ATLAS TRANSLATES

Nowadays, few men learn to play the guzheng. Most people associate the guzheng with women.

But Jian Zhongyou is one of the few men who plays the guzheng. As a child, he was told that playing the guzheng was feminine, but he never let others’ words make him doubt himself.

Throughout history, there have always been male guzheng masters.

He became famous because of “<Bai Yi Xing>”. From being doubted to where he is now, his journey has been difficult and long.

He understands this piece of music well.

Today, many students are performing “<Bai Yi Xing>”, but compared to what he saw in the video, something is always missing.

In that viral video of someone eating a big bowl, the girl’s playing might not be smooth, her technique could even be called rusty.

But only Jian Zhongyou knows the emotion she poured into this piece –

Brilliant, dazzling, yet returning to silence!

Music is a way to make friends.

If properly guided, Jian Zhongyou believes she could play this piece to perfection!

Cherishing talent and loving talent, he doesn’t want to give up on such a promising student.

He’s willing to ask every day.

One day, he will move this future music academy’s top student!

The next student to perform was ready. Jian Zhongyou put down his phone and listened to the piece seriously.

**

When Lu Xiaohan sent Bailian a screenshot of Jian Zhongyou’s message, Bailian had just finished a meeting at the Calligraphy Association.

Jiang Fuli was discussing financial issues with Chou Xuezheng. Chou Xuezheng had specifically interviewed someone to take charge of the association’s finances.

Bailian sat to the side, not really understanding, so she opened her phone to do some practice questions.

She also replied to Lu Xiaohan –

[1]

Lu Xiaohan: [Understood]

Jiang Fuli sat at the eight-immortals table. Jiang He’er didn’t want to stay with him, so he was outside learning calligraphy with a group of children.

Chou Xuezheng opened his notebook and suddenly looked up, excited, “A new bus lane has been marked on the road opposite. It will open next week.”

This hasn’t been fully announced yet. Many businessmen have already bought a lot of houses.

Waiting to resell after the bus lane opens.

Chou Xuezheng also knew about this news.

Jiang Fuli wasn’t surprised by this news. The Xiangcheng Cultural Tourism Bureau’s planning was very good.

His left hand rested on the table, leaning casually yet straight against the chair back. His right hand was flipping through the association’s financial report. His fingers, with clear joints, closed the report, “About right. A high-speed rail will also pass through here in the future.”

“Really?” This news was truly unknown to Chou Xuezheng.

He sat up straight.

He didn’t even dare to dream of Xiangcheng having a high-speed rail.

“Mm.” Jiang Fuli responded casually.

He had seen the planning proposal. This matter hadn’t been officially announced yet, it was being held up in Jiangjing. Very few people knew about it. Jiang Fuli was curious about Xiangcheng’s affairs, so he had someone look into it.

He casually handed the notebook back to Chou Xuezheng.

Chou Xuezheng wanted to ask if Jiang Fuli had actually finished reading all those pages.

But he really didn’t dare to ask.

Jiang Fuli flipped through his phone. There were several unread messages from Ma Tongfeng.

Dean Ma: [She’s very polite and even sends me smiles]

But he had sent Bailian several messages about quantum mechanics research, and she hadn’t expressed her views on quantum mechanics.

Dean Ma was really anxious.

Even Jiang Fuli would occasionally humor him, giving him some vague promises.

Saying he’d come find him after finishing dark matter research.

Bailian didn’t even give vague promises, she was even more like an old man than him.

Dean Ma: [Polite and aloof, doesn’t talk much]

Dean Ma: [Can you help me ask about her thoughts?]

Jiang Fuli glanced at it and replied slowly –

[How did you know she bought me milk tea today?]

[Picture]

No way around it, Young Master Jiang really couldn’t find anyone else to show off to.

Little Bird Jiang would bring out an even bigger cup of fruit tea.

Ming Donghen wouldn’t understand at all.

