MTMIO Chapter 36
by VolareThe driver arranged by Zhong Shuyun directly picked up Lu You and Zhong Mi from the airport.
Unlike Nanquan City, which is planted with parasol trees everywhere, the street trees in Xicheng are mostly camphor trees.
The road leading to the old ancestral house of the Zhong family is lined with camphor trees on both sides. The crowns of the trees are spreading, and the branches and leaves are lush. The sunlight leaks through the gaps in the leaves and sprinkles down, paving a mottled road that extends to the end of the road.
Lu You glanced out the window and saw a blue and white road sign standing on the side of the road, which read “Camphor Fragrance Lane.”
“We’re almost there, right next to the thickest tree at the very, very, very front.” Zhong Mi also leaned against the window sill and looked out, “It’s a pity that it’s July now. In April, this road is so fragrant, so fragrant.”
Lu You smiled and said, “April is the flowering season of camphor trees, it is very fragrant.”
“Mom also said that.” Zhong Mi turned around and continued, “She said that camphor trees bloom in April, and the whole city is fragrant, unlike Nanquan, where the whole city is full of catkins, which can cause allergies!”
Lu You was slightly surprised and said, “Is your mother also from Nanquan?”
“Yes!” Zhong Mi nodded and said, “She came to Xicheng from Nanquan, rented Grandma’s house, and met my mommy. Then I was born. It is said that after giving birth to me, Mommy was in a bad mood, and Grandma was not in good health at that time, so Mom took care of me.”
Lu You asked, “What about your father?”
Raising her head, she looked into the rearview mirror and inadvertently met the driver’s eyes.
The other party was looking at her, but for only a second or two, she almost hastily looked away.
Lu You raised her eyebrows.
She always felt that the driver’s eyes were a little subtle, as if she was dissatisfied with Zhong Mi’s father, and also displeased with her question.
“I don’t have a father.” Zhong Mi was not at all shy, and did not avoid this topic, “But my family is still quite complete, because Mommy is super good at making money, Mom is super gentle, and I also have a godmother, Caroline, who is super awesome! At parent-teacher conferences in the past, they would take turns going, and my classmates were so envious of me. So I don’t think a father is a necessity.”
Speaking of parent-teacher conferences, Zhong Mi’s smile was bright, and her curved eyebrows contained a bit of smugness.
These exposed emotions fell into Lu You’s eyes, stirring up very shallow ripples, and rippling with some distant memories.
What she used to fear most was parent-teacher conferences.
When her parents had just divorced, she would still try to contact Zhang Wenyin and ask: Mom, the school is having a parent-teacher conference, Dad is very busy, can you come and attend?
Unfortunately, she never received a response.
No, there was one reply, that person told her: Your mother must have changed her phone number.
Every time, she would be called to the office alone by the teacher and told: This time, parents must be present at the parent-teacher conference.
The word “must” would initially hang in her heart and shake up and down, but later, hearing it was neither painful nor itchy.
If the parents didn’t come, the teacher couldn’t do anything, so she let her sit in her seat and attend her own parent-teacher conference.
So, countless times, she endured the gazes of classmates’ parents, who were either curious, sympathetic, or inquisitive.
Later, after the parent-teacher conference, the homeroom teacher sent her home and suddenly had the idea of visiting her home, but ran into Lu Huai’an at home flirting with a young woman.
She had more strange gazes from the teachers in the office cast at her.
She had a home, a father, and a mother, but it was as if she had nothing.
The car parked in the yard, Lu You smiled lightly and said, “You are a very happy child.”
Then, she opened the door and got out of the car.
“Yeah!” Zhong Mi also got out of the car, turning her gray-blue eyes left and right, and asked the driver, “Auntie Xiao Huan, is Mom back?”
“Yes, she came back this morning.” The driver paused and glanced at Lu You.
Lu You was standing next to the car, looking around.
Both sides of the yard were piled with flower pots, and even abandoned small electric scooters and old tires were transformed into flower pots.
Gladioli rising steadily; elegant and refined blue snowflakes, colorful sunflowers; bougainvillea with flowers like leaves; small and pink verbena, and roses that made a flower wall… set off the old two-story building in front of them with a bit of romantic sentiment.
Lu You couldn’t help but think of Zhang Wenyin again.
In the past, the yard at home was also like this, full of life.
