War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 150 The Problematic Guqin
After seeing off Nicholas and Jima, who was curious and always wanted to ask something, the studio was finally clean.After Wei Ran locked the shutter door, he immediately took off his expensive suit and changed back into comfortable and warm fleece pants.

After everything was tidied up, he picked up the letter of appointment on the table, and after looking at it secretly, he placed it in the most conspicuous position on the bookshelf behind him, waiting for it to slowly ferment, and building himself a glamorous Scholar status.

Glancing at the Guqin that was also placed on the bookshelf, Wei Ran carefully carried it down and placed it on the long table, gently plucking the strings on it just like in the costume drama.

However, when the expected wonderful sound came to the ears, it was indeed a series of dull and weak "Bulengling" sounds.

Isn't it playing right?

Wei Ran frowned, and gently plucked one of the strings, there was no change at all, the movement was no different from pulling a taut cotton rope.This is no longer a question of whether he can play the piano, but a question of whether he can play the piano.

Could it be that more than [-] dollars bought a piece of rotten wood?

Wei Ran secretly scolded himself for being stupid and refreshing, how good can a traditional Chinese musical instrument bought by a Maozi be?It is no exaggeration to say that, as far as the traditional Chinese art of piano, chess, calligraphy and painting is concerned, if anyone takes it out and wants to make achievements, it is probably not much easier than training a KGB.So even if Karp who bought the violin is an elite guy, even if he seems to speak a few out-of-tune Chinese, he can't hide when he should be tricked.

But for this matter, he can't ask Mrs. Daria or Karp to blame him. After all, they helped with the front foot, and the back foot went to disrupt the situation. He is not Polish, so how could he do such a stupid thing?

Just treat it as a loss
Looking at the guqin on the table, Wei Ran felt more and more headaches. This piece of broken wood worth [-] U.S. dollars would make him tired of putting it on the bookshelf, but if he really threw it away, he would be even more foolish.

"Why don't we find another idiot to take over the offer and sell this piano at a high price?"

Wei Ran muttered to himself, turned on the chandelier directly above the long table, observed carefully, and then found that the seven strings on the piano seemed to be a little loose, and one of them might even be broken at any time Yes, only a little bit of the edge is still attached.

Could it be time to change the strings?
Wei Ran, who was a little disappointed just now, immediately became interested again. After some observations, he carefully turned the guqin over, and then noticed that the opening of the resonance box (Longchi) at the back end had a "quiet" engraved on it. Character.

But under this word, "jack·Freeman" is written in ugly red paint, and the words "Peiping·China/1935" are written in the second line.

“It’s almost 100 years old”

Wei Ran muttered, but gave up his plan to tune the strings by himself. Since this thing is an antique, you can ask someone when you return to China at the end of the year, maybe it can really sell for a big price.That being the case, there is no place to buy regret medicine if it is broken by a layman like myself.

But just letting it go like this made his heart itch, after all, throwing so much money out, at least he had to listen to it, and besides, he didn't want to continue investing in learning musical instruments.

To put it simply, if the broken wood can be used, it can be used, and if it can’t be used, it can be used.Wei Ran does not allow the purchase of more than [-] dollars to be just a "background to enhance the artistic background".

After thinking about it, he simply took out his phone and called his aunt who was on a business trip recently.

"Why did you remember to call me?" Zhou Shujin on the other end of the phone seemed to be in a very good mood, and the smile in her tone couldn't be concealed.

Wei Ran asked straightforwardly, "Auntie, do you know anyone who can play the piano? Our Chinese Guqin is not a piano."

"I seem to know someone, why do you ask this?" Zhou Shujin asked curiously.

"Ask me something." Wei Ran made an excuse.

"Wait, I'll push it to you." Without waiting for Wei Ran to say anything else, Zhou Shujin hung up the phone, and then sent a series of phone numbers and a voice message via WeChat.

"This man's surname is Sui. He runs a supermarket in Volgograd. His daughter seems to be able to play the piano. She asked me to bring him a musical instrument from China before. You can call and ask."

After listening to the voice, Wei Ran replied politely, and immediately took out the wooden box that came with the guqin from under the long table, put the piano in and fastened the copper button on the lid, and then called my aunt to send it phone.

After some communication between the two parties, the supermarket owner surnamed Sui told Wei Ran the address happily, and hung up the phone politely. He rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in the studio to find a bottle that Professor Alexei had hidden away some time ago. After wiping off the dust on the box of Huaxia Baijiu with a rag, he hugged the piano case and got into the off-road vehicle with the accompanying gift, and drove to the address provided by the other party.

By the time he found his destination and stepped on the brakes, the gloomy sky had already started to snow heavily again, and in the Huaxia Supermarket by the roadside, there was a short and fat man wielding a big broom to clean up the accumulation in front of the door. snow.

"Is it Uncle Sui?" Wei Ran lowered the car window and asked politely.

"Are you Wei Ran?" The middle-aged man who was sweeping the snow hurriedly put the broom aside and greeted enthusiastically, "Come in!"

"You take this wine and drink it." After opening the car door, Wei Ran gave the other party a gift first.

"What are you doing with this?" Uncle Sui declined.

"My foreign uncle has given up drinking, so you can help him drink, so that he won't worry about it every day." Wei Ran joked, and then took out the huge wooden box.

