Chapter Thirty-Two: Earning Money, Earning Money

“Wedding in a Dream”—this world had never known such a world-renowned piano piece. Its technical demands were modest, but it required exquisite attention to detail, for it conveyed a sorrowful story. Whether that emotion could be evoked depended on the performer’s skill.

Su Tong managed it. For someone his age, his performance was truly astonishing, leaving all present in awe.

Of course, the little children didn’t really count. It wasn’t quite a case of casting pearls before swine, but nearly so—they simply thought it sounded lovely, nothing more. If you wanted them to burst into tears, wailing for their parents, you’d have better luck giving them a spanking.

…

By the time they left the music shop, it was already past five, nearing six in the evening.

Stepping outside, Su Tong paused in confusion. After wandering around inside, he’d forgotten which direction he’d come from. It took him a long and difficult moment of mental tracing before he figured it out, then strode off decisively.

Half an hour later.

Damn, he couldn’t find the bus stop where he’d arrived. He’d walked the wrong way.

By the time he returned home, it was already past seven. Xiaoyu and Xiaoxiao were starving, busying themselves in the kitchen.

Unable to wait for their brother, the two sisters had started making dinner on their own.

In the countryside, some stoves still used firewood, like the one at the Su house.

It wasn’t that the Sus lacked a gas stove or a rice cooker—Xiaoyu simply preferred cooking with firewood, to save on electricity and money.

They gathered the firewood from the woodland behind the house. Their thrifty father was an expert at making ends meet; most of the wood was carried back on his own back from the mountain.

Sometimes Xiaoyu and Xiaoxiao would go too. Despite being only ten, Xiaoxiao had been doing chores since she was seven—laundry, cooking, tending chickens and ducks, she could do it all. On weekends, she’d go up the mountain to collect firewood.

When Su Tong entered the kitchen, he saw Xiaoyu standing on a stool by the stove, spatula in hand, stirring the food in the pan.

Xiaoxiao was crouched by the firebox, a bundle of kindling in her arms, feeding sticks into the stove with her small, dirty hands.

“Big sister, I’m so hungry. Can we have grilled fish?” The little one looked up pitifully at Xiaoyu—she dreamed of grilled fish every day.

“Ha, to grill fish we’d need carp or crucian from the field, but the rice has all been harvested and the fish are gone. We’ll have something else—there are apples and dragon fruit.” Su Tong set the bag of fruit aside, then went over to lift Xiaoyu down from the stool, taking the spatula from her.

“Brother.”

With Su Tong home, it felt as if the house had found its center; the two sisters were overjoyed. Xiaoxiao clung to his leg, as if afraid he’d disappear: “Brother, you have to take me to the city next time. I want to go.”

“We just got back from the city yesterday. We can’t go again so soon—maybe in a few days,” Xiaoyu said, picking an apple from the fruit bag to coax Xiaoxiao to wash her hands and eat.

The three siblings had been to the hospital the previous day to visit their father. He could still use his hands and feet, though the injuries to his head and body were severe. Leaving him in the hospital was for the best—the three siblings lacked both the time and ability to care for him at home.

Besides, with Su Tong needing to earn money, who would pay the medical bills if he had to care for their father?

By now, Su Tong had most of his part-time work lined up: three hours of piano lessons in the morning or afternoon, and an hour and a half as a pianist at a café from seven to eight thirty in the evening.

That afternoon, while Su Tong was playing “Wedding in a Dream” at the music shop, a few passersby, drawn in by the sound, had stopped to listen. Among them was a café owner, who offered him the evening job.

The café owner had hoped for two hours nightly, but Su Tong needed to catch the bus, so he settled for an hour and a half—paying daily, a hundred Da Qin coins an evening.

The piano lessons at the shop were the same rate—one hundred Da Qin coins per hour.

A skill in hand is a passport to the world.

Su Tong was grateful that he’d spent the past few days learning piano and hadn’t neglected his lessons for fun.

