Chapter 4
"Yihuan, this tune sounds familiar. Have you played it for me before?"
Even Guoguo realized it and looked up to ask her.
Song Yihuan hadn't recovered from the shock yet, and it took Guoguo calling her several times before she reacted and said, "This...this is the original song by the content creator who had a big fight with me."
Guoguo asked, "That ember?"
“Hmm.” Song Yihuan turned her head to explain, “Besides, he played the version I arranged several times.”
Just then, the music next door stopped again, followed by a loud bang, probably from someone slamming a hand on the piano keys.
After the angry notes lingered for three days and subsided, the man began to play again from the beginning.
Song Yihuan: "He played my version again. The way he's pounding the keys must mean he's very satisfied with my arrangement. He's practically slamming his fist on the piano."
Guoguo frowned and asked, "Isn't it too much of a coincidence? Is that blind handsome guy next door the same Yu Jin you were arguing with? Maybe it's Qian Yu, or maybe he's just a bystander."
“Chi Ran, Yu Jin.” Song Yihuan finished reading the two twin-like names and widened her eyes. “It might really be such a coincidence.”
After all, besides her name, she has another decisive piece of evidence: her irritating mouth and annoying personality are undoubtedly unparalleled in the world.
Song Yihuan narrowed her eyes slightly, raised the left corner of her mouth by half a notch, and tilted her chin up.
"Why are you smiling so wickedly? What are you trying to do?" Guoguo pointed at the succulent curry lamb chops. "You're eating the lamb chops that were offered as tribute."
“One thing at a time,” Song Yihuan said, raising an eyebrow. “Just because we’ve reconciled three times doesn’t mean we’ll do it again a second time.”
Guoguo's comment: "Evil Big Huanhuan."
"Don't call me that!... Huanhuan really sounds like a dog's name!"
Two days later, Song Yihuan saw the order from the neighboring building in the group buying group, and with a wicked smile, she hopped on her electric scooter to pick up the vegetables for the entire building.
He knocked on the door next door, and sure enough, Qian Yu opened it.
"Thank you for your trouble," he said casually.
"You're welcome." Seeing that he was about to close the door, Song Yihuan stretched her head forward, blocking the only way for the door to close.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Qian Yu asked.
Song Yihuan blinked, burying her wicked smile deep inside, and put on a harmless, candy-like smile, saying, "Are you two musicians?"
Qian Yu said, "Oh, Ran-ge is a musician, so what?"
Are you one too?
“I don’t really like music.” Qian Yu shook his head. “I’m with him mainly because I like the monthly salary of 20,000.”
Song Yihuan chuckled: "It's a pity. I heard him play it quite well the other day, and I was thinking of asking you what piece it was."
Qian Yu was very helpful: "When did you play it? I'll ask around for you."
“The one where he smashed the piano,” Song Yihuan said. “He played it quite well, so why is he always getting angry?”
"Shh!" Qian Yu glanced warily into the house, gesturing for her to whisper, "If you run into him again, don't mention this song in front of him. He even tore up the handwritten sheet music."
Song Yihuan widened her eyes dramatically, then asked in a low voice, "Handwritten score? He wrote it?"
"Hmm," Qian Yu said, "If I didn't have talent, would I have this temper? Would I be able to easily earn 20,000?"
It's obvious he really likes 20,000.
Having achieved her goal, Song Yihuan stepped back, turned around, and said, "Let's go!"
"Hey, I have a question for you," Qian Yu called out to her, changing the subject.
His tone suddenly became unusually serious and earnest, completely different from his previous attitude.
Will they find out she has ulterior motives?
Feeling guilty, Song Yihuan was too nervous to turn around.
"I'm asking you," he said.
Why did my scrambled eggs with tomatoes turn into egg drop soup?
...
“That rude guy next door is Yu Jin,” Song Yihuan asserted. “He’s finished.”
Guoguo took two steps back and carefully scanned her from head to toe. "Hey pretty girl, shark fin yoga pants? Wearing something so stretchy, are you going to beat someone up?"
Song Yihuan raised her chin, "I want him to apologize in person."
According to her observation, Chi Ran goes to the public gym on the second floor to exercise every afternoon at three o'clock without fail.
She wanted to call out his anime/manga character's identity to his face when he was exhausted, at his most disheveled and weakest, so that he could personally experience the pain of opening the box.
She timed it perfectly, arriving at the gym ahead of him.
Song Yihuan has rarely been to the gym in the past two years. The gym equipment has become unrecognizable to her.
