“That part you played,” Bai Lian raised her right hand, touching the strings to demonstrate a small section in the middle, “it can be more explosive.”
“Here, what’s important isn’t finger strength, but the power from your arm and wrist. Your arm needs to be lifted.” Bai Lian looked up, demonstrating this part again, her fingers hooking the strings, her wrist and arm tensing—
“Zheng—”
The sound quality instantly improved.
“The later part here is bass, the center of gravity moves forward, and your wrist needs to move too, to create that powerful momentum.” Since she had originally composed this piece for guzheng, the moment she plucked the strings, the power completely burst forth.
Playing guzheng requires wrist strength, arm strength, and core strength. Bai Lian had a natural talent for this.
People say guzheng and pipa are two deadly weapons in music, but truly bringing out that “killing intent” through rhythm is the hardest thing to control.
Lu Xiaohan was recording her explanation with a camera, and the final part would be a complete performance.
When Jiang Fuli came to pick up Jiang He, he only heard the guzheng sounds coming from the courtyard. He didn’t enter, just stood at the doorway listening quietly.
The girl’s fingers swept across the strings, creating sounds that were sometimes short and sometimes excited, occasionally fierce like thousands of horses galloping.
At the end, the sound stopped abruptly.
Ji Heng and Uncle Lu, standing at the storage room door, hadn’t yet recovered from their daze.
Bai Lian put down the guzheng and got up to open the door.
Jiang Fuli stood quietly at the door. He was still wearing his black coat, with only the courtyard lights shining on him. His light-colored pupils reflected the light, lonely and cold, until Bai Lian appeared in them.
“Were you practicing?”
“Yes,” Bai Lian moved aside to let him in, her expression normal. “You got off work early today.”
The past two days she had been helping Jian Zhe study, and he hadn’t gone to the lab. Bai Lian thought he would be working overtime.
“I went in early today.” Jiang Fuli glanced at her before entering. After they went in, Lu Xiaohan was still reviewing the video.
He casually asked Lu Xiaohan a few questions.
Uncle Lu originally wanted to smoke, but when Jiang Fuli came in, he instinctively didn’t dare light up. Seeing Lu Xiaohan finish recording the video, he took her home, politely declining Ji Heng’s dinner invitation. He smiled, “My wife is home alone, it’s getting dark.”
Jiang Fuli stood coolly to the side, taking out his phone to open a video app.
He did have this app on his phone. Finding Lu Xiaohan’s page, he casually scrolled through. The earlier comments were all abuse toward the blogger. Being on the internet, it was impossible to avoid such doubting voices.
Until he scrolled to one comment—
[Poor mountains breed wicked people]
This was how most people viewed Xiangcheng. Back when Jiang Fuli applied for scientific research in Xiangcheng, it wasn’t smooth sailing. Only after he took control of the Jiang family’s power and allocated research funds to Xiangcheng did the CFRS base officially settle there.
Even now, there were still opposing voices in Jiangjing.
Bai Lian went to move the courtyard chairs back to the hall, and Jiang Fuli followed behind her, taking Ji Heng’s teacup inside too. “You don’t seem to play guzheng much anymore.”
Except when writing songs for Yan Lu.
“I do play, but I don’t love it as much now.” Bai Lian paused before speaking.
The people who used to play guzheng with her were all gone now. She knew Principal Jian was always looking for a suitable successor for guzheng. If Third Princess were still here, she would definitely be the most suitable candidate.
Of course, chemical biology was her most crucial focus now.
Bai Lian quietly watched the light passing through dust particles in front of her, reaching out to grab it.
Quantum mechanics…
“Did you know there’s a crystal that can store light for an hour?” Jiang Fuli put down Ji Heng’s teacup and turned to look at her.
“One hour?” Bai Lian’s attention was caught. In the modern theories she had learned, light and time were both uncatchable.
Light speed was too fast.
Time was just something defined.
“Yes, nothing is impossible if you want it,” Jiang Fuli tilted his head slightly, thinking briefly. His expression softened: “This crystal has an added magnetic field that can change light’s transmission speed, storing light for an hour. You can’t enter the lab now, but when you get to Jiangjing, I’ll take you to see it.”
** Eleven at night. Black Water Street.
At the bar counter, Bai Lian was working on a newly issued test paper. She wore comfortable casual clothes, holding a black pen, with a small desk lamp on her left.
