MTMIO Chapter 12
by VolareChapter 12: Simply Tailored for Yue Yunxi
Lu You felt warmth in her heart and said with a smile, “I used to really want to have an older sister. I felt like it would be great to have a sister protecting me.”
Yue Yunxi lowered her long eyelashes and looked at the grass where the fireflies had disappeared, a dark and shadowy expanse.
“There don’t seem to be many fireflies. Let’s go back.”
“Okay.”
Lu You keenly noticed the emotional downturn in Yue Yunxi’s voice, assuming she was disappointed by not seeing fireflies, and comforted her, “Maybe when you host a dinner for others and come again, they’ll be there.”
Yue Yunxi glanced at her, meaningfully, “Hopefully, next time will be different.”
They turned back to the parking lot.
The journey back to Lanwan Garden was longer than the one from the grand theater, so they inevitably started chatting in the car.
The different life paths that had once made Lu You feel distant now became fresh and interesting topics.
They talked about Yue Yunxi watching synchronized fireflies in the Great Smoky Mountains in America, and how Lu You and Chen Feifei were extras in a school drama during the same period, eagerly waiting for the TV series to air, but it still hadn’t been broadcast.
During the conversation, Lu You discovered that Yue Yunxi wasn’t as aloof as she had previously thought. She responded to everything, spoke with composure and elegance, and occasionally surprised people with her witty humor.
Perhaps Yue Yunxi was that kind of person—
Like a glass of plain water in a glass, looking cool and bland from a distance, but you can feel the warmth within when you get closer.
The car drove slowly, the streetlights illuminating the road like a river without end.
Finally, it parked in front of her house.
The streetlights, which had been malfunctioning for the past few days, were now brightly lit.
Lu You unbuckled her seatbelt and reached for the car door.
The streetlight, combined with the sparse lights from the opposite building, cast into her vision through the crack in the car door.
Her hand stopped, and she turned her head in that position, suddenly thinking to ask, “Yunxi-jie, did you know that Zhong Shuyun is my favorite pianist?”
Then the warm light swept across her cheek, rippling into her eyes, dyeing them with a soft, beautiful glow.
Yue Yunxi cleared her throat, as if to suppress her racing heartbeat, so it wouldn’t be exposed in the syllables she uttered, “Yes.”
Lu You’s thin lips parted slightly, wanting to say something, but not knowing what to say.
In the brief silence, the long, drawn-out sound of cicadas was particularly strident, and the streetlight suddenly flickered.
Then, Lu You heard Yue Yunxi’s clear, cold voice flowing past her ear again.
“But recommending you to Teacher Zhong for tuning isn’t just because I know you admire her.”
The moths swirling into the lampshade, flew out again when the light went out the instant they approached the bulb.
–
Regardless of Yue Yunxi’s reasons for recommending her to Zhong Shuyun, it had given her an opportunity, and she had taken care of her until midnight when she had a fever.
She had to treat her to a meal, but one meal was far from enough to repay this favor.
Lu You thought about buying Yue Yunxi a gift, so she arranged to go shopping with Chen Feifei on Friday, and pick up the car parked at the grand theater.
They agreed to meet at Mingda Mall near Lost Deer.
It was just after one in the afternoon when they met. Chen Feifei, wearing high heels, hooked her arm and entered the mall, sighing contentedly at the air conditioning vent, “This weather is so stuffy that it’s hard to breathe. Why did you suddenly want to go shopping? I haven’t been shopping in at least eight hundred years!”
Lu You succinctly stated Yue Yunxi’s help, “I was originally planning to buy something related to the cello, but she has everything she needs, and I don’t know what to give her, so I thought I’d come shopping.”
Before shopping, she had specially checked Yue Yunxi’s WeChat Moments, trying to get useful information, but Yue Yunxi’s posts were few and simple.
Almost all of them were promotional links for concerts.
Like an emotionless forwarding machine.
The only post that wasn’t a link was from six years ago.
