MTMIO Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Don’t you want to know what’s inside? (Revised)

The villa that Tuoba rented was in a mountain scenic area on the outskirts of Nanquan. After the celebrity Gu Yuewei filmed a promotional video there, it became an internet-famous spot.

Almost every “rich” influencer on the entire internet has a vlog about their stay experience.

Clearly, Tuoba also wanted to be one of them.

The journey was long, and Lu You, feeling bored, searched for Tuoba’s video account.

Whether it was to attract traffic or out of genuine nostalgia, Tuoba’s account name still included the band’s name, called “Fruit Pie – Baler”.

The band name was Lu You’s idea, mentioned casually, and Tao Xin took it and used it. It came from the fact that the names or nicknames of the four band members could all be associated with fruits.

For example, Baler, whose name sounded like guava (guava), and because her hairstyle was more noticeable, everyone preferred to call her Tuoba (mop) instead of Baler.

Chen Xiguan, the guitarist who had been a resident singer at Lost Deer for a while, was nicknamed Watermelon.

And then there was Zhou Ningmeng, who had the most straightforward personality and the best relationship with Tao Xin because they had the same orientation. She once sent a WeChat message to Lu You saying that Chu Xiao was deliberately seducing Tao Xin, her nickname was Lemon.

“I remember, Zhou Ningmeng seems to…like you.”

Yue Yunxi casually said “Oh,” then followed with: “A lot of people like me.”

Lu You really liked Yue Yunxi’s confident and generous attitude, and laughed, “Yeah~ Elder sister, the top of the lesbian food chain.”

Tuoba’s videos in the past few days had included Lemon. Lu You continued the topic, “That time we went camping, she and Chen Feifei were especially excited, fantasizing about what it would be like to date you.”

Yue Yunxi followed up, “What’s it like?”

“Are you asking me, or asking about their fantasies?” Lu You retorted, amused.

“The latter.”

Lu You jealously clicked her tongue. What was that? Shouldn’t she care more about her girlfriend’s thoughts?

“I know,” Yue Yunxi said unhurriedly, “I heard it all back then.”

Lu You: “…”

Who talks with such a long pause!

Lu You puffed out her cheeks, deliberately ignoring Yue Yunxi, not planning to answer her too quickly about how it felt.

Outside the car window, the wide road visually connected to the distant grey-green mountains, the pointed mountain peaks piercing a round of red sun, pouring out a sky full of twilight.

Gradually, it overlapped with the sky on the day of camping in her memory.

The sunset that day was like the color Yue Yunxi mixed when making eternal flowers for the cheerleaders, more orange, less soft pink.

Because there wasn’t enough food, Yue Yunxi and Tao Xin drove down the mountain to buy supplies. While she was away, Chen Feifei and Zhou Ningmeng chatted about her, getting more and more excited.

Chen Feifei, based on her years of reading novels, analyzed, “I think dating a goddess might be tiring. Although she will wisely guide you, gently tolerate you, you’ll just want to rack your brains to keep up with her pace, wanting to improve all the time, hoping to reach her level one day.

Also, you probably can’t even argue, because she’s rational and you’re emotional. If you wait for her to become emotional, heh heh, people like that, you’re done for as soon as she cries.”

The little girls became even more infatuated.

Only Lu You, frowning, thought it sounded too tiring, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “I still prefer younger sisters over elder sisters.”

Chen Feifei wouldn’t allow this weirdo to express her opinion, and hugged her neck, shaking her back and forth, “You’re talking about looks, right! Huh? Huh? It’s just looks, right!”

Lu You still remembered that her hair was messed up from being shaken, and she kept saying “Yes, yes, yes,” and when she turned around to escape Chen Feifei’s clutches, her hair obscured her vision and she bumped into Yue Yunxi’s arms.

She also remembered that Yue Yunxi gently reminded her to “be careful,” but the first glance she gave her was like the moon climbing up into the sky ahead of time, grey, cold, without a trace of luster.

Did she hear it? She was uneasy.

She heard everything.

The question she wasn’t sure about at the time finally had a clear answer at this moment.

The closer they got to the villa area, the clearer the scenery became. The undulating road had one speed bump after another, and the car bounced like it was floating in water.

Lu You’s thoughts followed the swaying, and she inexplicably remembered Yue Yunxi asking her if her aesthetic had changed. Her heart tightened, then slowly relaxed.

No wonder she cared so much.

It turned out it was because of the hurdle that had gotten stuck in her heart so many years ago.

“Have you come up with a five-hundred-word book report yet?” Yue Yunxi suddenly asked.

“What book report?” Lu You was stunned for a moment.

–“Reading me.”

In a flash of inspiration, Lu You rolled her eyes and said, “It’s…like this piano piece.”

