Chapter 34: Tōdō Shinjin

  Japan has been a region radiating Chinese culture since ancient times, and many customs have continued from China. For example, the Spring Festival. In Japan, the Spring Festival is also a very large national holiday. The Spring Festival in China is calculated according to the lunar calendar, while the Spring Festival in Japan is calculated according to the new calendar, that is, New Year's Day, which is actually the Spring Festival in Japan.

  Li Qiu has lived here for a year and a half, this is his second Spring Festival spent here, of course, with the two elderly people, as well as the twins sons of the two elderly people, the elder son Fujiki Makoto, the younger son Fujiki Naoto.

  Today is New Year's Eve, December 31st, the last day of the year four. In the morning, Li Qiu was hanging grass lanterns on the door and decorating the windows with door pines (the decorations include ordinary bamboo leaves, pine branches, oranges, straw ropes, lobsters, etc., symbolizing the hope for happiness and longevity in the coming year, praying to live up to 100 years old, and keeping evil spirits away). Originally, this was the job of Teng Mu Sheng, but now that he is physically exhausted from overwork, while carefully instructing Li Qiu, his own body has also declined. When Li Qiu goes out for training, he no longer follows him, and other instructions can only be given at home...

  Next to him, Tōmoki Makoto was seriously looking at the child who had been living with them for a year and a half and was regarded as their grandson by his parents. A year and a half ago, his mother's phone call made him study an extremely obscure topic - abnormal psychological changes! It was all for this child, and even now, he had only touched on the edge of the subject, according to the schedule, there were still six months left, and at that time, he should be able to fully enter the final threshold and conduct physical experiments. Of course, the object would be this child, Li Qiu...

  "Uncle Shinichi, take a look at this door, isn't it crooked?" Shinichi Fujiki and Naoto Fujiki rarely came back home. It wasn't that they didn't want to come back, but compared to the hustle and bustle, Katsuji Fujiki and Mirei Yamaguchi preferred peace and quiet. So as their sons, they only returned on important holidays to accompany the elderly couple.

  "Ah, all right, won't be crooked."

  "Has Uncle Naoto not come back yet?" Li Qiu preferred the gentle and quiet uncle, Fujiki Naoto, over his brother Fujiki Masato. Although Masato was already married, Naoto remained single. At night, Masato and his wife and child occupied Li Qiu's room; Naoto and Li Qiu slept on futons in the living room. The advantage of Japan's tatami mats is that they can be laid out anywhere, making it easy to sleep wherever you like. Perhaps because they slept together on the same futon, they had more conversations at night and became closer...

  "He said he was hosting...” Before Togeki Makoto could finish his sentence, a Toyota car stopped outside the gate of the house. It was Togeki Makoto's own car, which had just returned from Kurashiki City.

  "Hey, I said I just arrived at the door, how come I sneezed? It turns out that both Big Brother and Little Qiu were thinking of me!"

  Because they are fraternal twins, Fujiki Shinichi and Fujiki Naoto do not resemble each other in appearance. Fujiki Shinichi is relatively more outgoing, with a personality that is open and unrestrained; Fujiki Naoto is quieter, gentle and refined, humble and prudent, slightly introverted. The two brothers are at opposite extremes, but their relationship is very good, although they often fought when they were young...

  "Uncle Naoto." Li Qiu really liked Fujiki Naoto, probably because they had similar personalities. Fujiki Naoto was also very cold on the outside but warm on the inside, never stingy with his enthusiasm. Every time he came back for an important holiday, Fujiki Naoto would tell him many interesting stories. Although they didn't spend a lot of time together, Li Qiu gradually picked up his personality traits. Fujiki Naoto was just that kind of person, someone who easily infected others...

  "Xiao Qiu has grown up again! He's almost 16 years old! It's really fast......" Tōmoki Naoto also liked Li Qiu, and when he saw him, it seemed like he was seeing his own childhood self - introverted and cold, but once they got familiar, he found that this kind of person is actually easier to get along with, just like himself!

  "Compared to Naoto, it's a big difference..." Fujiwara Naoto is 180cm tall, standing next to Aki Li, who only reaches his shoulder. "I'm 16, just four months short, that's two years, sis, wait for me, soon..."

  "Wow! Uncle Naoto was only 170cm tall when he was 16 years old, if you're taller than me now, wouldn't that mean you'd have to be over 2 meters?! You'll have to be careful finding a girlfriend later on. By the way, is BoA your girlfriend? I saw you two together last time and it looked like so much fun!" Naoto Fujiwara said with a laugh, patting Li Qiu's shoulder. This year during Mid-Autumn Festival, Naoto Fujiwara came back and met BoA once, at that time BoA was in Tokyo and didn't have time to return to Korea, for some reason she ended up here, accompanying them as they celebrated Mid-Autumn together.

  "That's right, good sister is so nice, how could she be my girlfriend? I don't have a girlfriend...". Girlfriend? This phrase is really interesting, female friend, companion, which one is the real meaning? By the way, I'm still four and a half months away from turning 16, so young. Although in Korea and Japan, there are quite a few people who start dating at this age..."

