Chapter 29 I Want to Get Back Together
Jiang Shiyan pressed hard on the edge of the table, but after a few seconds, he lost his grip and slipped down.
He stepped back slightly, looking down at her high heels that snapped shut in an instant, like a bowstring snapping back after an arrow has been shot.
He was like an arrow shot out, flying farther and farther away, never able to see the target again.
Jiang Shiyan raised his hands in a gesture of surrender: "...Sometimes I really can't do anything with you."
"Teacher Jiang is joking. How could you not have one? You have so many ideas."
Xu Yuewei's eyes were full of sarcasm. She jumped off the counter, walked to the side with her lower back against the edge of the counter, until she was stuck at the corner between the counter and the stove.
"I can still stand here freely thanks to your housekeeper's conscience. I hope you won't hold a grudge against her because of this. Even if you want to fire her, please don't deduct her wages."
She spoke very seriously, genuinely unwilling to implicate others, even if she herself was in the right.
Song Jinshu said she was a nice person, but that's not actually the case. It's just that her bottom line is a fuse buried deep underground, not easily seen by others.
The fuse is about to burn the landmine, and coincidentally, Jiang Shiyan is standing right under the fire alarm on the ceiling.
She imagined the fire sprinklers automatically spraying water, soaking him completely, and a childish sense of pleasure rose within her.
Serves them right.
However, even the most exhilarating moment was just a fantasy, she laughed self-deprecatingly:
"Of course, I know you're not short of money."
Jiang Shiyan stepped to the side, leaned against the refrigerator door, and roughly loosened his tie, his forked tongue swaying irregularly.
"That jade carving was commissioned by Master Delong; it's priceless..."
Before he could finish speaking, Xu Yuewei retorted sarcastically, "I told you, I know you're capable and earn a lot, so you don't need to brag to me about such a small thing."
Jiang Shiyan frowned silently: "Let me finish. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been willing to give it to Teacher Yan."
Xu Yuewei turned her face away: "There's no need to flatter me."
"I've come to become your apprentice."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xu Yuewei froze, looking back into his eyes. Something was frozen in place, yet it ignited a spark in her heart.
But she was at a loss for words, and kept repeating the same phrase, "You're crazy."
Jiang Shiyan: "I'm not crazy. It's always good to have many skills."
He brought his legs back together, straightened them, adjusted his posture, and tilted his head slightly: "Don't you want to hear me call you 'Senior Sister'?"
Xu Yuewei felt a jolt of electricity run through her heart, and she suddenly remembered that day on set when he called her "sister," with the same ill intent and the same cynicism.
She knew him too well; a subtle gesture or tone of voice was enough for her to understand what mischief he was plotting.
The nasty resentment she had just rebuked resurfaced from the man's very bones, like the lingering dampness of a humid spring.
"I don't have time to joke with you."
Xu Yuewei put on a stern face, restraining herself from showing any emotional fluctuation, otherwise, if she found it amusing, it would lead to a new vicious cycle.
She walked towards the door: "Go out quickly. I'll pretend I don't know anything in front of them, and I hope you will too."
As she passed by him, her arm was grabbed, but she wasn't too surprised; subconsciously, she had already prepared for this.
Xu Yuewei looked up at the ceiling.
The alarm was hanging overhead, and she was about to get soaked.
"Aren't you curious whether Teacher Yan agreed or not?" he asked.
Xu Yuewei slowly looked at him, forcing herself to be firm: "I guess not."
Because Teacher Yan stopped accepting apprentices a long time ago; she said that she was her last disciple.
But the uncertainty in his heart grew from one in a thousand to one in a hundred, continuing to expand under his leisurely gaze.
Will Teacher Yan still be on her side, or has she switched sides because of a valuable jade carving?
She didn't know.
"You got it right."
Jiang Shiyan released her, but his hand did not return to its original position. He loosely embraced her waist, with his right leg straddling her side, creating a semi-enclosed and ambiguous atmosphere.
His tone softened in the second half of the sentence, and it inexplicably sounded somewhat like his previous pitiful and coquettish manner.
Xu Yuewei was taken aback.
So that's how it is.
When she woke up from anesthesia, she could feel her breathing and pulse again.
The uncertain probability suddenly collapsed, returning to a mere one in a thousand or one in a hundred. She looked back into his captivating eyes and asked, "Really?"
What kind of person do you take me for?
This person seems to be born unable to smile with a kind expression; it's hard to know which is more believable—his face or his words.
Sure enough, he went back on his word:
"However, if it's faster to do it this way, then I reserve the right to do bad things."
"What's so convenient..."
Do I need to put it more bluntly? I want to get back together.
