Well, Fu Zhi faced quite some issues while preparing for her performance.

  Perhaps western music was the mainstream and there were fewer people wanting to learn a traditional musical instrument, the Mu Family could not find a suona for Fu Zhi.

  Besides, Song Fang also hoped that Fu Zhi could be a little normal. He told her that he knew she was extraordinary, but she did not have to go to the extreme.

  In the end, Fu Zhi compromised and chose to play guzheng instead.

  The Mu Family got the guzheng from the back of the stage. Song Fang then dragged Fu Zhi backstage to check the quality of the guzheng.

  “Sister Zhi, do you know how to play a guzheng? It’s not like a suona where you can play it just by blowing air, you need at least a few years of experience to play a guzheng.”

  “Oh,” Fu Zhi threw a glance at him, “Now you know you should ask me?”

  Embarrassed, Song Fang scratched his head and said, “Well, my emotions got the best of me when I heard they’re bad-mouthing you. After all, look at Mu Chenxi. It’s very obvious that she’s trying to be one up on you, so how can I let that happen?”

  If Ye Jiu was here, Fu Zhi was certain that things would get even more out of control. In the end, she did not say anything.

  *

  On the other side, inside the dressing room of the banquet hall.

  Mu Chenxi and Xu Tongtong were sitting together with 3 reporters. Looking at them, Mu Chenxi pitched her voice low and said, “I trust you guys know what you’re supposed to do later, but I will run you through it again. Now, after Fu Zhi finishes her guzheng performance, what you guys should do is you go up to her and ask if she’s Pure Feather. Then, the viewers in the live-streaming room will realize who she really is underneath her mask.”

  Mu Chenxi was certain that Fu Zhi did not know how to play a guzheng at all. This was because she had never seen Fu Zhi been to any institution before, and even if she did, Mu Chenxi did not believe that her guzheng performance could be better than her piano performance. After all, she had practiced piano for 10 years.

  The 3 reporters nodded in assent as they said, “Don’t worry. Since we’ve taken your money, we will certainly do as you said.”

  After that, Mu Chenxi waved her arms to signal the reporters to leave. Then, she came out of the room with Xu Tongtong arm in arm. “Just you see. Today will be the day of Fu Zhi’s demise!”

  *

  The Dunhuang guzheng inlaid with gold and some white jades were placed in the center of the stage by the staff. It carried an oriental vibe, and it looked out of place in the lavishly decorated western-style hall.

  The actors and actresses from the Mu Family then began to mock Fu Zhi when they saw the guzheng on the stage.

  “Guzheng? It’s better if she plays suona.”

  “I’m sure she more or less knows how to play a guzheng. It’s just that I’m not sure how well she can play it…”

  “I bet five packs of chili sticks she can’t play as well as Ms. Chenxi!”

  “There’s no need to bet. Learning guzheng is a difficult task. Look at her hand. They are so delicate and fair, it doesn’t seem to me that she’s someone who can endure hardship. Ms. Chensi has been practicing piano for 10 years, so I can say for sure that Fu Zhi is not as good as her!”

  As they all were talking, the prelude of “The Battle of Typhoon” was played in the banquet hall. The Battle of Typhoon was one of the most famous guzheng solo pieces. Right after the prelude of the music had ended, Fu Zhi then began her performance.

  As one of the Chinese plucked zithers, Guzheng was pretty versatile. With a single strum or pluck of the string, the performer could convey different kinds of feelings to the audience. As for a majestic piece like the Battle of Typhoon, the moment the first note fell, the audience seemed to be able to picture the scene of an army of heroic warriors marching into the war zone with well-polished spears and armored horses to protect their country.

  Those people who looked down on Fu Zhi and those who mocked her fell silent. They all resonated with Fu Zhi’s music and their skin erupted into gooseflesh.

  The Battle of Typhoon was not hard to play. In fact, it was much simpler compared to Mariage d’amour.

  Mu Chenxi thought although Fu Zhi was pretty good at playing a guzheng, she was still far from her.

