In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

"This flower is called a lily, but to distinguish it from many other flowers also called 'lily,' it should be called a mountain lily or a fragrant lily. It's edible and can also be used medicinally, hmm..." Louisa nudged Lu Mingfei's shoulder with her forehead, "Or perhaps it's some kind of spell card? Something that can be used for healing?"

"I don't think so." Lu Mingfei shook the card, channeling magic into it, causing the flowers to yield. "This seems... um..."

On the blank card, however, the face of Louisiana flashed.

"?"

Lu Mingfei expressed his surprise and then passed it to Louisa.

Once freed from the magic, the figure on the card vanished, and the Heavenly Lily returned to the center. Louisa controlled the magic that constituted her, gently channeling it within—

The image on the card showed Lu Mingfei's face.

Louisa blushed immediately.

"That's interesting... Does it represent the person the master of the magic imagines in their mind?" Lu Mingfei stroked his chin, making a guess. "If that's the case, if we have several cards in hand at the same time, can we use it to perform synchronization until we imagine the same thing, and then craft field cards?"

"In this way, we can provide better emotional support for the new field card holders..."

"I always felt it shouldn't have this function." Louisa's blush hadn't completely faded. She reached over Lu Mingfei from the side, leaned on his shoulder, and put the card back into the card holder next to Lu Mingfei. "Maybe you should ask someone else what this thing is supposed to do."

"...Never mind, let's wait until tomorrow."

Lu Mingfei exhaled his last breath and collapsed softly onto the bed. He didn't want to think about anything else now, only about what would happen tomorrow—his first day back on Earth.

……

Time always passes, but the streets remain peaceful.

The battles over financial reports in the virtual world may affect the lives of many people across the ocean, but for this small border town, after the sun rises, everyone is still living the same day over and over again.

Well, maybe this week will be different, because starting Wednesday, there will be a week-long National Day holiday.

But for Lu Mingfei, it didn't really make a difference, because the red-robed attendant didn't care whether there was a holiday or not; she would supervise his studies.

...but it was no longer a school course, but rather St. Marian's homework.

To meet Lu Mingfei's academic needs, the red-robed acolyte even made a copy of the textbook on Earth and kept it close to his body.

Although Lu Mingfei felt that even if this thing were released, probably no one would study it and would just regard it as notes left by some madmen—not even the local supernatural races would pay it any extra attention.

Lu Mingfei thought the week would pass peacefully without incident, but when he arrived at school the next day, he received some terrible news from Liu Miaomiao:

"You mean Shilan High School is going to put on some kind of 'National Day performance'?" Lu Mingfei frowned. "What does that have to do with us?"

"Each grade has to put on a show, and then judges score the shows at the end..." Liu Miaomiao said with a pitiful look on her face, "So my parents demanded that I get first place."

"But the level of the contestants in other grades is really high - for example, Chu Zihang, a senior in the second year of junior high school, is very good at using a Japanese katana and has even found his classmate to go on stage for an exhibition match."

"I want to get first place, and I can only ask you for help. Everyone else's level is just dragging me down; only you can help me..."

Lu Mingfei hesitated for a moment, then said, "Shouldn't you find someone to help you sooner rather than later? How many days are left?"

"There are still ten days after we come back from National Day." Liu Miaomiao pulled Lu Mingfei's hands and shook them playfully. "Oh, just consider it doing me a favor. Anyway, the actual performance only lasts for a short while..."

"Well... alright, you're going to play the piano, so should I get another instrument?" Lu Mingfei thought for a moment, "Or how about we practice some attention-grabbing techniques like four-hand duets?"

Liu Miaomiao blinked but didn't say anything.

She was indeed thinking of putting on a four-hand piano performance—the hall of Shilan Middle School had relatively advanced equipment for that era, such as a camera that could be installed on the piano.

The images on the piano keys can be projected onto a large screen, which is her clever little idea.

"I'll take a different instrument. Hmm, how about a violin?"

"I'll find you a piece and revise it into a concerto version for two... Don't give me that look, didn't you learn music theory when you were learning piano?"

Liu Miaomiao swallowed back the surprised exclamation that was on the tip of her tongue, "You can even change the melody," and nodded.

So that afternoon, Lu Mingfei simply took the day off and hid in the principal's office, where the red-robed monk served as a guide, intently studying the sheet music. Listening to the live recording of the musical version of *The Red and the Black*, a melody quickly caught his attention:

"La gloireà mes……"

After a moment's thought, Lu Mingfei shook his head and decided to try a different approach.

While these French musicals are indeed very enjoyable, the idea of ​​"telling a story through music" is not well-suited to this type of performance—after all, schools won't give a program half an hour or an hour for Lu Mingfei to explain the structure and lead the students to listen to the story hidden within the musical.

So, we could either change our approach and cut or shorten the story, or simply take only the climax—but that raises another question: does the climax fit the tone of this "party"?

...Okay, actually it's not really suitable.

After all, the protagonist of "The Red and the Black" is not actually a positive character. He is a scumbag who climbs to the top of society by sleeping with women—in a sense, he is a villain who cheats women out of money and sex.

Although some of the more explicit and violent content was removed after it was adapted into a musical, and the focus was mainly on love, hate, and revenge, with fewer storylines about climbing the social ladder, this didn't stop Lu Mingfei from feeling that it was somewhat out of place.

So Lu Mingfei changed the tune.

"Headlights, your Mustang witnessed as we're eye to eye. Tell me why, your lack of intuition burns me white..."

"Chinatown Blues," though a modern song, surprisingly captures the essence of early blues with its rhythmic, call-and-response feel. While its subject matter aligns well with the characteristics of a duet, and given the prevailing societal perception that foreign things are indeed superior to Chinese ones—

The fact that hearing the announcement "CHinatown Blue" might instantly earn the show extra points is quite telling.

"So, this piece might just be the best choice?"

Lu Mingfei tapped his fingers in rhythm as he pondered.