At the end of the yard was a renovated old two-story house, with two balconies, one large and one small, next to each other on the upper floor.
Zhong Mi made a trumpet with her hands and called to the large balcony: “Mom—!”
Before she could call a second time, the driver interrupted: “She’s leaving at noon.”
“Ah? Okay.” Zhong Mi pouted disappointedly, stepped forward and took Lu You’s arm, pointing to the large balcony and said, “That’s the room my grandma rented to my mom.”
Then she pointed to the small balcony next to it and said, “That’s my mommy’s room. Mom said that Mommy always had a dark face and was unhappy, because that big room was originally hers.”
“Later, Mom made money and moved out. Mommy was still unhappy. Mom invited her to play at the new house, but she didn’t go. Then, when she wanted to send Mom something, she didn’t know the address, and her face turned even darker, saying that Mom wasn’t sincerely inviting her because she didn’t even give her the address. Mom said she was a dark cloud, always with a dark face!”
Lu You laughed as she listened. She didn’t expect that the gentle and refined Teacher Zhong had such a side.
Arriving at the door, Zhong Mi rang the doorbell, and suddenly thought to say: “Oh, right, Grandma said that when Mommy was abroad, those two rooms were also rented to Yunxi-jiejie and her mother.”
Lu You raised her eyebrows.
“But I wasn’t born when they came to live there. They moved out after living there for less than three months.”
As she was talking, the Filipino maid opened the door from the inside. Zhong Mi asked her: “Have the tuning tools been taken out?”
The Filipino maid nodded and first took the two of them to the storage room to pick up the tool bag, and then led them to the piano room.
The sound of the piano trickled into the aisle. Lu You recognized it as Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp minor.
Four-against-three rhythm that countless piano students had struggled to master.
The sound of the piano was out of tune, and it sounded like it hadn’t been tuned for half a year, but the pianist’s technique was very good.
Lu You originally thought that the person playing the piano was Zhong Shuyun, but when she got closer, she felt that it was someone else when she heard the wrong notes and pauses.
When Zhong Mi gently pushed open the door, she peeked inside.
The person sitting in front of the piano had her head full of silver hair tied up with a wooden hairpin, and wore a cheongsam with a diagonal collar and a low collar, made of twisted silk and gauze, brown, calm and dignified, with orchid patterns that were graceful and elegant, which complemented her gentle temperament.
It was Zhong’s old lady.
Lu You’s eyes fell on the hands that were playing the piano.
It was still the set of fingering she had never seen before, avoiding the use of the left little finger, and only relying on nine fingers to play four against three, and still be able to play at the current level, it was difficult to imagine how much effort she had spent practicing on weekdays.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Zhong Mi moving forward, and Lu You pulled her and shook her head.
The impassioned and undulating melody, like undulating waves, wrapped the listener and flowed to a gorgeous and colorful world. The granular notes were like floating bubbles, connected to the breath. Every jump was a manifestation of the soul being touched.
The old lady stopped when she couldn’t match the rhythm at the back.
“Grandma!” Zhong Mi then jumped forward and hugged the old lady affectionately from behind.
The old lady happily grabbed her hand and said, “Why are you back, Mi Mi?”
“I came with jiejie.” Zhong Mi glanced at the door.
Seeing that Lu You was still waiting at the door, the old lady hurriedly got up to greet her, and said apologetically, “I’m sorry, I easily get immersed in it when I play the piano, so I neglected you.”
Lu You smiled and said, “It’s okay, listening to you play the piano is a kind of enjoyment.”
The old lady immediately smiled, “I couldn’t match the rhythm at the back, so I made you laugh.”
As she spoke, she led Lu You into the room.
“No, you’re already very good. This song is too much of a test of coordination.” Lu You recalled, “When I first learned it as a child, I couldn’t wait to take my hands apart, fix them, and reassemble them. Later, after playing it more, it got better. It has a kind of cool feeling of impromptu street performance.”
The old lady listened, and the arc of her lips never went down.
Walking to the small round table, she picked up the upside-down teacup from the tea tray, poured hot water and added some cold water, and handed it to Lu You jokingly, “Crying and crying, you conquered it.”
The exact same words, with different timbres, appeared in her mind.
Zhang Wenyin always teased her like this.
