fingers of musicians

"I want to see that kid."

This was the first sentence Wen Yuean said after waking up. He didn't look anywhere, and his voice was cold, as if he was talking to himself.

Ji Wentai looked at Wen Yuean's face for a long time, and then said, "I see."

After a while he said again: "I'll give Zhong Guanbai a call."

Wen Yuean said, "Don't hit me."

Ji Wentai: "Old Wen, just be brave. I didn't dare to call the ambulance, I didn't dare to call for rescue, and I didn't dare to call when you woke up. Can't call now?"

Wen Yuean closed her eyes: "Wentai, do you think I'm going to die?"

"You, old Wen, why do you keep saying this kind of thing?" Ji Wentai raised his hand, hung it over the bed for a while, and clenched it into a fist, "Isn't this looking for a fight?" Finally, the fist fell down and turned into a palm, giving Wen Yuean Tuck in the quilt.

After many days, Zhong Guanbai, who was [-] kilometers away, didn't know that Wen Yue'an was sick. At that time, he was writing music day and night, like all musicians, turning pain and happiness into songs.

He and Lu Zaoqiu revisited the places where they toured that year, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam... and then returned to Paris, the last stop of that year.

Zhong Guanbai brought a large stack of staff paper and writing pens, and wrote a piece of music wherever he went, and when they returned to the seaside town in South France where they originally lived, they had already compiled a thick volume.Zhong Guanbai has never counted the number of songs he has written himself. Apart from the songs that have been recorded by film and television works, record companies, and published scores, he does not know how many other songs are written by hand in this ancient way.Over the years, Lu Zaoqiu and those on the composing software have printed them out, organized them into volumes, numbered their works, and put them together.

Zhong Guanbai especially likes to watch Lu Zaoqiu arrange the scores, especially this volume, there are three serenades in the middle, as straightforward as a love letter.

"Lu Zaoqiu." Zhong Guanbai leaned against the door and called for the eighth time.

Lu Zaoqiu held a pre-ordered piano score in his hand, wrote the date and place of composition on the title page, and heard the ink pen in his hand stop, leaving a black spot on the title page.

"Lu Zaoqiu." Zhong Guanbai shouted for the ninth time, his eyes still sticking to Lu Zaoqiu's profile and refused to come down.

Lu Zaoqiu lowered his head and silently added a line of words after the time and place: Ah Bai, grinding people.

"Mobile phone." Lu Zaoqiu reminded.

Only then did Zhong Guanbai reluctantly look for the mobile phone that made the sound somewhere.

"Helen, send my regards to Baby Menelaus." Lance's voice floated from the other end of the phone, followed by the sound of hunting wind and rustling branches and leaves, which almost made people smell the smell of plants.

He was cutting wood in his own grove, and he was sitting shirtless on a tree stump basking in the sun and drinking.

"Shut up, Paris." Zhong Guanbai was in a good mood, and joked with him.

"Helen, I can't shut up." Lance smiled while holding up the wine bottle, "The ring you want is ready, are you ready to propose to baby Menelaus?"

"Ready? No, it's not like this." Zhong Guanbai showed a smile between sweet and sour, and told him all about his hesitation when he wanted to propose marriage and the accident some time ago, "Do you understand? , get ready to propose to him, like get ready to write an absolute good song, there might be one in heaven, one on earth, nonexistent. I should have known that there was no way to propose that was worthy of him, and I should be like all mortals , begging him to promise me."

"Helen..." Lance looked directly at the sun through the bottle and saw a golden halo, "The form is not important, I bet, even if you propose with a can ring, Baby Menelaus will agree to you .”

"I don't want to wait any longer, but...Lance, can you imagine, one day, he pulled the song I wrote..."

"Of course." Lance recalled Lu Zaoqiu standing by the piano and playing the violin. It was the most beautiful figure he had ever seen.

Then can you imagine that when he pressed the fingers of his left hand to the seventh position, his fingers were still playing precisely, but his eyes looked at his fingertips blankly?

Zhong Guanbai didn't propose, not because he was waiting for the ring, but because he didn't dare.

Of course Lu Zaoqiu is strong, even stronger than before, and even made him worry that he will be broken soon.

"He still can't hear a part of the range, can he?" Lance guessed the reason from Zhong Guanbai's silence.

Zhong Guanbai did not answer, he heard the deep and long sound of the piano coming from the piano room.

"I'll get the ring tomorrow." Zhong Guanbai hung up the phone.

But the next day he couldn't make it.

Before dawn, he received a call from Ji Wentai.

"Zhong Guanbai, you have to come back." Ji Wentai changed his usual tone, and his voice was extremely serious, "Old Wen is sick and has heart failure. Don't worry, your life is not in danger for now. Originally, Old Wen didn't want to tell you..."

"I'll be right back." Zhong Guanbai said immediately.

Lu Zaoqiu took Zhong Guanbai into his arms, and immediately asked someone to book a ticket back home.

"How is Lu Zaoqiu?" Ji Wentai asked.

Zhong Guanbai told the truth about the situation, and Ji Wentai was at least relieved, "Okay, then you guys come back quickly." He wanted to explain the situation, but suddenly felt a little helpless, "Do you remember He Yinxu?"

