Ding! Accumulation is still a treasure.
Three minutes later, Li An returned to Classroom Three.
“Good morning, Director.”
“Teacher Li, your lesson was quite thorough.”
“I hadn’t expected you to come so early today—I even forgot my teaching materials.”
“It seems you don’t really need them.”
“You flatter me.”
Li An was naturally sociable, and although Qin Yong was somewhat older, he had always worked with young people and kept a youthful outlook. After a few polite exchanges, the atmosphere between them quickly shifted into a relaxed mode.
“Are you a student of Li Qing?”
“I studied under Teacher Wei.”
“Oh, how is Old Wei these days?”
Li An’s heart clenched, but he replied smoothly, “Still the same old problem—his cholesterol shoots up whenever he drinks.”
“I remember he used to have white liquor with every meal.”
“You know Teacher Wei?”
Qin Yong smiled. “I wouldn’t say I know him well, but in Rongcheng’s music circles, who doesn’t know Wei Three Bowls? Well, I won’t take up any more of your time—I’ve finished listening to your assessment class.”
Only then did Li An feel a bit relieved.
Qin Yong patted Li An’s shoulder with a hint of meaning. “Keep working hard.”
Li An escorted Qin Yong to the door. Suddenly, Qin Yong turned and asked, “By the way, do you know where Yu Xiaobei’s textbook was purchased?”
Li An, already somewhat irritable, felt his anger surge at this question.
Such a large institution as Blue Sky, yet they’re selling pirated exam books.
After teaching Xiaobei for several lessons, Li An had noticed issues with the quality of the textbooks. Upon discovering it, he promptly asked Xiaobei’s mother, who said she bought it here.
Since he had only just started working, he didn’t feel comfortable raising the issue—he might offend both sides, so before Xiaobei practiced anything, he always reviewed the sheet music first.
Just yesterday, while Xiaobei was working on “Dance of the Dwarfs,” he found missing expression marks and wrong notes, prompting him to take the book home for a thorough revision. And then this morning, he forgot it.
The book Xiaobei used was the same as his own, both from Yudong’s materials, which was why today’s measure 26 had an added “P.”
The difference was Xiaobei had bought his, while Li An received his from the teaching group upon joining.
“It’s from here,” Li An paused. He originally wanted to point out the problems with the materials, but instead said, “Our textbooks are a bit cheaper than those at the bookstore.”
Some things couldn’t be said, even to new leadership. Since Qin Yong could ask about it, he’d probably noticed something himself.
After Qin Yong left, Li An’s expression darkened.
The Wei mentioned earlier was head of the piano department at Rongcheng Conservatory, and also the protagonist’s university professor.
As Qin Yong said, within Rongcheng’s piano circles, Wei Three Bowls was someone whose mere footstep could shake the ground.
But the present situation was that Old Wei was deeply dissatisfied and angry with the protagonist.
What happened?
Originally, Teacher Wei had high hopes for his student from another province. But the protagonist not only failed to live up to expectations during university, after graduation he vanished entirely.
He severed all contact with the Wei family circle in Rongcheng. Only one junior knew he was still in the city; everyone else thought he’d gone back to his hometown.
It wasn’t that the protagonist didn’t care about the teacher’s family. He simply enjoyed playing and was lazy about socializing and attending events, eventually not even responding to messages from fellow students. In the end, he stopped answering Teacher Wei’s calls altogether, leading to the current situation.
Li An sometimes worried that word of his job at Yudong would reach Teacher Wei’s ears.
This couldn’t go on forever. Li An figured he’d have to find an opportunity to resolve the issue once and for all.
Otherwise, how could he survive in Rongcheng? He never considered going back home.
Ah.
Life was never easy. Li An sighed.
Everywhere he turned was a mess.
After practicing the piano for a while, Li An’s mood improved, and he began to contemplate his lesson.
He wondered what score Qin Yong had given him. Surely at least a 3.8.
At ten o’clock sharp, Liu Fengrui arrived at the classroom.
Fresh from his exam, Liu was visibly happier.
Continuing the technical analysis from last class, Li An led Liu Fengrui in a targeted practice of the right-hand ornamentation and left-hand accompaniment in the piece.
As expected, Liu continued to lead his group in talent.
The lesson went as usual—quick-learning student, relaxed teacher.
Another easy sixty-five yuan earned.
“Practice diligently at home these next few days. The exam is in four weeks, so we’ll push hard at first and ease up later.”
“Got it, Teacher. See you!”
“It’s raining outside, so be careful on your way home. When you arrive, have your dad send me a message.”
...
After seeing Liu Fengrui off at the elevator, Li An hurried back to the piano room.
Just as class was ending, the system had popped up with an upgrade prompt. It seemed Xiaobei started practicing as soon as he got home—an hour today, plus four yesterday.
Five hours. The experience bar had hit the upgrade requirement.
My Xiaobei never lets me down.
Li An summoned the panel, watching as the experience points (5/5) flickered incessantly, rubbing his hands in anticipation.
‘Would you like to upgrade?’
The system window appeared.
‘Yes.’
A blue light flashed.
His level on the interface changed from 0 to 1, experience (0/10).
‘Congratulations, Teacher Li An, level +1.’
The screen suddenly shifted to a cartoon scene: a cartoon Teacher Li An wielding a hoe, digging in the ground, with cartoon Xiaobei behind him, also digging with a small hoe.
‘Upgrade reward excavating. At level 1, you may excavate one item.’
‘Please wait.’
Finally, he felt like a protagonist.
Li An rubbed his hands expectantly, silently urging Xiaobei to dig harder.
Suddenly, a white light flashed. The teacher and student in the scene stopped.
“Item found: a Guide to Enrollment.”
[Guide to Enrollment]: Can be used on potential students with a teacher-student index below 10. Instantly increases the index by 60 points.
Chicken feed or treasure?
At that moment, the window popped up with two choices.
[Option 1: Collect. The item will be automatically stored in the inventory.]
[Option 2: Abandon. Doubles the chance of excavating a high-grade item during the next upgrade.]
Small print below: Current probability of excavating a high-grade item is 5%.
Hmm.
Li An frowned.
If Wang Xiaohu hadn’t dropped those two points yesterday, he might have thought this was a good item.
Sixty points would instantly place a student in his system class.
For example, if he used it on Lin Pengfei, who only had one point, Lin would join the system class—but what would sustain those sixty-one points?
What would they be based on?
Dropping back sixty points was almost inevitable.
Then the student’s membership would surely be revoked—otherwise, why would the system set the passing line at sixty?
So what was the point of this item?
But what if… what if all his assumptions were wrong?
Wouldn’t that mean he’d just gained a free worker?
That thought made Li An waver.
Collecting was a gamble.
Abandoning would increase the odds of finding a high-grade item at level two to twenty percent, and who knew if level two would allow him to excavate two items.
Either way, it was a gamble.
Is this work or just game-playing?
Is this system even reliable? Li An suddenly drew a question mark in his heart.
At that moment—
‘Countdown initiated. Teacher Li An, please make your choice quickly.’
‘5’
‘4’
‘3’
‘2’
Ps: The new book period is crucial. I beg everyone to invest a little time.
Share more in the book club and leave comments—I haven’t reserved enough space for your remarks?
If I don’t see comments soon, I’ll have to take drastic action, seriously.
If you can avoid stockpiling, don’t—when the book goes live, I’ll reward you with explosive updates, guaranteed! Screenshot this as proof!