Knock on the head
Two o'clock in the morning.
Zhu Shiyi turned over for the thirty-second time, but still couldn't fall asleep.
In the car, her hormones were raging, and she launched into a long rant about "Pan Yue's theories."
She regretted it as soon as she finished speaking.
In front of the person in question, she went on to give a lengthy evaluation of what kind of person he was.
...This is truly like showing off one's limited skills before an expert.
As expected, Pan Yue didn't respond at all after hearing her words.
He lowered his eyes, his fingers curling up secretly, lost in thought.
After a long while, he looked into her eyes, took a deep breath, curled his lips, and suddenly raised his hand.
Given the way he was acting, Zhu Shiyi thought Pan Yue was going to hit her on the head, so she subconsciously closed her eyes slightly.
The next second, he simply grabbed the tea leaves from her leg and placed them on her head.
“Take this back and drink it,” he said, steadying the tea bag to maintain his balance. “If you can’t finish it, I’ll take you bungee jumping.”
......
Zhu Shiyi got up as if possessed and moved toward the bag of tea leaves.
Zhu Shiyi had searched for several types of tea, and they were all expensive. The most expensive of them was Pu'er tea, which she guessed was the kind of tea that Pan Yue especially loved to drink.
Pan Yue's preferences do indeed fit his public image. In Zhu Shiyi's impression, those who like to drink Pu'er tea are mostly middle-aged and elderly people.
As if driven by a magic spell, in the middle of the night, without any matching tea set, Zhu Shiyi simply used a mug to brew Pu'er tea in a hardcore way.
If a tea connoisseur stood in front of her, she would probably scream in despair.
......
The hot tea has a mellow and rich flavor with a hint of sweet, aged aroma.
Zhu Shiyi felt warm all over.
As the saying goes, drink black tea in winter and green tea in summer. Although Pu'er tea is not black tea, it is a fermented tea like black tea. Ripe Pu'er tea has a high degree of fermentation and is especially good for nourishing the skin and warming the body, making it suitable for women to drink in winter.
Zhu Shiyi took another sip. She felt that she was getting on in years and had actually fallen in love with Pu'er tea.
Tea is clearly something that refreshes the mind;
But after drinking a cup, Zhu Shiyi slept soundly all night.
--
The annual meeting is approaching.
The annual meeting was tied to a B2B project, and Qin Yu, as a member of the project team, was extremely busy every day.
As one of Qin Yu's subordinates, Zhu Shiyi was not spared either. These days, she was constantly being pulled into Qin Yu's work as his assistant. The worst part was that she was not a project leader, so she wouldn't receive any extra bonuses for this job.
"You can't use those words; you need to be adept at using industry jargon," Qin Yu instructed. "For example, in this area, to ensure the event's success, we need to focus on user pain points..."
Zhu Shiyi didn't understand the industry jargon very well. She just felt that if she continued doing this boring job day after day, she would turn into a villain.
Seemingly sensing her despair, Qin Yu patted her shoulder and comforted her, "Just follow the ideas I gave you to integrate the keywords; you don't need to come up with your own ideas."
Zhu Shiyi, holding a thermos filled with Pu'er tea, happily agreed.
She simply dislikes these tedious integration tasks; she prefers to do creative work.
After the integration was completed, Qin Yu gave her an event plan and asked her to contact relevant personnel and confirm the event details with them.
Qin Yu instructed: "The contact information for all parties is in the table. Please strictly follow this plan."
Zhu Shiyi had no choice but to tediously contact each of them one by one.
With Qin Yu, Zhu Shiyi was just a follower; she had to do whatever Qin Yu said. Occasionally, when she came up with a new idea, it would be rejected by Qin Yu.
The phrase he said most often was, "Just do what I tell you." He would clearly explain the tasks she needed to do, never leaving anything ambiguous. The tasks he assigned weren't difficult, but they were tedious and boring.
There's an old saying: contentment brings happiness.
Zhu Shiyi hypnotized himself—Qin Yu is better than Li Xuan.
Anyway, the Spring Festival holiday is coming soon, and she will have to go to school next semester, so she won't be able to work for much longer.
......
These past few days, Zhu Shiyi's work has been like an assembly line; as soon as one job is finished, the next one begins.
In the new week, Qin Yu asked Zhu Shiyi to compile data reports from the past few years, a task that remained boring and tedious.
Zhu Shiyi worked for three days straight, staring at the documents and the small print on the computer, until he felt like his eyes were about to go blind.
Once the job was finished, Zhu Shiyi finally had a chance to catch her breath and sneak off to play on her phone.
While scrolling through short videos, Zhu Shiyi came across another chord tutorial.
My thoughts drifted away quietly.
She's been very busy lately, and she's exhausted from get off work every day. When she gets home, all she wants to do is lie down. Occasionally, when she feels like it, she'll sing a song or play the piano to relax.
So, if you calculate the time, it's been a while since she's opened the music production software.
Caught up in the moment, Zhu Shiyi listened to the chord progressions for a while, his mind gradually drifting away.
Suddenly, she rushed to the balcony, turned on the recorder, and hummed a short song.
......
