7. A Shocking Discovery

Mrs. Xiaobei adjusted her glasses and said, “Then I’ll have to trouble you, Mr. Li.”

“I really like Xiaobei,” Li An replied with a smile. He knocked on the door, and the piano music inside came to a halt.

Remembering Xiaobei’s upcoming examination during the holidays, he added, “Does Xiaobei have any other plans for the summer? For example, are you planning to take her traveling?”

“No,” her mother replied. Xiaobei’s vacation was already fully scheduled. “If you need to arrange extra lessons, just let me know.”

That put Li An at ease. “We’ll decide based on her progress when the time comes.”

At that moment, Xiaobei emerged from the classroom, her schoolbag in hand. Her mother handed her a prepared tissue. “Well then, we’ll leave you to your work, Mr. Li.”

“Goodbye, teacher!” Xiaobei wiped her sweat and waved enthusiastically.

“Goodbye, Xiaobei. I wish you the best of luck on your finals.”

“Thank you, teacher.”

Watching mother and daughter depart, Li An finally relaxed. He’d noticed the subtle change in Mrs. Xiaobei’s expression just now, which was why he’d changed the subject and brought up the piano examination instead.

Had this been back when he’d just graduated from university, he would have launched into a passionate argument about how pointless those piano exams were.

But he’d learned his lesson—twice.

There were some types of parents whose entire educational philosophy centered around themselves; teachers were merely tools to achieve their aims. And tools could be replaced at will.

After two months of working with her, Li An had no doubt Mrs. Xiaobei was one of those parents.

He was no longer the naive young man he’d once been, but some convictions still lingered in his heart.

An educator’s passion is like one’s undergarments—it must exist, but there’s no need to flaunt it at every opportunity.

Sometimes, flexibility was necessary.

As long as the child practiced diligently, everything else could be sorted out in time.

He exhaled deeply and returned to his office.

To his surprise, the office was empty. That was a good sign: it meant everyone was in class, making money.

His next lesson wasn’t until ten o’clock.

He wondered how Liu Fengrui’s piano practice had gone this week as he picked up his teacup and sat down at his desk.

He opened a shopping app with high hopes, only to be disappointed.

He’d invited so many people, and yet he was still 0.02 yuan short of the withdrawal threshold.

All three colleagues in the office had helped, and even some distant relatives in the family group chat had pitched in.

Who else could he ask?

He scrolled through his WeChat contacts again, then put his phone down in resignation.

His predecessor had already exhausted the social circle, leaving him with virtually no wiggle room.

Oh well, it was only a hundred yuan. It wasn’t his to begin with; best not to dwell on it.

Rubbing his hands together, Li An summoned the system.

The sight made him spit out his tea, which splattered across Chen Xuan’s desk.

In the list of potential students, Xiaobei’s name had vanished, replaced by a name both familiar and strange—

Lin Pengfei, Teacher-Student Index: 1/100

He stared for a long time.

Surely not...

Really, surely not...

Just thinking of Lin Pengfei’s swaggering, boastful demeanor, Li An found him oddly pitiable, despite his annoyance.

Li An couldn’t quite describe his feelings, but one thing was certain: his opinion of this guy was beginning to change.

Maybe, he thought, Pengfei was just a man of hidden depths.

His gaze dropped to a new icon beneath his current level:

[Li An’s Piano Studio]

It looked impressive, but upon opening it, he found a cartoonish classroom with three miniature upright pianos. An animated, handsome, black-haired young man paced between them.

Two pianos were vacant.

At the third sat a little pink-haired cartoon girl.

Above her floated a zzZ...

Li An focused on the girl, and a line of information appeared—

Yu Xiaobei

Teacher-Student Index: 61/100

Status: Resting

Practice Time This Week: 0

Total Practice Time: 0

A system prompt popped up: [For every hour a student practices, the teacher earns one experience point.]

Suddenly everything made sense.

Reading that message felt like his meridians had been cleared—he was filled with a sense of mastery.

