Chapter 321: Can You Endure Loneliness?
“Don’t think like that, Little Gan Classmate.”
Lin Tian raised his index finger, seriously explaining to Gan Yan Yu, “If you waste too much time on this wrong question, even if you can solve the ones after, you’ll miss the opportunity to score because time’s up. Isn’t that a pity?”
“If you get stuck because of a small mistake in this exam, wouldn’t that be such an unfair fate?”
Lin Tian diligently bestowed wisdom upon Gan Yan Yu.
For a high school student, these should be common sense, but for Gan Yan Yu, who hadn’t been exposed much to such things, it required patience to explain from scratch.
“But if I skip this problem because it’s too hard, isn’t that just avoiding it?”
Gan Yan Yu tilted her head in contemplation, “That’ll make it hard for me to focus on the questions that follow.”
“Not avoiding! — Just a necessary compromise for your ultimate score!” Lin Tian corrected her sternly.
Soon, he came up with a metaphor: “In your performance, would you stop playing just because you hit a wrong note at the start?”
“I’ve never actually faced that situation; I wouldn’t know,” Gan Yan Yu furrowed her brow and replied after thinking, then added, “Before every competition, I practice until I reach the point where I can’t possibly make a mistake.”
This time, it was Lin Tian who was left speechless.
Well, it’s Gan Yan Yu, after all.
No matter the piece, she ensures she’d play it so flawlessly that even minutes before the competition, she could still be reciting music she knows by heart.
She might misplay due to a bad day.
But making mistakes? Not an option.
Perhaps in Gan Yan Yu’s eyes, the exam hall is like a performance stage.
If she can’t ensure a 100% command of the material before entering the hall, then she has no right to be there!
One can only imagine.
The torture she went through during the last final exam.
But her suffering was purely self-inflicted.
She likely spent hours lost among pages filled with questions she couldn’t answer.
“I get it now.”
With this realization, Lin Tian felt enlightened.
He finally understood why Gan Yan Yu was like this!
Rather than saying she’s stubborn, it’s more accurate to call it — perfectionism.
Her musical attitude affects her academic mindset!
In fact, Lin Tian can relate, as he has his own streak of perfectionism, though not as severe as Gan Yan Yu’s. Under the oppressive educational system, it’s at least manageable, being just a drive for excellence in everything he does.
But Gan Yan Yu’s perfectionism? Now that’s a tough nut to crack!
It affects her ability to tackle subsequent problems when she can’t solve the first one.
On this point, Lin Tian can resonate.
Because he has absolute confidence in his math skills, when faced with a situation like this, he gets upset too.
“That’s it! I can’t anymore!”
Gan Yan Yu threw her pen down and rested her forehead on the table, “This math is just too hard! Why do X and Y have to be equal?!”
Lin Tian chuckled helplessly as he picked up the pen. “X and Y aren’t a couple; they are variables that need a relationship to find the answer.”
“I don’t get their relationship! It’s more complex than the notes in the ‘E Minor Cello Concerto’!”
“Really?” Lin Tian feigned deep thought, “Can it really be more complicated than the relationship of ‘getting married to achieve dreams’?”
Gan Yan Yu’s cheeks sank deep into her arms as Lin Tian felt a chill go down his spine.
Oops, that joke was a bit too risky!
He had unwittingly stepped on her landmine!
Just as he was about to say something to remedy the situation—
Suddenly, he felt a tickle in his palm.
Looking down, he saw Gan Yan Yu’s hand, hidden beneath the table, softly caressing his palm.
Her tiny finger playfully scribbled in his hand.
It sent a tickling sensation up his arm.
In Lin Tian’s gaze, as Gan Yan Yu lifted her head, her face was flushed, and she turned her face away, muttering, “It’s my fault…”
“I shouldn’t make you deal with such complicated Xs and Ys every day.”
“Patience!”
Her voice took on a coy tone as she held Lin Tian’s hand, her thumbs drawing circles over it.
“Okay.”
Lin Tian nodded.
Then he picked up the pen again, redirecting her attention back to the questions. “Let’s change our approach. Imagine this question is like a piece of music.”
“How do I imagine it?” Gan Yan Yu tilted her head, her hands resting demurely on her knees.
“Get your cello out.”
Gan Yan Yu stood up, walked out of the living room, and soon returned with her cello.
“Give me the bow.”
Gan Yan Yu handed over the bow to Lin Tian.
Lin Tian raised the bow, drawing a parabolic arc in the air. “See? This function’s graph resembles a crescendo-decrescendo melody. The X-axis is time, and the Y-axis is volume. You need to find the highest and lowest points, just like marking dynamics in a score.”
“Oh! I get it now!”
Gan Yan Yu’s eyes widened in awe. “So the peak is the climax, right?”
“Exactly! Now you ‘perform’ this question.” Lin Tian smiled.
Gan Yan Yu immediately took the pen and seriously doodled some notes on a piece of scrap paper.
Then she suddenly stopped. “Wait, how do we calculate this climax again?”