When she got home that evening, Zhu Shiyi couldn't wait to log into the host software and compose another tune for her to hum.
Pan Yue's video appeared unexpectedly.
Zhu Shiyi smiled slightly and answered the call naturally.
Now, she has developed the habit of washing up completely before bed. This is because recently, Pan Yue has been sending her video calls every now and then in the evenings.
She was too lazy to pretend anymore; she'd just put on some lipstick and accept the offer.
As long as it's not a completely bare face, it's fine.
Pan Yue, dressed in white pajamas, asked softly, "What are you doing?"
Zhu Shiyi steadied her phone, glanced at the screen, and thought, "Hmm, from this angle, she's beautiful."
Their relationship became increasingly natural. Pan Yue would video call her whenever he had free time, and Zhu Shiyi would video call him when he was busy.
Pan Yue would answer the phone, just like she did tonight, put it aside, and continue working.
She stayed with him, watched him, and quietly went about her own business.
Today, their roles have reversed.
"I'm writing a song." Zhu Shiyi turned to face the computer screen, revealing a profile view reminiscent of Pan Yue.
"Hmm?" Pan Yue's voice rose, seemingly somewhat surprised. "You can write songs?"
"First time trying."
"Very impressive."
Zhu Shiyi glanced at Pan Yue, his eyes full of admiration and affirmation.
She smiled and continued composing the audio track: "Want to hear it?"
Pan Yue chuckled softly: "Am I fortunate enough to be your first listener?"
“That’s a real shame,” Zhu Shiyi pouted. “My first audience was Sister Fan.”
Pan Yue paused for a moment, then said somewhat reluctantly, "...The second one is fine too."
Pan Yue did not disturb her writing; he sat quietly reading.
As Zhu Shiyi finished recording the arrangement, she wrote down the sheet music on a piece of paper. She put down her pen, stretched, and winked at her phone screen: "Done!"
she!
Zhu Shiyi!
Officially completing my life's journey!
My first original song demo!
Pan Yue shifted his gaze from the book to the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips. He leaned closer to the screen, his eyes filled with anticipation.
Zhu Shiyi was secretly pleased. She took a picture of the handwritten sheet music and sent it to Pan Yue: "I can let you listen to the demo, but I can't sing it. There are no lyrics yet."
Pan Yue's image on the phone changed angle; it seemed he was picking up the phone and carefully examining the picture she had sent.
He frowned.
Zhu Shiyi's heart tightened for no apparent reason: "...What's wrong?"
"I have a question." Pan Yue opened his mouth, but hesitated to speak.
Zhu Shiyi was getting impatient: "Just tell me!"
“...the one in the upper right corner...six-eighths,” Pan Yue raised his eyes, his gaze filled with earnest curiosity, “can it be simplified to three-quarters?”
Zhu Shiyi: ......?
Do you think this is a math problem?
“No way,” Zhu Shiyi almost burst out laughing, “This is the rhythm of a song, six-eighths is not the same as three-quarters.”
Zhu Shiyi carefully explained to Pan Yue the basic music knowledge he had learned in elementary school: 4/3 time signature is based on a quarter note as one beat, with three beats per measure; similarly, 8/6 time signature is based on an eighth note as one beat, with six beats per measure.
Pan Yue was thinking very seriously, looking like he was working on a calculus problem: "How long is one beat?"
Zhu Shiyi really wanted to applaud him.
Learning and reflecting – that's the mindset of a top student!
Zhu Shiyi continued to explain earnestly: The length of a beat depends on the tempo of the music, and the tempo is fixed. For example, if the tempo is 60, then there are 60 beats per minute.
Zhu Shiyi had long known that speaking to Pan Yue was like writing a thesis.
She gave an example: "You can understand it this way. A quarter note is equal to one unit of time value, and an eighth note is equal to one-half a unit of time value. So in this case, a quarter note is one second, and an eighth note is 0.5 seconds."
Pan Yue paused, as if he had realized something: "So a quarter note can be broken down into two eighth notes."
Zhu Shiyi nodded in satisfaction, "This young man is teachable."
The next second, Zhu Shiyi realized that the child had not grasped the point and was still unteachable.
"Therefore, three-quarters of a beat is equal to one three-second interval; six-eighths of a beat is still three seconds per interval."
Zhu Shiyi: "...No problem."
Pan Yue raised the ultimate question: "In that song, if you replace three quarter notes with six eighth notes, wouldn't the duration be the same?"
Zhu Shiyi: ......?
That makes a lot of sense.
She couldn't refute it.
Zhu Shiyi's music theory knowledge was only so-so. It was Yu Fan who told her that the song was in 8/6 time, so Zhu Shiyi wrote it down following the rhythm of eighth notes.
The thing being woven in front of me suddenly seemed particularly glaring.
She's not an expert in music theory, so it seems that the songs she writes are just a mess.
How embarrassing, I want to die.
"..." Zhu Shiyi silently withdrew the picture she had sent to Pan Yue, sticking to her pride, "Let me think about it."
She silently opened Baidu.