The car music had just switched to “Clair de Lune”, the piece she played in the competition.

Yue Yunxi laughed and said she was being mischievous.

“No way,” Lu You defended in a low voice, two parts guilty, but she really wasn’t.

“Thinking for so long, the answer is so simple.” Yue Yunxi sighed, “I was waiting with anticipation for a long time.”

Lu You hummed and said, “It’s your fault for talking with such a long pause, deliberately teasing me.”

“I was wrong.” Yue Yunxi apologized quickly and sincerely.

Lu You immediately lost her temper, paused for a few seconds, and said slowly and seriously, “The feeling of dating you is like this piece of music. Whether it’s the gentle prelude, or the brilliant passage that climbs step by step to the climax…”

In the corner of her eye, Yue Yunxi’s hand gripping the steering wheel tightened.

Lu You cleared her throat before continuing, “Even if I play this melody several times every day, even if I’m so familiar with this melody that I can recite the score backwards, I still look forward to being able to play her on the piano keys the next day, I won’t get tired of it at all, I just like it…I like having her in my life every day.”

Her gaze quickly swept across the driver’s seat from the corner of her eye, not even having time to see what kind of emotions Yue Yunxi’s expression reflected, before Lu You retracted it.

Although it wasn’t very direct, it was already very subtle, but it still made her feel ashamed.

Compared to her, Yue Yunxi was much more at ease, saying with a smile in her voice, “You’ve made me like this piece of music even more.”

Lu You didn’t care about being shy, and couldn’t help but smile, raising her hand to rub her ears.

It was a little itchy there from being teased.

The car stopped in the underground garage, and the spaces near the elevator entrance that led directly to the villa were all taken, so they had to park far away.

They just happened to miss Tao Xin. Looking out through the windshield, they could vaguely see Zhou Ningmeng carrying a bass and Tao Xin standing in the elevator lobby, chatting and laughing.

The car was already parked, but Yue Yunxi didn’t turn off the engine, and was still playing the unfinished song, saying, “I want to listen to the end.”

Lu You glanced at her, seeing through her but not saying anything, smiling in response, “Okay~”

The two of them soon entered the elevator, and the piano piece hadn’t ended yet, floating leisurely in their ears.

The phone vibrated in her pocket, and Lu You took it out and looked at it. It was a push notification from the moving app, asking her to rate yesterday’s service.

Clicking into it, the order interface showed the names of the departure and destination neighborhoods.

Lu You squinted at the words “Lanwan”, listening to the end of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”, and suddenly thought, “There’s something.”

“Hmm?”

“When I was learning this piece as a child, I heard someone playing the cello and I played together.” Lu You turned her head and asked, “Was it you? Or?”

After the piano piece finished playing, Yue Yunxi opened the car door lock and said, “Although I really wanted to snatch her away once too. But it wasn’t me.”

Snatch her away once too?

Lu You reminded herself in her heart not to forget to investigate the sheet music, and continued the topic, “I thought it was you, I once had a dream, in the dream I went to the balcony and saw you putting away the cello, it felt so real, I couldn’t even tell if it was a dream or a scene I had forgotten.”

“There was this thing.” Yue Yunxi walked to the front of the car to meet her, “You really are, you have such a good memory.”

In the pause, Yue Yunxi reached out and flicked her forehead.

Lu You rubbed her forehead, sticking out her tongue, “Did you get this habit of flicking people from Teacher Zhong?”

Yue Yunxi thought for a moment and said, “It should be, when I lived at Grandma Zhong’s house as a child, I could see Teacher Zhong, who came to visit Grandma Zhong, once a month, and she would flick my forehead every time.”

During the Xicheng trip, Yue Yunxi had mentioned that before coming to Lanwan, she had lived with Yue Shao in Zhong Shuyun’s old house in Xicheng for a while.

But perhaps because it was only mentioned once, it didn’t leave a deep impression on Lu You. And in her mind, Zhong Shuyun played the piano, and Yue Yunxi played the cello.

So, she always thought that Yue Yunxi had only met Zhong Shuyun after she became famous and they played together.

Only now did she belatedly realize, oh, so these two knew each other a long time ago.

Lu You continued the interrupted topic, “So, I really did see you putting away the cello, then why didn’t you play with me?”

It’s not like there wasn’t a cello.

“There was only that one cello at the time, and I didn’t buy a plane ticket for it when I went to perform to save money, and it was broken in transit. Uncle Tao bought me a new one, and Tao Xin wanted one too.” Yue Yunxi said, “I just happened to hear you playing, so I took the sheet music and gave it to her to play with you, to test the feel, to see if she wanted her original cello, or to trade with me.”

Lu You pursed her lips, feeling complicated.

