Whose Surprise

"Among the flowers, a pot of wine, drinking alone without a companion, raising the cup and asking the blue sky, on this evening, what year is it? Amidst the sounds of firecrackers, a year is replaced, the spring wind..."

Xia Yu knocked on Kong Hanyue's head and said, "Speak in human language."

"We are a small and dying faction, the Flower Faction, without a gap."

Kong Hanyue began to explain honestly: "The Southern Faction is special in its musical rhythm, with its changeable notes and mostly lyrical tunes. The Northern Faction usually uses the middle finger for plucking the strings, producing long gliding notes that sound melodious and profound."

"What about the Flower Faction?" Xia Yu asked.

"Many techniques," Kong Hanyue replied.

Seeing the puzzled look on Xia Yu's face, Kong Hanyue continued: "That is, there are many techniques, such as fast four-point, clamping, and lifting strings. We won't mention these, and there are even more difficult ones."

"...So, it's because there are too many techniques, no one learns this faction, right?" Xia Yu understood the situation.

"As long as you learn, you can master the techniques. The key is, with so many techniques, it's easy to get distracted, and the grasp of rhythm suffers. Without diligent practice or exceptional talent, you cannot learn. Besides, there are those who are jealous of us, claiming that we prioritize flashy skills over emotions!" Kong Hanyue was indignant.

Upon hearing this, Xia Yu had thoughts of changing factions.

However, he just thought about it.

"Let's continue with the next song."

Xia Yu stayed with Kong Hanyue until 10 pm, then took the last subway home.

"Big brother, you're back?"

As soon as Xia Yu entered the house, he saw Yuxue, who was sitting on the couch watching TV.

There was nothing interesting to watch on TV; she was waiting for Xia Yu.

As for his reason for going out at night, Xia Yu used the excuse of practicing for the competition.

"You can go to bed; don't wait for me."

After watching Yuxue enter her room, Xia Yu put down his backpack and headed for the bathroom.

After a five-minute shower, he turned off the light and returned to the bedroom.

Another five minutes went by, and Yuxue's room door opened. She tiptoed to the bathroom, picked up Xia Yu's coat, and sniffed.

"Perfume smell!"

...

On Saturday, Xia Yu woke up at eight, finished washing and cleaning, and logged into An Siyao's body at 9:30.

Now, he had 4,700 game points in hand; it was time to continue learning piano.

4,700 game points were exchanged for nine double experience cards, with 380 points remaining.

"Are we still learning 'Praising the Sun' today?" An Siyao asked.

"Yes." Xia Yu lifted the piano lid and started practicing.

'Praising the Sun' is a relatively rebellious song, characterized by its slow pace, extremely slow.

But slow is not easy to grasp, just like riding a bicycle, the slower it gets, the harder it becomes to maintain balance.

With only an hour left before the eight-hour learning session ended at ten times speed, Xia Yu finally managed to complete the song.

After another half hour of familiarization, Xia Yu stopped the remaining half-hour experience card, closed the piano lid, and went to the bedroom.

This remaining time should have been for talking with An Siyao.

However, neither of them enjoyed small talk, and the topics of interest had already been discussed over these many days, so today they entered a rare state of silence.

Since there was nothing interesting to talk about, they didn't talk; forced conversation would only increase the burden.

Yawning, Xia Yu opened An Siyao's laptop and started browsing randomly.

He was looking at the jokes of the forum users, when suddenly a pop-up appeared below.

Do even upper-class people have no way to deal with these pop-ups?

Moving the cursor to the top right corner of the pop-up, Xia Yu glanced at it and realized it was a news pop-up.

Just as his index finger was about to press down, he noticed an interesting headline.

"The First Regional High School Instrumental Music Competition will officially begin in November."

Just as the principal had said before, the competition would start in November and the finals would be in December.

It wasn't too tight considering the time; there was some room for relaxation, no problem.

When Xia Yu used her body, An Siyao couldn't control it, but she would receive feedback for any sensory stimulation Xia Yu experienced.

So, after Xia Yu glanced at the competition's title, An Siyao also saw the title.

"Are you interested in the instrumental music competition?" the girl asked.

Xia Yu thought for a second, having glanced at it, he couldn't deny he was a little interested.

"A little," Xia Yu said.

"Will you participate?" An Siyao asked.

"I can't," Xia Yu lied.

An Siyao didn't doubt him; in her perception, the Xia Yu who could oppress the head maid and face a dozen strong men without changing his expression could not possibly still be a high school student.

"If I participate, will you be able to see me?" she asked.

"???"

Silently removing the first place from his expectations, Xia Yu casually said, "I can watch the playback, I hope this recording will last ten years."

"Ah, are you from ten years in the future?" An Siyao asked in surprise.

"Mhm."

"What will I be like in the future?"

"You died in a plane crash five years ago."

"How could this happen!" An Siyao was very depressed.

She tried to save herself: "I'm not dead yet, so I can change the future, right? I won't take any more planes!"

"Good idea."

After appeasing her with a few words, Xia Yu blamed himself for not being able to resist looking at the news earlier, and at the same time, he reflected on his prepared disguise to see if there were any inappropriate points.

He couldn't stop An Siyao from participating in the competition, as that would seem too deliberate.

A minute later, An Siyao's voice came again, "You were just fooling me, right?"

"You only just realized?" Xia Yu was astonished.

"Don't keep bullying me!" the girl protested weakly.

"Actually, I came from a parallel world," Xia Yu added.

"I don't know which one is the truth anymore," An Siyao gave up thinking. "Anyway, if I participate in the competition, you can see me, right?"

"I can see you now," Xia Yu said.

"It's not the same." What An Siyao wanted was for Xia Yu to use his real eyes to look at her.

After making sure that Xia Yu could see her, she decided to participate in the competition.

Xia Yu hesitated for a moment but didn't say anything more.

In fact, he was a bit curious to meet this silly girl in reality.

As long as they made it to the finals, they would surely meet.

His prepared disguise had no issues and wouldn't attract attention; the risk was extremely low.

The first option was completely hopeless.

However, the first one was too ostentatious, so it was better not to have it.

At 5:30 in the afternoon, Xia Yu returned to his own body, and by then, the proxy Yu had already finished working.

Taking out his cell phone, Xia Yu glanced at the date.

It was September 26th, only one month left until November.

After changing clothes in the locker room, Xia Yu headed towards Kong Hanyue's home.

On the subway, due to the pushing and shoving of people behind him, a teenager about his age bumped into him.

"I'm sorry," the teenager said very politely.

"It's alright," Xia Yu nodded and saw the boy sit down in the empty seat of the adjacent compartment.

He felt like he had seen the other person before, but couldn't remember where.

Sitting in the next compartment, Zhong Yunze had no sense of familiarity with Xia Yu. He looked at his phone and smiled.

His sudden return home would surely surprise his mother a lot.