283 The Governor (1/2)
”Three hours and twenty minutes.” Ye Qingxuan sat in an open air seat of the café across from the school. He stopped his stopwatch. ”I’ve already calculated but there’s still a ten minute difference. There’s still room for improvement.”
He went through the process again and finally found the problem. Then he picked up the coffee before him and drank it up with a smile. For the first time, he realized the power of the School of Mind.
The power of ‘free transformation” had been imperceptibly and cleverly inserted into the gap between thoughts. The musician could use others as tools to push the matter toward their desired direction. Those involved were often dragged in without realizing. They would not even know why they died.
No wonder Mind musicians were often feared by others. Once this kind of power was abused, it would destructive enough to destroy any kind of relationship between people. After all, there was no way to ensure that a close companion had not been planted with a hint.
Thinking of this, Ye Qingxuan also became alert. He began planning how to prevent others to use this trick on him. Actually, the easiest way was to strike first and to plant an automatic hint in everyone’s mind.
Lola used to enjoy doing this kind of thing. She planted several layers of hints into each of her follower’s minds. It was a ring set and each one’s trigger was different. Those guys who wanted to betray her or had evil intentions would often fail at this time and be fooled by her.
Lola had many tricks that were worse than that, especially from the book she had given Ye Qingxuan. She was not a dark musician but was more evil than them.
Every skill was terrifying. If someone could learn all skills in the book, it would be a pity if he did not try to destroy the world and retaliate against the society.
Ye Qingxuan shook his head and got up to pay the bill.
At the end of the street, a black procession came silently under the afternoon sun. The black line of cars was branded with the Royal Music Division's heraldry. The car’s windows were blocked by curtains. One could not tell how many people there were.
There was a truck among the procession. It carried dark iron boxes seals sealed in red wax. It seemed to be transporting something.
”Bench Guy?” Ye Qingxuan, looking at the head of the team, found that Gavin was with several royal musicians on horseback. Gavin seemed to have found him too and looked over.
Ye Qingxuan waved. He did not expect that Gavin would ride over quickly after hesitating and whispering to the person beside to him.
”Bench Guy, you’re looking impressive,” Ye Qingxuan teased, seeing him riding on the dark horse and dressed in uniform with a grim look.
Gavin managed a smile. He seemed to be very worried about something and whispered, ”Ye Qingxuan, some bad things will happen in this city. The Royal Music Division has imposed martial law. Don’t go out if you don’t need to and just stay in the academy. It’s best if you can leave Avalon for one month and come back after it passes.”
Hearing his words, Ye Qingxuan paused then nodded with smile. ”I see. Rest assured. And please just call me Yezi. ”
”...Yezi, take care.” Gavin took a final look at him and then turned the horse's head to catch up with the rest.
Ye Qingxuan stood still, watching the convoy gradually disappearing in the sunset’s residual light. He finished the coffee in his hand and threw it into the wastebasket.
”Big event?” the teenager youth murmured. ”It seems that I have to be faster.” He turned and walked into the academy.
-
Late at night, the study’s door was pushed open. Abraham raised his head and saw the white-haired youth at the door. He took off his glasses. ”Yezi, what’s the matter?”
Ye Qingxuan grinned. ”Sir, about the interpretation...I have some questions.”
Abraham immediately understood. Pressing down with his prosthetic hand, the requiem enchantment silently covered the whole school district, blocking all the aetheric fluctuations.
Ye Qingxuan closed the door. Sitting behind the desk, he respectfully handed over a stack of manuscripts. ”Professor, I’m interpreting an ancient movement but I am confused by some of the music theory. How should I interpret this paragraph?”
Abraham looked at the manuscript. A startled look flashed through his eyes. Soon, he smiled. ”It’s quite simple.” He picked up a piece of chalk and began writing on the blackboard behind him.
”This interval is a relatively rare form of continuity that is the key to the whole 'musical phrase.’ You should take this as the theme and start from here. As for the notes’ deconstruction, you can refer to the writings of Bach, the sixth generation saint.”
The first question about 'interpretation' was so easily solved. Ye Qingxuan understood it quite well. After a long while of thinking, something flashed past his eyes. He handed over another manuscript. ”I don’t really understand this part.”
Abraham took it and stared at the broken passages and questions. After a long time, he laughed. ”From the perspective of interpretation, you should...”
It took a total of five hours until three o'clock in the morning. The questions Ye Qingxuan had accumulated over the past few days were finally completely solved.
Throughout the whole process, the two only communicated about the interpretation of the movement, just like the teaching between the scholar and his student. Ye Qingxuan did not mention that the Abstinence score had come from the School of Stone Heart. Abraham also did not mention any of the School of Abstinence’s terms.
One asked and the other answered. There seemed no logic in the questions; the answers did not sound like answers.
But in the end, Ye Qingxuan was so excited. After the final question was solved, he closed his eyes and thought for a long time. The aetheric fluctuations in his body suddenly soared and collapsed. After a strange change, the fluctuations calmed down again.
”I see.” He opened his eyes and smiled. ”Thank you for your guidance.”
”You can ask me anything about interpretation.” Abraham waved his hand to undo the enchantment. ”When are you going to attempt to become an official musician?”
”To tell you the truth, I have no idea yet.” Ye Qingxuan's expression immediately became troubled.
Abraham frowned and patted the young man's shoulder. However, he was soon startled. ”How can you have not yet advanced yet? Your resonance with the aether has reached far beyond mine when I was your age.”
”But I don’t show signs of Deva sensing yet.” The youth smiled wryly. ”I can feel that recently my strength has raised more than in past months. Logically, I should be a formal musician now, but nothing has happened yet.”
Abraham mused for a long time and said, ”Probably because you haven't reached your limit yet? You study the theory of Abstinence, Illusion, and Mind at the same time. I'm afraid the difficulty is much higher than for the average musician.”
Hearing him say so, Ye Qingxuan immediately became a little embarrassed. ”In fact, I also study Revelations. It seems that learning too much isn’t good.”
”It's your gift, Yezi.” Abraham laughed. ”You started learning music theory less than six months ago, right? You are a real genius.”
”Compared with Charles, I'm not a genius all.” The teenager shook his head and stood up to say goodbye.