Chapter 10
When Chi Ran went to the gym in the afternoon, Qian Yu was with him, so he simply didn't bring his phone. When he got upstairs, he put on his earphones and habitually replayed the message.
Most of them are just meaningless updates or advertisements.
"Your video has been liked by a total of 5,000 people, including 'Dejin Xiaodoubao' and 'Buchi Zhaji'..."
Swipe your fingertip to switch to the next jump.
"A huge coupon has fallen from the sky, for food delivery..."
advertise.
Another sweep.
"Luxury Diamond..."
Sweep again.
"Application for the 'Internet Buzzwords Compendium'..."
Scan again.
Enjoy 50% off…
etc?
After a brief pause, switch to the previous track.
"The Internet Buzzword Encyclopedia requests to add you as a friend."
"The Internet Buzzword Encyclopedia greets you: Welcome to subscribe to Internet Buzzwords, your free guide to online life! Add us as a friend to enjoy detailed explanations of internet buzzwords!"
Chi Ran frowned, but didn't move her hands, continuing to listen.
"Here are three popular internet memes for you to enjoy! Meme 1: 'Three self-punishment drinks,' often used at the dinner table, meaning to apologize. Meme 2: 'Secretly a monkey,' accompanied by a picture of a crouching monkey. 'Monkey' is called 'malou' in Cantonese. The pronunciation is similar to 'secretly a monkey,' a Japanese apology phrase. Meme 3: 'I've already been honest, please let me go,' which is exactly what it sounds like."
"Welcome to subscribe! First month free! Second month free! Add me as a friend! Subscribe now! Add me as a friend! Add me as a friend! Add me as a friend! Add me as a friend…"
Chi Ran covered her face with her hands, buried her head in her arms, and her shoulders trembled slightly.
After about half a minute, he looked up, frowned, but couldn't help but smile: "...What a piece of junk."
After accepting the friend request, Chi Ran held her forehead and calmed herself down for a long time before she could suppress the smile.
After making sure his tone was completely devoid of any sarcasm, he sent her a voice message: "Come to my private chat tomorrow at 2 PM... come to my private chat."
When Song Yihuan visited Ma Lou in private, he brought the score with him.
He chose this time to practice the piano himself, so you can't blame her for taking advantage of you.
"Song Shen is here!" Qian Yu greeted her at the door. Seeing the large item in her hand, he asked, "What's this big box?"
"Cake," Song Yihuan said. "I'm here to apologize."
Qian Yu took it: "I'll cut it!"
"Cut it nicely." She said it, only realizing later that it was inappropriate.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chi Ran standing at the door with his arms crossed, a half-smile on his face, clearly having heard me.
This is way too easy to make a mistake!
Delayed landmine!
Song Yihuan hesitated for a moment, then decided to throw caution to the wind: "What if you want to take a picture and post it on social media? You can show it to your fans."
"Is this your sincerity in coming to my private room?" Chi Ran said, then turned and went back to his room without giving her a chance to speak.
Song Yihuan kept in mind her main mission: to apologize to the female celebrity piano teacher and win her back.
She went into the kitchen, picked out a pretty triangular cake for Chi Ran, and then picked out the smallest one for herself, before taking it to Chi Ran.
Chi Ran sat in the computer chair with her back to her, showing no intention of turning around.
Song Yihuan hopped over with heavy steps and slammed the cake onto the table.
Chi Ran turned around in the direction of the sound, no longer turning his back to her. He reached out towards the cake, then withdrew his hand.
“Teacher Chi, sincerity isn’t about what you say, it’s about what you do,” she said. “Do you know how difficult it is to gather cake ingredients during this stay-at-home period? These were ingredients I had saved up for my own birthday, and if I use them all today, I won’t have a cake for my birthday.”
He remained still and silent. He was probably unsure where the cake was and too embarrassed to reach for it.
Helping him, Song Yihuan pinched his wrist through her sleeve and placed it on the cake plate.
"What are you doing??"
Chi Ran was clearly startled by her sudden movement. Her fingers touched the cake plate, and she flinched before putting them on.
Song Yihuan pushed the plate into his hand again, "Eat cake!"
Every time I see you, my heart stops.
He took a breath and reached for the fork with his other hand.
