10:00 AM the next day.

Lu Zhixian had just scooped a fried egg onto his plate when his phone vibrated.

An official email from the Piano Association.

While stuffing the fried egg into his mouth, he swiped open the email with one hand and scanned it.

The content was brief. In essence, He Zhiyuan, the Head of the Piano Department at the Jingzhou Conservatory of Music, had formally extended an invitation through the association, hoping Lu Zhixian could give an open demonstration class at the school.

No limits on the theme, format, or duration.

At the end of the email, He Zhiyuan's original words were attached:

"It would be fine if you just sat there and said a few words."

Lu Zhixian swallowed the egg and picked up a glass for a sip of juice.

Jingzhou Conservatory of Music.

A top-ranked professional music institution in the country.

Teaching university students?

He thought about it while chewing his second bite of egg and replied with two words:

"Sure, I'll go."

Three minutes later, Old Zhao called.

"I saw the notice from the association! Jingzhou Conservatory of Music! An open class! Old Lu, do you know what this means?!"

"It means I have to head out after breakfast."

"Listen to me! You have to take this kind of occasion seriously! I've already contacted a styling team. I'm having three suits sent over for you to choose from, and I'm drafting the media press release."

"No need."

"No need for what?"

"No suits, no styling, no press release."

Old Zhao's voice hitched.

"Teaching a class isn't like walking the red carpet." Lu Zhixian put the plate in the sink, turned back to the bedroom to change into a black hoodie, and grabbed a canvas bag from beside the wardrobe to sling over his shoulder.

"You're going in a hoodie? To the Jingzhou Conservatory of Music? To teach their professors and students?"

"I've got my canvas bag, too."

Old Zhao was silent on the other end for five seconds.

"Are you trying to make me die of a heart attack on the job?"

Lu Zhixian chuckled and hung up.

He left and hailed a cab.

Forty-five minutes later, the car stopped at the west gate of the Jingzhou Conservatory of Music.

Lu Zhixian paid the fare and pushed open the door. As soon as his feet hit the ground, he stopped.

The West District teaching building was about two hundred meters straight ahead.

The road from the school gate to the teaching building was lined with people on both sides.

They weren't standing in small groups; they were packed in densely.

Students.

All students.

Every available space was filled.

Phone screens glowed brightly in the crowd, like stars fallen to the earth.

Before Lu Zhixian had even taken three steps, the nearest group of students recognized him.

"It's him! He's here, he's here!"

"Lu Zhixian! It really is Lu Zhixian!"

"Godfather!!!"

A wave of sound surged from nearby to the distance, like a pebble thrown into a lake.

From the direction of the teaching building two hundred meters away, an even greater commotion arose.

Lu Zhixian raised an eyebrow at the spectacle.

He turned his head to look at Old Zhao, who was running up behind him, panting.

Old Zhao's eyes were wide, and his lips trembled, but no words came out.

"Didn't you say we should take this seriously?" Lu Zhixian smiled. "They're taking it much more seriously than we are."

The entrance to the teaching building.

He Zhiyuan stood on the steps at the entrance.

Behind him stood four piano department professors; the oldest had hair that was completely white, and the youngest was nearly fifty.

The five of them stood in a straight line, perfectly upright.

The last time the Piano Department had welcomed someone with such a lineup was three years ago, for a judge from an international piano competition.

Seeing Lu Zhixian's figure in the distance, He Zhiyuan took a deep breath and adjusted his collar.

An old professor beside him whispered, "He's just a pop musician. Isn't it a bit much for the five of us to be standing here to greet him?"

He Zhiyuan didn't look back.

"You've seen the video."

The old professor fell silent.

Lu Zhixian walked through the crowd and reached the steps of the teaching building.

He Zhiyuan took the initiative to step down two stairs and extended his hand.

"Mr. Lu, welcome."

He spoke those words very slowly.

Lu Zhixian shook his hand and nodded with a smile. "Professor He, thank you for the trouble."

He Zhiyuan stepped half a pace to the side.

"Please, come in."

The four professors behind him followed suit, stepping aside to make way.

A wave of screams erupted from the crowd of students blocking the entrance.

Lu Zhixian walked into the lobby of the teaching building and looked up.

The hallways were packed.

The first floor was full, the stairs were full, a row of heads leaned over the railings on the second floor, and the same for the third.

It wasn't just the Piano Department.

Some students had ID badges from the Vocal Department around their necks, some carried drawing boards, and a group in practice clothes clearly came from the Dance Academy.

Security guards had set up cordons on the first and second floors, but they were already being pushed out of shape.

A girl with a ponytail held her phone above her head through a gap in the crowd, stood on tiptoe to take a few photos, and whispered, "Please, just let me see him! Just one look!"

