Chapter 57: Harmonicas Cannot Be Shared
Chapter 57: Harmonicas Cannot Be Shared
Because she had no worries, Fang Yuenian slept soundly until nine o'clock on Saturday morning.
When he woke up, several of his roommates were still asleep. After all, they had just finished their exams and were able to catch their breath, especially Meng Xiaoyang, who was recovering from his illness.
Fang Yuenian got out of bed and then remembered to look for her phone, which was on silent. When she looked at it, she found that Li Peixiang had sent her several messages and made two phone calls. The most recent one was: "Brother Nian, could you two please pay attention to me for a moment? I haven't had breakfast..."
He quickly called back, and heard the sound of someone slurping noodles on the other end. Li Peixiang said angrily, "Do I have any other classmates as thoughtful as you? You came over early this morning to deliver medicine, but neither of you answered the phone. I'm starving, and I'm eating noodles in the cafeteria now. But you know what, the noodles in our school cafeteria are pretty good."
Fang Yuenian ran to the balcony and asked, "Does the cafeteria still serve breakfast at this hour? Besides, where did you get this card?"
"There's always a way, right? I begged the lady at the noodle stall for a lot of nice things before she agreed to make me another bowl. She swiped my card, and I gave her the money. What's going on with you guys? Didn't you get up?"
Fang Yuenian felt helpless.
"It's Saturday, bro. Isn't it normal to sleep in? I just woke up, and Meng Xiaoyang is still asleep. You could have at least given me a heads-up last night saying you were coming."
Li Peixiang said innocently, "It was a last-minute decision. I thought I could at least get through to one of your phones. Besides, who knew that you two top students would be sleeping in your dorm on a weekend when you're supposed to be studying? I even went to the classroom to look for you."
Although Fang Yuenian lowered her voice, Meng Xiaoyang inside seemed to have heard her. He sat up and began to stare blankly.
"Hey, Meng Xiaoyang's awake. Wait a minute." He went over and handed the phone to the still-drowsy Meng Xiaoyang. "It's Li Peixiang on the phone. Answer it."
No one knows what they were talking about, but even after Fang Yuenian had finished washing up, the two were still chatting.
“Okay, I’ll ask him,” Meng Xiaoyang said, then looked at Fang Yuenian. “He said we should have lunch together.”
Fang Yuenian waved her hand: "No, no, no, I'm going to find Cheng Bing later, you two go by yourselves?"
Meng Xiaoyang said into the phone, "Did you hear that? Wait a minute, I'll come out and find you in a bit."
He hung up the phone and casually asked, "Did you need to talk to him about something?"
Fang Yuenian said, "Ah, something came up. You guys go ahead, we'll invite him to eat together next time."
Cheng Bing is studying in her dorm today.
Their dorm room had even fewer people, only a pitiful four, so the space was exceptionally large, with each person having an entire bunk bed, mostly piled high with books. His roommates were all in the classroom studying, while he sat at his desk, single-mindedly organizing his error correction notebook. On his phone, lying quietly on the table, was a conversation he'd had with Fang Yuenian ten minutes earlier:
"Brother Cheng, have you had breakfast?"
"Hmm, you're up?"
"Hey Gangqi, is no one in your dorm? I'm here to find you."
"It's just me, come on."
Soon, Fang Yuenian, carrying the sausages and biscuits she had just bought at the small supermarket, lightly knocked on the door of dormitory 401.
“I knew your roommates must have gone to the classroom again, but that’s fine, at least it won’t disturb them,” Fang Yuenian said, deftly taking out the sausage wrapped in a plastic bag. “Here you go.”
Cheng Bing took the sausage, her gaze sweeping over the bag of chocolate chip cookies. "Have a seat, I'll get you some water."
"Okay." Fang Yuenian happily agreed, pulled over a stool and sat down. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the collection of wrong questions on the table.
When Cheng Bing brought back a glass of water, she found him looking at his own collection of wrong answers. He looked serious and focused, with his biscuits and his own sausage casually placed next to him.
I feel a little dazed.
I remember that Fang Yuenian used to be very quiet for long periods of time. When we did our homework together, he would make a lot of noise and he would feel uncomfortable. But as spring turned to winter, they became high school students, and he seemed to have changed a lot.
“I’m going to criticize you,” Fang Yuenian said, her eyes still on her notebook, her brows furrowed. “How could you have chosen the wrong answer to this question? You were only two points behind the seventh-place student. If you had gotten this question right, you would have surpassed him.”
Cheng Bing put the cup on the table, peeked over to take a look, and saw it was a multiple-choice question in Chinese. He nodded, "That's right, I shouldn't have gotten this question wrong."
"Exactly, your collection of wrong answers only has one multiple-choice question. Is it because you only got one wrong? Look, if you hadn't gotten it wrong, you would have gotten all the multiple-choice questions right. I remember the teacher said that only two people in the whole grade got all the multiple-choice questions in Chinese right."
Cheng Bing smiled and sat down next to him. "You eat first."
"Oh, right, hurry up and eat your sausage, then you can write more," Fang Yuenian said, picking up her cup to drink water and taking a sip. "It's freshly grilled. I wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't been waiting for this."
"Um."
Cheng Bing eats with the same refined manners and attention to detail as he does everything else. Fang Yuenian prefers to eat with him or with other foods. He tilts his head and watches Cheng Bing bite into a grilled sausage. Cheng Bing didn't notice at first, but when he did, he said, "Weren't you going to eat breakfast?"
