Ch 54: Those who wronged me are now begging me for mercy

Afraid He Might Send the Whole School Off

The suona is one of the loudest traditional Chinese instruments, and now that Rong Ziyin had recovered from his illness, his breath was strong and steady. The moment he played the first long note, the class monitor jolted in shock.

The piece Ten Kneelings for the Father is characterized by its mournful tone. While the suona’s sound is sharp and resonant, it also carries an indescribable rawness.

Rong Ziyin had clearly mastered the instrument from a young age—not only did he play the piece flawlessly, but his expression perfectly matched the sorrowful mood of the music.

It was as if the class monitor had become the elderly father already half-buried in the earth.

Class Monitor: …

Confusion value: 1000

But before he could say anything, Rong Ziyin assumed he wanted to hear more. Plus, the piece was reaching its climax, so Rong Ziyin played with even greater enthusiasm.

Class Monitor: …

Confusion value: 3000

The system couldn’t bear to watch anymore and reminded Rong Ziyin, “Master, the class monitor has been good to you, so calm down before you actually send him off!”

Interrupted by the system, Rong Ziyin paused his playing.

The class monitor, who had been overwhelmed by the somber melody, finally took a breath. However, it was clear that his emotions were still heavily impacted.

Rong Ziyin attempted to sell the idea, “The lyrics of Ten Kneelings for the Father are meaningful too. The last line says, ‘In the next life, one can live well.’”

The class monitor quickly cut him off, “No, no, no. This is for a graduation ceremony; it’s not appropriate. Do you know anything else?”

Rong Ziyin thought for a moment, “Quite a few. I can play The Great Funeral Procession, A Thousand Sheets of Paper, Weeping at Seven Passes, and Su Wu Herding Sheep.”

The class monitor was speechless for a long moment. With these songs, they might really end up sending off the entire student body at the graduation ceremony.

After several seconds, he tactfully declined, “Those are a bit too traditional. Since it’s a new era, we need something more modern.”

Rong Ziyin responded, “I can play modern tunes too. Going Back to My Mother’s Home, Three Treasures of Luck, Where Has the Time Gone—I can play all of those.”

The class monitor was at his wit’s end, thinking how irresponsible the person who taught Rong Ziyin the suona must have been. But even so, he still had to find a way to decline.

So, the class monitor sincerely took Rong Ziyin’s hand and said, “It’s really not feasible. We need a group performance, and your suggestion is good, but we can’t borrow that many suonas on short notice!”

While the class monitor was racking his brain for ways to refuse, Rong Ziyin calmly delivered two words that felt like a devil’s whisper: “I have.”

The class monitor, stunned, repeated, “You have what?”

Rong Ziyin then opened his cabinet and showed the class monitor his half-hidden treasure.

On top of a basket full of salted duck eggs, there were over twenty suonas neatly arranged.

Their class had 40 students. Excluding the girls who wouldn’t want to embarrass themselves and the five useless guys in Rong Ziyin’s dorm, there were just enough suonas for all the thick-skinned boys to have one each.

Rong Ziyin patted the suonas and couldn’t help but sigh, “Throughout these four years of college, everyone has taken good care of me. Consider these as my gifts to everyone!”

He spoke so earnestly that the class monitor couldn’t bring himself to refuse.

Five minutes later, the class monitor returned to his dorm with over twenty suonas in his arms.

Seeing the shocked expressions of his roommates, he decided he couldn’t be the only one to bear this mental burden—everyone had to share in his despair.

So, he sent a message to all the boys in the class.

“Come to my dorm right now. Rong Dog—no, the top student—has a gift for everyone!”

Half an hour later, the class group chat fell into a rare silence.

One of the girls, curious about what had happened, asked what was going on.

In response, one of the boys sent a picture of a suona.

At that moment, the entire chat went silent.

The girls wisely refrained from asking further questions, clearly sensing that this topic would not lead to a good outcome.

Despite this, with no other options, Rong Ziyin’s class was left with no better idea for their performance.

