Must Buy the Piano

In the morning classroom, sunlight streamed through the windows onto the desks, but it was blocked by stacks of textbooks piled higher than a person's head.

There were 15 minutes left until morning reading time. Students who arrived early seized this last chance to rest their heads on their desks.

The lifeless classroom was like a giant incinerator, with every diligent student lying within, as peaceful and serene as corpses, wishing for the day the school would go down with the world.

"Brother Yong."

As soon as Lin Tian sat down, he placed a bag of McDonald's on Xu Yong's desk.

"This is for you."

"?"

Xu Yong's drowsiness vanished. He looked up, staring at Lin Tian in shock.

"There are burgers and soy milk, all inside," Lin Tian said.

Xu Yong opened the bag and found it was indeed McDonald's, his expression becoming even more horrified:

"You're not planning on living anymore?"

"I have no future."

"Are you going to get neutered?"

"Screw you."

Even the usually well-behaved Lin Tian couldn't help but curse in front of Xu Yong.

He calmed himself down and said seriously:

"I've been thinking, we've been desk mates for two and a half years, and I've never treated you to breakfast."

"Whoa, you've grown up!"

Hearing Lin Tian suddenly get sentimental, Xu Yong's face flushed. He patted Lin Tian's shoulder, showing a shy, reproachful expression like, "Hey, don't say that."

"It's true, we've been desk mates for almost three years."

Xu Yong opened the burger wrapper, took a bite, and said emotionally.

"Ah, I've been starting a business lately and I'm short on a piano. Without this piano, my future is gone. If anyone could lend me some cash..."

Xu Yong suddenly spat out the meat in his mouth and shoved the burger back into the bag, returning it to Lin Tian's arms with lightning speed.

"Heh heh, you little rascal~!"

Xu Yong pointed at Lin Tian, a bright smile on his face.

"Oh, Brother Yong~"

Lin Tian grinned sheepishly.

"I knew you wouldn't be this kind for no reason, treating me to burgers?!"

Thinking about how he almost fell for it, Xu Yong's mouth was immediately filled with polite and friendly greetings to Lin Tian's parents.

"You really are a motherless child."

Mid-curse, Xu Yong quickly realized that this would make Lin Tian happy.

He quickly changed his tune:

"Your mom and dad are both alive and well!"

"What a vicious curse."

Even Lin Tian gritted his teeth, acknowledging Xu Yong's aggression.

"I'm not kidding, Brother Yong, I'm really in a bind this time."

"Don't even think about it, that's my money for building a PC!!"

Xu Yong was different from Lin Tian, who had to take care of his own food, accommodation, and everything else.

His family was considered middle-class, and he basically never lacked anything.

The reason he still went to work with Lin Tian was to build a cool gaming console and play the Black Horse game he longed for.

Originally, Xu Yong's parents had given him 3,000 yuan to build a computer, but at that price, even the geeks at the computer forums probably couldn't assemble a configuration that could stably run Black Horse.

Helpless, Xu Yong could only go to the graphics card forum.

Finally, the kind-hearted forum members helped him add and add, settling on an RTX 4070 with an i5-12400 configuration, and the cost suddenly soared to eight thousand yuan.

For the remaining money, Xu Yong had to earn it himself by working hard.

After working hard for more than three months, he had finally saved up almost enough money to build the PC.

Lin Tian actually had his eye on this money!

What a black heart! How could he do such a thing?!

What was the difference between this and scamming old people out of their pensions?!

However, after calmly thinking it over, Xu Yong recalled that Lin Tian wasn't the type of person to casually ask for money.

Therefore, he patiently asked:

"What do you need a piano for? Starting what kind of business?"

Lin Tian didn't hide anything. He took out his phone.

He showed Xu Yong the videos he had posted a couple of days ago and explained the current situation.

"So, you're saying you're filming short videos with that girl right now, and you've already gained some traction. As long as you can get a piano, you can become popular on Douyin?"

"That's the gist of it," Lin Tian nodded.

After hearing Lin Tian's explanation, Xu Yong fell into thought.

