Translator: Dragon Boat Translation
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
After his Music skill reached Lv 3, Xia Yu couldn’t wait to apply to work as a pianist at the corner coffee shop. It was Thursday, however, so he still had to go to class.
After he finally got through all the classes, the class leader made everyone stay.
“The cultural festival is next week, so we need to finalize our class project. I have six proposals here. I’ll announce them, and then, we can vote.” The class leader began reading the proposals.
The six proposals were the following: Costume Maid Coffee Shop, Costume Waiter Coffee Shop, Afterschool Tutoring, Breakup Experience, Kabedon Experience, and Creative Jump Rope.
The costume coffee shop and the costume waiter coffeeshop were the most popular, with the rest of the proposals being just fillers. The after school tutoring proposal was something Xia Yu made up to deal with classmates who wanted him to vote for their coffee shop ideas.
Knowing the students only saw the proposal titles and ignored the content, the class leader read the proposals super fast, getting to the voting stage in just a few minutes.
To prevent outside interference, the class voted with unsigned slips of paper. After two minutes, the class leader collected the slips of paper and counted the votes with the Cultural Chair.
It took a dozen seconds to count the votes. Xia Yu noticed the weird expression on the class leader’s face.
The class leader coughed, then coughed again, counting the votes.
“Costume maid coffee shop got 12 votes.”
Xia Yu thought to himself, ‘There were 40 students in the class, so 12 votes weren’t much. Is the costume waiter coffee shop going to win?’
“Costume waiter coffee shop got 12 votes.”
Also 12 votes. If it was a tie, it would be hard to decide. Did the filler proposals get the rest of the votes?
The class leader kept reading.
“Breakup experience got 1 vote.”
“Kabedon experience got 1 vote.”
“Creative jump rope got 1 vote.”
By this point, the students started to panic. With the four filler plans taking 16 votes total, and three of the plans with one vote each, did it mean one proposal got 13 votes?
The last proposal seemed to be…
“After school tutoring, 13 votes.”
“OK. Our class project will be after school tutoring.”
The students moaned in horror.
“C’mon, I just didn’t want to vote for the costume maid and waiter coffee shop ideas, so I just voted for whatever!”
“Met too, who would vote for after school tutoring? I just voted for fun!”
“I just wanted to support Xia Yu!”
“Oh man.”
Everyone looked at Xia Yu.
“What if we did another vote?” Xia Yu tried to remedy the situation.
“It’s okay. The costume maid and waiter ideas are pretty boring, we might as well do after school tutoring.”
“The other classes will be so surprised!”
“…”
Seeing the students’ renewed excitement, Xia Yu rubbed his forehead.
As long as you are happy.
Now that this was done, he got up and left the class. He walked toward the corner coffee shop.
He’d found someone to replace him at the convenience store. The store owner told him to get the last paycheck on Sunday. He was a free man now.
He took the subway to the next stop, then walked five minutes to his destination. The coffee shop was in the middle of one block.
Seeing the sign, which read “Corner Coffee Shop,” Xia Yu entered the shop.
“Welcome. How many?” A waitress in uniform approached Xia Yu.
“I came here to apply for a job,” Xia Yu said.
“Oh?” The waitress was surprised. “We only need a pianist here.”
She could tell Xia Yu was in high school and assumed he was applying as a waiter.
“Then, I’m not mistaken.” Xia Yu was not shocked by the waitress’ doubts. It would be weird if he wasn’t questioned.
“I’m sorry. The shop owner is in the back. I’ll take you there.” The waitress led Xia Yu to the rest area in the back.
A young man was sitting and playing on his phone.
The waitress talked briefly with the young man and left, leaving Xia Yu alone with the man.
The young man lit a cigarette and looked at Xia Yu doubtfully. “I’m telling you, I don’t care about certificates and stuff. I play the piano too. I only care about true talent, okay?”
“Yes.” Xia Yu nodded.
“So, what level certificate do you have?” the young man asked.
“I don’t have a certificate,” Xia Yu replied.
“What?” The young man stared at Xia Yu.
“You said you didn’t care about certificates, right?” Xia Yu had no time to take exams for certification. So, it was good that the young man said he didn’t care about the paperwork.
“Well, no, but you can’t…” The young man sighed and snuffed out his cigarette. “It’s fine. There’s a piano out there. Go and play.”
Walking to the area outside, Xia Yu sat in front of the piano.
Every customer in the coffee shop looked at the new pianist.
By now, the store owner had started to regret his decision. Which pianist didn’t have a certificate these days? Most people learned piano for the certificates.
Maybe this high school student thought taking some piano lesions meant he could work as a pianist.
There’s a lot of his friends at the shop. If the kid played “Two Tigers,” it’d be so embarrassing.
But it was too late to stop the kid, who already started pressing on the keys.
An elegant melody was heard in the coffee shop.
The store owner, who got up, sat down again. The melody proved Xia Yu’s skills.
Which song is this?
Wind of Lengliegu? Autumn of Reeds? Carp in the Lake?
After he heard the song some more, he opened his mouth in shock.
He slapped his thigh.
Oh my god, it’s “Pope’s Dancer!”
The few customers who recognized the song seemed shocked. Most guests, however, just thought the song was nice. Xia Yu didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
When he finished the song, Xia Yu put down his hands, slightly unhappy. This was the first time he played piano with his own body, so some of his motions were jerky. And the piano wasn’t as nicely tuned as the one at An Siyao’s house.
Xia Yu turned to ask if he could play again, but the store owner was already next to him.
He backed away from the man. Before he could ask, the young man tugged on his hand.
“Please stay and play at my coffee shop.” The young man looked very sincere.
Xia Yu was happy to be recognized, in spite of the slightly awkward proposal-like scene.
Xia Yu took away his hand and went toward the rest area with the young man. They needed to discuss terms of the jobs.
He told the young man he was still in school. The store owner thought for a moment and replied,
“3:00 to 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. 1:00 to 5:30 pm on Saturdays. One hour break in the middle. Off on Sundays.”
“What about salary?” Xia Yu asked the crucial question.
“Well, you know this is just a small coffee shop, so our salary can’t match bigger places.” The young man said apologetically.
Xia Yu nodded, showing his understanding. He lowered his internal quote of four grand a month to three grand.
The store owner said, “So, it’s only about eight grand a month.”
“What?” Xia Yu was shocked.
“Eight grand is on the low side, but it’s only temporary. With you playing, I could raise the prices here. Those hipsters are easy to fool. When we make more money, you’ll get a raise.” The store owner discussed his vision.
Xia Yu turned silent. This was odd. “I’m not saying this salary is low. Didn’t you say in the ad that the salary is between three to five thousand? Why so high?”
Xia Yu’s words surprised the young man.
He scratched his head and asked Xia Yu, “Can I ask what level do you think you’re at now?”
“The hardest song I know is ‘Pope’s Dancer.’ Isn’t this a typical song for coffee houses?”
Xia Yu began to understand the situation. He had believed this since he had asked An Siyao what kind of songs were played at coffee houses, and considering the kind of coffee houses An Siyao went to…
The store owner answered, “… the ‘Pope’s Dancer’ is a typical song, but it’s for big coffee venues, and usually only parts 1 and 2 are played.”
“So what kind of songs do you play here?” Xia Yu asked.
“Gulda’s ‘Play Piano Play,’ and some modern songs like ‘Autumn of Reeds,’ etc.”
“…”
He was duped by An Siyao.
Thinking of how he played for eight hours a day, practicing like crazy, Xia Yu felt bitter.