Chapter 137

By now, the piano room and the piano had both become Roschelle’s own.

Slowly, what Kieran saw started to blur. It turned into a scene from a few years ago, with Alarieka smiling brightly at sunset, holding his arm and whining to him, saying she wanted an expensive piano and a soundproof piano room.

“Alright, alright, Kier, I’m begging you…”

“I already begged you like this, just say yes to me, Kier…”

The illusion and the scene in front of him slowly blended together, and Roschelle smiled at him gently, “Kier, how did I play?”

Kieran relaxed a bit and said, “Good.”

Roschelle snorted, “Your subordinates all said it was hard to hear a nice word from you, but with me, you praised me every time.”

Kieran said, “It’s late, go back and get some rest.”

Roschelle pressed her lips together and shook her head, saying softly, “I’d better not rest yet, the Mcintosh Piano Competition was only two months away, I still have to practice.”

Kieran walked over, lowered his eyes, and the soft moonlight outside the window fell on his face, making him look even more gentle and handsome. His tone was gentle.

“It’s still okay to practice tomorrow.”

Roschelle hesitated for a moment, then laughed, her eyes crinkling, “Alright, since you insist, I won’t practice anymore, I’ll go to sleep now.”

Kieran turned sideways and held his palm out to Roschelle.

Roschelle paused for a second, then smiled even brighter. She reached out her hand, “Kier was so thoughtful, even knew to pull me along.”

Kieran reached out and pushed the door open: “Go back and get some rest.”

Roschelle nodded and waved at Kieran: “Bye.”

Kieran just said hmm, glanced at the piano room with calm eyes, then looked away.

On the other side, Alarieka and Jaylene finally got to Jaylene’s friend’s place after a two-hour drive.

When they got there, it was already dark. Jaylene’s friend was a straightforward girl named Cecilia Hampton. She was cheerful and outgoing. Even when she saw Alarieka, a stranger, she wasn’t shy at all and welcomed her in warmly.

Alarieka put the fruit and chicken she bought in the living room and said softly, “Sorry to bother you so late. We were going to book a hotel in town, but it looked like all the hotels were closed.”

Cecilia didn’t care about these things at all. She waved her hand and said, “It’s nothing. Those hotels didn’t just stop business, they shut down. They hadn’t had many guests for a long time, couldn’t make ends meet, so they all went out of business.”

“I still have a lot of rooms here, and I live alone, enough for both of you.”

Jaylene also said, “Yeah, no need to be polite with her, just treat it like we’re family.”

Alarieka smiled.

Cecilia lived in a regular country house, two stories, with a big yard in the middle and three trees in it. At night, the yard looked really dark.

Jaylene said, “Cecilia wasn’t a local. She had a PhD in agriculture. She came here to keep working on her school project and help local farmers grow crops better. She rented this house.”

Alarieka was a bit surprised: “A PhD in agriculture?”

Cecilia looked really young, like she was just in her early twenties.

Jaylene nodded, “Yeah, she skipped grades in middle and high school, went straight for a PhD, so she got her doctorate at twenty-four. Really impressive.”

There was a bit of admiration in Alarieka’s eyes when she looked at Cecilia.

As she spoke, Alarieka looked at Jaylene with a teasing glint in her eyes, “How did you get to know friends at this level?”

Jaylene’s face darkened, and she pretended to be angry, saying, “What? You look down on me? I already told you, I have friends all over the place.”

Alarieka laughed and said, “No, no, you’re awesome!”

Maybe only she knew how awesome Jaylene would become later, a big name in the tech world.

Alarieka suddenly had a lightbulb moment in her head.

In her last life, Jaylene only found out about her talent for computers after she went to vocational school, and she once sighed, "If I had found out earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted those years of my youth."

Alarieka’s eyes moved.

Maybe Jaylene could start learning about computers now.

Jaylene said, “We still have two days. Let’s rest tonight and look for the judges tomorrow.”

Alarieka nodded, “Okay.”

Early the next morning, Alarieka and Jaylene set out.

Before they left, Cecilia reminded them, “That teacher liked quiet. You guys really shouldn’t be noisy. You had to wait until she was free before you could go over.”

Alarieka said, “Okay, I got it, thank you.”