My Piano Teacher is Unreasonable?"
An argumentative essay. Absolutely brilliant.
"You're really good, Teacher."
Li An smiled: "Alright, stop peddling your sob stories."
Despite saying that, he felt quite gratified inside.
After sending young Liu off, he returned to the empty classroom, feeling a sense of reflection.
With Little Liu, Little Che, Little Wang, and Little Bei all in the sixth grade facing the transition to junior high, each of them had their own unique stories.
He suddenly realized:
By this time next year, these would all be junior high school students, right?
By then, what kind of people would these four little rascals turn into?
Li An smiled again.
This was probably one of the joys of being a teacher.
Opening the growth records of all four children and looking at the bits and pieces accumulated over the past half year, even though Che Lin had arrived late, she was still his good student.
Unwittingly, he found himself growing even more fond of these children and holding even higher expectations for them.
Chen Xuan's class next door still had half an hour left, so Li An decided to use this time to catch up on today's student growth records first.
As a result, after searching the classroom from corner to corner:
"Where's my pen?"
It was brand new, too.
Cost seven yuan!
-
Half and hour later.
Jinmao Mansion, Shinan District.
Building 27, Room 1302, Bedroom.
Wang Xiaohu lay face down on the bed, staring blankly at the pen in his hand.
He regretted why he hadn't rushed out to return the pen to Che Lin after her class ended.
He had seen it clearly: Teacher had taken the pen from Che Lin's hand, used it to write something, and then placed it on the piano, which ultimately caused Che Lin to forget to take it when she left.
It was all the teacher's fault.
-
[Wang Xiaohu's teacher-student index has dropped to 72.]
Li An's chewing slowed down abruptly.
Chen Xuan asked from the side: "Huh? Is this dish not good?"
The two of them were trying out a new food delivery place, and the new restaurant was super cheap.
A moment later, Li An shook his head and swallowed his bite: "It's quite dish-like, very appetizing with rice."
Before he could finish speaking.
A line of red characters floated across his vision once more.
[Che Lin's teacher-student index has dropped to 70.]
Were these two little brats teaming up or something?
"Teacher Chen, suppose when you were a kid you really disliked doing school homework, and your flute teacher told you to do your homework—would you resent him?"
"Of course."
"Why?"
"Didn't you just say I don't like doing homework?"
"Then would you do it?"
"That depends on whether I liked the teacher or not."
"Didn't you just say you'd resent him?"
"Resentment is a kind of liking too. I liked him so much, yet he still made me do homework."
Tsk.
That logic was a bit mind-boggling.
-
Yudong Xindu.
Building 33, multi-story apartment.
Room 2703, North-facing bedroom.
"Linlin, Auntie made the spareribs you love today. Come over and eat first."
Che Lin's father stood at the bedroom door, pleading once more in a coaxing tone.
In front of the desk, Che Lin held her pen, maintaining that same expression of "the world has nothing to do with me."
"I want to do my homework."