Shi Qian has been staying up late writing songs these past few nights. After buying a shop and renting a house, he didn't have much money left, so he decided to earn some extra money first.
He recalled that a few years ago he wrote a song, which he sang and played himself and posted on a small platform without showing his face. Later, someone saw it by chance, contacted him, and asked if he would sell the song.
That was a brief period of clarity for Shi Qian, during which he had many inspirations and could easily come up with songs like this. The person offered a high price, so Shi Qian sold it.
He didn't know exactly who bought it or who sang it in the end; it was just that a few months later, the person who had contacted him came back.
Ask him if he has any other songs, or if he could write a few, and let him name his price.
Shi Qian saw it and wanted to think about replying for a few days, but then his head started to hurt again, and he fell ill not long after.
Shi Qian discovered a few days ago while organizing his emails that the person had been sending him messages from time to time over the years, persistently asking him to write songs.
As if afraid that Shi Qian would disagree, the price offered kept getting higher and higher.
It just so happens that Shi Qian is short of money recently, so writing a few songs is not a big problem for him.
So Shi Qian replied to the message, saying that he was free now.
The person immediately gave Shi Qian a substantial deposit. These past few days, Shi Qian had been writing songs in addition to studying. Sometimes when he wasn't writing smoothly, he would go to the music room to find some instruments to play and clear his mind.
So these past few days, Shi Qian would occasionally go to the music room, and of course he saw Shi Yan practicing the piano. Every time Shi Yan practiced, he would leave the door open, as if he was afraid that others would not hear how badly he played.
However, saying that Shi Yan played badly was only relative to Shi Qian's own opinion. Shi Qian thought it was bad enough, but why did the piece sound somewhat familiar?
When Shi Qian first passed by and heard the melody, he felt that it was very familiar. Wasn't this the draft he had made several years ago?
Just as Shi Yan was about to reach that awkward spot, Shi Qian laughed when he heard it. It was a wrong version he had written before. He had suddenly gotten a headache while writing it and his thoughts were not clear. When he came to his senses, he tried it himself and found that this part was wrong, so he immediately changed it.
Shi Qian put the incorrect sheet music into the drawer and casually clipped the corrected sheet music into her notebook, thinking that she would try it again sometime to see if there were any parts that needed to be modified.
Unexpectedly, the drafts I had left in the drawer ended up in Shi Yan's hands.
Indeed, Shi Yan has stolen so many sheet music from him.
Fortunately, he hadn't written much at that time; there were only three or four pages in his drawer. Coincidentally, Shi Yan silently took them all and made copies while he was not fully conscious, leaving his original manuscripts all in the wastepaper basket.
Fortunately, these were all written by Shi Qian for practice. He felt that they were not yet fully mature, and he had backed up and scanned the scores and stored them on a separate hard drive.
At that time, Shi Yan took these scores and claimed that they were his own original compositions. He participated in many competitions with them and won some awards, which made his mother look at him in a different light.
When Shi Qian saw his mother praising Shi Yan, he wanted to perform too, but for some reason his hands wouldn't obey him, and he ended up playing a terrible piece of music.
Although Shi Yan stole his music at the time, Shi Qian had no personal will at all and kept saying that Shi Yan treated him the best and that Shi Yan could take his things.
When Shi Qian recalled her past self—apathetic, timid, and weak—she really wanted to go back and slap herself a few times.
But he knew that he was just a puppet being manipulated back then, only able to be himself briefly during occasional moments of lucidity, and otherwise just a tool of Shi Yan.
But he's different now.
Shi Qian looked at Shi Yan, who wasn't shedding a single tear and was only sobbing weakly, and sneered.
"I stole your sheet music?"
Shi Yan was waiting for Shi Qian to answer his question. As long as Shi Qian started to get entangled with him on this matter, he was absolutely confident that he could drag Shi Qian down with him.
"I know you didn't do it on purpose, and I don't want to pursue this with you. Just give me back the sheet music..."
Shi Yan's words completely condemned Shi Qian, every word implying that he had taken it.
"You don't want to pursue this with me?"
Shi Yan was taken aback by Shi Qian's question. He hadn't expected Shi Qian to be so calm. As he had anticipated, Shi Qian should have denied it after hearing him say that he had stolen the sheet music and then started arguing with him. The more he argued, the more unreasonable he would seem, making him appear even more like the one being bullied.
"We are cousins after all, and I don't want to ruin your reputation. It wouldn't sound good if word got out. If you give me back the sheet music, I'll pretend nothing happened, okay?"
Shi Yan raised his hand and wiped his eyes. For a moment, it was hard to tell whether his red eyes were from crying or from forcibly wiping them.
"Ha, you call this not wanting to ruin my reputation? If you don't want to ruin my reputation, you can just tell me in private. What? You specially gathered so many people early in the morning, as if you're afraid the show won't be able to start without an audience, right?"
Shi Qian spoke with barbs, giving Shi Yan no face at all.
Among the onlookers were classmates and members of Shi Yan's school band. Upon hearing Shi Qian's words, they all began to criticize him.
"If you take someone else's things, just return them. You don't even know how to do it, so why steal someone else's sheet music?"
"Yes, Shi Yan has been practicing this piece day and night. You can't do something so despicable just because you're jealous of your cousin!"
"Besides, Shi Yan spoke to you so kindly as soon as he came back. Why did you start speaking so sarcastically and aggressively? Is it because Shi Yan hit the nail on the head that you're trying to cover it up like this now?"
"We didn't come here specifically to see what's going on. We just happened to run into Shi Yan in the music room early this morning and found that he had lost his sheet music, so we came over to check on him."
...
Goodness, it seems like whoever cries is right. Just because someone cries makes so many people who haven't even figured out the facts speak up for them.
How can you be sure I took it?
"I had this sheet music with me when I practiced last night, but I couldn't find it this morning. I thought I left it in the practice room, but when I looked for it, I suddenly remembered that I saw you in the practice room when I left last night..."
"You saw me, so I took it?"
"There was no one else at that spot but you... Fine, if you say you didn't take it, then it wasn't you... Although this sheet music is a bit complicated, rewriting it might be a bit of a hassle, since you won't admit it, let's just pretend I accidentally lost it..."
If Shi Qian still doesn't understand Shi Yan's scheme by the time he gets here, then he's lived in vain all these years. Isn't he just trying to pin a blame on him so that he can bear the infamy and become a victim who has to compromise?
That's a pretty nice idea.
He was already annoyed because he hadn't slept enough, and Shi Yan came out early in the morning to kill him. What, did he think he was a fool who would suffer in silence?
Shi Yan was about to dismiss everyone and accept his bad luck when Shi Qian suddenly slumped back, the back of his chair hitting a row of metal storage cabinets against the wall behind him with a loud thud.
"My dear cousin, how can we just let this go like this?"
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