Chapter 34

The philosophical confrontation did not significantly improve the relationship between the two proud individuals. Before they knew it, the weekend had passed, and the final exams began amidst the tense atmosphere at Fudan High School. No one wanted to fail, as it would affect their ability to have a happy Chinese New Year and the thickness of their New Year’s red envelopes.

For the exams, except for mathematics, which was a formidable obstacle for Cheng Xiaoyu, he had reviewed the other subjects quite thoroughly. Especially in English, with a full score of 100, Cheng Xiaoyu was confident he would get a perfect score. However, tragically, the English score only counted for half of the total.

The final exams progressed quickly, with three subjects per day, and the exams were completed in two days. The physical education test had already been completed the previous week, and Cheng Xiaoyu's PE score, unfortunately, was once again the lowest in the class. Fortunately, the class had become accustomed to his last-place ranking.

Chinese was a subject Cheng Xiaoyu was particularly good at, and the questions were not too difficult. The first part was a fill-in-the-blank section with famous quotes. The first question was from Mencius' "Born in Adversity, Die in Ease": "If there are no capable and upright officials within the state, and no powerful enemies without, the state will surely perish." Cheng Xiaoyu, with his beautiful Pang Zhonghua steel pen, filled in the blank: "If there are no powerful enemies without, the state will surely perish." The subsequent questions were even easier, such as "Fires rage for three months, and a letter from home is worth a thousand pieces of gold" from Du Fu's "Spring View." After filling in about seven such questions, he moved on to the classical Chinese analysis of "Letter to Wang Kunsheng," which was no challenge for our young literary enthusiast.

Cheng Xiaoyu wrote the essay questions with ease, the topic being "Dreams," with the requirement to choose the theme, genre (excluding poetry), title, and to avoid plagiarism, with a minimum of 800 words.

Cheng Xiaoyu was unhappy when he saw the words "excluding poetry." As a poetry lover, he believed the lack of contemporary poetry was largely due to the education system. After a moment's thought, he decided that since grades weren't that important to him, he might as well let his imagination fly. He wrote the title "Dreaming of Horses," with the subtitle "Excluding Poetry."

I want to be a loyal son of the distant land

And a fleeting lover of material things

Like all poets who dream of horses

I must walk the same path as heroes and clowns

Ten thousand people want to extinguish the fire

But I alone will hold it high

This fire, great and blooming, falls on the sacred motherland

Like all poets who dream of horses

I use this fire to navigate the vast darkness of my life

This fire, great and sacred, is the language of the motherland and the city of Liangshan built with stones

Dunhuang, the land of dreams, where even July is cold

Like snow-white firewood and hard, white branches

Laid across the mountain of the gods

Like all poets who dream of horses

I throw myself into this fire, and these three things are the lamps that confine me, shining with light

Ten thousand people must pass through my blade to build the language of the motherland

I am willing to start all over again

Like all poets who dream of horses

I am willing to sit at the bottom of the prison

Among all the creations of the gods, I am the most perishable, with an irresistible speed of death

Only grain is what I cherish

I will hold it tightly, bear children, and raise a family in my homeland

Like all poets who dream of horses

I am willing to be buried on the high mountains around, guarding the peaceful homeland

Facing the great river, I am infinitely ashamed

I have wasted my youth and am left with only fatigue

Like all poets who dream of horses

Time passes, and not a drop remains

In a drop of water, a horse dies

A thousand years later, if I am reborn on the banks of my motherland

A thousand years later, I will once again have the rice fields of China and the snowy mountains of the Zhou Dynasty

The celestial horse gallops

Like all poets who dream of horses

I choose the eternal cause

My cause is to become the sun for a lifetime

From ancient times to the present

It is incomparably brilliant and bright

Like all poets who dream of horses

In the end, I am carried by the gods of dusk into the immortal sun

The sun is my name

The sun is my life

The summit of the sun buries the corpse of poetry—my thousand-year kingdom and I

Riding the phoenix of five thousand years and the dragon named "horse"—I will surely fail

But poetry itself, like the sun, will surely triumph.

After finishing, Cheng Xiaoyu looked at the test paper in silence for a moment. The once glorious poetry had become lonely in this rapidly advancing nation. The great poets who shone in the brilliant starry sky of history had written all the magnificent poems of China, leaving us only to look up in admiration. This could not help but be a tragedy of civilization. The monstrous beast of the economy had dragged modern urban culture into a heavy and cold concrete and steel structure, crushing the homeland and fragmenting our values.

Poetry is merely a discarded concubine of politics.

And our generation can only find love in the sweet nothings of pop songs, thinking that words are only about love.

Cheng Xiaoyu was the first to submit his test paper, leaving the school amidst the hopeless gazes of his classmates, who did not understand the final sentiment of a literary youth.

