Chapter 9 9. I am addicted to living in other people's cities
Xie Kang actually knew Zhuang Yongyuan's piano sound earlier than he knew Zhuang Yongyuan himself.
Xie Kang attended elementary and middle school in the south of the city, close to his home, just a short walk away. He was admitted to Pingnan No. 1 High School for high school, so he moved to the north of the city, a half-hour walk away. He rarely went to the north before high school, so instead of just taking the shortest route home, he wandered around the unfamiliar city like an explorer.
It was during his second semester of high school that he met Zhuang Yongyuan playing the piano on Kaiping Street.
During the rainy season in April, no matter how fast one walks, one cannot escape the suffocating humidity. Walking around the school has long become boring. Day after day, one goes back and forth between school and home, buried in boring textbooks and exercises. It's not painful, but there's nothing to be happy about either.
Xie Kang was unhappy, but he couldn't figure out why. He felt like he should do something, but he couldn't think of anything.
On a day as unhappy as any other, Xie Kang was returning home after evening self-study. While waiting for the traffic light, he discovered that the bakery at the intersection had closed down and was replaced by a flower shop.
Bored, he stared at the buckets of bright red, fresh-cut roses outside the flower shop. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a staircase next to the shop, dotted with lights. Xie Kang rubbed his eyes, and as the light turned green, he walked up the stairs as if possessed.
Most of the shops on the stairs were closed for the day, and only a few antique shops still had their doors cracked for light to pass through. At the entrances of grocery stores and tobacco and liquor stores, groups of middle-aged people were playing cards around folding tables. There were also the distant and vague sounds of children crying and the sounds of water washing dishes and clothes.
Xie Kang smelled the scent of tuberose and slowed down his pace. When he was halfway there, he heard someone playing the guitar and singing.
The singing was not loud, but it penetrated Xie Kang's headphones like a ghost and went deep into his mind.
Xie Kang reached into his pocket, paused the guava song he'd listened to countless times, and took off his headphones. The sound of the guitar and the singing grew closer and clearer.
The singing voice belonged to a young boy. Xie Kang couldn't quite put his finger on what made it so beautiful, but he found it bright and refreshing, like a dry breeze blowing away the damp, rainy fog of a night. The guitar accompaniment was unskillful, and the pianist would sometimes miss a note mid-play and stop to sing again.
Xie Kang followed the sound and walked to the opposite side of the rotating flower wheel at the Zhenbao Barber Shop. Looking up, he saw a young man holding a guitar behind the second-floor window. The brown window was not transparent, so Xie Kang could only make out the outline of the man and the guitar.
He stopped completely and stared at the figure.
Standing closer and with the singer's clear pronunciation, Xie Kang was finally able to hear the lyrics clearly.
I am guessing your heart and want to confirm once again that the long distance is due to being too smart.
I have to guess your heart and confirm it again. The confused thoughts are all because I want to be close to you too much.
Xie Kang pulled out the water bottle from the side pocket of his schoolbag and drank from it. The people upstairs kept singing the song over and over again, and after listening for a while, Xie Kang couldn't help but hum along.
When the figure behind the window put down the guitar, stood up and disappeared from behind the window, Xie Kang looked at his watch and suddenly realized that he had been standing there stupidly for a long time.
Usually, he goes home on time after evening self-study. But today he was more than twenty minutes later than usual. His family must be worried.
Xie Kang adjusted the straps of his schoolbag and started walking again. He was distracted and bumped into a large cluster of fragrant tuberoses. He hurriedly brushed them away with his hands and left this sudden old street as quickly as possible.
On the way back, the song I just heard was lingering in my mind and replayed over and over again.
Xie Kang's parents were indeed getting impatient. They, along with his grandfather, sat on the mahogany sofa in the living room, waiting for him, not even bothering to watch TV. Xie Kang parked his car downstairs and took the elevator upstairs. As soon as he opened the door with his key, his mother rushed out, took his schoolbag, and asked accusingly, "Why are you so late today?"