Especially since their advisor insisted that everyone in the class should participate, the class monitor found himself completely out of options.

And that tune Rong Ziyin played on the suona that day was so haunting that for three nights straight, the class monitor dreamed of that melody as his background music.

Finally, driven by a mix of resignation and a “misery loves company” mentality, the class monitor agreed to Rong Ziyin’s suggestion and began organizing the other boys in the class to learn how to play the suona.

At first, they encountered many difficulties. The suona is notoriously hard to learn, especially when trying to play in tune. Fortunately, their department was full of veterinary students with strong lung capacity, so they managed to make it sound somewhat decent.

They chose a simple melody, the chorus of Li Ronghao’s If I Were Young. After some calculation, they figured that everyone could learn it in time.

As for the girls, they would sing. Rong Ziyin, being the most proficient with the suona, would play the opening, and then everyone would join in for the chorus.

The more they thought about it, the more brilliant the design seemed. Especially since their chosen instrument was truly unique—there wasn’t another group in the entire Agricultural University that could match it!

So, after accepting the idea, the class monitor was also infected by Rong Ziyin’s enthusiasm. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that using the suona was an amazing idea, and he began actively persuading others.

In just one morning, all the students in the class thought it was the best idea ever. They even had a friend who knew the campus well find a perfect practice spot where they wouldn’t disturb anyone or be discovered.

And so, the intense suona training began. Since Rong Ziyin had lab work during the day, most of the teaching sessions were held around 8 PM.

At that time of night, even the cleaning staff had gone home, leaving only the mosquitoes and insects to suffer from their practice.

As for the other students on campus, they didn’t notice anything unusual. Only the mechanical engineering students on the same floor had a slight suspicion, wondering why the veterinary students hadn’t been eating spicy noodles together lately.

It had been several days since they last smelled the distinctive aroma of snail noodles, and strangely, they missed it a little.

However, keeping such a big secret as practicing the suona was bound to slip out eventually. Rong Ziyin’s side had already started to show some signs.

To save time, Rong Ziyin would take the suona with him to the lab during the day, then head straight to the practice sessions after lab work, avoiding the need to return to his dorm and waste time.

Normally, this would go unnoticed, but someone was watching closely.

The middle-aged man Rong Ziyin had encountered in the garden—the one with the sharp tongue but a soft spot for Rong Ziyin—had been quietly observing him since that day.

He didn’t approach him directly but watched from a distance, observing Rong Ziyin’s experiments, his note-taking, and how he researched project details.

He was even interested enough to request and repeatedly review Rong Ziyin’s previous papers, the three submissions to provincial journals this year, and the drafts for core journals.

This behavior struck both Rong Ziyin’s mentor and department head as rather odd.

The two were privately quite worried.

“So, what do you think his plan is?” The mentor, who hadn’t interacted with the man, had only heard that this big shot had a very eccentric personality and was hard to figure out.

The department head was also troubled, rubbing his increasingly bald head in exhaustion. “I wish I knew. Well, let’s wait and see! He’s showing a keen interest in little Rong, which is better than no interest at all.”

“True!” The mentor nodded, feeling somewhat reassured.

Little did they know, the chubby man had already noticed their private discussions.

Since he was accompanying a friend, the two of them would often have a small drink together in the evening, chatting about this and that.

However, they were careful to drink just enough to not affect their work the next day.

By now, they had been at the Agricultural University for more than half a month, and naturally, they had formed some judgments.

But unlike the chubby man’s appreciation for the university, his friend clearly didn’t like it much.

“What do you think? I believe the teachers and students here have real talent and skills!” The chubby man couldn’t help but start talking about Rong Ziyin, whom he had recently discovered.

But his friend snorted coldly and said nothing.

The chubby man pondered for a moment and realized where his friend’s bias came from.

It all boiled down to bad luck. The chubby man’s friend was the renowned mentor who had accepted the rich young master into his lab.

At first, based on that paper and the reputation of Agricultural University, this mentor had truly believed that the rich young master was some kind of prodigy. But once the young master joined the lab, it became clear he was all show and no substance—he couldn’t even identify basic compounds without checking the labels on each bottle. It was later discovered that the paper had been ghostwritten.