In the afternoon, it was the math exam. Cheng Xiaoyu flipped through the test paper and felt a headache. In his previous life, his math and English scores had held him back from performing well on the college entrance exam. In this life, he only recognized the notes do re mi fa sol, but not the numbers 12345. Looking at the math problems, which seemed like a foreign language, Cheng Xiaoyu began to let his imagination run wild.

In the Cartesian coordinate system xOy, with the origin as the pole and the positive x-axis as the polar axis, the polar equation of the semicircle C is p = 2cosθ, where θ ∈ [0, π/2].

(I) Find the parametric equation of C.

(II) Let point D be on C. The tangent line to C at D is perpendicular to the line l: y = x + 2. Using the parametric equation you found in (I), determine the coordinates of D.

Cheng Xiaoyu wrote in the answer section:

I walked through the south of the river

The face waiting in the season bloomed and withered like a lotus

The east wind did not come, and the willow catkins of March did not fly

Your heart is like a small, lonely city

Just like the cobblestone streets at dusk

The cricket's song did not sound, and the curtain of March did not lift

Your heart is a small, tightly closed window

My galloping hooves are a beautiful mistake

I am not a returning person, but a passerby...

Another question: Let the function f(x) = |x + 1| + |x - a| (a > 0).

(I) Prove that f(x) ≥ 2.

(II) If f(3) < 5, find the range of values for a.

Cheng Xiaoyu answered:

How can I make you meet me

In my most beautiful moment

For this

I have prayed to the Buddha for five hundred years

To let us form a bond in this world

The Buddha turned me into a tree

Growing on the path you must take

Under the sun

I carefully bloomed with flowers

Each one a longing from my past life

When you approach

Please listen carefully

To the trembling leaves

Which are my passionate waiting

But when you finally pass by without noticing

Behind you, on the ground

My friends

Those are not petals

But my withered heart

Given the function f(x) = ..., the curve at the point (0, 2) has a tangent line that intersects the x-axis at -2.

(I) Find a.

(II) Prove that when ..., the curve and the line have only one intersection point.

Cheng Xiaoyu wrote:

I have never been known by anyone

So I have never been forgotten by anyone

Living in others' memories

Is not my purpose

Meeting is a matter for two people

Leaving is a decision for one person

Meeting is just the beginning

Leaving is for the next meeting

This is a world where leaving is popular

But we are not good at saying goodbye

Then, the test papers were filled with Cheng Xiaoyu's beautiful steel pen poetry. In the world of numbers and words, these beautiful poems seemed to bring harmony, not answers but better than answers. At least, these questions had turned into beautiful paintings.

Cheng Xiaoyu had reviewed history, politics, and geography seriously and answered them reasonably well. However, the two days of exams had almost drained his energy. Looking at the jubilant young classmates, Cheng Xiaoyu wished that such simple happiness could infect him.

After the exams, Chen Haoran eagerly invited Cheng Xiaoyu to the Forest of Lights. Cheng Xiaoyu thought for a moment and decided to bring Xia Shamo and Wang Ou along. The four of them walked to the Forest of Lights. The winter break was about to start, and Cheng Xiaoyu planned to arrange more songs for their Sinful Crown band, with Wang Ou's task being to learn simple guitar melodies.

Chen Haoran's older brother, Chen Jingle, had invited Cheng Xiaoyu and the others to the Forest of Lights several times through Chen Haoran. Due to the heavy academic workload, Cheng Xiaoyu had never had the time to go. This time, he decided to keep the appointment. Cheng Xiaoyu knew that Chen Jingle wanted them to perform at the Forest of Lights, but with a band that only knew two songs, he didn't think they had the qualifications to perform.

Cheng Xiaoyu didn't have many good works left in his repertoire, so he had to carefully recall any suitable songs, write them into sheet music, and practice them. However, he decided to keep the "Sword Pulling" level songs to a minimum, as each one was a rare gem.

Chen Haoran's personality had improved a lot compared to before. At least, he would now respond to these people, unlike before when he would look at them with disdain, implying that talking to them was a waste of time. At this moment, Chen Haoran was comparing answers with Xia Shamo, who was pushing her bicycle, and of course, his answers were the correct ones in his view.

Wang Ou didn't have high requirements for his grades. As a sports student, he only needed about 300 points, like Cheng Xiaoyu. His goal was the Shanghai Institute of Physical Education, which was relatively easy for a Shanghai resident, so he had almost no pressure.

Xia Shamo's grades were usually in the top ten in the class and around the top thirty in the grade. Getting into college was not a problem, but to get into her target schools, Jiaotong University or Fudan University, she would need to perform well on the college entrance exam.

Chen Haoran had no pressure at all, as he already had a guaranteed admission to Fudan University, needing only to pass the admission test and interview.