As the little devil put it, none of the training rooms in the system were just for show—he’d need to master them all in time.

Su Tong had once asked the little devil if there were pills that could boost experience instantly.

The little devil replied, annoyed, that if there were, why would the Divine Stone bother choosing a host at all? The main purpose of the Divine Stone was to test the host’s perseverance and willpower—laziness and gluttony would never cut it.

The next morning, Su Tong went to the music shop to teach piano to children.

After two hours, as he was just leaving, he saw Gao Litong stepping out of a taxi.

“Wealthy, aren’t you? Taking a cab—aren’t there any buses here?” Su Tong greeted her. He’d texted her earlier, asking her to pick him up at the music shop at noon; her father’s Jinbi Garden was holding an event at two.

“It’s your fault—I was almost at the bus terminal when you told me you’d run off to this side. Didn’t we agree yesterday to meet at the terminal? Now you’re running all over,” Gao Litong complained, annoyed. Usually it was girls who made boys run in circles, not the other way around.

Just then—

“Hello, Teacher Su.”

“Little Teacher Su, is this your girlfriend? She’s beautiful.”

A parent and child emerged from the music shop, greeting Su Tong with a smile. Su Tong wasn’t just a gifted pianist—he was a superb teacher as well. The children listened eagerly and learned happily, and the parents watching from the sidelines were equally pleased.

Gao Litong was momentarily stunned—Teacher Su? Then, hearing them call her Su Tong’s girlfriend, her cheeks went scarlet.

“Goodbye, Mrs. Chen,” Su Tong waved after the departing student and parent.

“When did you become a teacher?” Gao Litong asked, wide-eyed, after the mother and daughter left.

“It’s a long story. We were so broke at home, I had no choice but to sell my skills wherever I could. Now I’m even selling them at your place,” Su Tong said as he motioned for her to walk, then lowered his voice. “Tongtong, do you know anywhere I could sell myself? Actually, I’ve wanted to do that for a while. The money comes fast.”

Gao Litong was baffled by his earlier words, but when he got to the last bit, her innocent face flushed pink. “You’re absolutely full of nonsense—not a word of truth in you.”

Su Tong laughed heartily. “Come on, I just got paid two hundred. With the five hundred you gave me yesterday, I’ve got too much cash on me—I feel unsafe. Better deposit it in the bank.”

“Only two hundred? What job pays that?” she asked, her curiosity tinged with concern. To feel uneasy with only seven hundred in hand—how poor must his family be?

“Teaching, of course. A hundred an hour,” Su Tong replied, a touch of pride in his voice.

Looking back at the now-distant music shop, Gao Litong turned to him, incredulous. “Su Tong, you can play piano?”

Su Tong pulled the two hundred from his pocket. “Isn’t this proof enough? Hurry and take me to the bank—I have no idea where it is.”

Gao Litong opened her mouth, at a loss for words. Su Tong had always been a loner in high school; few knew much about him. He could sing and play piano? With looks like that, he could make a living just on his face—why bother being so multitalented?

She grew worried for him, but kept her composure. “Which bank is your card from? After all this walking, do you know where it is?”

Su Tong glanced around, discouraged. “It’s from ‘Love to Save’ Bank—I have no idea where to find it. But you’re here—I’m too lazy to use my phone’s navigation.”

“B Bank, right?” Gao Litong chuckled. “Come with me.”

After depositing the money, Su Tong breathed a sigh of relief. With the surgery behind them, he’d just scraped together enough for their father’s next two days in the hospital.

“Are you sure you don’t want to borrow from me?” Gao Litong couldn’t help but ask again, watching how he guarded every coin.

Su Tong hesitated. “All right—lend me two hundred thousand. That should be more than enough, and any extra can be kept for emergencies.”

Gao Litong immediately pulled a face. “Can’t you lower it a bit? How about a hundred thousand? If it’s not enough, we’ll talk again.”

“One hundred eighty thousand.”

“Would one hundred fifty thousand do?”

“Deal.”