Fang Yun placed his hand on the zither, feeling the touch of the strings. The Zhen Dan zither was made from the silk spat out by a spider demon, processed by a zither maker, it was delicate and slightly cool, like touching porcelain.

“The emotion of ‘Xiang Fei’s Lament’ is the grief of Xiang Fei mourning her deceased husband. If we talk about basic playing techniques, this piece is naturally excellent. But if I were to understand the feelings of a woman who has lost her husband, that would be a difficult task. However, if I want to enter the first realm of the zither path, I must experience a certain emotion. How should I choose the piece?”

Fang Yun thought for a moment, then suddenly realized.

“It’s an autumn night now, so naturally I should play ‘Autumn Wind’.”

Fang Yun put the Zhen Dan zither into the zither bag and carried it on his back, walked out of the study with his official seal, looked up at the sky, it was nearly midnight.

Fang Yun gently opened the front door and walked out of the courtyard.

Starlight sprinkled down, like water covering the bluestone path, the street was silent.

Fang Yun felt someone watching him in the dark, but he was used to it, because the people from the Holy Academy had been protecting him without interruption.

Carrying the Zhen Dan zither on his back, Fang Yun strolled eastward, the autumn wind brushing against his face, it was very pleasant.

After a while, the front door of his neighbor, Presented Scholar Pang, opened a crack, and Presented Scholar Pang followed Fang Yun from a distance.

Fang Yun completely relaxed himself, even forgetting his purpose, walking quietly, quietly feeling the autumn, the autumn night, the autumn wind.

The autumn wind was refreshing, and Fang Yun’s heart was full of joy. There was no summer heat, no winter cold, it was extraordinarily comfortable. Autumn seemed to be the most comforting season. The spring was too noisy, the summer insects too loud, the winter wind too strong, only autumn was quieter.

As he walked, Fang Yun heard the sound of autumn.

The cicadas that sing in autumn are cold cicadas.

Fang Yun listened carefully, and waves rose in his heart. The cicadas’ song in summer was loud and clear, with a kind of “I am the king of the forest” spirit, non-stop day and night. But the autumn cicadas at this moment had lost that loud and clear sound, their voices were much lighter, much weaker, like crying, even more melancholy.

The cold cicadas mourn the autumn, and when autumn passes, the cold cicadas disappear.

Fang Yun continued to walk, unknowingly arriving at the bank of the Jade Belt River.

The power of night vision allowed Fang Yun to see everything clearly at night. The night wind blew, the willow branches no longer sprouted in spring, no longer fluttered in summer, they seemed exceptionally heavy.

The originally green willow leaves were faintly edged with a pale yellow.

Another gust of wind blew. Some willow leaves fell.

Soon, all the leaves will fall off.

Fang Yun kept walking.

By the flat lake, the lotus flowers withered, no longer seeing the scene of “lotus flowers reflecting the sun are different red”, there were still lotus leaves everywhere on the lake, but they no longer had the momentum of “lotus leaves reaching the sky are endlessly green”, many withered lotus leaves were softly floating on the water.

Fang Yun finally understood where this autumn sadness came from. It was not people who were sad about the autumn wind, but autumn was saying goodbye to everything, saying goodbye to cicadas, willows, lotus flowers, saying goodbye to the whole summer, unable to retain.

“Everything is sent away by the autumn wind, how can it not be sad.” Fang Yun sighed and walked to the lakeside pavilion, took out the Zhen Dan zither and placed it on the stone table, did not continue to play ‘Xiang Fei’s Lament’, but was influenced by the autumn scene, remembered a zither piece ‘Autumn Wind Tune’, which Yang Yuhuan had played before.

Fang Yun recalled the score of ‘Autumn Wind Tune’. He recalled the sentiment in this piece, it was a very orthodox ancient piece about scenery, the zither piece constantly turned the notes into various images such as autumn cicadas, cold crows, fallen leaves, withered branches, etc., because it was difficult to play the autumn wind but easy to play autumn things. When the zither piece depicted the whole autumn, it naturally led to the continuous sad sound of the autumn wind, blowing away everything.

