One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.22 Tugging Heartstrings

SunChen sniggered in his mind at the silence around the pavilion after the first piece they performed. For a while, there was only disjointed sound of the zither strings between Ji LanBai and Bai YuLan, tuning the melody for their next intended score.

In fact, he completely understood their mood. It was the same for him when he first heard YuLan's piercing flute-like howl for that song she had named "Painted Skin."

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It was the first time for SunChen to listen to the musical piece when he accompanied his friend, HeShan, to their employers' house. As her calligraphy teacher, he was well acquainted with Ji's family daughter - Ji LanBai. But prior, he had only constantly heard from HeShan's whining that she was a dull stone in music. Then he wasn't sure when exactly, HeShan started to hum unfamiliar tunes whenever they were together, and also sighed with unbridled pride in his eyes when he talked about his students' talents in music.

After both girls' performance – which was accompanied by HeShan's dizi's melody – SunChen was starstruck and could definitely understand what HeShan constantly chortled about for months.

"This score --," he asked YuLan after he finished listening to it, "-- has a verse? The qin you and Young Miss LanBai just played seem to be telling a story."

This "Painted Skin" score combo of two qins and a dizi had an unusual melody. Normally, music scores in the Zhang Empire symbolized the earth and the sky's forces – blowing wind, running river, thundering sounds -- forces of nature. Qin and erhu would usually represent the flow of water, or playful bright colors of flowers. A dizi would tell the story of the wind.

Then scholars like SunChen and HeShan, would be inspired from these natural voices and give voice and melody to them – making poems to complement the music, or the music to complement the poems. These lyrical poetry would usually be performed at the end of the score to give the listeners an insight of the inspiration derived for the music.

But the score the trio just performed – It was definitely not the sound of the waves, nor water or wind. They sounded like unspoken hearts of actual living people, moving souls. And from the flow of the qin and dizi, SunChen could sense this. Hence his question to YuLan after knowing she was the brain behind the melody.

YuLan smiled at him back then, with a faint hint of appraisal in her eyes.

"Sun-laoshi is truly a man worthy being called one of Da Lang's finests." she nodded softly, "That is correct. There is a verse for this score."

Then the four of them enthusiastically refined the lyrical verses YuLan recited. HeShan and SunChen were initially perplexed when they heard the lyrics.

What [Wanting to forget your expression, but can't.]; What [Loving you like a heartbeat.]

These verses of love came from a young girl in her early teens. HeShan couldn't help but tease YuLan,

"Where did you get your inspiration from?", Then he jokingly widened his eyes and hide his lips behind his sleeves, showing a faked horrified expression, "Don't tell me – have you fallen in love with me? Aiya, I'm your teacher. It's impossible between us."

YuLan just stared at him, her lips drawn in a flat line, her eyebrows raised slightly in silent mockery. HeShan then kept his mouth shut. SunChen couldn't help but feel embarrassed on his behalf.

After testing their vocals to determine their utmost fittingness to the song's mood, SunChen was the chosen vocalist. He also contributed to some changes to the original verses YuLan told them.