Their neighborhood has a lot of young people, and they don't have much else to do. At this time, the gym is quite crowded, mostly with muscular men, each working out intensely on a piece of equipment.
Painful cries rose and fell, and the roars seemed particularly noisy in the semi-enclosed space, making one feel as if their brain was vibrating.
Song Yihuan was fond of looking at muscular men, but only online. After all, only the muscular men online were quiet and odorless.
She wrinkled her nose and pursed her lips as she toured the equipment, then chose the most comfortable seat away from the splattering sweat and waited patiently.
Not long after, the glass door of the gym was pushed open, and the light and shadow shifted, casting long, slender shadows.
The rabbit is here.
Chi Ran was wearing a sleeveless, form-fitting workout outfit that revealed his slender muscles. He wore a mask but no sunglasses. His loose hair fell down, partially obscuring his eyes and scars, as he walked side-by-side with Qian Yu to the door.
Chi Ran removed her arm from Qian Yu and stood still by the glass door.
Qian Yu: "You're leaving? I'll come find you at four o'clock."
"Mm," Chi Ran said.
As Song Yihuan watched Qian Yu walk away, she took a deep breath, preparing to unleash a furious shout.
But the word "ember" was on the tip of his tongue when he suddenly stopped.
Because Chi Ran started walking in alone from the doorway.
Judging from his walking posture alone, he only seemed to walk slowly and very steadily, making it difficult to detect any vision problems based on his gait.
The reason he is described as steady is because he takes every step meticulously, with the left toe following the right heel and the right toe following the left heel, repeating the cycle as if he is measuring distance with his steps.
He walked with great effort, his arm muscles tense and veins bulging.
Knowing the inside story, Song Yihuan could clearly see his effort and guess that he probably didn't want others to notice his difference.
She suddenly felt a little insecure and didn't know whether she should continue.
She was so focused on figuring out how to get Yu Jin to sincerely apologize that she completely forgot about his visual impairment.
This is a bit tricky.
Without hesitation, Chi Ran had already steadily walked onto the treadmill, ran her fingertips along the lower edge of the button area, pressed start, and started jogging.
The treadmill is unstable and it's easy for him to fall, which makes it even harder to call him.
Song Yihuan pulled on the pull ring on the equipment with some distress, causing the five-pound counterweight to fly up.
"Hello?" A young girl approached the treadmill where Chi Ran was and called out to him timidly.
Chi Ran ignored him and continued jogging to warm up.
When the girl saw that he didn't move, she called him a few more times, but he still ignored her.
She hesitated before reaching out to pat him, her hand landing on his arm. He jerked back, stumbling a few steps before regaining his footing.
He stared straight ahead, not even glancing at the girl, and didn't even take off his headphones. His tone was very rude: "What's up?"
The girl's voice was already soft, and his attitude startled her, so she spoke even softer: "Um, you..."
“I can’t hear you,” he interrupted her, pointing to the headphones.
His attitude was already very clear, and the girl said hesitantly, "...It's okay."
Without caring whether he heard her or not, she lowered her head and ran away quickly to find her companions who were standing some distance away.
Chi Ran didn't even turn his head.
That bastard is really something, he makes me so angry.
Song Yihuan rolled up her sleeves, stood up, and walked towards him—
He walked back and sat down in his original spot.
...
Due to objective factors, I really haven't figured out how to stand up for justice without offending Chi Ran's personality.
This is difficult.
After warming up, Chi Ran went to work out his chest, back, and legs. Song Yihuan sat there, propping her chin up, and followed his back with a fierce gaze.
If eyes could conduct heat, his vest would probably have caught fire long ago.
"I want to die. Ah, I want to die. Ah, I want to die."
The girl I just chatted up started using the leg exercise machine next to her, kicking hard while chanting something like a work song.
"I'm telling you not to go, he seems so aloof."
Her friend stood beside her, grimacing with embarrassment, glancing quickly at Chi Ran every now and then.
After the girl finished half a set, she stood up and said, "No way, I'll regret it for the rest of my life if I don't strike up a conversation with her."
When it was her friend's turn to use the equipment, she said, "I don't regret going, but aren't you embarrassed?"
"Embarrassing, I feel like my socks are all torn to shreds by my toes," the girl groaned. "Ah, but he looks so handsome."
"Why don't we leave? My toes are still digging into the ground," her friend said softly, head down.
"Alright, let's go."
Song Yihuan half-heartedly eavesdropped for a bit. Seeing that the girl wasn't too upset, she breathed a sigh of relief as well.
