MTMIO Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Yue Yunxi Gently Scratched Her Waist

Chapter 33: Yue Yunxi gently scratched her waist.

Xicheng’s geographical location is extremely advantageous, surrounded by mountains and rivers, with everything from ancient towns to natural scenic spots, the scenery is excellent.

In the following days, under the guidance of the tour guide hired by Yue Yunxi, the group went sea fishing on a fisherman’s boat, and even sent the goose they won from the ring toss game to the kitchen to add to their meal. They listened to the babbling streams in the scenic area with towering peaks and shimmering lakes, gazing at the distant mountains. In the long alleys of the town, with its green bricks and gray tiles, they made pottery, ate various delicacies, and listened to the sound of ice clinking against the walls…

During this time, many small episodes also occurred.

While sea fishing, Chen Feifei got seasick and was dragged by Yun Zhu to the side of the boat to chum the water, which made her so angry she almost exploded: “Okay, okay, you caught me this morning–”

The nausea from the seasickness surged up, suppressing her words.

The sound reached Lu You’s ears, and she couldn’t help but turn her head to look at the two of them.

She saw Yun Zhu glance at Chen Feifei and ask, “Caught you to do what?”

From her eyes to her tone, she seemed to really not know what happened that morning, only her ears were flushed red.

It was hard to tell if they were reddened by the sun or something else.

Chen Feifei waved her hand, vomiting so badly that she was about to fall into the sea. Yun Zhu wrapped her arm around her waist and pulled her back. She was wearing a cropped top, and Yun Zhu’s arm was pressed tightly against her lower abdomen.

The collision of body temperatures made them both freeze in place.

Coming back to her senses, Yun Zhu withdrew her hand as if shocked, and Chen Feifei quickly ordered Lu You to take her to the cabin to rest.

Sitting on the seat in the cabin, after she recovered, Lu You asked curiously, “What did you two talk about that night?”

Chen Feifei vaguely confessed: “I don’t remember very clearly, it seems we talked about how women kiss women, how they do it, and stuff like that.”

Lu You didn’t expect it to be such a restricted topic. After digesting it for a while, she said, “…No wonder Yun Zhu wanted to bite you. I guess you talked too deeply and had that kind of dream, and confused reality with the dream.”

“Maybe, oh well, let it be.” Chen Feifei turned over, facing the back of the sofa, and sighed, “It’s useless to think about it. Being friends can last longer, but if we become lovers, we won’t even be able to be friends anymore.”

Lu You opened her mouth slightly, wanting to say something, but suddenly thought of herself and Tao Xin, and finally pursed her lips lightly.

She ended the topic there.

Later, when they went to eat, Zhong Mi cried for half an hour for the goose that had been made into an old goose pot, and while eating, she wiped away her tears and sniffed her nose, saying, “Ah~ so fragrant!”

After the meal, holding her bulging little belly, she burped and said, “So delicious!~”

It made everyone forget their troubles.

The next day, when they went out, Li Can and Jian Yanzhi didn’t know where they rented electric wheelchairs from. Lu You’s emotions were constantly switching between embarrassment and the joy of not having to walk.

Stopping at the rest area to buy milk tea, she sat in the wheelchair, enduring the stares of passersby, wishing she could disappear into the ground.

Seeing this, Yue Yunxi specially bought her a very beautiful straw hat and a mask with a slit in the middle.

Lu You handed Yue Yunxi her half-finished lemon tea to hold, and happily put on the hat and mask.

Lifting her eyelids, her gaze swept over the different amounts of lemon tea in Yue Yunxi’s left and right hands, over the braid hanging on her side, and landed on the same straw hat on her head. Lu You was stunned for a moment.

Then, she saw Yue Yunxi raise the hand holding her lemon tea, and her red lips parted slightly, holding the straw.

Lu You: “…”

A few minutes ago, that straw was still wrapped in her warm mouth.

When Yue Yunxi handed her her cup, Lu You’s mood was even more complicated than the ingredients in the milk tea.

She thought that Yue Yunxi might have mixed up the two cups of lemon tea.

Feeling that saying it would be more embarrassing than touring the scenic spot in a wheelchair, she had to take the milk tea as if nothing had happened.

After a long time, feeling hot from playing, Lu You subconsciously took a sip of lemon tea, suddenly remembering this, and hurriedly spat out the straw, as if she had drunk a mouthful of strong liquor, burning her into losing her expression.

Grandma happened to see it and asked her, “What’s wrong? Is it not tasty?”

“…” Lu You closed her eyes, “It’s not very tasty.”

Not tasty in another sense.

Yue Yunxi paused her hand movement, her long eyelashes drooping silently for a moment, then picked up the cup, bit the straw, and flattened the top.