  However, the second the thought took shape in her mind, Fu Zhi came to an abrupt stop and she began playing “Glamour”, a song made by Addiction.

  A melodious and fast-paced song sounded, and the unique timbre immediately pulled people into the bustle of the earthly world.

  The atmosphere in the hall changed drastically.

  “Brilliant! She can perfectly synchronize both her right and left hands!” A guzheng master couldn’t help himself and exclaim.

  The rest of the audience was stunned as well.

  Everyone knew that “Flight Of The Bumblebee” and “English Country-Tunes” were known as the 2 hardest piano pieces in the world. For the latter, some of the bars even had 300 notes crammed into them, and the fingers of the pianist were practically flying across the piano keys when he or she was performing the music piece.

  As for Addiction’s Glamour, in a sense, it was equivalent to the guzheng version of “Flight Of The Bumblebee” and it had been praised many times by other guzheng players before.

  It was something that not everyone could play, including Mu Chenxi.

  “Could… Could it be that she’s a guzheng master?”

  “I’m sorry, I have to take back what I’ve said just now.”

  “Our traditional musical instruments have little advantage over western musical instruments. Most of the youngsters nowadays feel they are not cool compared to western musical instruments, so they are reluctant to pick up a traditional musical instrument. However, it’s “Addiction” that changed the game and caused our people to start picking up guzheng again. I’m truly impressed that this girl can play “Glamour” so well!”

  Mu Chenxi’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

  She took a glance at the comment sections in the live-streaming room. She realized that most of the viewers were praising Fu Zhi, and when she saw that some of them were saying that she knew her own limit so she got off the stage to give Fu Zhi a chance to showcase her talent, she was so angry that she nearly passed out.

  It was never in her wildest dream that Fu Zhi knew how to pay a guzheng at all.

  Sitting on the seat, Jiang Zong played with his fingers as he stared indifferently at Fu Zhi.

  At this moment, all the lights had converged on Fu Zhi.

  The hissing of the zither seemed to be telling the ups and downs of a world. With a strum of the string, the scene of an army of soldiers fighting on armor horses to protect their country seemed to have appeared before their eyes. Then, with another pluck of the string, the scene in their eyes changed and they seemed to have seen how a war-torn country rose from the ashes. She moved her fingers across the strings so fast that before they knew anything, she had already entered another section of the music.

  It was something that they had never experienced before, and this was by far the best performance they had seen.

  They were so marveled at Fu Zhi’s performance that they still could not come around to their senses even after Fu Zhi had finished her performance.

  It was only until Jiang Zong clapped his hand that they finally snapped back to reality and a round of applause erupted in the hall.

  Ouyang Ya rubbed the center of her eyebrows. She remembered the things Mu Chenxi told her about this morning and snarled, “This is the surprise you were talking about?”

  “No… I didn’t know she knew how to play a musical instrument,” Mu Chenxi said as she bit her lower lip.

  She really did not know that Fu Zhi knew how to play a musical instrument. If she knew about it, she would never ask Fu Zhi to perform on the stage.

  “Ever since I came to Yu City, everyone just keeps saying to me that they don’t know when the thing is related to Fu Zhi. There are a lot of things in this world that you don’t know. Wouldn’t you check if you don’t know about something? Do you know what kind of consequences you will face if you do something without having any knowledge about it?”

  Mu Chenxi’s eyes were red as she said, “I… I really don’t know.”

  Ouyang Ya took a deep breath and continued, “What’s the main point of this gathering? Get Pure Feather out and make Fu Zhi humiliate herself in front of the public, but now what? She even stole the limelight from you! You are the host of the gathering, but now you have become her sidekick!”

  Mu Chenxi did not know what to say. Since she could not unleash her anger at Ouyang Ya, she could only divert her rage towards Xu Tongtong. She glared at her furiously and said, “This is all your fault! If it were not for your lousy idea, none of this would have happened!”

