Chapter 154.1
Early in the morning, Gu Jiao went to the medical hall.
A few patients came in the morning, but there was no business during the afternoon. Gu Jiao took a rest in her personal small courtyard.
Across the wall from her little courtyard was the small garden of the women"s academy.
There was a pavilion in the small garden.
n.o.body usually came to this place, but at the moment there was a girl playing an instrument here.
She was playing somewhat poorly. Not to mention it sounded disjointed, the pitch was also wrong.
Gu Jiao was lying on a rattan chair, her eyes closed in repose. As a result, she felt frustrated by the girl"s unpleasant playing.
She pushed open the door of the room and walked out to the yard, looking in the direction of the courtyard wall and saying, "Wrong."
The girl obviously didn"t expect anyone to hear her playing the guqin, she was so startled that her fingertips scratched against the string, producing a shrill sound.
Gu Jiao felt her hair stand on end!
"Who?" The girl asked.
She looked around, but didn"t find anyone nearby.
"Your guqin is out of tune." Gu Jiao said.
At that moment, the girl realized that the one talking was someone from behind the courtyard wall.
She froze and asked, "Out of tune? I just bought this guqin."
The quality of this guqin wasn’t very good; the average daughter from upper cla.s.s families would not buy this inferior guqin. Gu Jiao guessed that the other person"s ident.i.ty was probably not great, otherwise she would not secretly hide in the corner to practice the guqin like this.
"Bring it here." Gu Jiao said.
"How, how do I get it there?" The girl asked.
Gu Jiao looked at the courtyard wall which was as tall as a man, dispelled the impulse to jump over and frighten people to death, and just said blandly, "Can you find the tuning pegs?"
After a while, the girl replied, "Found it."
Gu Jiao said, "Adjust it as I tell you. Pluck the third string."
"Huh?" That girl was obviously a novice.
The earliest guqin had only five strings, but later, Wen w.a.n.g added another string, and Wu w.a.n.g added one more string, so it became a seven-string instrument people knew now as seven-string guqin.
The seven strings all had their own names, namely: Gong, Shang, Jue, Zhi, Yu, Wen and Wu.
Gu Jiao said, "The third string, the Jue string."
"Oh, oh!" The girl raised her fingertip and gave it a pluck.
Gu Jiao instructed, "The pitch is high, so loosen the tuning peg."
The girl loosened the tuning peg accordingly and plucked the same string again, asking, "How about it now?"
Gu Jiao said, "It"s too loose, now the sound is low, make it a little tighter."
"Oh." The girl once again adjusted the tuning peg carefully.
It was finally accurate this time.
After that, she adjusted the other six strings one by one under the guidance of Gu Jiao.
The girl played the music she had learned in cla.s.s again and cried happily, "Now it sounds pleasant to the ears!"
Gu Jiao had a black face.
Pleasant to the ears?
Did this girl have any misunderstanding about what pleasant to the ears sounded like?
"Miss, thank you so much! Originally, I was discouraged and was going to give up after practicing casually. Now I have changed my mind! I"m not going anywhere this afternoon and just keep practicing here!"
Gu jiao: …Is it too late for me to regret now?
Gu Jiao, who was tortured by the deadly guqin sound next door all afternoon, came out of the medical hall with a black face.
Gu Jinyu had just finished practicing the guqin in the music hall of the women’s academy.
As long as she practiced the guqin, a large number of people would come to admire her playing.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the sound of her guqin was very sonorous and resounding, it would linger in one’s ears for three days.
"County Princess Hui, how can you play the guqin so well? The music that the teacher taught only this morning, you’re able to master it in the afternoon. Do you practice the guqin a lot on normal days?"
"Yes, yes, County Princess Hui, why don’t you give us some advice!"
Two n.o.ble daughters looked at Gu Jinyu with envy.
