MTMIO Chapter 6
by VolareWithout listening to the end, Lu You decisively left during the lingering aftersound.
Yue Yunxi tilted her head, watching her figure disappear into the doorway, and rose from her seat.
The ground outside the stadium was damp and mottled, clearly having just experienced a rain. Leaving the air-conditioned room felt like being wrapped in a plastic bag that had been submerged in water, with a sticky, damp sensation on clothing, skin, and even breath.
There was a convenience store to the left of the stadium.
Lu You stared in that direction, opened her cigarette case, took out a cigarette, and lightly bit it between her lips.
Nicotine suppressed all emotions. She extinguished the cigarette, walked over, and pushed the door to enter the store.
Ample cool air dispelled some of the stuffiness.
There were no customers in the store, only a clerk standing at the checkout counter.
Lu You chose a few skewers of oden at the counter and sat on a high stool in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Through the glass, she could see the square not far away, where authorized vendors were unhurriedly setting up their canopies and folding tables.
Lu You propped her cheek with her hand, her gaze gradually falling into the void, holding a piece of tempura in her hand, taking a bite after a long while.
Suddenly snapping back to reality, she noticed a graceful figure reflected on the glass. Lu You turned her head to look.
It was actually Yue Yunxi sitting on the high stool beside her.
Lu You raised her eyebrows in surprise, put down the hand propping her cheek, turned her head and asked, “Yunxi-jie, why did you come out too?”
The scent of mint-flavored tobacco was so faint that it was almost undetectable.
Yue Yunxi put down the water she had given her earlier and the onigiri she had just bought, and said naturally, “I was hungry and my stomach was a little uncomfortable, so I came to buy something to eat. I didn’t expect you to be here too.”
“Didn’t have dinner?”
“Mm.”
Lu You looked at the onigiri she was unwrapping: “Is just eating this enough?”
Yue Yunxi slowly said, “I’ll see after I finish eating.”
“I ordered too much oden. If you don’t mind, you can take some for an extra meal,” Lu You used her fingertip to push the paper cup containing the oden a little towards Yue Yunxi.
Yue Yunxi swallowed the rice ball in her mouth before saying, “Then I won’t be polite.”
Not being refused, Lu You then grasped the paper cup and moved it to the position between the two: “Thank you for sharing.”
Yue Yunxi’s eyes gradually softened, and she asked seemingly casually, “Are you going back to listen later?”
Lu You shook her head and replied, “No, I’m going back to Nanquan.”
Yue Yunxi wasn’t too surprised: “Mm.”
Lu You requested, “Could you, please not let her know I was here.”
Yue Yunxi agreed: “Okay, I won’t tell her.”
“Thank you.” Lu You paused, “What about you? Are you going back to listen after you finish eating?”
As soon as she asked the question, Lu You wished she could take it back.
It was really a pointless question. As Tao Xin’s nominal sister, Yue Yunxi would definitely listen to the whole concert.
Who knew, Yue Yunxi replied, “I’ll sit here for a while, and go back around ten o’clock.”
The two-and-a-half-hour concert would end at ten o’clock.
Lu You was surprised, and asked uncertainly, “You’re not going to listen anymore?”
After finishing the rice ball, Yue Yunxi calmly folded the packaging bag: “I’ll exchange a secret for you.”
Lu You tilted her head, gazing at Yue Yunxi, her eyebrows slightly raising.
“I’m not very interested in pop songs, and her songs… are just okay,” Yue Yunxi suddenly turned her face, meeting Lu You’s gaze, her eyes swirling with a sly charm, “Don’t let her know.”
Lu You paused briefly.
How come she hadn’t noticed Yue Yunxi was so unexpectedly adorable before? Even more adorable than Tao Xin, the publicly recognized representative of cuteness.
Lu You chuckled, revealing her white teeth: “No third person will know.”
