The Obsessive Musician

Lin Tian considered himself a person with fairly decent emotional intelligence.

But sometimes, Gan Yan Yu truly left him unable to read her.

Or rather, a woman's heart was impossible to figure out!

Especially a girl like Gan Yan Yu, who had struck Lin Tian as very intelligent from the moment they first met.

So Lin Tian's method was simple.

Stall! Just keep stalling!

So these words could be considered Lin Tian's heartfelt truth.

As long as you don't die, anything can be discussed.

However, after Gan Yan Yu heard Lin Tian say that.

She suddenly froze.

Her eyes turned vacant, while her little face flushed red.

It was like two-dimensional fantasy had stepped into reality, the beautiful girl's pupils trembling slightly.

For a moment, it was impossible to tell whether she had turned red from embarrassment or from shyness.

"What are you saying...?"

Gan Yan Yu turned her face away, and even her voice softened.

Lin Tian quickly realized it too.

What he had just said seemed rather ambiguous.

Didn't it sound like, as long as you were here, anything I ate would taste good?

Damn!

What kind of cheesy pickup line was that?!

Lin Tian hurriedly explained, "What I meant was, I'm usually alone after work. Tonight, having someone with me makes me really happy."

Lin Tian did not even know what he was explaining. The more he spoke, the stranger it sounded.

But,

when he saw the girl's expression gradually ease, he knew that, at the very least, his previous words had worked.

At the same time, a panel appeared before him.

Sanity Points: 18↑

Health Status: Very Poor → Poor

It got a little better?

Lin Tian felt somewhat relieved.

Although the number was still very low, it at least proved that his efforts had not been in vain.

If he pushed a little harder, perhaps he could find a new breakthrough.

"Fine."

Gan Yan Yu deliberately adjusted her expression into a serious one.

Although she found it a little strange that Lin Tian had suddenly said something so random.

Considering that there was no way Lin Tian would say a love line with "that" kind of meaning, no matter how one looked at it.

It instead made his words seem even more sincere.

With that thought, the girl calmed down.

"How about this?"

Lin Tian suddenly came up with a new idea.

"You can treat me to dessert."

"Dessert?" Gan Yan Yu's eyes lit up.

"Yeah. If we're not full enough, we still have mung bean cakes."

Lin Tian had noticed it while they were walking around downstairs earlier.

When Gan Yan Yu passed a dessert shop, she had glanced sideways at the menu by the entrance three times.

She really was terrible at hiding things.

Even though she was quite good at hiding her own secrets.

"Okay."

This time, Gan Yan Yu answered quickly.

They shifted their battlefield to the dessert shop.

Bright lights and a fresh, minimalist decor.

The two sat down inside.

Gan Yan Yu ordered two puddings, one mango-flavored and one strawberry-flavored.

Lin Tian ordered a watermelon slush.

He loved the feeling of using a spoon to shovel up a towering mountain of watermelon slush, digging into it spoonful after spoonful as though he were excavating someone's ancestral grave. It was incredibly stress-relieving.

Watermelon juice trickled down the slush like corpse water seeping from a dug-up grave.

Lin Tian had said that while cursing Xu Yong.

It had been Lin Tian's birthday that day, and Xu Yong had bragged that he would treat Lin Tian to a great meal, only to bring him out for slush after making a big fuss.

Lin Tian had immediately asked whether his slush looked like a grave mound mixed with bloody water, and whether one scoop from him looked like he was digging up Xu Yong's ancestral grave.

Still, Lin Tian had genuinely fallen in love with the flavor afterward.

Gan Yan Yu held up her cup. The tiny pudding cup looked as noble in her hands as some sacred lotus relic.

She picked up her spoon, gently scooped some up, and placed it into her mouth.

The silky texture and icy coolness came with the fragrant scent of mango, the greatest fruit in the world.

So tasty!

The girl bit her spoon, her eyes curving into crescents as she revealed an utterly blissful expression.

It was as if every worry in the world had vanished along with that mouthful of pudding!

The sight left Lin Tian staring in astonishment from across the table.

For some reason, he thought of someone—an invincible man—

Saiki Kusuo.

So scenes of people eating pudding in anime really did exist in real life.