Lu You was stunned for a moment, then stretched out her hands to take the teacup and thanked her, asking hesitantly, “How did you know I cried?”
The old lady’s expression froze for a moment, and she smiled and said, “Guessing, did I guess right?”
Lu You nodded: “You guessed right.”
The arc of the old lady’s upturned mouth narrowed slightly with a slow breath, and her eyes gently swept over her slightly Quiteup little finger, “I heard Xiao Yun and Jiao Jiao say that you don’t play the piano anymore?”
The lukewarm water seemed to have solidified under this light inquiry. Lu You swallowed with difficulty, put down the cup, and said “um”, getting straight to the point, “Am I here to tune this piano?”
The old lady nodded and said, “It hasn’t been tuned for half a year. Originally, this piano was upstairs, but it was moved downstairs a while ago.”
It was an old Steinway from some years ago. Lu You spread out her tools and started tuning.
During this time, Zhong Mi, who didn’t know where she had slipped out to, came in from the outside, and said dejectedly, “There’s no iced cola, and no ice cream.”
The old lady rubbed her head and said, “Auntie Yin said you can’t be too spoiled, so she didn’t let me buy it.”
Zhong Mi put her hands on her hips, puffed out her cheeks, stomped her feet and snorted: “Bad Mom!”
The old lady gave Zhong Mi a glass of water, turned her eyes and glanced at the piano.
Lu You’s expression was focused, and her attention was completely focused on the tuning work, and she didn’t pay attention to their conversation.
The old lady took a sip of water absently, put down the cup, and quietly told Zhong Mi to stay here with Lu You, then walked out, gently closing the door, leaving a palm-width gap.
Before long, Lu You listened carefully to the sound of the piano. Inadvertently, the corner of her eye swept across the crack of the door, and she saw a piece of dark green skirt fluttering by.
She didn’t pay attention to it and continued to adjust the sound.
Time passed quietly in the constant ringing of the piano, and before she knew it, the sun had set, and the dark colors were enveloped in the house and lit up by the lights that were turned on.
The fragrance of food was melted in the air and floated into the room through the crack in the door.
Zhong Mi wrinkled her nose and sniffed, excitedly, “It’s braised pork! I’ll go take a look!”
Lu You raised her head and saw that the little girl had already ran out excitedly, and shook her head with a chuckle.
After checking it again for the last time, she finished the tuning work, and while there was no one else around, she played a section of “Kiss the Rain” to test the sound.
She got stuck on the note that required the left little finger to press the key.
She frowned and tried to move the finger joint down with her palm, but she could only maintain two notes at most.
Trying again, she tried to skip the left little finger, but she was like a marionette with misplaced strings, and she couldn’t even control the other finger joints well.
The polished white mother-of-pearl on the pinky ring reflected colorful luster, splashing into her eyes, sometimes cool and sometimes hot, stirring into a ball.
“Knock knock.” Two knocks on the door were heard.
Lu You turned her face and looked over, seeing the old lady standing at the door. She hurriedly got up, subconsciously putting her left hand behind her back, “It’s tuned, would you like to try it?”
The old lady’s eyes raised to her face, and she smiled kindly. She walked forward, smoothed her cheongsam and sat down, stretched out her hands and hovered for a few seconds before dropping them.
Two minutes ago, the rhythm that had been stuck under her fingers, like clouds, surrounded her withered hands, and was played softly and fluffy by a novel fingering, playing a rain that showered into Lu You’s heart.
“It’s just different when the pitch is accurate.” The old lady stroked the keys for a while, then withdrew her hand and said, “Stay for dinner. After dinner, I’ll have Xiao Huan send you back. Mi Mi will stay with me here.”
Lu You didn’t refuse.
Five dishes and a soup were placed on the wooden table, almost all of which she liked to eat, especially the plate of braised pork.
Probably because Zhong Mi had mentioned that she didn’t like to eat fatty meat, so all of it was made with pure lean meat.
Lu You didn’t think much about it and ate politely.
“Don’t you like to eat this braised crucian carp?” the old lady asked.
Lu You swallowed the food in her mouth and said, “I used to like it quite a lot when I was a child, but then one time I ate it and got a fish bone stuck in my throat, so I have a bit of a psychological shadow.”
“Is that so.” The old lady put a piece of braised pork in her bowl, “Then eat more of what you like to eat.”
Lu You thanked her.
