Chapter 269: 154 Chickenpox (First Revision)

Early in the morning, Gu Jiao headed to the Medical Hall.

There were a few patients in the morning, but business was slow in the afternoon, so Gu Jiao took a break in her small courtyard.

Separated from her by only a single wall was the small garden of the girls’ school.

In the garden, there was a pavilion.

Normally, no one came here, but at this moment a girl was there, plucking on an instrument.

Her playing was less than satisfactory, erratic, to say the least, and the notes were wrong.

Gu Jiao lay on a wicker chair to rest and regenerate, only to be tormented by the life-draining music of the girl.

She swung open the door and walked out, looking in the direction of the courtyard wall and said, “You’re playing it wrong.”

The girl was understandably startled, not expecting anyone to hear her plucking the guqin, her fingers slipped, releasing another grating note.

Gu Jiao felt her hair stand on end!

“Who’s there?” the girl questioned.

She looked around but found no one nearby.

“Your music is out of tune.” Gu Jiao replied.

The girl finally understood; the person speaking was beyond the courtyard walls.

She paused for a moment, questioning, “Out of tune? But I just bought this guqin.”

The quality of this guqin wasn’t very high. A typical, well-off young lady might not purchase such a low-quality instrument, this made Gu Jiao assume that the girl’s status wasn’t high, why else would she be hiding in the corner to practice?

“Bring it here.” Gu Jiao demanded.

“How…how do I bring it?” the puzzled girl asked.

Gu Jiao glanced at the over-a-person-high courtyard wall, suppressing the impulse to climb over and potentially scare the girl to death. She asked calmly, “Can you find the tuning peg?”

After a while, there was a response from the other side: “I found it.”

Gu Jiao instructed, “I’ll direct, and you tune it. The third string–”

“Huh?” It was evident that the girl was a novice.

Originally, the guqin had only had five strings. Later, one string was added by King Wen, and another by King Wu, converting it into a seven-string instrument, also known as the seven-stringed guqin.

Each of its seven strings had a unique name: Palace, Shang, Angle, Zhi, Feather, Wen, and Wu.

Gu Jiao directed, “The third string, the angle string.”

“Oh, oh!” The girl reached up and plucked the guqin lightly.

Gu Jiao informed her, “The pitch is too high, loosen the tuning peg a bit.”

After the girl loosened the tuning peg and plucked the string again, she asked, “How about now?”

Gu Jiao replied, “You’ve loosened it too much, and the pitch has become low. Make it a bit tighter.”

“Oh.” The girl carefully turned the tuning peg again.

This time, the tune was finally set right.

Subsequently, she adjusted the remaining six strings one by one under Gu Jiao’s guidance.

After playing a song she learned in class, she happily exclaimed, “It sounds so much better now!”

Gu Jiao rolled her eyes.

That was supposed to sound good?

Did you perhaps misunderstand what ‘good’ means?

“Thank you for your help! I was so frustrated; I was planning to do a bit of practice and give up, but now I’ve changed my mind! I won’t go anywhere this afternoon, just practice here!”

Gu Jiao:… Is it too late for me to take back my help?

Gu Jiao, who was tortured by the life-taking sound of the guqin in the afternoon, emerged with a face as black as coal.

Meanwhile, Gu Jinyu had just finished practicing her guqin in the Music Hall of the girls’ school.

Every time she practiced, a crowd would be drawn by her reputation to enjoy the show.

Her guqin music was said to linger around the beam for three days and never fade out.

“Miss Hui, how did you become so proficient? The teacher only taught the song this morning, and in the afternoon, you mastered it. Have you been practicing hard in your spare time?”

“Yes, yes, Miss Hui. Please share your experiences with us!”

Two young ladies admired Gu Jinyu.

Gu Jinyu, holding her Yueying Fo Xi guqin, smiled lightly, “You’re too kind to call me a young lady; feel free to call me by my name. To be honest, I haven’t practiced in a while; I’m surprised you don’t find my play distasteful.”

Young Lady A: “Oh, my God! If this is what you play like after being absent for so long, how amazing would you be if you practice a bit?”

Young Lady B: “Miss Gu, is that a Yueying Fo Xi guqin in your hands? It’s the only one of its kind, made by the top guqin master in the Chen Kingdom, Yueying!”

Everyone was so envious they almost drooled.

Young Lady C: “Miss Gu, may we take a closer look?”

“Of course.” Gu Jinyu handed out her guqin.

The crowd pressed in to carefully examine the legendary Yueying Fo Xi guqin.

As befitting the number one guqin in the six kingdoms, the guqin’s surface, strings, emblem, head, and tail, each part was near perfection.

Why near perfection? Because the truly perfect guqin was the legendary Fo Xi guqin.

But there were no more Fo Xi guqins, so, of course, Yueying became the number one guqin of the six kingdoms.

In the girls’ school, the two most popular girls were the daughters of the Marquis Residence, Gu Jinyu, and the granddaughter of Chief Zhuang, Zhuang Yuexi.