Chen Ju…? He goes to Ji Heng’s house every day and even goes fishing with Ji Heng, even calling Ji Shao Jun his brother.

Young Master Jiang just doesn’t like him.

Counting it up, only Dean Ma was left.

Dean Ma: [??????]

On the other end of the phone, Dean Ma was very speechless!

No, is Young Master Jiang sick? Dean Ma drank a big glass of water to calm himself down. He didn’t dare to scold, so he asked about another matter –

[What did you do to the people at the affiliated middle school?]

Jiang Fuli: [?]

Dean Ma: [They came to me today asking if there were any mistakes in the chemistry and biology question banks that they hadn’t caught]

Jiang Fuli glanced at it and knew what was going on –

[Nothing, I just borrowed them to do some practice]

Dean Ma: [……]

Very good, even when not in Jiangjing, Jiang Fuli could still randomly scare a few people to death.

Those people from the affiliated middle school haven’t slept well for two days, reviewing all the questions.

Be a decent person.

Please.

After replying, Jiang Fuli put away his phone and looked at Bailian, “Want to go next door and take a look?”

Next door was the long-closed Xingyi Martial Arts Gym.

It suited Bailian perfectly.

When the two arrived at the door next door, a middle-aged man with dark skin was chasing out two men in suits, “Get out, I’m not selling!”

It was nearly November, and the weather had turned cool. Most people had put on jackets.

The middle-aged man was still wearing a T-shirt. When he raised his arm, you could see clearly defined muscles. His eyes were sharp, and you could tell at a glance he was a very powerful martial artist.

He glanced at Bailian and Jiang Fuli, “Are you here to buy the property too? I’m not selling.”

“No, Master Jin,” Bailian just smiled, “We just want to see what the martial arts gym used to look like.”

It was Saturday. Bailian was wearing a light brown pleated skirt with a loose jacket of the same color over it, relaxed and casual, with only delicate white auspicious cloud patterns embroidered on the cuffs and collar.

Her long hair was still casually tied back.

Her appearance had always been deceptive – polite, modest, deeply loved by elders.

Master Jin was no exception.

“I’m not a master anymore,” Master Jin opened the door, letting the two in, “Look around as you like.”

The Xingyi Martial Arts Gym was much larger than the Calligraphy Association.

As soon as you entered the gym, there was a huge training ground.

On the right side of the training ground were eight rows of wooden stakes, ten in each row, each spaced about a meter apart. Behind them were three stone tables, with stone stools piled up nearby.

A large open space was left.

In the middle was a 1-meter wide bluestone path, with grass growing in the cracks between the stones.

On the left was a training ground enclosed by stone bricks. Near the enclosing wall were two rows of weapon racks, which used to hold weapons but were now empty.

Following the bluestone path all the way forward, you could see a doorway. Walking through the doorway, you could see many rooms on both sides.

There were changing rooms, meditation rooms, sandbag rooms…

Walking past this long corridor, you could see the living quarters at the back, with a well. Master Jin lived in the corner and was currently drawing water. On both sides were huge dormitories.

This showed how prosperous the martial arts gym once was.

After looking around, Bailian and Jiang Fuli politely said goodbye.

“Do you have any thoughts?” Jiang Fuli opened the door, slightly lowering his head to ask.

Bailian shook her head. She raised her hand to shield her eyes from the sunlight, saying softly, “I’ll ask around some more.”

She still didn’t know how this martial arts gym had gone out of business.

** Monday.

All the high schools in North City were tallying up student scores.

Xiangcheng No.1 High School was no exception.

The principal arrived at school early and gathered all the homeroom teachers for a meeting.

“Teacher Lu,” as soon as Lu Lingxi arrived, the principal and the director of teaching urged her, “Quickly check how many points Ning Xiao got in your class.”

Lu Lingxi knew they were anxious. She sat at the computer, logged in with her ID number as a homeroom teacher, pulled up the class student scores, and directly searched for “Ning Xiao” in the search bar.

The page kept spinning.