Zhong Guanbai: "Remember, what's wrong?"

Ji Wentai: "Old Wen wants to see He Yinxu, but he refuses. The condition offered by his agent is that you will play the piano with him."

Zhong Guanbai suspected that he heard it wrong: "What?"

"I didn't say that I would only meet if I lost or if I won. I don't know what that kid thinks." Ji Wentai was impatient, thinking of Wen Yuean's body and that stubbornness, he became even more angry, "Anyway, get out of here quickly, Don't ask so many questions."

Ji Wentai hung up the phone and walked into the ward, and said to Wen Yue'an: "Let me see, that kid holds a grudge, who told you that your student scolded him before."

Wen Yue'an: "If you don't see it, don't see it. Why tell Ah Bai?"

Ji Wentai: "That's Zhong Guanbai's own fault, what's wrong with asking him to come back?"

Zhong Guanbai thought the same as Ji Wentai. While waiting for the plane, he found out and watched the video of the episode of the program in which he commented on He Yinxu. This was the first time he watched that episode in its entirety.After watching for a while, he frowned: "How did you cut this?"

Lu Zaoqiu looked at it again and found that there was a problem with the connection of the pictures. Many times, Zhong Guanbai's answer was a single close-up picture.

"In terms of playing skills and expressions, he is not as good as me, but he is not bad. I remember that my evaluation at the time was really merciless, but the words 'this is funny' and 'the scene of a tenth car accident' They didn't comment on He Yinxu at all, they first played a car accident performance video." Zhong Guanbai turned off the video, "It's boring. That kid won't really believe it."

The plane landed directly at the Capital Airport.

Zhong Guanbai realized that he was not wearing a mask when he saw a large group of reporters rushing over.He held Lu Zaoqiu's hand and blocked people behind him.

At that moment, he realized that once he came back, he would no longer be free, as if he had put himself in a puddle full of leeches, waiting to be sucked dry of the last bit of blood.

"Leave a way, let a way—"

Zhong Guanbai saw a figure squeeze out from the crowd while shouting, not too tall, with a tender face, dressed in a uniform, like a student.

The figure squeezed all the way to Zhong Guanbai's side, and first shouted respectfully to the person behind Zhong Guanbai: "Chief Lu." Then he handed a mask to Zhong Guanbai winkingly, "Come on, go here .”

Zhong Guanbai found that those reporters did not come this way: "Tang Xiaoli, how did you do it?"

"Zhong Guanbai, you have to thank me. I put Qin Zhao among the reporters to save you. You see, compared with Qin Zhaoyi, you are just a little star who has passed away. What is there to interview?" Tang Xiao After spraying the venom on Li's mouth for a while, he was finally satisfied, "Tell me, where to go, I'll be the driver."

Zhong Guanbai said he was going to the hospital, Tang Xiaoli knew that Lu Zaoqiu's hearing hadn't fully recovered, so he didn't dare to mention it, his eyes swept back and forth on Zhong Guanbai's waist: "Why, the kidneys are not working?"

Zhong Guanbai glanced at Lu Zaoqiu, wishing to stuff Tang Xiaoli's mouth.

Tang Xiaoli ran the train with his mouth full while driving, and accidentally caught a glimpse of the expressionless Lu Zaoqiu in the rearview mirror, and quickly changed the subject, "Right now, there are rumors that you are going to play piano with He Yinxu in public, what do you think? What are you doing?"

Zhong Guanbai: "You should ask him what he wants to do."

Tang Xiaoli: "That's not right. Of the two of you, it's obvious that you are a coquettish bitch and he is White Lotus."

Lu Zaoqiu said, "That's not the case."

This wife protector, Tang Xiaoli shook his head at Zhong Guanbai in the rearview mirror with a teasing expression.He sent the two to the hospital, and then took out a wheelchair from the trunk, which Zhong Guanbai asked him to order for him, and it could go up and down the stairs automatically.

"Let's go, go rescue my Qin Zhao. Remember to treat him to dinner." Tang Xiaoli shouted out the car window.

Zhong Guanbai walked to the door of the ward, and just bumped into Ji Wentai who had completed the discharge procedures.

"Old Wen wants to go home to recuperate, I can't help him." Ji Wentai said, "You stay with him during this time."

Zhong Guanbai nodded, pushed the door in, and called out, "Teacher."

Lu Zaoqiu shouted: "Mr. Wen."

Wen Yuean was leaning on the hospital bed listening to music, when she heard the words, she raised her head and saw Zhong Guanbai and Lu Zaoqiu, her eyes became warm: "Ah Bai and Zaoqiu are here."

He looked at the two carefully for a while, then nodded slightly and said, "Okay, that's great."

Zhong Guanbai picked up the comb, carefully combed Wen Yuean's hair, then carried him to the wheelchair and sent him home.

During that time, Zhong Guanbai couldn't let go of his heart, and stayed at Wen Yue's house every day.Wen Yue'an was always reading and writing in the study or playing the piano downstairs. He didn't talk much, but he didn't ask him to leave.Lu Zaoqiu also came here often, playing some soothing tunes with Zhong Guanbai.