As the two men walked past her, the last few words they uttered while flirting with the girl suddenly reached her ears:
"I should still go! If I don't go because I'm scared, even if I'm an old, toothless woman, I'll regret it to death when I think about it."
Her friend laughed and said, "Indeed, you'd be lucky to take advantage of any perks, and you'd be lucky to pick up any handsome guys."
Song Yihuan was stunned for a long time before she came to her senses.
It was the ringing of her cell phone that pulled her back to reality. She looked down and saw it was a call from her mother, Ms. Wang.
She answered the call instantly, as if she had received some kind of instruction, without even bothering to go outside to take it.
"Hello? Mom?"
"Why did you answer so quickly? Aren't you busy?"
"Not busy," Song Yihuan replied politely. "I stay at home every day and don't go out."
"oh."
There was a pause on the other end of the phone for a few seconds before the speaker hesitated, drawing out each word: "Daughter, Mom saw your WeChat Moments. You went to do volunteer work?"
Song Yihuan's eyes widened reflexively, her mind filled with only two words: "Oh no."
She posted a picture of herself carrying vegetables on her WeChat Moments, forgetting to block Ms. Wang!
Who is Ms. Wang? This matter is bound to end badly today.
It should be noted that on the day of her coming-of-age ceremony in her second year of high school, she went out to dinner with her friends without Ms. Wang's permission. When she got home, Ms. Wang scolded her for two whole hours.
The next day, Ms. Wang went to the school to find the friend she had dinner with. With just a few words, she made the friend lower her head and cry on the table for the entire afternoon.
I never spoke to her again after that.
To everyone's surprise, Ms. Wang didn't fly into a rage upon hearing this. Instead, she softened her tone and said with a hint of ingratiation, "Yihuan, how about we don't go?"
Song Yihuan didn't react for a moment.
She almost forgot that the controlling Ms. Wang before she turned eighteen was a thing of the past. Now, Ms. Wang is a gentle, considerate, and even sensitive sweet mom.
The contrast is so striking, even her maternal grandmother probably wouldn't recognize her.
She sighed silently and said, "I just want to go out and get some exercise; I'm not tired."
"It's not that I'm tired, Mom is worried about the virus. She'll get a fever and feel unwell, and I won't be there for her."
Song Yihuan didn't say anything.
Ms. Wang probably thought that she didn't want to listen, so she quickly changed her tune: "Mom is just worried about you. If you'd be happier doing volunteer work, then go. Make sure you wear your mask properly."
Song Yihuan remained silent.
Undoubtedly, Ms. Wang was very annoyed when her controlling nature was at its peak. But she doesn't seem to feel any more comfortable talking like this now.
On the one hand, she was really not used to it, and on the other hand, she knew that Ms. Wang was also not used to this new mother persona, so she was also forcing herself to act.
This is hard to explain clearly. Does it mean you should just go back to being the mother who controls everything about your daughter?
That's so awful and presumptuous!
Song Yihuan ultimately simply said, "Okay, I'll be careful."
Ms. Wang seemed to want to say something more, but after hesitating for a while, she ultimately said nothing.
Although her mother didn't say it, she guessed: "I shouldn't miss the time and be able to go home to see my dad. There's still more than a month left, I'll go back then."
Ms. Wang agreed.
"How is Auntie doing lately?" Song Yihuan asked quickly, afraid that she would hang up the phone too soon.
"Still the same." Ms. Wang was clearly unwilling to say more.
Just because it's not bad news doesn't mean it can be considered good news.
Right?
Ms. Wang concluded by saying, "Okay, you go ahead with your work," and then hung up the phone.
Even though she's not busy at all, she's just looking for trouble.
"Hello."
Someone called her name; the voice sounded somewhat familiar, but she stared blankly at her phone, holding it mechanically, and didn't react for a moment.
The man raised his voice: "Hey! You!"
When Song Yihuan looked up, she was met with Chi Ran's magnified face.
She sat on the exercise equipment, and he stood with his left toe touching the edge of the equipment, bending down and leaning close to her. His lifeless eyes still couldn't meet her gaze, resting on her forehead and above.
Song Yihuan was dumbfounded.
What's going on?
How did he get here?
Chi Ran breathed a sigh of relief, somewhat annoyed, and kicked the equipment with her toe. The equipment shook, and she instinctively dodged backward without making a sound or running away.
He kicked the equipment again, "What are you doing sneaking around like that? Following me?"
He said through gritted teeth, enunciating each word clearly: "Little Pink."
Those two words froze her completely in shock.
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