I was exposed for adding my female boss to my group of female friends.

After all, everyone has been through that age.

But... there's no reason for a girl to be lovesick at a time like this, is there?

Gao Jinliang gazed at the seemingly peaceful Guihe Manor—beneath this outward glory, its roots had already crumbled.

Lu Yuanlong, his spouse, and his son, Secretary Gao, went inside together;

Aihua Company was seized and taken over by the Gu family through trickery and coercion.

The brothers Lu Yuanhu and Lu Yuanbao fought like tigers and leopards...

The once prosperous Lu family was reduced to a state of disarray overnight.

Old Master Lu also ignored worldly affairs. He, an octogenarian, struggled to keep things afloat, hoping only to stabilize the situation.

At least the girl will have a future.

Countless eyes are now fixed on this girl at the center of the storm... Would she be having romantic thoughts at a time like this?

If that's the case, then who is the target?

As he pondered these thoughts, an aged yet resonant voice rang out:

"Who is Nana lovesick for?"

The two looked over at the same time and saw a thin, white-haired old woman walking slowly towards them with a smile on her face.

Gao Jinliang immediately reached out to help her, saying, "Great-Grandma, please take it easy. It's windy outside. Why don't you go inside and rest?"

The visitor was none other than Yu Shuning, the spouse of Old Master Lu, whom everyone in the village addressed as "Great-Grandma."

Grandma Yu smiled and said, "It's not easy for the great musician Li to come all this way, how can I not see him? How can I hide inside?"

Li Siqing said, "Great-grandmother flatters me. I'm just a violinist, how can I be called a musician?"

Grandma Yu pointed at him with one finger and laughed, "You're not just a violinist; you're someone who presented a gift to the Zichen Palace by playing the violin. Don't be modest."

After chatting and laughing for a while, the old lady asked again, "I just heard that my granddaughter, Nana, is lovesick. Who is she lovesick for?"

Li Siqing said awkwardly, "I don't know, I was just guessing."

Gao Jinliang said, "I think that guess makes sense. I think the girl's recent behavior is like that of someone who is in love."

Grandma Yu smiled and clasped her hands together, saying, "If she's in love, so be it. A girl should marry when she's of age, and she's not young anymore."

“I’m just afraid…” Gao Jinliang frowned, hesitating to speak.

Grandma Yu, however, seemed completely unconcerned. She declared loudly:

"Tonight, I'll subtly ask her if it's true, and if so, I'll arrange a meeting to find out more about the other person."

Gao Jinliang said, "Great-Grandma, isn't it easy for someone to take advantage of us if we talk about marriage at this time? You know the situation the Lu family is in... If they take advantage of this..."

Gao Jinliang didn't finish speaking.

This was a turbulent time, and countless people were eyeing the Lu family's wealth.

He was afraid that Lu Ningna would be deceived, leading to the complete downfall of the Lu family; secondly, he was afraid that the Tiger and Leopard brothers would cause trouble again because of Lu Ningna's marriage and take the opportunity to kick Lu Ningna out of the Lu family.

Such things have happened before; Lu Ruixiang's parents experienced something similar back then.

Grandma Yu looked at Gao Jinliang, her aged eyes sparkling:

"Besides life and death, nothing is more important than marriage. Don't overthink it."

She paused, glanced at the thermos in Li Siqing's hand, and turned to the maid, saying:

Why haven't you two been served tea?

Gao Jinliang felt a little embarrassed, after all, he was a rough and unrefined man and didn't have such thoughts.

The servant below responded and quickly stepped forward, carrying a purple clay teapot and three teacups, with a bottle of hot water in his other hand, and placed them on the small pear wood square table in the middle of the pavilion.

First, the purple clay teapot was rinsed, and the poured-out boiling water flowed down the drain of the pear wood table (the table had a drain pipe underneath, specifically for drinking tea). The tea leaves were scalded and poured onto the upside-down teacups. After rinsing and wiping with a cloth, the dirty water flowed back down the drain. The third brew of tea was poured into the cups, clear and bright yellow. The servants served the two cups of tea to Gao Jinliang and Li Siqing.

