MTMIO Chapter 5

Chapter 5: And She Knows, Holding It Won’t Be

Lu You hesitated, “I do have time, but I might still have a cold then, and I’m afraid of passing it on to you.”

“It’s okay. I have a pretty good constitution.”

That wasn’t a lie; it was even a bit of an understatement.

Lu You remembered that when they were kids, she was the most fragile, getting sick every other day, followed by Tao Xin, who would catch a cold with every change of season. When Grandma first came to live in the city, she had her join Yue Yunxi for morning runs, but she was lazy and couldn’t get up.

A self-disciplined person doesn’t just have a good constitution, it’s exceptionally good.

Lu You: “Then… noon or evening?”

Yue Yunxi’s eyes flickered slightly: “Evening. During the day, I have rehearsals with the orchestra at the Grand Theater.”

Lu You casually asked, “Until what time does the rehearsal go?”

“Six o’clock,” Yue Yunxi said. “After five-thirty is the open rehearsal period. You can enter by swiping your ID card. If you’re interested, you can go listen.”

Lu You lowered her eyes, staring at the pinky ring on her left little finger, and pursed her lips.

Yue Yunxi clenched her umbrella tightly, as if clutching her own aching heart.

“You don’t have to give me an answer now. You can check the introduction on the Grand Theater’s official account first. If you’re interested, go. If you don’t want to go, that’s fine too. Just decide as you please.”

Lu You looked up, momentarily stunned.

Because in the end, the way Yue Yunxi looked at her as she raised her umbrella wasn’t with pity, but with a kind of forbearance and tenderness.

Most of the friends around her who knew about her broken finger would intentionally avoid topics related to piano and concerts when facing her, even more sensitive than she was.

It was probably their shared understanding – that for someone who had been learning piano since the age of four, playing until fourteen, praised by teachers for her talent, and winning countless awards, but had a broken little finger, these topics were too cruel.

But they forgot that she was now a piano tuner, and had never truly been willing to put down the piano.

Lu You smiled, “If I’m free then, I’ll go.”

A shimmer of light flickered in Yue Yunxi’s eyes, and she replied softly, “Okay.”

After saying goodbye to Lu You, Yue Yunxi walked out of the courtyard. When she turned towards home, she passed the mailbox and her eyes glanced at it before quickly looking away.

The ticket probably hasn’t been taken yet.

She could remind her.

Rainwater slid down the umbrella’s surface. She looked at the dark, gloomy sky and blinked lightly.

But she didn’t want to.

—

In the afternoon, the rain cleared and the clouds dispersed. Chen Feifei sent her a WeChat message saying that a light bulb in the bar was broken, and it was too expensive to hire someone to fix it, asking if she knew how.

Lu You thought that she might as well hand over the Jingjiang apartment key to Chen Feifei, so she said she would go take a look.

As soon as she entered the bar, Chen Feifei dragged her to the dim light.

The ladder had already been set up. Lu You sighed helplessly, grabbed a screwdriver from the toolbox, and climbed up the ladder.

“Can you fix it?” Chen Feifei asked from below.

Lu You looked carefully. There was no technical difficulty. “Yes.”

“I knew you could! Our Youyou is so awesome!” Chen Feifei stood under the ladder, counting on her fingers as she praised, “You can change light bulbs, unclog pipes, repair appliances, and lift grand piano actions—”

“Hand me the light bulb,” Lu You passed down the old light bulb, interrupting her. “What are you mumbling about down there?”

“Good grief, I showered you with compliments and you didn’t hear a single word!” Chen Feifei held up the new light bulb and caught the old one. “I said—”

Too lazy to say it again, Chen Feifei changed the subject. “I realized it back in freshman year, you’re a ‘three-haves’ student.”

Lu You: “What’s a ‘three-haves’ student?”

Chen Feifei explained, “You have perseverance, determination, and patience.”

Lu You coughed twice into her left hand held to her lips, “It all comes from learning piano as a child.”

Chen Feifei unconsciously looked at Lu You’s upturned little finger.

During the second semester of freshman year, the air conditioner in the dorm broke down, and they couldn’t get through to the official repair hotline no matter how hard they tried. They called the student affairs center, but they were perfunctorily told to wait patiently. As a result, no one came for two days.

Two roommates suggested that the four of them pool their money and hire a repairman.

Chen Feifei’s mother was hospitalized with cancer, and her family was struggling. She wished she could make a month’s living expenses last a year. She didn’t really want to spend the money, saying, “Let’s wait a little longer, maybe they’ll come tomorrow.”

The roommates waited another day with resentment.

The next day, no one came, and the student affairs center’s phone was still unreachable. The roommates came to collect the repair fee, and seeing that she didn’t want to pay, they said rudely, “Then we’ll pay to find someone to fix it. When the air conditioner is on, don’t stay in the dorm.”