Xuechun wore tight black clothing, tossing a wine glass in her hand, mixing a low-alcohol drink for Bai Lian.
Mao Kun sat beside Bai Lian, not understanding.
“Our headquarters is in the west city, Xuankang Pharmaceuticals,” Xiao Qi spoke beside her. “The first batch of medicinal herb farmers have already received funding. More farmers will join later for growing herbs. This month I want to visit the Four Great Cities and Jiangjing. Their Bai Ji and Sha Ren are very cheap…”
Now Xiangcheng’s villages had started a trend of growing medicinal herbs.
Making profit from price differences.
Meanwhile, Xiao Qi also wanted to develop the east city market.
Bai Lian lowered her head to write, “Now Xiangcheng has several Xuankang traditional medicine shops. Get those traveling doctors… those traditional Chinese medicine doctors together, help them get certified, hire them to provide free consultations.”
People need to see traditional Chinese medicine to understand its full value and effect.
Da Nei Gao had now reached hospitals and became Xuankang’s most representative brand.
Several traditional medicine shops had opened in Xiangcheng, but their influence was far from enough. To spread influence, these shops needed to open not just in the Four Great Cities, but also in Jiangjing.
With Chen Ju’s help, opening shops in Jiangjing wasn’t a problem.
The question was how to establish a firm foothold in Jiangjing.
“I’ll report first,” Xiao Qi spoke politely, feeling this was a good approach. “Xuankang can’t rely on Da Nei Gao alone. We’ve risen too quickly lately, and the major pharmaceutical companies will definitely suppress Da Nei Gao, especially the international pharmaceutical king, the Luo family. Their sales of bruise medicine have decreased, they’ll definitely counter-attack. We still need to integrate our product line and launch more medicines, otherwise the capital chain won’t keep up… Will people come for free consultations?”
“First let them get certified, then recruit some traditional doctors who know acupuncture,” Bai Lian paused, leaned back, and suddenly pulled out the dagger strapped to Mao Kun’s knee. The cold light reflected on her face. “Have them learn a set of acupuncture techniques, find an opportunity to promote it.”
According to Lansi, acupuncture for myopia had very good results, with no rebound for several months.
Bai Lian had tried it herself and felt this acupuncture treatment could be promoted by Xiangcheng’s Xuankang.
With government help, Xuankang had gained some public trust. Recently, tourists would take Da Nei Gao as a local specialty when they left.
Besides tourism, it also created another path for Xiangcheng.
Xiangcheng officials were also strongly supporting their industry.
With reputation established, myopia acupuncture wouldn’t be seen as a scam.
“Alright,” Mao Kun held a cigarette, not daring to look at the dagger. “I’ll have people look for them.”
His dagger was custom-made by his godfather, sharp enough to split hairs.
For Xuankang Pharmaceuticals, Bai Lian contributed technology as shares, Mao Kun provided people and money (the money initially came from his foster father), Xiao Qi provided the brains, and Xuechun occasionally helped Xiao Qi with design…
As for Xiao Wu…
He would cheer for Xiao Qi and Bai Lian.
Bai Lian slowly ran her left index finger along the dagger. A drop of blood flowed down her fingertip. Under the desk lamp’s light, she gently smeared the bright red blood onto the blade’s tip, softly chuckling: “Poor mountains…”
Under the light, her smile didn’t reach her eyes. In those pitch-black pupils, one could still see glints of sword and blade.
“Is anyone still at the fighting arena?” She licked her still-bleeding finger and turned to look at Mao Kun.
** Lu family home.
Lu’s mother was in the main hall, occasionally looking toward Lu Xiaohan’s room. “Xiaohan hasn’t come out for so long, is she okay? What if she’s feeling hopeless?”
She suddenly stood up again.
“I just went in to bring her fruit,” Lu’s father comforted her. “It’s fine, she’s just editing videos, very focused.”
In the room, Lu Xiaohan was editing today’s video.
At twelve-thirty in the morning, “Yi Chi Yi Da Wan” finally published the video.
After posting the video, Lu Xiaohan turned off her phone, took her cup to get water outside, but unexpectedly found her parents pressed against her door when she opened it.