He openly and blatantly revealed his true colors as a man of desire.
But then she felt the water mist pouring down from above.
Xu Yuewei's heart began to pound. Every time he attacked unexpectedly, it brought a sense of panic and loss of control, but never had it been more intense than now.
Jiang Shiyan's fingers lightly touched her lower back, lightly skimming the surface: "Think about it."
He then released her, walked to the pool, and seemed to be in a good mood. He slowly unbuttoned his cuffs, folded up his shirt, and then peeled the pomegranate she hadn't finished peeling.
The wine-red fruit pieces fell gently, one by one, piling up in the porcelain bowl like a small mountain, before being served by the man.
No one asked how someone who wanted to use the restroom would come out of the kitchen.
Yan Yijun dared not eat cold food, but the people who came to visit her shared it. The cut apple pieces with forks were the easiest to eat, and the plate was quickly empty while they were talking.
When Zhuang Fengrui heard that Jiang Shiyan was interested in learning the guqin, his eyes behind his glasses finally showed a genuine smile, and he stood up and stretched out his arm to refill Jiang's cup of tea.
"If Teacher Jiang wants to learn, it's not that complicated. Our music society offers courses for beginners. You can check it out; it's not the rigid kind, it's a study tour..."
Xu Yuewei ate a slice of orange, then took a tissue to wipe the water from her fingertips.
Speaking of this study tour, it was one of the reasons why she did not choose to stay in the music club.
In the traditional guqin circle, most of the renowned players are middle-aged. Even though she has been learning the guqin since childhood, she still looks unprofessional with her baby teeth still in her mouth.
In recent years, many young guqin players have indeed developed their own media presence. The most outstanding one has taken the path of combining good looks with guqin playing. No wonder my senior brother was thinking of having her come back to make videos.
The teachers at the qin society are not aloof immortals; they are all ordinary people who need to eat. Performances alone are not enough to make a living. Performances are more of a promotional tool. The qin society's main revenue comes from selling lessons.
The Qin Society organizes four study tours each year, one in spring, summer, autumn and winter, each lasting ten days to half a month. The tours are held in the mountains. In addition to the teachers from the Qin Society who go with you, there are also Taoist masters who teach you skills as a bonus, making you feel that you are getting more than your money's worth.
There lived a reclusive guqin player in the mountains. He was quite old, with a kind face and a gentle demeanor. He was very approachable to those who came to study, treating them all as friends. When he played the guqin, he truly embodied the phrase "a carefree hermit."
Xu Yuewei went with them once. At first, she found it quite novel, but after a few days, she felt it was all show and no substance.
The teacher only teaches appetizers to pique the students' interest before pushing more expensive main courses, such as a 15% discount for those who enroll in study tours. However, in reality, the cost-effectiveness is far lower than that of introductory courses at ordinary guqin institutions.
However, those who can afford to enroll in study abroad camps are already the target group that has passed the initial screening, and overall, the renewal rate is quite considerable.
As a teaching assistant, Xu Yuewei is just a cog in this production chain. When uncles and aunts who are students praise her for being good and ask her how she learned and which teacher she studied with, she can only offer some guiding words.
I've figured it out; the essence of teaching is sales.
Looking at that reclusive musician, it's hard to tell if the crane is a real crane or just a bird in crane skin.
Thinking of this, Xu Yuewei hesitated whether to say something indirectly. In this distraction, she choked on the remaining fruit juice in her mouth and coughed uncontrollably.
Yan Yijun sat close by and patted her back to help her catch her breath: "How can you choke even when you haven't eaten anything?"
"...That orange was a bit sour."
Xu Yuewei caught her breath and swallowed, "It made me salivate so much."
A hand pushed a pomegranate bowl towards them and swam over: "Then have something sweet."
She looked over, and the hand slowly withdrew, a silver ring on its index finger gleaming coldly, as if deliberately shown to her.
In the past, Xu Yuewei didn't like wearing jewelry or getting manicures, otherwise she always felt something was off when playing the piano. Jiang Shiyan didn't care much, but he followed her example and strung their wedding rings together and hung them around his neck.
The couple rings I bought on Taobao for a few hundred yuan were of mediocre quality. Hers had already turned black, so there was no need to clean it, and I didn't throw it away.
The ring on Jiang Shiyan's index finger is clearly not the same one from back then. It has no extra design, and the color and texture are dark, which is very suitable for a low-key and composed mature man.
His fingers, with their distinct knuckles and long shape, stood on the black and white piano keys, moving quickly like butterflies in flight and slowly like geese in formation.