Looking at her face blooming with a bright smile for a few more moments, Yue Yunxi restrained herself and turned back, “Mm,” she said, picked up a skewer of shiitake mushrooms, paused for two or three seconds, silently put it back, and changed to a skewer of kelp knots.
Lu You glanced over casually and opened her mouth softly, “Actually, I think her songs are just okay too.”
Yue Yunxi followed up, “Whose songs are not just okay?”
Lu You didn’t answer directly, her thoughts were taken by this question to a more distant memory, her tone even lighter as she said, “Do you remember, that winter vacation when I first met you, when I went to your house to play…”
“I remember.”
Yue Yunxi looked at Lu You’s profile, and could still clearly picture her at the age of ten in her mind.
That afternoon, Yue Yunxi, who was practicing cello on the second floor, opened the door after hearing a knock.
She saw Lu You, with two little buns in her hair, standing in front of her supported by Yue Shao, with Tao Xin standing to the right.
The adults of the two families were going out, and Yue Shao told her to take care of the two younger sisters and play at home.
Standing in the living room, Yue Yunxi and the two little kids stared at each other for a while, then she turned on the TV and asked, “What do you want to watch?”
Tao Xin said she wanted to watch Shugo Chara, and Lu You said she wanted to watch Detective Conan.
So Yue Yunxi arranged for Tao Xin to watch Shugo Chara on TV, and let Lu You watch Conan on her laptop.
She then took a book and sat at the table to read, occasionally chatting with her friends on her phone.
Not even five minutes later, Tao Xin threw the remote control on the sofa and shouted, “I want to use the computer!”
Lu You found Shugo Chara in the player, generously turned the computer towards Tao Xin, then picked up the remote control and sat on the sofa, without bothering Yue Yunxi, she fumbled and found Detective Conan herself.
Seeing this, Tao Xin rushed over and snatched the remote control: “This is mine!”
Tao Xin was usually like this at home, and Yue Yunxi had become accustomed to it, always giving in so as not to embarrass Yue Shao.
But she thought Lu You was different from her.
Yue Yunxi reminded her gently, “You can only choose one.”
Tao Xin looked left and right, and finally turned her gaze to the book in front of Yue Yunxi, and in three steps and two strides, reached out and roughly tore a page of paper and brought it in front of herself.
“Then I’ll choose this!”
Yue Yunxi’s phone was pressed under the book. Before the words fell, there was a “shhh” sound followed by a crisp “smack.” The slowly falling paper seemed to cut through the air.
Yue Yunxi hurriedly went over and picked up her phone.
Countless cracks had appeared on the screen, and no matter how Yue Yunxi pressed the power button, the cracks were a black abyss. A cold atmosphere permeated from the inside out, filling the entire room.
The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Lu You was the first to react, bending down and picking up the paper that had fallen on the ground and saying to Tao Xin, “Are you just copying people? You have to do whatever other people do, don’t you have your own opinion?”
Tao Xin said angrily, “I’m not, hmph!”
Lu You put the paper on the table and looked at Yue Yunxi, who looked awful, and said, “There’s a phone repair shop outside the complex, you take it to be rescued, Tao Tao and I will stay here obediently and wait for you to come back.”
Yue Yunxi put down her phone, clipped the paper into the book, and said faintly, “It’s okay, it doesn’t matter.”
She was answering Lu You, and also telling herself.
Lu You looked at Tao Xin helplessly, wanting to ask what to do, but the latter misunderstood, shrugged her shoulders and said, “She has no money, she eats our food, uses our things, my dad gives her money, she’s too embarrassed to take it.”
At that time, Yue Yunxi was sitting at the table, her side facing a whole wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, and the remaining light showed a chaotic flurry of snowflakes outside the window, with a few leaves left on the bare branches swaying painfully in the wind.
She sat upright, originally looking down and pressing her phone on the book, but after hearing Tao Xin’s words, she raised her head and looked at Tao Xin, her face pale, her eyes red, but her eyes seemed to be covered in snow, cold.