Because of Wen Yuean's body, Zhong Guanbai was unable to propose marriage on the day of Liqiu, and Lu Zaoqiu was unwilling to celebrate his birthday.

Zhong Guanbai tied up two Kongming lanterns, one with "Health" written on it, and the other with "Peace" written on it, and he and Lu Zaoqiu put the two Kongming lanterns in Wenyue'an Courtyard.

The big "Health" and "Peace" floated in the dark night sky, and the flickering lights shone on them.

Zhong Guanbai hugged Lu Zaoqiu and said, "Zaoqiu, you will be safe and healthy, and so will the teacher."

Lu Zaoqiu said: "You will too, we will too."

A few days later, He Yinxu's manager told Zhong Guanbai that the competition was scheduled for the afternoon of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and a theater was specially booked, and the tickets were not sold publicly, but the competition process was broadcast live on the Internet.

When Wen Yue'an heard about this date, her expression suddenly changed.

Zhong Guanbai asked: "Teacher?"

Wen Yuean asked back, "Ah Bai, what do you want to play?"

Zhong Guanbai thought for a while: "The first choice is Chopin's "Winter Wind"?"

Wen Yue'an was noncommittal. He sat in front of the piano and sighed in a low voice, which only he could hear: "Mid-Autumn Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival...it's you, I know it's you."

He stared at the keyboard for a long time, his hands hung above the keyboard, opened and closed gently, and then fell down like stroking a lover.

It was a piece of music that Zhong Guanbai had never heard before. The melody was majestic and vast, high-spirited, with a hint of chivalrous pride. It seemed to be adapted from an ancient Chinese song. It was even more difficult than "Winter Wind".

After listening to it, Zhong Guanbai took several deep breaths: "Teacher, this should be a piece for two pianos, right?"

"A long time ago, yes." After Wen Yue'an finished playing, she seemed to have aged a lot, with tired eyes.

Zhong Guanbai felt uncomfortable watching it. Although he didn't know why Wen Yuean wanted to see He Yinxu, he didn't dare to ask further questions, but it was because of his past holiday with He Yinxu that the teacher was still worried when he was ill.

"Teacher, I'll make a phone call." Zhong Guanbai said.

Wen Yuean saw his thoughts, and asked lightly, "Who are you calling?"

Zhong Guanbai didn't answer, just said: "This is the relationship between me and that kid."

Wen Yuean: "What are you going to do?"

Zhong Guanbai's tone was very similar to Ji Wentai: "The game is another story, bring that kid here first." It seemed that he was about to rush to tie He Yinxu now.

Wen Yue'an was silent for a while, and said in a low voice, "Abai, wait."

He went upstairs, took out a piano score and an old notebook, and went downstairs to Zhong Guanbai: "The child from the He family refused to see me, not because of you."

Zhong Guanbai saw three large characters written vertically on the cover of the score:

Ode to the Autumn Wind

"Ode to the Autumn Wind" reads vertically on one side:

Composed by He Yulou

Zhong Guanbai opened the sheet music, and it was the one played by Wen Yuean. It was the score for two pianos, which part was "An" and which part was "Lou", which was clearly marked.

Zhong Guanbai asked: "Teacher, do you want me to play "Ode to the Autumn Wind"? Does the teacher think that if I play this song, I will win?"

Wen Yuean looked at the three characters "He Yulou" on the piano score, his eyebrows and eyes were as gentle as a boy looking at his lover, and he said word by word in an extremely soft voice: "No, he will win."

"Then why..." After only a few words, Guan Bai stopped.

That expression was so different from before, Zhong Guanbai didn't dare to say a word, he even breathed lightly, as if making a sound would shatter something covering Wen Yuean's body.

Wen Yue'an was immersed in that emotion for a long time before she suddenly came to her senses and handed the notebook in her hand to Zhong Guanbai.The book was full of words written with pens, Zhong Guanbai just turned over a page, took a look at it and then closed it carefully, he didn't dare to read Wen Yuean's diary.

"Let's see." Wen Yuean said, "Maybe you won't want to go after watching it."

"How come?" Zhong Guanbai said hastily, and opened the notebook again.Suddenly, a thin crumpled piece of paper floated out of the notebook. He bent down to pick it up, and found that it was a faded candy wrapper.

Wen Yue'an took the candy wrapper and smoothed it with her fingers: "Ah Bai, this is my business alone." After thinking about this kind of thing, after so many years, it finally became one person's business, and it has nothing to do with the other party.Although he has thought about some things for many years, it's fine if he doesn't have them.Only this student, watching him grow up, no matter how much he misses him, he can't bear to get involved in old grievances in a muddle.

In the center of the unfolded candy paper is the three characters "Hua Mei Tang" that are mottled due to the color falling off.The candy wrappers were unfolded together, as if decades ago, it belonged to Wen Yuean's childhood, and it also belonged to Zhong Guanbai's childhood.

When practicing the piano, they were all given a plum candy.

"Teacher is wrong." Zhong Guanbai said, "In this world, there is nothing about being alone."