Although Yue Yunxi didn’t say it explicitly, she knew that Tao Xin had probably snatched the cello and didn’t want to return it.

“Grandma used to say she was greedy, always wanting what’s in other people’s bowls while still looking at what’s in the pot, she was a very selfish child.” Lu You said.

Yue Yunxi was stunned for a moment, and then realized that “she” referred to Tao Xin.

“Saying that she always felt that the things she didn’t have were good, and when she snatched other people’s things, she had to make trade-offs with her own things, but she couldn’t bear to give up what she already had, she wanted both. I was quite unhappy when I heard it, I didn’t like Grandma evaluating my friend like that.” Lu You glanced at Yue Yunxi and said, “Don’t be jealous, even though we dated before, she likes you.”

Yue Yunxi’s expression was calm, and she didn’t mind at all. Hearing the last sentence, she even raised the corners of her mouth, smiling faintly, “Is it possible that she doesn’t like me either, just like Grandma said, she just feels that the things she doesn’t have are good.”

“I don’t know.” Lu You was too lazy to think about such complex emotions.

Yue Yunxi didn’t continue to push this theory, and asked her, “Then what?”

“Then what?”

“Then how do you see her? What made you disagree with Grandma’s idea?”

“Because she told me that she used to have a younger brother, and her younger brother could get whatever he wanted, but she couldn’t. She could only get endless belittling. At first, she thought it was because she wasn’t good enough, so she studied hard, pretended to be good, and tried to please the adults, but she was ignored.”

Reaching the elevator lobby, Lu You pressed the up button. It seemed like someone was using the elevator upstairs, and it didn’t move.

“I haven’t experienced the feeling of being ignored, but I imagined it, and it felt pretty bad.”

Yue Yunxi rubbed Lu You’s head, completely unable to be jealous or mind, because she liked Lu You precisely because Lu You empathized with and understood other people’s situations, and was able to maintain a compassionate heart in this cold and indifferent environment.

Loving someone is an ability.

Perhaps even Lu You herself didn’t realize that this ability wasn’t her innate talent, but that someone had taught her very well.

“Then she said that one time her younger brother took her homework, and she snatched her younger brother’s toys. Then she was scolded by her father, grandfather, grandmother, and mother. She said that even if she was scolded and beaten, it was good, at least they could see her.

So I think, she developed that habit at that time, because no one corrected her wrong behavior, and no one taught her what to do.

Sometimes she gives me the feeling…

It’s like the yo-yo she picked up and gave to me, it’s been neglected for too long, it’s too hungry, it eats everything it sees when it goes out, it keeps calling to attract attention, and it has separation anxiety, it tears down the house when people aren’t around.”

Speaking of this, Lu You turned her head to look at Yue Yunxi, and seeing her frowning, she quickly added, “I might not be saying this very appropriately.”

Yue Yunxi’s eyebrows slowly relaxed, “It’s okay, it’s quite vivid.”

“Then why are you frowning?”

“Because…” Yue Yunxi paused obviously, as if thinking, and said after a few seconds, “I don’t know these things.”

Lu You was surprised: “Didn’t she tell you?”

“I only knew she had a younger brother, Uncle Tao would often mention him, but I never heard her talk about it.” Yue Yunxi deduced, “I think at the beginning, she was more resistant to me and my mother, so she didn’t say it. Later, it got better, Uncle Tao didn’t mention her younger brother anymore, the unhappy things had turned over, and she didn’t need to mention it again.”

Lu You nodded.

The elevator finally moved, and soon came down, opening its doors, inside stood a dozen people, including the four band members, as well as a cameraman carrying a camera, and a makeup artist carrying a makeup case…

In order to make good use of the reunion at today’s birthday party to attract fans, Tuoba specially wrote a script. The first scene was to record a video of the band coincidentally arriving at the same time in the parking lot, highlighting their unfinished fate.

The elevator wasn’t coming down for a long time because she had pressed the long-stop button, waiting for the employees who were filming short videos for her to get props, and by the way, explaining the script. As a result, she got too excited while explaining and forgot to turn off the elevator door and cancel the long-stop command.

Lu You didn’t expect there to be a large group of people inside the elevator. She happened to be standing at the elevator entrance, looking at the freezing outfits of each of them, as if they were going to walk the red carpet. She was stunned in place, and unconsciously shrunk her neck and tightened her coat.

Truly, a Chinese woman who must produce content in her life.

Yue Yunxi grabbed her arm with one hand and put her arm around her waist with the other, leading her to the side.

“Hey? Sister Yunxi!” Zhou Ningmeng’s eyes lit up, she flipped her permed hair, and said familiarly, “I knew you would come.”

Yue Yunxi smiled, polite and gentle as always.

