Chapter 12
As Ye Yihe expected, he was not able to return the body quickly this time either.
But compared to the forced isolation I experienced in the church last time, life is much better now.
Although he still couldn't speak the language, Ivan Goncharov was a very considerate and thoughtful person—and most importantly, he could communicate with him in Chinese.
Not only did he accept that he was the second personality of this body, but the other party even led him to the dormitory.
It was a small single apartment with a bathroom and an open kitchen. With just a few kitchen utensils, he could cook for himself instead of eating hard bread and beets!
Ye Yihe was glad that he was at least able to eat freely during the resolution of the incident.
In return, he would gladly add an extra pair of chopsticks when cooking—and this is not just boasting; having honed his cooking skills since childhood, he has been praised countless times for his delicious food.
Judging from Ivan's feedback, even though he didn't have an obvious facial expression, his actions still conveyed considerable surprise and satisfaction.
The second personality's character, memories, and skills are not shared with the main personality. As long as Ye Yihe doesn't choose to confess, he doesn't need to worry about revealing any so-called "flaws."
However, we should also thank Ivan for accepting that he is a useless person who is of no use in music teaching and can only help distribute test papers or take attendance in class, which does not require long and complicated sentences.
That's right, Yeikh is diligently learning Russian with Ivan.
"Have you mastered the letters and their pronunciations? You're amazing, you learn so fast..."
Ivan Goncharov gently placed another sheet of white paper in front of Yeikh. "Next, I will teach you the correct spelling rules, as well as some additional declensions in special contexts."
Ye Yihe took it with a headache, the pencil tip waiting to be used for taking notes.
For him, who was forced to learn Russian from scratch, seeing this bunch of letters and symbols that were not much similar to English every day was a huge headache.
Fortunately, this body was exceptionally intelligent, and it could memorize things at lightning speed.
Unlike other languages in the Indo-European language family, each letter in Russian has a unique pronunciation. Once you memorize them, reading words is not a difficult task.
This is why he can accurately spell out the names on the roll call list, but he can't speak in long sentences yet.
Fortunately, he was usually in a Russian-speaking environment and had a built-in language translation patch from the original owner, so he could automatically understand the meaning of each sentence.
This means that as long as he can connect the Chinese meanings of Russian words and completely disregard the grammatical rules of sentence construction, he can still manage to squeeze out a few simple sentences to communicate when necessary.
However, Ye Yihe often felt that he was taking the teaching assistant's salary for nothing, which was really unfair to his teacher Ivan, who had been so good to him.
In addition, he gradually developed an interest in the cello while auditing music classes and wanted to try learning this instrument, which had been out of reach for him before.
Therefore, Ye Yihe specially asked Su Mengzhi to teach him how to play the cello, at least to the level of a beginner. Because he could see her in class, Ye Yihe would sometimes go to chat with her and ask her about things like which supermarket nearby had cheaper vegetables.
"Oh, I did take the cello as an elective..."
To the surprise of being asked by a cello teaching assistant how to play the cello, Su Mengzhi felt a strange sense of anticipation and excitement.
The key point is that this teaching assistant is also exceptionally beautiful!
The word spread among them, and they all said that even if he sat motionless in the corner of the classroom for the entire class, they would be willing to watch him daydream for the whole period, and there was absolutely no possibility of him skipping class.
What's more, she's about to teach him to play the cello!
This also means that in future classes, they will not only be able to admire the handsome boy daydreaming, but also listen to his cello playing...!
"First, get into position. Rest the cello against your chest, with the neck about a fist's distance from your shoulder, and only sit on the third of the chair... That's right, just like that."
Su Mengzhi guided Ye Yihe to the correct posture, and the bow was gently placed on the string.
Ye Yihe sat there with an air of importance, his fingers holding the bow slender and pale; his eyelashes drooped down with his gaze, half-concealing his wine-red eyes, paired with the raven-black hair that gently fell to his cheeks, his delicate and soft features, and his slender and narrow waist and back—even his frail and unhealthy physique was highlighted by the way his wrist slowly pulled the bow open, exuding a crane-like holiness and elegance.
"Sink your shoulders, lower your elbows, and raise your wrists holding the bow—okay, thinking about the melody from before, pull your upper arm out—pull your forearm out further—continue to move your wrists horizontally, don't let them collapse—return to your forearm...return to your upper arm..."
As a long, drawn-out "whoosh" sound, as if a ship had set sail, echoed in the practice room, Su Mengzhi's gaze gradually shifted from initial amazement at the handsome young man playing the cello to utter dismay at Ye Yihe's abysmal musical sense.
"How is it?" Ye Yihe asked her expectantly.
"...Your posture when playing the cello is particularly beautiful."
Su Mengzhi was silent for a moment, then gave him a sincere thumbs up.