Lu Zhixian heard her.

He stopped and turned to look at the girl.

The girl froze.

Lu Zhixian smiled and waved at her. "Did you get the shot?"

The girl was stunned for a second, then nodded frantically.

"As long as it's not blurry." After saying that, Lu Zhixian noticed a boy beside her holding a notebook and pen. He reached out his right hand and shook hands with the students in the front row one by one.

"Here for the class? Thanks for the hard work. Don't your legs hurt after waiting so long?"

The girl holding the notebook turned bright red; in the five seconds she held his hand, her mouth opened three times without making a sound.

Her roommate reacted faster, pressing the shutter button frantically with her phone held close to her face.

Someone in the back shouted, "Godfather, I want a handshake too!"

Lu Zhixian looked back and smiled. "You'll all see me in a bit. Don't worry."

He Zhiyuan stood three paces away, watching this scene.

He had taught his whole life and seen every type of genius.

Some geniuses only knew how to play the piano; once they left the bench, they didn't know what to do with their hands.

Some geniuses had strange tempers, arguing two-and-a-half times for every three sentences they spoke to a normal person.

But this young man before him didn't have any of the sharp edges common in "geniuses."

At this moment, the last shred of doubt in He Zhiyuan's mind about whether he could actually teach students suddenly faded.

There are plenty of people who can play the piano.

But there are very few who can make students willing to listen before they even open their mouths.

The originally planned classroom had long since been abandoned.

That 120-person lecture hall was now crammed with over three hundred people.

The aisles were full, the steps were occupied, and three layers of heads were peeking through the doorway.

He Zhiyuan had made the decision fifteen minutes ago—to move to the first-floor auditorium.

Four hundred seats.

But even that wasn't enough.

The head of the school's logistics department ran over, drenched in sweat, to set up projection screens and audio equipment in two large adjacent classrooms for a real-time video broadcast.

Even so, a large group of students who couldn't get in were crouching on the open ground outside the teaching building, some sitting on the edges of flower beds checking their phones for the campus live stream signal.

A white-haired old professor passed by the entrance and stopped.

He looked at the dense crowd inside and then at the students crouching on the grass outside with their phones.

A young teacher beside him called out, "Professor Zhang, aren't you going in to take a look?"

The old man shook his head, his tone carrying an indefinable sense of emotion.

"I've taught here for twenty-eight years."

"I've never seen such a spectacle, not even at the opening ceremony."

Auditorium.

The moment Lu Zhixian pushed open the door, four hundred pairs of eyes fell on him simultaneously.

The hall was silent for about half a second.

Then, applause rang out.

Someone stood up.

Then a second, then a third.

By the time Lu Zhixian reached the grand piano at the front, all four hundred people in the auditorium had stood up.

The applause lasted for nearly twenty seconds before gradually dying down.

Lu Zhixian casually placed his canvas bag on the piano lid and pulled over the piano bench to sit down.

He placed his left hand on the keys and casually pressed a couple of chords to check the tuning.

The sound dispersed through the auditorium.

Lu Zhixian looked up and scanned the dense crowd below the stage.

The aisles were full, a row of people leaned against the side walls, and the crowd at the door was three layers deep.

He smiled.

"This is my first time teaching so many people."

He paused.

"I'm a little nervous."

A ripple of laughter came from the audience, and the atmosphere relaxed slightly.

His right hand casually played a string of notes in the high register; the crisp sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet auditorium.

"But this thing called a piano shouldn't be something that makes people nervous."

The laughter stopped.

Everyone was waiting for his next sentence.

Lu Zhixian withdrew his hand from the keys, leaned back slightly, and looked at the audience in a conversational manner.

"Today, we won't talk about technique."

The expressions of the three hundred-plus people in the audience changed simultaneously.

The students who had brought notebooks, their hands poised to record fingering essentials, were frozen in mid-air.

Those who had set up their phones to film a tutorial video looked at each other.

Not talking about technique?

Then what would he talk about?

He Zhiyuan was sitting on the left side of the first row.

When he heard this, he was holding a thermos, about to take a drink, but his movement stopped.

Lu Zhixian's gaze swept from the first row to the last, then to the heads crowded at the door.

"First, let's talk about why you are afraid of playing the piano."

The auditorium was silent for three full seconds.

He Zhiyuan put down his thermos and slowly sat up straight.

No one in the audience made a sound.

But many people's expressions underwent subtle changes during those three seconds.

Lu Zhixian's right hand hovered over the keys for two seconds.

It didn't descend.

He looked up, gazing at the four hundred faces below.

"Is there anyone here who feels that playing the piano is painful?"

In the corner of the first row.

A tall, thin boy with glasses slowly raised his hand.