Seventh sheet music
Tang Xi in front of Song Xingchui opened his eyes wide, his hands unconsciously grasping his friend's clothes, his lips opening and closing, but he couldn't utter a syllable for a long time.
She tapped her cheeks twice and asked, "Why do you suddenly want to know about Teacher Yu?"
Qiao Tian noticed that Song Xingchui was not in her usual cheerful mood. She moved faster than her mind and stood in front of her friend to speak for her: "Sister Xingchui, hasn't Xixi always wanted to sign up for the pop music competition? We want to find out what Aunt Tang and Aunt Yu think, and then-"
Song Xingchui interrupted her and raised his chin towards Tang Xi. "Xixi, if you can't even tell me your true purpose right now, I bet you won't be able to be honest with Teacher Yu even if you figure out her logic. I think you should stop wasting your time and learn from Tiantian—don't even think about it, just disappear on the day of the piano competition."
She disappeared just like Qiao Tian... Tang Xi was subconsciously very resistant to doing this, but Song Xingchui was absolutely right. If she couldn't even be honest with the person who obviously understood her, how could she face her strict mother?
Tang Xi loosened her grip on her school pants and suddenly picked up a can of Coke. She tried to drink the half-melted ice in one gulp. A chill instantly swept over her body. She shouted, "Of course I can tell you in person!"
Song Xingchui stared at the empty cup and gave her a thumbs up: "Warrior, you can even swallow half a cup of ice in one gulp. It's just a matter of explaining the cause and effect. It will definitely not be difficult for you."
The ice cube fell on her stomach and she shuddered belatedly, but a warrior never backs down from pain.
She rubbed her cold fingers on her trouser legs twice, stared at Song Xingchui and said, "I just realized recently that I don't seem to understand my mother at all."
Song Xingchui raised his eyebrows: "How did you find out?"
Tang Xi pursed her lips, her tone somewhat frustrated. "I always thought her piano skills were mediocre, but she always pretended to know everything and told me what to do. This always annoyed me. It wasn't until last night that I realized that not only can she play the piano, but she plays better than me."
Song Xingchui uttered an "oh" and then posed a new question: "So, if your mother is also a piano master like your father, can you calmly accept her strictness and agree to spend the rest of your life accompanied by the piano?"
Tang Xi shook his head decisively: "Of course not."
Song Xingchui sighed.
"In that case, whether she can play the piano, what is her true level, and why did she give up? What does it have to do with your participation in the pop music competition?"
"You have to understand that no matter what kind of person she is, that can't be a reason for her to force you to do something you don't want to do. If you're just trying to find an excuse for your mother so that you can better accept her mistakes and maintain family harmony, I still think you're wasting your time."
Qiao Tian couldn't help but interrupt: "Sister Xingchui, I thought you were speaking up for Aunt Yu, but it turns out you're giving her a slap on the wrist."
Song Xingchui said helplessly, "I don't think this is a case of both sides being punished. I'm just trying to analyze the problem from an objective perspective."
Her eyes fell on Tang Xi again: "You'd better think carefully before making a decision."
Song Xingchui wanted to give the child some time to think and was about to get up and leave. Unexpectedly, the child hugged her arms tightly in his arms before her butt left the chair: "Sister Xingchui, I admit that I am not as meticulous as you think, but... Even if you think I am wasting my time, I also want to know why my mother gave up the piano. Maybe she is like me and doesn't really know..."
Her words stopped abruptly.
If her mother didn't like piano, why would she force her to learn it?
If they gave up for the same reason, why would she hide away and play the piano?
The questions that followed made her want to know the truth even more.
It's not for any 'benefits', it's purely because -
"I want to understand her, to understand what kind of person Yu Ji is." She lowered her voice and spoke.
She is neither Tang Xi's mother nor Tang Guangyao's wife.
Just Yu Ji.
Song Xingchui looked at the girl in front of him. Within a few seconds, her expression changed like a Sichuan opera face-changing, but when everything froze and she expressed her inner thoughts, she knew that she had figured it out.
She received a satisfactory answer and naturally had no intention of stopping him. She smiled and said, "Tang Xi, if you want to understand her, why don't you start by asking why she is called Yu Ji?"
Qiao Tian didn't like to raise her hand in class, but today she was very excited: "Okay, okay, Xixi, today is the first time I know your mother's real name, and I was instantly amazed. Yu Yu is a homophone for "Yu", and Ji means clear sky after rain, which seems to have a good meaning."
"Is this the name your grandfather gave you?" Song Xingchui looked at Tang Xi with a smile.
Tang Xi shook her head: "My grandmother told me that although my grandfather was the most educated person in the family, she was the one who found my mother's name by looking it up in the dictionary herself."
"Hey, your grandma used to be able to..." Qiao Tian paused for two seconds, quickly covered her mouth and apologized, "I'm sorry, that's not what I meant."
"It doesn't matter."
Tang Xi knew very well why her friend's expression suddenly changed. The reason was simple: her grandmother was currently living in a mental hospital.
*
In Tang Xi's memory, her childhood self was very eager for maternal love.
She liked to stick around with her mother, hugging her arms, just craving a compliment or a kiss, but her mother rarely responded and was almost never willing to stay with her.
Their most common mother-daughter outings are usually to a mental hospital.
Little Tang Xi doesn’t understand what a mental hospital means. Hospital is a hospital. She has to go to the hospital when she is sick. What difference does it make if it is a hospital where her grandmother is?
Even though her father brought up all kinds of ghosts to scare her and told her that she was a crazy woman who ate people, it could not change her determination to stay with her mother.
And, she actually really likes her grandmother, whom everyone calls a lunatic.
My grandmother was completely different from the crazy woman with bared fangs and claws on TV or in my father's description, and she was definitely not an evil ghost with a green face and fangs.