  Xu Tongtong did not dare to fight back. She just kept her head low and said, “I thought a barbarian like her wouldn’t know how to play a musical instrument. Who knows she could play a guzheng so well.

  “How about this? Since Fu Zhi wants to play suona, let’s ask her to play suona then. If she can’t play it well, we can say she doesn’t respect us at all and she’s cursing us!”


  The Mysterious Heiress: Researcher In Disguise  

  Chapter 447: The Sound Of A Suona Is Worth A Thousand In Gold

  It was difficult to get suona from any nearby musical instrument store, and they ended up getting one from a coffin shop across the street from the Mu Mansion.

  Mu Chenxi had thrown everything into the wind right now. She did not care what would happen anymore, for she just wanted to see Fu Zhi make a fool of herself in front of everyone.

  It took only 5 minutes to go from the Mu mansion to the coffin shop. When the maid presented the suona, Mu Changqing’s face turned livid with rage.

  “Mu Chenxi!” He glared at his daughter with the suona in his hand, “What the hell are you doing again?”

  He did not make any effort to lower his voice, but the silver lining was that everyone was still immersed in the wonderful performance brought to them by Fu Zhi. The cameras were all on her right now, so nobody noticed what they were doing at all.

  “I’m giving Fu Zhi a chance to show herself!”

  “I think you must have a screw loose or something,” Shen Changqing tried to take the suona away as he snarled, “Do you have any idea who all these people are? Give her a chance to show herself? What if something happens when she’s playing the suona, huh? Do you really want to get me into trouble?!

  “How can you be so thoughtless, huh? Do you know that this is your best opportunity to show your best side? There are so many movie directors and producers here, and each and every one of them is holding the hottest IP dramas this year. If you perform well, it wouldn’t be a problem for them to cast you as a supporting role in their dramas, so why the hell do you have to keep giving Fu Zhi a chance to perform herself? Anyway, just go back backstage and wait for your next performance. Stop doing stupid things, you hear me?”

  Even though Mu Chenxi knew everything her father talked about was the truth, she could not listen anymore. She refused to give up such a good opportunity to humiliate Fu Zhi. She stamped her feet in frustration as she said in a nasal voice, “You’re the one who has a screw loose or something! Those directors are not blind, so how is there any possibility they will choose a layman who doesn’t even know how to act at all? Dad, you don’t really think she can play the suona, do you? She is just scaring you! I’m 100% certain she doesn’t know how to play it!”

  Then, without waiting for her father to say anything, Mu Chenxi snatched the suona from her father’s hand and shouted at Fu Zhi, “Don’t get off the stage yet. Didn’t you say you want to play suona just now?”

  She asked the staff to pass the suona to Fu Zhi. “Well, I respect your choice. Guzheng can’t show what you can do. I’ve got the suona for you, why don’t you play a song for everyone and let us appreciate what is the pinnacle of art?”

  “She’s right. After listening to your guzheng performance, I’m kinda interested in your suona as well, Ms. Fu,” Ouyang Ya chimed in.

  Truth be told, nobody believed that Fu Zhi knew how to play a suona.

  [Are they mad? Which parents would send their kids to learn Suona? Sister Zhi is just telling them a joke, and how can they treat her like that?]

  [It’s Fu Zhi who said she knows how to play a suona, so you can’t blame anyone. If she really can’t play it, then she shouldn’t say she knows how to play one.]

  [Does Mu Chenxi really have a death wish? Does she not know that suona is also known as the hooligan of musical instruments? If Fu Zhi really plays the suona in front of so many people, I can assure you that no one will be interested in watching the rest of the performance.]

  [Fu Zhi said she knows how to play suona, but she played a guzheng in the end. Isn’t that obvious enough? She’s just joking. How is there any possibility that a pretty lady like her would learn suona at all.]

  [But Fu Zhi is not your ordinary pretty lady. She knows how to play basketball, so there’s a good chance she knows how to play a suona as well.]

