If someone were to ask Director Fang, whether it was worth it for him to take an hour and a half overnight flight from Bei City to Jiang City for a piece of music?
Director Fang would definitely give an affirmative answer: Worth it! Why wouldn’t it be worth it!
The director of the Archaeological Research Institute, Fang Qichen, really brought two archaeological doctors and rushed to Jiang City overnight.
With this sincerity, Shen Yuhan had no reason not to agree to meet with the other side.
He checked and found that all yamen at the national level have very powerful backgrounds, moreover, he could also check Director Fang’s resume online, although he didn’t know what these titles stood for, the academic qualifications column successfully made him respect Director Fang from the bottom of his heart.
The two sides met and exchanged greetings in the hotel lobby, Director Fang and others wanted to talk about the matter immediately, but it is not easy to talk with people coming and going, Shan Qihuan immediately said that he had booked a suite, which was enough for them to discuss things and kept it confidential.
Shan Qihuan is a businessman and has great respect for people in the literary field, Director Fang and others spare no effort1不辭辛苦 (bù cí xīn kǔ): to spare no effort; to go to the trouble of doing something; to make nothing of hardships; take pains/the trouble (to do sth); not shrink from hardships. to come over, taking advantage of their Shen family’s money, he directly arranged for them to live in the presidential suite.
The main reason is that the presidential suite has a conference room, and there are enough rooms for several people to stay.
Director Fang, with black hair despite being over fifty, felt his heart ache at the sight of such a high-end suite, and thought to himself: Evil capitalists, the price of a suite for a day is equivalent to one month’s salary for them. Money is something outside the body, don’t get upset, don’t get upset.
As the capitalist’s wife, Shen Yuhan has no special expression towards the bright hotel, because white is unlucky for him, but modern people like to use white, so he has no choice but to ignore it.
After the two sides met, Assistant Qu asked the hotel to bring food and drinks, all in self-service mode, and placed them on the dining table, while Director Fang’s briefcase had just been taken out.
Shen Yuhan said with dignity2大大方方 (dà dà fāng fāng): natural; poised; confident; calm; refers to a person’s behavior that is natural and not tacky.: “The three gentlemen, why don’t you have a meal first, there’s no rush, let my husband and I do our best to act as host3盡地主之誼 (jìn dì zhǔ zhī yì): to act as host; to do the honors; fulfilling the obligations of a local host and entertaining visitors from outside., try the special delicacies of our Jiang City, these fish and shrimp are unique to our Jiang City, you may not be able to eat authentic fish and shrimp in Bei City.”
Shen Yuhan’s attitude is very modest, there is no condescending attitude as the person being requested, which saved the scene from being a bit cold.
At this time, Shan Qihuan naturally opened his mouth: “Director Fang, you guys came here in a hurry and probably didn’t eat well on the plane, why don’t you have dinner first, Xiao Han and I haven’t had dinner yet, so we’re a little hungry.”
These steps and sincerity were all here, Director Fang and the other two felt comfortable hearing it, so naturally they were no longer reserved.
Rather than jumping into the topic directly in the conference room, it would be more natural to chat while eating, and then cut to their purpose.
When he is outside, Shen Yuhan takes care of his husband’s face and takes the initiative to peel shrimp shells for him, his movements are very skillful, and after Shan Qihuan finished eating it, he also gives Shen Yuhan some of his favorite dishes, the two of them would occasionally ask each other in a low voice what they like to eat and what they didn’t like to eat, or they would exchange ideas about which dishes tasted good, and suggest that the other person try them.
Director Fang and the other two were impressed by the natural attitude of these two people, and the topics of conversation became more varied. It wasn’t until they had eaten and drank enough and put down their chopsticks that they had a chance to start talking, they even changed their address for Shan Qihuan and Shen Yuhan.
“Xiao Shan, Xiao Shen, it’s like this, the main reason we came here this time is that we want to learn from Xiao Shen about the piece of music that he played on the qin before, this matter is very important to our archaeological research.”
Shan Qihuan is also very good at speaking in the official language: “As long as we can help, we will definitely help.”
Shen Yuhan got a general idea from Shan Qihuan, but he wasn’t quite clear on what to do specifically.
He could only ask directly now: “Is there anything wrong with my song?”
Director Fang slowly narrated the course of events: “This involves our archaeological research project. Three months ago, our archaeological team took on an archaeological project and spent a month deciphering a musical score, however, the music score had been soaked, and many of the characters were unclear, so we only managed to work out a few melodies. Some time ago, we hired professionals who discovered a piece played by Xiao Shen, and the melody is extremely similar to the one on the score, that’s why we came directly here. Xiao Shen, where did you get the musical score for this piece? Can you tell me about it?”