Zhong Mi looked at the kitchen, then blinked her eyes and stared at her for a while and asked, “Jiejie, how do you think the taste is?”
Lu You smiled and said, “It’s pretty good.”
She put a chopstick of food into her mouth, and the corners of her mouth slowly straightened. She always felt that the taste was a bit familiar, but she couldn’t remember which restaurant it was like.
When she got up from the dining table after dinner, the old lady suddenly asked, “I heard you playing Lee Ru-ma’s “Kiss the Rain” just now. Is your left little finger injured?”
Lu You was stunned and said honestly, “It was broken before, and the nerves didn’t connect well after it was reconnected.”
Passing by the kitchen, there was a crisp sound from inside, like dishes falling to the ground.
Lu You turned her head and looked inside through the upper half of the glass of the kitchen door.
The person inside had just bent down to clean up, and didn’t show her face.
“Take it easy, it’s okay, don’t cut your hand.” The old lady instructed, turned her eyes back, led Lu You and continued to walk to the door, “Do you want to pick up the piano again?”
Lu You hesitated and didn’t answer directly.
“You can play with new fingering, like I just did.”
The old lady stretched out her left hand in front of her, and the broken finger was deformed, which looked a bit shocking.
“My hand was crushed by a machine when I used to work in a workshop. At that time, I thought I would never be able to touch the piano again. Later, when they researched the fingering and taught me, I still felt that it would definitely not work. Of course, there was also some resistance in my emotions.”
“Xiao Yun’s father and I met through the piano. Later, he also met someone else through the piano… My feelings for the piano are a bit complicated, both liking and hating it.
However, the year before last, Yunxi came back to visit me and asked me, Grandma, why did you learn the piano in the first place?”
Hearing this, Lu You’s heart was slightly moved, and circles of ripples spread out, echoing similar words that Yue Yunxi had said to her.
“I thought for a long time and figured it out. Yes, I’m not playing the piano for that old bastard. But I’m still a little worried, after all, it’s been many years since I played, and my hand is still in this state.
Then Yunxi said to me again, Grandma, some things are definitely not possible if you just think about it. You have to try it.”
As the words stopped, the old lady held the doorknob and didn’t rush to open it. Instead, she turned her head and looked at her, asking, “What about you? Do you want to try it too?”
The door was pushed open, and the sound-activated light on the wall lit up, casting a pale light, illuminating the night in front of Lu You. She moved her lips and spoke after a moment, “Then, let’s try it.”
The old lady smiled and said, “I’ll notify them later and have Xiao Yun teach you well.”
Lu You smiled and thanked her.
“You’re welcome.” The old lady breathed a sigh of relief, “Now, Yunxi should be relieved.”
The car drove out of the garage, turned around, and the tires rolled over the small stones. The subtle sounds intertwined with the noisy cicadas and the hustle and bustle of the night market in the distance. The old lady’s words were so light that they were almost covered by these fragmented sounds.
But Lu You’s ears were sensitive and captured them clearly.
She looked at the old lady and suddenly remembered Yue Yunxi’s murmured “Old Zhong” last night.
Even after getting into the car and leaving the road full of camphor trees, Lu You was still in a daze.
She rested her head on her hand that was supporting her head on the narrow window sill, and her eyes fell on the outside of the car window. The splashed ink night was as thick as in a dream, and the blank moon chased after her all the way in the silence.
An absurd idea grew wildly in her mind with an unstoppable force.
ˉ
When Chen Feifei received the text message from Lu You, she had just blown her hair half-dry. As soon as she turned off the hair dryer, she heard the sound of the piano coming from outside the shower room.
The melody of “Wonderful U.”
On the way back today, she shared an earphone with Yun Zhu. After this song ended, she habitually went back and listened to it again.
At that time, Yun Zhu asked her with amusement, “Why are you listening to it again?”
She replied, “I always listen to my favorite songs at least twice in a loop.”
Yun Zhu smiled meaningfully and listened to it twice with her.
Opening the door and going out, the room was not lit because Yun Zhu said that playing the violin in this environment would have a different feeling.
Chen Feifei didn’t understand what kind of feeling it was, but only knew that the way this person played the violin in the dark was quite sassy, even her hair would dance.
She followed the sound of the piano and turned her head towards the French window.