Just as Lu You raised her head, she caught a glimpse of this scene, and the lips under her mask couldn’t help but pursed.

On second thought, what’s the big deal?

When Yue Shao took her and Tao Xin out to play when they were little, the money spent was only enough to buy a bottle of water, and they took turns drinking.

Now it’s just a grown-up version, no big deal.

As long as you don’t overthink it, it’s all socialist sisterhood.

Lu You did a good job of psychological construction, adhering to the principle of not wasting, and still finished the lemon tea.

They walked and stopped along the way, taking many beautiful moments and interesting group photos.

When they got to the last scenic spot, the group squatted, stood, or sat on the rocks, watching the sunset intoxicate the distant mountains and smoky clouds, and the rosy glow dyed the sky.

In the blue hour of sunset, the sky was a cool blue, and the horizon retained the kiss mark of the sunset. In the instant of the collision of cool and warm tones, a passing photography blogger took a group photo for them.

The photographer stepped forward to ask for their consent, as she wanted to post the photo on social media.

Lu You and the photography blogger added each other as friends, and agreed that she would send the photos to her by email when she got back.

Grandma instructed Lu You: “Right, remember to ask Yunxi for the photos taken before, wash them all out, and I’ll put them in the album.”

Lu You nodded in response: “Yeah, I remember.”

She suddenly remembered that she had taken a photo with the college students on the top of the mountain that time, and Yue Yunxi hadn’t sent it to her yet.

When Yue Yunxi half-hugged and half-supported her down from the rocks, Lu You asked about this.

Yue Yunxi’s eyelashes trembled slightly, she was silent for a moment, and said pretentiously calmly, “It’s been a little too busy since then, the photos haven’t been processed yet, I’ll send them to you when they’re done.”

Lu You didn’t doubt her and responded with a smile.

On Friday, the itinerary was arranged on the most prosperous commercial street in Xicheng. Yue Yunxi and the others all carried their instrument cases before going out.

On the way, Li Can spun a bamboo flute in his hand and sighed, “I haven’t played the bamboo flute for a long time, I’m so afraid of dragging Grandma Zhong down.”

Zhong Mi covered her mouth and snickered, “Take it easy, if you drag her down, Grandma will post a diss on WeChat Moments.”

Lu You was confused and asked Yue Yunxi in puzzlement, “Are you going to play together with someone?”

Yue Yunxi explained, “Teacher Zhong Shuyun’s hometown is also in Xicheng, and her mother plays the piano there in the mall every Friday. Before coming, I contacted her old lady and arranged to play a song together today.”

In front of the fountain on the first floor of the mall stood a grand piano.

When they arrived, Grandma Zhong was already sitting in front of the piano, with a head of silver hair and a kind face. Time seemed to have only left traces on her skin, but her spirit was still strong. A blue-green cheongsam set off her elegant and noble temperament.

But the most eye-catching thing was her hands dancing on the keys.

A section of her left little finger was missing!

Lu You slowly clenched her left hand, only her little finger was slightly Quite, and a slight pain and itch faintly came from the scar of the severed finger.

That day, Yue Yunxi and the others played Yanni’s “Nightingale” with Grandma Zhong.

The melodious flute sound, like moonlight covering the wilderness, the nightingale sang. Then came the clear piano sound, without interruption, smoothly blending in.

Lu You widened her eyes slightly.

In her sight, Grandma Zhong’s hand, which had been marked by the years, moved and jumped smoothly between black and white with a fingering technique she had never seen before at a very fast speed.

The music was hot and loud, echoing the surging fountain, becoming more and more high-pitched, and then suddenly stopped in the midst of the contention.

The old lady’s hand, hanging over the keys, trembled slightly in Lu You’s eyes.

At that moment, it seemed that countless orioles took off from her heart.

The hurricane stirred up by their wings had not subsided for a long time…

ˉ

That night, Lu You sat on the bed with one leg curled up, turning the pinky ring on her left little finger, staring down at the faint brown-red scar.

Pressed by the pinky ring, it was like a red fish struggling in confinement.

She could still faintly feel the pain oozing from inside, throbbing and throbbing to her heart.

“How does your ankle feel these days?” Yue Yunxi asked after applying the ointment to her. She twisted the cap back on the tube of ointment, but didn’t hear a response. She lifted her eyelids and glanced at her, following her gaze to her little finger, “Youyou…”

“Ah?” Lu You came back to her senses, “Oh, it’s much better, at least I don’t need a wheelchair. Right! I have to tell Lizi and the others to return the wheelchair.”

She lowered her right hand to her side to touch her phone.

