Zheng Wang

Unable to tell what the reason was, Guan Zan's heart skipped a beat abruptly, and he quickly wondered if it was because he spoke too fast that the old man couldn't hear clearly.He raised his head cautiously, looked into those serious eyes, spoke slowly and clearly this time, and patiently repeated: "Mr. Ke, my name is Guan Zan."

The two looked at each other, but Ke Su's expression remained unchanged, but his eyes slowly changed: "Serbi Yuchan, Huang Liu is here." The old man nodded thoughtfully, and a kind and generous expression appeared in his eyes. Smiling, "Who named this?"

"My father." Guan Zan answered truthfully.

Ke Su pondered for a moment, then asked again: "Who did you learn your piano from?"

"It's still father." Guan Zan said, "He...should also be a Guzheng player, but he is not well-known, and you may not have heard of it."

As soon as he said this, Guan Zan suddenly realized that he had said too much, especially in front of people of Ke Su's status, so he smiled embarrassedly: "My father passed away early, and I didn't learn much from him. Years, the level is very average, maybe not as good as the children in the interest class."

Seeing that Ke Su didn't respond, Guan Zan took a deep breath calmly, and decided to be more frank: "I heard from Uncle Xu about the work content. I will take care of the Qin." No problem, just playing..." He paused, then changed his mind after a while and asked, "You don't need someone at my level to play music, do you?"

After he finished speaking, Ke Su still didn't rush to speak, but raised his hand to signal Guan Zan to sit down.

"There are few people in this family, and there are not so many rules. You will find out after a while that you don't have to be so cautious in front of me." As he said, Ke Su picked up a cup of tea on the low table next to him, and pushed it away with the lid. Pushing Fuye, "Or is it that the director of the housekeeping company made me really scary?"

The tone of these words was relaxed, and the content was half a joke. Guan Zan felt uneasy, but more or less relaxed a little: "I said you were strict." Guan Zan replied obediently, and the voice of the second half of the sentence became weaker, " And you look very serious..."

Ke Su laughed immediately when he heard the words: "You look very good, but you are quite courageous. You dared to say that I was strict on the first day. Are you really not afraid that I will punish you?"

Guan Zan was startled, and was speechless at the rush of words, and finally had to whisper: "I offended you."

"It's not a problem." Ke Su took a sip of tea slowly, and continued jokingly, "I, an old man, have already left a bad impression on you juniors, so you can't care about it anymore, then you have to think how narrow-minded I am! "

This time Guan Zan didn't dare to answer the words, he always felt that the old man had a very weird temper, and he couldn't figure out his temper at all in a few words, and he didn't know whether he was serious or just a trick to make fun of him.But no matter what, he came in to serve people, so he was not qualified to talk about this kind of topic with the master - "junior" was a pet name, he was at most a servant.

"Mister." Guan Zan said, "I know I said something wrong, so don't be angry, okay?"

Mr. Ke waved his hand, and he didn't know whether it was "don't talk" or "it doesn't matter". When he spoke again, the topic really changed. He said: "Then tell me about your situation, how is your piano learning? How much can you play? The first song? Did you pass the exam?"

Guan Zan replied: "Because of my family's relationship, I got in touch with Guzheng relatively early, probably when I was about five years old. My father was busy with work, so he only took me to the beginning, and he would check when he was free. Usually, it was mainly my mother who supervised and tutored me. I studied for two years."

"In terms of repertoire..." He thought for a while, and then said cautiously, "I have actually practiced all the low-level repertoires. I can't say how many of them. After all, it was more than ten years ago. When I was six years old, I went to the The Central Conservatory of Music took the Amateur Level [-] exam, and I passed the exam at the time, but then there was an accident at home, and the piano was temporarily put down."

"I never thought of picking it up after all these years?" Ke Su asked.

"Frankly speaking, I haven't thought about it." Guan Zan's voice was calm, and his dark pupils were like a pool of quiet water, "You should have seen my information. My father passed away, and my mother suffered from severe mental illness. I was treated in the hospital. I was adopted by my uncle's family when I was seven years old. My parents didn't leave much inheritance, and learning an instrument was expensive. They didn't agree, so I didn't insist..."

"It's a pity." Mr. Ke sighed, "But although you missed the best stage, you are not too old now, and you have the foundation, so there is still time."

Guan Zan laughed helplessly when he heard this, and declined, "Forget it. My uncle and aunt have paid for my mother's medical expenses for so many years, and they have spent a lot of money. I am not too young, so I have to take this responsibility. "

"So you didn't even go to college, and just came out to work?"

"Ah."

"You are a good boy, sensible and filial." Putting down his teacup, Ke Su stretched the armrest of the armchair and made a gesture to get up.