The small bamboo forest was painted in a heavy black by the night, and the branches and leaves were connected, holding the bright or dark stars and the hazy moon, and the silvery light fell on the strings.
But the person playing the violin was standing in the shadows.
Chen Feifei slowed down her steps and walked over.
After a while, Yun Zhu stopped pulling the bow, and her eyes turned to her from the corner of her eyes, “I suddenly remembered that my mother used to like this song very much too.”
From the time she met Yun Zhu to the time they spent together these days, Chen Feifei felt that she was becoming more and more like her name, as ethereal and free as a cloud, and as hard and heartless as bamboo.
She was carefree and didn’t care about anything.
But now, when Chen Feifei looked at her, what she thought of were the words “soft” and “fragile,” which didn’t seem to be related to her.
Yun Zhu lowered the violin and bent down to put it in the violin case on the small table next to her.
Through the dim moonlight, Chen Feifei could still vaguely see the violin kiss on her neck.
Chen Feifei asked, “What do you like now?”
Yun Zhu stood up straight and shrugged, “Lullaby, maybe.”
Chen Feifei raised her eyebrows, not understanding.
Yun Zhu smiled and added, “If she has been reincarnated.”
Chen Feifei was stunned.
Yun Zhu glanced at her. She had just finished taking a shower, and the damp breath and the scent of shower gel on her body were still very strong, like grass that had been wet by dew at night.
“What were you looking at just now?”
Chen Feifei flicked her hair and tucked it behind her ear, “I wasn’t looking at anything.”
The fragrance was even more fragrant, lingering around Yun Zhu’s nose.
“Xiao Lu likes to touch the tip of her nose when she lies, and you like to flick your hair when you lie?” Yun Zhu teased in a low voice.
“Tch, I’m so good at lying that no one can see any clues.” Chen Feifei was about to get her phone, but her body was only halfway turned when Yun Zhu pulled her back.
“You’re looking at me.” Yun Zhu’s voice was even lower.
Chen Feifei raised her eyes and met her dim eyes, her heart skipped a beat, and her voice tightened: “I’m looking at you…”
The words that followed were blocked by softness. Chen Feifei’s brain went blank for a moment. When she came back to her senses, her raised hand curled up slightly, and she was about to push the person away, but she stroked the other person’s neck, along the direction in her memory, caressing the place where the violin kiss had left its mark.
Almost in an instant, the light kiss deepened, like that morning, even more intense than that morning, as if it was full of deep desire and the desire to break free from shackles.
The feeling of suffocation and the reality brought by the slight pain gave Chen Feifei a sense of division.
She seemed to be divided into two halves, one half soberly watching, and the other half frantically immersed in it.
After they separated, Yun Zhu touched her face and said in a hoarse voice, “It’s so hot.”
After a slight pause, she asked her, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I think you might be a little sick. You just grab people and kiss them. I’m telling you, there won’t be a fourth time. If there is a next time, you’ll have to pay for mental damage!” Chen Feifei turned around and took her phone, and saw two messages from Lu You.
The first one: [I’m gonna die!!]
The second one: [Can you come find me on the second floor of the small courtyard]
Hearing Yun Zhu mutter, “You also kissed back very enthusiastically.”
Chen Feifei’s face flushed again. She took a breath and wanted to refute, but couldn’t find the words to fight back, so she could only slowly exhale the breath she had been holding in, “I’m not going to argue with you. Yoyo is looking for me, I’m leaving.”
Yun Zhu pursed her lips, picked up the violin and put it on her shoulder. When it touched the side of her neck, she suddenly stiffened.
After a moment, she put down the violin and raised her hand to touch the faint red mark, as if she could still feel the residual warmth on it.
ˉ
About five or six minutes later, Chen Feifei arrived at the second-floor terrace of the courtyard.
A mosquito repellent lamp was lit under the coffee table, and the sound of mosquitoes being burned crackled. Lu You was nestling in the chair next to her, smoking, and looked up at her.
“What the hell, I thought you were going to jump off a building. What’s gonna kill you? Why are you not staying in the air-conditioned room at night, but feeding the mosquitoes here?” Chen Feifei rummaged through the plastic bag placed on the table, took out mosquito repellent and sprayed it wildly on her body.
“I can’t stay in that room right now.”
“Why?”