"It's quite difficult not to scare you," Song Yihuan muttered softly.
Chi Ran held the cake, his face turned towards her, with a hint of reproach in his expression.
Song Yihuan muted her microphone, didn't use a fork, and took a vicious bite out of the cake.
The reputation of the delayed landmine is well-deserved.
Chi Ran held the plate, waving his fork above it to check the size of the cake. Then, he forked a small piece and put it in his mouth.
The cake was moist and soft, with a refreshing sweet and sour taste that lingered on the tongue, a flavor he had never tasted before.
"Isn't it delicious?" Song Yihuan said smugly.
"What kind of cake is this?" Chi Ran asked.
Song Yihuan: "Carrot cake!"
Chi Ran abruptly stopped chewing, then slowly pursed his lips. It was unclear whether he wanted to spit it out or savor it.
Song Yihuan asked, "What's wrong?"
"Carrots are extinct." Chi Ran gritted his teeth.
Carrots taste terrible. They have a faint, eerie sweetness at first, but as you chew them, a very aggressive flavor suddenly bursts out from the cloying sweetness.
Like passing by a gas station on a rainy day, you're hit by a pungent smell of gasoline, engine oil, kerosene, and other irritants.
Chi Ran hesitated, unsure whether she should continue chewing.
“You swallowed the whole thing,” Song Yihuan retorted. “You didn’t taste anything at all!”
There are many downsides to spending time with people you can see.
One of them is like an X-ray, which shows everything you do.
Chi Ran didn't say anything more, tilted her head back and swallowed, then put the cake back on the table.
"Carrots should be eradicated," he asserted.
"Then I'd definitely choose carrots! Carrots are so sweet and delicious!" Song Yihuan said. "Besides, carrots are very nutritious; my mom has always said that carrots are good for eyesight..."
He abruptly stopped talking again.
Walking in a minefield is like this: every step makes a clicking sound as you step on one mine after another.
This is the third time.
Song Yihuan said nervously, "I hope I won't strike out."
He ran his fingertips along the edge of the cake plate without saying a word.
"Teacher Chi...Teacher Chi! Master Chi! Professor Chi!" She tried to rekindle the brief bond between teacher and student.
"Strikeouts?" Chi Ran raised an eyebrow. "Are you planning to strike out three times per hour, or three times per minute?"
Song Yihuan glanced at him secretly and said, "How about every second?"
Chi Ran let out a long sigh of resignation, "Forget it, you said it's okay."
What do you mean you say it's nothing?
The translation of that is like saying, "I won't force you to explain your mouth or your thought process."
Song Yihuan secretly stabbed him again, and angrily threw a punch into the air.
Her movements stirred up a gust of wind, followed by a rustling sound.
Chi Ran tilted her head and asked, "You came to my private place and even brought a score?"
Song Yihuan held the sheet music and fanned him, saying, "I'm afraid you'll get hot."
"It's five degrees today, and it's raining," Chi Ran bluntly exposed.
There was no sound from the other end for a while. He happily touched the edge of the cake plate, picked it up, forked a large piece, and put it in his mouth.
"Didn't we say we were going to wipe out carrots completely?" Song Yihuan pouted.
Chi Ran paused for a moment, but still put it in her mouth.
"Eat extinct animals."
Chi Ran didn't put the cake plate down again, eating the whole cake bite by bite, and then holding the empty plate in her hand.
After finishing his meal, he stood up, skillfully walked past Song Yihuan, and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" she asked.
Without even turning his head, he said, "Play your piano."
Just as Song Yihuan set up the sheet music and began to play, Chi Ran returned, carrying a brand new carrot cake—even bigger than the one from before.
Clearly, the carrot cake has been resurrected and is back to fight!
Song Yihuan kept her private mission in mind and swallowed her complaint.
"Teacher Chi, please have a seat!" She patted the stool next to the piano bench, extremely attentive.
Chi Ran carried the cake over, hooked her foot on the stool leg twice to make sure she was in the right position, and then sat down steadily.
Song Yihuan placed her hands on the piano and began to play an etude.
She went back and practiced on an electronic keyboard, but an electronic keyboard and a piano are not the same thing; the feel is completely different.
After playing for a short while, Chi Ran put down the fork and placed her right hand on the piano case.