Li Siqing chuckled as he held his teacup and said, "In your village, even watching someone make tea is a pleasure."

Grandma Yu picked up her teacup, frowned as she looked at the clear tea inside.

"Call Butler Cheng over."

The maid immediately ran off to fetch someone. Judging from Gao Jinliang's tone, Li Siqing sensed that it wasn't a good thing and didn't dare to ask any further questions.

A short while later, Butler Cheng came over, called Great-Grandma, Old Master Gao, and Mr. Li, and stood there with his head bowed respectfully.

Grandma Yu said gently, "Butler Cheng, when did you buy this tea?"

Butler Cheng lowered his head: "It was recently purchased from Xiangmingju."

"Then let me ask you, in the past, Lu'an Melon Seed tea was made with first-class tea leaves from Neishan Mountain, so why is this cup of tea I'm drinking made with plum blossom tea?"

Butler Cheng raised his eyebrows slightly: "Really? I didn't notice the difference."

The old lady's face immediately darkened.

“Chengdong, I can’t tell the difference between inner mountain and outer mountain tea, but I can distinguish between pine bud and plum bud. Tell me, why is this cup of tea plum bud?”

This pot of tea is Lu'an Melon Seed Tea, one of the top ten famous teas in China. The price of Lu'an Melon Seed Tea varies considerably depending on its quality and grade.

Tea picked before Grain Rain is of the highest quality and is called "Ti Pian"; tea picked after that is called "Gua Pian".

There is a big difference between Ti Pian and Gua Pian. Ti Pian is rare and therefore has a high price, while Gua Pian is a bulk commodity with average quality, so it doesn't have that price.

As for the "plum slices" the old lady mentioned, they refer to tea leaves picked during the plum rain season. They are of coarse and old quality, the most ordinary, and their price is vastly different from that of premium tea leaves.

Butler Cheng has always been in charge of purchasing tea, so he should be able to distinguish between them. The old lady is worried that he might be passing off inferior tea as superior tea and embezzling the Lu family's funds.

Upon hearing this, Butler Cheng knew he couldn't hide it any longer, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and say:

“Great-grandmother, it was you who said the village needed to cut expenses. It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just that if we tear down one thing, we’ll lose something else. We can only make a little sacrifice on the tea. Who knew you could tell the difference as soon as you tasted it?”

Upon hearing this, Yu Shuning immediately understood.

Butler Cheng wasn't deliberately hiding it; he was just pretending not to know in front of Li Siqing, afraid of losing face in front of outsiders.

I just didn't think about it that way.

Thinking of this, she felt quite helpless and said:

"Although we should save money wherever we can now, we should live each day as it comes. How can we just make do? If we replace fine melon seed tea with plum slice tea, we might as well not drink tea at all."

Butler Cheng, sweat beading on his forehead, said, "You're absolutely right."

"Do you have any other teas at home?"

"That's all. I bought about ten cans of these plum slices. Should I return them?"

Yu Shuning frowned, waved her hand, and said:

"Let's not do anything shameful. Since we've already bought it, let's drink it properly. We can't waste things."

After reprimanding Butler Cheng, the great-grandmother turned to Li Siqing and said, "Mr. Li, the people below are ignorant and have made you laugh."

Li Siqing waved her hand and said, "It's alright, Great-Grandma. I don't know much about tea, so I can't tell the difference. They all taste just as good."

As the three were talking, they suddenly heard the sound of a violin drifting over from a terrace not far away, across a tree.

"Ah," Li Siqing exclaimed in surprise, "My Stradivarius is still on that terrace over there. Who played my violin?"

“Is that Nana?” Great-Grandma said. “Nana is back.”

Stradivarius violins are incredibly valuable, and aside from Li Siqing's personal disciple Lu Ningna, probably no one would dare touch them.

Gao Jinliang frowned: "Why did she go to play the violin? Didn't I tell her to come see Teacher Li as soon as she got back?"

Li Siqing waved his hand and said, "It's alright, I'd like to hear about her progress over this period of time."

That terrace is where Lu Ningna practices her piano. It's not far from here, separated by a row of trees, and you can vaguely see someone playing the violin there.

