Chapter 160 The Sovereign Path of Music

On the drive to the music restaurant, Sun Yanzhen and Huang Guolun chatted animatedly all the way. "I really don't know what to do with Dongfang Liang in my class. He's absolute trash in a past life, corrupting all the students in our class."

"Heh, what did he do this time?" Huang Guolun asked curiously.

His impression of Dongfang Liang from their class was growing stronger by the day.

For the past few days, every noon he would go to the music classroom to rehearse "Water Melody Song" with the Grade 1, Class 2 choir.

Dongfang Liang had been excluded from the performance lineup, but the kid still constantly showed up just to watch the fun, often making fun of the teachers.

For instance, on one previous occasion, with his supernatural ears, Huang Guolun had heard this kid bantering with his classmates.

He asked his classmates: "A driver who just started driving is a new driver, and one who has driven for a long time is an old driver. A newly bought house is a new house, and one lived in for a long time is an old house. A newly bought television is a new television, and one watched for a long time is an old television. Then do you know that newly expelled feces is new feces, what is it called after it has been left for a while?"

An innocent student got led by Dongfang Liang into answering: "Old feces."

Many of the students were amused and laughed.

When Huang Guolun and Sun Yanzhen went to the music teacher that noon, the students looked at them with eyes that seemed to carry an odor, leaving them completely speechless.

Sun Yanzhen told Huang Guolun at this moment, "I only found out today how this kid takes his English listening tests."

Huang Guolun asked, "How does he take them?"

"When other people take the English listening test, they carefully listen to the questions played on the broadcast. Not this kid; instead of listening to the questions, he specifically listens to the sound of other people's pen strokes when answering!"

Huang Guolun was somewhat puzzled: "Listening to other people's pen strokes when answering?"

Sun Yanzhen waved her fingers, making the shape of writing letters in the air to explain to Huang Guolun, "That kid's ears are sharper than a cat's. An 'A' is 3 strokes, a 'C' is 1 stroke, and both 'B' and 'D' are 2 strokes, but 'D' is faster—he can hear all of these! He relies on hearing other people's pen strokes to write down his answers. The crooked tricks he comes up with leave you not knowing whether to laugh or cry."

"Now that is what you call a real listening test, haha."

Huang Guolun joked on the surface, but inwardly he was marveling that Dongfang Liang's listening skills were extraordinary!

With his own supernatural hearing, he knew very well that ordinary people could not hear the sound of someone else writing characters. One's ears had to be sensitive to a certain degree, and the other person had to press down very heavily with the pen for it to be possible to hear.

Dongfang Liang was actually able to clearly hear other people's pen strokes at the scene of an English listening test. The kid's hearing was obviously at a top-tier level.

Possessing such hearing, he had also embarked on the path of studying music. Given time, this kid would very likely bloom with a unique brilliance in the music industry!

Although he had some doubts about Dongfang Liang's character and personal integrity, purely within the field of music, Dongfang Liang's extraordinary musical talent truly made Huang Guolun look at him in a new light.

Sun Yanzhen gave Huang Guolun a sidelong glance and complained, "Why are you still speaking up for him? With him always cheating like this, what is he going to do when the official exams arrive? It would be one thing if he ruined his own future, but what's hateful is that he also teaches these crooked cheating methods to other classmates, making everyone follow him in cheating. It makes me so furious! Every time there's an English exam, this kid has all sorts of sneaky schemes, and he never translates properly either. Last week, Teacher Liu, who teaches English, came to me with this kid's English homework."

"What happened?" Huang Guolun asked Sun Yanzhen. "He doesn't do his homework properly either."

"Yeah, who knows how this kid's brain is wired; his head is full of petty cleverness. Their English homework that day was to translate: A: Are you serious? B: No, I'm kidding.—such a simple translation, do you know what he translated it into?"

"What?" Huang Guolun asked with a smile.

Sun Yanzhen said, her anger unabated, "He translated it as 'Are you Xilaruisi? (Are you serious?)' 'No, I am Kaiting! (No, I'm kidding).'"

Driving the car, Huang Guolun almost burst out laughing.

Sun Yanzhen said, half-laughing and half-crying, "Tell me, this wretched child, isn't he doing this on purpose?"

Huang Guolun went along with her words, "This is definitely on purpose."

Sun Yanzhen recounted, "Yeah, later I called him into the office and asked him why he did that. Do you know what he told me? He told me it was just in case, to prevent future troubles! Just in case he ran into a word he didn't understand in the future, he could use this trick to muddle through. So he wanted to test it out first and see how the results turned out."

