Chapter 192: Close Proximity

In the evening, Li Luo and the other six gathered together.

The last time they six had gathered at Bihai Lanting for a meal together was three months ago, during National Day.

Today was different: after informing their elders at home, everyone planned to stay overnight here.

Li Luo prepared a full table of dishes—eight dishes and one soup—and it exhausted him.

In his past life, he had abandoned the path of becoming a chef precisely because he didn't want to endure such intense daily stir-frying; yet after his rebirth, he ended up cooking every single day again.

But since the ones being served were these lovely people, it wasn't so hard to accept.

"Delicious!" Qiao Xinyan took one bite and immediately gave a thumbs-up. "Ever since I ate it once before, I've been craving this flavor—it's way better than my mom's."

"Cough… you can say that here, but don't say it to your mom at home." Li Luo accepted the praise as expected, yet warned her.

"I'm not stupid."

The six sat in a circle; Li Luo lifted his chopsticks and said first, "Let's eat."

After the meal, their stomachs were full.

Perhaps because the desensitization training from their afternoon basketball game had worked slightly, Zhao Rongjun was now less restrained while eating.

In the past, with so many girls around, he would have dared to pick only two or three dishes directly in front of him.

Today, however, he showed courage—he even stood up to reach for dishes across the table.

Of course, Li Luo had deliberately placed the two dishes this guy loved most at the far end; judging by the result, it worked well.

If he could gradually become more open and confident in front of Ying Chanxi and the others, then later, when facing ordinary girls, he wouldn't be so timid.

For his best friend's future happiness, Li Luo had truly gone to great lengths.

After the meal, as the host living here, Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu quietly cleared the table, went into the kitchen to wash dishes, and tidied up.

Li Luo assigned Qiao Xinyan and Zhao Rongjun to sit on the sofa and watch TV.

He had also pulled Yan Zhusheng toward the sofa, but Yan Zhusheng shook her head and walked straight into the piano room, then waved at Li Luo, signaling him to come in too.

So while Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu washed dishes and Zhao Rongjun and Qiao Xinyan watched TV, the two of them entered the piano room.

"Why did you call me in?"

"Play guitar," Yan Zhusheng said, picking up the guitar from the corner and hugging it. "I promised to teach you guitar. If you have time, you must practice."

"Then you're a pretty responsible teacher."

"You know it well," Yan Zhusheng nodded, tried a few advanced little techniques, then handed the guitar to Li Luo and told him to give it a try.

For Li Luo, basic guitar techniques had long been mastered, but more advanced ones—he hadn't touched them much because Yan Zhusheng had never taught them before.

Only when Xie Shuchen occasionally showed off in the rock club did Li Luo catch glimpses of sliding, strumming, and harmonic techniques.

For a high school rock club, these techniques were optional in effect—most classmates just listened for the atmosphere and couldn't tell the difference anyway.

But if playing solo, the subtle distinctions mattered greatly.

Some even turned the guitar into a percussion instrument, using its wooden body to strike and play simultaneously, creating rhythms like a drum kit, instantly elevating the audiovisual experience.

Now that the New Year's Eve concert was over, the rock club had no more events this year, so Yan Zhusheng had begun planning to teach Li Luo more advanced techniques.

"That's wrong," Yan Zhusheng observed his movements carefully, then stepped behind him, leaning forward to grip his hands. "Like this—feel this vibration, then instantly smooth it out; the sound is completely different from slowly smoothing it out."

Once it came to these advanced techniques, relying solely on the Soul Embodiment of the Memory Palace was no longer enough.

After all, Soul Embodiment only mimicked an external form; when true sensitivity to string texture and sound differentiation was required, its limitations became clear.

Yet even so, Li Luo's learning pace remained fast.

But outside, no one gave them much more time to practice.

After about twenty minutes, faint voices drifted from the living room.

"Huh? Why are you two the only ones watching TV?" Ying Chanxi shook water off her hands, puzzled. "Where are Li Luo and Zhusheng?"