These same hands peeled pomegranates and shrimp for her, untied the ribbons of the gifts she gave him, and weaved through the thicket of her hair, slipping into...
She looked away and gently shook her head.
I was still influenced by what he said; I really shouldn't have.
"I can't eat anymore, Teacher Jiang, you can eat it yourself."
Jiang Shiyan leaned back on the sofa and met the gazes of the others with composure: "I heard that pomegranates have the effect of relieving coughs. A singer I know likes to eat them, and that's what he told me."
...She doesn't have that kind of cough.
"By the way, speaking of the guqin music in 'Guanshan'..."
The topic shift was abrupt, but it effectively piqued everyone's interest.
“We have already found another guqin teacher.”
Even though she had no expectations, Xu Yuewei's heart still skipped a beat.
"...to produce a sample."
Jiang Shiyan's gaze drifted back to her.
Xu Yuewei looked up and met his peach blossom eyes, which were faintly smiling. She heard him say clearly, "Of course, we still hope that Teacher Yan will personally take charge of the final result, but if we really can't have that opportunity, we'll have to trouble Teacher Xu."
In an instant, everything around them seemed to disappear.
She wasn't sitting next to Teacher Yan, and her senior brother wasn't in the space either; only the two of them remained, along with a bowl of pomegranates and the sharp corner of the table between them.
The rest turned into waves. She was a small boat like a crescent moon, drifting alone. He was a huge ship with a deep draft, breaking through the sea in the storm, and the waves he stirred up capsized the small boat. She was immersed in the wet, cold water from head to tail.
What is this all about? Why did he have to bring it up now, right after she found out he had ulterior motives, and then extend an olive branch? What does he take her for?
The slight guilt she had felt just now from learning that she had wronged him was all gone, and at this moment she felt so absurd that she wanted to laugh.
Xu Yuewei met his gaze very slowly: "If Teacher Jiang isn't in a hurry, we can wait for Teacher Yan to recover a bit more."
Yan Yijun gently poked her head: "You really don't want me to retire?"
Xu Yuewei touched her forehead: "Judging from your strength, you can play for another seven or eight years without any problem."
“We’re not in a hurry, you can take your time to consider it.” Jiang Shiyan stood up to take his leave at the right moment. “I won’t disturb you any longer. Professor Yan, please rest well and I wish you a speedy recovery.”
After Jiang Shiyan left, the three people in the living room fell silent for a few seconds.
Zhuang Fengrui spoke first: "Didn't you say the project was in a hurry? Why isn't it in a hurry anymore? Young guys are just unreliable."
He took a sip of tea, then suddenly seemed to remember something, and looked at Xu Yuewei with a smile: "Xiaoyue won't tell on me, will she?"
Xu Yuewei raised her eyebrows slightly, her eyes questioning his words.
"You...have you known each other for a long time?" Zhuang Fengrui narrowed his eyes, like a fox.
"..."
Xu Yuewei wanted to deny it, but she couldn't come up with a reason why they had spent so long together in the kitchen.
He wanted everyone around her to know about their relationship, so he would surround her piece by piece and capture her.
Xu Yuewei pursed her lips and resisted for a while, but finally gave in. It was as if a girl who had been in a relationship for a long time was caught by her parents. She covered her face in embarrassment.
Yan Yijun freed one hand from the hot water bottle, gently patted her thigh, and teased her gently, "I remember, when you chose that stage name, you told me it was a combination of your and your boyfriend's names, so is it him?"
Zhuang Fengrui suddenly realized: "No wonder he reacted that way when he took your business card that day."
"What was the reaction?" Xu Yuewei asked.
"He asked me who Shi Wei was, and I said it was your former stage name. I even said, what a coincidence, how did he find your name so accurately from the business card box?"
"..."
"Oh dear, what a mess this has become." Zhuang Fengrui crossed his arms loosely, looking at her with a puzzled expression.
"You really kept it a secret. If it weren't for just now..." He gestured with his chin towards the fruit on the table, "I really wouldn't have been able to tell."
Xu Yuewei lowered her hand, her cheeks slightly flushed: "He really was just helping me wash the fruit..."
Yan Yijun, in contrast, was less surprised and simply smiled, pointing to the jade carving:
"That's perfect. Could you return this to him for me? I forgot to let him take it. It's too valuable; I can't accept it."
“…Actually, we broke up a long time ago.” Xu Yuewei said with difficulty, but once she started, the rest flowed smoothly. “So there’s no need to tell you, and I can’t repay this for you.”
Her lips unconsciously turned down, her eyes revealing stubbornness and a hint of indescribable grievance.
Yan Yijun smiled and patted her head: "Why can't you do it? You can return it while you're at his place recording."
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