Chapter 14
He said, "You should be looking forward to your birthday present."
Song Yihuan then began to look forward to it.
"Hope" is a terrible word; it implies all sorts of evil deeds.
It burned a pot of fragrant pork ribs, poured laundry detergent into the dryer, and left all the group-buy vegetables for the entire building at the entrance of the community.
The routine of home life has been thrown into chaos.
Even sitting face to face, the word "hope" shines brightly like the moon high in the sky, illuminating the thoughts in her heart.
Even a blind man can't be fooled.
"Hey!" Chi Ran tapped the guitar case, making her jump.
He lazily informed him, "Don't bother looking. The gift isn't displayed openly."
"I didn't look for her!" Song Yihuan retorted, "I was clearly listening to you attentively!"
"Then what did I just say?" Chi Ran asked.
What were we originally going to talk about?
Oh right, we were talking about how she learned to play the electronic keyboard when she was little, and then we started talking about revising his sheet music...
But that must have happened ten minutes ago. What did we talk about after that?
“Say…” Song Yihuan forced herself to make up a story, “say that my changes to your score were not in accordance with musical theory.”
"Bringing up old grievances? I didn't say that," Chi Ran said. "You're just looking for a gift."
"I didn't look for one!" she stubbornly insisted.
Anyway, she just looked around, without making any movement or sound, so he couldn't possibly notice.
Chi Ran laughed: "If you didn't look for it, then what were you looking at with your head turned 360 degrees? Scanning the interior of my room?"
"Were you listening to the news with your camera on?!" Song Yihuan angrily tried to snatch his phone.
"Am I a pervert? Why would I turn on my camera to film you? Besides, I wasn't wearing headphones, so what kind of broadcast am I listening to?"
Chi Ran didn't dodge, letting her take it. Song Yihuan looked at it from side to side; he really hadn't turned on the camera, and the phone screen was locked.
She fiddled with it for a bit, and then Siri's inorganic voice announced: "Face ID, enter password, enter password..."
Chi Ran asked with a smile, "You also know that cameras can broadcast descriptions of the footage?"
She hastily shoved the phone back: "I don't know, I'm just guessing."
"You guessed pretty accurately. I thought—" Chi Ran said, "that you tried turning on the blind mode. Don't turn it on unless necessary; it's too much trouble for you to turn it off."
Song Yihuan lowered her head further and further.
"You really drove it?" Chi Ran asked.
?
Mind reading?
Song Yihuan had indeed used it, after he called her "Little Pink." Activating blind mode only takes a second, but deactivating it isn't so easy.
First, Siri reads out every word and every action on the screen without any emotion, and the touchscreen operation is different in blind mode. She operates the screen randomly, and Siri reads to her while she operates it, which makes her brain completely confused.
It took twenty minutes to turn off, and I finally managed to turn it off by searching for a tutorial on Guoguo's phone.
The tutorial was posted by a blind blogger, reminding everyone not to use blind mode out of curiosity.
Completely bewildered by his exposure, Song Yihuan retorted in a desperate attempt to answer, "How did you know? You can't actually read minds, can you?"
Chi Ran's eyesight is highly dependent on her condition that day; when she's not feeling well, she's practically blind. When she's feeling well and the lighting is good, you can make out the outline of her pink hair.
For example, today.
You could see her turning her head like a 3D scanner, looking all over the room, clearly looking for a gift.
You could also see that she had lowered her head guiltily just now, and that little bit of pink was almost buried up to her knees.
Chi Ran raised an eyebrow but remained silent.
Song Yihuan fiddled with the batting pad in her hand and glared at him fiercely.
“I want to take back what I said,” Chi Ran suddenly said.
Song Yihuan: "Which sentence?"
“I shouldn’t have said that, since I said you don’t understand music theory.”
She had long since moved on from that incident; after all, she had argued with him face-to-face, so how could she hold a grudge? She never imagined he would still remember it.
Song Yihuan asked, "Why do you hate it when people change your sheet music?"
Chi Ran was clearly surprised that she would ask, and after a moment of surprise, she said, "It's probably a bad habit that comes from being famous. I was like that before I went blind. Once the score was written, I wouldn't allow any changes."