Xie Kang touched his nose. For some reason, he didn't want to share the old street and the person playing the piano with his family.
"I didn't know how to solve a problem, so I asked the teacher and waited for a while." Xie Kang blinked and lied to his family for the first time.
"Your father called your homeroom teacher and he said he didn't see you at school."
"I'm looking for my chemistry teacher. She's in the next class studying at night. Maybe the homeroom teacher didn't see me."
Grandpa scolded him, "This isn't urgent. You can ask tomorrow. It's too late. It's not safe for you to come back alone."
"I won't do it next time." Xie Kang said with his head down.
Xie Kang's father, Xie Tao, finished his last cup of tea, stood up, and concluded solemnly, "I'll buy you a cell phone in a few days. If you come home late, call me to let me know you're safe."
"Okay, thank you, Dad." Xie Kang smiled and said to his father in a somewhat flattering tone, "By the way, Dad, can I use the computer for a moment? I have some information I want to look up."
Xie Tao looked at the clock, nodded and said, "I'll give you ten minutes."
Xie Kang's mother, Yang Ruihui, heard this and rushed out of the kitchen to tell Xie Kang, "Come down quickly. I'll make you some beef balls. Aunt Wang made them herself and brought them over this morning."
"good."
Xie Kang agreed casually and hurried upstairs. He didn't even bother to turn on the light in the study. He first pressed the power button on the computer, dialed the Internet, and searched for the lyrics he heard that night in the browser input box.
Chen Qizhen, "Too Smart." Time was limited, so Xie Kang didn't bother listening to it. He quickly switched to his music app and downloaded the entire album to his MP3 player. The internet connection wasn't fast, so by the time he finished, it had already taken over ten minutes. Fortunately, he could hear Xie Tao showering, so no one rushed him.
Holding the slightly warm MP3 player, Xie Kang ran briskly back to his small room on the second floor and lay down on his bed to listen to music. The original version of the song sounded different. He didn't care to listen to the other songs on the album, just listened to "Too Smart" over and over again. He rolled over and over in bed, raised his hand to touch the damp wooden board at the head of the bed, but he didn't feel irritated at all.
The heavy moisture of the plum rain day pressed down, and he suddenly felt very clearly that it was a spring night.
"I'm just afraid that you'll see through my love for you..."
In a convenience store at midnight, Xie Kang was humming a song when he found a light bulb on the shelf. When he took it to check out, he passed by the candy shelf. There was a label "Surprise Special" next to the toffee on the bottom shelf.
Xie Kang bent down and picked up a bag of candy. The packaging was covered in a thin layer of dust. The biggest selling point of sweets these days is that they're not sweet. Toffees that are so overly sweet have been unsaleable for a long time. He wasn't sure if Zhuang Yongyuan still liked toffee, but he took a bag anyway and paid for it. He staggered back, carrying the convenience store plastic bag.
It was pitch black behind the window on the second floor of Zhuang Yongyuan's house. I don't know if Zhuang Yongyuan drank too much and fell asleep.
When Xie Kang was hesitating whether to call Zhuang Yongyuan to wake him up and ask him to open the door for him, A Dian's phone suddenly called again.
Xie Kang picked up the phone. Adian's tone on the other end was more anxious than ever before, which made him nervous as well.
"Are you still at Zhuang Yongyuan's house?" Adian asked anxiously.
"I'm downstairs from his house..."
Xie Kang was halfway through his words when Ah Dian interrupted him: "Something happened! Hurry up and go up there, quickly, check on Zhuang Yongyuan and see if he's okay!"
Along with Ah Dian's words, Xie Kang heard a loud crash from upstairs in Zhuang Yongyuan's house. It was like a heavy object falling, and in the dead of night it was particularly unsettling. The mountain not far away looked dark and gloomy, as if it would fall down at any moment.
The bag and cell phone in Xie Kang's hand fell to the ground.
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Happy New Year!!!
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