Huang Guolun laughed and said, "I really don't know if he's smart or stupid, or if he thinks teachers are all fools who would be fooled by his petty cleverness?"

"Precisely!" Sun Yanzhen said indignantly. "This kid better not provoke me again. If he provokes me again, I will definitely call his father to the school to have a serious talk."

Huang Guolun advised, "Forget it, don't split hairs too much with these students. Kids will be kids; playing a little petty cleverness is completely normal. Our Taozi plays even greater tricks."

Sun Yanzhen excused Huang Tao, saying, "It's different. Taozi is young and doesn't know any better. Dongfang Liang is already in high school, and in two years he'll be an adult. If he's still this ignorant, what is he going to do when he goes out into society in the future?"

One could tell that as a first-time head teacher, Sun Yanzhen had truly invested her heart into it, wanting to teach every student well.

Huang Guolun smiled and enlightened Sun Yanzhen, "You don't need to worry so much for them. In my opinion, once they enter society in the future, students who don't play around in school are actually the ones who tend to have a harder time making it."

Sun Yanzhen looked at Huang Guolun with surprise and said in astonishment, "Did I hear that right? How can you agree with such a misleading view? You come from a family of educators; your aunt and uncle used to be teachers, and the students they brought up number in the thousands if not tens of thousands. They must see things most clearly: students who don't follow the rules and don't study hard in school have a high probability of becoming absolute failures when they step into society. Just because a rare few manage to make it and are singled out to claim that studying poorly in school leads to doing better in society—this is a completely irresponsible fallacy!"

Huang Guolun had not expected Sun Yanzhen to suddenly obsess over this issue with him. It seemed Teacher Sun was under truly great pressure as a first-time head teacher, and her sense of responsibility was also very strong.

Sun Yanzhen continued to argue with Huang Guolun, "I recently read a survey by the Ministry of Education that sampled a thousand successful post-80s individuals in society with an annual salary of over one million. Among them, 98% had a bachelor's degree or higher, and over 90% were top students during their school years. Although this sample rate is not particularly precise, it already reflects certain problems from a side perspective. If we rewind twenty or thirty years, students who didn't study hard and messed around in school might still have had a chance to carve out a path after entering society. But today's era is completely different from the past. At this stage, ordinary students with no background who refuse to study hard in school or master a specialized skill, and instead just waste time messing around, will run into walls everywhere when they step into society in the future. If they can't even pass the college entrance exam, their lives will probably be ruined. Our school's tier-one university admission rate has been one hundred percent for the past few years, and I certainly don't want to see that record end under my watch. As for underachievers like Dongfang Liang and the others, I must find a way to spark their enthusiasm for learning! Hey, do you have any good experience in this regard?"

Huang Guolun smiled and said, "What experience could I possibly have? Although I've been a teacher longer than you, I've always taught music, so I'm on a completely different path from you teachers of primary subjects."

Sun Yanzhen asked again, "But I see you teach Taozi quite well. When you ask him to learn things, he's very obedient and his enthusiasm is quite high."

Huang Guolun said, looking as if he wanted to cry without tears, "He's obedient because he likes you and puts on an act for you to see when you're around. When it's just the two of us guys, see if he listens to me. If I want to order him to do something, I have to use delicious food as both carrot and stick. To make him obey obediently without getting any benefits whatsoever? That would only happen when the sun rises from the west."

Imagining Huang Tao's mischievous appearance, Sun Yanzhen smiled sweetly and said thoughtfully, "Could it be that if I give those problem students in my class some benefits, they will also work hard and strive to improve?"

Huang Guolun speechlessly asked, "What crooked scheme are you cooking up again?"

Sun Yanzhen abruptly slammed the brakes on this topic, regrouped, and said, "Sigh, let's not talk about work anymore; it's so annoying. Coming out to eat with you should be a happy occasion. Old comrade Huang, tell me a joke to cheer me up."

Just as Huang Guolun was about to helplessly decline, Sun Yanzhen smilingly preempted him. "Or should I tell you one? Hehe, I recently heard a really dirty joke, it's hilarious."

Huang Guolun hurriedly said, "Don't tell it to me, let me tell you one instead."

He genuinely could not accept that such a pure and captivating young female teacher always associated herself with dirty jokes.

Zhao Jing being vulgar all by herself was already enough to make him doubt the world. He certainly did not want every young and pretty girl around him to be a vulgar woman.