Today, all the high schools in North City were checking scores, and the North City Education Network clearly couldn’t handle it.

It took nearly a minute before it came up: Name: Ning Xiao

Subject, Score, Ranking Chinese, 122, 74 Math, 121, 5 English, 131, 109 Science: 248, 25 Total: 632, 31 “31?!” The principal was startled by this ranking and couldn’t help but exclaim.

This ranking showed the ranking for all of North City.

In the last joint exam, Ning Xiao was still outside the top 100, but now he suddenly shot up to 31?! “This can compare with that international class in North City, right?” The director of teaching couldn’t help but speak up.

They all knew about the international class at North City No.1 High School, with a total of forty students, the most competitive school in all of North City, sending several students to Jiangjing University every year.

Hearing this, the other teachers all looked over.

“How did his scores improve so quickly? Even Chen Zhu is only around 80th place, right?”

No student from all of Xiangcheng had ever been in the top fifty before. This was the first time, and all the teachers were very excited, “Look at his math, top five! And science, also in the top thirty!”

“121 points,” the head of the math department adjusted his glasses, “I heard Song Min got 130 in math, Ning Xiao isn’t far behind him.”

“Yes, top five. Not many in the international class at North City No.1 High can compare to Ning Xiao,” the director of teaching looked at the principal, unable to hide his excitement, “Ask Director Pan if this score is good enough. Will North City give us more resources in the next joint exam?”

Xiangcheng No.1 High had never had a student rank in the top ten in a single subject before.

Ning Xiao was the first! Top five in math, what does that mean! Even at North City No.1 High, that would be one in ten thousand!

The principal naturally knew this too. He stared at the screen, calling Director Pan, feeling that this time they might really have something! Lu Lingxi was also shocked by Ning Xiao’s scores.

Everyone else was congratulating Lu Lingxi.

Their gazes were particularly envious.

Being able to produce a student ranked 31st in all of North City was not only a glorious achievement for the school but also for all of Xiangcheng.

Only the homeroom teacher of Class 8 looked at Lu Lingxi and suddenly spoke up, “Search for Bailian.”

“Oh.” Lu Lingxi came back to her senses and started searching for Bailian’s name.

She pressed the enter key.

The page was still spinning.

The other teachers were much more relaxed than before, “Bai, her chemistry is a bit weak, not sure about her math. Last time her math was five points higher than Ning Xiao, Ning Xiao got a multiple choice question wrong.”

“Could her math be in the top ten too?” one teacher boldly imagined.

Most teachers didn’t know much about Bailian, but they knew she was a girl, “Probably not, right? I think Bai is good at Chinese. The math was so hard this time, she probably won’t be higher than Ning Xiao.”

Everyone was guessing casually. Lu Lingxi smiled, she knew Bailian well, “Don’t look down on girls, okay? You’ll see, Bailian might get 120 in math.”

After all, Song Min was rumored to have only gotten 130. Lu Lingxi knew the two students in her class very well, but she didn’t expect them to compare with that Song Min.

As they were talking.

“Whoosh-“

Bailian’s scores came up.

Name: Bailian

Subject, Score, Ranking Chinese, 150, 1 Math, 150, 1 English, 126, 137 Science: 182, 966 Total: 608, 97 Under the computer screen, these few rows of scores were so clear. The teachers who were still chatting, including Lu Lingxi, all stopped moving.

They just silently looked at the first two rows –

[Chinese, 150, 1 Math, 150, 1]

The principal, who was talking to Director Pan, naturally saw this too and suddenly fell silent.

The whole room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

For about a minute.

The always cultured homeroom teacher of Class 8 softly uttered one word: “Damn.”

Good morning.

I posted on Weibo yesterday, and I’ll say it again formally today, [Our super topic official has not organized any activities], little ones, don’t randomly join groups or meet up, there are so many scammers online, [be careful of scams], babies! Ah, so frustrating, I really want to crawl to those little ones’ bedsides at midnight and wake them up one by one!