Chen Feifei was immediately embarrassed and her face burned.

Then she heard Lu You’s gentle, smiling voice, “I feel like fixing an air conditioner looks pretty simple in the videos online, let me try it? If I break it, I’ll pay to buy a new one.”

She was a recognized rich girl in the class and didn’t lack the money, so the two roommates naturally had no objection and were even hoping she would break it.

Afterwards, Lu You climbed onto the bed and started dismantling the air conditioner.

Everyone else thought Lu You was doing it herself because she was interested, but Chen Feifei knew that Lu You was helping her out of a tight spot and got up to help.

She remembered that it was while unclogging the drainpipe that Lu You took off the pinky ring on her little finger.

That reddish-brown scar was so obvious and hideous in front of her.

Later, when Lu You learned about her family’s situation and lent her money to treat her mother’s illness, she asked very tactlessly what that scar was from.

Then she saw Lu You smile lightly and say nonchalantly, “It’s a scar left from reattaching a broken finger.”

She was shocked and asked how it broke.

Lu You turned the ring, not knowing what kind of mental construction she had done to be able to tell her in such a nonchalant tone, “It was crushed.”

It was when she was fourteen years old, crushed by the piano she loved most by her stepmother.

A hand that had practiced piano for ten years was ruined just like that.

At that time, Chen Feifei’s eyes turned red, and she couldn’t imagine how much pain Lu You must have been in.

How much pain her hand must have been in, and how much pain her heart must have been in to be forced to give up the piano.

Chen Feifei sighed heavily.

Lu You: “Why are you sighing?”

Chen Feifei turned her face away and blinked hard twice, “I was wondering if there’s anything you can’t do?”

“A lot.” Lu You knocked on the ladder, “For example, I can’t collect this.”

“…”

After she fixed the light and came down, Chen Feifei set up the ladder and walked towards the storage room, suddenly remembering to say, “Oh yeah, the resident singer told me yesterday that she’s not coming after this week.”

Lu You frowned, “Did she say why she’s not coming?”

“She said Tao Xin got a spot on a music variety show and is planning to give her some exposure,” Chen Feifei kicked open the half-closed storage room door.

Lu You raised her eyebrows knowingly, put down the toolbox in her hand, took out her phone and said, “I’m going to post a job ad.”

Chen Feifei leaned the ladder against the wall, rubbed her arms and asked, “How was the date yesterday~?”

After editing and posting the job introduction, Lu You asked without thinking, “What date?”

Chen Feifei: “Don’t tell me Tao Xin just dropped off the movie tickets and left.”

Lu You suddenly remembered the text message from Tao Xin’s friend.

And there was a concert ticket in the mailbox at the door.

Seeing her distracted expression, Chen Feifei waved her hand in front of her eyes, “Hey, spacing out here?”

Lu You came back to her senses, “I broke up with Tao Xin.”

Chen Feifei was shocked: “?! When did that happen?”

“The day before yesterday.”

“Why?”

Lu You omitted the fact that Tao Xin might have a crush on Yue Yunxi, and briefly told Chen Feifei about Chu Xiao.

“Damn! Isn’t that emotional cheating! Scumbag! Disgusting! Shameless!” Chen Feifei cursed indignantly, “No wonder you said you couldn’t feel the love at the beginning of the year, she just couldn’t spread the love around enough!”

Her throat tickled, Lu You turned her head and coughed violently, her face turning red.

“Don’t tell me you caught a cold because of her, it’s not worth it, don’t punish yourself for someone else’s mistakes.”

When they reached the bar, Chen Feifei poured a cup of hot water and handed it to her.

“I know.”

The mouth of the cup was steaming, scalding hot, and she couldn’t drink it yet. Lu You took out a throat lozenge and put it in her mouth, listlessly saying, “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay! Let’s talk about something else! Let’s not mention that gas-inducing stuff,” Chen Feifei pondered with a frown, “What should we talk about?”

Lu You paused and asked, “Do you have any recommendations for restaurants with quiet environments, excellent taste, and attentive service?”

Chen Feifei was an expert in eating, drinking, and having fun. She had eaten her way through almost the entire Nanquan City, and immediately recommended several restaurants for her to choose from.

Lu You wrote them down one by one, checked the addresses and the latest reviews, and after a comprehensive evaluation, she was slowly agonizing over a vegetarian restaurant in the old city and a Jiangnan restaurant in the Ningfu Mountain Scenic Area.

–

Back to Lanwan Garden after 8 pm.

After parking the car and walking to the gate of the courtyard, Lu You’s eyes drifted to the mailbox hanging on the side wall. She changed her steps and walked over.

Taking out a pack of cigarettes from her bag, she lit one, and only halfway through, did she pull open the box door.