She could no longer be in the same space as Tao Xin peacefully, so Yue Yunxi picked up the book and phone and returned to her room.
Not long after, she heard the voices of two children talking at the door.
Lu You told Tao Xin to apologize, but Tao Xin was unwilling, righteously arguing for herself: “I just wanted to take the book, I didn’t mean to break the phone, who told her to put it everywhere?”
“I can understand that you didn’t do it on purpose, but you also tore the book, you should apologize.”
“I don’t want to, I’m not wrong. Besides, that phone was bought with my dad’s money.”
“My mom said that Yue Yunxi-jie got first place in her cello performance and won a lot of prize money to buy that phone for herself. If you are so unreasonable, I’ll expose you in front of everyone at dinner tonight, see if your dad will beat you.”
“You dare! I’ll break off our friendship!”
“Break break break, I don’t need you as a friend, I still have Manman.”
Yue Yunxi listened, tightening her grip on the cracked phone.
The child who had been spoiled growing up was different from her. No matter how big the matter, if it was taken to the adults, it would ultimately be blamed on her own carelessness.
No one would stand on her side.
Outside, Tao Xin was crying and shouting in anger, Lu You coaxed her for a while without success, yelling “Okay okay, I won’t coax you anymore, don’t make so much noise in my ear, go cry somewhere else!” as if pushing her away, the screams intermittently transmitting into the room.
After a moment, the door was knocked on, and Lu You’s voice was timid outside the door: “Yunxi-jie, can you open the door?”
Her attitude was completely different from when she was confronting Tao Xin.
Yue Yunxi went to open the door.
Lu You handed over a red envelope with both hands and said, “This is my New Year’s money, it should be enough for Little Black’s surgery fee.”
Yue Yunxi’s phone case was a plush coal ball, and Lu You started calling her phone Little Black after seeing it.
She was very touched, but Yue Yunxi still refused in a soft voice: “No need, take it back and keep it.”
Lu You roughly figured out her self-esteem, grabbed her hand and put the red envelope in her hand, saying, “I’m not lending it to you, it’s, an investment! Yes, an investment! In the future, when you win first place in competitions and win prize money, let me share in the joy, and then treat me to some snacks.”
When she wanted to refuse again, Lu You had already started counting the snack list with her fingers: “I like chocolate, orange-flavored lollipops, lime-flavored chips, Coca-Cola, not Pepsi, and ice cream! Vanilla ice cream!”
Yue Yunxi was silent for a moment, and said, “You love eating sweets so much, be careful of getting cavities.”
Lu You blinked her eyes, revealing a bit of naivety and innocence: “But eating sweets makes me happy, my mom said that when I’m in a bad mood, eating something sweet will make my heart sweeter, or, buy some back when you repair the phone, we can eat together.”
Not far away, Tao Xin, who was peeking at them while crying and gasping for breath, interjected, “I want some too!”
Lu You looked over and reminded, “There’s no reason for you to make someone angry and not apologize or take responsibility, and still want others to help you do things.”
Hearing this, Tao Xin wiped her tears and also took her New Year’s money over to apologize.
Although it was a coerced “sorry,” it was the first time Yue Yunxi had heard it.
After that, Yue Yunxi was begged by the two to repair the phone and buy snacks.
When she returned to the villa with snacks and a chill, the two in the room were arguing about whether a singer sang well or not.
At that time, Yue Yunxi pushed open the door and saw Lu You sitting on the carpet in front of the sofa, holding a square album of who knows who it was, turning her head to question Tao Xin, who was jumping on the sofa: “Why do you say her songs are not good!”
Tao Xin said, “Because I have my own opinion! I’m not copying people! I don’t like her, and I don’t like her songs! Why does everyone else have to like it and think it sounds good just because you like it and think it sounds good!”