The point before she went blind was already very delicate.
"And then what? Did someone bully you?" Song Yihuan blurted out.
Chi Ran burst out laughing.
The word "bully" is actually kind of cute.
“What bullying? It’s more like a dispute.” Chi Ran put it more maturely. “Someone altered my sheet music without my knowledge. This happened after I went blind, so I only found out on the day of the performance.”
"This isn't bullying!" Song Yihuan had only guessed randomly, but she didn't expect her guess to be so accurate. She instantly became angry. "Who is it? Why?"
“My former boss was Zhou Ting, he signed me before I went blind,” he said. “He didn’t mess with me for no reason. Before I went blind, I was actually quite… quite arrogant. I didn’t care who it was, whether it was Zhou Ting, the client, or anyone else. If they asked me to change the score, I would fire them.”
Song Yihuan remained silent for a long time after listening.
Chi Ran always had the word "blind" on her lips. She thought she was used to hearing it, but when it was connected to such a real event, the word became jarring and hurtful.
“I don’t read private messages, but Qian Yu said you sent me a message,” he said. “There was no need for this to happen, I’m sorry.”
Song Yihuan was a little sad and couldn't even say "it's okay".
Chi Ran spoke casually, but if he were really that indifferent, he probably wouldn't hate the person who changed his score so much.
Before she could think any further, he laughed and changed the subject: "The antique piano can't be shown on camera, so what will you do in your video?"
“If it’s not bad, I can’t appear on camera. I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to learn.” She frowned. “I originally planned to play it on the electronic keyboard, but the sheet music for the electronic keyboard and the piano is different, so I had to change the piece.”
"Forget it, never mind." Song Yihuan waved her hand. "We'll talk about it after my twentieth birthday. I'm going to have a huge celebration tomorrow!!"
When I looked up again, it was almost five o'clock.
They no longer strictly adhered to the agreed-upon time of 2 to 4 o'clock.
After the piano broke, their usual meeting topic for piano lessons disappeared.
Their daily afternoon meetings became just that – meetings, without a specific theme, just meetings.
Sometimes I watch Chi Ran fiddling with various musical instruments, and sometimes we chat like we did today.
Let's talk about Chi Ran, about her.
She knew that Chi Ran was an only child, and that his parents lived locally. They had a large Labrador Retriever at home, but the dog wasn't a guide dog.
Not only do they not guide the blind, they also always block his way and trip him up.
I knew that the song he casually posted online when he was fifteen became an instant hit, and from then on, he became known as a genius in the neighborhood. Not just someone else's child, but a true genius.
…
She also told Chi Ran a lot about herself.
For example, her hometown is a small, run-down county town quite far from here, with no mountains, no sea, no rivers, only smelly rapeseed flowers.
For example, she cried that day because her mother wouldn't let her see her aunt, even though her aunt was very sick.
For example, she earns a lot of money making videos now, enough to support her lifestyle.
…
She said a lot, but it wasn't enough; there was still so much she didn't say.
"Then, see you tomorrow?" Chi Ran said.
"See you tomorrow!"
Song Yihuan got up and went to the living room. She greeted Qian Yu and went to change her shoes. She opened the front door and stuffed her disposable slippers into the trash bag by the door. Just as she was about to leave, she remembered that her bag was still on the sofa. She quickly turned around to get it, closing the door behind her with a click.
She wasn't wearing shoes, only socks, and walked to the coffee table in a few steps.
Ms. Wang set a rule that everyone must wear slippers at home, and even different slippers must be worn in the living room and bedroom.
Although Ms. Wang couldn't possibly know, she still walked those two or three steps stealthily, as if she had a guilty conscience.
I had just picked up my bag when I caught a glimpse of someone out of the corner of my eye.
Chi Ran walked to the door of the room at some point and leaned against the door frame.
He tilted his head toward the door, his expression serious. It was as if he wasn't listening to the lingering echo of the door closing, but rather to some unmissable symphony.
Song Yihuan stood there, holding her bag, stunned and unable to breathe, just staring blankly at him.
She watched him every day after the shop closed, a man she should have never known.
"ah!"