Seeing that Huang Guolun was quite enthusiastic today, Sun Yanzhen happily said, "Alright, let's hear it."

Huang Guolun thought for a moment and told a story he found quite amusing: "It's said that a helicopter was flying near Seattle when an electrical failure occurred, and all navigation and communication equipment stopped working. Due to the clouds and hail, the pilot couldn't determine the helicopter's location or the route to the airport. The pilot saw a tall building, flew up to hover over it, and hung a banner outside the helicopter cabin. The big words on the banner read: 'Where am I?' The people in the building quickly responded. They hung a banner with large characters out of the building window, which read: 'You are in a helicopter!' The pilot smiled and waved in greeting, determined the route to the airport from the map, and landed safely there. When they were finally on solid ground, the co-pilot asked the pilot why 'You are in a helicopter' helped him determine his location. The pilot replied: 'I knew that building had to be Microsoft without a doubt. Because they gave me an answer that was technically completely correct, and practically completely useless.'"

Sun Yanzhen let out a soft "pfft" of laughter, but not because the joke itself was all that funny, rather because the subject matter Huang Guolun chose amused her immensely.

She teased Huang Guolun, "This is truly your style of humor."

Hearing the subtext in Sun Yanzhen's words, Huang Guolun asked, "What, is it very boring?"

Sun Yanzhen uttered a rather ambiguous remark: "(The joke) is boring, but you aren't boring."

Huang Guolun felt a sweet warmth in his heart and turned to glance at Sun Yanzhen.

These past few days had been infinitely oppressive, but when he was with Sun Yanzhen, Huang Guolun felt a relaxation welling up from the bottom of his heart.

He didn't know why either.

Perhaps this was the feeling of a mutual spark between two people.

However, if Mr. Yi's curse was real, he and Sun Yanzhen would have to sever this warm-yet-cool, ambiguous relationship.

Just thinking about it felt depressing.

So Huang Guolun simply stopped thinking about anything, cherishing every single second before the answer was revealed, cherishing what might be the last wonderful moments of sparking with Sun Yanzhen.

As they drove close to the music restaurant outside the East Fourth Ring Road, Sun Yanzhen and Huang Guolun discussed the characteristics of this establishment.

According to her friends, this music restaurant called "Music Way" had recently undergone another upgrade. Not only had singing for a free bill become a regular feature, but the boss had also turned it into a reality-show-style experience.

It was said that every dining table at Music Way now had a scoring device. Diners could score the performers on stage according to their preference, and the scores would be tallied every hour. The dining table of the performer with the highest single-track score would get their bill waived (up to one thousand yuan).

Sun Yanzhen hadn't been back since the restaurant was upgraded, and she was eagerly looking forward to checking out the excitement.

Upon hearing about the restaurant's unique features, Huang Guolun also became deeply interested in it.

Although his math wasn't great, he could still figure out this ledger.

If the restaurant only waived the bill for one table per hour, it wouldn't have a huge impact on the restaurant's revenue. Yet it could attract more customers who liked trying new things to dine there, and also allow customers to sing themselves to drive up the musical atmosphere of the restaurant—the boss's clever scheme was absolutely brilliant!

Since it was a workday, the Fourth Ring Road was quite congested, and Huang Guolun and Sun Yanzhen didn't arrive at "Music Way" until past eight o'clock.

The restaurant was located in a small commercial street. The storefront was not large, with only forty-one dining tables inside, making it a relatively small restaurant.

Yet the decoration was quite unique, full of modern technological flair, and even felt hyper-modern.

Walking into this restaurant felt a bit like stepping into a science fiction movie.

Each table in the restaurant looked like a large LCD display screen, but in reality, they weren't; the desktops only had buttons in one corner for calling service, ordering food, and scoring the singers on stage.

The restaurant walls were hung with various displays playing dazzling colored screen savers, and the frequency of their sound waves matched the audio equipment on the stage.

When diners performed on stage, these televisions broadcasted live from 360 degrees without blind spots, allowing every diner to appreciate the performance on stage.

When Huang Guolun and Sun Yanzhen arrived at the shop, the stage had just kicked off the "Bill-Waiver Hegemony Battle" for the eight-to-nine o'clock time slot.

The large screen directly above the stage displayed that the single-track score of the customers at Table 13, who had just finished performing, was 102 points.

This score was on the lower side, but because the hegemony battle for this time slot had just begun and only their table had sung so far, Table 13 currently ranked first on the leaderboard for this time slot.