Seeing her look up, Chi Yao casually remarked: “…Finished, deskmate?”
As if they had become deskmates.
Lin Zhexia felt too awkward to respond directly and changed the subject: “When did Xu Ting leave?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Oh,” Lin Zhexia said, “Did you two finish your discussion?”
“More or less, we chose a song.”
“I saw on the list that it mentioned a sing and play performance. Does he play an instrument? Will one person play, or do both of you have to play?”
After Lin Zhexia finished speaking, she got her answer by observing Chi Yao’s unusually cold expression: “Seems like you’ll play together.”
“Guitar,” Chi Yao said while pressing his temple, “Have to learn it now.”
It was completely predictable that Xu Ting, wanting to show off on stage, would choose the guitar.
But Chi Yao playing guitar…
Chi Yao added finally: “He Yang’s friend has a spare one. We’ll go borrow it this weekend.”
Weekend.
Lin Zhexia also tagged along to He Yang’s friend’s place.
The road was still desolate, and the temperature remained low.
She wore a jacket but didn’t dare enter, waiting for them to come out after borrowing the guitar. She curiously looked at the guitar case in Chi Yao’s hand: “Don’t you need to learn? Why not ask them to teach you while we’re here?”
He Yang interrupted: “You need to understand what ‘spare’ means. ‘Spare’ means he bought it but didn’t have the perseverance to continue. So my friend, he doesn’t know how to play either.”
Lin Zhexia: “…”
He Yang: “But my friend said the song you guys chose has a fairly simple tab, just switching between a few basic chords.”
Lin Zhexia: “If it’s that simple, how come he doesn’t know it?”
He Yang: “…He lacks talent. There’s a difference between seeing with your eyes and playing with your hands.”
Lin Zhexia wanted to say, “Wonder if Chi Yao has talent,” but before speaking, she glanced at Chi Yao’s hands.
Just based on those hands that had dominated He Yang’s Valentine’s Day social media feed.
Learning shouldn’t be too difficult for him.
The group walked toward Nanxiang Street.
Chi Yao wore a black hoodie today. Because of his tall, thin frame, the hoodie looked somewhat thin on him. He slung the guitar case over one shoulder, and walking down the street, he looked very much like the type of delinquent who would crouch on the street corner at midnight with adhesive bandages on his face.
“Stay away from me,” Lin Zhexia suddenly said.
Chi Yao slightly raised his eyelids.
“You look like you’re not from our group.”
Chi Yao: “Oh, which group do I look like I’m from then?”
Lin Zhexia said, “The poor academic performance group.”
“…”
Chi Yao looked like he couldn’t be bothered to respond. Lin Zhexia secretly glanced at him a few more times, and when she looked away, her gaze fell on the opposite side of the street.
There was a group of people gathered near the residential area across the street.
Five or six people, ranging in age from their twenties to thirties, with cigarettes between their lips.
They didn’t look like residents from the complex and were just loitering outside.
Among them, a man wearing a black jacket over a blue striped shirt was frowning deeply, his eyes darting around as if searching for someone.
Lin Zhexia recalled what Lin He had mentioned at the dinner table about “a group of people hanging around the neighborhood.” She had assumed they would be like the idle vagrants she had encountered as a child, but these people didn’t look like what she’d imagined, so she examined them a bit longer.
Perhaps her scrutinizing gaze inadvertently attracted their attention, as the man in the striped shirt suddenly focused his wandering eyes on their group.
Although they were no longer the little kids they once were.
And it was broad daylight with people coming and going, so nothing bad would happen.
Lin Zhexia still avoided the group’s gaze, pretending not to notice, and quickened her pace: “Let’s walk faster.”
Lin Zhexia didn’t need to worry about her own class’s performance, so her attention was all on Chi Yao’s program.
As the school celebration drew closer and closer.
She couldn’t help but ask Chi Yao on WeChat: How’s your practice going?
Chi Yao: Almost there
Lin Zhexia couldn’t help worrying: You’ve never learned before. Can you master it in one month?
Chi Yao:?
Chi Yao’s question mark, without a single additional word, succinctly expressed the meaning “you dare doubt me.”
Lin Zhexia thought about the labor technology class assignments, the scarf, and many other things she couldn’t learn that Chi Yao ended up doing.