Gu Zheng wiped the table once more.
There was hardly any dust on it; he had already wiped it clean the first time. He simply thought that, since he would be seeing Liu Ruyan later, things in front of him ought to be tidy.
Only after he put down the cloth did he remember.
She couldn't see him anyway.
Someone knocked at the courtyard gate. It was a friend who had bought a phone with him a few days earlier. The man carried half a packet of snacks to go with wine, and had barely poked his head inside when he saw Gu Zheng sitting perfectly straight at the table, even wearing a fresh outer robe.
"Are you going out?"
"No."
"Then why are you dressed like that?"
"I just had a bath."
After answering, Gu Zheng turned his eyes back to his phone.
His friend put the snacks down without rushing to expose him. Those were plainly clothes he wore to receive guests, and the crease in the collar hadn't even been pressed flat. A bath couldn't have put a new fold in his clothes.
But his friend had only just pulled out a chair when Gu Zheng suddenly sat up straight.
A red ring had lit up around Liu Ruyan's profile picture.
She was live!
He tapped too quickly and missed the first time, his fingertip sliding to the side. His friend was about to point it out when he had already gone back and tapped again.
The stream finally opened.
The first thing he heard was the soft pluck of a string.
The lamp by the window illuminated half a zither. Liu Ruyan sat behind it, still wearing the dark dress from the preview. She didn't look up at once. One hand rested on the strings while the other straightened an earring that had been knocked crooked. She was about to try another note when someone beside her said softly, "Ruyan, people are coming in."
Her hand paused.
Then she raised her eyes.
"Good evening, everyone."
Gu Zheng suddenly forgot the lengthy greeting he had prepared.
These weren't the eyes that always lifted at the same point in the video, nor was this the backward glance he had watched until he knew it by heart. After she spoke, she really waited for responses on the screen. The strings still trembled faintly beneath her fingers, and he could even hear someone moving a stool beside her.
Gu Zheng hurriedly typed three characters.
"I'm here."
After sending it, he felt it was too casual and hurried to add his name. He had only typed the first character when Liu Ruyan smiled.
"Young Master Gu is here too. I see you. Yesterday you asked whether that piece had a second half. Today I'll play the whole thing for you all."
Gu Zheng's fingers stopped.
His friend sat across from him, watching the smile spread slowly across his face. He held back and held back, but in the end couldn't help asking, "Was she talking to you?"
"She was."
Gu Zheng spoke softly, but the corners of his mouth refused to come down.
He lowered his head, deleted the unfinished message, and replaced it with, "Thank you for your efforts, miss." This time he didn't write hundreds of characters. He was afraid that if he wrote too much, she would already be looking at the next message by the time he finished.
The comments in the livestream really did come faster and faster.
Someone said they had been waiting since dinner, someone asked why she didn't have the fan from the preview, and another person had just come in and, on seeing the name, hurriedly called a companion over to watch.
Liu Ruyan glanced down at a few comments. The opening she had practiced until she knew it perfectly caught on her lips.
The viewer count kept climbing.
Thirty, seventy, just over a hundred.
It wasn't as though she had never performed at the Cloud Sound Workshop's largest banquets. But with a hundred guests seated in one room, she could see at a glance who was at which table and who was speaking. This palm-sized space before her, however, was like many doors suddenly opening, with people calling to her from behind every one.
Shen Qilan sat outside the camera's view and didn't read the comments for her.
She only pushed the program in her hand half an inch forward.
Liu Ruyan saw the words she had written down herself and slowly let out a breath.
"The fan is here. Let's listen to a piece first, shall we? This is Ruyan's first time performing for a phone. If I speak slowly, please give me a little time."
Someone soon replied below, "No rush."
Another said, "You can play the piece slowly, but don't cut out the second half again!"
Liu Ruyan laughed first.
"I won't cut it today."
She shifted the zither into a steady position in front of her and lowered her fingertips.
Clear, bright notes flowed out along with the lamplight, beginning with a few gentle harmonics before gradually joining into a single thread. It was already dark outside. The sounds of passing horses and carriages, often heard at this hour, came from beyond the courtyard wall and made the zither sound all the closer.
Gu Zheng had still been thinking of posting a message, but his fingers slowly came to a stop.
He had been to places where people listened to music before. Some guests drank, some talked, and when the mood took them, they would call for another piece and someone would begin playing again.
But never had it been like this.
The door was shut, his sword hung on the wall, and the freshly brewed tea still gave off steam. Through a phone, someone in another courtyard far across the city seemed to sit before his lamp and play the whole piece he had always wanted to hear.
His friend reached for the snacks, and had barely chewed a mouthful when Gu Zheng looked over.
