20. Then don’t dislike me. (Two in one)

(First)

He knew very well that this would embarrass Xu Yanhuan.

Yu Xinqiao felt guilty because Xu Yanhuan didn’t accept his pursuit and instead embarrassed him in front of the whole class. Now he wanted to make Xu Yanhuan feel the same embarrassment.

He understood that seeking revenge in this way was immature and impolite, but he didn’t want to see Xu Yanhuan being taken advantage of.

Unexpectedly, Xu Yanhuan didn’t show any obvious reaction to what he said. His gaze toward Yu Xinqiao remained calm and unruffled.

Was this calmness the result of being used to being teased? Or was it because of the environment they were in, where decadence was accepted?

While Yu Xinqiao’s mind was filled with conflicting thoughts, Xu Yanhuan suddenly curled his lips and chuckled softly, “Sure, how do you want to touch me? Do you want a kiss?”

His voice drowned in the soft music, blending into the invisible undercurrent between them.

Xu Yanhuan lowered his head, leaning closer to Yu Xinqiao’s ear, as if intentionally yet unintentionally. His voice was so low that it sent shivers through Yu Xinqiao’s eardrums. “Or perhaps, do you want me to f*** you?”

At midnight, Xu Yanhuan changed his clothes and finished his shift.

As he came out of the dressing room, he ran into the bar’s owner, Huang Jie. She called out to him in the corridor, “Why did your classmates leave so early without waiting for you?”

Xu Yanhuan, holding his backpack, stopped in his tracks and replied, “They were busy, I guess.”

Huang Jie smiled and said, “I noticed they were quite young and wouldn’t give you a hard time, so I let you go. Just run away next time if you encounter difficult customers, and I won’t deduct your base salary.”

Xu Yanhuan responded with a simple “Hmm.”

The job as a bar server was introduced to Xu Yanhuan by Huang Lao Ban, who sold second-hand pianos at the market. Huang Jie was his cousin, and the work here had a reasonable workload and decent pay. In the past half month, Xu Yanhuan worked odd jobs during the day at the market and then came to the bar for the night shift, almost doubling his daily income compared to before.

“By the way, you like girls, right?” Huang Jie suddenly asked.

Xu Yanhuan was taken aback, but before he could answer, Huang Jie laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I’m just asking casually. If you’re straight, then your little classmate would be heartbroken today.”

After thinking for a moment, Xu Yanhuan replied, “We don’t have that kind of relationship.”

“I can tell. He has a one-sided affection for you, it’s practically written all over his face.” Huang Jie, who hadn’t experienced the straightforward and ardent affection of young people for many years, found it amusing and also felt a sense of nostalgia. “If you don’t like him, it’s better to reject him early on and spare him the heartbreak. When I saw his expression as he left, it looked like he was about to cry.”

Recalling Yu Xinqiao’s flushed and indignant face as he left, Xu Yanhuan responded with another “Hmm.”

Huang Jie took out a cigarette and put it in her mouth. “But his face looks pretty good. Next time, you can ask him if he wants to come to our bar—”

“He doesn’t need money, so he won’t come,” Xu Yanhuan said.

Huang Jie raised her eyebrows, somewhat surprised.

She was so eager to help him reject the idea, as if afraid that the sheep would enter the tiger’s mouth. It didn’t seem like she didn’t care at all.

Seeing through but not pointing it out, before parting ways, Huang Jie took a shallow drag of her cigarette and smiled, “Actually, with your looks, you’re wasting your talent here. You should debut as a star.”

Xu Yanhuan thought she was joking and replied nonchalantly, “Is that so?”

On his way back, he walked through the dark alley, looking up at the summer night sky. Through the narrow cracks in the walls, he could see a few faint points of light.

Suddenly, Xu Yanhuan pulled the corners of his mouth, self-mockery filling the silence.

Debut as a star and let the whole world know about his father’s debt problems? 

Why should a sewer bug like him reach out to touch the stars in the sky?

In early August, Yu Xinqiao returned to the capital city.

With bags filled with local specialties from Xuncheng that Liang Yi’s mother had stuffed in, such as walnuts, dates, preserved eggs, sweet bean sauce… If she hadn’t been worried that they would spoil, she would have wanted Yu Xinqiao to bring even the donkey meat buns.