  "Ah, just like Uncle, I wasn't very popular with girls when I was young either. It wasn't until high school that I confessed and had my first love." Tonomura Naoto pulled the corner of his mouth, patted Li Qiu's back of the head, and complained in a sympathetic tone.

  "I know, Uncle Naoto said last time, that girl is already married!"

  "Hmm."

  After dinner, in the study room, only Yamaguchi Mireiko and Fujiki Makoto were inside, while everyone else was in the living room watching the Red and White Song Battle.

  "You've worked hard, haven't you?"

  "No, Mother, it's just that progress is very slow."

  "It doesn't matter about the progress, there's still time..." As she said this, Yamaguchi Mireiko let out a heavy sigh and disturbed the thin mist rising from the tea on the table.

  "Mother, I've already sped up the process. I've been researching from inside out. Just wait another half year, no, five months!"

  "No need to rush, no need to rush, there's still time, Xia Qiu is still young, let him live here and cultivate his character, it's not bad at all, at least, that kind of situation won't happen..."

  "Mother, how's Father's body holding up? If it's really not possible, let Naoto bring him." Fujiwara Makoto, although a psychologist, still saw that his father's body was gradually declining.

  "Your father's temper, don't you know? He usually looks very optimistic and takes things lightly, but once he insists on something, can we change it? Hope is in sight, just about to succeed, will he let go?" Yamaguchi Mireiko, who had been taking care of Fujiki Seijin's daily life all along, had already seen through this, but what could she say?

  "Alas, it's just that neither I nor Naoto have this talent, and can't share the family responsibilities with Father."

  After the New Year, Li Qiu's training started again...

  Tongu's training is still ongoing. After Li Qiu accidentally found the "Angel's Voice" last time, he slowly found a very normal voice, no longer the sharp and thin voice of his usual self, but a very normal one, so normal that it was dull, and being dull was a blessing, and Li Qiu was already very satisfied with being able to make his voice sound dull. As for the "Angel's Voice", Li Qiu still sneered at it, although Tongu had been persuading him to use this voice to sing songs...

  The legendary vocal mimicry, after mastering the control of his voice, Li Qiu finally came into contact with the application of his tongue, which is really strange; and other weird singing methods, such as nasal cavity resonance, etc. Most importantly, after changing his voice, Li Qiu must use a lot of breath to control the vibration of his vocal cords, which also requires him to learn a kind of singing technique that has been passed down for hundreds of years in the Tengmu family - a type of singing technique that has never been heard of before, called "Dumb Cavity" (in fact, it seems that there is no such singing technique).

  Diaphragm, by accumulating a large amount of breath in the lungs, and then using the full air pipe to vibrate the vocal cords, mainly vibrating the throat and lung cavity, and secondarily vibrating the head cavity and other small cavities. A very unique singing method, which is still mainly a gas-controlled throat singing method, flowing between bel canto and popular music. It just so happens that this singing method can perfectly amplify Li Qiu's "angelic voice" indefinitely, but Li Qiu is unwilling to use this voice to sing songs, although she also practices it in her daily life, most of the time using another flat voice to sing songs.

  Li Qiu practiced his lung capacity for two years, and it finally came in handy. At the same time, Li Qiu also understood why Teng Mu Sheng didn't let him dance at first - this singing style is actually an application of breath control, and under unstable breathing during dancing, it's really difficult to maintain this singing style, should say it's impossible. After learning that he couldn't sing and dance at the same time, Li Qiu couldn't imagine how hard his future stage performances would be (Korean heavy metal music, the best interpretation of stage performance is also dancing)

  It's strange that when singing in a cappella, "Angel's Language" can be applied to any vocal technique, such as dolphin sound, overtone, falsetto and those enchanting vibrato, but when sung with a plain voice, it just can't be done, which makes Li Qiu very frustrated...

  On the other hand, when Li Qiu was nervous about her voice and stage, Yamaguchi Mirei's training began. Her training had only one method: sensory deprivation, also known as a small black room or a wine cellar. The darkroom reflection continuously tempered people's psychological endurance. What kind of pressure is greater than being in a silent and dark room?

  "Kokoro, because I've already decided to train you as an artist, so I won't teach you how to be a qualified producer. However, whether it's a producer or an artist, in this big melting pot of the entertainment industry, first and foremost, you need to have a very strong heart. My training for you is about your endurance. A person who wants to stand at the top and not fall must learn to endure everything. The first thing I teach all my students is to make them learn how to endure pressure from all kinds of sources..." This was what Yamaguchi Mirei said at the beginning of her training.

  Yamaguchi Mireiko's current course has slowly extended to psychological counseling, and Li Qiu has talked to her about phobias. In the past year and a half, combined with Li Qiu's previous situation, Yamaguchi Mireiko has also been continuously studying, but the timing is still not enough, it seems that there is still another method, as for what method, she doesn't understand now, now she wants to wait, wait for the research results of her more professional son - Fujimori Makoto.