Chapter 19: This is no longer

The piano room was silent.

The youth lowered his head and dropped his fingers.

The first note leaped from his fingertips like a drop of silver water falling into the center of a lake.

Then ripples spread out in circles; his wrists rose and fell like butterfly wings, and Bach's "Minuet" shed its ancient, rigid edges in this graceful rhythm, the piano keys rising and falling like a river stained by moonlight...

But this youth was Lu Mingfei!

Liu Miaomiao's eyes, which usually looked so well-behaved, inevitably widened; she watched everything before her, and even though she belonged to the group that had watched from the very beginning, she couldn't help but wonder if she were dreaming.

Bach's "Minuet" is generally classified as a "beginner piece," and for a girl like Liu Miaomiao, who had achieved Grade 10 in Piano by the second year of middle school, it was the kind of level she could play easily with her eyes closed.

But Lu Mingfei was a beginner.

"Minuet" requires both hands to play independent polyphonic melodies, especially combining the triple meter of the left hand with the grace notes of the right—it places high demands on a beginner's hand-brain coordination, rhythmic stability, and note memory.

For a normal, complete zero-foundation piano beginner, to learn how to proficiently master this "beginner piece" through conventional steps, even with two hours of practice every day, would take at least a few months.

And Lu Mingfei?

Liu Miaomiao looked at the wall clock in a daze; time... only two hours had passed!

"Teacher."

Liu Miaomiao whispered to Shanshan Ayi, "Two hours from a zero-foundation beginner to being able to proficiently play 'Minuet'—is Lu Mingfei a piano genius?"

"Miaomiao..."

Shanshan Ayi glanced at Liu Miaomiao, her expression meaningful, "How long did it take you from starting to master it?"

"Two months." Liu Miaomiao always spoke in a soft, thin voice; she was the type of pretty girl who was a bit delicate.

"Normal people need three months; you taking two months is already considered gifted, and those with extremely high talent, who have been immersed in music since childhood or come from musical families, can do it in about a month."

Shanshan Ayi said slowly.

"Two hours from zero foundation to proficient mastery—this can no longer be described as 'genius,' because 'genius' seems so pale and weak at this moment... Do you know Yevgeny Kissin?"

"Of course I do."

"It is said that when he was eleven months old, he could hum the Bach fugues his sister played, and at two years old, he began to play the melodies he heard on the piano, able to perform based entirely on his amazing auditory memory without even knowing how to read music.

At four years old, without having received any formal training, he could improvise piano pieces, with melodic structures and harmonic logic far exceeding his peers.

At eleven, he mastered Chopin's 'Piano Concerto No. 1' in ten days... We generally rate the talent of such people as 'non-human' level, or what is commonly known as being 'blessed by the heavens.'"

Shanshan Ayi sighed with emotion.

"Two hours, from recognizing keys to reading music to playing... if your desk-mate didn't learn this in advance, then he can't be described as a genius; he should go sit at the same table as Kissin, because neither of them are human!"

"You mean..." Liu Miaomiao immediately understood what Shanshan Ayi meant.

But how could this be possible?

Liu Miaomiao knew Lu Mingfei; strictly speaking, they had known each other since middle school. Shilan Middle School had both middle and high school divisions; she and Lu Mingfei were in the same class in middle school, and they still were in high school.

From the first year of middle school to the third year of high school, that was five and a half years; Liu Miaomiao certainly knew what kind of person Lu Mingfei was—

Cowardly and pathetic, with no special skills other than playing games, bottom-of-the-barrel grades, almost no friends in class, and hardly anyone even bothered to talk to him. Oh, and he had liked Chen Wenwen since high school...

It was just that those "fixed impressions" had suddenly started to be overturned in these past two days, like a sudden gale, that salted fish that had been lying on the ground gasping for breath for five and a half years and was nearly buried, suddenly gave a jump—

And thus transformed into a dragon and soared!

But a salted fish cannot transform into a dragon, just as a real ugly duckling will never turn into a white swan.

Unless this salted fish was a dragon all along, just hiding it... but how could that be explained?

Who would be willing to fall into the mud and roll around if they could live the life of a "heavenly pride" amidst the envy, jealousy, and hatred of others? Were they bored or something?

"He..."

Liu Miaomiao hesitated for a moment, but finally made a choice, deciding to clarify things for Lu Mingfei. Her voice was as soft and thin as ever, "I've known him for almost six years; he shouldn't be that kind of person."

Actually, the meaning behind Liu Miaomiao's words was simple—Lu Mingfei's past appearance couldn't possibly have been faked; perhaps he really was a rare, peerless genius who had a sudden epiphany.

There are so many people in China; every year there are always one or two "legends."

I believe every high school senior has heard their teacher tell stories of some prodigal son who goofed off for three years, only to suddenly wake up in the final hundred days and drastically raise his score by hundreds of points to get into a 985 elite university.

On one hand, it's to boost morale and motivate students not to give up even if time is short, to gain every point they can. On the other hand... such real-life stories do exist!

Compared to the "enduring humiliation and waiting for a counter-attack" scenario, which is completely contrary to common sense and impossible to understand, the probability of a "hidden genius" is higher.

But from Shanshan Ayi's perspective, this explanation took on another layer of meaning.

"Almost six years, huh... you were in the same class in both middle and high school?"

Shanshan Ayi's gaze toward Liu Miaomiao became even more meaningful; she didn't commit to Liu Miaomiao's words, but the smile at the corner of her mouth grew wider.

What kind of mutual, god-tier romance is this? This kind of shy, awkward, adolescent love is just so fun to ship! Isn't this the perfect topic for tonight's gathering? I'll share it with my girlfriends later!

"Yeah."

Liu Miaomiao nodded. She looked at Lu Mingfei's back as he played in a daze, not noticing the hidden meaning in Shanshan Ayi's words, only thinking—

If Lu Mingfei really is a "peerless non-human genius" who had a sudden epiphany, then how far could he grow in the remaining half year?

Shanshan Ayi was also very "tactful" and didn't disturb them, just looking back and forth between the two with a motherly smile. She had already successfully achieved logical consistency in her mind, even automatically filling in some story details.

Lu Mingfei did not notice the conversation happening behind him; he didn't even spare a distraction to observe anything around him.

At this very moment, there was only the sheet music in his eyes; the staff information was "automatically and instantly decoded" and converted into finger movements. He didn't need to think specifically; he could instinctively react to which key to press and when.

The newly acquired 【Precision Hit】 played a decisive role in this, even though he didn't know why dropping his fingers could count as a "throw"... but that was just how it was counted.

Lu Mingfei only needed to be clear about which key he wanted to press, and when his fingers fell, there wouldn't be the slightest deviation.

Everything was so natural, fascinating, and easy to get immersed in, to the point that he ignored his surroundings. The reason Lu Mingfei was so focused was simple; he wasn't just performing—

He was leveling up.

Every time the proficiency of 【Piano】 increased, it went up by ten points. Now, after two hours, the proficiency had already broken ninety. Lu Mingfei had never had such a fast leveling speed; he was enjoying it!

The final closing chord fell, Lu Mingfei's fingers hovered in mid-air, the strings still humming in the aftershock, and that cold, mechanical voice he had been looking forward to finally appeared with text.

【Congratulations! Through diligent practice, your 【Piano】 level has increased to LV1】

【You have obtained the entry—【Emotion Perception】!】

【Entry: Emotion Perception

Effect: Within a ten-meter range, the longer you communicate, the more clearly you can perceive the other party's current emotional state】

(End of chapter)