Lin Tian stifled a laugh, pointing at the formula with the pen tip. “Use this formula, just like finding the root note in chords on your score.”
“…”
Gan Yan Yu quickly calculated again, only to get it wrong once more.
A look of despair crossed her face, and she let out a wail: “I can’t do it anymore, Teacher Lin! My brain’s only fit for playing the cello, not for arithmetic!”
“Not possible.”
Lin Tian gently patted Gan Yan Yu’s back, smiling, “I have always recognized Little Gan classmate’s learning capability. There’s nothing you can’t learn!”
Gan Yan Yu looked at him guiltily. “Really? Do you trust me that much?”
“Of course.”
Lin Tian spoke sincerely.
Anyone can doubt, but not “Teacher Lin!”
— Of course, even without “Teacher Lin,” Gan Yan Yu’s dramatic growth in her performance left a deep impression on him.
She truly could baffle even Lin Tian, who possesses “master-level acting skills.”
Lin Tian ruffled her hair. “Don’t rush; take your time. Isn’t it the same with playing the cello? You start learning with the simplest scales!”
“But scales don’t give me headaches.”
“How about this.”
Lin Tian pondered for a moment, stood up, “Let’s get practical.”
“…”
They shifted their battlefield to the café.
Gan Yan Yu placed her practice book on a chair while Lin Tian sat at the piano.
Then he played a cheerful snippet from “Teacher Cat’s Summer,” a simple melody.
“This is the X-axis.”
He then played a higher note. “This is the Y-axis.”
“Now, let’s combine them.”
“…”
A lively tune filled the air.
Gradually, Gan Yan Yu’s expression brightened.
“I think I’m feeling it!”
Before long, she picked up the pen again.
Ripping away the previously filled up page that took her two hours to finish, she grabbed a new blank sheet, scribbling her calculations.
Ultimately, she arrived at the correct answer.
Gan Yan Yu jumped up excitedly, “I did it, Teacher Lin!”
“Lin Tian, you’re the bestest teacher!”
Lin Tian smiled at her. “It’s your keen intuition. Actually, for someone with your foundational knowledge, this question is considerably advanced. Getting the answer is quite impressive!”
“I don’t care! You’re the best Teacher Lin!”
Gan Yan Yu exclaimed, suddenly pouncing onto Lin Tian’s neck from behind.
Their softness pressed up against the back of his head, her chin resting on top of his head.
Lin Tian was startled, jolted forward, almost losing his balance as he grasped the piano. The keys emitted a cacophony of sounds.
He turned his head to see Gan Yan Yu, embodying rare liveliness, gazing at him kindly.
“So, how will you repay your teacher?”
“Maybe a doll?”
“Why a doll?”
“Didn’t you say no girl has ever given you a doll?”
Gan Yan Yu giggled, “A little bear, a little pig? What do you want?”
“I want Little Gan.”
Lin Tian’s eyes sparkled.
“Even better in life-size.”
“…”
Gan Yan Yu fell into silence.
“Don’t go silent on me like that!”
Lin Tian panicked.
Just when they were having a good time, she drops this bombshell that makes him seem like a total creep?
Gan Yan Yu had a skill for manipulating the atmosphere.
“Would giving you such a doll make you feel… less lonely?” Gan Yan Yu said softly, her eyes lowered.
It makes me feel even creepier!
Gan Yan Yu’s beautiful, pure little face dipped, her conflicted and struggling expression making it seem like Lin Tian was trying to force her into something she didn’t want to do!
“After all, if it’s my fault for making you lonely, I’d feel sad too…”
Having presumably recalled Lin Tian’s earlier joke, Gan Yan Yu mumbled again.
“Then that won’t do.”
“Huh?”
Gan Yan Yu looked up, and Lin Tian said earnestly:
“What do you think I am? You think you can just shove me aside with a small toy?”
“No amount of anything can fill this lonely heart of mine if I can’t marry Little Gan every day!”
Lin Tian feigned despair, clutching his heart, dramatically lamenting.
“I’m sorry!”
Gan Yan Yu quickly grabbed Lin Tian’s hand from the piano, gently poking his palm with her fingers.
In the next second, Lin Tian yanked her down to sit on the piano bench.
“If you want to make it up to me then you should…”
“What?”
Gan Yan Yu gulped, looking dazedly at Lin Tian with those innocent eyes.
“Just study hard! Pass the college entrance examination!”
Lin Tian poked her forehead with his index finger.
“This way, we can get closer to our dream!”
With that, she immediately covered her forehead, letting out a wail.
The girl squatted on the ground, and after a while, she finally lifted her head.
Then she dove into Lin Tian’s embrace.
“Dummy Lin Tian! Dummy Lin Tian!”
As Gan Yan Yu shouted, she playfully scratched Lin Tian’s stomach with her little hands.
Lin Tian couldn’t stop laughing, utterly confused. “What’s… going on?”
“Did I say something wrong?!”
“If I was too rough, you can poke my head too.”
In the café, the sounds of the banter echoed.
One month left until the college entrance examination.