They didn’t rush to find Shen Yuhan, instead, they first asked a professional teacher to record the music played by Shen Yuhan and then spent a month comparing the music played by Shen Yuhan with the ancient music scores note by note, and they came to the conclusion that the two matched perfectly, with each note complementing the other perfectly, they believed that if they changed it to another tune, it would lose its flavor.
That’s why, they contacted Shan Qihuan and then found Shen Yuhan through him, all of them were very eager to find out where his music score came from, and why it matched the one they had researched that had been unearthed from an ancient tomb a thousand years ago.
After listening to Director Fang’s words, Shen Yuhan immediately understood the significance of the song he played, however, he had never imagined that the song he played was actually something that did not exist in this world, while he was thinking about whether he could find out the whereabouts of his relatives in this way, at the same time, he was also thinking about whether his origin would be exposed.
His mind was spinning rapidly, now he was no longer the ignorant ancient Shen Yuhan who had just come to this world half a year ago, he knew what archaeology was, and in front of outsiders, he would naturally try to hide his true self.
He knew that telling a lie would require another lie to cover it up, but he had to do so.
Shan Qihuan also looked at him with burning eyes, his wife was really amazing, playing a piece of music at random was an ancient piece of music, and now he also wanted to know where he got his music score from.
Everyone was looking at Shen Yuhan as if expecting Shen Yuhan to tell some shocking secret, but Shen Yuhan was not that stupid, he smiled and played things down: “This piece of music was bought by my family in an antique shop when I was learning the qin, at that time, I liked it very much, so I spent some money to buy it, however, the original score was lost due to moving house many times.”
Director Fang and the other two experts expressed regret: “How did it get lost? It might also be an antique.”
“Not really, it was just an ordinary paper.” Shen Yuhan gave them a less distressing answer, “So I didn’t pay much attention to it.”
In fact, he was not lying, the music score of this song was indeed bought by him from a father and daughter who played the pipa and sang for a living, the woman’s mother was ill and there was no money to treat her, he was soft-hearted at the time, thinking that he would help if he could, so he bought the music score, as for how much money he spent for it, he forgot.
Director Fang’s tone softened: “I thought you threw away the antique.” He made a request, “Can you play the piece in its entirety? It’s less than a minute in the video, so I don’t think it’s complete.”
Shen Yuhan said: “I don’t have the music score, but I can play it for the three of you, this piece is about five minutes.”
As long as it can be played, it’s good, as long as it can be played, it’s good!
Director Fang no longer has so many demands: “It doesn’t matter, you play, and we will ask the professional teacher to record the score later.”
Shen Yuhan nodded: “Then I will play it once, you record it first and bring it back to listen to it slowly, tomorrow will be the Chinese New Year’s Eve, so all of you should have a peaceful New Year.”
He got up and went to fetch the qin he had brought along with him, setting it down on the tea table outside.
Shan Qihuan knew his habits, so he laid a thick blanket on the carpet on the floor for him and put a cushion on it, the height was just right, and then Shen Yuhan began to adjust the sound of the qin.
After they completed this series of seemingly pretentious but cooperative arrangements, two of Director Fang’s colleagues also set up professional recording equipment.
Shen Yuhan gave a very modern OK gesture, Shan Qihuan, who was sitting next to him, was stunned for a moment, he seemed to have rarely seen Shen Yuhan do similar behavior, but he is actually quite cute, mainly because of his beautiful fingers, which warms the heart and delights the eye no matter how you look at them.
He watched Shen Yuhan gently place his fingers on the strings, and play the first note.
The last time Shan Qihuan listened to this piece of music, was when he felt physically and mentally tired, at that time, he didn’t pay too much attention to what he was listening to, he only knew that after listening to it, his body and mind became lighter, and all the unpleasantness he encountered during the day were temporarily forgotten by him.
As he listened, he became fascinated.
Shan Qihuan himself also turned on his mobile phone and recorded this complete piece of music, of course, he also did this as insurance, after all, he was a businessman, so he still had to keep an eye out for his wife, they are not familiar with Director Fang and the others, what if they go back on their words and refused to acknowledge Shen Yuhan’s contribution? When the time comes, they will have nothing to say, so just in case, they can leave a way out for themselves.
The next part will be up soon.
