Divine Level Witch Doctor

The upperclassman huffed and said, ”Chen Jiao asked me to come teach the Guqin. You’re the ones who want to learn, right?”

As he spoke, his gaze kept drifting toward Lin Xue. Even at an arts academy, a girl as sweet as her was a rare sight.

He couldn’t help but think, ’If only this girl was the one learning the Guqin. I could use the lessons as a chance to hit on her. It’d be amazing if I could win over a girl this sweet and cute. I’d make a ton of guys green with envy!’

However, his fantasy had barely begun before it was mercilessly crushed.

Zhao Yuan said, ”Thank you. I’m the one who wants to learn the Guqin.”

”You?” The upperclassman’s brow furrowed in obvious displeasure, and his tone grew even colder. But he had already promised Chen Jiao, so he couldn’t refuse. He grumbled, ”Let me give you a fair warning. The Guqin isn’t easy to learn. It requires talent! And you won’t see any results without years of arduous practice.”

The implication was clear: if you fail to learn, don’t blame me. It won’t be because I’m a bad teacher, but because you lack the talent.

Despite the upperclassman’s bad attitude, he had been invited to help, so Zhao Yuan remained polite. He explained, ”I only want to learn a single piece. You just need to teach me how to play it proficiently. New Year’s Day is coming up, and I plan on performing it for the show.”

The upperclassman put on a pretentious air, holding his head high. ”It’s less than a month until New Year’s Day. If you’re talented and work hard, you might be able to learn a piece in about twenty days. But you’ll only be able to play the notes; your skill level won’t be very high. By the way, have you ever studied the Guqin before? Do you have any experience at all?”

”Never studied it, no experience. I’m not aiming for a high level of skill; being able to play it smoothly is good enough,” Zhao Yuan replied humbly.

The upperclassman nodded slightly and asked, ”Which piece do you want to learn? ’Flowing Water’? ’Evening Song of a Drunken Fisherman’? Or ’White Snow in Early Spring’?”

The pieces he mentioned were all rather famous Guqin compositions, ones the general public would be familiar with.

”None of those.” Zhao Yuan pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to the upperclassman. ”It’s a Piano Score I wrote myself.”

He had already shamelessly plagiarized the choreography for Cloud Flying Immortal, so he felt no embarrassment in also plagiarizing Wu Peng’s Cloud Flying Immortal Melody.

”A Piano Score you wrote? Are you kidding me?!” the upperclassman exclaimed, stunned.

’Their earlier conversation had confirmed for him that Zhao Yuan was a total rookie who knew absolutely nothing about playing the Guqin. Yet now, this rookie was claiming he had written a Piano Score... That was like an illiterate who couldn’t recognize a single word claiming to have written a book. This wasn’t just being pretentious, it was being a complete moron!’

Zhao Yuan pointed to the paper he had pushed into the upperclassman’s hand. ”I’m not kidding. The Piano Score is right here, take a look.”

The upperclassman glanced down. The paper didn’t have a five-line staff, nor did it use the common Jianzi notation for the Guqin. Instead, it was covered in densely packed characters.

He didn’t bother to read it carefully, just gave it a quick scan. He saw a few phrases that seemed to describe finger techniques, along with many strange, unrecognizable characters. Some resembled Jianzi notation, but were clearly not the same.

The upperclassman burst out laughing. ”What is this garbage?” he mocked. ”And you have the audacity to call it a Piano Score? These bizarre characters... are you trying to imitate Jianzi notation? Every character in real Jianzi notation has a specific meaning. Did you think you could just invent a few and have them work? So naive!”

Zhao Yuan frowned. ”This really is a Piano Score. Please take a closer look.”

Unfortunately, the upperclassman was convinced Zhao Yuan was just messing around. He couldn’t be bothered to give the Piano Score another look, tossing it aside as he turned to leave.

”I’m very busy; I don’t have time for this nonsense. A guy who’s never even touched a Guqin shamelessly claims he wrote a Piano Score... I don’t know if I should call you arrogant or just a moron. And Chen Jiao, too, for giving me this ridiculous job. When I see her, I’m definitely going to give her a piece of my mind!”

Speak of the devil.

The upperclassman’s voice had barely faded when Chen Jiao appeared at the doorway of the dance studio.

He immediately went on the attack. ”Chen Jiao, don’t you ever ask me to do this kind of moronic job again. Otherwise, don’t blame me for getting hostile!”

Chen Jiao was taken aback. ”What’s wrong?” she asked, confused.

The upperclassman fumed, ”You asked me to come teach the Guqin, and I did. But do you know what? This kid wants me to teach him a piece he claims to have composed himself. How is that not complete nonsense? He doesn’t have a shred of experience with the Guqin, yet he dares to compose? And expects *me* to teach it? He’s making a monkey out of me!”

However, Chen Jiao’s reaction completely surprised the upperclassman. Instead of siding with him and reprimanding Zhao Yuan, she turned to Zhao Yuan with a shocked expression and asked, ”You can compose music, too?”

Zhao Yuan nodded.

”Where’s the music score?” Chen Jiao asked.

’In her mind, if Zhao Yuan—who didn’t know how to dance—could choreograph the stunning Cloud Flying Immortal dance, then it wasn’t so strange for him to compose music without knowing how to play the Guqin.’

Chen Jiao was now filled with anticipation. Since the Cloud Flying Immortal dance that Zhao Yuan had choreographed was so magnificent, what would the music that accompanied it be like? Would it be equally sensational?

”He threw it on the floor,” Lin Xue said indignantly.

She was on Zhao Yuan’s side and was very unhappy that the upperclassman had thrown Zhao Yuan’s music score on the floor.

”Yao Jie, look what you’ve done!” Chen Jiao shot the upperclassman—Yao Jie—a fierce glare, then strode over and carefully picked up the music score.

Her words, attitude, and actions left Yao Jie stunned and bewildered. ’What’s going on?’ he thought. ’Does Chen Jiao actually think this kid can compose music? Even so, does she have to be this dramatic? And she yelled at me? Has she lost her mind?’

While he was still puzzling over this, another person walked into the dance studio.

Yao Jie recognized her at a glance. It was Chen Jiao’s teacher, the national treasure-level dancer, Zhang Liping.

’Why is Teacher Zhang here?’ Yao Jie had been on the verge of snapping at Chen Jiao, but upon seeing Zhang Liping, he quickly swallowed his words.

’Zhang Liping was famously protective of her students. If he insulted Chen Jiao in front of her, his career at the arts academy would be over!’

In that short time, Chen Jiao had already picked up the Piano Score. After scanning it briefly, her brow furrowed.

Like Yao Jie, she couldn’t make sense of this music score. While some of the text seemed to be descriptive notation for playing techniques, the strange characters interspersed throughout were completely incomprehensible. It was reminiscent of Jianzi notation, yet entirely different.

Chen Jiao turned and presented the music score to Zhang Liping. ”Teacher, please take a look at this music score.”

Nearby, Yao Jie’s jaw dropped.

’You’re actually showing the Piano Score that kid slapped together to Zhang Liping? Are you serious?!’

He never would have imagined that something even more unbelievable was yet to come…