"If you want to say that, I'm not impolite." Uncle Sui was also a cheerful person, holding the wine box under his arm, and enthusiastically led Wei Ran into the supermarket.

This supermarket is not too big, but the items inside are complete enough. Among other things, there are all kinds of Huaxia snacks, except that the prices are slightly different from those in China, but the variety is the same.As for those strolling around the snack area with baskets, besides three or five young people with Chinese faces, there were also quite a few junior high school students at most.

Under the leadership of Uncle Sui, Wei Ran climbed up the stairs to the second floor. Before entering the door, he heard various noises made by musical instruments coming from inside.

"My daughter opened a musical instrument class." Uncle Sui opened the door at the same time as he spoke, and then he saw several men of different ages sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor and scratching the musical instruments in front of him.

Facing the door and next to the window, a girl in a wheelchair was correcting everyone's mistakes in Russian in a gentle voice.And on the long table in front of this chubby girl with a calm face, there was also a small basket full of various Chinese snacks and a large bag of wet wipes.

Seeing the surprised look on Wei Ran's face, Uncle Sui said calmly, "My daughter, Sui Xin, can only sit in a wheelchair since she was born. She has gotten used to it for more than [-] years."

"Uncle Sui misunderstood." Wei Ran, who responded very quickly, pretended to be surprised and explained, "I was shocked, how did your daughter stand the smell of stinky feet and body odor all over the room."

His explanation immediately made Uncle Sui and his daughter couldn't help laughing out loud, but the idiots in the room who couldn't understand Chinese thought they were talking about something interesting, so they also showed smirks .

"Sui Xin, this is your Aunt Zhou's nephew, Wei Ran, who asked you to help." Uncle Sui pointed to the downstairs after speaking, "You guys talk first, I have to go downstairs and watch the supermarket."

Before Wei Ran could say anything, Uncle Sui was already talking about buying an air purifier while walking down the first floor.

"Let's take a rest for 10 minutes." Sui Xin, who was sitting in a wheelchair, hadn't finished her sentence when those smirking kids rushed around, each took a bag of snacks from their baskets, and then ran down the stairs and disappeared. shadow.

It wasn't until this time that Sui Xin tore open a pack of spicy strips, and asked while eating, "Do you want to learn an instrument?"

"I want you to help me look at this guqin." Wei Ran clapped the wooden box in his hand.

"Guqin?"

Sui Xin pointed to the table in front of her with half a spicy stick in her mouth, "I mainly play the guzheng, but I have learned the guqin before, please move it aside for me first!"

Hearing this, Wei Ran quickly put the wooden box in his hand aside, carefully lifted the guzheng on the table and put it aside, then picked up the box again and put it on the table to open it.

"What's wrong with this piano?" Sui Xin asked while wiping her hands with a wet towel.

"I can't play it, or I don't know how to play it." Wei Ran stretched out his hand and plucked the strings, and a dull and unpleasant sound immediately sounded in the not-so-large classroom.

"There is indeed a problem"

Sui Xin picked up a dry towel from the side of the wheelchair, wiped her hands and explained, "This piano is made of silk strings and needs to be played frequently, but its sound is really not right. Help me remove the red one on the bookshelf. Bring me your stationery box."

Wei Ran did as he said, but before he put the toolbox on the table, Sui Xin turned the guqin over and asked suspiciously, "Where did you get this violin?"

"Is there a problem?" Wei Ran put down the pencil case and asked.

Sui Xin shook her head, stretched out her hand to open the box, took out a plastic bag and tore it open, and at the same time kept explaining, "This is the steel string used for guqin, which is better than silk string. After I replace it Try it out."

Under Wei Ran's attention, Sui Xin meticulously replaced the new strings. After a long period of debugging, her students had returned to the classroom, and they all looked around to watch the excitement.

Sui Xin completed the adjustment as if no one was around, and as she gently plucked the strings, a much more pleasant sound than before came out.

"Teacher, can I learn this?" asked a Maozi aunt who seemed to be in her forties. "It has much fewer strings than what we learn now, and the sound is also very nice."

"It's not easy to learn." Sui Xin said perfunctorily, then frowned and turned the guqin over again, muttering to herself in confusion, "This piano is called 'you'? Why is it just one word?"

"Is there a problem?" Wei Ran asked.

Sui Xin glanced at the surrounding students, and said with a smile, "Well, how about today's class coming here first? I'll add another class for you tomorrow morning, and I'll treat you to Huaxia hot pot tomorrow night."

Hearing that there was something to eat, these students who didn't know whether they came to learn the piano or to satisfy their appetite immediately cheered.Just looking at their curious looks, it was obvious that they were not going to leave like this.

Sui Xin shook her head helplessly, and said to Wei Ran, "There are many problems with this piano. First of all, its timbre is not right. I suspect that there may be something stuffed in the belly of the piano. Secondly, there is a distance between Longchi and the word '幽'." It's too far away, so I guess there might be a word under these two lines of English. So do you want to take a risk?"

　Thank you for the red blood, Wuwen Longbow, and my falling kid for rewarding 1500 points respectively

　　Thanks to the masters in the field of oral ballistics for rewarding 500 points

　　Thank you Flying Hands for rewarding 200 points

　　Thanks to Atu Xiaozhu, warwolfkkk, and book friends 20190915142221190 for rewarding 100 points respectively

　　
　
(End of this chapter)