Translator: Pika
However, Zu An’s thoughts were soon brought back to the arithmetic class he was going to have at the Sky class. This was the first time he was going to make an appearance. Entering the class normally wouldn’t highlight just how extraordinary he was.
After racking his brain for a way out, Zu An’s eyes lit up. He made his way over to the administrative building, but the staff there told him that Shang Liuyu wasn’t in the office but in her dormitory. So, Zu An began making his way over to the staff’s dormitory.
Seeing this, the staff in the office couldn’t help but mock him.
“Yet another one who has gone bonkers over Teacher Shang, huh?”
“Teacher Shang’s charm is really on another level. Didn’t you see how even Discipline Master Lu tries to capture her attention too?”
“Wait a moment, doesn’t Lu De already have a wife?”
“It’s the second spring of a middle-aged man. Well, you get it.”
“It’s one thing for Discipline Master Lu to make a move, but even this little fellow wants to court Teacher Shang too. He really should learn his place.”
“Why didn’t you tell him that Teacher Shang never allows anyone to enter her courtyard? That fellow’s effort would only end in vain.”
“Hah. A mere Yellow class student actually manages to become a teacher by pulling some connections or something. It would be good to make him suffer a bit.”
...
Oblivious to the fact that he was being thought of as a joke back in the office, Zu An rushed over to the staff’s dormitory. Following the instructions of the staff, he ran all the way to Shang Liuyu’s residence.
Tok tok tok, Zu An knocked on her door.
At the same time, he secretly took out his key token to give it a try, but the residence showed no signs of opening. Indeed, there was no way the academy would have made such an elementary mistake with the dormitory.
“Who is it?”
A lethargic voice sounded from the courtyard. It had a chilly edge that relayed the impatience of its owner.
“Big sister Shang, it’s me!” replied Zu An.
Naturally, he wouldn’t call her Teacher Shang like others did. That would be too formal and distant!
“You were looking for me?” asked Shang Liuyu.
Zu An looked at the firmly closed door before him as he wondered what she meant by this. Given our ties, you wouldn’t even open the door for me? Still, considering that he was the one who had a favor to ask, he decided to answer honestly, “I have a melody which I need big sister Shang to help me play.”
There was a moment of silence in the courtyard before the door opened a little. Shang Liuyu’s cool voice sounded, “Come in.”
Without thinking much into it, Zu An walked in and found that Shang Liuyu’s residence looked much more picturesque than his. There was even a pool in her courtyard filled with clear water that glistened under the sunlight.
A private swimming pool? How extravagant!
Zu An felt that he should complain about this to Jiang Luofu about the difference in treatment between the two of them. The 7,500,000 silver taels he had spent shouldn’t go to vain!
“You have come up with a new melody?” a gentle voice sounded.
Zu An turned around, and his eyes immediately lit up.
Shang Liuyu was dressed in a loose robe that revealed her collar bone. She was busy wiping her wet hair, but there were still some water droplets trailing down her skin, as if she had just taken a bath. The length of the robe was of perfect length, exposing the beautiful curvature of her legs. Her fingernails were painted a light shade of pink, which brought attention to her slender fingers. She casually flung her hair sideways before lying down on a rattan chair hanging beneath a tree.
With a lazy vibe, she asked, “You didn’t come all the way here just to gape at me, right?”
“Ah, of course not! I have a melody which I need you to play for me.”
Zu An’s face actually turned red in her presence. Most women, when faced with the assessing stare of a man, would either get embarrassed or angry, but Shang Liuyu’s eyes carried an air of nonchalance, as if she had already seen past mortal desires. Her casual attitude made Zu An feel embarrassed about himself instead.
“What melody is it?” asked Shang Liuyu in curiosity.
In truth, there were plenty of people who used this excuse to approach her. It was hardly a secret that she was fond of good melodies, but most of them couldn’t even pique her interest. However, the melody Zu An played back at the gazebo amazed her, touching the deepest sentiments she had concealed in the bottom of her heart.
It was a melody that was different from how music was typically played in this world, but the path of music shared a commonality—it aimed to touch a person’s soul. It was the melody he played that filled her with curiosity and goodwill toward this young man. She couldn’t figure how someone as young as he was would be able to play such a beautiful and emotional melody.
“The name of this melody is called ‘God of Gamblers!”
Zu An had been thinking about how he could make a suave appearance, so naturally, he turned to all of the cool entrances he had seen in films. In the end, he came to a conclusion. A suave entrance can’t do without a BGM!
Unfortunately, this world didn’t have voice recorders. He couldn’t possibly play his own BGM while walking in. That would just look terribly awkward and underwhelming. He needed to find someone to play it for him. Of everyone he was acquainted with, the only one who could help him with this favor was only Shang Liuyu.
Though admittedly, it was also an excuse to find this beautiful teacher once more.
