The first joint practice session was far from ideal, and a Chinese proverb perfectly describes it: "A mule on the eastern mountain trying to imitate a horse's neigh—a mix of accents from both the north and south."
It's okay. It's normal to feel out of tune when practicing a new song for the first time. You'll definitely get it after a few more practice sessions.
When a song is rearranged, various problems will always arise.
While directing the band to practice, Liang Liang discovered problems and corrected them in time. They practiced and revised at the same time, and by 9 p.m., the piece was finally taking shape.
"Uncle Gao! It's nine o'clock. Let's stop practicing here for tonight. Xu Mei and I should go back. There are only a few days left until the singing competition, so we need to hurry up and practice. If we have time during the day, let's practice some more!"
"It's not that we can't practice during the day, but unless it rains, there's still some farm work to finish, so tomorrow is definitely out of the question! How about the day after tomorrow? We'll have some free time then, and we can practice together in the afternoon."
"Okay! Xu Mei and I will come over then."
After leaving Gao Xing's house, Liang Liang started his motorcycle and carried Xu Mei back home.
When they arrived, it wasn't dark yet, and Xu Mei dared to pounce on his back without any restraint. Now that it's dark, she's even more lawless.
To prevent this little vixen from causing trouble, Liang Liang ordered her to hold the electric guitar to her chest and place it between the two of them as a partition, so that she wouldn't be able to dazzle them with the car lights this time.
"Hold on tight! It's not a big deal if you fall and break something, but don't break that violin, it's worth several thousand dollars!"
Xu Mei sat on the motorcycle, clutching her guitar and fuming, cursing Liang Liang a thousand times in her mind.
You stubborn fool, you idiot, you're just pretending not to understand when people are practically offering themselves up.
"Brother Liang! Don't you like me?"
"What did you say?" Liang Liang pretended not to hear.
I want to be your girlfriend!
"No way! You're too young. Besides, do you think I'm lacking girlfriends? If I wanted to, I'd have hundreds of girlfriends, haha! You'd be furious if you became my girlfriend. I'm doing this so you can grow up healthy and strong."
Xu Mei remained silent; she still couldn't understand the meaning behind Liang Liang's words.
"There's something else. I'm thinking of having you learn DJing. You should study DJing well, and after you've mastered it, you can join the Blue Shark band." In order to avoid drawing Xu Mei's attention back to him, Liang Liang quickly changed the subject.
"Ah! Really!" Xu Mei was so happy she almost jumped off the motorcycle.
Because the motorcycle was swaying, it took Liang Liang a while to regain control of it.
"What the hell are you doing? Are you planning to lie down in the ditch?"
"Brother Liang! If I learn that DJ thing, are you really going to let me join you guys to kill bands?"
"Of course! Would I joke about this?"
"That's great!" Xu Mei slung the guitar over her back and hugged Liang Liang from behind without saying a word.
Those two damn headlights are shining again.
"What the heck is that DJ?"
"DJ is a job title that includes lead dancers, lighting technicians, MCs... which are hosts and sound engineers."
"There are so many! How could I possibly learn them all?"
"All you need to learn is DJing, which is basically playing music. It involves using a sound system to change the rhythm of a song and then playing it out. That's roughly the idea."
Xu Mei couldn't understand this at all.
She hadn't been to that stage yet, so naturally she didn't know what a DJ was.
However, Liang Liang's suggestion that she learn something bad was unlikely.
"Then where will you send me to study?"
“I own a nightclub in Lianwan City. A DJ from the south has recently arrived; she's a student, but she has to go back south on September 1st when school starts. I was originally planning to send you there to learn from her now, but because your band is participating in a competition, you'll have to wait until after the competition to go and learn. That would shorten your learning time. If all else fails, I'll see if I can offer her more money and let her stay longer to teach you. Do you understand?”
"I understand!"
"Then let go! Your hand is already in an area unsuitable for children."
Xu Mei then realized that her hand was in the wrong place, and she quickly pulled it back as if she had been electrocuted.
This time, she no longer hugged Liang Liang's waist or pressed against his back. Instead, she grabbed the motorcycle rack and kept her distance from Liang Liang.
In the darkness, she felt her face burning hot, and her heart was pounding louder than a drum, the thumping echoing far and wide.
The motorcycle entered Liangshuiwantun back street and stopped in front of Xu Mei's house.
There were people sitting in front of Xu Mei's house enjoying the cool air. Xu Mei's mother was also sitting on a small stool, fanning herself with a palm leaf fan, next to Liang Liang's mother.
Xu Mei got off the motorcycle.
"Why are you only getting back now? It's almost ten o'clock," Liang Liang's mother asked.
"It's almost 9:30 after training. The road is dark and not easy to drive on. My car is still new and not broken in yet, so of course I won't go too fast. That's why I'm wasting time. I'm going home now."
Liang Liang twisted the throttle and rode his motorcycle home, entering the courtyard gate.
Laozi Liang Bentang was watching TV alone in the main room, while Liang Feng's room was empty.
Huh! Could it be that Liang Feng and Ban Ya are in the small shop downstairs...? Turns out they're in the East Wing.
What were they doing running into the east wing in the dark?
Liang Liang turned off the motorcycle, got off, and went to the entrance of the East Building.
Inside the house, Liang Feng and Ban Ya were busily working around the workbench.
It turns out that these two people were so bored that they made five or six different musical instruments based on the one Liang Liang made during the day.
Liang Feng was in charge of gluing the wooden boards together, while Ban Ya used an electric saw to cut the boards out according to their shapes.
"Aren't you two just bored? What are you doing doing this for no reason? Brother Ya! You wouldn't happen to be in cahoots with my brother, would you?"
"Hehehe! Actually, there's something you don't know. My grandfather was a carpenter. The carved beams and painted rafters of some old buildings in Lianwan City have his sweat on them. I also have carpenter's blood in my veins."
And then he encountered one that was passed down from his ancestors; no wonder he was sweating profusely from all that work.
Their work was very effective; the instruments were all made to a very high standard.
"Brother! I used every piece of wood we could find in our house to make a guitar body, and let's see how guitars made from them differ."
Liang Liang's family didn't have much spare timber. Some of it was from their previous home, some was leftover from when they built the house, and some was brought back from his godfather.
I'll have some time these next few days to go to the timber market and buy some old, accumulated, air-dried wood for my younger brother to experiment with. Who knows, he might come up with something amazing.
Since his younger brother wants to take this path, he, as the older brother, naturally has to support him.
For them to produce a good instrument at their current level is nothing short of a pipe dream.
But if we can't make high-end pianos, how about making durable pianos?
Gibbons are expensive, but many of their models costing over ten thousand are so fragile that they're easily damaged, like buying a precious artifact.
Moreover, the workmanship is just so-so; it's just selling the brand name.
If you start making instruments now, my brother, and put your heart into it, you can create a brand.
Then you should register a trademark.
What trademark should we register?
How about using the Liangfeng brand?
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