[4/3 time signature is a simple time signature, with a single note as the basic rhythmic unit, and each beat can be subdivided into two short beats; 8/6 time signature is a compound time signature, with a dotted note as the basic rhythmic unit, and each beat can be subdivided into three short beats.]
Listening to the examples, Zhu Shiyi gradually grasped the meaning.
“The difference between 4/3 time and 8/6 time is not based on the note value, but on the strong and weak beats,” she said confidently to Pan Yue in the simplest language. “In 4/3 time, there is only one accent, on the first beat; while in 8/6 time, there are two accents, on the first and fourth notes, with the first note being stronger than the fourth.”
Pan Yue nodded as if he understood, but then frowned, perhaps noticing the notification: "Why did you withdraw it?"
"It's nothing," Zhu Shiyi said impatiently, "Wait for me a moment."
She was anxious and couldn't explain it to Pan Yue in time, so she simply put her phone aside and listened to the song score again carefully.
......
The rhythm is precise, with six notes forming one beat, and each section of the drumbeat has two accents, one strong and one strong.
It perfectly matches the 8/6 time signature rhythm.
......
Depend on.
Zhu Shiyi almost jumped up.
Is she really a genius?
A song written without understanding music theory can still conform to music theory.
......
Fragmented dreams, like sparks, gradually spread and spread like wildfire.
Zhu Shiyi subconsciously looked at Pan Yue.
As if by telepathy, he put down his book and looked over when she looked away.
Pan Yue didn't ask anything, he just smiled along with her.
Zhu Shiyi's smile widened. She rested her chin on her hand, leaned closer to the screen, and asked with a hint of seriousness, "What do you think about me writing songs?"
“Very good.” Pan Yue replied in a second.
......snort.
Zhu Shiyi turned her head away and pouted slightly: "Are you kidding me? You didn't even think about it."
She feigned disdain, but her shallow dimples betrayed her true feelings.
Pan Yue lowered his head and smiled, seemingly helpless: "I didn't lie."
“…Yeah, that’s true,” Zhu Shiyi turned her head back, looking smug. Suddenly, she didn’t want to die anymore. “Do you know why I’m so poor?”
Pan Yue readily agreed: "Why?"
Zhu Shiyi shook his head and said, "Because talent has to be taxed, I have to pay four times the amount."
Pan Yue chuckled.
......
"I heard from Director He that you signed up for a performance at the annual meeting, a musical instrument and singing performance?" Pan Yue asked.
At this point, Zhu Shiyi had a lot to say: "That's right! Let me tell you, Director He directly called on us to sign up at the regular meeting. If we didn't sign up, he would come and ask us again and again. Who could stand that!"
“Don’t you want to sing?” Pan Yue asked seriously. “I thought you liked performing.”
Zhu Shiyi: ......
I felt the other person was implying something, but he looked righteous and I couldn't find fault with him: "...I just like to act."
Pan Yue hummed softly, "What song are you planning to sing?"
“Several songs, such as ‘Carnival’, ‘Little Hands Holding Big Hands’, and…” Zhu Shiyi paused for two seconds, then flicked her hand and smiled mysteriously, “Oh, you’ll find out when the time comes.”
Pan Yue narrowed his eyes: "Little hand holding big hand?"
......
His thoughts drifted aimlessly. Zhu Shiyi lowered his eyes, his gaze involuntarily drifting to his hand.
Suddenly, a touch of warmth seemed to emerge from my fingertips.
......
I really want to hold hands with Pan Yue.
Zhu Shiyi coughed lightly, concealing his laughter.
“I see,” she said, picking up a ukulele from the side. “You said you’d give me this because I could use it, so you were just waiting for me at the company’s annual party, weren’t you?”
Pan Yue nodded: "Is it easy to use?"
"How could something costing nearly two thousand yuan not be good?" Zhu Shiyi steadied the zither, casually strummed the strings, and his eyes lit up. "Listen to this resonance chamber, who could resist liking it!"
Pan Yue smiled faintly, and though he didn't utter a single word, his eyes spoke volumes.
He wanted to say, as long as she's happy.
Zhu Shiyi, feeling warm and cozy, suddenly became interested: "How about I play a song for you?"
Pan Yue's gaze paused for a moment, then he suddenly reached up and brushed his hair aside. With a slight movement of his lips, he softly said, "...Okay."
*
The girl tapped the gift he gave her, swaying her little head, her face beaming with smiles.
The notes flowed from her fingertips, and when she opened her mouth, it was heavenly music.
It felt like a little rabbit had crawled into my ear, all fluffy and fluttering against my eardrum, giving me a jolt.
"Let's hold hands, big hands, and go on a picnic together. Don't think too much today—"
Pan Yue's eyes softened involuntarily.
He recalled that night when they walked side by side, and she held his hand tightly like a child afraid of getting lost.
......
Her voice was soft, sweet, and clear.
Pan Yue felt a sense of familiarity.
He recalled the orange-flavored sparkling wine specially made by MEETING, which was sweet, sour, refreshing, and delicious.
...It makes you feel slightly tipsy and intoxicated.
*
Another sleepless night.
The cold wind howled in the night, and the thin window trembled.
Zhu Shiyi could hear her heart pounding.
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