As for Cheng Xiaoyu, he was the most worrying. He only wanted to get into the Shanghai Theatre Academy, and other schools were not in his consideration. Getting into the Shanghai Theatre Academy was more difficult than getting into Peking University or Tsinghua University in China, with fewer students admitted and more competition. However, Aunt Zhou, who was also a professor at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, gave Cheng Xiaoyu some confidence.

Upon arriving at the Forest of Lights, Huang Yong, the man with the ear piercing, was very happy to see Cheng Xiaoyu and the others and gave Wang Ou a warm hug. Rock musicians were generally this free-spirited and quick to become familiar.

Chen Haoran eagerly pulled Cheng Xiaoyu to the basement, where the new bass drum was placed against the wall.

Cheng Xiaoyu looked at Chen Haoran's original jazz drum set and felt a bit puzzled. Chen Haoran's drum set was a common type with two tom-toms mounted on the bass drum. If the new bass drum were placed, not only would the appearance be unattractive, but the position of the tom-toms would be off, making it inconvenient to play.

Typically, a double bass drum would have separate stands for the tom-toms or one stand for each bass drum. Cheng Xiaoyu carefully examined the setup and found that fortunately, Chen Haoran's two tom-toms were on separate stands, not a single stand. He quickly asked Chen Haoran to get tools to remove one of the tom-toms.

After a lot of work, they removed one tom-tom and mounted it on the new bass drum. Fortunately, Chen Haoran had bought the same brand of bass drum, so it worked. The drum set, now with a double bass drum, looked much more impressive. It felt like a two-wheeled electric scooter had been upgraded to a four-wheeled sports car. Chen Haoran's eyes sparkled, and he asked Cheng Xiaoyu to demonstrate.

Cheng Xiaoyu tried it out and found that his coordination was far from sufficient, as he hadn't practiced for a long time. He could only use tricks to win Chen Haoran's approval with a regular jazz drum set, and the double bass drum was even harder to handle. He勉强打了几下，陈浩然没有看出双底鼓有什么效果，但他也没有丧气，因为他自己也看出来程晓羽打鼓还是颇有章法并没有乱来。

程晓羽也没有表演砸了的尴尬，下来道“不行，我这太久没玩过了，得练练才行。不过练习的谱子我还是记得，我先跟你画出来。”

陈浩然点头，程晓羽从书包里拿出纸笔，画了几个简单的练习谱给陈浩然。然后又指点道“大多数人会认为脚比手难练，其实本质原因是下肢的演奏涉及到了两个方面：重心问题和与上肢的协调关系。下肢的时值不准，速度不稳，往往是因为重心不稳或者是下肢和上肢分开练没有协调。使用双底鼓时注意右手的节奏不能乱，为此必须要保持双底鼓的平衡和均匀，左脚（或右脚）太重的话肯定会打乱双脚的平衡。所以可以按照右手、右脚、左脚的顺序，用循环连打的练习来提高双脚的平衡。”陈浩然点头，拿到谱子，也不管其他人，自己就开始坐在架子鼓上琢磨起来。

黄勇端了几杯饮料下来，放在茶几上，程晓羽拿起一杯喝了几口，王鸥就吵着要程晓羽看看他的练习成果。夏纱沫和程晓羽饶有兴致的看王鸥抱起吉他，先弹了一遍哆来咪发唆啦西，然后弹了一首《两只老虎》也算是比较流畅。

程晓羽站在王鸥身边，开始指点起来，从右手的摆放说起，那几个手指控那几个弦，都一一跟王鸥做了详细的讲解，旁边的夏纱沫也边听边思考。程晓羽看夏纱沫一眼道“有兴趣？”

夏纱沫笑着点头，宛如百花齐放说“跟古筝还是靠的上边的，都是弦类乐器，应该有些相通的地方。”

程晓羽道“吉他零基础的都能学，像你这样有基础的学起来更快，反正寒假没事，随便学着玩呗。”

夏纱沫点头道“好，看上去挺有意思的。”

程晓羽又在王鸥的要求下弹了遍《一天一天》，其他人从来没见过程晓羽弹吉他，程晓羽旋律一开始，陈浩然都不由自主的停下了练习，认真的听程晓羽演奏。

清澈中带着哀伤的旋律在并不宽敞的地下室盘旋，聆听者都一动不动的陷入了这样的优美弹奏，生怕一点点动作就会干扰到这样专注的程晓羽，打乱这无比完美的演出。

黄勇也是练吉他的当然明白其中的难度，对于本来在华夏就不流行的吉他演奏来说，这样的水准已经是大师了。

一曲完毕，四个人都鼓了掌。

程晓羽见时间不晚，约了明天下午在过来。

黄勇留程晓羽他们吃完饭，说老板陈景隆马上到。

程晓羽道“改天吧，今天考试有点累，早点回去休息，寒假打扰的时候还多，也不怕没有机会。”

