The Body Swap Game - Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Playing the Gulda and a New Song
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Watching Xia Yu, the housekeeping chief felt as if the girl’s dainty figure became very imposing. Her black eyes also showed a terrifying red glint.
She backed up a few steps while panicking in her heart. As she tried to react, Xia Yu spoke again.
“If you don’t want to work here anymore, you can resign. The lady could not be replaced, but the maids can.”
Xia Yu fluttered his fingers on the keys, creating a crisp sound, making him seem more relaxed, in contrast to the housekeeping chief’s panic.
He continued, “I heard your daughter is in District 2? Maybe you can stay with her and have her take care of you. It’ll be a nice retirement for you.”
“No!” The housekeeping chief looked truly scared.
Seeing this reaction, Xia Yu smiled inwardly. He knew he had succeeded.
“Then, do your job. Don’t interfere with anything outside your job.” He moved his fingers again to play the Gulda piece.
The housekeeping chief started to sweat. She did have a daughter in District 2, but the girl was useless and not a good offspring. The girl wouldn’t be able to take care of her. If anything, she had to use the An family power and her housekeeping chief salary to solve all the problems her daughter had created growing up.
If her daughter didn’t get into so much trouble recently, she wouldn’t need to send the girl off to District 2.
If she lost this job, she’d have no chance for a good retirement, since all of her savings were with her daughter. If her daughter got into more trouble, she’d have no way to fix anything either.
She decided to not say anything about An Siyao to her father, even though she was planning to earlier.
Just like An Siyao had said, there was no replacement for the lady but plenty of maids to go around. If a lady and a maid had a conflict, it’d be easy to tell who would have to go.
The woman wiped off her sweat and glanced at Xia Yu. She started to walk out of the room.
When she reached the door, Xia Yu spoke to her, “Did I say you could go?”
The housekeeping chief drew back her hand and stood aside, looking sheepish. She waited for Xia Yu’s orders.
Xia Yu didn’t say anything else, he kept playing the piano.
After finishing a song, he ordered, “I want a glass of milk.”
“Right away!” The housekeeping chief relaxed and ran out of the room.
Xia Yu continued to play the piano.
“Is this it?” An Siyao’s voice came to Xia Yu’s mind.
“It’s important to control the pace and do it gradually. If it wasn’t gradual with the housekeeping chief, it’s okay too. She’s afraid of losing this job. If you threatened her with making your dad fire her, she’ll listen to you.”
Xia Yu reached a challenging part of the song, so he had to focus. Then, he continued, “But, direct threats weren’t stylish. They just gave you a scary reputation, a gradual and subtle threat would win you true respect.”
“Oh, ok.” The girl became silent.
Five minutes later, the housekeeping chief knocked on the door.
Xia Yu kept playing until he finished a song, then he said, “Enter.”
The housekeeping chief handed the heated milk to Xia Yu.
Xia Yu finished the milk in one gulp.
Seeing his crude way of drinking, the housekeeping chief was about to lecture Xia Yu. She realized why she shouldn’t at the last minute.
“Not bad.” Xia Yu praised the housekeeping chief when he gave back the glass.
Even though she wasn’t sure what Xia Yu was complimenting, the milk or her, the housekeeping chief grew calmer.
This was a key step. Humans couldn’t tolerate an environment with no sense of security, so Xia Yu needed to give the housekeeping chief some sort of promise: as long as she listened, she’d be safe.
Praise is equivalent to acknowledgment. Admission is equivalent to friendliness. Friendship is equivalent to safety.
“You can go.” Xia Yu wasn’t used to people staring at him.
“Yes.” The housekeeping chief left the room.
Stroking his chin, Xia Yu found this battle had worked better than he’d planned. If it wasn’t working, Xia Yu would have to use force and direct threats to make the housekeeping chief listen to him.
It’d be good to keep this change quiet. If anyone found out, it’d be messy.
If An Siyao’s usual meek personality was gone, who knows what that absent father of hers would do to fix his daughter?
Thanks to the Scaring skill, things were solved easily. It was so convenient defeating the other person with just a look.
Now that he’d dealt with the boss of the mansion, Xia Yu relaxed. His hands felt more at ease playing the piano.
After finishing the last note of part 3, Xia Yu felt his forehead.
This time, he made no mistakes, and the rhythm was perfect too.
“Congratulations, you’ve learned Gulda’s Play Piano Play.” An Siyao sent a compliment.
Had he really learned it?
He’d only been with An Siyao for less than four hours, but he had learned music which would normally take 16 hours?
He played the whole thing from start to finish, confirming that he had really learned the Gulda piece.
He recalled how his hands had felt more skilled, or he wouldn’t have been so efficient.
Why did his skills improve?
He didn’t think he was like a comic’s protagonist, growing skills after some flashback. He didn’t have any flashbacks anyway.
He opened the control panel.
[Drawing Lv 2, Music Lv 2, Flower-Arranging Lv 2]
All skills had grown to Lv 2.
What happened?
He must have triggered an attribute to make the skills grow. He had to think of what he just did to figure out the attribute.
After careful consideration, Xia Yu found three possible reasons.
He was more familiar with controlling An Siyao’s body.
He helped defeat the housekeeping chief.
An Siyao liked him more now.
He wasn’t sure which attribute worked, but he knew how they helped.
Thanks to Lv 2’s help, he had succeeded in learning the Gulda piece in less than two days.
“Do you want to learn new songs?” An Siyao asked.
“What do you recommend?” Xia Yu asked.
“‘The Blind Saint,’ ‘Lothric’s Tower,’ ‘Before Rosalia’s Bed’… they would all work.” An Siyao rattled off a list of songs Xia Yu had never heard of.
After a moment of silence, Xia Yu asked, “What’s a good song to play at coffeehouses?”
“Coffeehouses?” An Siyao was confused about the question.
She thought back to songs she’d heard as a kid in coffeehouses. She grimaced, “‘The Pope’s Dancer’ is a popular song for coffeehouses, but it’s a hard one to play.”
“How long would it take me?” Xia Yu asked.
“You can’t learn it right away. You need to prepare with some easier songs. With your old speed, it’d take at least a month.” An Siyao answered using her own pace as a reference.
“What about my current speed.” Xia Yu was talking about the speed at Lv 2.
“Maybe around 10 days,” An Siyao replied.
Ten days? Would the wanted ad at the coffeeshop still be there in 10 days? Although, as long as he had the skills, he could go work in other places too.
Some bars looked for pianists too.
Xia Yu nodded, happy with this conclusion.
He put his fingers on the keys. “C’mon, let’s do it. We’ll start with ‘Lothric’s Tower.’”
“OK. This song is pretty somber.” An Siyao briefly explained the song’s style and started teaching him.
Eight hours of game time would soon end.
After another five minutes, Xia Yu put down the piano’s lid and went toward the girl’s bedroom.
He sat on the bed and yawned, feeling intense fatigue.
In fact, he was feeling quite tired while playing the piano.
The exhaustion wasn’t from his body but the girl’s body.
“Did you…” Xia Yu stopped asking. He was using the girl’s body to practice piano until 2 a.m, and she had to go to school in the morning; of course she was sleep-deprived.
His body was deposited with the system and could rest, but he forgot the girl needed to sleep too.