Zhou Ningmeng lightly nudged Tuoba with her elbow, tilting her head and whispering, “I told you to try it, Taotao came, Sister Yunxi would definitely come too.”

Tuoba gave her a speechless eyeroll, “whispering” to herself as if no one else was there: “I didn’t mention Taotao, and your Sister Yunxi agreed.”

Your Sister Yunxi.

Lu You raised her eyebrows.

Tuoba and Zhou Ningmeng seemed to realize that something was wrong, turned their heads to look at Tao Xin, who was wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a mask, so you couldn’t see her expression, and then looked at the two of them. Finally, the two people’s eyes all landed on the back of Yue Yunxi’s hand that was holding Lu You’s waist.

It was at this moment that Yue Yunxi let go of Lu You and pressed the elevator button again.

Making it impossible to tell what the intimate gesture just now meant.

“You…” Zhou Ningmeng stammered.

Tuoba helped her ask: “You two came together?”

“No.” Lu You touched her nose, lying through her teeth, “Waited for the elevator for five or six minutes, and was hesitating whether to take the stairs, thinking that it would be too unstylish to take the stairs in a big villa, just then, Sister Yunxi~ came, so I chatted with Sister Yunxi~ here, waiting for the elevator together.”

The sarcastic “Sister Yunxi”, Yue Yunxi glanced at her, unable to help laughing.

“…Sorry, sorry, my fault, I was chatting too excitedly, you see, I’m still chatting excitedly here.” Tuoba apologized repeatedly, then turned to greet the band members to film a video.

“You guys go first, I’ll be over in a bit.” Tao Xin said.

“Okay, okay, okay.” Tuoba pulled Zhou Ningmeng and Chen Xiguan towards the parking lot.

After a few steps, Chen Xiguan broke free of Tuoba’s hand and said, “I forgot something, you two film first, I’ll go get it, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, hurry up.”

Chen Xiguan nodded, turned around and walked back. Observing the surroundings, he hid behind a pillar in the parking lot, took out his phone from his bag, found the right angle and turned on the camera mode.

The camera was aimed at the elevator lobby, zoomed in, just enough to record the figures of the three people.

Tao Xin said, “I thought you two wouldn’t come.”

Through the sunglasses and mask, it was impossible to know what her expression was, what she was thinking.

Lu You shrugged her shoulders, very innocent: “Tuoba begged us to come.”

Tao Xin: “…”

The atmosphere wasn’t good, but fortunately the elevator came quickly.

Before entering the elevator, Lu You remembered her purpose, took out the file from her bag and handed it to Tao Xin: “This is yours, right? The clerk said the person who came to deliver it was taller than me, I thought it wasn’t you, I forgot that people can wear high heels, next time you disguise yourself, remember to change your voice too.”

“Did you read it?” Tao Xin asked.

Yue Yunxi, who had already entered the elevator, was looking down and holding the open door button. Hearing this, her long eyelashes trembled, she raised her head, and her eyes swept over the express file bag in Lu You’s hand.

The seal was intact.

“No.”

Seeing that Tao Xin didn’t take it, Lu You directly stuffed the file into her hand.

Tao Xin still didn’t take it.

The file bag fell to the ground with a “pa” sound.

Yue Yunxi called her in a calm voice: “Youyou.”

Signaling her that it was time to get in the elevator.

Lu You ignored the file bag on the ground and walked straight into the elevator.

Behind her, Tao Xin asked, “Don’t you want to know what’s inside?”

Lu You entered the elevator, turned around, facing Tao Xin, about to say she didn’t want to.

Yue Yunxi’s laughter brushed past her ear, like a rose with a warm color slowly blooming, but the roots had subtle thorns.

“What is it? Your sheet music and lyrics?”

The corners of Tao Xin’s lips under the mask straightened instantly.

It was clearly a thorn pricking Tao Xin, but it was so sharp that Lu You’s heart also trembled.

The elevator doors closed, going up, Lu You fell into thought, unconsciously frowning. She felt Yue Yunxi’s soft and cool fingertips caressing her forehead and came back to her senses.

Yue Yunxi retracted her hand and asked what she was thinking about.

“Thinking about when you were drunk and promised me to lend me your blue folder containing all your sheet music.” Lu You looked at her and asked, “Does it still count?”

Yue Yunxi’s eyes behind her eyelashes rippled, a subtle excitement flashed and disappeared, her tone was still calm and gentle, not revealing any extra emotions: “Of course it counts.”

“You’re so generous now, but when we were moving the cello, you protected it like it was some priceless treasure, not letting anyone touch it.” Lu You muttered.

Yue Yunxi was amused by her and explained in a gentle voice, “It wasn’t the right time then.”

Lu You raised her eyebrows: “It’s the right time now?”

Yue Yunxi smiled and said yes.