I'm a weird expert in Japan

Chapter 132: Prologue Mail, Variations (1)

"So it is here..."

Pushing open the door of the second music room, Ren saw Touma and Sa as expected.

But compared to the usual way of sitting in front of the piano, today is a little different.

Because she was now sitting on the floor next to the piano with her legs hugged, her back leaning against one leg of the piano, her head slightly lowered, her hair covering her eyebrows, making her expression unclear in the shadow of the piano.

But everyone could see that her mood was now extremely low.

Weak, wronged and helpless... maybe?

It was now three hours after the piano competition ended. As soon as the award ceremony ended, Touma and Sa disappeared.

However, she didn't have many acquaintances, so few people noticed that she was missing.

"What are you doing here?" Hesha raised her eyes slightly, and her deep blue eyes, which were slightly obscured by her hair, were filled with gloom.

Lian walked up to her, sat cross-legged on the floor, and placed two cans of condensed milk coffee between them.

"I'm here to make fun of you, to make fun of the fact that you prepared so hard, but the victory that was within your grasp was snatched away by someone who appeared out of nowhere." Lian supported his chin with one hand, his elbow resting on his knee, with a natural look on his face.

Hesa gritted her teeth and wanted to be angry, but she held the words back and buried her head deeper.

"Well, I was just kidding. You wouldn't take it seriously." Lian turned her head ninety degrees, trying to peek at Hesha.

"It's nothing. Even if you don't come to laugh at me, someone else will."

The fact that she had signed up for the competition had long been known to everyone, and everyone could see that Touma Hesa ​​was aiming for victory. Now that she had failed, there were people waiting to see her make a fool of herself.

"That's not the case. Even if I didn't win, I still got second place, and I lost to that Fujiwara Chika. It's not shameful." Lian turned his head back, "You probably don't know how powerful the other party is, right?"

"I seem to have heard of it..." Hesa ​​responded sullenly.

"Fujiwara Chika won the gold medal in the Pythia National Piano Competition when she was in the fourth grade of elementary school, but she seems to have retired after that." Lian sat up straight, spread his hands and said, "This comeback may be because my gimmick is too serious..."

"It must have been a smooth co-starring, right?"

"It's just so-so. There's no prior rehearsal, just an hour or so of running-in before the performance," Lian said.

However, Fujiwara Chika has known the Shinomiya siblings since junior high school, and after winning this time, people from the Shuchiin Student Union came to greet them. In fact, they only played together once before going on stage.

Fortunately, most of the audience at the scene just listened to the general idea and came to see Lian, so few people cared about the flaws in the ensemble performance.

"Yeah……"

"What a pity! I asked you to prepare Bach for so long..." Lian shook his head helplessly, "But the fact is the fact. There's nothing we can do about it because they're so good. I even lost to a player younger than me when I was in the fourth grade of elementary school."

"There's no need for you to comfort me. It was Teacher Hanekawa who asked you to come here, right?" Kazusa still kept her head down, not saying a word.

"No, I came here on my own."

Hesha didn't even raise her head, and the fingers that were holding her legs twitched unconsciously for a moment.

"Teacher Hanekawa was just helping me analyze where you might be, and I guessed it right." Lian waved her hand, her eyes narrowed into a line, "You're so easily guessed, you'll be fooled in the future."

"Well now that you've found it, go out if you're fine."

"Oh, I know you're in a bad mood, but you don't have to be so embarrassed to see people. I've already said that the reason you didn't win this time is not because you're too weak, but because your opponent is too strong. Even if you're a retired player..." Lian reached out and pulled Kazusa's hand away, forcing her to show her face. "If I have to say where you lost, it's not so much about your skills, but whether you were enjoying the performance."

Kazusa stiffened her neck and retorted, "That's easy to say... How can I enjoy such a big competition?"

"You take gains and losses too seriously..." Lian let go. "Unfortunately, the opponent is a happy player. Just based on this point, he can beat you."