“Mom? Dad?” Lu Xiaohan rubbed her head, confused: “What are you doing?”
Lu’s mother wiped Lu Xiaohan’s doorframe with a cloth, “Cleaning…”
Lu Xiaohan was puzzled, got a glass of water and returned to her room.
In a certain historic residential area of Xiangcheng.
The young Master Jiang, fresh from his shower, loosely tied his black robe’s belt, casually wiped his hair, tossed the towel aside, and opened Yi Chi Yi Da Wan’s video. First he saved it, then cut out a middle section. Jiang Fuli leaned against the washstand, watched it twice.
Finally, with a wave of his hand, he invested 100,000 yuan to boost the video’s popularity.
Yi Chi Yi Da Wan’s account’s success owed much to Young Master Jiang.
** Online, regarding Lu Xiaohan’s posted video, it was pushed to almost everyone who had followed this incident.
Even those who hadn’t followed her could scroll to this video.
Some came to curse, others directly opened the video.
The video started dark, with only two boldly written words—
[Xiangcheng *Gambling Wine]
Then those four characters shattered, accompanied by music showing a montage of Xiangcheng East Tourist Area – tourists interacting on stage, volunteers distributing mineral water and calligraphy, men and women, young and old with joyful smiles…
The video slowly dispersed here, converging on a guzheng, placed on someone’s lap with hands on the strings. How to describe those hands – they emitted a gleaming white light under the light, with distinct knuckles.
The face wasn’t shown.
The voice was female, her slender fingertips plucked a string. The voice had been processed to sound distant, “Even the heavy feeling of bass notes isn’t hard to present. The fingers need to press harder here, so our entire arm strength needs to sink to the fingertips. Finally, it needs to burst out completely, like this—”
“Zheng—”
“The sound quality becomes very full.”
This song’s fingering wasn’t difficult, but “Gambling Wine” didn’t have guzheng sheet music. Bai Shaoqi’s score was completely figured out by herself, naturally having some missing elements compared to Bai Lian’s original score.
Subtitles appeared beside it. At this moment, even people who didn’t understand guzheng could easily understand the force application method Bai Lian was teaching.
The third section was Bai Lian replaying the background music used in Yi Chi Yi Da Wan’s middle section.
Viewers could only see those hands on screen, almost like afterimages.
Though it was a quiet small courtyard, for a moment it seemed as if someone was coming on horseback, yellow sand swirling up in waves.
At the end was a line of text—
“Though Xiangcheng is poor, most people here are very good. I hope everyone won’t hate this place because of me. I never said Teacher Bai Shaoqi played poorly, I just expressed my own views regarding ‘Gambling Wine’. Finally, everyone knows I’m a fan of the Bai family. My first two videos were about them. The previous face-changing video was based on General Bai Li. I thought using songs describing his daughter and the Bai army would be more meaningful…”
A three-minute video.
Not long, but Bai Lian directly proved to netizens through action that this section should be played with such momentum.
Convincing all netizens with real skill.
[Who would believe that before today, I always thought Bai Shaoqi played very well, but her style really could be called soft…]
[I wanted to say this yesterday, but I saw all the hot comments were cursing the blogger, so I didn’t dare]
[Most people just follow trends. When someone scrolls to a video and hasn’t made their own judgment yet, hot comments quickly occupy their mind, subconsciously making them think what’s being said is right]
[Hot comments are also artificially controlled. Everyone should read more common people’s comments, don’t just look at hot comments, otherwise it will affect your judgment and cognitive level in the long run]
[…]
Bai Shaoqi mixed in drums and other sound effects to adjust this song’s magnificent momentum. Her understanding wasn’t wrong, but today, Yi Chi Yi Da Wan’s video proved—
This song doesn’t need drums, doesn’t need electronic music for adjustment, it only needs one guzheng to play out the killing intent of war!
Soon, someone posted screenshots of two comments from yesterday’s “Kang Lang Zou”: [Not every nobody should come trying to piggyback. How dare you evaluate when you know nothing? How could you understand ‘Gambling Wine’s’ style better than @Bai Shaoqi?] [Here’s a fun fact, Bai Shaoqi will be Principal Jian’s student in the future~]
Wind at the Eaves: [@Kang Lang Zou This is the style of ‘Gambling Wine’, understand?] (46,985 likes)
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