Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

"No." Dodo suddenly squinted. "I heard...it sounds like...someone is tapping a beat?"

Su Ting gently plucked the strings, tested a few notes, and his expression changed slightly: "This rhythm... is not in our key. It's... a different kind of rhythm."

Xiaoman smiled and slowly raised her hand.

“It seems,” she said softly, “that in this world, we are not the only ones who want to speak.”

Chapter 1435 The Unknown Darkness

She gazed into the depths of the earth, as if she could penetrate the rock layers and see something slowly opening its eyes in the unknown darkness.

"There are others... waiting to go on stage downstairs."

The wind stopped.

But the beat didn't stop.

One beat after another, deep and steady, like a heartbeat emanating from the depths of the earth. Unhurried and unperturbed, yet possessing an undeniable presence, as if it had been there all along, waiting for a thousand years.

"Down there?" The gray-haired boy scratched his head, kicking away a piece of gravel. "Who's there? Can people live underground? Are they coal-mining rats that have come to life?"

"Shut up." Duoduo glared at him coldly, her ears twitching slightly. "This rhythm... isn't just randomly played. It's a response, but not a response to our piano, song, and drums just now—it's a response to something from much earlier."

"Even earlier?" Su Ting lowered his eyes, his fingers lightly gliding across the strings, trying to catch that hidden frequency. "You mean... it's been listening all along? From the very first time we played together?"

Xiaoman didn't answer. She squatted down, placed her palms on the ground, and closed her eyes.

Everyone held their breath.

A few breaths later, she opened her eyes, her pupils seemingly reflecting the light from the earth.

“It’s not a person,” she said, her voice as soft as the wind. “It’s not a ghost either. It’s… a memory. A voice buried deep underground, trying to wake up.”

"What the heck?" the gray-haired boy grinned. "You mean the earth... can sing?"

“The earth won’t.” Xiaoman stood up and clapped her hands. “But the earth remembers. It remembers all the suppressed cries, all the erased names, and those dead who never even had tombstones erected—they didn’t disappear, they just sank down.”

Su Ting frowned: "You mean... the 'Original Sin Monument' is just floating on top? The real seal on the voice... is underground?"

Xiaoman nodded, her gaze deep: "If one layer isn't enough, just add another. If one layer cracks, there's more underneath. They thought the deeper they buried it, the safer it would be. But sound... is never afraid of being deep."

"Then what does this gesture mean?" Duoduo clenched her fist. "A cry for help? A challenge? Or... an invitation?"

Xiaoman smiled.

That smile was as if it had heard some long-lost secret.

“It’s a question,” she said. “It’s asking: ’Do you really dare to listen?’”

The air was stagnant for a moment.

immediately--

"Boom."

There was another sound, even closer than before, as if it were five feet below their feet.

"Holy crap!" Gray Kid stumbled. "My ass's gone numb from all the shaking! Are they trying to drive a pile driver or turn us into mincemeat?"

"Don't move." Xiaoman raised her hand. "Listen."

Everyone was silent.

The rhythm unfolded slowly, like an underground river flowing through rock strata. At first, it was chaotic, as if countless people were striking their own instruments, but gradually, some syllables began to overlap, and some beats began to synchronize.

Tap, tap-tap, tap—

“Wait a minute.” Su Ting suddenly narrowed his eyes and tapped the strings lightly with his fingers. “This…this is not random vibration. It’s trying to form a melody.”

"What melody?" Gray asked, disbelieving. "Are you hearing things? You're mistaking a fart for a serenade."

“It’s ‘Broken Stele Ballad’,” Su Ting said, his voice strained. “The one we sang last night.”

"Impossible!" Duoduo exclaimed in shock. "We only sang it once! How could the people underground—"

“Not human,” Xiaoman interrupted softly. “It’s an echo. It’s the dust, the stones, the groundwater that heard our song—they remember. They’re imitating. They…want to participate.”

Chapter 1436 Should We...

"Damn!" The gray-haired child exclaimed, "Has the world come to life? Even stones can sing karaoke now?"

"You're the one who's become a spirit." Duoduo spat at him, but couldn't help laughing. "But... since they want to sing, should we respond?"

Su Ting's lips curled slightly: "Why do you think I haven't put the zither away all this time?"

With a flick of his fingers, a clear and melodious sound emerged from the zither, which was the prelude to "Broken Stele Ballad".

Duoduo immediately chimed in, her voice flowing like a stream: "The monument shatters like falling snow, the sound rises from the desert..."

The gray child grinned, picked up the drumsticks, and this time, instead of hitting his own broken drum, he slapped the ground with both hands—

*Smack! Smack smack! Smack—*

The rhythm is off-key, yet it carries a wild vitality.

Xiaoman closed her eyes, her voice like the wind sweeping across a wheat field: "The buried mouth will finally speak—"

At that very moment—

"Boom!!!"

A deafening roar came from underground, as if a million hands were slamming the ground at the same time!

Immediately afterwards, the previously chaotic rhythm suddenly became unified, transforming into a deep and powerful accompaniment that perfectly matched their singing and piano playing!

Even the kneeling child couldn't help but pat the ground gently with his little hands, his movements clumsy yet full of fervor.

"Hahaha!" Gray Boy jumped up. "Did you hear that? They're following us! We're the band, and they're the accompaniment!"

“No.” Xiaoman opened her eyes, looked at the ground, and said in a soft but firm voice, “They are not accompaniment. They are lead vocals.”

She suddenly bent down, her palms touching the ground again, her lips close to the dust, as if whispering to the earth:

"What do you want to say? Just say it. Don't imitate us."

The ground fell silent for a moment.

Then--

A voice slowly rose.

It wasn't heard through the ears, but vibrated directly in the chest cavity, as if it were growing from the bones:

"We...don't want to bury them anymore."

Everyone's breath froze.

"Don't want to be buried anymore?" Duoduo murmured, "So...you want to come out?"

Another tremor, intermittent yet crystal clear:

"The door... is down there. The key... is in the sound."

"Sound is the key?" Su Ting's eyes lit up. "So as long as we keep singing and playing, we can open that door?"

Xiaoman slowly got up and patted the corner of her clothes.

“No.” She shook her head. “Voice is not the key—resonance is.”

She looked at the crowd with a burning gaze: "One person singing is a sound. Two people harmonizing is music. But when millions of people sing at the same time, from the ground to the underground, from the living to the dead—that kind of resonance is the 'resonance' that can shatter the earth's core."

The gray-haired boy grinned: "You mean... put on an underground concert?"

“That’s right.” Xiaoman laughed out loud. “And the tickets are free, but the admission fee is—dare to speak loudly.”

The child timidly raised his hand: "Then... can I sing too?"

Xiaoman squatted down and ruffled his hair: "Of course. You're the first person to 'hear' the voices from underground, you're a VIP."

The child blushed, lowered his head, and rubbed his hands: "I...I want to sing a line that my mother taught me...the last thing she hummed before she died..."

“Then sing,” Xiaoman said gently. “Even if you sing off-key, even if your voice is soft, even if no one understands you—as long as you open your mouth, you’ve won.”

The child took a deep breath.

Trembling, he opened his mouth:

"...Moonlight climbs the wall, Mother is singing...The wind doesn't come, I'm not worried..."

The voice was young and off-key, yet it was like a spark that fell into an abyss that had been silent for a thousand years.

moment--

"Boom!!!"

A thunderous response erupted from underground!

That wasn't just one sound, but an entire wave!

Chapter 1437 Raging Roar

Countless rhythms surged in from all directions, like a sleeping river suddenly awakening, rushing and roaring!