Do not look at what is improper

Ah Qiu completely ignored his attempts to dissuade her, chattering away, "If you don't know how, you can learn! Someone as smart as you can learn it in no time."

To Gu Yi's astonishment, she immediately picked up Ling Shu, placed her on her lap, sat cross-legged, and began to play the strings. With a resounding clang, she said as she thought, "His Majesty said to use the 'Midnight Song' to accompany the 'White Silk Dance,' so let's play 'Midnight Song'!"

When I first met my beloved, our hearts were as one. But as I unraveled the threads on the broken loom, I realized they could not be made into a pair. Who can bear to think of you without singing? Who can go hungry without eating? As the sun sets, I lean against the door, filled with sorrow, unable to forget you.

As she sang softly, she strummed the strings. At first, there was some hesitation, but in a short while, she had written down the score according to the melody in her memory. After playing it a few more times, it became very fluent.

Without hesitation, she immediately put down the zither, took Gu Yi's hands and placed them on the spirit pillar, pointing out: "The first note of the left hand is the seventh string, fifth fret, and the right hand is the plucking."

Gu Yi closed his eyes and remained silent, seemingly enduring great pain. After a moment, he said, "Take your hand away."

A Qiu was startled, only then realizing that her hands were still covering Gu Yi's hands, as if she were afraid he couldn't play. She hurriedly withdrew her hands, thinking that Gu Yi could at least play the piano, so he shouldn't be that bad.

Gu Yi took a deep breath, and with a flick of his wrist, the zither music flowed out from his hands like a continuous stream of pearls or raindrops. It was as clear and tender as white silk, melodious and elegant, yet it never lost the gentle, upright, and dignified demeanor of a gentleman.

A-Qiu silently comprehended the meaning of the music, and involuntarily rose up to follow the rhythm, raising her sleeves and dancing gracefully.

The same white silk dance, but because Gu Yi accompanied it with a zither, it took on a more refined and otherworldly air.

A Qiu, however, refused to give up. She stepped back and stood in front of Gu Yi, raising her sleeve to partially cover her face. Then, her beautiful eyes shone brightly as she gazed at Gu Yi with deep affection and said:

"'Who can be sad without singing, who can be hungry without eating?' This is not how it is. According to Madam Xue, there must be a sense of mutual longing and lingering affection here so that the viewer can feel the deep and infatuated feelings of the woman who is suffering from lovesickness."

She was talking, but all she heard was a clang from the spirit pivot in Gu Yi's hand, and a string almost snapped.

When Gu Yi looked at him again, he had already closed his eyes and said decisively, "I will play however I want, I don't need you to teach me. You... just dance your own dance. And... don't look at me."

Ah Qiu protested, "Right now, you're my only audience. If I don't watch you, who will I watch?"

Gu Yi kept his eyes closed and said firmly, "Are you going to jump or not? If you're not going to jump, you can leave now."

Although A Qiu didn't know Gu Yi's name "Shaoshi Qin" (Young Master Qin), just from what she had just heard, she felt that Gu Yi's playing was much better than the qin players in the music academy. At this moment, she was just a dancer of the lowest status, and even if she returned to the music academy, it would be extremely difficult for her to find a qin player to accompany her in practice alone. Of course, she was unwilling to miss the opportunity before her.

She pleaded softly, "Then I won't look at you, but could you look at me? I've just learned these dance moves, and I can't look in a mirror, so I don't know if my posture is correct."

Gu Yi pushed aside the "Ling Shu" in front of him and got up to leave.

A-Qiu was still in a daze, wondering what she had said to offend him, when she saw him return holding two white ribbons. One was wider and longer, which he tossed directly to A-Qiu. The other, narrower one, he actually used to bind his own eyes, then sat upright before the zither and said, "Can we begin?"

Ah Qiu, holding the bundle of white silk, was both amused and exasperated. She thought that if she pushed him any further, he might just commit suicide to prove his innocence. Reluctantly, she said, "That's enough."

Even though Gu Yi couldn't see her, he naturally knew what she was thinking. He said in a deep voice, "If you want to know what my emotions are, just listen to my music. Why do you need to look at me? And if I want to know if you are in the right rhythm of singing and dancing, I can tell by listening to the flow of energy in your body and the rhythm of your breathing. Why do I need to see your beauty?"

Before A Qiu could even process her thoughts, he began to play. The music flowed like still water, deep and serene, as ethereal as drifting clouds. It evoked the image of someone looking back in the middle of the night, lost in thought, or of someone rising to gaze into the long night and seeing the Milky Way shining brightly, with two stars illuminating the night sky, a sentiment that has resonated through the ages.

As he played, he said in a deep voice, "I will only play this once. You should calm your mind and think carefully about the essence of 'White Silk'!"

Although A Qiu was dissatisfied, she had no choice but to obediently unfold the white silk cloth and listen attentively to Gu Yi's zither music. She stepped out according to the sound and danced freely with the music. Her hands and feet moved in unison, and as the music reflected the spirit of the music, over time, naturally, she seemed to wash away her physical form and concentrate her mind into the void of the moonlit midnight.

Although Gu Yi could not see her, as he said, he could tell from the sound of the white silk and clothes fluttering in the air, as well as her breathing rhythm, that she had been drawn into the meditative state of his zither. Therefore, he deliberately slowed down the melody so that she could calmly experience the natural rhythm of "body and mind in harmony, form and spirit in harmony".