Just as she was about to look inside, she suddenly caught the sound of flat-soled shoes lightly stepping on the ground.

Then came a melodious voice, “Youyou?”

Lu You followed the sound and looked up.

Under the streetlights, Yue Yunxi approached unhurriedly. Her top had a one-shoulder design, which made her shoulder and neck lines particularly superior. It was a slim fit, paired with high-waisted pants, showing an elegant and graceful figure.

Looking at her as if seeing an elder, Lu You subconsciously went to the trash can to stub out the cigarette in her hand.

Yue Yunxi’s eyes swept over the bit of red, but she didn’t say anything.

Turning her eyes to the open mailbox door, her eyebrows jumped almost imperceptibly, and she said with little inflection, “By the way, Tao Tao put the concert ticket in there. Did you take it?”

“Just remembered.” Lu You shone the light of her mobile phone into the mailbox, which was empty. “Huh?”

“What’s wrong?” Yue Yunxi raised her beautiful eyebrows lightly, “Is it missing?”

Lu You “mhm”-ed.

“I heard that some kids have been rummaging through mailboxes recently, maybe they took it.”

“Ah… I see.”

Yue Yunxi’s eyes returned to Lu You’s cheeks. Under the dim yellow streetlights, she couldn’t see her expression clearly.

“Do you want to go listen?” The date on the ticket stub she saw yesterday flashed through her mind, and her throat rolled. “If you want, I can help you get a ticket for Saturday.”

In the summer night after the rain, the cicadas and frogs croaked noisily, and her voice fell into it, appearing somewhat ethereal.

Reason told Lu You that she shouldn’t go.

But she and Tao Xin not only had a relationship of more than two years, but also a friendship of more than ten years.

She always remembered that on the day her little finger was crushed by her stepmother, it was Tao Xin who didn’t listen to her stepmother’s lies and insisted on entering the house to find her. Even though she was terribly scared by the broken finger with only a bit of skin holding it together, she carefully carried her on her back to find Yue Yunxi.

She also remembered that it was snowing that day, and Tao Xin’s breathing and the sound of reminding her not to fall asleep, wrapped in the wind and snow, were sometimes heavy and sometimes light.

A long time later, she learned from Aunt Yue that Tao Xin went to find her that day because her period had started, her stomach had been hurting all day, and she was in a hurry to share it with her as soon as she felt a little better.

So, Tao Xin, who carried her away that day, waited for her to have surgery, and stayed with her all the time, was also very weak.

Therefore, replaying this relationship, the thing that made her feel the most uncomfortable was not what Tao Xin was doing now, but her own decision at the beginning.

She shouldn’t have let this friendship, which should have lasted for a long time, deteriorate into a brief love affair.

Taking a light breath, Lu You replied, “No need, even if I go to listen, I don’t want a ticket from her.”

The black, rust-colored mailbox door was closed, and the oval mailbox hung quietly on the wall.

As if it had never been opened.

–

Saturday evening, 7:20 pm, Shui City Sports Center.

Lu You took the ticket she bought on a second-hand website and entered the venue, taking a seat in the outer area towards the back, near the aisle.

In the cylindrical cup holder on the right armrest was a foam stick stuffed with colored lights.

The girl in the seat to the left, separated by an empty seat, looked left and right, “Why don’t I have a cheering stick in my seat?”

“Ask the staff for one,” the girl’s companion suggested.

The girl craned her neck and looked around, leaning against the backrest dejectedly, “Forget it, I didn’t see any staff. I heard old fans in the group say that when Tao Tao wasn’t popular before, the staff at her concerts were super good-looking and very nice, giving everyone two cheering sticks and super cute peripheral headbands.”

Lu You picked up the foam stick in the cup holder and pressed the switch.

Pink light shone from inside.

She had made hundreds of these “cheering sticks” before, staying up for two nights, her neck and waist aching for several days, and her period was delayed by almost half a month.

The audience was only about a hundred, and she gave each person two foam sticks and the headbands she had ordered, bowing her head and begging them to turn on both lights when the show started.

She still remembered that at that time, even with only fifty or sixty people, they could gather a pink fluorescent sea with undulating waves.

Lu You handed the foam stick to the girl.

The girl was stunned for a moment, then happily took it and said “thank you”, looking at her and praising her involuntarily, “You’re so pretty, miss!”

Lu You smiled to show her thanks.

The girl shook the foam stick and asked, “Don’t you need it?”

Lu You shook her head, her eyes calmly cast towards the inner area directly in front of the stage.

The audience in the first row had already taken their seats, but the seat that Tao Xin had specially left for her was still empty.

“Oh my god, my eyes are so blessed today, look at the one in the aisle, so pretty! She’s so pretty, look!”

The girl anxiously called her companion to admire her.