“God of Gamblers?” Shang Liuyu had a peculiar look in her eyes when she heard the name. “It does sound quite fitting with you. How does the melody go?”
Clearly, she had also heard about how Zu An won 7,500,000 silver taels in the Silverhook Casino.
“Let me demonstrate it once first.” Zu An could remember how the melody roughly went, but playing it out was a different matter. After all, the BGM he had heard in his previous world wasn’t played with a single instrument. It was a melody consisting of multiple instruments carefully synthesized together.
Initially, Shang Liuyu didn’t think much of the matter, but as soon as Zu An began humming the melody, she sat upright to listen intently to him.
After Zu An finished humming the melody, he looked at her with an anxious look on his face as he asked, “How is it?”
Shang Liuyu breathed out deeply before saying, “This melody harnesses some sort of magic that compels one’s heart to race passionately. I felt the shivers from it. It sounds a bit like the war songs of the beastmen, but it’s different from that. How did you manage to do it?”
“Ahahaha, that’s not important for now. I want to know if you’re able to play it out in full,” asked Zu An anxiously.
He was worried not about whether Shang Liuyu would like it or not but whether she could emulate it properly. After all, its popularity had already been tested in his previous life.
“This melody is a little weird. Let me give it a try. Can you hum it once more for me?” Shang Liuyu pulled out an unusual instrument from her residence that looked a little like a harp. The harp was made of a material that had a glistening texture like jade and emanated a faint blue light.
Shang Liuyu’s graceful fingers strummed the strings on the harp, producing a sound that was very different from harps. The music range of the instrument seemed to be far wider, and it could produce sounds that the instruments in his previous life couldn’t.
Shang Liuyu thought about the melody she had just heard as her fingers began moving along the ‘harp’. For parts which she was uncertain about, she would turn to Zu An to seek clarification. Slowly but surely, the God of Gamblers BGM was being recreated in the world of cultivation.
“Why do you suddenly need me to play this melody?” Shang Liuyu slowly began to relax as the melody approached completion, so she turned to Zu An and asked out of curiosity.
Toward that question, Zu An replied, “Needless to say, it’s to use it for my own background music...”
He began to explain how he was going to conduct an arithmetic class in the Sky class later on.
Shang Liuyu chuckled at his response. “You sure put in a lot of effort in order to change Chu First Miss’ impression of you.”
“It’s not just for her. This is my first time teaching a class as a teacher, which makes my entrance even more important. Ah right, do you think I should put on some make-up? Do you think putting on a pair of glasses would make me look more mature?”
Before Shang Liuyu could answer, the voice of a young woman suddenly sounded, “I knew it! Shang Liuyu, you’re hiding here!”
The voice had a clear and melodious quality to it, but it was a pity that it had an oppressive tone that left one feeling uncomfortable.
Zu An turned his gaze over. Standing by the door which he had forgotten to close earlier stood a woman dressed in red. She had an ostentatious pearl necklace hanging around her neck which highlighted her smooth complexion, as well as a jade bracelet around her wrist.
With a quick sweep, he could tell that all of the accessories the woman wore were expensive.
“Isn’t this woman afraid of getting robbed flaunting her wealth openly like this?” murmured Zu An under his breath.
Even though the woman was wearing rather extravagantly, she didn’t give off the crass scent of a nouveau riche. Admittedly though, it could be just her beautiful appearance at play here.
“You are?” Shang Liuyu looked at the woman standing by the doorway with doubtful eyes.
That woman’s rage intensified. “Shang Liuyu, you don’t know me?! I had taken one of your classes before!”
Shang Liuyu replied calmly, “I don’t go through the trouble of remembering each and every one of my students’ names.
She emanated an air of composure that seemed to curb the woman’s fiery temper, leaving the latter with no room to act up.
It was then that a man walked up and introduced the woman, “This is the First Miss of the Sunspring Duke’s Wu clan, Wu Qing.”
Another man stood forward right after and added, “She’s ranked fifth on the Sweetheart Ranking. Teacher Shang, how could you not have heard of someone as famous as her?”
“Fuck, Wu Qing?” exclaimed Zu An. He had never imagined that anyone would have such a weird name.[1]
However, his remark caused the trio to immediately turn their heads toward him. With a slightly awful look on her face, Wu Qing asked, “What did you just say?”
You have successfully trolled Wu Qing for +233 Rage!
Zu An belatedly realized what he had just said, so he quickly clarified, “No no, I mean it as an exclamation. I didn't mean that I want to fuck you or anything... Gah! Anyway, it’s not what you’re thinking!”
He felt like he was only worsening the situation with his explanation.
“How dare you use such vile words to take advantage of Miss Wu!” The two lackeys beside the woman looked at Zu An with an incredulous look on their faces as they began to berate him.
“State your name! I would like to see which clan you are from to dare act so insolently!” Wu Qing’s face remained livid, as if a volcano on the verge of an explosion.
1. Wu Qing is a homonym for ‘Heartless’.
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