Chapter 14 14. Lying in your closet

"Teacher Zhuang, I'm leaving now. We'll see each other more often in the future."

Xie Kang blinked and said this before letting go and letting the glass door close.

Zhuang Yongyuan returned to the sofa, picked up the guitar, and strummed a few notes randomly.

Xu Zhen, who was counting the tuition fees Xie Kang had paid, saw Zhuang Yongyuan looking unhappy and asked him, "Are you unhappy?"

Zhuang Yongyuan shook his head: "Not really."

Xu Zhen pulled out a hundred-yuan bill from the stack of money, shook the remaining money in front of Zhuang Yongyuan, put it in front of him, and said, "Here, these are all yours."

Zhuang Yongyuan looked at the money, then at Xu Zhen, and said hesitantly, "Do you really want me to teach him?"

"Didn't we agree on this? Xiao Xie already calls you Teacher Zhuang."

"I..." Zhuang Yongyuan opened his palm, looked at his palm, and said, "Can I?"

"I said you can, of course you can, I'm a professional." Xu Zhen said, pointing to his graduation certificate on the wall.

She asked again: "By the way, did you know Xiao Xie before?"

Zhuang Yongyuan curled his lips and said, "Everyone in the school knows him."

Xu Zhen nodded: "Yes, he looks like that kind of student."

"What kind of students?"

"The kind of student who's very popular. Good-looking, naturally smart, and from a wealthy family. Liked by teachers and classmates. There were always people like that when I was in school. Are you the same now?"

Zhuang Yongyuan looked at Xu Zhen: "I thought you were too?"

"Me?" Xu Zhen smiled. "Everyone must think I'm weird."

Zhuang Yongyuan plucked his guitar strings a few times irritably and said, "But he's very uncultured. He appears to be very enthusiastic, but behind his back he might actually look down on many people."

"Why?" Xu Zhen asked curiously, "I don't think so."

Zhuang Yongyuan said nothing, packing his guitar bag, putting his guitar in it, and carrying it on his back to leave. Xu Zhen stopped him and said, "You forgot to take your money."

"I don't want money. You gave me a guitar and taught me to play, but I don't have money to pay you. I'm just paying you back with this money."

"I did it on my own terms, and you don't owe me anything." Xu Zhen caught up and stuffed the stack of money into Zhuang Yongyuan's guitar bag.

Zhuang Yongyuan looked down at the stack of money and asked, "Why?"

He really wanted the money. If he could earn it himself, he wouldn't have to ask his parents for it all the time.

"I've told you many times that you're very talented and I don't want you to be buried."

"Talent..." Zhuang Yongyuan touched the outline of the guitar neck through the guitar case.

"I'm very strict and won't praise people casually."

Zhuang Yongyuan's eyes were confused. "Even if I did, so what? I can't possibly be as rich as you and go abroad to study music."

He cleared his throat. "Is it too redundant for me to have this kind of talent? Xie Kang's talent is more useful."

"I can't give you any life advice." Xu Zhen shrugged. "I don't understand it myself."

"Okay, don't be so depressed. At least you can still play the piano whenever you want. No one can predict what will happen in the future. Xie Kang may also be worried about something behind the scenes."

"He doesn't have it." Zhuang Yongyuan muttered.

He put his guitar on his back, left the shop, and returned home. The barber shop was empty, and the smell of hot hair cream was overwhelming. His father, Zhuang Fu, was smoking and talking on the phone by the window, speaking in a very aggressive tone.

Zhuang Yongyuan lowered his steps and tried to sneak up the stairs, but was still seen by Zhuang Fu.

Zhuang Fu tapped his cigarette ash on the windowsill and waved to Zhuang Yongyuan, "Come here! I'm calling you, do you hear me? Come and talk to your mother."

Zhuang Yongyuan reluctantly put the piano on the stairs and walked towards Zhuang Fu.

Zhuang Fu pressed the greasy cell phone to his ear. Zhuang Yongyuan heard his mother's voice coming from the receiver. The cell phone signal was bad and there was a crackling sound.

"Hello, Xiaoyuan?"

"Mom."

Zhuang Fu patted Zhuang Yongyuan on the back of the head and urged, "Ask her, ask her when she plans to come back, or if she's just going to abandon you here?"

Zhuang Yongyuan ducked his head to avoid Zhuang Fu's pats. Silence fell on the other end of the line. He listened to the faint hum of electricity and inexplicably thought of Xie Kang. He remembered Xie Kang smiling and calling him Teacher Zhuang, and how his clothes were all new, while Zhuang Yongyuan usually wore his cousin's hand-me-downs.

He hung up the phone, ignoring Zhuang Fu's cries behind him, "Sailingmu, are you crazy?" He picked up his guitar, rushed upstairs, locked the door, and hid in the closet.

Zhuang Yongyuan pressed against the closet door, trying to listen for the sound of Zhuang Fu knocking on it. Then he installed the new door lock.

The floor partitions of this house were made of wood and had poor sound insulation. Zhuang Yongyuan vaguely heard a guest coming downstairs and the buzzing sound of the hair clipper, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

The closet was cramped, and Zhuang Yongyuan, unable to play the piano, held it tightly. A ray of light filtered through the crack in the closet door, illuminating a gray hooded jacket.

The brand logo embroidered on the chest of the jacket makes it stand out among the worn-out, miscellaneous goods in the closet.

The closet was stuffy and hot, but Zhuang Yongyuan soon stopped noticing it. He touched the strings of his guitar, wondering how he would teach Xie Kang to play.

He had learned the instrument very smoothly himself; Xu Zhen could play it quite well with just a little plucking. But teaching others was another matter. He couldn't just tell Xie Kang to rely on his feelings when he asked him how to do it.

He wondered how teachers at school taught. First, they had textbooks and blackboards; gestures alone weren't enough. With this thought, Zhuang Yongyuan crawled out of his closet and rummaged through the drawers, searching for the guitar instructional book Xu Zhen had given him. He wrote down a plan on a piece of paper, figuring out what he would teach Xie Kang in each lesson and whether he would assign him homework.

For some reason, Zhuang Yongyuan burst into laughter when he thought of Xie Kang honestly turning in his assigned homework. He wrote and drew, and when he looked out the window again, it was already completely dark. There were few people on the street outside; it was quite late.

But it was quiet outside the door; Zhuang Fu hadn't come to bother Zhuang Yongyuan. Zhuang Yongyuan cautiously opened the door and smelled a strong odor of alcohol. The sound of snoring continued from Zhuang Fu's room.

Zhuang Yongyuan returned to his room, took out a ten-dollar bill from the tuition money Xie Kang had given him, and went out to find a flatbread restaurant that was still open for dinner.

He'd been feeling down a while ago, but after dinner, he felt a strange surge of excitement, his steps brisker. The only strange thing was that, walking down a street he usually tired of, sitting in a small restaurant he'd eaten at many times, Zhuang Yongyuan felt a little lonely. He wished he had someone by his side, someone they could talk to, maybe order an extra plate of fried five-spice noodles to share.

Zhuang Yongyuan had never had this feeling before. He bumped into a large bunch of tuberose in a daze. He picked a small branch and put it in his pocket.