“……”Hesha glared at Lian angrily.

He clapped his hands. "But I have good news. Your performance this time has actually exceeded the school's expectations. Your opponent is a former genius pianist from the prestigious Shuchi Academy. Add to that the leaked judges' evaluations, and the gap between you two isn't that exaggerated. These things combined can basically become Mr. Hanekawa's trump card in negotiations with the school."

In short, there is a high possibility that Kazusa will return to the music department. With the help of Mr. Hanekawa, who cares about the growth of his students, it will not be difficult for her to overcome all objections.

"It doesn't matter what happens..." Kazusa didn't care.

"I'm telling you, this person..."

"If you have nothing to do, get out quickly. Don't you still want to celebrate with your friends?" Hesha glared at Lian and ordered her to leave again.

Lian crossed her arms and blinked, "You mean Shizhu and the others... We have broken up and we probably won't have any contact in the future."

"Huh?" This time it was Hesha who was dumbfounded.

I had the impression that Lian valued his friends very much, but now he suddenly said he wanted to break off relations with them.

what happened?

"Are you energetic now? If you are, get up and play together." Lian patted the violin case beside her.

"Why do I have to play with you now?" Hesha was urged to practice again before she figured out the problem. She was a little angry. "It's your business to break up with your friends. Why should I be the one to comfort you?"

"I'm not asking for comfort." Lian raised her eyebrows. "It's just that we've practiced so well, don't you think it's a waste if you don't play it from beginning to end?"

"It's not a waste. We can talk about it later when we have time." Hesha just felt it was troublesome and continued to make excuses to shirk.

Lian opened the guitar case and said as she adjusted the strings, "It'll probably be two months."

"what?"

"I will leave Japan after this semester." Lian's tone was slightly serious. "Although our relationship is not good, at least we share the same philosophy in music. If you don't mind, it will save you a lot of trouble."

"Are you finally leaving?" Hesha opened her mouth but only uttered this sentence.

Lian didn't take it seriously and asked with a smile, "Yeah, are you happy? Are you surprised? The second music room will soon be yours alone again."

"Humph……"

Trying to express disdain, but the hum came out sounding powerless and even a little artificial.

She brushed her hair to hide her embarrassment, stood up, sat in front of the piano and opened the lid.

At this time, Lian took out his cell phone, it seemed that someone was calling.

"Hello? Shiyu? Ah, the key is behind the third flower pot on the left side of the door. Take it out and open the door. The Emperor or Zhenfei will know what to do. See you later..."

Chapter 133: Prologue Mail, Variations (2)

Lian hung up the phone again after saying that.

"Is it that Kasumigaoka who called?" Kasa narrowed her eyes.

"Well, originally it was Emperor and Zhenfei who went to help...they are my brothers and sisters. I told you that, right?"

"Said."

"Oh..." Lian said as she adjusted the strings of her zither, "I need to take some things back, and they said they would come and help me."

He planned to move to the Shijo family and live with Shinki and the others during this period before leaving Japan, so that he could be close to them and take care of them.

However, Hesa ​​didn't seem interested and didn't continue asking. Instead, she slid her hands across the piano from left to right, producing a series of smooth notes.

Hesha's fingers fell on the piano keys, and after a moment's silence, she wordlessly pressed the first note at the beginning.

A lively allegorical tempo.

Of course, it’s just the liveliness of the notes themselves.

She played very slowly, as if she was going to step on the ground hard, or as if she was using her toes to test the land she was about to step on.

With a low tune, it stepped into the octave range.

In the end, she didn't play Bach, but chose something else.

Fifteen variations and fugue in E flat major on a theme from Beethoven's Symphony No. 35 - later used as the finale of his Symphony No. 3.

This piano piece has another name, which is Heroic Variations.

But... it was handled rather roughly.