Yu Hanzhang personally came to the train station to pick him up. When he opened the car door and saw Yao Qiongying sitting in the back row, tapping on her computer, Yu Xinqiao quietly closed the back door and climbed into the passenger seat.

Halfway through the journey, Yao Qiongying was almost done with her work, so she closed her computer and put it aside. Her gaze met Yu Xinqiao’s furtive glance in the rearview mirror, and she said coldly, “I thought you were enjoying yourself and didn’t want to come back.”

“I know you don’t want me to come back and embarrass you,” Yu Xinqiao said. “I’ll only stay for two days this time, I promise not to cause you any trouble.”

Yao Qiongying snorted.

Upon returning home, Yu Xinqiao went straight to his room upstairs.

In addition to a few music scores, this time he also planned to take his set of tools for polishing gemstones.

He still owed Shen Da Ye a birthday gift, and Liang Yi’s birthday was next month. Although he might not be in Xuncheng by then, he still wanted to leave a gift.

Yu Xinqiao had a restless temperament when he was young, unable to sit still even for a quarter of an hour in class, always unable to concentrate. After noticing this flaw, Yao Qiongying had him learn the piano and bought many handicrafts that required patience to complete.

Among them, there was a type of handcrafted toy that involved digging out minerals from clay and polishing them into smooth beads before stringing them together. It brought Yu Xinqiao great joy, and whenever he had free time, he would lie on the carpet and polish them with sandpaper, stuffing the finished jewelry into Yao Qiongying’s dressing table.

Later, Yu Hanzhang bought him tools and a polishing machine, and he had someone bring back raw crystals from the mining area. Yu Xinqiao’s small workshop began to take shape, and the finished products he made became more and more refined.

Nowadays, Yu Xinqiao not only had extraordinary endurance, being able to sit and play the piano for five hours straight, but he could also spend ten days or half a month just polishing a single crystal.

Two days flew by, and when it was time to leave, Yu Hanzhang still personally drove him there.

Yao Qiongying held an empty teacup as she walked downstairs, not looking sideways, heading straight for the kitchen. Yu Xinqiao carried a toolbox in one hand and a backpack on his shoulder, looking ready to leave at any moment. However, he quietly stood on the path to the study, as if waiting for someone.

When Yao Qiongying received her coffee and headed to the study, passing by with her head held high and chest out, Yu Xinqiao finally spoke, “The dressing table couldn’t fit, so I placed the things on your desk.”

Then, as Yu Xinqiao walked towards the door, he felt something and turned back, only to see Yao Qiongying standing by the window with a purplish-red tourmaline that had been polished before leaving home and refined into a finished product during these past two days, hanging from her slender neck.

She didn’t say a word, not even bid farewell, but Yu Xinqiao knew that her gaze was a farewell.

On the way to the train station, Yu Hanzhang smiled and said, “It took your personal intervention to persuade your mother. I’ve been trying for months, but she immediately changed her attitude when you came back.”

Yu Xinqiao said, “Let me tell you some good news.”

“What is it?”

“The price per square meter of the house you bought for me in Xuncheng has increased this year.”

Seeing the number Yu Xinqiao indicated with his fingers, Yu Hanzhang laughed even more happily. “I told you this place had potential. Your mother nagged me for several days back then when I bought the house in Xuncheng, saying I had no investment vision. Now she can finally hold her head up high.”

Yu Xinqiao also smiled. He felt genuinely happy, and the gloom and unease from the past few days seemed to fade away.

He looked at the rapidly passing scenery outside the window and thought to himself, less than a month left.

There was less than a month of independent life in Xuncheng remaining.

He secretly hoped that when he looked back on this period in the future, there would be more happiness.

Upon returning to Xuncheng, Yu Xinqiao first participated in a piano competition. As soon as the preliminary results were announced, he hurriedly rushed to Xuncheng No. 2 Middle School to participate in the school’s arts performance.

When he arrived, Yu Xinqiao began to understand the well-intentioned arrangement of the school leaders to hold the performance during the summer vacation. If it were held during regular days when everyone wanted to come and play, the auditorium, which could only accommodate five hundred people, would probably be overcrowded. But during the summer vacation, when it was too hot to go out, the number of participants and viewers was low, greatly reducing the difficulty of organization and management.

