An Empress’s Return to the Present: The Real Young Lady’s Strong Comeback

Chapter 24: Making Things Difficult

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

“En, I usually like to drink coffee too, but I usually drink sweeter varieties of coffee,” Ji Yao replied politely.

“It’s still more authentic to have a bitter cup of coffee,” Grandma Jin said.

“En,” Ji Yao replied with a trademark smile on her face. She knew that this elderly woman was deliberately asking them to do something that the people in the city were familiar with and the people in the countryside weren’t familiar with, so that the children from the city would have more scenes.

And she had long since gotten hold of all the procedures for the show, so something like making a cup of coffee naturally was no difficult matter for her.

However, Grandma Jin continued to make things difficult.

“It’s almost mealtime. I heard from the director that you are all good students. Do you know how to play the piano?”

“Both I and Chu An, that guy, knows how to,” Ji Yao replied.

“What about you?” Grandma Jin gestured with her chin at Gu Xiao.

“I’m not very good at playing the piano, but I know other instruments…” Gu Xiao hadn’t finished speaking when she was interrupted by Grandma Jin.

“Others? Violin? Saxophone? Or—”

“No, it’s some ethnic musical instruments,” Gu Xiao answered truthfully. After all, she had struggled in the ancient times, not only playing ancient zithers and guqin, but also performing national dances, ink painting, calligraphy, and Gu Xiao was proficient in all of them. In today’s world, she was even more impressive than professional competitors.

“Forget about it then. Ethnic musical instruments are too old-fashioned, and I can’t appreciate them.” Grandma Jin waved her hand. She raised her head and thought for a moment. It seemed like the production team had instructed her to put two people together, and by the looks of it now, it was probably these two that knew how to play the piano. After all, how could a child from the countryside be with a child from the city?

She had never watched this kind of show before, so she said to Chu An and Ji Yao, “Then you guys can play a duet. Have you guys practiced before?”

“En, then let’s play an A verse of ‘Fantasie in F Minor’. What do you think, Chu An?”

Chu An glanced at her in disdain, then opened his mouth and said calmly, “I’ve never practiced it before, so I don’t know how to play it.”

“How could that be? Last time, you performed this during the arts concert at the school, and you even performed it with me!” Ji Yao looked at him smilingly, and actually took advantage of the opportunity to hook her arm around his, pulling him towards the piano. “All right, I know you’re afraid of attracting attention at the school, so you won’t get close to me. Now that we’re not at the school, come quickly.”

At this series of actions, Gu Xiao was completely dumbfounded.

She was confident that she could deal with a white lotus, but she didn’t expect the white lotus to be so shameless!

Moreover, why had she suddenly gotten so close to Chu An? To create hype? Or to increase her own screen time? Or to strut around in front of her?

Was she crazy?

Chu An looked at the arm she had hooked around his in disgust. He wanted to use his other hand to pull it away, but he didn’t want to touch her, so he stood with Ji Yao in a weird position. Their arms were clearly very close, yet the upper half of their bodies were far apart.

[Yi? Wasn’t Chu An and Gu Xiao a couple?]

[Just look at what Ji Yao said. He doesn’t dare to get close to her in school!]

[A real couple has been caught?]

[I can’t really like them. Though they are a perfect match, I keep feeling like there is something missing.]

Chu An reluctantly sat on the seat, and looked at Gu Xiao for help. Her mouth moved slightly, and Chu An could distinguish a few words, “Play seriously.”

Chu An seemed to be surprised for a moment, but since Gu Xiao had already said so, he no longer thought of how to escape. Instead, he obediently and earnestly played a whole song with Ji Yao.

It had to be admitted that Chu An and Ji Yao’s skills were not too bad. They directly turned the scene into a musical performance. They played very slowly, causing Gu Xiao Yao’s heart that had just been “shocked” by Ji Yao to also calm down.

Grandma Jin couldn’t find any fault with this, so she could only turn on Gu Xiao. “It’s enough for me to have the two of them to take care of me. You can go to the some other group.”

She had directly ordered her to leave!

This grandmother was really merciless.

When the scene had reached this point, the videographer was called over by the director to film the other two groups, and added a large caption that said, “Where should Gu Xiao go from here?”

[Heavens, Ji Yao and Chu An are really too awesome, aren’t they?!]

[Although this piece isn’t especially difficult, one can’t play it to this extent without at least a dozen years of foundation!]

[Still, but, the way they were playing the piano just now was so compatible!]

[Stop up there, don’t ship this unlikely pair!]

The spectators could tell that Grandma Jin was making things difficult for Gu Xiao.

Gu Xiao knew that Grandma Jin was not a bad person by nature. It was only because the Ji family kept causing trouble for Gu Xiao, and they had grabbed onto Grandma Jin’s weakness and was forcing her to do so.

Grandma Jin was also a pitiful person.

“That’s all right. Then let the two of them take care of your mental health. I will take care of your daily needs and life.” Not only was Gu Xiao Xiao not angry, she was even smiling as she told Grandma Jin what she could do.