Chapter Text
Yuezheng Ping believed herself to be a mature and collected woman, though perhaps just today she can accept her friends’ judgment that she is a little out of sorts.
The three of them sat at one of the tables in the courtyard, Liuyun’s engineering textbooks and Zhongli’s history notes scattered about the surface, leaving a small space for the upper half of Ping’s body where she lay slumped in misery.
“Really, Liuyun? You’re sure you can’t help me?” she asked desperately. It was the third time this half hour, and the other woman didn’t seem any more convinced.
Liuyun sighed as she put down her textbook and pinched the bridge of her nose.
“I told you, Ping, I know absolutely nothing about instruments. Isn’t the point of this project to meet new people anyway?” She flicked a strand of hair back and scowled. “Besides, I have far too much work of my own to worry about. Stop dragging your feet and get on with it.”
Ping sat up and clutched her head with a dramatic moan.
“I’ve tried! Archons know I’ve tried! I’ve talked to illustrators and film majors, mathematicians and architects, astronomers and fashion students– none of them can keep up! It’s no use, I’m going to fail.” She sighs defeatedly.
“I know half of the people on this campus but either they don’t understand a word I’m saying or I wouldn’t be able to work with them anyhow.”.
“You’re reaching awfully far, aren’t you?” The scratches of Zhongli’s pen stopped as he finally looked up with a curious glint in his eye.
“You were assigned to compose a multi-discipline musical experience, yes? Someone in fashion design may be able to create a wardrobe for an orchestra or a fashion line to walk to your music, but your perfectionism will have you accommodating them instead of working together,” he said carefully.
Ping furrowed her brows. “Well, yes, but I don’t see how pointing that out is helping my problem.”
“Stop looking for someone for their differences and start looking for someone who speaks your language.” He waves a hand at the rest of the courtyard, full of students. Many studying just like them, others eating, talking, or even dancing as they take their break.
“Look at all of them, many who have only met today being drawn in by their shared activities. Perhaps all you need to do is leave out some bait.”
Ping looked over the field and let her eyes drift to sources of music and laughter, songs being played over speakers, roping in more and more dancers from all different fields as evident by their rhythm.
One of the majoring students, Yun Jin, if she recalled correctly, caught the hand of a taller white haired girl and pulled her close into the melody. Inexperienced and unsuspecting, she stumbled, but the performer smiled all the same and showed her a simple step sequence the others followed clumsily.
She ghosted a hand over the case of her guzheng.
“Bait…” she whispered. “I see, Zhongli. Thank you for your insight.”
She stood without a moment’s hesitation and slung the case over her back, uncaring of the way it whipped the papers off the table.
“I’ll be off then! Good luck with your work!”
Liuyun and Zhongli spluttered, but she was already well on her way to the field by the time they stood to gather their things, although that didn’t keep Liuyun from yelling after her and waving a fist in the air.
“Damn you, Ping! Eooough you’re gonna owe me for that!”
- - -
Contrary to her abrupt departure, Ping did not immediately join the fray, rather she ran through the greenspace until she met stone stairs which he took two at a time until she reached the terrace.
Here was a much quieter spot, less populated because of the distance from the cafes and the lack of grass or wooden chairs to sit on. Everything up here was stone, save for the ornamental ponds and landscaping which no student would dare to touch, save for that peculiar transfer that seems to have a habit of trying to play with the fish.
No matter, it was just her today. No foreigner and his cat toys, knee-deep among the waters. It was just her and her guzheng sitting tall at the near peak of the campus. A perfect place to let her song wash over the student body.
She sat on a stone bench facing the railing and pulled out her guzheng, taking a moment to caress the carvings of the wood and center her thoughts.
It had become a ritual of sorts, to remind her of the history behind her music. Years of practice, learning the instrument inside and out, enough to carve a body with her own hands as the perfect vessel to deliver her songs.
A body, yes, one that mirrors her own and becomes the house of her soul.
Without thinking she began to pluck and strum, losing herself to an old but familiar melody. “The Moon Represents My Heart,” she played, a gentle and yearning song that always relaxed the tension in her shoulders.
It was perhaps an odd choice for what Zhongli was thinking– not quite the song to draw in a dancer– but Ping didn’t need that. All she needed was someone who could understand and answer back.
As the song ended, Ping began to improvise, letting her heart lead her into something more jaunty and spirited. The playing was a dance in its own right with how her arms rolled and body swayed with the movement.
She was so consumed in the melody she failed to notice the woman beside her until she swayed too far as she reached across the instrument, bumping their arms together.
The stranger startled as the music stopped, and yet she didn’t jerk back. Her eyes fluttered open to reveal gray irises, deep and searching as their gazes met.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Ping’s breath caught in her throat. She was looking for a project partner, sure, but not a–
She banished the thought, moving her hands away from the strings and simply holding the guzheng to her lap.
“It’s quite alright. I was actually hoping for some interruption, in a way.”
Guizhong smiled knowingly and tilted her head. “Is that so? Say, you wouldn’t happen to be a music student, would you? A friend of mine told me about a project some of them are doing where they need to collaborate with people outside their major.”
Ping nearly startled. Surely it can’t be this easy? She thought to herself.
“Yes, I’m getting my masters in music performance– Sorry, I don’t think I ever introduced myself. My name is Yuezheng Ping,” she said, bowing slightly over her guzheng. “I’m a first year student.”
The woman clapped her hands excitedly as she stood. “Ah that’s perfect! My name is Jian Guizhong, but please, call me Guizhong, everyone does.”
Guizhong did a quick bow before she quickly invaded Ping’s space and grabbed both of her hands.
“I’m in my second year of mechanical engineering and I’ve been trying to figure out my next project! Weapons and farming tools are useful, sure, but I’ve spent so much time on projects that feed the body that I found myself asking; what about the soul? What better way to feed people’s spirits than through art?”
Ping felt breathless as Guizhong rambled on. She was passionate, that’s for sure, and definitely eccentric. Perhaps it was just what she needed.
“Feeding the body and soul, hm? You sound like you’re trying to build a civilization from the ground up.”
Guizhong laughed as she released her hands and shrugged. “Maybe not to build one, but to keep things going, definitely. The village I’m from doesn’t have access to all the exports we get in the city. We farm, we hunt, and we sing the songs we’ve sung for years, and that’s that,” she sighed, eyes lost over the harbor.
Ping hesitated at her strange tone, wistful, but almost amused, as if she were looking back at her ignorance and laughing at the fool she once was.
“Does no one ever come and bring anything back?” she asked carefully, watching Guizhong openly even as she looked away from her.
“Why don’t we make something new first and then find out, hm?” she asked with a hollow sort of mischief, her lips remaining in a straight line.
It wasn’t until she turned back to face her and held out her phone that her lips curled into a smile.
“What do you say? Dinner tomorrow at eight?”
“Why, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you’re asking me on a date!” Ping teased, but still, she took the phone and entered her number with a smile.
Once she was finished, Guizhong took back the phone and tapped in some things she couldn’t see before pocketing it with a self satisfied smirk.
“Maybe next time, Yuezheng! I’ll text you the details tonight.”
With that, Guizhong departed, leaving Ping alone with only the company of her guzheng as her mind stuttered.
Ah… I never got to ask if she could read sheet music…