Aunt Xu - Tu Nian's pupils suddenly shrank, and her tightly clenched fist finally couldn't be restrained, and she swung it heavily at the disgusting fat face in front of her.
Liu Laowu seemed to have anticipated this. He swung his belly and dodged Tu Nian's punch with an agility that was completely inconsistent with his image. He shook his head with a look of regret: "I know you can fight very well. I just don't know if you can take care of others with your limited skills."
As he spoke, he glanced at the piano store, his threat obvious in his expression.
Tu Nian nearly crushed the IOU in her hand. Aunt Xu didn't know about her family's debt, and she didn't want her to get involved. And with Liu Lai's influence in Ronghai City, if she didn't agree to pay today, perhaps tomorrow, the words "Xu's Piano Shop" would completely disappear from Ronghai City.
After some consideration, Tu Nian threw the tattered IOU back at the man.
"How much?" she asked.
Liu Laowu calmly put out the cigarette in his hand and said with a smile: "Twenty thousand..."
"Okay, tomorrow afternoon at three..."
"And a slap."
Tu Nian looked up in disbelief. She saw Liu Laowu slapping his face playfully. "You said that if I hadn't dodged in time, I would have been hit just now. If I don't give him a small punishment, where will Mr. Lai's face be, right?"
"Twenty thousand and a slap in the face. If you give me either one, our boss Xu won't be able to live in peace." Liu Laowu grinned, his smile was disgusting.
Her clenched fists gradually loosened, and Tu Nian's heart felt calmer than ever before. She stared at the boundless sky, wondering why it was so strange: it was clearly raining, but there were not many clouds.
A crisp sound of "pop" broke the condensed air. The low buzzing sound echoed in Tu Nian's ears for a long time.
Yellow Fang left.
No matter how cold the rain was, Tu Nian's eyes never left that patch of sky. Gradually, her entire face turned red.
She retracted her gaze, turned around, and opened the door. She took the coat off the hanger and wiped the rain from her hair and face, finally letting the coat rest naturally on her left cheek.
"Why did you take so long without an umbrella?" Aunt Xu was still polishing the piano, but she had changed to another one, or maybe it wasn't the first one.
"It's about the bar contract renewal. We've been discussing it for a while." Without waiting for Aunt Xu to look up, Tu Nian continued, "I'll go see how Tiantian's practice is going."
When Aunt Xu finished polishing the piano, Tu Nian had already disappeared. She sighed softly, looked at the empty staircase and smiled: "You're so old, but you're still so unstable."
Back in the piano room, Tu Nian had already put on the mask he always kept with him.
She asked Tiantian to play the chords for her from beginning to end.
After listening to it once, he found that everything else was good, except for the fluency. Tu Nian thought about it, then picked up the guitar and demonstrated it himself.
"Tiantian look, do mi sol..."
ˉWow, she didn’t even move after being slapped. Miss Tu is really tough.
"Reach your finger down here..."
ˉI'll come to you tomorrow to get the money.
"Don't use too much force, otherwise your fingers will hurt..."
ˉIf you dare to do that again, it won’t be just a slap in the face.
The chords of the guitar were still echoing in the piano room, but Tiantian suddenly walked in front of Tu Nian and touched the corner of her eyes.
"Sister Ayang, why are you crying?"
Tu Nian didn't even notice that she was shedding two lines of tears while playing the piano.
She rubbed her cheeks randomly, and when she wiped away the tears, her cheeks hurt again.
She put down the guitar, hugged Tiantian again, and gently pinched her soft little face, as if pinching this tender baby's face would make all the sadness and sorrow fly away.
"It's okay, sister... I just suddenly wanted to eat steamed dumplings," she said.
The afternoon classes at Xu's Musical Instruments were slightly longer than the morning ones, but the lobby was already filled with parents arriving to pick up their children. Some of them knew each other, and they struck up a conversation.
"Whose class did your child sign up for?"
"Teacher Du, who else could it be?"
"Why do I remember that you wanted to report to Teacher Tu..."
"Hey, don't mention it. Boss Xu said she only teaches two students a semester, and this time someone else snatched her place."
"Oh, and that time you were robbed?"
"Shh...the person is over there..."
The person who was speaking nudged his friend next to him, motioning her to look at a seat not far away. It was a plain-looking woman in her early thirties, dressed simply.
The woman held an umbrella in her left hand, a cell phone in her right, and a pale yellow children's jacket in her arms. Her eyes kept shifting from her phone to the stairs, clearly waiting for someone.
The woman kept looking at the stairs until she saw a small blue figure jumping downstairs. She stood up and waved to the figure, "Tiantian!"
"Mom!" Tiantian let go of Tu Nian's hand as soon as she saw that figure. She ran down a few stairs and rushed into her mother's arms.
The woman rubbed Tiantian's head and put on her jacket. "Are you tired? Was learning difficult today?"
Tiantian tucked up the corner of her clothes and shook her head, but she looked obviously a little tired. Tu Nian happened to walk over and answered for her, "Today's lesson was a little difficult, but Tiantian practiced very well, so you don't have to worry."
"It's Teacher Tu who taught me well. Oh, by the way... please keep this." The woman suddenly took out five hundred yuan from her pocket and stuffed it into Tu Nian's hand.
"What is this for?" Tu Nian frowned and was about to return the banknotes.
Seeing this, the woman hurriedly said, "Teacher Tu, have you forgotten? We still owe you tuition. Please keep these first, and I'll bring the rest in two weeks."
After hearing what the woman said, Tu Nian remembered that she had only paid half of the tuition for this semester. Looking at the money in her hand, Tu Nian hesitated, but still returned the money to the woman.
"Your family has a lot of financial needs lately. Let's talk about tuition after this period is over."
"This..." The woman looked at Tu Nian in embarrassment, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Tu Nian didn't say anything more, just handed Tiantian's guitar to her, then bent down, pinched Tiantian's face and said, "Remember to practice more when you get home."
Tiantian nodded obediently: "Okay!"
The woman didn't refuse. She thanked Tu Nian again and left with Tiantian.
About half an hour later, the parents took their children away, and the teachers who did not have the evening shift went off work together.
Normally, Tu Nian would have gone home after work, but today she clearly had no intention of leaving on time. At that moment, she was leaning on the sofa in the living room, lost in thought, holding a slightly worn but still exquisite booklet in her hand.
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