Farming Together Chapter 236: musical instrument

Chapter 236: musical instrument

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

“Ma’am, what is this thing?” Leaf had picked up the suona ¹ in the stall and asked the NPC selling it in the Ancient City.

The NPC, a female elder, smilingly replied, “This is…It’s a suona. An instrument that blows loudly. Child, if you are curious, you can try blowing it yourself.”

Leaf scratched his head and said, “But I don’t know how to play it either…,”he said. He went to put the suona back in its original place, and intended to change stalls to continue shopping.

When she saw him about to leave, the NPC lady became anxious, and pulled on his arm, as she held him back. “Do not, ah, do not rush to go. You do not know how to blow, but if I teach you, it is very simple, and if you buy the instrument from my stall, I can also give you the blowing method for free! The package will teach you!”

The last four words touched a nerve in Leaf. If these instruments could be learned, then to bring some back wasn’t impossible…So, under the tutelage of the NPC lady, he picked up the suona again. HIs mouth wrapped around the suona whistle, his fingers haphazardly pressed several of the sound holes, his chin was held high to make the suona face the sky, and then he took a deep breath and blew out with force.

As his face was squeezed into a bun shape and slowly turned red, a loud, high, and penetrating sound issued from the suona. Earth-shatteringly loud, so that all the nearby NPCs who heard the sound turned around to look over, with obviously stunned expressions. When they discovered that the person making this sound was Leaf, a generous outsider, all their expressions were relieved and changed into expressions of appreciation, and rainbow farts were even more thoughtlessly blurted out.

“I said who blew the suona in the street, and it turned out to be this child, Leaf, ah! Before he came to my stall, I found that he has a strong body. Look at that lung capacity, really good…”

“It may be the first time that Leaf has taken up the suona, but he is blowing really well. In time, he will definitely become a famous suona player!”

“Blowing quite well! Oh, don’t you want to blow on a few paragraphs? Young man, remember to come to my side later. I sell Kongming lanterns ², a lot of patterns, the night out could be beautiful!”

“…”

The NPCs warmly exchanged pleasantries with Leaf, while Leaf felt on pins and needles, with a sense of nervousness from being surrounded by them. Embarrassed and ashamed, with the kind of shamefulness that came from performing his talent in front of the elders. He just blew a little suona, and listened to the sound of no tune to speak of. How come in the end they praised him as an expert, and listened to him being embarrassed…?

As for the NPCs’ jokes about letting him blow on a few more paragraphs, Leaf would never agree to that. However, he remembered the feeling when he blew the sound from the suona, and it was indeed quite refreshing. If he wasn’t around where there were others, he really would want to play a little longer.

In the end, Leaf bagged all the musical instruments in that NPC lady’s stall, in addition to the suona, there were pipa ³, erhu ⁴, Xiao ⁵ , flute, zither, drums, etc., and spent a lot of money. Looking around, the NPC received some jealous envy.

Plus the NPC lady also gave him the method of using the instruments to Leaf as agreed. The method was written on paper and could be learned automatically by reading it from beginning to end. That solved the problem of Interstellar people not knowing ancient instruments at all, or having never been exposed to the art of music.

Also, this information was not a one-time thing. When other people read it, they could also gain the relevant skills.

Now, as he faced the players’ eager eyes, Leaf gradually pulled together his thoughts, and followed the NPC lady’s example. He showed them a harmless smile and said, “This, ah, is called a suona, and when you blow on it, the sound can be loud. I also have the instruments’ playing methods. If you buy them, you can come to me to learn for free, oh.”

This was already the second free thing on this stall, and it’s stackable!

The player who asked how to use the suona immediately grabbed the body of the suona, while his other hand quickly picked up an erhu as he said loudly, “I’ll buy it, I’ll buy it! These two are both mine! You can grab the rest yourselves!”

After that, regardless of the reaction of the others, he picked and picked a lot of small items, then gathered 50 gold coins, and received double happiness from Leaf!

The virtual reality game had such an advantage. Even if you obviously never touched something before, as long as you learned the relevant skills, you could use it. The player who purchased the suona and erhu learned how to use them from Leaf’s papers. His eyes lingered on them for a moment, and still chose to pick up the suona.

Hey, he can’t wait to blow it!

After they learned how to use the instruments, the game also provided the players with a score for each instrument. There was only one tune for each instrument, so if you needed more, you would have to collect them yourself. Whether it would be through in-game quests from NPCs or in reality on the Starnet, that was the right way to get the tunes.

The tune provided for the suona was a tune called “Hundred Birds of to the Phoenix,” and the owner of the suona’s game ID was “Give Crane the Moon”. After he familiarized himself with the skill, he smiled smugly at the crowd that was lined up and said, “We’re bored of waiting, so I’ll play you a tune. It’s an exclusive freebie. How about that?”