In the introduction to the overture, the four-part harmony begins to rush forward, like a fighter fighting aimlessly after breaking into a battlefield filled with thick fog.

I can't feel what it's like to be a hero at all.

It seems that he is in a very bad mood.

But it doesn't matter. The so-called variations are to repeat a short theme melody by repeatedly changing the timing of the visit or the form of the main melody. Basically, similar parts will be repeated several times.

In the second half of the variation score, there are slow and extension marks, which allow the performer to add "pauses" at certain intervals.

No matter how much Touma Kazusa sped up the performance to vent her emotions, she had no reason to ignore the extension marks that should have been on the music score.

Lian held the violin between her shoulder and chin.

Hesha, sitting on the piano stool with her back to Lian, walked with heavy steps through the opening theme. At the end of the theme she played, there was a rather long blank after the rest.

After this gap, the second overture will begin, followed by a slightly hesitant, simple violin single-note melody.

Hesha felt goose bumps on her back and stood up in an instant.

The only thing that was cleverly moved in and embedded in syncopation was the overlapping of two notes.

All music known to mankind was born from the intoxicating feeling that occurs when two notes overlap.

But his devilishly exquisite playing made it impossible for her to stop playing on her own initiative.

In the third overture, he played a simple melody line and threw it to Kazusa, which leaped far from the high part of the violin and landed on the low part of the piano. Kazusa felt as if her steps were crossing a waterfall that was constantly rushing down.

When entering the fourth piece, Lian gave up the lead in the song, and Hesha's piano took over the theme of the song, raising the melody an octave and passing over the light alto part below.

When she tried to speed up the tempo and use the force of the fierce melody to pull Lian backwards, he accurately caught the gap between the phrases she played and opened it with a mediating descending note, just enough to stop Hesha's performance from being about to go out of control.

When the theme was finally reached, although it was just an ordinary chord accompaniment, Kazusa felt her fingers trembling slightly. She could only rely on short rests to try her best to keep the original pace.

Lian seemed unaware of all this. The playing speed remained unchanged after entering the second variation. In the time it took Hesha to play one note, she continued to play three times the number of notes.

It's like losing a little strength, but someone is pulling your hand in front of you and making you take quick steps forward.

After Hesha finished playing Yue Opera continuously, she took a deep breath, her back tense, the keys became smoother because of the sweat from her hands, and her fingers seemed to be burning hot.

The second part of the fifth variation gives Kazusa a short break.

But that, too, was fleeting.

Hesa felt like there was some invisible force pushing her back hard.

Utsunomiya Ren was still standing where the violin was placed, playing the same song.

She seemed to hear her own heartbeat as well as Lian's heartbeat, or maybe it was just an illusion caused by the interweaving of two kinds of piano sounds.

But now, in order to catch up with Lian's violin little by little, he stared at the music score and threw away all the messy feelings.

The jealousy towards him, the dissatisfaction towards his mother.

Towards hatred of this world.

All of this was temporarily forgotten in the midst of this passionate performance.

Only the slender white fingers were left moving freely back and forth on the black and white keys.

The sounds of the piano and violin blended together unconsciously.

Completely integrated with each other.

If we say that this is because one person's performance is deliberately catering to the other's pace, there is no explanation.

It's like the miracle that occurs when a one-millimeter gap, a bypass loop, and a scale of high and low bass balance are integrated into each other.

She and him, and Sha and Lian.

It's just like a person's left hand and right hand.

The final variation, in C minor, is as vast as the ocean in the deep night after a storm.

As the last notes played, Kazusa took her hands off the keys and stared blankly at her palms.

In the second music room, which had returned to silence, the violin strings seemed to still be emitting the lingering sound of vibrations.

"Enjoy the performance."

She seemed to have done it.

Thinking of this, he clenched his own trembling hands.

"Really? Please don't change the song track casually. If this were an award ceremony, do you want the audience to burst into laughter?" Lian said unhappily.