The smell of mosquito repellent was choking. Lu You was holding a cigarette in her fingers and didn’t smoke it anymore. She waved her hand in front of her nose, “Oh, I don’t know how to say it.”
“Make a long story short, make a short story long, and talk about it before you say it. Why don’t you know how to say it? Hurry up and say it!” Chen Feifei output a torrent of words like a tongue twister.
Lu You brushed her hair and pondered for a long time, then cautiously opened her mouth and said, “I don’t know if I’m too narcissistic and thinking too much, or what. I think Yunxi-jiejie is a little too good to me, so good that I even think she is…”
Her shame flared up, and she couldn’t say the last three words. She was also afraid that her words would come true, and if she said it, it would become real.
Who knew that Chen Feifei would be silent for a moment and continue, “I think you can take out the ‘think’.”
Lu You was stunned.
“Do you remember the time we ate hot pot?” Chen Feifei added, “The day it rained, the time the goddess picked you up.”
Lu You nodded.
“Actually, when I saw you tagging the employees in the group to remember to bring an umbrella, I was going to bring two umbrellas to pick you up, but the goddess intercepted me. She was so anxious that she forgot to bring an umbrella. You said, if she wasn’t interested in you, would she have picked you up in such heavy rain?”
Lu You’s heart was pounding as she listened, subconsciously trying to find something to refute, “Weren’t you also going to pick me up?”
“Can I be the same? We’ve been friends for so many years and have such a deep friendship.”
“I’ve known her for longer than you.”
“Also, when you and Li Can were chatting away over there while eating hot pot, the goddess added water for you.” Chen Feifei glanced at her and sped up her speech, “You want to say that she poured water for everyone, right? But! Do you know that Yun Zhu ridiculed her, and her tone was obviously joking that the goddess was adding water for you alone, and added ours on the way.”
Lu You opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she heard Chen Feifei list another one.
“There’s also, when we went to the escape room, the goddess wasn’t afraid, and Yun Zhu teased her that she was charging for love.”
Lu You widened her eyes slightly, “…Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“I wasn’t sure. At that time, Yun Zhu said she was joking, and I was afraid that if it wasn’t, it would be too embarrassing for you to face the goddess.”
Lu You’s spine was stiff, and she still didn’t dare to admit it, hypnotizing herself and saying, “Maybe it was just a joke.”
“No, don’t you also suspect it yourself?” Chen Feifei couldn’t stand her denying everything she said, slapped her forehead, and let out a long sigh, “So why do you think the goddess likes you?”
Lu You rubbed her temples with her thumb.
No matter how many times she tried to deny this absurd conjecture, she would dig out more clues in the details of her memories to confirm that this was not an illusion.
“I went to tune the piano for Teacher Zhong’s mother today. She said to let Teacher Zhong teach me new fingering to play the piano.”
“Really!” Chen Feifei said happily, “That’s great!”
Lu You pursed her lips, smiled weakly, and sighed, “It seems to be arranged by Yunxi-jiejie.”
Chen Feifei widened her eyes in shock. After a long while, she still couldn’t help but sigh, “She loves you so much.”
Lu You: “…”
“Just kidding, just kidding.” Chen Feifei suddenly remembered something and clapped her hands, “Oh right! It was the same last time!”
Afraid of disturbing her grandma and the others from resting, Lu You reminded her to keep her voice down and asked, “What?”
“It was the time we went to the yacht. Before we went, the goddess contacted me and said she wanted to play “Kiss the Rain”, asked me to familiarize myself with the score in advance, and also asked me to play with you at that time, saying she wanted you to try the piano again.”
The cigarette had burned down to only a small section, and the heat was transferred to her fingertips.
It is said that the ten fingers are connected to the heart. For a moment, Lu You felt as if the tip of her heart had been scorched.
She got up, extinguished the cigarette and threw it into the trash can, and walked back after brushing her hair, “Why didn’t you tell me about this either?”
“She didn’t let me say it. She said that you were very sad about Tao Xin’s matter, so she wanted to give you a surprise. I thought she was Tao Xin’s sister, who knew about the messed up things her sister had done, and wanted to make up for you a little. So I didn’t think much about it. Now I feel that she should have already liked you at that time.”
Lu You walked back and forth in front of Chen Feifei like an ant on a hot pot, her long hair was messed up by her brushing it. Finally, Chen Feifei couldn’t help but ask, “What’s wrong with you?”
