Chapter 128 I can play the instrument and stay confident
“…”
“…”
Deathly silence spread between the two of them. Yang Yang, who was standing nearby, sensed something was wrong and tried to slip away, but the next second Xu Sirui grabbed his collar and pulled him back.
"Come on, explain it to me." He put the sticky note on Yangyang's face with a forced smile and said gently and kindly, "Since your mother's phone number is written here, why didn't you tell us before?"
Yangyang hunched his shoulders, remained silent for a few seconds, and stiffened his neck: "I forgot."
"Forgot? You can even forget this, how come I've never seen you, a glutton, forget to eat?!"
He yelled at her, and Yangyang burst into tears. Never mind whether he had tears or not; his sobbing was incredibly realistic, more brutal than a pig being butchered. Xu Sirui was so angry that veins popped on his forehead, nearly giving him high blood pressure. He tucked Yangyang under his armpit and said to Zhu Yingning, "Call his mom and get him out right now."
Zhu Yingning was already dialing the number before he spoke. As soon as he finished speaking, she finished entering the mobile phone number, pressed the play button, and put the audio hole to her ear.
A woman's voice came from the other end, and as expected, it was full of anxiety, and her voice was like dried firewood. When she heard that Yangyang was with them, she almost knelt down to thank them profusely.
"Where are you now?" she asked anxiously.
Zhu Yingning looked around and said, "We're almost at the Magic Book House. Please come find us there."
"Okay! Okay, okay! I really don't know how to thank you." The woman said in a crying voice.
Finally they arrived at the magic bookstore, waited there for about ten minutes, and finally waited for Yangyang's mother to come.
Yangyang's mother was very beautiful, a different kind of beauty from Zhou Tianqing, Xu Sirui, and the others. Zhu Yingning had always thought Xu Sirui and his mother's family were beautiful in a well-balanced way, a beauty that even those with different aesthetics could agree on, objectively beautiful, with a touch of aggressiveness. Yangyang's mother, on the other hand, looked and acted very different from them, leaning towards a gentle and soft style. She seemed a little timid, with slender willow-shaped eyebrows, pale lips, and unbleached hair. But under the sunlight, it was clear that it wasn't pure black, but rather a less nourished brown.
She ran towards them with small steps. Zhu Yingning first confirmed: "Hello, are you Yangyang's mother?"
"Yes, I am." The woman held her arm and asked anxiously, "Where's Yangyang?"
Zhu Yingning moved sideways to make way for Xu Sirui behind him and Yangyang who was hugging his thighs again.
When the woman saw them, her expression suddenly froze. After a few seconds, she rushed forward, pulled Yangyang into her arms, and angrily pretended to slap him on the butt a few times: "You damn child! I left you alone for a moment, where did you run off to?"
"I didn't run around." Yangyang pouted and argued, "I was always following my brother."
"Don't talk nonsense!" The woman pretended to pat the air a few times, then took her child's hand, stood up, and said to Zhu Yingning, "My child has caused you trouble."
Logically, she should have replied with a "Nothing happened", but Yangyang was indeed quite troublesome. Zhu Yingning couldn't go against her conscience and say such nonsense. She could only laugh awkwardly and said, "It's good that he's found."
The woman lowered her head and shook Yangyang's arm: "Say thank you and goodbye to your sister."
Yangyang howled, "I still want to play with them."
Finally, after being glared at by the woman, he reluctantly said goodbye to them.
Zhu Yingning watched Yangyang and his mother go away, and only breathed a sigh of relief when their backs completely disappeared.
A sigh of relief was heard from the side. She looked over and saw her own face, which also showed fatigue and relief in Xu Sirui's eyes.
"What are we going to do next?" she asked quietly.
Xu Sirui just wanted to do something relaxing, so he tentatively asked, "After visiting the Magic Book House, then wait for the parade?"
He was a little nervous when he said this, because his arrangements implied that they would act alone instead of meeting up with others. If she said, "We should go report to your aunt that we're safe," or "I don't know how the others are doing, let's go find them," then he really would be at a loss as to what to do.
However, none of his worries happened.
Because Zhu Yingning immediately smiled and nodded, as if answering what to eat later, and replied naturally and cheerfully: "Okay."
**
The name of Victoria Harbour comes from Queen Victoria during the British Empire. This has led Zhu Yingning to believe that if this harbour could be personified, it would definitely be a lady, elegant and noble, yet also open to all. At night, the high-rise buildings lined up side by side are lit up with bright lights, like diamonds embellishing her sea-blue skirt.
They were now sailing on a cruise ship above her skirt.
After returning from Disney, it was already dark. They arrived at Victoria Harbour. Zhou Tianqing had booked a cruise in advance. He did not book the entire ship, but just a luxurious suite in the cabin. Someone delivered drinks and food, and there was a microphone for karaoke, and even a guitar for people to perform freely.
Sun Mingyuan and his friends had been playing all day and were already having a blast. They picked up the microphone and started singing "The Most Dazzling National Style" like crazy. After playing for a while, someone who claimed to have a good singing voice came up and started singing seriously.