“Oh, yes,” Fang Yuenian reached for the unopened bag of cookies. “Actually, I’m not hungry anymore. Li Peixiang called me when I first woke up this morning, and I was so hungry then.”
"Did he need something from you so early?"
"Yes, he said he was coming to deliver medicine to Meng Xiaoyang. Meng Xiaoyang has had a cold for over a week and it hasn't gotten better. By the way, did you know that the school is organizing disinfection? The flu is really scary lately."
Cheng Bing nodded, "I've heard about it. The dorms might need it too, but I don't know the exact time."
Fang Yuenian finally tore open the bag of cookies, and just as he took one to eat, his gaze inadvertently fell on a harmonica propped up on a small desk by the bed opposite him. "Hey?" he pointed there, "Brother Cheng, is that your desk?"
Cheng Bing looked over, "What's wrong?"
"Is that harmonica yours?"
"yes."
Fang Yuenian's lips curled up. He tossed the biscuit aside, clapped his hands, and got up to go over. "I want to see."
Cheng Bing: "What are you looking at?"
Fang Yuenian had already picked up the small green-rimmed harmonica: "I always thought the harmonica was simpler than the recorder, but our music teacher said the recorder was even simpler. Anyway, I'm really good at playing it. What about you? Are you good at playing the harmonica?"
Cheng Bing continued biting into the sausage, "No good."
Fang Yuenian looked doubtful. "Impossible, Brother Cheng. When are you going to brag to me?"
Cheng Bing didn't want to answer the question and lowered her head to look at her collection of wrong answers.
Fang Yuenian leaned closer and started pestering him: "Brother Cheng—"
After finishing the last bit of the sausage, Cheng Bing wiped her mouth and hands with a tissue. "I'm not good at it, and I don't have much time to practice. I'm worried about the exam now."
“You couldn’t possibly play as badly as me,” Fang Yuenian grumbled resentfully. “I think this course is problematic. The teacher said the harmonica and recorder are the easiest instruments to learn, and that teaching those two is already considering people with no foundation. But even if they’re simple, they’re still instruments. I just can’t remember the sheet music, and they insist on making me play them, and there’s even a test. It’s so annoying. Besides, art should allow a large number of people to appreciate it, and then a small number of people to perform it, right?”
Cheng Bing knew he was always very reasonable, but she was still amused. "Yes."
Fang Yuenian looked at the harmonica in her hand, "With so many mouths, which one is Do?"
“This,” Cheng Bing pointed with her hand, “is DoReMi in sequence. Blow, inhale, blow again, and you can make a sound.”
“It does look simpler than the recorder,” Fang Yuenian muttered, then pressed her lips to the recorder. “Is it like this?”
"you……"
Cheng Bing couldn't stop him; the man had already played a rough eight-beat melody.
After he finished speaking, he commented, "See? It's really simple."
Cheng Bing's hand, which had just been raised halfway, froze in mid-air. Her gaze fell on the small harmonica tube, and her expression turned strange.
Fang Yuenian didn't think there was anything wrong, but seeing his strange expression, she asked, "What's wrong? Did I blow it wrong?"
Cheng Bing paused for two seconds, then pursed her lips.
"Fang Yuenian," he called her by her full name, and Fang Yuenian unconsciously became nervous, "The harmonica is something that cannot be shared with others."
"Huh?" Fang Yuenian stared at him blankly, then looked at the harmonica she had just played, and belatedly realized, "Ah!" He subconsciously gripped the harmonica tighter, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"
Cheng Bing slowly exhaled and held out her hand: "Give it to me."
“No,” Fang Yuenian said, quite annoyed. “Give this to me, and I’ll buy you another one.”
“You…” Cheng Bing was completely at a loss. “No need, give it to me.”
Fang Yuenian pouted and said pitifully, "This morning, I didn't eat anything after brushing my teeth. I used the mint toothpaste this morning, it's so refreshing. Let me wipe it for you, or I can wash it for you."
“I said no need,” Cheng Bing said, looking Fang Yuenian up and down with displeasure. “You—you’ll be playing your recorder for someone else?”
“No,” Fang Yuenian firmly denied. “Whatever I do for others, they all have their own.”
Cheng Bingliang glanced at him, then reached out and took the harmonica back. "Then I hope you won't go and play other people's harmonicas either."
Fang Yuenian practically grabbed his arm and begged for forgiveness, "I was wrong—" he said earnestly, "I'll never touch your things again!"
Cheng Bing thought for a few seconds, then pulled her hand away: "Why don't you just eat your breakfast, okay?"
"Okay, okay, let's eat," Fang Yuenian dared not disobey. "So what are we going to eat for lunch? Li Peixiang called Meng Xiaoyang out to eat, and I told them we'll eat together next time."
What would you like to eat?
Fang Yuenian took a deep breath, "Hmm—"
"Don't 'um,' say it."
“I was thinking—” he smiled, raising an eyebrow, “would you come with me to KFC? Consider it a reward for improving my ranking by two places—”
Cheng Bing: "..."
He reminded him, "Do you remember what happened after you ate at KFC last time?"
"That was really an accident, because I ate a three-color cup again tonight!" Fang Yuenian insisted. "Besides, it's been a long time."
Cheng Bing seemed to be thinking.
Fang Yuenian pleaded, but when she found he was unmoved, she threatened, "I'll be very disappointed and sad if I don't get a reward for improving my grades. I don't even know if I can get into the top fifty in the final exams..."
Cheng Bing, unable to bear his fuss any longer, said, "Just this once. If you feel unwell again, you're not allowed to eat it anymore."
"It's settled then!"
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