Fang Yun’s hand brushed the zither strings and began to play.

The first piece started a bit rusty, but by the second time, he was getting into the groove. By the fifth time, there was a faint hint of sadness in the piece.

By the time Fang Yun played it for the tenth time, all the autumn cicadas around the flat lake suddenly increased their volume, but the sound was not loud and clear, it was more like suddenly encountering deep autumn, unable to bear this terrible cold, the autumn cicadas could only cry out loudly.

Presented Scholar Pang had been watching Fang Yun from a distance, slowly showing a look of intoxication, but suddenly felt a chill, his body shivered, showing a look of surprise.

“Strange! When he was playing at home, the sound could reach my courtyard. According to my judgment, his technique was skilled, the notes were accurate, but it stopped at ‘technique’, there was a great distance from ‘art’, let alone ‘path’. But in just half a night, he directly broke through the level of ‘technique’ and touched the edge of ‘art’, which is not something that the starlight of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl can do.”

After a while, the cicadas’ song became heavier, Fang Yun completely immersed himself in the world of ‘Autumn Wind Tune’, his eyes closed, his hands dancing flexibly on the zither strings, it seemed that he was not playing a piece of music, but creating the autumn wind through the music, the strands of cold spreading with the sound of the zither in all directions.

With a soft “pop”, Presented Scholar Pang quickly turned his head in alert, only to see an autumn cicada fall to the ground, completely stiff.

Presented Scholar Pang stared at the autumn cicada for a while, then heard several similar sounds, looked around, and found seven or eight cicadas had fallen.

Presented Scholar Pang looked at Fang Yun and sighed softly: “It’s early autumn now, although these cicadas are sad, they are still like people in their prime, they can live for another month or two. But Fang Yun actually used the sound of deep autumn to kill the early autumn cicadas, he has achieved the legendary ‘Autumn Sound Kills Cicadas’ even before entering the first realm of the zither path, his understanding of autumn has surpassed many zither masters. The killing intent in autumn is even stronger than winter. Although winter is the end of the four seasons, it nurtures spring, but autumn stops the vitality of summer and welcomes the deathly silence of winter. His future achievement in war music, I’m afraid, will be far above ordinary zither masters.”After playing for a long time, Fang Yun put away his zither, The Courage to Write, and walked back home. He bowed in gratitude to Presented Scholar Pang, who was not far from his doorstep, before returning home.

The melody of “Autumn Wind” was too sorrowful. Fang Yun tried to comprehend the sadness of the autumn wind, but he had no mood to read anymore. He decided to calm his emotions before going to sleep.

In his dream, the sound of cicadas echoed.

When he woke up early in the morning, he found that the little fox had snuggled into his arms to sleep. Its posture was as elegant as ever. He smiled and gently stroked its head.

The little fox opened its eyes slightly, glanced at Fang Yun, grunted twice, and then closed its eyes to continue sleeping.

Fang Yun entered the Palace of Literature and found that his literary courage had made significant progress compared to yesterday. He was getting closer and closer to the great achievement of the first realm.

“Playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, etiquette, music, archery, and horsemanship can indirectly help the Palace of Literature, but the normal effect can’t be this big. It only happens when there is a sudden leap in one aspect. Could it be that my zither skills made great progress last night? This is indeed a joyous event.”

After breakfast, Fang Yun tried to replay “Autumn Wind”. He found that he could fully understand the emotions in the melody. Almost the moment his hand touched the zither strings, his emotions were already brewing. Although he hadn’t been able to merge his feelings with the music, he was like Yang Yuhuan, reaching the edge of the first realm of zither playing. As long as he continued to work hard, he would have a chance to break through.

After the song ended, Fang Yun found that Yang Yuhuan was leaning against the door, looking at him with exceptionally bright eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Fang Yun asked.

Yang Yuhuan seemed to be still immersed in the music. She said softly, “You play better than me. It seems that it was right for me to learn the se (a type of Chinese string instrument) instead of the zither.”

“I’ll take that as a joke. I’ve heard your ‘Autumn Wind’, and it’s much better than mine.”

