Girls' Wishing Tree

Gao Mu first ruled out A. If he was cheated out of money for his entire life, that would be too miserable.

Between B and C, Gao Mu hesitated for a moment.

If you choose B, it seems that Goto Ichiri's financial situation is not very good and he needs to work as a support musician. For a band, poor financial situation means that it will not be very popular to a large extent.

As for being captured by the bassist's gravity, she had no idea what it meant.

Could it be that the band's bassist is a black hole?

Or will she meet a bassist who is 1.6 meters tall and weighs 160 kilograms, and whose name is pronounced "bassist" and written as "tank" and who likes to grab her for no reason?

Gao Mu, who was a little undecided, finally chose "C".

The reason is that Goto Ichiri's personality is not suitable for being a support musician.

There are only two types of personalities that are suitable for being a support musician. One is like a little sun, who can quickly fit in any band; the other is like a precise playing machine, who is serious and does the job for money and leaves after playing.

Goto Ichiri's personality is obviously neither the former nor the latter.

So for the sake of Goto Ichiri's mental health, let her be "captured by gravity" by the bassist.

After making the choice, Gao Mu continued to talk to Goto Ichiri: "Well, welcome to the shrine next time. I have already explained to the gods that as long as you stop peeling the bark, you will not be blamed."

Goto Ichiri has completely returned to normal: "Thank you Sakura!"

Gao Mu's fingers began to move on the strings. "Hey, then show me how to play the guitar. I want to be as good a guitarist as Yili, and then go to LiveHouse and give everyone a show that will amaze everyone!"

"I'm not that good. My fans replied to me online, saying there's a shrine maiden who plays guitar really, really well. You're also a shrine maiden, so maybe you know her?"

Gao Mu was stunned for a moment. She didn't expect that even the introverted Goto Ichiri had heard about this. If Goto Ichiri saw the video, he would definitely not be willing to teach her guitar.

So she chose to cover it up: "Haha, if there really is such a powerful shrine maiden, it should be a guest appearance by a band member. At least I don't know of any shrine maiden in Tokyo who is particularly good at playing the guitar. Sometimes things are spread around on the Internet and the original situation will be a little different. For example, the incident started with Mr. Tanaka falling and accidentally running over a stray dog ​​and getting bitten. After it was spread online for a while, it might become that Mr. Tanaka found that the stray dog ​​looked like his nemesis, fought a big battle with the stray dog, and returned empty-handed——"

Gao Mu realized that he had said too much and ended the topic with one sentence: "In short, don't believe everything you see on the Internet."

Chapter 32: Dryad, Live and Music Girl: 32, Realistic Thousand Saints

A few days passed, and Gao Mu's condition had recovered somewhat. At least now she had regained the feeling of practicing two instruments every day.

Every day, Maruyama Aya and Wakamiya Eve would tell her about the training and performance preparations on their phones, and sometimes they would even send her a video of the training room.

This really excited Gao Mu's heart - she wanted to become a big tree demon as soon as possible and walk out of the shrine to take a look.

She had never been to Tokyo in her previous life, and the world outside the torii gate was very new to her.

Because a sign prohibiting visitors was hung, no strangers entered the shrine during this period, but an accident occurred today.

A girl with long light blue hair in twin ponytails walked into the shrine. Her sideburns and bangs were a little messy, her eyes were red and bloodshot, and it was obvious that she had just cried.

Because there was a dialog box next to her head, Gao Mu didn't chase her away directly, but just reminded her: "The shrine is temporarily closed."

"Please." The girl stood in front of Gao Mu, keeping a distance of about two meters from her.

This distance seemed to be the safety line she set for herself.

He's a very alert child.

"Is there a reason why you must pay homage?" Gao Mu asked.

Sometimes, visiting a shrine is a necessity. For example, if you want to pray for good business, you can visit a shrine dedicated to Ebisu.

But the shrine where Gao Mu is located was dedicated to the Inari God in ancient times. Now it is dedicated to both the Inari God and cherry blossoms. The external statement is that one can pray for a good harvest, good luck and good relationship.

No matter which one it is, there is no need to rush over here in such a hurry.

The girl clenched her fists. "In the Moon Forest, it's said that this shrine has magical powers. So, please, let my mother come back to life!"

Gao Mu slapped his forehead and said, "Uh... do you know why this shrine has temporarily suspended operations?"

The girl was confused about the question Gao Mu asked and shook her head slightly in confusion.

"The previous priest of the shrine passed away. To express my condolences to him, I have temporarily closed the shrine." Gao Mu's words were a roundabout answer to the girl.

If even the person in charge of the shrine dies, there is no way to resurrect others through the shrine?

