Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Special Treatment

Regarding hugging thighs and so on, Ding Meng proved that she absolutely was not thinking askew. She smiled at Qiao Yichen, set down her chopsticks, and ran into her room while yelling, “Give me a second! I need to prepare something.”

Qiao Yichen stared at her back in confusion. “Prepare what?” Everything that needed to be prepared had been already prepared.

Ding Meng hastily responded, “A razor! I’m worried your leg is too hairy!”

Qiao Yichen, “…..”

By the time Ding Meng grabbed her screeching device and came back outside, Qiao Yichen was already gone. She guessed that he had already moved to the second floor so she made her way to the head of the stairs. The staircase was spiral shaped and not long. A faint glow of light spilled down from above.

Ding Meng tucked the screeching device away in her pant pocket and solemnly walked up.

Qiao Yichen was waiting for her by the entrance. Upon seeing her, he calmly chuckled. “Where’s the razor?”

“Ah, I couldn’t find it.”

Qiao Yichen replied, “Well that’s no problem. After all, I never said I was going to take off my pants to let you hug my thigh.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Words couldn’t describe her surging emotions.

Ding Meng faked a relaxed laugh and examined the surroundings behind Qiao Yichen. The entire second floor was connected. It looked just like a large rehearsal room and was extremely s.p.a.cious. While there weren’t many things set up, the biggest could be considered the grand piano by the window. Scattered on the floor were some musical instruments. Of those, Ding Meng could only recognize the guitar, violin, and flute.

In the middle of the room was a sheet stand and on it lay some music scores that were turned open. Further in, there was a shelf resting against the wall. However instead of books, it was filled with alb.u.ms. They were of all kinds and sorts, spanning across the decades. Ding Meng was speechless. This collection of alb.u.ms was probably really valuable and might very well contain ones no longer in production….

Finally, there was a very wide office desk. Arranged on top of it was a computer, stereo box, and a gramophone. Ding Meng admitted that she had only seen that sort of thing before on TV. As for the rest of the professional equipment, she completely had no idea what they were used for.

Qiao Yichen had walked off to the side earlier to let her size the place up. Only after a long time did he ask, “Are you done looking around?”

Ding Meng laughed and nodded her head. “I’m done looking around, but there’s something I don’t really understand.”

Qiao Yichen raised his eyebrows. “What?”

“… It’s that treadmill. What is it used for?” Out of everything in the room, only the treadmill didn’t seem to match its environment, and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

Qiao Yichen gave her a look of surprise. “Treadmills are obviously used for running.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Thank you Mr. Obvious.

Qiao Yichen looked at her silent expression and laughed, stepping forward to explain, “Sometimes when I get tired of working, I like to run.”

Ding Meng felt like her logic couldn’t keep up with his explanation. If work was tiring, shouldn’t he go to bed? Why would he force himself to run?

However, Qiao Yichen didn’t answer the question in her heart. “The whole room is soundproofed so I usually listen to music or play instruments up here to avoid bothering other people.”

Those words immediately terrified Ding Meng. Soundproofed…. then even if she yelled her throat raw, no one would hear?

… Would the screeching device in her pocket still be useful?

“If you don’t have any questions, let’s just begin.”

After those words, Ding Meng almost instinctually hugged herself in fright, but then she saw Qiao Yichen calmly walk over to the piano and raise the cover. It was such a simple motion, but when he made it, it was with the confidence and ease of a hero sheathing his sword.

A clear and reverberating piano note began to sound and caused to Ding Meng return from her “White Robed Hero Qiao Yichen” daydream.

The person in front of the piano didn’t look at her. Paying attention to his own business, he spoke, “Vocal training for half an hour. I’ll play a note, and you’ll sing a note.”

Ding Meng sang out the note he just played without even thinking. She figured this might be the result of the afternoon’s vocal training.

But Qiao Yichen was clearly much stricter than the teacher from that afternoon. Even if Ding Meng’s note was just a little bit off, he would still make her repeat it. The tone and even her breathing had to be on point.

After half an hour of training, Ding Meng felt that this was more exhausting than her entire afternoon of training. However, Qiao Yichen was not at all satisfied with her performance. “Your pitch needs to be more precise and your lung capacity is clearly not sufficient.”

Ding Meng rolled her eyes at him. She had now thoroughly understood that Qiao Yichen’s definition of letting her hug his thigh was to give her special treatment by personally training her.

Qiao Yichen thought for a bit before standing up in front of the piano. “Playing an instrument can help a lot with pitch. Look around at the instruments here. Which ones can you play?”

Ding Meng glanced around at each of the instruments and her smile paled, “Have you never considered that I may not know how to play even a single one?”

Qiao Yichen became silent before making the decision for her. “Then the guitar it is. Starting today, you’ll learn how to play the guitar for one hour.”

Ding Meng, “…”

She pursed her lips, struggling internally. “Who will be the teacher?”

“Of course it’ll be me.”

“… Do you actually know how to play all these instruments?”

Qiao Yichen glanced her and picked up the violin. Then he walked to the sheet stand and flipped through a few pages. Placing the violin on his shoulder, he began to play.

Ding Meng admitted, before this moment, she would never have imagined Qiao Yichen and a violin together. Probably because her middle school impression of him was too deep-rooted, her image of Qiao Yichen was always a troublemaking child without any studying abilities. However, the Qiao Yichen before her eyes and the violin were so well matched. His entire person gave off a graceful aura and mesmerizing air. For a moment, Ding Meng thought something must have been wrong with her memories.

Now it seemed as if he had been a small violin player ever since the day they first met.

“Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D Major” Qiao Yichen pulled out the last note and smoothly concluded the song. Ding Meng was dazed for a moment before enthusiastically applauding, “Bravo!”