The players looked at him in disgust, but didn’t refuse his offer. Waiting in line was indeed a bit boring, and it would be a good way to divert their attention from watching the people who had their turn madly snatch the fresh goods from the Ancient City.

There was even sparse applause, which made it even more satisfying to Give Crane the Moon. Everyone was looking forward to it!

“Then I’ll start now, ha. This tune is called ‘Hundred Birds to the Phoenix.’ I hope you like it!”

He found a spot of higher ground, stood in a good horse stance, and picked up the suona. After the loud and long introductory note, the enthusiastic and cheerful melody introduced people to the forest at the beginning of the sunrise. The sound of birds chirping one after another was so beautiful that it seemed like there were really birds chirping in front of you. The birds were singing in harmony, nature was alive, and a vigorous life force came out from the sound of the suona.

The players in line were at first shocked that this was actually a tune played by a beginner. The tune was unexpectedly beautiful; loud and clear, but not harsh. They closed their eyes and listened for several minutes.

When those minutes passed, the novelty also reduced a lot, and they began to focus on other things. Then, the rich body movements that Give Crane the Moon made when he was blowing came into their eyes. He completely closed his eyes, and the whole person was immersed in the sound of the suona as he regularly twisted and moved. Especially his head and face expression, the left and right sway, forward and backward, his five senses occasionally twisted, occasionally stretched, and the whole thing was immersive playing.

No one knew who did not hold back their snort of laughter, although they quickly covered their mouth, but it still let the surrounding people feel the impact.

They desperately tried to hold in their laughter, as their shoulders shook wildly, and they let out low and suppressed “um,” “yelp,” “hip,” and other sounds. At this time, Give Crane the Moon perceived something was wrong. He opened his eyes, and saw that puzzling scene.

Was he blowing badly? What was with this reaction!

Although they all knew in their hearts that this was the behavior that should come from full devotion, it was a situation that would rarely be seen with their own eyes, so for a moment they  felt the humor. Until the end of the six-minute long performance, Give Crane the Moon didn’t open his eyes again. By the time he slowly put the suona down, the players in line recovered, and gave him a round of applause and urged him to come back for another song.

Didn’t he also have an erhu? Would he play the erhu for them to hear?

The other players who were lucky enough to grab instruments also got excited, and after learning the corresponding skills from Leaf, they simply organized everyone who had instruments and asked if they wanted to have a big talent show. As for the stage, it was the open space at the entrance of the village.

Players were lively and loved to get together, and after the success of Give Crane the Moon was seen, they also wanted the sense of accomplishment that came from being recognized by everyone. So the proposal was an instant success for them, and they all took turns to play all the pieces they had learned before finishing.

Since the musical instruments that Leaf bought back had temporary uniqueness, there was no such thing as one person who stole the limelight from the others. Everyone had a great time, and the entrance to the 2nd Newbie Village was surrounded by a rich artistic atmosphere for a long time.

Even Leaf himself didn’t expect that when he brought back so many things from the Mysterious Ancient City, the most popular would actually be that with the least number, musical instruments. There were already many players who approached him after he closed his stall who wanted to book him to bring back more musical instruments on his next trip. No matter what kind, they wouldn’t refuse!

However, he had only been to the Ancient City once, and he didn’t know if the NPCs there were randomly refreshed, or if the goods wouldn’t be available after he bought them all, so he chose not to accept the people’s reservation requests, but said that he would look for them next time he went over. If there were any, he would bring them all back, and then they could come and buy them.

The request was denied, and the players cried. If they could have beaten the others, they wouldn’t have come to him secretly to make a reservation.

Temporarily unable to buy their desired instruments, these people retreated to the second best, asking Leaf if they could first learn how to play the instruments. Since they hadn’t bought an instrument from him, they were willing to pay Leaf 10 gold coins each for tuition.

Wasn’t this just throwing money on the ground? How could he not pick it up? Leaf didn’t hesitate, and immediately agreed. What followed was a pleasant payment and learning time, as the players smoothly learned all the musical instruments playing skills and left satisfied.

According to Leaf’s vision, those people would go to those who have instruments to discuss things and see if they could borrow the instruments to play.

This was indeed the intention of most of the players who learned to play.

However there was that group of people, who would find a different way. In their brain were the countless times they could the use a certain musical instrument to ensure proficiency, so from the holographic world they went to the real world, and with serious faces they opened TaoTao, in the search box and entered “suona,” “flute,” “erha,” etc.

Hey, there were thousands of antique imitations. They just can’t believe that they couldn’t find similar musical instruments on TaoTao!