Chapter 45: The duet of guzheng and erhu

They quickly made up their minds.

"Go and ask Lin Feng. Just let him play that piece from before."

When Lin Feng heard what had happened, he was hesitant at first.

In his previous life, Madam Lin was a famous beauty, catching everyone’s attention everywhere she went, so performing in front of so many people at gatherings was not something he was unfamiliar with.

To Lin Feng, playing the erhu itself was nothing particularly difficult, but right now, his identity was different.

He, Lin Feng, now had a secret that he was worried everyone would discover.

Grandpa Wang saw his hesitation and assumed he lacked confidence.

"Xiao Feng, this is also a good opportunity for you," he said gently. "You can earn some money, and the compensation for a finale performance should be quite good. More importantly, you can use this opportunity to build your confidence."

He smiled at the boy. "Sometimes, you just need to get used to being noticed. The more you face people’s attention, the less you’ll care about it. And once you become confident enough to stand on your own feet, you won’t be so afraid of what other people think of you."

Grandpa Wang was right.

If he wanted to become independent, he couldn’t keep hiding from the attention of others forever.

After a moment, Lin Feng nodded.

"All right. I’ll do it."

However, just as Lin Feng went backstage to prepare for the final performance, the staff members who had gone to retrieve the spare erhu discovered something.

Their faces instantly turned horrified.

.....

The audience was fully packed. There were many locals, but a large portion had come after seeing the viral post.

Curious, they had come to watch the gossip and see the beauty for themselves, wanting to know whether he was really as beautiful as the videos and pictures showed, or if it was simply another case of a monster transforming into a fairy through the thick layer of beauty filters!

Housekeeper Yang’s face was tense. He had already heard of the incident and felt that things were not so simple.

Despite his efforts, he could not fully ascertain if anyone harboring malicious intent against the young master was in the crowd. However, just a quick scan of the audience resulted in Housekeeper Yang noticing a few young people who were clearly from influential families. He had asked the bodyguards to keep an eye on them, but they remained in place and did not make any other movements.

Except for the boy from the Tang family who had been approached by the staff members, no one else made any suspicious movements.

Now, something like backstage sabotage had happened, forcing Young Master Lin Feng to step in as a substitute.

He could not help but feel that it was way too much of a coincidence!

However, the young master had already agreed and was about to go on stage.

Housekeeper Yang and the bodyguards could only strengthen their defenses and keep watch nearby.

.....

Several girls were frowning as they looked around, looking for their idol’s figure in the crowd.

"Earlier, he was just in front. Why did he suddenly disappear?"

"Someone called him out, then he left."

"What? So we can’t see him anymore?"

They sighed in disappointment.

"Forget it, at least we saw him earlier. I even bought a cookie! I heard he baked it himself."

"We got pictures too!"

Just as they were cheering themselves up, the stage lights dimmed to prepare for the closing performance. Several figures walked toward the center of the stage, preparing for the final performance.

On the stage, there were shadows of several people.

Smoke effects began to billow in the air, slowly filling the stage and settling on the stage floor, moving slowly like misty water.

Everyone quieted down.

Under the dim shadows, the first sound was a single, clear note from the guzheng.

It rang out like a drop of water falling into a still pond, bright and delicate, its resonance lingering in the air before slowly fading into silence. It was followed by another similar note.

Then another.

Slowly, the clear guzheng tones began to converge, each pluck clean and crystalline, like tiny bells being struck one after another. The notes were soft and slightly distant, leaving a faint echo behind them before the next sound took their place.

Then the erhu slowly slid in, and the dim lighting began to slowly light up along with it, softly illuminating the stage.

The audience’s eyes widened as they saw the faces of the people on stage clearly.

The familiar ensemble members who had supported the earlier performances were present, along with two new faces.

There was Lin Feng, the gentle and inhumanly beautiful boy with amber eyes and soft brown hair, brimming with warmth and refined elegance as he sat with a straight back, gently plucking the guzheng.

And there was another boy with a cool and indifferent temperament, with black hair and black eyes contrasting with his alabaster skin, like snow on a mountaintop. He was playing the erhu.

Everyone on stage wore vibrant red traditional Song Dynasty-style hanfu robes. Especially the two boys standing in the middle, the rich crimson color contrasted sharply with their snow-white skin, completely stunning the crowd with their breathtaking beauty.

One was a graceful beauty whose soft brown hair and amber eyes, combined with the vibrant red robes, made him look almost like a spiritual fox.

The other was an aloof nobleman whose black hair and black eyes gave him a demonic appearance in the red robes.

Some girls with fujoshi tendencies began to hold their wildly beating hearts, falling into a delusion.

’It’s like seeing the wedding of an immortal master and his nine-tailed white fox!’

The bow drew across the strings with a low, plaintive sound, as though someone were quietly singing without words. It slipped beneath the guzheng’s clear notes, giving the melody a deeper warmth and a faint ache.

The ensemble of pipa and drums slowly followed, quietly beating under the harmony of the guzheng and pipa.

"Big Fish and Begonia." The audience easily recognized the recently famous musical piece.

"Wow... Lin Feng know how to play the guzheng..." the girls thought distractedly.

The music gradually began to flow, converging into an emotional and moving bridge, tentatively responding to each other, like a fish gazing up to see a begonia flower hanging above the waters.

This musical piece easily rendered everyone speechless with its breathtaking beauty.

It was as if the guzheng was a gentleman responding softly to the soft and plaintive sighs of a lady beyond a wall.

The guzheng notes became stronger, spilling one after another like clear water running over smooth stones. The erhu followed, its long, trembling notes weaving through the flowing melody.

A duet between the guzheng and the erhu.

At times, the duet would subside, their notes as light as a breeze passing through bamboo.

At others, the erhu rose with a soft, lingering cry, while the guzheng answered with bright notes that scattered like ripples beneath moonlight.

The melody continued to build as all the individual instrumental notes began to intertwine, until the music was filled with simmering emotional undercurrents. The guzheng remained clear and sparkling above it, while the erhu carried the longer, warmer tones underneath. Together, they created a sound that was both delicate and expansive, like water stretching endlessly beneath an open sky, and one could almost see the fish bravely calling out to the begonia flower, asking for its grace.

Then the melody rose.

The guzheng’s notes became brighter and more rapid, cascading forward like a stream suddenly breaking free of its banks, the simmering emotions reaching a breaking point, unable to resist the longing and wanting to break out of the water. The erhu climbed with it, its voice becoming fuller and more intense, the bow drawing out long notes that seemed to tremble in the air, as if willing to fall into the deep and unfathomable abyss below, just to fulfill each other’s longing.

For a moment, the music reached a gentle height, as the fish leaped out of the water, reaching for the skies, and the begonia flower fell from its branches. Everything seemed suspended in the air.

The bright plucked notes and the mournful strings intertwined, rising and falling together like waves beneath the wind.

Then everything gradually softened.

The fish could only fall back into the waters, and the begonia could not survive in the depths of the water.

They were just not meant to be with each other. Some things were simply fated as such.

The guzheng slowed first, its notes becoming farther apart, each one clear and bell-like before fading away.

The erhu followed with a final, long note, like the last echo of a distant sob carried away by the wind.

Then the final note disappeared, leaving only silence.

As the final note disappeared, Tang Rui remained dazed for a moment.

He looked down at the erhu bow still in his hand before slowly lifting his gaze toward the boy sitting about a meter away from him, in front of the guzheng.

Even now, Tang Rui was still confused about how he had ended up here.