Today was Jing Yang and Corrica's first day of school. On the car, Faith repeatedly exhorted Corrica to bring the medicine on him at all times, and whenever something happened he should immediately give him a phone call, or find one of his school buddies .
Jing Yang rested his chin on his hand and looked out the window. If during the following year he had to sit in the same car with these two every single day, he would really need to consider getting a driver's license in this world. He would rather buy his own car and then drive himself to school every day.
Corrica constantly kept a slight smile on his face and listened to Faith's lecture, occasionally responding to him. He stealthily glanced at Jing Yang, inwardly feeling that there was something strange. In the past when Faith was so intimate with him, Avi would always be very sad and angry, but now he actually seemed to not care a bit about it. Could it be that he was already planning on giving up on Faith?
If Avi didn't plan on competing for Faith with him, this would naturally be good news for him, but he still couldn't just be defeated by Avi like this. After all, Avi had a large amount of a.s.sets as his backing, so the Mooney family would definitely not just easily give up on such a large amount of a.s.sets. That is, unless his own worth was greater than the value of those a.s.sets.
Jing Yang first went to his two cultural cla.s.ses, music appreciation and music history, then tidied up his textbooks to prepare to go to Hai Weixiu's residence for his guidance cla.s.s.
"Avi." Corrica picked up his backpack and walked over, saying to Jing Yang, "Are you going to guidance cla.s.s now?”
"En." Jing Yang didn't look at him, directly preparing to leave.
"Wait a minute, Avi." Corrica chased up again. "My guidance cla.s.s was arranged over three hours later, can I go together with you to visit?”
Jing Yang stopped his footsteps and looked at him. "What did you say? Come with me to visit?”
Corrica hurriedly added, "I won't disturb you both, I will stay very quiet at the side so that you won't even feel my existence.”
Jing Yang smiled sarcastically. "In front of me, do you still need to pretend? Are you not tired after pretending all these years? What kind of person you are, besides yourself, I am the clearest about it. Only when you occasionally take off that false mask of yours would you not live so tiredly.”
"What are you saying ah, Avi." Corrica looked at Jing Yang with an innocent expression.
" Tut ." Jing Yang impatiently turned his face away. "It seems like your mask has stayed on your face too long and won't be able to come off for a lifetime. If you were to take it off, I'm afraid you'll rip off a layer of skin with it.”
Jing Yang walked two steps closer to him. "If you want something, you should honorably fight for it. Did you know that behaving one way in front of someone and another way behind their back really makes people disgusted with you? Please do not ever play these kinds of hypocritical friends.h.i.+p games in front of me again, I really do not feel like wasting this time with you.”
Corrica retreated two steps, his eyes looking at Jing Yang full of grievance.
Jing Yang turned and left. Corrica watched him gradually move farther and farther, and his gaze and expression from just now finally completely disappeared, his expressionless appearance seeming as if he had become another person.
~
Hai Weixiu lived in the forest park behind the school, where there was a villa area in which each villa was separated quite far from each other. The gardens inside were very well managed, and the scenery was particularly beautiful, the air fresh and clean and the environment peaceful. It was a very rarely found excellent area. For ordinary students, this place was a restricted area, and even normal teachers couldn't randomly enter. The great teachers' privileged students could also only enter when they had cla.s.s, unless they had the homeowner's special permission to freely enter.
While Jing Yang waited at the entrance, Hai Weixiu's housekeeper drove out to bring him in.
After they reached the villa, the housekeeper explained to him, "Sir has not gotten up yet, but he has informed me that after you arrive you can first go practice in the piano room.”
"He still hasn't gotten up?" Jing Yang raised his head to look at the sky. It should already be almost noon ba.
"You'll get used to it in the future. Sir usually sleeps pretty late, because there's more inspiration at night." The housekeeper explained amusedly, and then brought him inside and up the stairs.
"Here is the piano practice room." The housekeeper introduced to him. "Sir usually uses the black piano, that white one was just sent over a few days ago, especially prepared for you. If you have any needs do not hesitate to ask—just press that b.u.t.ton on the wall, and a servant will come right over.”