Seeing this, Guan Zan hurried over to help. Ke Su didn't look old when he was sitting. After helping Guan Zan all the way, he found that Ke Su's legs didn't seem to be so strong, and he seemed to have a serious leg disease.He stabilized the person, then took the crutch standing beside him, and removed the chair to prevent the old man from tripping over obstacles.

Ke Su thought it was because he had been sitting in the piano room for a long time, leaning on his crutches, he moved his right leg a little before taking a step, and said to Guan Zan, "My leg was injured in a car accident before. It didn't have such a big impact, but it turned out that I was older. It’s useless for people, and it hurts badly when the weather is high. It rained a few days ago, and it almost killed half of my life.”

Guan Zan straightened the armchair that had been displaced, walked over to support the old man's arm that was not on crutches, and said, "Then you should rest for two more days, and come back to play the piano when you feel better."

"I've been doing this all my life, and when I get old, I can only use it to amuse myself." Ke Su was open-minded, dragged his sick leg and led Guan Zan around the screen, sat down on the side of the tea table, and pointed with his cane The armchair on the other side signaled Guan Zan to sit too, "But now that you're here, you can still play chess with me."

"I'm also at the level of being bullied by children. If I don't play well, don't laugh at me." Guan Zan took the initiative to open two chess boxes, and then sat down at the tea table.

Ke Su was in a good mood, and laughed out loud when he was teased, and blurted out: "It doesn't matter if you play badly, I'm the elder, so I'll let you play a few more pieces at worst! You don't know, my youngest was also bad at playing chess back then. The addiction is so strong that he will pester me to play whenever he has time, and he won’t stop if he doesn’t win, that’s enough for me..." Before he finished speaking, he suddenly fell silent and glanced at Guan Zan.

Guan Zan didn't know why, he just thought that the old man remembered the past, he couldn't answer the words, he could only laugh along with him, but this pause for no reason made him even more confused.He raised his eyes to meet the other party's gaze, and asked with a smile, "And then?"

Ke Su was stunned for two seconds, and then suddenly came back to his senses. He picked up a sunspot from the chess box, held it firmly with two thin fingers, and placed it tremblingly on the chessboard.The chess piece made of jade is smooth and round, with a loud sound, very similar to a single note in the etude just now, which drags people's thoughts into a trance.

"Then..." Ke Su smiled gently, his eyes fell on the chessboard, and he said full of memories, "As the game of chess is played, the students grow up one by one, and I am also old. If I come here again, there will be no more people." Haunting me to play chess."

Guan Zan could hear that the old man's tone was wrong, and after waiting for a while, he said, "I thought I was your child, but now it sounds like your student?"

"Closed disciple." Ke Su said, "The young one is always loved by others, besides, he is talented and intelligent, and he works a hundred times harder than other senior brothers and sisters. Naturally, I dote on him the most."

"That's great." Guan Zan said absent-mindedly, picked up a white piece, and after thinking about it, decided to let this eccentric old man try his chess skills first, and then decide whether to win or lose.

At the end of the first game of chess, Guan Zan lost with half a piece.

Mr. Ke, who won the chess game, was in a good mood. He praised Guan Zan for his good chess skills, and dragged him to play another game, saying that he must use less water this time, otherwise he would not be able to see his true level.Guan Zan's Go game is completely the result of the training of the housekeeping company. He can only crush the children because he can only crush the children.

The fierce battle on the chessboard, you come and go, time flies, at least for Mr. Ke who is addicted to it.When Guan Zan first came to his employer's house, he didn't dare to say no to everything, let alone mention the time, so he was dragged by the old man to play Go for five or six hours.It wasn't until Zhang Ma urged Mrs. Zhang to have dinner many times to no avail, and Xu Zhendong resolutely came to invite Ke Lao out of the piano room in person, that this extremely boring chess game came to an end.

Guan Zan was exhausted, and after sending Ke Su away, he took the initiative to stay and tidy up the piano room.Not long after the two left, the entrance door was opened again. Guan Zan, who was sweeping the dust for the zither, poked his head out from behind the screen and saw Xu Zhendong enter the door.

"Uncle Xu, why are you back?" Guan Zan was surprised.

Xu Zhendong came over to look at the two half-packed pianos, then looked at Guan Zan, and said softly, "I have something to trouble you, I might have to go to bed late tonight."

"Everything should be done, don't be so polite to me." Guan Zan said, "What is it?"

Xu Zhendong said: "The second young master returned to China on a business trip, and he promised to stay at home for a few days after he came back. However, there was a typhoon landed at the time of departure, and I just received a call from his assistant. When. Mama Zhang is getting old, and I have to go out to run some errands recently, and I will leave after the old man goes to bed, so I want you to help you wait for him, and I may have to make a late-night snack or something if necessary."

Guan Zan didn't mind hearing it, and agreed: "It's no problem, don't worry."