The last bit of color in the girl's eyes disappeared, and she suddenly knelt on the ground, like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut.

There are many words of persuasion that can be said.

It can be said that time will heal all wounds, that young people should look forward, or that the dead are gone and the living should be strong.

But you still have to mend your own broken heart.

Gao Mu stood beside her, keeping a distance of two meters, and did not say anything to persuade her.

Half an hour later.

Although no one can stand taller than a tree, Gao Mu is still prepared to help the girl.

In this case, using a dialog box to speak is appropriate.

"Little girl, cheer up. Your knees will hurt if you kneel for too long."

The blue-haired girl didn't try to find the source of the sound like the others did. Instead, she stood up and bowed politely to Gao Mu. "Thank you for your ventriloquism. I'm fine now. I'll be back soon. Sorry to bother you."

"Are you okay?" Gao Mu didn't expect that the girl ran over and said she wanted to resurrect her family, but after a while she mistook the voice she heard for her own ventriloquism.

"Thank you." The girl did not answer directly, but thanked him again and walked out of the shrine with elegant steps.

If he could walk out of the shrine, Gao Mu would definitely follow her out to see how she was doing, but now he could only stand by the torii gate and watch the girl leave step by step.

It was impossible for her to adjust her mentality in such a short time. Gao Mu was more inclined to believe that she had added a layer of "shell" to herself.

Gao Mu sighed and picked up his phone. There were already several unread messages.

Eve Wakamiya: [Aya insisted on selling the tickets herself, but we still only sold a few today.]

Wakamiya Eve: [It seems that Xiaocai is searching for information about PasPale online again. I checked it out, and it seems that the reputation hasn't reversed.]

Maruyama Aya: [Not many tickets have been sold, but we will do our best to grab even one visitor.]

[Maruyama Aya has retracted a message.]

Maruyama Aya: [Sorry, I typed something incoherent, but I'm taking it back. We're ready.]

Bailu Qiansheng: [Xiaoying, if possible, please help persuade Xiaocai. Maybe you are the only one she can listen to now.]

Gao Mu roughly understood what was going on - judging from the message sent by Qian Sheng, she must have advised Cai on certain things, but the effect might not have been good.

After thinking for a while, she dialed Qiansheng's voice call.

"Hello? Qiansheng, you're not working now, are you?"

Qian Sheng's somewhat tired voice came from the other end of the phone: "Well, I'm home."

"I shouldn't have disturbed you, but I still want to ask you about Cai." Gao Mu paused before continuing, "You should have advised Cai about the performance, right?"

Qiansheng laughed awkwardly: "Haha, you really can't hide anything from me. I originally thought it was an internal matter of PasPale, so I didn't want to worry Xiaoying - this performance opportunity was not offered by the agency on its own initiative, but I fought for it through some connections."

"Xiao Cai told me that it's because of everyone's hard training that we have the new performance opportunity. Well... I know that it is of course inseparable from training, but there are many people who train hard, and opportunities are also very important." Gao Mu chose a more neutral attitude to guide the topic.

Qiansheng's voice continued to emanate from the receiver: "Xiao Cai believes that it was PasPale's extra training at the shrine that gave him the opportunity from the agency. I told her that the main reason PasPale got the performance was because I smoothed the way for him, and I also... said some pretty harsh words to Xiao Cai."

"what did you say?"

"I said Xiao Cai has been working hard since she was an idol trainee. If hard work pays off, then shouldn't she have gotten the chance to debut a long time ago?"

“It’s a bit realistic.”

"Yeah." Qiansheng didn't deny it, and then added, "But everyone felt encouraged by Xiaocai's words and actions, so Xiaocai should be fine now... It's just that they set up a tent at the theater entrance to sell tickets, but the results were not good."

"Do you want to persuade PasPale to give up? We made a promise. You promised me that you would practice bass well and prepare for PasPale's next performance." Gao Mu asked directly.

"No, that's not the case. I...during this period after the event, I followed your training and recordings every day. You can ask Eve about Cover Ying's bass, she helped me record every time." Qian Sheng paused for a moment and then said directly to Gao Mu: "Ying, you are not a member of PasPale, so you should be able to see more clearly, right? I'm afraid that Xiao Cai has invested too much in expectations. If these expectations are not met, it will be a huge blow to her."

Gao Mu, who had already understood the situation, exchanged a few words and hung up the phone.

Things are getting a bit tricky now. It seems that the tasks issued by the system are not so easy to accomplish.

Chapter 33: Dryad, Live and the Music Girl: 33, Expressing with Musical Notes

Gao Mu hid in the tree and sensed Gong Yuanxun playing the violin again.