"All right, thank you." Jing Yang roughly glanced around the piano practice room. It was very big, it seemed like a study or an audiovisual room, everything that might be needed was here. The wall to the outside was entirely made of gla.s.s, and not only was the field of view very wide and open, but the scenery was also extremely pleasant.
Jing Yang sat down in front of the white piano. The housekeeper had said that he should first practice, so he would just play a piano piece specifically used for practicing.
The fourth movement of the << Kreutzer Etudes >> was a section especially for practicing fingering and could train finger flexibility.
Jing Yang himself knew how to play piano, so even if he didn't use the system he could still play very well, but he was good at some more romantic and emotional songs. He was not very good at all of those oppressive and sorrowful or morale-boosting and encouraging songs. If during the compet.i.tion he needed to use a song that he was not good at, he would still use the help of the system in order to guarantee that he would win and not lose.
But if he was just practicing, he would still prefer to do it himself, because playing piano was also one of his interests. If he was practicing his preferred genre of music, no matter how many times he had to play it, he would still not find it tedious.
"Too simple.”
Jing Yang heard someone speaking behind him and immediately stopped playing, turning his head to look over. Hai Weixiu was currently leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. What Jing Yang found surprising was that originally that painting was actually a door, he had completely not discovered it earlier. This also meant that this piano practice room was directly connected to Hai Weixiu's bedroom.
"Teacher." Jing Yang instantly stood up. He had heard that this person's personality wasn't that good, so it would still be better for him to be a bit more careful . If he could avoid being revoked of the master teacher's privileged student qualifications, he would avoid it as much as possible.
"You shouldn't still be practicing such a simple etude." Hai Weixiu looked at him.
Jing Yang thought, is this simple? This is already a high difficulty etude, many music school juniors were still practicing it.
Hai Weixiu walked to the bookshelf and took out three piano sheet music books. He placed them on the white piano, saying, "Play these once for me.”
Jing Yang picked up the three books and flipped through them. << Finger Dance >>, << Kada Etudes >>, << Wei Ming >>, these were perversely difficult etudes, okay? Most people didn't even dare to practice these, if they didn't practice it properly, their fingers might be ruined.
Jing Yang considered whether or not he should use the system. This was his first time playing these songs, so if he did too well he could be easily suspected, and if he did not do well enough he could also easily be abandoned. After he quickly thought a bit, he decided to just use the system halfway, and the other half would rely on his own ability. This way at least he could remain at around the 70 to 80% level.
Hai Weixiu leaned against the piano. He didn't pay attention to Jing Yang's fingering, instead constantly staring at Jing Yang's face. In his heart, he always felt that a familiar feeling of deja vu, especially that pair of eyes that seemed to s.h.i.+ne like black pearls.
Jing Yang hadn't finished playing yet when Hai Weixiu reached out his hand to him.
Jing Yang looked at the hand in front of him, not understanding what he wanted. The fingers were slender and straight, they seemed like they should have quite a bit of strength. En, they were also very beautiful, with one glance it was obvious that they were the hands of a pianist.
"Give your hand to me." Hai Weixiu said to the frozen Jing Yang.
Jing Yang raised his head and glanced doubtfully at him, but still placed his own hand on his palm.
His hand was somewhat smaller than Hai Weixiu's hand, just the right size to be enveloped in his palm. He watched Hai Weixiu pinch his fingers one by one, and even kneaded them in his hands. His heart trembled a bit.
Jing Yang immediately raised his head and looked at his eyes. Could it be that this person was his own lover?
"What are you looking at?" Hai Weixiu pinched his chin.
"Teacher's eyes are very beautiful." Jing Yang looked at his eyes.
Hai Weixiu raised a corner of his mouth, and suddenly bent down to close the distance between the two. Their breaths almost mingling, he said, "Your eyes are also very pretty.”
Jing Yang blinked a few times, he had the illusion that he was going to kiss himself. In his heart, he thought, if he really kisses me, should I reject him or not? If I reject him, for the time being I won't be able to determine whether or not he's my own lover. If I don't reject him, the progress will be too fast, and I might appear to be very frivolous.
