The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 269

Chapter 269: 154 Chickenpox (First Revision)

Early in the morning, Gu Jiao headed to the Medical Hall.

There were a few patients in the morning, but business was slow in the afternoon, so Gu Jiao took a break in her small courtyard.

Separated from her by only a single wall was the small garden of the girls’ school.

In the garden, there was a pavilion.

Normally, no one came here, but at this moment a girl was there, plucking on an instrument.

Her playing was less than satisfactory, erratic, to say the least, and the notes were wrong.

Gu Jiao lay on a wicker chair to rest and regenerate, only to be tormented by the life-draining music of the girl.

She swung open the door and walked out, looking in the direction of the courtyard wall and said, “You’re playing it wrong.”

The girl was understandably startled, not expecting anyone to hear her plucking the guqin, her fingers slipped, releasing another grating note.

Gu Jiao felt her hair stand on end!

“Who’s there?” the girl questioned.

She looked around but found no one nearby.

“Your music is out of tune.” Gu Jiao replied.

The girl finally understood; the person speaking was beyond the courtyard walls.

She paused for a moment, questioning, “Out of tune? But I just bought this guqin.”

The quality of this guqin wasn’t very high. A typical, well-off young lady might not purchase such a low-quality instrument, this made Gu Jiao assume that the girl’s status wasn’t high, why else would she be hiding in the corner to practice?

“Bring it here.” Gu Jiao demanded.

“How…how do I bring it?” the puzzled girl asked.

Gu Jiao glanced at the over-a-person-high courtyard wall, suppressing the impulse to climb over and potentially scare the girl to death. She asked calmly, “Can you find the tuning peg?”

After a while, there was a response from the other side: “I found it.”

Gu Jiao instructed, “I’ll direct, and you tune it. The third string–”

“Huh?” It was evident that the girl was a novice.

Originally, the guqin had only had five strings. Later, one string was added by King Wen, and another by King Wu, converting it into a seven-string instrument, also known as the seven-stringed guqin.

Each of its seven strings had a unique name: Palace, Shang, Angle, Zhi, Feather, Wen, and Wu.

Gu Jiao directed, “The third string, the angle string.”

“Oh, oh!” The girl reached up and plucked the guqin lightly.

Gu Jiao informed her, “The pitch is too high, loosen the tuning peg a bit.”