Gu Jinyu held the Yue Ying f.u.xi guqin in her hands and smiled slightly, "You don"t have to be so polite, just call me by my name. Actually, I haven"t practiced the guqin for a long time, it’s a good thing you did not dislike my playing."
n.o.ble daughter A: "Oh, Heavens, you still haven’t practiced for a long time at that level? Then what will it be like when you have practiced?"
n.o.ble daughter B: "Young Miss Gu, is this the Yue Ying f.u.xi guqin in your hand? The State of Chen’s number one guqin player, Yue Ying, personally made it. There’s only one of it among the six states!"
Everyone was drooling with envy.
n.o.ble daughter C: "Young Miss Gu, can you let us borrow it for a bit to take a look?"
"Of course." Gu Jinyu handed the guqin in her hands to them.
Everyone gathered around and watched the legendary Yue Ying f.u.xi guqin carefully.
It deserved to be the number one guqin in the six states. Its surface, strings, emblem, the head part and tail part were all close to perfection.
Why only close to perfection? Because only the real f.u.xi Guqin was truly perfect.
However, the real f.u.xi Guqin was long gone, so the Yue Ying version naturally became the number one guqin in the six states.
In the women’s academy, there were two most well-known young ladies; one was Gu Jinyu, the young miss of Marquis Ding’an Estate, and the other was Zhuang Yuexi, the granddaughter of Grand Preceptor Zhuang.
Zhuang Yuexi"s poems were more brilliant, Gu Jinyu"s guqin skills were more outstanding. The two of them were neck and neck.
However, when it came to popularity, Zhuang Yuexi, who was self-righteous and disdainful of making friends with others, was far inferior to Gu Jinyu, who was approachable.
At this time, Zhuang Yuexi came out of another music hall, holding a guqin in her hands.
She was followed by Zhuang Mengdie, who was also carrying a guqin.
Zhuang Mengdie was in the guqin cla.s.s just to make up the numbers. She dozed off from the moment she entered the music hall, and didn"t feel refreshed until the end of cla.s.s.
When the two people pa.s.sed by the music hall where Gu Jinyu was, they saw her surrounded by a bunch of upper cla.s.s daughters asking for advice on guqin skills.
Zhuang Mengdie rolled her eyes dismissively, "Che, what"s the big deal? She’s just a lowborn from the countryside seeking to impress others by feigning more than her abilities. To think she still has the face to act smug here after stealing someone else’s ident.i.ty, she actually treats herself as a real n.o.ble daughter!"
Zhuang Yuexi glanced at her own straw bag sister and said, "Are you any better than her?"
The corner of Zhuang Mengdie"s mouth twitched, she said, "You’re really saying that about your own sister? No matter how bad I am, I am also my father"s own flesh and blood! I am of n.o.ble birth! I am a genuine Di daughter of an influential family!"
Zhuang Yuexi said in a cold voice, "The Di daughter of an influential family can"t even recite a few poems. When you’re outside, don"t mention about being a young miss of the Zhuang Family. The Zhuang Family hasn"t raised such a person!"
"You..." Zhuang Mengdie"s teeth itched with anger.
Zhuang Yuexi didn’t like Gu Jinyu, but she didn’t like Zhuang Mengdie either. She often felt ashamed to have such an idiot sister.
The two sisters went downstairs.
Zhuang Mengdie was originally half angry with her sister, but as soon as she saw An Junw.a.n.g"s carriage parked on the street, all her anger was gone.
"Big brother!" She threw the guqin into the hands of the servant beside and ran towards An Junw.a.n.g.
An Junw.a.n.g stepped down from the carriage.
It snowed last night, and the streets and eaves were all covered in white, and yet there he stood, also wrapped in white from head to toe, like a brilliant glow not even the snow could outshine.
Zhuang Yuexi"s face also showed a look of joy.
Zhuang Mengdie took An Junw.a.n.g"s arm and asked, "Big brother! Why are you here?"
[T/N: Bonus chapter]