He was averse to women and did not watch female entertainers. He avoided all the extravagant and frivolous affairs of high-ranking families with their entourages of entertainers as if they were venomous snakes. Music was for taming the mind and body, and the zither was for enlightening the mind and seeing one's true nature. This is why any melody played from his hands has a different atmosphere.

This is the way that the elegant music he studied "sublimated" the seven emotions.

As the song ended, A-Qiu seemed to awaken from a pure and untainted dream. In that dream, there was no sadness or regret, no lingering love or heartbreak of loss, but only a perfect and complete state of nothingness, pure and spotless.

If Heaven had feelings, even the fields would grow old; if love had no regrets, it could mend the heavens.

When A Qiu opened her eyes, she saw that Gu Yi's eyes were still covered with white silk, patiently waiting for her to come to her senses.

She suddenly remembered something and said hesitantly, "Gu Yi, I want to give you something."

Gu Yi turned his head, looking quite surprised. She wanted to give him something? Did he look like he was missing something?

He pursed his lips, and after a moment answered, "What?"

A Qiu slowly moved closer to Gu Yi. Having dealt with Gu Yi so many times, she naturally understood when she was rational that Gu Yi, like her master, was a germaphobe and didn't like others touching him.

She just can't help it when she's confused...

However, Gu Yi showed no intention of removing the white blindfold, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and take his hand again, placing a small object in his palm.

She kept it in her bosom the whole time she was out, hoping that she might run into him again.

It seemed as if she was destined to meet him every time she went out at night. That's why she carried it with her at all times, in case of that inevitable "chance encounter".

Gu Yi felt her fingertips brush across his palm as she placed something light and delicate on the ground. It was made of metal and still carried a trace of her body heat.

Taken aback, he held it in his palm and weighed it, then immediately understood what it was.

This item is small and exquisite, shaped like a crescent moon, with delicate tassels hanging from it, and a cool-to-the-touch gemstone in the center.

It was the crescent-shaped tassel ornament with gold and green cat's eye inlaid on her forehead that he saw when he first met her at the Music Bureau.

Gu Yi then held the tassel ornament in his hand, his expression becoming extremely unspeakable.

A Qiu, unaware of Gu Yi's complex emotions, simply said, "This one... is better than the one on my forehead. Didn't you want the one on my forehead last time? But this one for you is gold, and it has gemstones on it."

Gu Yi's expression became even more indescribable.

So she wasn't completely ignorant. At least she knew that gold was more expensive than silver, and that jewelry inlaid with gemstones was more expensive than that without. That's why she kindly and thoughtfully chose an expensive one for him when she got back.

The last time he tried to remove the flower ornament from her forehead, it was purely to see the "love flower" imprint beneath it. Unexpectedly, she not only took it seriously, but also went back and specially found one for him.

Enough, enough. This is what they call reaping what you sow.

He suppressed his amusement and said calmly, "So, if I take this to Lanling Hall in the future, they will do something for me, no matter what it is, right?"

Ah Qiu thought for a moment, and finally said with a troubled expression, "I don't think so. I think... the most likely outcome is that you'll get a beating from Master."

The floral ornaments weren't Lanling Hall's tokens or badges, so how would the Lanling disciples recognize them? Even if they did recognize that it was something A Qiu used when she was disguised as a palace maid, the most likely outcome would still be a beating from their master. After all, he was the one who flaunted a young woman's personal belongings, and besides, this wasn't just any young woman, but Lanling's chief divine weapon hall master.

Even with his composure intact, Gu Yi couldn't help but exclaim, "Then what use is it to me?"

Ah Qiu, equally confused, said, "I don't know! Have you forgotten that you asked me for it yourself? Or did you think it was pretty and wanted to give it away as a gift?"

She then said happily, "This one is very pretty, but the gold and green cat's eye one I gave you is even prettier. It is said that my senior brother exchanged it with a poem for a Hu girl in Luoyufang. It was supposed to be a token of love, but my senior brother just threw it to me. He probably has several boxes and chests of these kinds of things, such as rouge, pearls, hairpins and flowers."

Although his eyes were already bandaged, ensuring he wouldn't see anything indecent, Gu Yi still pressed his hand to his eyes, looking as if he couldn't bear to listen, and said repeatedly, "I'll take it, I'll take it, you should leave now."

The shadows of the trees swayed in the pond in the afternoon. In the quiet corridor where the geishas practiced their skills, you could hear a pin drop.

The dancers had just finished rehearsing "White Silk" once, and were covered in sweat. They dared not breathe and waited for Xue Hongbi to speak.

A-Qiu stood in the last row, keeping her head down and behaving obediently. She had witnessed Madam Xue's scolding skills before; the sound of her scolding could linger for days. She was afraid that she would attract Madam Xue's attention and get another good scolding.

Presumably, everyone here has the same thoughts, biting their lips tightly, displaying the same unyielding spirit.

When A Qiu first entered the Music Bureau, she was fearless and bold, daring to flirt even with a treacherous villain like Huang Chao'an, the Music Bureau Chief. But as the saying goes, "It's not the officials you should fear, but the ones who manage you." After wasting her time in the Music Bureau, even she, the Chief of Lanling, had to keep a low profile.

But what you fear most is exactly what happens.

She kept her head down, but then she saw a pair of pearl-embroidered shoes slowly walk up to her from under her floral brocade skirt. Then, a cool bamboo stick lifted her chin, and Madam Xue's voice, cold yet with a hint of charm, rang out: "Raise your head!"