Für Elise

The two women chatted excitedly as if they had an endless stream of topics. Ignoring them, Ling Yun walked over to the piano in the corner of the second-floor living room, gently pressed a key, and then another, only to find the pitch a bit out of tune.

Piano tuning was the process of adjusting notes and strings one by one. Furthermore, most piano notes consisted of unisons—meaning a single note was made up of two or three strings. During tuning, the strings not currently being adjusted needed to be muted with a damping tool to prevent them from sounding, which would otherwise interfere with the acoustics and disrupt the tuner's hearing.

In addition, there were pitch-correction and testing tools, including tuning forks and electronic tuners.

There were also auxiliary tools, which included tuning levers, string-changing levers, screwdrivers, and damper-stop adjusting wrenches.

Armed with just a tuning lever and a screwdriver, Ling Yun did not use a single other tool and began to tune.

Once he finished, a spark of interest struck Ling Yun. He took a breath, closed his eyes, and began to play casually.

Almost without needing to engage his conscious mind, his arms and ten fingers moved of their own accord to play, while his feet randomly pressed down on two pedals.

The simple melody came to an end.

The deep piano music drifted down to the first floor.

"Piano music? On the second floor. Could Little Yun be playing? That level of skill could at least be called a master of his generation," Lin Qiuyan muttered to herself.

Qin Lan heard it too. "Who's playing the piano? It sounds so good, and I've never heard this piece before. It's coming from the second floor? Is there someone else up there?"

She certainly didn't think this scoundrel Ling Yun knew how to play. She had already investigated his background over the years—he might know a little piano, but it was purely garbage-tier.

"Yay! Yay! It's Daddy! Daddy is playing the piano!" Little Yun clapped her hands and cheered.

To verify their suspicions, the group headed up to the second floor to see for themselves.

Ling Yun thought of a piece called Für Elise. That song was very famous on his home civilized planet, and he liked it a lot himself. He hadn't heard it in ages, so he decided to play it right now.

The piano music rang out once more. As the notes slowly flowed forth, Lin Qiuyan, Qin Lan, and Qianqian standing on the second floor found their minds swept away by Ling Yun's music into a dreamy scene. It was a piece they had never heard before; how could they even describe it? "Pleasant" no longer did it justice.

The beautiful piano music slowly drew its curtain to a close.

Little Yun ran over. "Daddy, you were amazing! It sounds so good, so good!" With that, she kissed Ling Yun on the cheek.

Ling Yun's mother and Qin Lan walked over as well, both staring at him with looks of utter disbelief.

"Little Yun, not bad. Since when did your piano skills get so incredible?" Lin Qiuyan was also full of questions. Her own son could play the piano?

"They've always been incredible."

Since when had her son become so multi-talented? Such a wonderful piece of music hadn't been heard before, so it definitely must have been his own original composition.

Qin Lan was completely stunned. This guy usually kept a low profile and didn't show off, yet he played the piano so well. On top of that, if this piece were to get out, it would undoubtedly become world-famous. Come to think of it, this guy looked damn handsome when he played the piano. Her face flushed red all at once.

Looking at them, Ling Yun rubbed his nose with a hint of embarrassment and said, "Just felt like playing an itch away. Well, it's passable."

"Little Yun, with so many talents, your old mom won't ever have to worry about you not making money again," Lin Qiuyan chuckled.

"I'm not worried about money right now."

"Daddy, I want to learn! I want to learn to play the piano and make money!" Little Yun waved her fists and said earnestly.

"Alright, I'll teach you later. You'll definitely be able to become a star." As he spoke, he flicked her little head playfully.

Afterward, at the three women's request, Ling Yun played Für Elise one more time, and this time Lin Qiuyan recorded it with her phone.

After taking a phone call, Qin Lan's expression shifted. She bid farewell to Ling Yun and the others to head back, taking a copied version of the song with her as she left.

"Qianqian, Grandma's going to give you a bath."

"Okay! But Grandma..." Little Yun's eyes rolled around.

"But what? What is my good little baby thinking about?"

"Grandma, you have to tell me stories, mm—five of them!" She even started counting on her fingers, looking utterly adorable.

"Aren't they just little stories? Grandma promises you." Lin Qiuyan figured she was a high school teacher after all; rattling off five stories was a piece of cake.

Just then, Ling Yun received a call from Manager Zhang. The content was that the diamond appraisal value had come out, and Manager Zhang was asking whether Ling Yun wanted to sell it directly or put it up for auction. Ling Yun wasn't hard up for cash, so he chose to sell it directly to their jewelry store. The closing price for the two stones was eighty-seven million, with the money to be wired to his card first, followed by Manager Zhang bringing the contract over for him to sign.

Before long, his phone buzzed with a notification that the money had arrived. Now that he had the funds, he couldn't just make empty promises. He picked up his phone and called Chen Li.

"Hello, classmate Chen Li, how is everything going?" Ling Yun asked.

"Well, I only resigned this afternoon. I've just been browsing a lot of information online, and there are also a few hotels up for transfer. I still need to go take a look in person tomorrow."

"Oh, quite efficient, aren't you? You already have some leads in such a short time. I really didn't misjudge you, haha."

"Save it. If you don't promote me and give me a raise after all this work, just wait and see how I deal with you."

"Understood. By the way, give me your card number and I'll wire the money over to you. Same as before—money is no object. Secure the hotel first."

"Yes, Boss."

Mm, not bad. Soon he would have a career of his own; with things to do, he wouldn't be bored. Ah, those idle days... Ling Yun muttered to himself.

The moment she sent her bank card number to Ling Yun, Chen Li froze in disbelief. On her phone screen, there was a two followed by a zero, another zero, another zero... and finally seven zeros. She rubbed her eyes and counted again. It really was twenty million. Her phone slipped from her hand with a smack and hit the floor.