Lu You was rendered speechless by these words, turned her head back, and quietly stared at the front, not knowing what she was thinking.
Almost overlapping with her at this moment.
Lu You’s gaze passed through the glass, slowly scanning over every small stall that had already been set up in the square. After a long while, she laughed mockingly and said, “I said she had no opinion, but actually I’m the one who doesn’t. I liked Huang Zhixu’s songs so much, but because she always said she didn’t like them, I never went to a concert.”
She touched her ears twice, and sighed regretfully.
Unfortunately, now that she was a piano tuner, she had to protect her precious ears and couldn’t handle the lively atmosphere of a concert.
“Huang Zhixu,” Yue Yunxi chewed on the singer’s name with an ambiguous meaning.
Lu You turned her head, and a pair of clear eyes looked at Yue Yunxi, asking, “Have you heard her songs?”
Yue Yunxi shook her head regretfully, and said softly, “I’ve only heard her name.”
“Her songs more or less have elements of classical music,” Lu You said a song title, “I like this one the most. Every time I clean up the house and play music, I put this song on repeat. Her timbre is very special, it’s the kind that’s both full and has a smooth sense of space, in short, the more you listen, the more flavorful it becomes.”
When she talks about people and things she likes, she’s always radiant and especially dazzling.
Yue Yunxi restrained herself and moved her eyes away, opened the song app on her phone and searched for the song title, deliberately asking, “Is it this one?”
The phone wasn’t handed over, Lu You leaned over instinctively to look.
The distance suddenly shortened.
So close that Yue Yunxi could see the light brown mole quietly lying under Lu You’s slightly raised chin.
Lu You nodded like a chick pecking rice: “Mm mm, that’s the one.”
Yue Yunxi’s fingertip pressed the play button, the volume was at the lowest level, so Lu You maintained the close posture and didn’t move.
One side of the glass window blackened by the night reflected their figures, listening to the same song across a phone.
Yue Yunxi listened attentively, and in the soothing, low-singing love song, she could faintly feel the pounding from the same direction. When the song played to the climax, Lu You couldn’t help but hum along.
Realizing that there was someone next to her, she immediately closed her mouth and secretly glanced at Yue Yunxi’s reaction. Yue Yunxi lifted the bottle of mineral water to her lightly pursed lips. As if she sensed her gaze, her eyes turned, and she suddenly turned her face towards her in a blink of an eye.
Lu You guiltily retracted her gaze.
Yue Yunxi’s eyelashes fluttered lightly, her gaze lowered again, the curve of her lips under the bottle slightly bent.
After listening to the song, Lu You glanced at the time in the upper left corner of the phone, sat up straight, and pulled away, saying, “I have to go back.”
Yue Yunxi lowered her eyes and locked the phone screen into darkness: “Okay, be careful on the road.”
Lu You stood up, tidied up the empty skewers and food container on the table, and threw them into the trash can. A bit of soup stuck to the pad of her right finger, and she was about to use her left hand to take out a tissue from her pocket.
In front of her, Yue Yunxi’s fair hand handed over a wet wipe.
“Thank you,” Lu You took the wet wipe.
Yue Yunxi instructed, “If you remember when you get home, send me a message on WeChat to let me know you’re safe.”
Lu You wiped her hand, finding these words very interesting, she immediately took the cue and asked, “What if I don’t remember?”
Yue Yunxi said softly, “If you don’t remember, then I’ll call you later to ask if you’re safe, which might disturb your rest.”
The wet wipe coolly wiped across the back of her hand and fingertips. Lu You propped up her ears, listening to Yue Yunxi’s voice which seemed to have the same damp and soothing feeling.
She laughed and said, “That probably won’t be possible, my memory isn’t bad.”
Yue Yunxi: “Is that so.”
Her timbre was clear and ethereal, her voice low and her tone light, with a seemingly smiling expression, as if she didn’t quite believe it.
It was also like a sigh.
A sigh as if regretting it.