Even so, when Yu Xinqiao took the stage and saw the crowd below, he swallowed nervously, feeling a bit anxious, especially when he saw several classmates and friends sitting in the front row, holding a banner that read, “Piano Prince Yu Xinqiao, Winning the First Place, Let’s Wait and See.”

Yu Xinqiao: “…” Help, if I don’t get first place in the end, won’t it be embarrassing?

Fortunately, he didn’t choose a difficult piece. After all, it was a performance for teachers and students at school, so catchy melodies were more important.

Yu Xinqiao played Richard Clayderman’s “Starry Sky.” Without accompaniment, he incorporated his own emotions and insights into this piece, allowing the notes to flow from the keys he pressed, drifting in the air of the auditorium, entering the ears of every audience member, and stirring up hidden ripples in their hearts.

After the performance, the rankings would be announced during the morning meeting of the new semester. Liang Yi and the others insisted that Yu Xinqiao had a surefire win and would definitely be first. They playfully demanded that Yu Xinqiao treat them to a meal at KFC.

Originally, I wanted to treat everyone to a good meal, at least have some Japanese food. After all, Yu Xinqiao wasn’t short of money. But Liang Yi insisted on going to KFC, saying that this “celebratory feast” should involve devouring fried chicken and indulging in beer.

Ever since they returned from the bar last time, Yu Xinqiao developed beer PTSD. When Wang Kun wanted to go to the nearby supermarket to buy beer, he jumped up to stop him and said, “You’re not allowed to buy it, even if you do, I won’t drink it!”

He Tangyue, who wasn’t present last time, asked, “Why won’t you drink it? Are you afraid of getting drunk? Are there really people in this world who get drunk from drinking beer?”

Yu Xinqiao replied, “…Maybe I’m not human.”

Liang Shen and Wang laughed until their stomachs hurt.

In the end, they drank half a bottle, considering the atmosphere.

Yu Xinqiao didn’t get very drunk. He felt particularly sober and went home to boil water, clean his room, and when he threw the trash bag out, he stared at a plastic stool that one of the neighbors had thrown next to the trash can for a long time, wondering whether to pick it up and take it home.

In the end, he did pick it up because he thought that on the day the exam results were announced, he wouldn’t be able to see anything, so he thought of using the stool to prop up his feet next time.

Only after returning home did he remember that he wouldn’t be here next semester. Yu Xinqiao looked at the dirty little stool and suddenly felt like crying, but he also thought that it was probably the lingering alcohol messing with his emotions. He couldn’t easily give in, so he forcefully held back his tears.

At eleven o’clock in the evening, Yu Xinqiao squatted in the bathroom, wearing a short-sleeved pajama with curly-haired puppies printed on it, brushing the small stool he had just picked up.

He used a toothbrush. He never cleaned his shoes; when they got dirty, he just bought new ones. It was a wasteful habit.

The Yu Xinqiao who still picks up stools is quite adorable.

At least more adorable than the Yu Xinqiao who embarrasses people. That Yu Xinqiao was particularly cowardly, scared off by Xu Yanhuan’s words and covering his face as he ran away.

With the setup from the first half of the night, Yu Xinqiao felt dispirited but his thoughts wandered. Accompanied by the sound of water and brushing, he would think of the orange drink that cost three yuan per can one moment, then think of the love letter that only listed four reasons, and later, he wondered if Huanyuan was there when he played the piano in the afternoon.

He probably wasn’t, he was so busy and didn’t even come to the concert, so how could he possibly come to listen to me play the piano?

He still dislikes me so much, saying those things to scare me.

Yu Xinqiao mixed shower gel into the water he was using to clean the stool. The foam piled higher and higher as he scrubbed, just like the numerous regrets that Yu Xinqiao had no place to put.

There’s a song called “Foam,” how does it go?

— It’s all foam, just a momentary fireworks.

After humming this line, Yu Xinqiao’s nose twitched, and a sense of sorrow overwhelmed him. He thought to himself, “I haven’t even had a momentary fireworks.”