It was a photo—
A small path in a lush forest, half shaded by green trees, half bathed in warm sunlight. A graceful fawn stood between the light and shadows, its deer eyes clear and bright as it looked at the camera.
Chen Feifei offered ideas, “So what does she like?”
Lu You blurted out, “Deer.”
Chen Feifei raised her voice, “Deer? Why deer? Why not the moon?”
Passing a beauty store with major international brands, Lu You went inside to look at perfumes, saying, “I also think it’s strange, but then I thought, a deer is so healing, it’s not surprising she likes them, and liking deer and liking the moon doesn’t conflict.”
Chen Feifei stared at her thoughtfully for a while, shuddered at the thought in her head, and shook her head to dispel the distracting thoughts, “Then you can give her something related to deer. Like this, a wooden amber fragrance, my goddess can definitely handle it.”
Lu You followed Chen Feifei’s finger to look at the deer head perfume on the shelf, saying, “No, I don’t really want to give something related to deer.”
“Why?”
It was subconsciously that she didn’t want to, feeling it was subtle. Lu You didn’t answer, feeling that it wasn’t easy to say.
Chen Feifei winked and teased, “Oh~ I get it, a deer giving a deer, what’s the difference between giving yourself away!”
The voice was too loud, attracting ambiguous gazes from the people around.
Lu You put down the perfume bottle in her hand and turned to walk out of the store.
Chen Feifei was behind her, “Am I right? Am I right~”
Lu You couldn’t stand it anymore, “If you keep shouting like this, you’ll be on the news tomorrow—Shocking, a repeating machine appears in Mingda Mall!”
Chen Feifei laughed and nudged her, “Get out of here!”
Lu You laughed along, her eyes swept over the mechanical watch store in front, her footsteps stopped, and the corners of her lips suddenly straightened.
This brand had invited Tao Xin as its spokesperson, and there was a large poster of Tao Xin on the wall.
Chen Feifei also saw it, silently cursed, and looked worriedly at Lu You.
Lu You looked indifferent and turned in the opposite direction, “Let’s go look over there.”
Chen Feifei followed, hooking her arm, “Speaking of which, Grandma has to wait for a follow-up examination to make sure she’s okay before she can go play, but you don’t need to. How about I have Mrs. Chen find you a senior citizen tour group?”
“Then I might as well go to that gathering Yunxi-jie mentioned.”
“What gathering? Where’s the gathering?”
Lu You explained, “A gathering of friends, going to Shen City, on her friend’s private yacht.”
Chen Feifei’s eyes lit up, “Can I go?”
“You can ask, she said they’re all happy to make friends.”
Chen Feifei took out her phone, it was difficult to type with one hand, so she simply sent a voice message to Yue Yunxi, “Goddess~ Can Youyou and I go to your yacht party?”
It was as if she had already decided to go. Lu You said “Hey,” wanting to say something, but she saw Chen Feifei let go of her hand, and the voice message was sent.
Yue Yunxi replied with a voice message in seconds, “Sure, with you accompanying her, she’ll be more comfortable.”
Such a gentle tone and considerate words made Lu You unable to say the words “I haven’t decided yet.”
“Hey, what?” Chen Feifei
Lu You shook her head, “Nothing.”
“Let’s go, let’s go see jewelry.” Chen Feifei dragged her into the Fantacy store.
Lu You turned her eyes to the display case and was attracted by a pair of earrings.
One was an ear stud with obsidian inlaid in the middle, surrounded by gold and tiny diamonds forming sunlight.
The other was a curved moon ear chain inlaid with mother-of-pearl and diamonds.
One side sharp and dark, one side bright and clear.
The design was too strong.
Lu You hesitated and didn’t buy them, adding the saleswoman’s WeChat before leaving.
Because the heels were too high, Chen Feifei couldn’t walk anymore, and they agreed to accompany Lu You to pick out a gift next Tuesday wearing comfortable shoes, and buy some new clothes.