She was always quiet. When she saw them coming, she would twist her neck slowly, and think about identifying the people even more slowly. It usually took a long time before she could speak.
"You guys are here."
My mother's way of visiting is also different from others. She never brings any useless health products and never makes any false greetings.
She just sat side by side with her grandmother, and could spend the entire afternoon just looking at the clouds in the sky.
Tang Xi couldn't remember who broke the silence more often. Anyway, what the two of them said was always more imaginative than what she, a real child, said.
"Aji, look at the cloud outside the window. Does it look like a dog?"
"I think it's more like the rhubarb I raised as a kid."
"You're right, it really looks more like a cat, and a lazy cat at that."
She was less dazed when communicating with Tang Xi, but because of the medicine she took, her speech was always as slow as a trickle.
When she was a child, she had no patience and always started talking about herself without waiting for her grandmother to finish. Her grandmother didn't get angry, but simply didn't interrupt and just listened quietly. It was her mother who always blamed her for treating her grandmother like that.
Later, when Tang Xi thought about the past carefully, she always came to the same conclusion: her mother was not a monster without feelings, but she did not intend to share any of her love with her and her father. The love she gave to her grandmother was almost all she could have.
But none of this affected her, she liked the little old lady.
After listening to her incoherent stories, her grandmother would secretly give her chocolate as a reward and praise her.
"My little Xi is really amazing. Maybe he can become a great writer in the future."
The chocolate was placed in an iron box, wrapped in crumpled tin foil in the shape of a coin. There was no brand and no production date.
She grabbed a few and Tang Xi couldn't wait to peel off the candy wrapper and eat it in one bite. There was no bitter taste of chocolate at all, only sweetness that spread from the tip of her tongue to her whole body in an instant.
Whenever my father found out, he would throw them away with an unhappy expression.
"Alice, you are my daughter. How can you go crazy and eat a three-no product given by someone else?"
Children don't like to listen to reason, but choose to follow their hearts unconditionally.
At first, her grandmother offered it to her, but later she asked for it, secretly hiding it in her pocket to avoid her parents' search.
Grandma is never stingy in sharing, but she often shows regret.
"Xiao Xi, grandma lives in the hospital and can't give you pocket money or more expensive gifts. You won't blame grandma, right?"
Tang Xi was so happy that he couldn't even say anything bad.
She shook her head: "Chocolate is delicious."
Grandma patted her head and giggled, "I'm glad you like it, but remember, don't tell your mother. If she knew I secretly gave you chocolate, both of us would be in trouble."
Tang Xi felt that her mother would never scold her grandmother, she would only teach her a lesson for being disobedient.
However, this time Tang Xi guessed completely wrong.
The mother held the tin box full of chocolates in her hands. It was the first time Tang Xi saw her eyes red and she was quite emotional.
She gritted her teeth and said word by word, "Mom, you know your blood sugar is ridiculously high, why do you still eat such sweet candy?"
Grandma looked innocent: "I didn't have the chance to eat it before, but now I'm this old, please let me eat it."
My mother's anger comes inexplicably and goes away strangely.
She opened her mouth, but unlike with her and her father, she dropped her tough attitude and shoved the tin box back into her grandmother's hands. She even revealed a rare guilty expression: "You can eat it, but—please, please, don't eat too much, okay?"
My mother's good temper is a limited edition of my grandmother's, and her attitude towards her is completely different.
She didn't forcefully take the candy from her, but instead looked at her bulging trouser pockets and shook her head.
"Tang Xi, eat whatever you want, but next time you complain of toothache, don't come to me in tears."
Tang Xi sniffed and looked at her mother with grievance. Her grandmother stopped her and lectured her, "Aji, you can't treat children like this."
The mother pursed her lips and retorted, "Mom, I can't protect her forever."
As soon as she said this, she felt something was wrong and quickly said, "Mom, I'm not blaming you. What I mean is—"
"I know." Grandma smiled gently.
She softened her expression and bent down for the first time: "I'm not stopping you from eating, but you know how painful it is to have cavities. Mom doesn't want you to feel any pain. So, eat less like grandma in the future, okay?"
"Okay!" Tang Xi smiled brightly.
The mother also laughed and raised her hand to touch her head.
Tang Xi waited for her mother to go through some unknown procedures, and secretly found her grandmother to complain about her mother: "Grandma, it turns out that mom doesn't always say what she wants. She just listens to you."
Grandma shook her head, bent down to look at her and said, "Your mother has never been the type to say what she means. The secret is that you must tell her what you really think and communicate with her well."
Tang Xi stuck out her tongue, half believing and half doubting what her grandmother said.
When Tang Xi returned home that day, her father asked her what happened that day.
She told her father everything that had happened except the fact that she had stolen the chocolate.
Finally, she looked up at her father and said,
"Dad, grandma said mom isn't the type to say what she means. Should I try to communicate with her in the future?"
The father laughed and said, "Is your mother a reasonable person? Xixi, your grandmother is not in a clear mind, how can you trust everything she says?"
He lowered his head and patted her shoulder: "Good girl, Dad knows that your mother is sometimes too strict with you. As a child, you must find it difficult to accept, but Dad can pat his chest and tell you that this is definitely not your fault."
He stood there, looking down at her and patting her head. "Xixi, you know Daddy will always love you and support you unconditionally. Girls, just do what you're interested in. Don't try too hard or make things difficult for yourself. Later on—if Daddy gets old and can't take care of you, I'll definitely personally check and find a good husband to take over and take care of you for the rest of your life."
Tang Xi compared his mother and father, and was convinced from beginning to end that his father loved him more.
*
Now, Tang Xi doesn't seem so sure.
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