"I remember the old man's coffee shop sells pudding too, right?"

Seeing Gan Yan Yu rarely show such a happy side, Lin Tian cautiously asked.

"Yeah, but Grandpa is decent at making coffee and terrible at making pudding. His pudding isn't even as good as mine."

Gan Yan Yu bit her spoon, as if recalling something wonderful.

"Grandpa was troubled by it too. He knew I loved eating it, so he tried all sorts of different methods, but he could never make it taste like the pudding from dessert shops. When I went to the United Kingdom, he said that when I came back, he would definitely let me eat pudding that satisfied me."

"Then did you get to eat it?"

Gathering his courage, Lin Tian asked.

"You tell me."

The girl gave a soft laugh.

Then she lowered her head, took the other strawberry-flavored pudding, and continued enjoying her food.

As expected, she refused to say anything.

Lin Tian felt somewhat helpless.

Still, it was not as though he had gained nothing.

He unexpectedly realized that Gan Yan Yu did not seem to be as cold a person as she appeared.

She had a sunny side too.

Perhaps before everything happened, Gan Yan Yu had also been an ordinary, playful, adorable high school girl.

"I remember you said before that you performed classical music?"

After obtaining Piano Skill and awakening the Music Library, Lin Tian suddenly wanted to talk to Gan Yan Yu about this topic.

Perhaps if he started with music, Gan Yan Yu would not be so resistant.

"Yes."

"What is the difference between classical music and ordinary music? Or does any really old music count as 'classical music'?"

"The difference is huge."

At that, Gan Yan Yu suddenly put down her pudding.

Although she did not understand why Lin Tian was suddenly interested in this, she still earnestly raised her index finger and explained it to him.

"So-called classical music is a musical style. It does not mean 'music from a long time ago.'"

"In cello competitions, music is usually clearly categorized. Besides 'classical music,' there are also 'modern music,' 'jazz music,' Pop Music, and so on."

"It's just that in recent years, international cello competitions have become increasingly popular, and more young people are watching them. Classical music can easily become overly rigid about technical precision and fixed forms, so it is not popular now."

"Then wouldn't liking classical music put you at a huge disadvantage in competitions?" Lin Tian asked.

"You can't put it that way. We all chose this path because of the music we love. How could sharing our music with every audience member on stage be called a disadvantage?" As she said this, Gan Yan Yu's voice became gentle, and her gaze drifted toward the window.

Lin Tian understood.

If LOL represented the cello, then international competitions were Worlds.

On the Worlds stage, things like "modern music" and Pop Music were strong meta champions, while "classical music" was a weak meta champion.

Gan Yan Yu was a one-trick classical music player, but because it was weak in the current meta, competitions were extremely unfavorable for her.

Gan Yan Yu was the type who clearly knew there were strong meta champions but refused to practice them, then lost whenever she competed.

Wasn't that just UZ?

Of course, Lin Tian was just guessing.

He had never watched Gan Yan Yu compete, so he did not know what level she was at in the United Kingdom.

But from the girl's words, it was not difficult to sense.

Gan Yan Yu seemed to possess an obsession with classical music that ordinary people could not understand.

"Beep beep—"

Suddenly, Lin Tian's phone rang.

The caller ID was Xu Yong.

Why was that guy calling him?

"I'll take this call."

After saying that, Lin Tian stood up and walked outside the shop.

"Lin Tian, where are you right now? Are you still eating with that Gan Yan Yu?"

The moment the call connected, Xu Yong hurriedly asked.

"Yeah. What is it?"

"That Gan Yan Yu... when you introduced me to her earlier, I kept feeling like there was something I wanted to ask you, but I forgot. Then I suddenly remembered just now—

Do you know why she took a leave of absence back then?"

"Yeah. She went to the United Kingdom for further study."

"That doesn't sound right."

At this point, Xu Yong lowered his voice.

"When I was in my first year, I went to the Academic Affairs Office to hand in a self-criticism letter, and I saw her handling her leave-of-absence paperwork at the desk next to mine. There were a ton of people gathered around her. It was so exaggerated!"

"I remember her reason for taking leave was to go abroad for medical treatment."