“Last time I asked you, if you had the chance, would you be willing to play the piano with both hands, you didn’t answer me.” Yue Yunxi suddenly opened her mouth.

Not touching the phone on the right, Lu You subconsciously reached for the left side with her left hand. Hearing this, her hand stopped abruptly.

Yue Yunxi asked her softly, “What about this time?”

Lu You’s hand, clutching the phone, moved back in front of her, and her downward gaze fell heavily on the pinky ring. She sighed and said, “I don’t know.”

If it were before, she would never have said these struggles and entanglements to Yue Yunxi, after all, the relationship between the two of them hadn’t reached that point.

But now, maybe it was Yue Yunxi’s tone that was too gentle, so gentle that it had a kind of magic that induced people to confide their inner thoughts, maybe it was that she hadn’t had someone to listen to her true thoughts for more than ten years, she had been holding it in for too long, and she really lacked it too much.

So, after this second inquiry, she said honestly, “My mood about playing the piano is a bit complicated. There’s a saying that the reason why half a glass of water makes people feel uncomfortable is because they can’t figure out whether it’s unable to be filled or what’s left.

That’s how I can’t figure out why I’m so obsessed with the piano.”

Of course it was because she liked it.

Without liking it, how could she restrain her desires and sit in front of the piano for most of the day repeating a song? Without liking it, how could she endure spring sleepiness, autumn fatigue, hot summers, and cold winters, and persist in the monotonous training day after day? Without liking it, without liking it, how could she still choose a tuning career closely related to the piano after losing a finger?

Yue Yunxi didn’t interrupt, she thought that Lu You would say this, there must be unknown troubles and knots.

“Do you know that my… mother, used to play the piano too?”

For a while, Zhang Wenying and Yue Shao had a good relationship and often talked about the past.

Before getting married, Zhang Wenying was a member of the symphony orchestra and also had her own studio to teach children to play the piano. She had participated in many competitions and won many awards.

She could have had a development like Zhong Shuyun, but she met Lu Huai’an.

Yue Yunxi hummed in agreement.

“After getting married, she focused all her attention on the family. From the time I was sensible, the most I heard was her fantasizing about wearing a very beautiful dress and playing piano pieces on a big stage.

So, I also had this dream. Later, they divorced, and she told me…”

Lu You’s voice stopped, paused for a moment, and then opened her mouth again, changing the subject, “She wants to pursue her lost dream, so I was thinking, if I can, is there a chance to see her again in some competition, or in some orchestra? In fact, when I first chose the tuning major, I also thought about whether there was a chance to tune her piano for her.”

Lu You’s head drooped lower and lower. At the end of her speech, she raised her hand to cover her face, “I don’t know why I play the piano anymore. If it’s for her, I have no desire to see her now. I don’t know if I can persist, I don’t know how far I can go.”

The sound leaking from between her fingers became wet, and the mist moistened the tip of Yue Yunxi’s heart, soaking it wet.

In the clear memory of wiping away the water vapor, it was Lu You in the second grade, who skillfully played Czerny 740 no.11 at a literary performance held by the elementary school.

At that time, the boring and tedious practice of the piano almost wiped out Yue Yunxi’s interest in music, until that day, she saw Lu You playing the piano.

She had never seen any child like Lu You, showing a state that was obviously enjoying the process of playing music.

Even the music teacher was saying that this child’s future was limitless.

There was an accident on the stage that day, there were no lights, and it was a cloudy day, but Lu You’s playing made the dim light seem to have the color of moonlight, directly reflected into Yue Yunxi’s eyes.

How shocked she was at that time.

Now, how much she felt sorry for her.

The pride of heaven fell into the mortal world, and her self-confidence had long been crushed together with her little finger.

Amidst the chaos of her thoughts, Yue Yunxi heard Lu You sniffle, raised her eyes and looked over, only to see her drooping her head, rubbing her eyes, and her cascading long hair hanging down, making it impossible to see the expression on her face clearly.

Feeling her head being stroked very lightly twice, Lu You’s hand rubbing her eyes paused for a moment, and slowly lowered.

“Maybe she is one of the reasons why you love the piano and music, not all of them. If you can’t tell the difference, then when you have time, think carefully about what kind of emotion it was when you first heard someone play the piano? What kind of feeling was it when you first touched the keys yourself? What kind of mood was it when you played your favorite song completely for the first time?”

Lu You was stunned, and her eyelashes trembled slightly.

Immediately afterwards, a wet and cool touch slid across the back of her hand, it was the wet tissue Yue Yunxi handed over.

“I didn’t cry.” Lu You muttered, “Just almost.”