"Keep it down."
"I haven't said a word."
"You're chewing too loudly."
His friend looked down at the crunchy beans in his hand, fell silent for a moment, then moved the packet farther away.
He understood now: he hadn't come at a very good time for a drink tonight.
In Suotuo City, Lu Ye carried a bowl into his room and looked at the livestream first thing.
The viewer count had already passed two hundred.
He set the bowl at the corner of the table and scrolled through a few comments. He didn't touch the recommendations, nor did he send Liu Ruyan a string of last-minute instructions.
He had seen that momentary pause.
But she had recovered on her own.
Musicians exchanged looks and gestures when changing pieces, but the audience on the phone couldn't see Shen Qilan nod. If Liu Ruyan could understand that in her first performance and knew to steady her own rhythm first, she wouldn't be led by the nose by a screen full of words.
Lu Ye had eaten two mouthfuls of rice and was just thinking that he could finally eat while it was hot today when the shopkeeper's voice came from outside.
"Young Master Lu, a few guests downstairs asked whether you could lend them your phone..."
"No."
Only after speaking did Lu Ye look up.
"Didn't they buy any?"
The shopkeeper looked helpless.
"They bought two, but there's a whole table of them. Two came from outside the city and can't squeeze in."
Lu Ye glanced toward the door. Sure enough, he could faintly hear the same zither piece downstairs, along with people arguing quietly over whose arm was in the way.
He remembered how the shopkeeper had filled the demonstration phone with Cloud Sound Workshop videos when he first came to Soto, and couldn't help laughing.
"The shop hasn't closed yet. Tell them to go buy one. Don't tell them I won't lend mine; tell them I'm watching too."
The shopkeeper acknowledged him and turned to go downstairs.
Before long, the footsteps downstairs grew hurried.
At the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Gu Rong put his phone on the table and listened to half a piece before suddenly pushing it toward Chen Xin.
"This young lady has some skill."
Chen Xin didn't look up.
"Is it the music you're listening to?"
"What else would I be listening to?"
Gu Rong spoke with perfect confidence. But as soon as he pushed the phone over, he remembered that there hadn't been this many people talking at once under his Bone Dragon post from a few days ago.
People feared and respected him, and some praised the imposing presence of his Martial Soul.
Yet here was a crowd scattered across the farthest corners of the world, all willing to put down what they were doing and wait for a young lady to finish a piece.
Gu Rong watched for a while, then suddenly reached for the screen.
"These flowers, are they for sending to her?"
Ning Fengzhi was sitting on the other side, reading letters. At that, he looked up.
"Lu Ye said before that if you like her, you can send some. Look carefully and decide how many to buy."
Gu Rong opened the page and actually looked over the prices, then casually sent ten flowers.
Little flowers rose from the edge of the screen, one after another.
Someone below immediately recognized his name.
"Bone Douluo?"
"Is it really His Excellency Bone Douluo?"
"Click on his profile, that Bone Dragon is there!"
When Gu Rong saw the messages, the corners of his mouth immediately rose.
The piece came to an end just then. Liu Ruyan looked up, and she too was visibly startled when she saw the name. She promptly bowed in thanks.
"Thank you for the flowers, Senior Bone Douluo. I'm honored beyond expectation that you came to listen."
Gu Rong gave a light cough and set the phone down securely.
"See? She knows this old man."
Chen Xin finally glanced at him.
"Your name is written right there."
Gu Rong pretended not to hear and continued watching the comments pop up one after another.
Through this screen, without releasing his Bone Dragon or displaying his nine rings, he could actually sit among the crowd, listen to a piece, and then say it was good.
It was a feeling he had seldom experienced before.
Watching those ten flowers, Gu Zheng finally found the place he hadn't gotten around to looking at earlier.
Gifts.
When he opened it, the price of a flower was clearly displayed: just one Copper Soul Coin. Ten cost one silver coin, not much more than the packet of snacks his friend had brought.
He sent ten.
Liu Ruyan was reading the comments and happened to see them. Smiling, she said, "Young Master Gu."
Gu Zheng's shoulders immediately relaxed.
This time, before his friend could speak, he added something himself.
"She played the piece well. Of course I should give her a little reward."
His friend nodded.
"I didn't say you shouldn't."
But no sooner had he said it than a great mass of flowers suddenly rose in succession from the bottom of the screen.
Two hundred flowers.
A name they hadn't seen much before pushed its way into the most prominent position.
The Gold Pattern Workshop's young master.
Immediately afterward, a line of text appeared below.
"That was a fine piece. I'm looking forward to the dance that follows, too."
Gu Zheng looked at the line of text and put down the tea he had just picked up.