Now Miyazono Xun is only awake for two hours a day. Excluding the time when she is truly asleep and awake, she can still have some form of communication with Gao Mu.

Xun certainly knew that Gao Mu’s violin practice progress these days was not very ideal, but she did not point it out.

There is no way to force the state of piano practice.

It's like this with all things artistic.

You can ask an installer to work overtime to become more proficient in installing computers, and ask a clerk to make a PPT for three people to shorten the time he spends making the PPT, but sometimes it is impossible to improve the proficiency of a musical instrument through hard practice.

Just like math.

If a hypothesis cannot be proved without a flash of inspiration, it will not be proven even if you work hard for ten years.

According to Miyazono Xun's own wishes, Gao Mu no longer calls her teacher, but the two of them call each other by their names.

"Xun, I want to ask you something." Gao Mu took the initiative to talk to Gong Yuan Xun, who had just finished playing a piece of music: "If someone's expectations cannot be met, how do you think it is best to comfort them?"

Gao Mu rarely talked to Xun about topics other than music, but today she really had no one else to talk to about this.

Today's blue-haired girl has already made Gao Mu see her expectations dashed, and she doesn't want to see Maruyama Aya in this situation.

"...I'm not good at comforting others." Miyazono Xun turned her head and met Gao Mu's eyes. Gao Mu's eyes didn't show anything wrong, just a normal tense look, while Xun's eyes had a penetrating power.

After a few seconds, Miyazono Kaoru continued, "But I know what despair feels like. Sakura, you know what? I had already written my suicide note before the operation. If it weren't for the help of God, I might have already fallen asleep somewhere. This situation can be considered hopeless. Or if we go back a little further, I... have never had a healthy body."

He was a bit long-winded and did not directly respond to Gao Mu's question, but Gao Mu chose to continue listening without interrupting Xun.

"I only appeared by Kousei's side as Friend A after I knew my time might be short." Miyazono Kaoru said this, her speech slowing down a bit. "Maybe the road ahead is eternal darkness, but I will move forward, because the faint starlight will also illuminate my way. I believe that if you have this kind of determination, any unfulfilled expectations will become greater motivation."

Gao Mu was silenced by these words.

There's nothing wrong with what Miyazono Kaoru said, but every time an expectation is dashed, it's a drain. After repeatedly losing the rickshaw he relied on for a living, Xiangzi finally lost all courage to face life.

After Qiansheng mentioned that hard work might not be that important, if there were no audiences for Maruyama Aya's performance this time, would...

Shatter her persistence and dreams?

Seeing that Gao Mu hadn't responded, Gong Yuanxun added: "If words are pale and powerless, why not express it with musical notes?"

Gao Mu's eyes lit up when he heard Xun's words.

Yes, those things that are hard to say, those things we want to convey, can't we just express them through music? We don't even need lyrics, just a passionate piece of music, maybe it can arouse people's fighting spirit.

Moreover, Cai is a person with musical talent, and she must be able to receive the information in the notes.

"Xun, if I want to encourage someone who has experienced failure to get up from where they fell, can you recommend a song for me?"

"If it were me, I would use 'Skylark.' This is a work by composer Dinicu. It has a bright melody, a strong sense of imagery, and is noisy but not annoying. It's very suitable for clearing the haze in people's hearts."

"Teach me." Gao Mu took out the violin.

Miyazono Kaoru didn't say anything, but started playing.

Her fingers slid rapidly across the E string, depicting for Gao Mu a scene of skylarks singing in the woods.

The clear and transparent tone of the E string supports the foundation of this piece and also forms a unique onomatopoeia that only a violin can produce.

But the difficulty can be imagined.

The song is not long, just over three minutes long, but if you want to imitate it, you will definitely have to put in more effort.

Using string instruments to create onomatopoeia is a common practice among many string instruments, especially folk music, but it requires a great deal of subtle control over the instrument.

It can be said that a slight mistake can lead to a huge error.

Gao Mu closed his eyes and tried to play a few bars.

It doesn't sound like that at all, not like the singing of larks, but rather like a cutting machine on an assembly line, cutting some metal with precise rhythm.

Can you master it in just a few days?

Gao Mu couldn't help but have doubts in his heart.

Xun's voice came over: "Sakura, if you want to persuade others, you must first show them your determination."

Gao Mu's hand holding the bow froze.

If I can practice it myself, can Cai really appreciate my efforts?

Could it be that I am moving myself?

But wasn’t what Cai did during her idol trainee period a form of self-admiration?

My fingers press on the strings, feeling the feedback from the tension, while my brain is working at high speed.