The potential student list provided leads on prospective students—

Student strategy offered clues for raising the Teacher-Student Index—

Once a student’s index reached the threshold, they could enter the system class—

Once in the class, as long as they practiced, he’d earn experience—

What happened upon leveling up was still a mystery.

Given that there were only three pianos in the classroom, he surmised his class could only accommodate three students at present.

The student cap likely increased with his level.

The number of potential students shown in the list probably also depended on his level.

After Xiaobei joined the system class, Song Kun became the student with the highest Teacher-Student Index, now ranked first.

Liu Fengrui and Wang Xiaohu rose to second and third.

With one point, Lin Pengfei replaced Wang Xiaohu as fourth.

This meant Lin Pengfei had already set his sights on the class before Xiaobei had joined—hence the seamless transition.

If his theory was correct, it also reflected his current reality: he had no students to teach.

The system had even flagged Lin Pengfei and Song Kun as potential recruits...

Whose fault was that?

No matter how good the system’s feedback mechanism, without students, a piano teacher’s fate remained grim.

Sigh.

“Xiaobei, you must work hard at the piano!” Li An could already imagine his experience points soaring as Xiaobei practiced diligently. (×)

What he really hoped was that Xiaobei would master the drop-lift technique as soon as possible. (√)

But, honestly, aside from Xiaobei, he had no idea when those other two boys would ever join his system class.

Ultimately, he just didn’t have enough students.

Li An sighed. Back on Blue Star, classmates and friends would recommend new students every few days.

But here on Earth, every time the phone rang, he dreaded it.

It was either a debt collector or someone inviting him to spend money.

The thought of acquiring new students through acquaintances was out of the question for now.

Distributing flyers? That era was long gone.

Online marketing and offline recruitment was the way of the present, but he had no place in that game.

Starting his own school? That was a joke—if he had the resources and capital, he wouldn’t be here.

For now, his only option was to cling to the big tree that was Lantian.

Li An figured he’d see if things improved after he officially became a full-time employee.

In the two months since arriving at Yudong, he’d witnessed new students sign up for piano lessons.

But they’d all been snatched up by the full-time teachers—even Lin Pengfei, who’d been here less than a year, had been assigned two students.

Sometimes, accumulating students in a place like this came down to luck—a teacher going on maternity leave, for example, as when he’d first arrived and picked up three students by chance.

But more often, it was a matter of endurance.

The longer you stuck it out, the more students you accumulated.

Sigh.

If only the prestigious teacher position landed in his lap, most of his problems would be solved.

Li An was lost in this fantasy when his phone rang.

Glancing at the caller ID, his heart sank halfway.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Mr. Li, I’m terribly sorry.”

As expected—the polite voice on the other end left him guessing what Liu Fengrui’s father would say.

“Would it be possible to move Fengrui’s ten o’clock lesson to the afternoon? With finals coming up, his morning English class has been extended.”

Thankfully, it was only a change of time—both parent and child deserved praise.

To 99% of parents, academic subjects always trumped enrichment classes.

Li An understood. He imagined he’d be one of those 99% if he were a parent himself.

They agreed to switch the lesson to four o’clock. After hanging up, Li An cleaned Chen Xuan’s desk and updated Xiaobei’s student record with today’s lesson.

Close to eleven, Ma Tao was the first to return to the office. Li An’s lunchbox was already on the desk, beads of water clinging to the lid.

Soon, the other two returned as well.

The three of them were debating what to eat for lunch when slow piano scales drifted down the hallway.

“In these two months, I’ve practiced more than I did in two years at university,” Ma Tao said nostalgically.

Xu Hongxin remarked, “Didn’t think you were so diligent in college.”

“Get lost.”

Ma Tao rolled his eyes, then added seriously, “Do you guys think An came here just for the free piano practice?”

Xu Hongxin immediately objected, “Hey, don’t say that, as if An couldn’t afford a piano.”

The office fell silent.

After a while, Chen Xuan said thoughtfully, “Hard to say.”

As she spoke, the piano music in the hallway abruptly stopped.