  …

  A majority of the netizens did not believe that Fu Zhi knew how to play a suona, and there was only a small portion of them who had faith in Fu Zhi.

  After all, she had created countless miracles in the past. When everyone said that Gu Yan’s Physics was better than her, she proved that it was the other way round. When everyone said that there was no way she could bring the trophy of the International Physics Competition back, she not only brought the trophy back in the end, but she also gave their country a chance to hold the International Physics Competition.

  As such, when Fu Zhi said she knew how to play a suona, this group of people believed in her without any question.

  Right now, Fu Zhi looked at the suona and fell into a deep thought.

  From the big screen on the wall, the young lady was sitting beside the guzheng. She allowed her hair to cascade down her back and there was a hairpin on the right side of her head. Her skin was exceptionally fair on the screen and her eyes were big and round.

  After a while that felt like an eternity, Fu Zhi then asked, “You really want me to play this suona?”

  Mu Chenxi pushed Mu Changqing’s hand away and replied, “Of course! Why? Could it be that you don’t want to show your talent in front of us?”

  ‘Alright, then. Since you asked in good faith, it’s time for me to show my real skills!’

  The corner of Fu Zhi’s lips curled up a little. “Sure.”

  Noticing the light that flickered behind her gaze, Jiang Zong knew that things would not end well for the Mu Family.

  He looked towards Mu Chenxi, who had a triumphant smile on her face, and chided inwardly, ‘What an idiot.’

  It went without saying that Mu Changqing could sense what Fu Zhi was trying to do as well. He hastily went up to Fu Zhi and said, “It’s okay, Ms. Fu. We’re just ordinary people, so we won’t be able to understand your greatness. Why don’t we just put a stop to it and move on to the next performance?”

  “Get the hell out of here if you don’t want to watch Sister Zhi’s performance,” a voice rang out from the audience seat.

  Everyone turned their heads around and Song Fang rose to his feet. He waved his arm high in the air as he shouted at the top of his lungs, “Let’s go, Sister Zhi! There’s no need to be afraid of them! Let’s show them what you’ve got!”

  Mu Changqing was speechless.

  Fu Zhi then picked up the suona with practiced ease, and Mu Changqing’s heart leaped into his throat. He did not want Fu Zhi to play the suona at all, for he was afraid that she might perform a funeral song right away. He jerked up from his seat and ran towards the stage.

  However, there was a big distance between the audience seat and the stage, so there was no way Mu Changqing could reach the stage in time.

  Mu Chenxi tugged at Xu Tongtong’s wrist.

  “Please tell me she doesn’t know how to play a suona.”

  “It doesn’t matter if she knows or doesn’t know how to play a suona. The moment she starts the performance, she would be humiliating herself,” Xu Tongtong said, her jaw tightly set. “For traditional musical instruments like erhu and suona, only those well-seasoned maestros could make a name for themselves. As for a young lady like Fu Zhi, people would only laugh at her. Don’t you think so?”

  Mu Chenxi nodded as she felt Xu Tongtong was right.

  …

  Most of the people in the hall had never watched a suona performance before.

  After all, this musical instrument was different from other musical instruments. It did not have a lot of chances to go up on stage like other mainstream musical instruments such as violin, piano, or even guzheng. Even though people used to play suona at weddings to liven up the atmosphere in the past, this tradition had become lesser nowadays. Right now, the only chance for suona to shine was at a funeral.

  Fu Zhi was a person who was true to her word. Since she had decided to play the suona, she would do it.

  “Here it comes.”

  After she finished speaking, she put her fingers on the instrument.

  Then, in the next second, the sound of the suona filled every inch of the hall.

  Fu Zhi did not play a sad song, or the classic piece such as “A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix” or “Lift the Bridal Sedan Chair”.

  Instead, the song she played was “Burial”, a very rhythmic song that went viral on a certain platform the other day.

  In just a few minutes, everyone in the hall was getting pumped. Compared to guzheng, suona was able to bring out the wild side of people. Right now, all of them just wanted to stand on their chairs and start a party all night!