Lu You subconsciously looked over.

The person coming towards her had a beautiful and eye-catching head of curly hair, a bean-green straight-shoulder top, which both set off her fair skin and showed her slender figure, paired with white suit pants with a full drape, revealing an elegant and refined temperament in a simple and gentle outfit.

As she got closer, the woman raised her face.

It was Yue Yunxi.

Lu You greeted her with a tone of surprise, “Sister Yunxi?”

Yue Yunxi stopped in front of her, her breath a little unsteady, “I’m sitting inside.”

The gap between the seats was too narrow, Lu You moved her legs to make way, wondering, “Didn’t she give you a ticket for the inner area?”

She was wearing a pair of frayed denim shorts today, the fluff softly draped over her legs. Yue Yunxi turned slightly sideways and went in, her lowered eyes lightly touching it, and sat in the empty seat on her left.

“She gave me one for tomorrow, but the orchestra has rehearsal tomorrow, so I bought one for today when I bought a replacement ticket.”

Yue Yunxi brushed her stray hair behind her ear. Hearing that her speech still had a bit of a nasal tone, she asked with concern, “How’s your health?”

“Almost better, thank you for the medicine.” Lu You took out the water she bought but hadn’t opened from her bag and handed it over, “Here.”

Yue Yunxi took it and thanked her, and conveniently moved the foam stick stuck in the middle armrest to the other side.

Lu You sighed, “I picked up the ticket. I didn’t expect the seats to be together, what a coincidence.”

Yue Yunxi unscrewed the bottle cap, lifted the mineral water bottle to her lips, her face slightly raised, her eyelashes drooping to cover half of her amber pupils, without revealing anything: “It is quite a coincidence.”

The girl who had taken the cheering stick earlier, hearing their conversation, interjected, “I also bought it online. I couldn’t get it when they restocked. How much did you buy it for, miss?”

“Original price.”

The girl envied, “Really? How did you get it! When I search for concert tickets, they’re all marked up!”

“The person who sold it to me was listing it at the original price.”

The girl asked, “Was it sold by someone called… National First-Class Protected Waste?”

Yue Yunxi, sandwiched in the middle, leaned back, unscrewed the bottle and took another two sips of water.

The name was so interesting, it was memorable at first glance. Lu You nodded, “It was her.”

“I asked her too! But she said she wasn’t selling it for now.”

Lu You didn’t pay much attention, “Maybe she just wanted to sell it when I asked.”

The lights in the venue suddenly went out, and the concert officially began.

Lu You turned her head and looked at the stage.

The big screen on the stage lit up, playing a dreamlike opening slideshow.

Much more elaborate than the ones she used to make for Tao Xin.

Her thoughts were unconsciously brought back to past memories, until she suddenly felt as if a gaze was fixed on her.

Lu You turned her head and glanced at Yue Yunxi. The latter was grasping the cheering stick, sitting elegantly, with her eyes directly fixed on the stage, obviously looking like she was listening intently.

A hallucination, probably.

Lu You turned her face back, shaking her head slightly, marveling at how inexplicably this hallucination came.

Tao Xin’s fans almost never screamed or sang loudly at concerts, only because Tao Xin had said that the most important friend was a tuner, and she liked her friend to come to her concerts, but she was afraid of affecting her friend’s sensitive ears.

How much she had been moved by it in the past, how much she now felt sorry for it.

After three songs, Tao Xin went backstage to change clothes.

During the quiet period in the venue, Yue Yunxi turned her face slightly, looked at her, and asked, “After listening, will you turn back?”

Asked suddenly, Lu You paused for a moment, then shook her head and replied, “I just wanted to come and listen to Shi Ye.”

Her shake of the head, coupled with this sentence, made it unclear whether she was saying “I won’t listen to the end” or answering “I won’t turn back.”

The next song was “Shi Ye (Eating in the Wild),” and the prelude resounded throughout the venue, the soothing tune like a cool river flowing from the forest.

Yue Yunxi withdrew her gaze and looked at Tao Xin, who had reappeared on the stage, and asked, “Do you like this song very much?”

She used to like it very much. In the future, she probably wouldn’t listen to it anymore.

In the pause after the opening monologue, Lu You replied, “She said she wrote it for me.”

Yue Yunxi said faintly, “That’s not false.”

The clear and cold voice was like thin stones skipping across the surface of the water.

Very clear, but the emotions in her voice couldn’t be heard clearly.

Lu You let out a long breath and said, “I’m listening to it for the last time, to commemorate the past that can’t be returned to.”

Yue Yunxi blinked her eyes lightly, and her gaze fell in the dark on the hand she had relaxed and placed in front of her. Under the occasional bright light, the delicate and fair texture of her skin was like the luster of cold jade.

And she knows, holding it won’t be.