"That's hard work, I'll come out for dinner after tidying up." Xu Zhendong was anxious to accompany Mr. Ke, walking towards the door while talking, and finally remembered something, turned around and told him, "It can be seen that the old man likes you very much, maybe you still want to Let's talk again, don't be too slow, let him wait for a long time."

"I know, I'll go right away."

After the two finished speaking, Xu Zhendong strode away from the piano room, making sure that he was far away. Guan Zan quietly closed the sliding door, and then quickly returned to the side of the two zithers that were playing against each other.After hesitating for a while, he picked up one of the armor pieces that Ke Su took off not long ago, and pinched it with two fingers. His movements were very light, as if he was afraid of damaging this precious kite, and he seemed not to want to be caught by the second hand. personal discovery.

As the armor piece touches the strings, the right wrist shakes lightly, and the clear timbre of the guzheng flows out from under the fingertips.Guan Zan was so excited that his heart skipped a beat, he hastily withdrew his hands, and then covered the strings with his palms, stopping the sound of the piano.

He really hasn't touched the piano for too many years.

……

When Guan Zan came to the restaurant, the dinner was not over yet, but Mr. Ke had already finished his meal and was talking to Xu Zhendong in a low voice while drinking tea.

The Ke family's house is decorated in a combination of Chinese and Western styles. In the dining room, there is a large round table for 12 people to eat at the same time.Right now, Ke Su is sitting in the chair, and Xu Zhendong is serving in the vice-chair on the left. According to the rules, servants are not allowed to share meals with the master, but it is strange that a set of tableware has been set up three people away from the old man on the right.Guan Zan entered the restaurant and bowed to the old man, then consciously wanted to stand with the maids waiting beside him.

As a result, before he could stand still, Xu Zhendong looked up and said, "Come here, Xiaoguan, sit there." Then he ordered Mama Zhang, "Serve the food."

Generally speaking, no matter how rare the rules of a wealthy family like the Ke family are, they are much more complicated than ordinary families, especially the table manners. Whoever sits in what position is fixed, and it is impossible to increase, decrease or change at will.Guan Zan had a general understanding of the members of the Ke family, and secretly thought that the deputy on the right might be the deceased wife of the old man, and the young lady and the young master below.

Then let him sit four seats, is this justified?

Guan Zan couldn't understand why such an arrangement was made, so he hesitated for a few seconds before walking over and sitting down at the designated spot.

At this time, Mama Zhang served the after-dinner meal, and Guan Zan thanked her, but did not dare to move her chopsticks.Xu Zhendong motioned to the maids not far away, and introduced their general jobs and names respectively.Those servants had darker complexions and facial features with obvious Southeast Asian features. They were Filipino servants.

Mr. Ke is traditional and doesn't like messy people in his family. Before the housekeeper finished his introduction, he put down his teacup and scolded, "It was all found by my little girl. The little girls are good at work, but they don't understand. Talk! I said to make a pot of Longjing, and guess what, she cleaned my starling's birdcage!"

Guan Zan: "..."

Guan Zan didn't have the nerve to smile, lowered his head slightly, and pursed his lips involuntarily.

Xu Zhendong explained: "These Filipino maids have no problem with their English, but their Chinese is weak. They can still understand the meaning without speaking local dialect."

Mr. Ke disagreed with 1 people, "humph", and complained to him: "You are the second child, so you know how to face him." After finishing speaking, he picked up his teacup and drank tea, let go of his tone, and asked with a straight face: "When will the little brat come back?"

Xu Zhendong probably thought this title was indecent, so he glanced at Guan Zan from the corner of his eye.Guan Zan pretended not to hear, and thought to himself, the more favored he is, the more he will be scolded, and the longer he will remember it. It seems that the second young master's status in the family is not low.

Xu Zhendong said: "Tomorrow morning at the latest, the second young master will be at home after you sleep."

"I won't be home for half a year, and I'll stay for two days once I come back. I don't have this son!" Old Master Ke was angry, and insisted on standing up on the table by himself.Everyone had to follow along, Xu Zhendong hurried to help, the old man swung his arm, and said to Guan Zan, "Eat well, go to bed early when you're done, don't wait for the bastard."

Guan Zan wanted to laugh but couldn't, and looked at Xu Zhendong questioningly.Xu Zhendong helped the old man out of the restaurant, and gave him a sideways wink, which meant, hurry up and coax him!

Guan Zan understood, and said, "Okay, old man, rest, and I will play chess with you tomorrow."

Old Master Ke listened to his ears, and praised Guan Zan again.Guan Zan obediently sent the old child out of the house, and sat down at the table again. He heard the voice of the old man coming from the hall.

Ke Su said: "Give those Filipino maids a holiday tomorrow, and ask Xiaoer to water all the flowers in the yard!"