If anyone else had told him this, Xu Yong would have thought it was complete nonsense.

But Lin Tian was different. Xu Yong had always known Lin Tian to be a very practical person when it came to his studies.

This guy, when it came to seriousness and effort, was just as annoyingly admirable as his looks.

So, Xu Yong genuinely started to consider it.

He had personally witnessed Lin Tian's piano skills just last week, and indeed, one of his videos had gone viral.

Xu Yong had been the one to explain Douyin filming to Lin Tian back then, and he hadn't expected him to put it into practice so quickly.

Looking at the video with 29,000 likes on his phone, Xu Yong noticed the name of Lin Tian's account.

He pointed to "Moonlight and Cat" and asked Lin Tian, "Who is Cat?"

"Gan Yan Yu."

"And who is Moonlight?"

"Me."

"Why do you call yourself Moonlight?"

"Should I call myself Cat?"

"…" Xu Yong was speechless.

Valid points, convincing argument.

"But I have to tell you, monetizing on Douyin isn't that simple."

"I know."

"…"

Seeing the determined look in Lin Tian's eyes, Xu Yong finally sighed.

"How much do you need?"

"Around 8,000."

Lin Tian had checked. A decent piano cost between twelve and fifteen thousand.

Although spending so much money on a piano at this stage was a bit irrational, Lin Tian didn't care.

People who aim for great things sometimes need the courage to just go for it.

Once successful, this small amount of money wouldn't matter!

"You really aren't holding back at all, are you?"

Xu Yong couldn't help but say, "Although I really want to help you right away, to prevent myself from spending recklessly before buying the equipment, I've given all my money to my mom. If I ask her for it now, I'll definitely have to explain the situation."

"Mm-hmm."

Lin Tian understood.

After all, 8,000 was not a small sum.

Any parent would be furious if they knew their child had secretly borrowed such a large amount of money for a friend.

"I'll call my mom during the break between classes later and ask for the money."

As Xu Yong said this, he grew increasingly excited, his body even trembling uncontrollably.

That was 8,000, a whole 8,000!

"Lin Tian, are you sure you want to spend over ten thousand yuan on a piano?"

A poor high school student, borrowing money to buy a piano to film Douyin videos.

This was too crazy!

Any teacher or parent who found out would probably think these two high schoolers had lost their minds and needed electroshock therapy at a internet addiction clinic.

But Xu Yong inexplicably believed Lin Tian.

If he could witness Lin Tian's success, Xu Yong would feel a great sense of accomplishment.

In the blink of an eye, the break between classes arrived.

The two of them got up and went to the chemistry lab on the top floor. No one usually came here, making it a suitable place for doing some unspeakable things.

After waiting at the doorway for nearly fifteen minutes, with the class bell about to ring, Xu Yong finally finished his call and walked out of the laboratory.

"How did it go?"

Lin Tian immediately stepped forward to ask.

Xu Yong let out a heavy sigh and said, "Rejected!!"

"Huh?"

"My mom didn't agree. She said the most she could let me borrow for you was three thousand yuan."

"This..."

Three thousand yuan could probably only buy a toy piano.

Now, there was really no other way.

Helplessly, Lin Tian comforted Xu Yong, telling him it was okay, and then returned to the classroom.

On the way back, Lin Tian began to reflect as he walked.

Was he perhaps too hasty?

At this stage, with even basic needs only just being met, he was already thinking about buying a piano.

Was it possible that even without accompaniment, if he filmed the next video well, it could still go viral?

Lin Tian was lost in thought when, upon reaching the classroom door, he was suddenly stopped by a female classmate.

"Lin Tian, where did you go just now?"

"During the break just now, a girl came looking for you."

"Looking for me?" Lin Tian couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, a girl with long hair, quite pretty. She said she had something very important to discuss with you. When she saw you weren't here, she left."

Hearing this description, Lin Tian had a vague, bad feeling.

He opened his phone and, as expected, saw a message from [Sunshine After Rain].

Why did that silly girl come to the school?!