"They went into the piano room," Qiao Xinyan pointed toward the piano room.

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi's expression subtly changed, then quickly returned to normal—she merely nodded and slowly walked to the piano room door.

The moment she pushed the door open, she saw Yan Zhusheng leaning over to personally teach Li Luo how to play guitar—and she froze.

From her angle, Yan Zhusheng's posture looked… deeply suspicious… as if she were standing behind Li Luo, leaning down to kiss his cheek.

Yan Zhusheng, however, remained calm. Seeing Ying Chanxi enter, she straightened up and asked, "Xixi, what's up?"

"I… uh… that… you two…" Ying Chanxi's mind was confused, stammering unable to speak clearly.

Only when she saw the guitar in Li Luo's arms did she ask, hoping against hope: "…What are you two doing?"

"Oh, I'm teaching him to play guitar," Yan Zhusheng said, taking Ying Chanxi's hand and guiding her to sit on the chair before the piano, then clapping to signal Li Luo. "Alright, try using the technique I just taught you."

"Okay," Li Luo didn't notice Ying Chanxi's oddness—he swept his fingers across the strings and tried applying the newly learned technique to the song "Chasing the Light."

After singing half the song and finishing the chorus, Li Luo strummed a final sequence of notes to end the performance, then raised an eyebrow at Yan Zhusheng: "How was that? Not bad, right?"

"Hmm," Yan Zhusheng nodded. "But there are still flaws—you need more practice."

"Also, 'Chasing the Light' has a gentle, subtle mood, so you don't need so many techniques—adding too many makes the whole song feel heavy."

"So for songs like this, just a little embellishment is enough; for more rock-oriented songs, you can experiment with more technique combinations—the listening experience becomes much richer."

Only when talking about music could Yan Zhusheng speak this much in one breath.

At this moment, Ying Chanxi had also realized—she must have misread the scene earlier.

A girl with Yan Zhusheng's personality would never actively kiss Li Luo.

Thinking this, Ying Chanxi's mood instantly brightened; she happily hugged Yan Zhusheng's arm and said, "Stop practicing for now—we hardly ever get together. Let's go play cards!"

"Okay," Yan Zhusheng nodded, rising to follow Ying Chanxi out, but not before reminding Li Luo, "Remember to practice regularly—you can also play for Xixi and Senior Jin at home."

"That's fine," Ying Chanxi agreed. "Hear that? Zhusheng said so."

"Got it," Li Luo put the guitar back in its case in the corner, stood up, and followed them out of the piano room to the living room.

At this point, Xu Youyu had already pulled out two decks of cards, removed the two jokers and one small joker, then shuffled them together.

Seeing Li Luo and the other two emerge from the piano room, Xu Youyu enthusiastically began dealing: "Let's draw turtles—loser gets punished!"

"Why aren't you playing Landlord anymore?" Li Luo frowned, recalling the tragedy during the New Year's Eve picnic that afternoon, and instinctively took a half-step back.

For games like Landlord that require mental card memory, Li Luo was rarely at a disadvantage—unless his hand was truly terrible with no recourse.

But for games like Draw Turtle, which relied purely on luck, he had absolutely no advantage.

Xu Youyu listened to him and merely chuckled: "What, scared?"

She raised the lipstick in her hand and smiled sweetly: "Today, you're not getting away."

Li Luo gave a nervous laugh, sensing something bad was coming.

But Xu Youyu had already shouted out orders: "Xixi! Zhusheng! Hold him down!"

"Where do you think you're going?" Ying Chanxi gripped one of his arms and snorted, "You won so many rounds last night—let's keep going today."

"I never said I was running away—this is really unnecessary, isn't it?" Li Luo glanced at Ying Chanxi, then at Yan Zhusheng, who had already firmly pinned his other arm, and stared blankly: "Yan Zhusheng, you weren't even here last night—why are you listening to them?"

Yan Zhusheng blinked, but tightened her grip on his arm even more: "I listen to my senior."