Jing Yang hadn't thought of a proper solution when Hai Weixiu had already straightened up and sat down next to him.
He held Jing Yang's other hand and kneaded his fingers. "These hands are also not bad, just lacking tempering. Practice well these three piano books. In fifteen days, you will partic.i.p.ate in the Dawatt Piano Skill Compet.i.tion.”
"Fifteen days?" Jing Yang widened his eyes. "With all due respect, teacher, this is my first time playing the songs in these three books.”
"For you, fifteen days is enough. I have already been able to tell what level you'll be able to play at right now. Tomorrow bring your luggage and stay over here, I will help you practice." Hai Weixiu propped one hand on the piano lid and pinched his chin with the other. "Partic.i.p.ating in the compet.i.tion as my student, you must take first place.”
"What if I can't?" Jing Yang looked at him.
"I will let you achieve it." Hai Weixiu said in his ear. "We still have fifteen days of time. Do you hope that these fifteen days will be long? Or do you hope that they will be short?”
Hai Weixiu's voice was low and gorgeous, and even brought a mysterious feeling of luring people's minds. Jing Yang couldn't resist s.h.i.+vering a bit, and immediately pledged, "I will work hard!”
"Very good, then you can start practicing right now." Hai Weixiu was very satisfied with his att.i.tude and patted his face like he was caressing it.
Hai Weixiu was very close to him, as long as Jing Yang tilted his head a bit, he would be able to see his pecs through his wide open collar. This person's physique was tall and robust, he didn't give others the feeling of being muscular, but was actually quite impressive.
"What are you thinking about?" Hai Weixiu lightly pinched Jing Yang's face and turned his face to face him.
"Not thinking of anything." Jing Yang denied.
"Do you want to see?" Hai Weixiu pulled open his robe.
"Don't want to!" Jing Yang immediately turned his head away.
"Then you should concentrate a little. If you get first place in this compet.i.tion, I will let you see enough." Hai Weixiu reached his arms around Jing Yang to flip through the book, the two people's bodies almost affixed together.
Jing Yang attempted to ignore the close contact between the two of them as much as possible, making an effort to engross himself in practicing.
After eating dinner, Hai Weixiu finally let the driver send Jing Yang back home.
When he returned to the Mooney home, Jing Yang went upstairs and walked back to his room to rest when he saw Faith standing in the hallway staring at him. Jing Yang didn't pay attention to him, directly walking past him.
"Stop!" Faith roared.
"What do you want?" Jing Yang turned around, looking at him impatiently.
"Avi, I'm warning you, if you speak to Corrica so excessively again, I won't forgive you." Faith furiously glared at Jing Yang.
"I'm excessive?" Jing Yang looked at him with a smile that wasn't a smile . “Faith, with an IQ like yours, it really wasn't easy to live to such an age.”
"Corrica didn't say anything bad about you, you shouldn't think of others as being bad like you if you yourself have a bad heart.”
"If he didn't say anything bad about me, would you be coming to denounce me right now? But it is yourself who doesn't have the ability to distinguish between them. How about you say it, what did he say to make you feel like I was excessive to him.”
"If you didn't want to bring him to visit, you could just directly reject him. Saying those kinds of hurtful words, could that not be considered excessive?”
Once Corrica came back he closed himself in his room. Faith took a lot of effort to make him open the door, and seeing his red eyes, it was obvious that he had been crying. It was only after he questioned him closely that Corrica finally roughly mentioned some matters that had happened at school today—he had just wanted to go visit, this was also not some excessive request, if he didn't want him to go he could just directly reject him, but he actually spoke a bunch of insulting words.
Corrica said with tears rolling down his face, Avi definitely felt unhappy because the two of them were too intimate, and so would say these kinds of words. Even though he felt very sad in his heart, but these were all what he should bear. He both wanted to become friends with Avi and wanted Faith's love, he shouldn't have been this greedy. He also had such a guilty conscience and had such pain, but love just couldn't be controlled.
Jing Yang responded coldly, "Those words I said naturally can't be considered excessive, because every word that I said to him was the truth.”