“All they do at Agricultural University is mess around; how can there be any good students!” The mentor grew more agitated as he spoke, taking a sip of wine to calm down.

The chubby man laughed after hearing this. “Who told you that your new recruit was so brilliant?”

“Wasn’t he supposed to be a top student?”

“You were tricked! If he needed someone else to take his exams for him throughout college, do you think Agricultural University would let a real top student like that go? They’d probably keep him for graduate studies!”

“???” The mentor felt like his worldview had been turned upside down.

After they compared notes, he realized that the outstanding reputation he had heard about belonged to Rong Ziyin, but the person he had recruited was the rich young master. He had mixed up the individuals entirely!

“Ah! This is all Gao Bin’s fault!” The mentor immediately grew upset again.

Gao Bin was the senior student under the mentor who had previously worked with Rong Ziyin. “He knew the person was wrong—why didn’t he warn me?”

The chubby man sighed, “You must be naive. Gao Bin is close to Rong Ziyin, so he probably has a poor relationship with the other one. He’d want to avoid getting involved, not cause trouble.”

The mentor suddenly realized the truth, then began recalling who Rong Ziyin was.

“I get it! He’s the Agricultural University student who discovered that compound, right?”

“Yes! That’s him!”

The mentor was thrilled. “I’ve reviewed that kid’s reports several times—they’re amazing!”

The chubby man nodded along, “Incredibly talented, right?”

“Yes, and he’s smart too.”

“And meticulous, with a calm and steady personality—perfect for research.” The chubby man casually praised Rong Ziyin, even showing the mentor some of the papers he had recently collected from Rong Ziyin.

After reading them, the mentor was blown away and immediately became a fan of the idea of taking Rong Ziyin as an apprentice, convinced that he would be a perfect fit for his team.

But just as he was starting to plan how to observe Rong Ziyin for a few days before asking the department head to bring him into his lab, the chubby man spoke up, “You also think he’d make a perfect apprentice for me, right?”

Mentor: ???

Chubby Man: “With his talent, character, and insight, it’s like he was made for me!”

Mentor: “Wait a minute, something seems off.”

Chubby Man: “What’s wrong?”

Mentor: “Weren’t you recommending him to me?”

Chubby Man: “Wake up, my friend. Good students are hard to find these days. I was just showing off a bit.”

Mentor: …

The conversation ended in disagreement.

After realizing the mentor wanted to poach Rong Ziyin, the chubby man decided he needed to act quickly to bring Rong Ziyin into his own team.

The chubby man was interesting in that he believed in letting things develop naturally. So, he planned to have a good talk with Rong Ziyin first, and then discuss the details with the department head.

But recently, Rong Ziyin had been leaving early and coming back late, and the chubby man hadn’t found the right opportunity.

One evening, after finishing his experiments, Rong Ziyin grabbed his suona and headed off to his practice spot.

The chubby man, who had been waiting for him, quickly followed.

He couldn’t help but wonder if his potential apprentice had recently started dating and was practicing an instrument to woo someone. Otherwise, why else would he always head to some remote spot with a musical instrument right after lab work?

Ah, the energy of youth!

The chubby man shook his head with a smile, looking every bit the seasoned observer.

However, what the chubby man absolutely didn’t expect was that when Rong Ziyin finally arrived at his destination, he took out an instrument—but it wasn’t a flute or a xiao. From a distance, it looked more like a horn.

What shocked the chubby man even more was that the person who came to meet Rong Ziyin was a man, and he was also holding the same kind of horn.

Is my potential apprentice attracted to men? If that’s the case, it’s understandable why he’d be so secretive. The chubby man took a moment to process this.

But just then, a nearly 1.9-meter tall, burly man emerged from the woods, shirtless, and shouted at Rong Ziyin in a thick northeastern accent, “Rong! We’ve been waiting for you. Come on, let your brother play you a tune!”

🍉🫐🍇🍒🥝