This kind of situation was quite awkward for Zhu Yingning, as she couldn't sing any pop songs. In fact, after arriving in Beijing, she hadn't had much leisure time to listen to music, nor did she have the tools to do so. The few songs she knew were songs like "Let's Row the Boats," which Xu Sirui had once ridiculed. Even in the mountains, her singing wasn't particularly outstanding. She wasn't tone-deaf, but—according to Teacher Chen—her singing tended to overdo it, turning lyrical songs, which weren't meant to be infuriating and uplifting, into something like a march of the volunteers, stirring the blood in the listener, making them eager to lead the charge and overthrow the feudal dynasty.
However, it's hard to be a coward in such an occasion; almost everyone gets booed, especially those who are shy. She huddled in the corner of the sofa, trying to be less noticeable, but she still managed to be spotted by the others, who asked, "Why haven't you been singing yet? Come on, sing a song!"
Unable to refuse, the microphone was passed to her like a hot potato. To avoid polluting others' hearing, she could only make a weak statement, trying to convince them with reason: "I don't sing well... Why don't you guys sing? I'll just listen to you."
"How could that be nonsense?!" Sun Mingyuan was the first to disagree, citing Zhang Lin's singing as being like the quacking of a drake. Wasn't he still shamelessly hogging the microphone? Zhang Lin was so angry that he kicked him. For some unknown reason, the two of them started performing the Foshan Shadowless Kick in the private room, darting around like two monkeys.
Even Zhou Tianqing encouraged him, saying, "It doesn't matter whether you sing well or not. The purpose of going out to play is to have fun. Relax a little and don't be shy."
Zhu Yingning cast a pleading glance at Xu Sirui, but Xu Sirui refused to save her. As the person with the most important birthday, he unceremoniously took the main seat, claiming a sofa all to himself and lying on his side. He propped his head on his hand, picked up a decorative hibiscus flower from the plate, and tossed it towards her. Like an ancient entertainer, he raised his chin and said, "You, sing."
He obviously didn't drink any alcohol but he looked drunk.
“…”
She reasonably suspected that he was jealous of her because of the evening parade - maybe it was because she was standing in a better position, or maybe it was because she looked more approachable. In short, in the evening parade, she received countless kisses and hugs from princesses and princes, much more than he did.
But later on, Zhu Yingning realized that she might have misunderstood Xu Sirui's meaning. The hibiscus flower he threw to her meant to stay confident.
Zhu Yingning started singing, although the main reason was that he was forced to join the Liangshan bandits.
What made her feel relieved was that the music library here actually had quite a few children's songs. She selected "Walking on a Country Road" and, with the others staring at her with their eyes wide open, she began to sing along with the accompaniment with great energy:
"Walking on the country road, the old cow returning home at dusk is my companion~"
"The blue sky has the setting sun on its chest, and the colorful clouds are the clothes of the sunset~"
Everyone in the box was silent, except Xu Sirui, who was covering his face with his hands and lowering his head. She didn't know what he was doing. She guessed that he was probably laughing because his shoulders were shaking.
When they sang "Oh~Oh~Oh~Oh~~They sang" with great emotion, even Sun Mingyuan began to feel uneasy. He looked at his nose and his heart, and tried hard to avoid looking at anyone around him. He was afraid that if he met anyone's eyes, he would laugh out loud, which was too offensive.
But no matter how hard he tried to hold it in, he couldn't resist Xu Sirui's burst of laughter behind him.
That laugh was like a ignition cord, instantly contorting the expressions of everyone else in the room. They all pursed their lips, desperately trying to stifle the laughter that threatened to burst forth. Besides the singing, the only sounds that could be heard were the occasional shrill, unintentional squeals of someone who had managed to hold back their laughter too much, making it even harder for the others to suppress their laughter.
After the song finally ended, Sun Mingyuan wiped the tears from his eyes, cleared his throat, stood up and led the applause: "Good! Great singing! Very energetic!"
Thunderous applause broke out in the private room, even more enthusiastic than the applause received by the few people who sang beautifully just now. Zhu Yingning put down the microphone and curled her lips: "Okay, stop insulting me. I know I'm not good at singing."
"It's okay," Zhou Tianqing reassured her. "You have a good musical sense, but your emotional involvement is a little off. But that's a minor problem. It will be fine with practice. If you're interested, I can teach you how to sing this song better when you get back."
Xu Sirui added, "My aunt studied bel canto, and she can also sing the songs you sing."
Zhu Yingning was a bit surprised. She had always thought that what she knew was nothing compared to what they knew, but she hadn't expected that to be the case. Encouraged, she quickly regained her spirits and asked Zhou Tianqing what musicality was.
“It’s about pitch and rhythm.”
"Then I'll play it on my instrument, can you listen to it for me?"
Zhou Tianqing was stunned: "Musical instrument? So you can play the guitar?"
"I can't play guitar." She picked up peach leaves from the fruit bowl. "This is what I can do."
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