The door to Corrica's room suddenly opened, and he ran out from inside. He pulled Faith's hand, begging, "How are you two quarreling again, please don't quarrel again in the future, everything is my fault, blame me…”
"Don't act again!" Jing Yang yelled at him. "Your acting is too fake, fake enough to disgust people. Did you think that I don't know what you're thinking? First mentioning the request to visit with me, could it be that you didn't know that ordinary students can't enter the place where Hai Weixiu lives? You were definitely thinking that if I rejected you, you would conveniently have another opportunity to come back to cry to Faith. If I wanted to show off to you and didn't reject you, I would be a new student going to cla.s.s for the first time who even overestimated myself and brought an extra person, and would definitely worsen Hai Weixiu's impression of me. Then maybe even I myself wouldn't be able to go to cla.s.s. Your scheming is really much stronger than your acting.”
Corrica's thoughts had been directly exposed. His eyes dodged a bit, but he immediately recovered his innocent and wronged expression. "Why do you always want to think of me so evilly? I know, I know that you hated me since we were small, but I really am not like what you said.”
"Don't pay attention to him." Faith hugged Corrica. "This kind of person like him, besides slandering other people, he has no other skills.”
Jing Yang felt that these two people were really ridiculous. "You two people, one is hypocritical, one is stupid, you are truly a perfect match. You can think whatever you want, but please don't come disgust me in the future.”
"Since you hate us so much, just leave ah." Faith stared at him. "You think that we want to see you? You're the one obstructing our eyes!”
"You think I want to live here? Could it be that I don't have my own home to return to? Since you don't want to see me, if you have the skill then go convince your father and let him renounce my custody. I'll rush out of here, and that way both you and I will be satisfied. That's right…" Jing Yang looked at them seriously. "Don't forget to let your father return all of my a.s.sets to me, and we can see at that time who will be the homeless ones.”
"You…" Faith was angered to the point of not knowing how to refute.
"How could you say these kinds of words." Corrica looked at him disapprovingly. "The Mooney family have at least taken care of you for so many years…”
"What qualifications do you have to lecture me?" Jing Yang interrupted him. "Do you think I'm the same as you? All these years I've been at the Mooney home, I have not spent a single penny of the Mooney family. If the Mooney family didn't have my Deere family's a.s.sets to prop them up, they would long have fallen to who knows what kind of situation. The Mooney leaving me behind, in the end whether it is in order to take care of me, or for that money, everyone is well aware.”
Jing Yang turned around to return to his room, but stopped halfway there and turned his head around again to say to Corrica, "If we say that I was left in the Mooney family because of my a.s.sets, then you only have the value to stay because of your piano playing, you are very clear about that. This time's exam, you were defeated by me, you must be very anxious in your heart? But this is only the start, we will continue to wait and see.”
Translator Notes:
[1] buddy – 巴迪, actually did not realize and mdbg did not recognize this until MTL said this was buddy, that's pretty funny
[2] tut – 啧, an interjection of disgust in this case, basically clicking your tongue
[3] Kreutzer Etudes – 克莱雅迪钢琴练习曲, actually found this might be a real book after Googling, also literally it translates to piano exercises but I think etudes translates to 练习曲 in Chinese
[4] careful – 小心谨慎, idiom, also means cautious and timid
[5] Finger Dance, Kada Etude, Wei Ming – 指间舞, 卡达练习曲, 微鸣, yeah I gave up on these and I don't think they're real
[6] Dawatt – 达瓦特, from the pinyin
[7] skill – 琴技, not exactly sure what word would work best, basically focuses more on the technicalities than like performance/emotion
[8] a smile that wasn't a smile – 似笑非笑, idiom
[9] perfect – 天造地设, idiom, means a match made in heaven, meant for one another
Random Notes:
Took 1.5 hours: 6:30 pm – 7 pm, 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm, for 4.7k characters to 3.3k words. Took the weekend off of translating, so we’re behind a couple chapters in the schedule. Oh well, we’ll just have to keep it up so I don’t fall too behind. The chapters are getting a little easier to translate though. Like I mentioned, Corrica and Faith are just too annoying. I was angry even while typing this up. Also the ambiguity btw JY and HWX is killing me. We met him very early this time, kids.