99. The Round of Eight to Four

The next morning, Li An was practicing the piano when Director Dong told him that two children attending rehearsals wanted to have an extra lesson before today’s rehearsal.

He had anticipated that parents would proactively request lessons; this was an essential step in his plan, though he hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.

“How should we account for the lesson hours?” Li An asked, somewhat puzzled.

Director Dong, thinking Li An was worried about unpaid lesson hours, chuckled, “A lesson caught while sleeping is naturally credited to whoever gave it.”

Li An smiled along.

Seeing Li An had no objections, Director Dong contacted the two parents.

An hour later, the first parent arrived with their child.

“Where will the lesson take place?”

“It has to be in Classroom Four.”

The two children attending the morning lesson were Xu Mengjie and Marco.

Li An conducted targeted training based on the parts each child played.

After class, Li An spoke briefly with both parents.

It was clear that these parents were very eager about their children learning the piano.

They didn’t talk much more; Li An mainly discussed how the children should continue practicing at home and shared some of his own practice methods.

When leaving, Marco’s father took the initiative to add Li An on WeChat.

Among the parents of the eight children, Marco’s father was the first to make a move.

“See you this afternoon, Teacher Li.”

During the afternoon rehearsal, Li An publicly praised the two children who had taken the morning lesson.

Firstly, because they had indeed made significant progress compared to yesterday, and secondly, so the parents could hear.

Marco and Xu Mengjie’s parents were naturally pleased to hear their children being praised.

As for the other parents, this was their second rehearsal class as well, so why were only these children being praised?

Their children had practiced the piano last night and even sent videos of their practice to the group chat this morning on Director Dong’s advice.

True, but Li An had also reviewed every video and provided free guidance.

This kind of thing required the parents to reflect and work on it themselves.

During the rehearsal break, as Li An was about to leave the office to get some water, he overheard Marco’s father chatting with another parent about the morning lesson.

The two parents seemed to know each other well.

This was a good sign for parent relations.

After rehearsal, Li An assigned practice tasks to each child for the day.

“We won’t have group rehearsals tomorrow and the day after.”

He explained the need for separate sectional guidance and then called out names: “Tomorrow afternoon, Chi Yu, Marco, Xu Mengjie, and Zheng Bowen, the four of you come over first.”

On the way back from Ji Yang’s house that evening, Li An was commenting on Marco’s practice video sent in the group chat when suddenly Huang Ruyi’s parent added him as a friend.

He accepted.

Huang Ruyi’s mother: “Hello, Teacher Li. How did my child do today? My husband and I don’t have time to bring her this afternoon.”

Li An understood—while children had holidays, parents did not. They were breadwinners; who could always find time to take their kids around?

He replied, “Hello, Mrs. Huang. Your child did quite well today, very obedient.”

Huang Ruyi’s mother: “She learns slowly, please bear with her. Also, I heard from my child that she can take extra lessons with you, right?”

Huang Ruyi and Xu Mengjie were classmates and played two parts on the same piano.

From what the mother said, it seemed the girls had whispered something in the afternoon, and Huang Ruyi had reported it to her mother.

Li An: “Yes.”

Huang Ruyi’s mother: “I’d like to add a few lessons before the performance. Are you available?”

Li An: “Yes, mornings before the show are fine.”

Huang Ruyi’s mother: “Then tomorrow morning at 9, her grandfather will bring her to you.”

Li An: “Okay, I’ll meet her at the elevator entrance. Please inform Director Dong as well; it’s our work protocol.”

Huang Ruyi’s mother: “Alright, thank you for your trouble.”

Li An: “No trouble at all, you’re welcome.”

After finishing comments on Marco’s video, Li An began reviewing Huang Ruyi’s.

Back home, he continued commenting until nearly ten o’clock, noticing two children had yet to send their videos to the group.

He jotted down their names: Chen Yutong and Zhang Tianlai.

The next morning at nine, he waited at the elevator entrance for Huang Ruyi and her grandfather.

“Good morning, Teacher Li,” the child greeted him proactively.

“Good morning, Ruyi,” Li An replied, smiling and nodding at the elder accompanying her.

Overall, Huang Ruyi was indeed slower than the two children from the day before; he had noticed this during recent rehearsals.

To speak bluntly, she was the weakest link in the small rehearsal group.

What should have been an hour-long lesson extended to an hour and a half.

Finally, they managed to overcome two difficult rhythmic sections.

After class, Li An messaged Huang Ruyi’s mother summarizing the lesson content as a record of learning since he didn’t yet have the growth files for Tian Yu’s three students.

After finishing Huang Ruyi’s lesson, Li An practiced the piano himself for a while.

At noon, when he returned to the office, besides Chen Xuan, three others were gathered together playing a game.

Is this really that much fun? Li An asked Ma Tao and Xu Hongxin, “How’s your program preparation going?”

Ma Tao and Xu Hongxin each had a student representative forming a brass duet.

Xu Hongxin: “My kid’s ready, right, Tao?”

Ma Tao was speechless. “Yeah, yeah, right.”

Indeed, Ma Tao’s representative was unreliable, not practicing at home, always slowing down rehearsal progress.

Wang Panpan asked Li An, “Senior Brother, you have lessons every morning these days?”

“They’re all Tian Yu’s students. I’m temporarily taking over for the performance,” Li An said, sipping water as he returned to his seat.

Chen Xuan twirled a pen in one hand, resting her cheek on the other, looking a bit troubled.

“What’s wrong, Sister Xuan?”

Chen Xuan didn’t smile. “I’m thinking about how to arrange this afternoon’s rehearsal.”

Li An smiled, “Already having problems before the third day? Tell me.”

“The three kids in the accompaniment section can never keep rhythm,” Chen Xuan said.

Li An suggested, “Pull them out for separate practice.”

It was frustrating otherwise. “Yesterday afternoon, half the time was spent correcting those three.”

“Hmm.”

Li An nodded. “Try again this afternoon and see how it goes.”

Chen Xuan sighed, hoping the afternoon would be smoother.

Honestly, she felt she might have overestimated how ideal the rehearsals would be.

In the afternoon, both began rehearsals simultaneously.

Since groups were already divided, Li An gave focused, advanced training on the four children’s parts.

Based on each part’s function, he explained nuances of key pressure and dynamics in depth.

During the progressive practice, the children realized they were improving little by little, eventually reaching the teacher’s standards.

Naturally, they were happy.

The rehearsal plan proceeded steadily, and Li An taught comfortably.

Two hours flew by.

After class, on Marco’s father’s recommendation, Zheng Bowen’s father also proactively asked to add lessons for his child.

Little Zheng was overjoyed hearing this.

They arranged Zheng Bowen’s lesson for tomorrow morning, and Marco’s father also wanted another lesson for Marco then.

Li An politely declined, “Marco is fine; no need for extra lessons tomorrow. Let’s wait a couple more days.”

Marco’s father nodded, “We’ll follow your arrangement, Teacher Li.”

It wasn’t that Li An didn’t want to add the lesson, but he already had lessons with his own two boys tomorrow morning.

Last night, Wang Xiaohu called Li An from her mother’s phone, saying, “Teacher, if you don’t let me take lessons soon, I’ll come find you myself.”

Of course, Xiaohu’s feelings needed attention.

Tomorrow was also a good time to settle Xiao Liu’s account.

That was that.

Within two days, four of the eight children attending rehearsals had proactively sought lessons from him.

From now on, he didn’t need to do anything else.

Seven days remained until the performance.

He was curious to see which parent would speak up last.