黄勇见话也在理，便没有多留。

走的时候程晓羽叫王鸥明天记得背吉他过来，要不夏纱沫也想学的话，吉他就不够。

程晓羽寻思着在去傅惜月家的店里跟夏纱沫买把吉他还要跟乐团添置把电箱吉他，在就是他的录音室小基地即将完工，他还需要买架好点的钢琴。

傅惜月偶尔也会发短信给程晓羽问些学吉他方面的问题，但言语之间也没有太多的目的性。程晓羽对这样美丽又聪明的姑娘一向都是满怀怜惜的，只要接近的目的不是伤害，稍稍的利用并不是不可以接受。

翻页上AD开始

翻页上AD结束

---

After a few more strikes, Chen Haoran didn't see any significant effect from the double bass drum, but he wasn't discouraged. He could see that Cheng Xiaoyu's drumming was well-structured and not random.

Cheng Xiaoyu wasn't embarrassed by the failed performance and said, "No, I haven't played for too long, I need to practice. But I remember the practice sheets, I'll draw them out for you."

Chen Haoran nodded, and Cheng Xiaoyu took out paper and a pen from his backpack, drawing a few simple practice sheets for Chen Haoran. He then gave some pointers: "Most people think that playing with the feet is harder than with the hands, but the real issue is that playing with the lower body involves two aspects: balance and coordination with the upper body. If the timing and speed of the lower body are off, it's often due to poor balance or lack of coordination between the upper and lower body. When using a double bass drum, make sure the rhythm of your right hand doesn't get乱, so you must maintain the balance and evenness of the double bass drum. If your left foot (or right foot) is too heavy, it will disrupt the balance of both feet. So, you can practice in the order of right hand, right foot, left foot, using a continuous striking pattern to improve the balance of both feet." Chen Haoran nodded, took the sheets, and started practicing on the drum set without paying attention to the others.

Huang Yong brought down a few drinks and placed them on the coffee table. Cheng Xiaoyu took a sip, and Wang Ou eagerly asked Cheng Xiaoyu to check his practice results. Xia Shamo and Cheng Xiaoyu watched with interest as Wang Ou picked up the guitar and played a scale of do re mi fa sol la si, followed by a relatively smooth rendition of "Two Tigers."

Cheng Xiaoyu stood next to Wang Ou and began giving pointers, starting with the placement of the right hand, which fingers control which strings, and providing detailed explanations. Xia Shamo listened and thought about it as well. Cheng Xiaoyu glanced at Xia Shamo and asked, "Interested?"

Xia Shamo smiled and nodded, saying, "It's somewhat similar to the guzheng, both string instruments, so there should be some common ground."

Cheng Xiaoyu said, "Even beginners can learn the guitar, and with your background, you'll learn even faster. Since you have nothing to do during the winter break, you can just learn for fun."

Xia Shamo nodded and said, "Sure, it looks interesting."

At Wang Ou's request, Cheng Xiaoyu played "Day by Day." The others, who had never seen Cheng Xiaoyu play the guitar before, stopped their activities and listened intently as Cheng Xiaoyu began to play.

The clear and melancholic melody echoed in the not-so-spacious basement, and the listeners remained still, immersed in the beautiful performance, afraid that any movement would disturb the focused Cheng Xiaoyu and disrupt the perfect performance.

Huang Yong, who also played the guitar, understood the difficulty. For guitar playing, which was not very popular in China, this level of skill was already that of a master.

When the song ended, the four of them clapped.

Seeing that it wasn't too late, Cheng Xiaoyu made plans to come back the next afternoon.

Huang Yong invited Cheng Xiaoyu and the others to stay for dinner, saying that the boss, Chen Jingle, would be arriving soon.

Cheng Xiaoyu said, "Another day, I'm a bit tired from the exams today. I'll rest early. We'll have plenty of opportunities to visit during the winter break."

Huang Yong, seeing the logic in his words, did not insist.

As they left, Cheng Xiaoyu reminded Wang Ou to bring his guitar the next day, as there wouldn't be enough guitars if Xia Shamo wanted to learn as well.

Cheng Xiaoyu planned to buy a guitar from Xia Shamo at Fu Xiyue's store and add an electric-acoustic guitar to the band. Additionally, his recording studio was almost complete, and he needed to buy a better piano.

Fu Xiyue occasionally sent messages to Cheng Xiaoyu asking about guitar lessons, but her words didn't seem to have any hidden motives. Cheng Xiaoyu always felt a deep affection for such a beautiful and intelligent girl. As long as her intentions were not harmful, a little bit of utilization was acceptable.