When Lu You got home, she began to prepare the tuning tools.
When setting an alarm on her phone, she saw a message sent by the saleswoman two minutes ago: [Beauty, I forgot to say today, if you buy this “Jiaojiao” earring, you will get a pinky ring.]
Jiaojiao.
Lu You thought, it was simply tailored for Yue Yunxi.
A moment later, she still booked the earrings, setting a time with the saleswoman to pick them up at the store on Tuesday, and casually took a screenshot and sent it to Chen Feifei: [Accompany me to pick it up then]
Chen Feifei circled the “pinky ring” in the screenshot in red and sent it back to her: [I seriously suspect you ordered it for that.]
Lu You smiled: [Sort of]
Clutching her phone, her eyes unconsciously moved to “Jiaojiao”.
She suddenly realized that looking at these two words, she no longer felt the awkwardness she had before.
–
The next afternoon, Lu You arrived at the grand theater at the time agreed with Zhong Shuyun.
Only Zhong Shuyun was in the concert hall. Lu You stepped forward and respectfully extended her hand, “Hello, Teacher Zhong, I am Lu You.”
“Hello, nice to meet you.” Zhong Shuyun shook her hand, smiling gently, “Your hands are very suitable for playing the piano.”
Lu You smiled slightly, didn’t respond, and unconsciously hid her left hand, which was hanging by her side, behind her, saying dryly, “Can we start tuning now?”
Zhong Shuyun: “Of course.”
Like most customers curious about tuning, Zhong Shuyun stood by and watched her disassemble part of the piano’s outer shell, place the padding, and use a tuning fork to get the sound, making fine adjustments from the reference tone group to the low, middle, and high-frequency areas.
After the final inspection and fine-tuning were completed, Zhong Shuyun expressed her satisfaction, and after she finished the finishing work, handed over an envelope and a ticket, saying, “This is the tuning fee and a ticket for tomorrow’s concert. I sincerely invite you to come and listen tomorrow.”
Lu You took it, flattered, “Thank you, Teacher Zhong.”
Zhong Shuyun smiled and said, “I’m really glad Yunxi recommended you to me. I really like your work ethic, serious, rigorous, a little charming, I hope there will be a lot of cooperation in the future.”
When leaving, Lu You felt like she was walking on clouds, her whole body was floating.
Pushing the door open, she turned around and saw Yue Yunxi leaning against the wall holding a piano case.
Their eyes met, Yue Yunxi picked up the piano case and put it on her back, walked over and walked side by side with her, “Looks like your performance was very stable.”
The smile on Lu You’s lips was light and rippling, she nodded, sharing her joy, “Teacher Zhong is more kind and amiable than I imagined, completely different from her enthusiastic and unrestrained style when playing on stage. She also praised me for being serious, a little charming.”
More than a little charming.
Yue Yunxi listened to her smiling voice, glanced sideways at her radiant, clear face, and felt the crazy beating in the softest part of her body.
“She gave me the tuning fee in cash, I have to save it carefully, she also gave me a ticket to the concert.”
Yue Yunxi was not surprised, “That’s good.”
After a pause, she asked, “Will you still be anxious next time you tune for Teacher Zhong?”
Lu You shook her head, thinking of Yue Yunxi’s previous comfort, and said with a smile, “It’s really thanks to your good words, Yunxi-jie.”
“It’s because you are very professional.”
“The power of good words also adds to it.” Lu You joked, “Why don’t you give me another prediction?”
Near the parking lot, the two were about to separate, Yue Yunxi glanced at the exit.
The city streetlights lit up, the dim yellow halo covered the ground, cars blocked in front of the gate one after another, the car lights connected, like red fish trapped in the river, waiting to swim to a wider area.
“She will teach you to play the piano again.”
The voice was as calm as an ancient well, with a subtle sense of certainty.
Stirring up waves in the listener’s heart, Lu You was stunned for a moment.
Yue Yunxi retracted the remaining light and added in a flat voice, “I hope.”