  Mu Changqing only arrived at the stage when Fu Zhi was halfway through her song. At first, he thought she was not very good at playing suona, but now he knew he was wrong.

  Not only was she good at guzheng, but she knew how to play a suona well too!

  Everyone, including Gu Min, who was sitting behind Mu Chenxi, could not help but glue their eyes on Fu Zhi.

  She looked like a goddess who just descended into the mortal world when she was playing the guzheng, but now she looked as bright as the star in the sky when she was playing the suona.

  The tip of Gu Min’s ear turned red.

  It was only now that he realized Mu Chenxi was nothing, and he had only found his true love today.

  Gu Min had never fallen for a girl so much before. Mu Chenxi was busy taking care of Fu Zhi as well as her own image, so she did not notice the changes on Gu Min’s face.

  The song was entering the last part. Gu Min’s heart was pumping in tandem with the rhythm, and he did not know why he suddenly had an urge to get married right now. He took a picture of Fu Zhi and sent it to Gu Hao.

  [Dad, I feel that I’m in love this time. Come and have a look at your future daughter-in-law.]

  Gu Hao was the president of a company. He had a lot of work to do every day, so he did not have the time to take care of his mentally challenged son.

  However, today was different.

  The moment he opened up the photo, he jerked up from his chair.

  [How dare you! Do you really want me to beat you again? Who do you think you are to be her boyfriend, huh? Come back to the capital today, or I’m cutting ties with you!]

  [You’ve done the paternity test before, so I’m your son. By the way, why are you so angry? Could it be that you have a thing on her and you want her to be your wife too?] Gu Min replied.

  [You… You b*st*rd!]

  After Fu Zhi had finished her performance, a round of thunderous applause erupted from the crowd.

  They just could not believe it at all.

  By right, it was not suitable to have a suona performance on an occasion like this, but all of them felt they could accept it if the performer was Fu Zhi.

  [Holy mother of god! What the hell was that? That’s so awesome!!!]

  [Where are those people who said Fu Zhi didn’t know how to play a suona? Has the cat got your tongue? Why are you all so quiet right now?]

  [The sound of a suona is worth a thousand gold, and nothing could top suona. Fu Zhi is a good suona performer, but suona is really worthy of being known as the king of all musical instruments. The moment suona comes out, all the other musical instruments have to make way for it.]

  …

  Most of the viewers in front of the screen were impartial. Although there were also some hate-filled comments, the endless praise and applause were enough to express these people’s approval and appreciation of the performance.

  Director Zhao, who was sitting on the second row, rose to his feet and said, “Can I call you Master Fu Zhi? Are you a newcomer? Well, I don’t know if you’re free or not, but I’m making a melodrama and I really hope you can come and make a cameo in my drama.”

  “Melodrama? Are you kidding me? Don’t mind him, Master Fu Zhi. A sensational dramatic piece won’t be able to bring you anywhere if you really want to be an actor. Anyway, I’m a composer contracted by Star Maker. I want to write a classic piece that incorporates folk music. I don’t know if you’re interested in promoting folk music, but I think we can work together!”

  “Me, me, me. Master Fu Zhi, I’m working on a commercial film, and I will invite Ye Shiyun to make a guest appearance as well. Aren’t you two friends? You can come with him!”

  Fu Zhi’s performance had successfully made these directors and producers realize her market value.

  A good-looking actor or actress was something that was very common in the entertainment industry. However, a good-looking actress who not only was skillful in one field but also was popular was something very rare.

  The best example would be Ye Shiyun. Everyone knew he had a resting b*tch face and he was not a cooperative actor. However, he had great charisma and every web drama or movie that he starred in would have good audience ratings.

  In the first half of the year, Fu Zhi had more haters than followers, so she had a low market value, but things had changed now.

  Half a year later, Fu Zhi’s market value had increased by leaps and bounds.

  The Mysterious Heiress: Researcher In Disguise