Zhu Yanli tilted her head, thinking for a moment. "I really like singing. I want to be a drama actress like Auntie when I grow up."
Zhu Yanyi tilted her head back, looking at her sister. "If you learn opera, you have to start young. You need to learn basics like bending over and doing the splits. You are ten years old now and haven't started. It’s probably too late."
Zhu Yanli blinked in surprise. "You have to start that young?" Her eyes widened, as if asking why no one had told her this.
"Yes," Zhu Yanyi nodded, keeping it simple. "Grandma told me. Grandpa trained Auntie from a little girl. That’s why she is so good now."
Zhu Yanli sighed. "I see." Then she said, "Then I will study hard and become a teacher. I want to be a music teacher."
This was exactly the kind of choice Zhu Yanli would make. In both her past life and this one, Zhu Yanli lacked patience. If she truly became a regular teacher, Zhu Yanyi knew her students would become lazy. It would be a bad thing for them. But hearing her sister want to be a music teacher, Zhu Yanyi thought it was possible. Her personality suited being a simple music teacher. Unless she taught at a special music school, regular schools, especially in the countryside, only had two or three music classes a week. She wouldn’t get bored easily.
"You need to study music hard," Zhu Yanyi said, acting like she knew everything. "To enter the music department of a normal university, you need a foundation. For example, you need to be able to hear what notes someone is playing just by listening."
"How do you know so much?" Zhu Yanli asked curiously.
Zhu Yanyi couldn’t say she had seen people take entrance exams in her past life. So she smiled and said, "I heard it from someone. Someone must have said it, but I forgot who."
"Oh." Zhu Yanli didn’t ask more. She was just a child and didn’t think too deeply. "Then how do I learn music?"
"Learn from Grandpa. Grandpa knows everything." In Zhu Yanyi’s mind, Xie Zhong really knew a lot. She was good at playing the guqin and the erhu. She might not know modern instruments like the accordion or piano, but music is connected. Even if she didn’t know modern music theory, she understood the basics.
"Okay. I will learn from Grandpa when I have time." Zhu Yanli nodded seriously.
"Yes. You can come learn from Grandpa on Saturday afternoons when you are off school," Zhu Yanyi suggested with a smile. Their school had one and a half days off each week: Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday.
"Uh-huh." Zhu Yanli thought Zhu Yanyi made sense. She nodded, planning to tell Zhu Shunyao as soon as she came out.
It was a few minutes to four when Zhu Shunyao’s family finished pounding all the rice cakes. Zhu Shunyao pulled the handcart. Zhu Yanli and Zhu Yanyi sat on the back of the cart. Zhu Shunyao pulled them all the way home. After putting the rice cakes away, Zhu Shunyao returned the cart to Lei Yao and came back to prepare dinner.
"Dad, I want to learn music from Grandpa." Zhu Yanli didn’t make excuses. She just said it directly.
Zhu Shunyao was slightly surprised. "Why do you want to learn music all of a sudden?"
Zhu Yanli said seriously, "I want to be a music teacher in the future. Ani said that to be a music teacher, I need to know some music first. So I want to learn from Grandpa."