T/N: For those you cla.s.sical music lovers out there, here’s a youtube link to the song. It’s 40 min long haha.

Qiao Yichen, “……”

“In any case, I have enough skill to teach you how to play the guitar.” He put down the violin and sighed. “After the guitar lesson ends, we still need to add on half an hour of physical training. You can just use the treadmill.”

At this, Ding Meng couldn’t keep enduring. “I don’t want to run…..”

Qiao Yichen looked at her, speaking, “You can also swim if you want. There’s a swimming pool downstairs.”

Ding Meng, “……”

Qiao Yichen looked at her “this big boss is unwilling” face and his eyes narrowed slightly. “You think other contestants are going to be playing around during this time?”

Ding Meng froze. Her knee was. .h.i.t by an arrow.

Qiao Yichen continued to speak, “Also, singing can’t rely on just a good voice. Your foundation is much worse than that of other contestants.”

Ding Meng’s other knee was. .h.i.t by an arrow and was forced to kneel before Qiao Yichen. “Great One! I’ll run!”

She ran until finally she was almost depending on telekinesis to prop herself up. At least Qiao Yichen didn’t add on any more trainings. It wasn’t until she arrived back down in the living room that Ding Meng saw her bowl and chopsticks still sitting on the dining table and remembered she hadn’t done the dishes yet….

Heavens ah!

After she shakily walked over, Qiao Yichen spoke out from behind her. “Just leave it for me to do.”

Ding Meng couldn’t be happier if he washed the dishes. Just now while she was running, he was sitting off to the side listening to music. Whenever she slacked off a just little, he would glance over. But even now, she made a big show of refusing. “How could I be so rude. You made dinner.”

Qiao Yichen rolled up his shirt sleeves and walked over. “Do you always smile so happily when you’re trying not to be rude?”

Ding Meng, “….”

Her expression betrayed her inner feelings…… She actually didn’t even have the energy to control her facial expressions anymore.

Qiao Yichen stacked the empty bowls on the table and carried them all into the kitchen. “You should take a hot bath to relax your muscles as much as possible or else tomorrow, you might not even be able to get up.”

“Ah……” Ding Meng watched Qiao Yichen turn on the water and really begin washing the dishes. Then she peacefully floated back to her room.

She really did feel much better after taking a hot bath, but understanding herself, she knew her body would definitely be aching so badly tomorrow that running would be near impossible. Thinking about how she would have to drag this poor body around to partic.i.p.ate in special training, Ding Meng’s heart ached for herself.

She picked up her phone from the table and glanced at it, intending to just look at the time. Instead, she was surprised by five missed phone calls.

All five of the missed calls were from Jiang Nanqing. Ding Meng worried that something urgent had happened so she immediately called back. The call was very quickly answered. “Ding Meng, where did you die off to? If you continued to not pick up, I was going to call the police!”

“Ah, I was at special training and didn’t bring my phone.”

“Special training?” Jiang Nanqing’s voice became sharper. “You mean for that Heavenly Voice compet.i.tion? I called just to ask about that matter. When did you sign up? You didn’t even tell me! I only found out from your chuan chuan friend!”

T/N: Her chuan chuan (type of hot pot) friend is Xiao Zhuo zi who was mentioned in Chapter 2

Ding Meng was about to explain everything thoroughly, but upon hearing the last part of Jiang Nanqing’s response, she started to gossip on an off-topic matter. “Nanqing ah, do you and Xiao Zhuo zi have something going on?”

Jiang Nanqing, “……”

“Have your head!” Jiang Nanqing ended that conversation by asking, “How’s your relationship with Qiao Yichen going? He hasn’t been making things difficult for you has he?”

Just mentioning this caused Ding Meng to feel bitter. “Don’t even bring that up. He’s already tortured me into damaged goods.

Jiang Nanqing, who had only just started to calm down, started to shout in alarm. “So he actually made a move on you? Were all the pervert fending tools I gave you useless?!”

Ding Meng sorrowfully spoke, “That room was unexpectedly soundproof. Completely unexpected.”

Soundproofed? But his ears weren’t soundproofed! “What did he do to you?”

“First it was half an hour vocal lessons. Then it was an hour of guitar lessons. The most tiring of all was that he still wanted me to run for half an hour!”

Jiang Nanqing took a long time to digest those words. “That’s it?”

Ding Meng exploded, “What do you mean that’s it? If you have the ability, why don’t you come try it!”

Jiang Nanqing pursed her lips. “I remember you used to have great grades in language and literature cla.s.ses. Do you know what damaged goods means?”

Ding Meng, “…… I meant it in the literal sense.”

Jiang Nanqing didn’t want to bother with her anymore and quickly expressed her intentions to hang up. Ding Meng hastily yelled out to stop Jiang Nanqing. “Hold on! After you mentioned my chuan chuan friend, I started craving chuan chuan. Let’s go eat it together tomorrow. I’ll give you a call after special training is over.”

Jiang Nanqing considered it for a second and then agreed.

With chuan chuan as motivation, Ding Meng was able to drag her sore and aching body through the second day of training.

Before she threw herself into the arms of chuan chuan, she didn’t forget to give Qiao Yichen a phone call so that he didn’t wait for her. Who know that after Qiao Yichen finished listening, he would immediately veto her plans. “Don’t you know that singers need to protect their throats? You should avoid spicy foods like chuan chuan as much as possible. I’ve already prepared dinner. Hurry up and come back. After eating, there’s still training.”

Ding Meng, “…..”

She brokenheartedly pa.s.sed on the news to Jiang Nanqing. Jiang Nanqing was silent for a long time before commenting, “Aren’t you listening to him a bit too much? Back then, how many times did your mom tell you to eat less chuan chuan. When did you ever listen?”

Ding Meng, “…..”

It really…..did seem so.