Yang Yuhuan shook her head and said, “Lady Lai said that the master who taught her zither playing once said that ‘Autumn Wind’ should not only have ‘sorrow’, but also the ‘cold’ of the autumn wind blowing away everything. My ‘Autumn Sorrow’ is enough, but I can’t play the ‘Autumn Cold’. You are a man, and your ‘sorrow’ naturally can’t compare to us women, but you play the ‘Autumn Cold’ really well. It has the true atmosphere of autumn. I like your music.”

By the end of her speech, Yang Yuhuan’s face turned red. She lowered her head slightly, afraid that Fang Yun would misunderstand.

Fang Yun smiled slightly and said, “Since you’ve said so, I’ll accept this compliment. But I didn’t expect that you, who have only been learning the zither for a short time, would have such a thorough understanding of the music. By the way, did your zither skills improve after the Qixi Festival?”

Yang Yuhuan nodded and said, “Yes, they have improved. Especially in terms of technique, Lady Lai said I’m like a different person, simply a genius. However, Lady Lai said that I haven’t made any progress in the aspect of ‘combining sound and emotion’. But Little Yun, you are really amazing. You hadn’t fully mastered the song last night, but today you can control it freely. How long have you been practicing?”

Fang Yun said, “The time is indeed a bit short. But, won’t your mood be affected if you always play ‘Autumn Wind’?”

Yang Yuhuan’s eyebrows quivered slightly, and she gently bit her lower lip. She said softly, “Sometimes it will, but it’s much better when Nunu is around.”

“Sorrow harms the lungs, and thinking harms the spleen. It’s not good to always play this kind of music. I had some insights yesterday. I’ll write a song called ‘Good Evening Prelude’. This song also plays the autumn scenery and autumn feelings, but it focuses on appreciating the night scene and praising the autumn scenery, which calms people down. After you play this kind of sad and sorrowful music, remember to play ‘Good Evening Prelude’.”

“Okay.” Yang Yuhuan nodded and moved her lotus steps lightly.

Fang Yun handed the score of “Good Evening Prelude” that he wrote last night to Yang Yuhuan.

Yang Yuhuan looked at it for a while and said, “Little Yun, what is this fingering?” She leaned closer to Fang Yun and pointed at a fingering on the score.

Smelling the faint fragrance from Yang Yuhuan, Fang Yun remembered that “Good Evening Prelude” was a famous song from the Ming Dynasty and the only ancient zither score collected in “The Complete Library in Four Sections”. Although it was relatively simple, it was very representative and held a high status in the world of the guqin.

This piece of music was different from the style of the Holy Origin Mainland. Not only did it have some fingering techniques created in later generations, but it also emphasized both left and right hand techniques. In fact, it emphasized the left hand technique more, while the Holy Origin Mainland currently emphasized the right hand technique more.

Fang Yun vaguely said, “I’ve seen these fingerings in some incomplete books. They should have been created by an unknown zither master.”

“The song you played last night seemed to have a special fingering technique.”

“Come, let me teach you.” Fang Yun immediately changed the subject.

Fang Yun began to teach Yang Yuhuan several new fingerings, then taught her to play “Good Evening Prelude”, and explained the theme of the song. Finally, he wrote the lyrics for the song, because many ancient zither songs were accompanied by lyrics, known as zither songs, which were sung while playing. “Phoenix Seeking Phoenix” and “Three Repeats of Yangguan” were like this.

Yang Yuhuan was very studious and quickly learned the new fingerings. She was able to play “Good Evening Prelude” in just one day.

At night, Fang Yun still went to the lakeside alone with his ancient zither to play “Autumn Wind”, then “Good Evening Prelude”, and finally returned home to continue reading.

Presented Scholar Pang followed him all the time, and the thing he did most often was to silently count the falling cicadas.

A few days later in the morning, while Fang Yun was reading in the study, the doorkeeper rushed in and said, “Young Master, it’s not good. A group of old men are blocking the door, all carrying things on their backs. They are clamoring to see you.” (To be continued.)

PS: It’s a new week, asking for monthly tickets and recommendation tickets! o(∩_∩)o