The Devious First Daughter

Chapter 161. Meeting Ya Moqin again

"What's wrong?" Ning Xueyan returned to her senses and turned to look at the book in Heng Yuqing's hand, but didn't notice anything odd about it.

"It's strange. The copy of that I once read... didn't have this part," Heng Yuqing replied uncertainly.

"What's missing?" Ning Xueyan asked, surprised.

"This part. Look, Your Highness... This part wasn't in the book before... I remember liking this piece a lot. I tried playing it, but couldn't finish it as the piece was incomplete. I failed every time. It sounded as if the music had abruptly been cut off. It left me quite uncomfortable."

Heng Yuqing said, pointing at a zither piece.

She was pointing at an incomplete piece in the zither section, but the damage was minimal. Looking at the scope of the zither piece, there were very few missing verses. In other words, if one were to repeat the final verse of the piece, one might be able to treat this as a complete piece and play it as such.

In her current life, Ning Xueyan rarely touched the zither and wouldn't have been able to notice the details. However, as Ning Ziying in her previous life, she was taught the four arts of zither, Go, calligraphy, and painting and was proficient in all of them. When she was living in the Lord Protector's Manor, she lived a very quiet life where a day could pass without anything happening. She spent a lot of that time playing zither and writing.

Therefore, when Heng Yuqing pointed at the zither piece, she noticed what was strange about it right away. She extended a fair finger to point to one of the verses in the piece and savored it for a moment. Her lashes fluttered twice before she said with certainty, "I think someone else continued the piece starting from this part."

Heng Yuqing looked at where Ning Xueyan was pointing to and carefully pondered the verses. She couldn't help but compliment, "And it's a very clever addition too."

The piece called "Longing of the Zither" was cut off about two-thirds through. This was apparent as the styles of the original and the addition were completely different. The original piece was more melodious, but the additional verses were more sentimental and sorrowful.

Heng Yuqing was quite an accomplished player herself. All she did was hum it under her breath for a moment to catch this.

She remembered that the piece was cut-off at the same part. She wasn't a fan of such books, for there wasn't any way to play the complete piece. Even if she could finish it, she would feel like she was faking it and that didn't feel right to her. The piece was written by a player before them, and it must be extraordinary if an incomplete version was able to remain in the esteem of so many people.

There were a handful of people who thought that they were talented and experienced enough to finish the incomplete piece.

However, they didn't make it because they weren't capable enough or their circumstances were different enough that their verses weren't compatible. Many reasons caused these incomplete zither pieces to be an increasingly difficult puzzle to solve.

The only reason Heng Yuqing was attracted to the zither piece in the first place was that it was printed on the first few pages of the book. The pages before it was all incomplete chess endgames, which made a woman like her feel powerless to solve. It went without saying that she would pay the zither piece more attention afterward.

Moreover, the zither piece was quite original. The composition was melodious and meant to be as fresh and clean as nature. It was a very attractive piece, especially to women in boudoirs.

Heng Yuqing even played the piece, wanting to complete it in her way. However, tried as she might, she couldn't play another tune after the cut-off or she would play an off-sounding tune. It was hard for her to produce a beautiful song, so she gave up after a few tries.