In this last month, Lin Tian and Gan Yan Yu completely severed ties with the outside world.
Their minds wholly focused on studying.
“Moonlight and Cat,” also set a record for the longest time without releasing new CDs since debut, a full month without any new work.
In order to improve Gan Yan Yu’s grades, Lin Tian really put in a lot of effort.
They returned to the life they had when they first started creating music.
They ate together, shopped for books together, solved problems together, and when it came to sleep… well, they slept separately.
They were almost glued together, focusing solely on eating, studying, and when they got tired, they ordered dessert takeout as a reward.
In these days, they steadily finished one practice book after another.
The corner piled high with dessert takeout grew day by day.
With each passing day, Lin Tian watched as Gan Yan Yu’s weight visibly increased, soon hitting that 95-pound mark.
All good.
Lin Tian didn’t mind much.
While it’s more appealing to be slim from the standpoint of aesthetics, when the time comes to really “get hands-on,” it’s the real deal that counts.
Think of it as preparing for the ability to procreate post-marriage.
As for their study environment, Lin Tian put in considerable effort.
Noticing they caused a ruckus whenever they were together, making it hard to concentrate, they moved their study sessions from home to the café, then realized it was still too distracting, and relocated to the library.
However, at the library, while quiet, they would still inevitably break into playful competitions using gestures.
So, Lin Tian called upon Xu Yong.
With another person around, it should tone down the chaos.
When Xu Yong showed up, he was accompanied by Su Ran; this was expected.
The four of them buried themselves in the library, brushing through exam questions.
Though it seemed everyone was studying individually, they were mainly helping Gan Yan Yu.
Su Ran was brilliant in her English proficiency, even slightly better than Lin Tian. Upon noticing Gan Yan Yu’s struggles with the English paper, Su Ran proactively explained the problems.
Xu Yong might not offer much help in academics, but he was reliable in terms of giving pep talks.
When he noticed Gan Yan Yu’s perfectionistic streak, Xu Yong became exasperated.
Watching Gan Yan Yu sitting across from him, stuck on a question for half an hour, he couldn’t take it, exclaiming, “For the love of everything, just move on!”
“You won’t d*e for leaving one question blank, but if you don’t continue, Lin Tian will freaking d*e looking at you!”
“As students from the bottom tier, we shouldn’t try to compare ourselves to Lin Tian and Su Ran; what we need to do is grab as many points as possible… it’s not fair that our grades s*ck, we aren’t even worthy of being humans.”
Though he didn’t comprehend why not figuring out one problem would mean one wasn’t human.
Even so, his endless groans of negativity managed to reach Gan Yan Yu.
To avoid burdening Lin Tian, she powered through, writing down answers in one go.
In the process, this stubborn cellist, Gan Yan Yu, after completing an entire exam paper, let out a soft sigh.
— Sometimes, one must learn to accept imperfections.
May 16.
Exactly one month after the “Moonlight and Cat Concert” concluded.
With only two weeks remaining until the college entrance examination, Lin Tian and Gan Yan Yu reserved a day for themselves.
Because the two were attending a very important event — the celebration for the success of the Moonlight and Cat concert!
Though it seemed a bit late to hold a celebration a month after it ended, there was a reason for the delay.
The day after the concert ended, Nanaly flew off to England to continue competing in ongoing competitions.
At that time, Nanaly had merely squeezed a few days back in her performance schedule to help Lin Tian and Gan Yan Yu; it was only natural for her to rush back afterwards for her competition.
Now, who would dare to dig into the meal without Nanaly at the celebration?
Gan Yan Yu insisted they had to have every guest that helped out.
Coincidentally, Cosmic Flying Pig was active in Qing Jiang during that period and wouldn’t be returning to Japan anytime soon.
So, no rush.
They settled on Nanaly returning home right around the one-month mark after the concert to throw the celebration.
The celebration was hosted at their usual post-event restaurant, the “BBY” BBQ.
He Zhi Chen sat with the team members from the concert.
Lin Tian, Gan Yan Yu, and the guests had their own table.
“Cheers!”
He Zhi Chen first came to Lin Tian’s table, and under his call, everyone raised their glasses together.
After finishing their drinks, He Zhi Chen set his glass down, beaming as he said, “Thank you all for your participation; our concert was a huge success.”
“It’s been a month; everyone should have experienced our success, right?”
As soon as He Zhi Chen said that, everyone broke into joyful expressions.
Indeed, ever since the concert, everyone’s lives had drastically changed.
Nanaly, Bai Xi, Yun Qiu Qiu, had already gained some recognition in the industry but had even broken through barriers this time, becoming renowned cellists across the nation, receiving widespread acclaim.
Cosmic Flying Pig hit the jackpot, skyrocketing over a million fans on Bilibili! They became the legendary band that played “Fate Symphony” alongside Moonlight and Cat!
Everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, gained significant fame and achievements from this concert.
Just like that saying goes—
This glory, Moonlight and Cat shall not keep to themselves!
(End of Chapter)