She stopped, took a bottle of ice beer from the bag, opened the ring, and took a gulp.
The bubbles were jumping in her throat, squeezing out a sentence without a head or tail: “Before you came, I suddenly had the idea to check her WeChat profile picture.”
“I remember that her profile picture is a still from Shunji Iwai’s April Story,” Chen Feifei had a flash of inspiration, and her voice suddenly stopped. She turned her face to look at Lu You, “How long has she been using that profile picture?”
Lu You’s shoulders collapsed, and she twitched the corners of her mouth to force out a bitter arc, “…It seems to be for three or four years.”
Chen Feifei rolled her throat: “Oh my god, then she liked you before you and Tao Xin were together!”
Slumping back into the chair, Lu You rubbed the Easy cancan with water droplets condensing on it, “Maybe not, oh, I don’t know, that’s not the point, the point is what should I do now?”
“It depends on what you think.” Chen Feifei asked, “How do you feel about her?”
Lu You pursed her lips and didn’t say anything. She took another sip. The violent coolness mixed with bitterness filled her lips and teeth, soaking her heart with coldness, but her head was hot and swollen.
Seeing that she was confused and couldn’t figure out anything, Chen Feifei directly offered a suggestion, “If you also have a good impression of her, then get along ambiguously and let things take their course. If you have no interest in her in that regard at all, then either, give her the cold shoulder, be a little distant. The goddess is so smart, she’ll probably understand after one or two times.”
“…That’s not very good, is it? If she doesn’t get it, wouldn’t it be like I’m hanging her?”
“Why do I feel like you’re saying that you’re not interested in her?” Chen Feifei stared at her for a while, but unfortunately it was too dark to see her expression, so she had to continue, “I haven’t finished my words yet. Either, you can be more straightforward and cut the Gordian knot and explain it to her clearly.”
“Wouldn’t that be too unfeeling and cold-blooded?” Lu You hesitated, “I still owe her a lot of favors, although I feel like I can’t pay them all back.”
“It’s okay, be sincere and she should be able to understand, right?” Chen Feifei said, “After all, feelings can’t be forced.”
Lu You sighed with her face in her hands.
Chen Feifei also sighed briefly with her.
Seeing that she looked really depressed, Chen Feifei shared her recent kissing with Yun Zhu to divert her attention.
Lu You was so shocked that she almost choked on her ice beer: “What is this between you two?”
Chen Feifei shrugged, “She might be a rich lady who’s curious about the things between people of the same gender, and wants to try it out. I’m just playing along, just taking it as a indulgence before entering the life arranged by my mom.”
Upholding the principle of not understanding but respecting, Lu You nodded, didn’t say anything else, just told Chen Feifei not to play too much and hurt herself and others.
Chen Feifei said “hmm”.
After chatting with her for a while, Chen Feifei left.
After seeing Chen Feifei off, Lu You went back to the house, went to the shower room to wash up with irritability, and then lay down on the bed. She tossed and turned for a while, clutching her phone and opening the memo, pondering the beginning of a small essay.
Before a word could be squeezed out, a call display popped up on the screen. The four words “Yunxi-jiejie” were reflected into her eyes, and the phone vibrated in her palm at the same time.
Lu You was startled, slowed down a little, pressed the answer and turned on the speakerphone, subconsciously holding her breath.
Yue Yunxi spoke first, “Are you still at the station? Where are you?”
Lu You was a little confused: “Huh?”
“Can’t you find the way?”
It was still the gentle tone of a woman from Jiangnan, but the speed was faster than usual, mixed with an almost flustered breath.
Lu You heard her communicating with others in English over there.
It seemed that she was saying that her friend couldn’t find the way, and the car couldn’t drive into the mall. She got out of the car to find her and asked the driver to open the door.
Lu You’s mind turned quickly, and she suddenly sat up from the bed and asked, “Did you encounter any trouble?”
Before she finished speaking, the call was hung up.
Lu You hurriedly dialed another one, but it rang for a long time without anyone answering. She hung up and dialed again, but it still wasn’t connected.
The heavy cello melody echoed in her ears again and again, hanging her heart high and frying it in a pan of oil.
The news of Chinese people encountering danger abroad that she had seen in the past kept flashing in her mind, but she couldn’t do anything