Yue Yunxi breathed a sigh of relief imperceptibly: “Then apply it to your eyes that have worked hard to hold back tears.”

Lu You: “.”

“I’m going out to meet a very important person tomorrow, don’t cosplay a panda again.” There was a bit of teasing in Yue Yunxi’s voice.

“…” Lu You unfolded the wet tissue and applied it to her eyelids, “Who are you meeting?”

After a pause, Yue Yunxi replied, “A very important person.”

Lu You twitched the corners of her mouth: “Listening to you is better than listening to nothing.”

Yue Yunxi silently hooked her lips.

Lu You suddenly remembered something, which even caused her brain to crash for a few seconds.

After a while, she suppressed the surging, indistinguishable emotion in her heart, and raised one eyebrow and asked, “Could it be that you’re going to see the person you like?”

The tone of a gossip.

Yue Yunxi raised her eyes and glanced over, watching her lean back slightly with her hands supporting the bed, her pink lips slightly parted, and a long, folded wet tissue covering her closed eyelids.

Unable to see anything.

“Sort of.” Yue Yunxi picked up the bag containing the medicine and got up.

“Is it or isn’t it? What does ‘sort of’ mean…?” Lu You pulled off the wet tissue and stared at her back as she walked towards the table.

As soon as she asked, she regretted it. Such a pursuit made her seem particularly concerned about that exact answer.

So much so that Yue Yunxi’s silence for a moment became subtle.

Yue Yunxi turned her head to look at her, and after a glance of no more than a second, her gaze fell to the wet tissue she was holding in her hand, “Are you done using it? Give it to me when you’re done.”

Changing the subject, in the current situation, was like a shy evasion.

It was hard to describe this momentary feeling, making it unclear whether it was curiosity, or anticipation for tomorrow… or other more chaotic components that accounted for a greater proportion.

When she got closer, Lu You handed the wet tissue over, and then pulled the topic back and asked, “So, what does ‘sort of’ mean?”

The wet tissue was pinched between Yue Yunxi’s fingers, and she said in a low voice, “Sort of means sort of. Did you send a WeChat message to Lizi and tell her to return the wheelchair tomorrow?”

“Changing the subject again.”

Lu You muttered in a low voice, and didn’t repeat her question. She moved to the head of the bed, sat down in the quilt, and sent a message to Li Can.

Throwing away the wet tissue, Yue Yunxi walked to the light switch and said, “I’m turning off the lights.”

“Okay.” Lu You turned on the flashlight on her phone to illuminate her, “Have I met that very important person before?”

“Yes.” Yue Yunxi instructed, “Remember to dress up nicely tomorrow.”

Lu You clicked her tongue, “So much importance, and you still don’t admit it’s the person you like.”

Yue Yunxi, like a cat, was climbing towards the head of the bed, and when she heard the sound, her posture froze, and she raised her head to look over.

Today she changed into a silk nightgown, a silk suspender dress. Under the faint white light of the flashlight, the V-neck hung down, and the scenery of the snow-capped mountains was vaguely visible.

Lu You lowered her eyes, turned off the flashlight, and listened to Yue Yunxi moving closer in the dark.

Her head was tapped, the force was very light. Lu You subconsciously raised her face along that side, and in the clear moonlight, met a pair of bright eyes.

What followed was Yue Yunxi’s soft voice:

“Curiosity killed the deer, you’ll know tomorrow, think about playing the piano, that’s the most important thing.”

“…Oh.” Lu You slowly slid down, lying down with her back to Yue Yunxi.

Yue Yunxi added, “Don’t think too long either, go to sleep early, Panda Deer.”

Lu You hummed, “Got it, I’ll dress properly, to see your sweetheart–”

Before she could finish speaking, she gasped.

Yue Yunxi’s hand gently scratched her waist.

The aroused itch made Lu You’s whole body shake like a sieve, instinctively twisting her body to avoid Yue Yunxi’s tickling.

She twisted until she turned around to face herself, and Yue Yunxi stopped her hand, “Don’t talk nonsense again.”

Scolding words, but with a gentle tone.

Caught between Lu You’s rapid, shallow breaths.

Stirred out a hint of ambiguity.

Lu You turned over and turned her back, recovered for a while, and said, “I won’t say it, don’t tickle me, it’s not appropriate.”

Yue Yunxi curled her fingers and squeezed out a “hmm” from her congested throat.

Lu You picked up her phone and swiped it absentmindedly for a while, without even looking closely at Huang Zhixu’s latest updates.

After sliding her hand on the screen for half an hour, she turned off her phone and glanced out the window before closing her eyes to brew sleepiness.

The night was like overturned aged vinegar, soaking a round of egg white.