As Qian Yu took off his shirt and left the bedroom, revealing his white belly, he saw her and screamed in fright, quickly putting his shirt down.
He chuckled twice: "Song Shen... you're still here? When you were here, Ran-ge wouldn't let me take my shirt off, I thought you were gone so I took it off... I wasn't being a pervert, Song Shen."
As if infected by his embarrassment, Song Yihuan also stammered, "Ah... um, right, I forgot my bag, I..."
Chi Ran remained standing in the same spot, but she also looked quite surprised, whether from being startled by Qian Yu's shout or something else was unclear.
Song Yihuan walked towards the door again. This time, Chi Ran was obviously listening to her footsteps and turned his head slightly.
As she passed him, she turned around and said, "See you tomorrow!"
Chi Ran cleared her throat, but her voice was still hoarse: "See you tomorrow."
That night, Song Yihuan tossed and turned in bed, clutching her blanket, her mind filled with his last words, a slightly hoarse and apologetic "See you tomorrow." She didn't sleep well at all.
On his birthday, the hardworking birthday boy got up at six o'clock to marinate and roast meat.
Song Yihuan had two buildings to deliver group-buying orders in the morning, and she also had to edit videos for her birthday live stream, so she was quite busy all day.
Although it was her birthday, the daytime was pretty much the same as usual, except for the evening which was a little special. She invited two neighbors over for a barbecue at 6 p.m., which was considered a birthday feast.
The days felt like they were on 0.5x speed, they were incredibly long.
I've traveled this route to deliver vegetables countless times before, but today it seemed exceptionally far. I rode my electric scooter incredibly fast, but after riding for ages, I still hadn't reached the little pavilion in the center of the neighborhood.
Editing videos has become boring, and the keyboard shortcuts aren't very convenient either. Why haven't I finished editing after all this time?
…
The time felt so long that when she finally heard the knock on her door, it felt like a day had passed, like the next morning.
Guoguo opened the door for them and asked, "Isn't it supposed to be six o'clock?"
Qian Yu handed over a large bucket of Coke: "Brother Ran said we can help prepare some barbecue or something."
Song Yihuan peeked out from the kitchen: "We've been ready for a while now."
Chi Ran put her hand on Qian Yu's shoulder, leaned out, and said in her direction, "Happy birthday, birthday girl."
Before Song Yihuan could answer, Qian Yu continued muttering, "I originally said I'd come back at six. It would be good enough if the two of us, one blind and one stupid, didn't make things worse, but... ah!"
Chi Ran pinched his shoulder hard, the veins bulging out.
"What should we say to the birthday person?"
"Ouch..." Qian Yu rubbed his shoulder. "Happy birthday, Song Shen!"
Once the two of them had come in, Song Yihuan noticed that Chi Ran was carrying a square box.
"A birthday cake?" Guoguo exclaimed in surprise. "Wow, you can even buy this? We've been searching all over food delivery platforms for the past two days and still couldn't find it."
Song Yihuan muttered a soft "Wow".
Chi Ran walked in, sat down while holding onto the edge of the table, and said with a smile, "I won't eat your carrot cake for nothing."
The baking pan was already hot, and the thin layer of oil that coated the pan sizzled as it was placed on it.
"Let's start grilling!" Guoguo said, rubbing her hands together excitedly.
"Let's look at the cake first!" Song Yihuan exclaimed.
The table was covered with baking trays and meat, so Chi Ran held the cake box in both hands and presented it to her, gesturing for her to open it.
Chi Ran said half-jokingly, "Due to limited conditions, I can't inspect the goods. Don't cry if they're ugly."
"Why are you crying?" Song Yihuan tried to sound calm, but she couldn't stop laughing.
Unexpectedly, the moment the cake box was opened, tears streamed down her face.
The cake was just an ordinary cake, round and flat, decorated with cute little flowers around it.
The color is a soft pink, similar to her hair color, but slightly lighter, with three characters written in the center.
Her vision blurred and cleared intermittently, and the three words on the cake appeared and disappeared.
His cake had the words "Enjoy life to the fullest" written on it.
These were just three ordinary words in a textbook, but for Song Yihuan, they were the best blessing she had never received in the past twenty years.
The best gift.
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