“Hmm, not bad,” Li Siqing nodded immediately after hearing it just once. “This is Bach’s Sonata No. 3 for Solo Violin, by JX.”

She paused, then continued, "This piece is known as the encyclopedia of the violin, containing all the chords that the violin can play, and even some counterpoint techniques that are almost impossible to perform. Nana, you dare to challenge such a difficult piece after only a few days. That's impressive."

Gao Jinliang, standing to the side, secretly frowned.

For no other reason than to hear the name JX.

Unlike his meteoric rise elsewhere, within the Lu family, it's difficult to find anything related to JX.

After all, the culprit who caused the Lu family to decline to this point is this JX.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he was the culprit who caused Lu Ningna's parents to be imprisoned.

How could Lu Ningna play this person's music?

The great-grandmother, standing to the side, made no comment, simply listening with her eyes closed.

After listening for a while, Li Siqing raised her eyebrows slightly and said, "This part is fantastic! How has Nana's skill improved so quickly?"

No one answered him. After a while, the melodious violin music continued to drift over, and Li Siqing realized something was wrong.

"No, this is definitely not Nana."

Grandma Yu then said in a low voice, "Keep your voice down. I realized a long time ago that it wasn't Lu Ningna. I listened to her practice the piano at home yesterday, and she's not at this level at all."

Although the old lady loved her granddaughter, she was well aware of her granddaughter's abilities. She could tell the difference in performance level with just one listen.

As Li Siqing listened to the violin music, his gaze became increasingly trembling.

Bach's No. 3 is precise and rigorous, like a mathematical problem, possessing a strict logical beauty, while also being quite difficult to perform.

Even the most top musicians would find it difficult to easily perform Bach's #3 live.

According to legend, JX once mentioned in an interview that when he played Bach's #3 at the Golden Hall, there were two minor wrong notes.

It's worth noting that the violinist playing for JX at the Golden Hall was one of the world's greatest living violinists—Perlman!

It's not that Perlman's skill level is insufficient, but rather that this unaccompanied violin suite is too difficult, so difficult that it seems almost inhuman.

Perlman's performance is practically the "original." If even the original is so good, how much better are later scholars?

The person playing the violin now seems to be playing with the technical difficulties as if they were child's play, easily overcoming them without any surprises or setbacks.

In fact, while overcoming all the difficulties, this person also has their own interpretation in terms of performance.

Li Siqing dared to say that this man's rendition of Bach #3 was the best version he had ever heard!

Even if he did it himself, he might not be able to do it this well!

After a section ended, the violin music stopped, and Li Siqing was still somewhat reluctant to leave.

Gao Jinliang initially didn't dare disturb him because he saw that he was listening attentively. After the performance, he asked his old friend:

"Mr. Li, how was the performance?"

Li Siqing only said three words: "That's great."

His voice was choked with emotion, perhaps because the performance had a profound impact on him.

"This performer's interpretation of Bach #3 was superb. He perfectly captured the divinity and balance of the Bach series. It reminded me of the saying, 'A certain ultimate sense of tranquility comes from eternal motion; the only constant is change itself.'"

He talked on and on, leaving Gao Jinliang and Yu Shuning somewhat confused.

"Mr. Li, how was the quality of this performance?" Mrs. Yu asked.

"World-class level!" Li Siqing exclaimed.

Gao Jinliang and Old Mrs. Yu were both taken aback when they heard this.

Gao Jinliang asked, "Mr. Li, isn't it a bit of an exaggeration to say that it's world-class?"

Li Siqing looked at him and said, "Even I couldn't play this well."

What he said before was not quite clear to the two of them, but they understood this sentence.

She's even better than Li Siqing.

Who is Li Siqing? He is the musician who performed at the Zichen Hall as a tribute to the Republic.

Even he admitted that he was not as good as the performer, so how high must the performer's level be?

Gao Jinliang and Old Madam Yu exchanged a glance.

"Where did this extraordinary person come from, visiting Guihe Manor without my knowledge?" Old Madam Yu waved her hand and said, "Summon Steward Cheng."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the sound of the violin began again.

The three of them quickly fell silent and listened attentively to the performance.