Ye Yihe: "…………"
The plan to learn the cello intensively was a complete failure. My body, which was well-coordinated when practicing Jeet Kune Do, became uncontrollable when playing the cello.
He still struggles to press the strings properly, and with his right hand also having to find the right position for the bow, he often finds himself in a chaotic and disorganized situation.
Ye Yihe sighed softly.
All I can say is that he can learn it slowly when he has more free time later.
Aside from the setbacks he suffered with the cello, Ye Yihe was also troubled by Ivan's situation.
He was obsessed with pursuing happiness, but unwilling to accept the ever-present misfortune—not only his own, but also that of others.
If someone is only fixated on their own happiness, one could say that person is just an extreme pessimist; but Ivan is equally empathetic to the misfortunes of others and suffers greatly as well.
In this society, amidst chaos and poverty, there are always people suffering profound hardship, lying on the streets, barely alive.
A long, long time ago, he was one of them.
In his duties as altar priest, he never shied away from giving alms to the poor—and this was no exception at this moment.
Ye Yihe stopped as he passed an old woman sitting against a wall.
Ivan, who was with him, also stopped.
She clutched the tattered shawl in her hand, her hair gray and sparse, peeking out from the equally torn printed triangular headscarf, like wild grass squeezing out of a crack in the rock.
Upon noticing Ye Yihe standing in front of her, the old woman spoke in a muffled, hoarse voice.
"God...please have mercy...my grandson has a fever, but I have no money to call a doctor...just ten rubles will do..."
Ye Yihe didn't hesitate much and was about to take out his wallet from his pocket when Ivan stopped him and handed the old woman a hundred-ruble note first.
Not only was Ye Yihe surprised and turned to look at him, but the old woman's hands were trembling as she took the banknote, repeatedly saying, "Thank you, may God bless you."
"During this time, whenever you go out on the street, you will always give them alms, food, or money."
After walking a few steps, Ivan explained to Ye Yihe in Chinese.
"But as you know, doing so makes no real difference. Their misfortune persists, and there's nothing we can do about it."
“You’re not wrong,” Ye Yihe patted his shoulder, “but look, you helped a heartbroken old woman today and were able to save her grandson.”
"In that old woman's great misfortune, you brought her the supreme happiness of regaining what she had lost and surviving against all odds—even if it was only for a moment, it was true joy."
Human misfortune may always exist, but the moments of happiness we have experienced will never simply disappear.
"Moreover," Ye Yihe said with a smile, praising him at the end, "to that old woman, you who saved her are her god."
Ivan looked stunned, as if he was seeing the problem from a different perspective for the first time.
Does happiness only seem more precious when misfortune is profound?
…………
Even after Ye Yihe had bought the ingredients, returned, cooked the steak, and served it, Ivan remained silent—he seemed to be pondering something else.
"Ivan?" Ye Yihe tried calling out to him while cutting his steak.
"Yes," Ivan replied respectfully. "My master, what are your orders?"
Ye Yihe was taken aback. "What did you call me?"
He was just the second personality of this body. Ivan would never have called him that before; he would have used it to refer to the original owner of the body.
"My master."
In response to Ye Yihe's confusion, Ivan closed his eyes slightly, his posture devout, "Even though you are only a personality born later, you shine brighter than any other being—my eyes have witnessed all of this more clearly than ever in the past few months."
"And I finally became certain of one thing."
“You are the master I want to serve, more qualified than any god to be my only faith. You will lead me, no, lead everyone to the other side of true happiness—I believe you can do it, and I will give anything for it.”
Ye Yihe immediately shook his head in denial, "I don't have that ability."
No, you will have it.
Ivan Goncharov said in a matter-of-fact tone, his silver-grey eyes, which were tinged with a warm honey color by the tungsten filament lamp, looked at him.
“You are willing to lower your head to save those who are suffering misfortune; and I have also benefited from this humble compassion and have come to know what happiness is.”
He touched his chest, joy gradually spreading across his lips. "I feel boundless gratitude from the bottom of my heart for being able to serve you."
"This is the decision I made in accordance with my heart, believing that you can bring true happiness to this godless world and regarding you as a god—ah, I feel so joyful and happy now, no longer troubled by anguish—"
Stunned, Ye Yihe dropped his knife onto the plate with a clanging sound.
Just as he was about to speak again, the system's voice suddenly came out.
[Congratulations, host, for resolving the incident with a completion rate exceeding 100%. Resurrection Points +50.]
Ye Yihe suddenly let out a huge [Huh? ?] in his heart.
Of all times, at this crucial moment!?
"I'm leaving,"
—Unexpectedly leaving at this time, Ye Yihe quickly adjusted her mindset and seized the opportunity to ask the crucial question that she had been curious about for a long time, "What is the name of this body?"
"Fyodor".
After a slight surprise, Ivan Goncharov spoke to him as he was about to return the body.
"Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky".
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