Song Yihuan felt inexplicably nervous: "What are you doing?"
He said, "Feel the tremors."
Song Yihuan: "Why?"
I always felt that he wouldn't say anything nice.
"Let me investigate how you manage to play the piano like popping beans."
As expected.
Song Yihuan angrily tightened her fingertips, trying to vibrate his hand until it went numb.
"Those two moves were good." He nodded. "Let's try again."
His praise quickly extinguished the small flame in Song Yihuan's heart, and the pressure on her fingertips also decreased.
He immediately realized, "I shouldn't have praised you."
The pressure from the fingertips surged again.
She played the entire piece, going up and down the pitch.
After she finished playing, she didn't even want to ask how it went.
She even suspected that Chi Ran initially agreed to teach her to play the piano purely so that he could have more angles to mock her.
Chi Ran commented, "Playing, not knocking. Only the yangqin is knocked."
Song Yihuan, unconvinced, played it again.
Chi Ran's comment was still merciless: "Why don't you try the yangqin? I have one."
"You come here." Song Yihuan gritted her teeth and got up, slamming her hand on the violin case with a loud thud.
"So you've switched from knocking on the door to knocking on the piano? Knocking on the door will last forever." Chi Ran said with a smile.
She was about to explode: "Come on, let me hear how the dulcimer is played."
“Okay.” He pointed to the back of the piano. “Stand here on the soundboard and put your hands on it.”
Song Yihuan glared at him fiercely several times, but still cooperated by standing behind the backdrop with her five fingers together on it.
“That’s how you just played it.” He started playing, his fingers tapping the keys one by one.
The vibration reached her palm, making it slightly numb. Her palm felt like a soft rice cake, being mercilessly pounded by a wooden mallet.
After imitating her playing style, he started playing again from the beginning, this time his fingers flowing smoothly and nimbly across the keys.
The frequency of the vibrations suddenly changed from one beat to an uncountable number. The feeling is hard to describe precisely, but if I had to put it into words, it was as if the antique instrument had come to life with a breath and a heartbeat.
She felt the pulse of the zither.
Song Yihuan stubbornly insisted, "I don't feel any difference."
Surprisingly, Chi Ran didn't argue with her; the air was silent for two seconds.
"Close your eyes," he said softly. "Use your sense of touch."
Before she finished speaking, delicate musical notes leaped out from the black and white. Her left hand, which was resting on the soundboard, suddenly felt lighter, as if it had been lifted up by something.
The moment the piano music began, even the sound of rain outside the window seemed amplified; she could almost hear the crisp sound of raindrops falling.
The musical notes collided and danced between the walls, then climbed into the clouds, mingled with the rain, and struggled to rush towards the sun.
The music gradually incorporated high-frequency vibrato, the clouds enveloping the sound, gently lifting it up, while mist rose all around. Suddenly, sunlight cleaved through the clouds, melting everything in sight.
In an instant, the sound of the zither accompanied raindrops falling from the clouds.
Fall.
Weightlessness, perhaps.
The music of the piano clamored for soaring freedom.
The last thing Song Yihuan saw before closing her eyes was Chi Ran's arms trembling slightly, moving his hands in a flowing motion, rising and falling like breathing, his arm muscles tensing and relaxing repeatedly.
The frame frozen with eyes closed is tense.
So she tensed up too.
In the instant the light was stripped away, her senses were magnified infinitely, while reality seemed to shrink infinitely. The piano in her palm seemed to have disappeared.
It becomes the performer's chest rising and falling with their breath and heartbeat.
As if bewitched, she lowered her hands and gently, slowly leaned her body against the soundboard.
The next second, the vibration was transmitted through the soundboard.
The drizzling rain outside seeped into the room, soaking me completely.
The aroma of the carrot cake was overwhelmed by the dusty smell of the rain, and the sweetness turned into dampness.
The tingling sensation from the tremors flowed down my spine, melting into the vibrant piano music, and I felt as if I were floating on clouds.
Thus, Qin's life was connected to her life, and the twitching of her fingertips was connected to the beating of her heart.
Everything lost its balance; everything kept falling.
All senses are melting, dissolving into the rain.
She was getting soaked in the rain.
The moment the music stopped, she suddenly heard her own rapid, disordered breathing.
— Falling into the rain.
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